June Reads

I read 5 books in June, which is a lot for me. I'm very proud of my self for this excellent reading record.  I've given a theme to this month's reviews where I'm going to talk about the protagonists of each book and review them, hopefully that will shorten the reviews up.

The Leading Men and Women of June

Popular: A Memoir

Maya Van Wagenen

Penguin 15/04/14 Paperback

7/10

Bookhaul (Movellas)

Maya, the author of the memoir struck me as a very interesting girl; both in the book and on BBC Radio Four Women's Hour. She documented the effect on her life by following a 50s guide to popularity in the modern day. She got new 50s inspired clothes from thrift stores and every month, studied a new chapter. The most interesting of all was sitting at a different lunch table every day. Here, she made friends with all of the people in her high school, expanding her friendship group. She asked each new group what they thought being popular meant, and whether they thought of themselves as popular. No body did. It was a very unique social experiment and was an easy summer afternoon read.

The Land Where Lemons Grow
Helena Attlee
Particular books (Penguin) 03/04/14 Hardback
6/10
Stanfords Bookshop (Covent Garden)
This heady mix of travel writing, history, biology and social anthropology was a joy to read. The Citruses of Italy are the main characters of this book, but also the people who look after them. The elderly man who maintained a limonaria or lemon house in the northern mountains every winter by carefully regulating the temperature with fires to drive away the frost. The stubborn and yet still fragile characters of Italian lemons have a tumultuous history in the early days of the mafia.  The importance, the rise and decline, and the reflection of the Italian people through their interaction with the fruit is all wrapped up in this sensuous book. A summer/holiday read preferably somewhere where the possibility of procuring a lemon sorbet is at your fingertips.

Throne of Glass
Sarah J Maas
Bloomsbury 02/08/2012 Paperback
7/10
Bookhaul (Bloomsbury)
The role of the female assassin is beautifully captured in Celena Sardothien. I liked that this whole novel was complex. She has a dark history and back story, her relationships, romantic and otherwise, are not clear cut or simple and the mysterious forces that run through the sub plot are complicated. I love that the other characters are constantly trying to figure her out, while the reader can see that Celena is just like every teenage girl in the world, trying to figure herself out as well. A YA read with a fantasy/action hybrid that keeps the pages turning. Bring on book Two. 

Macbeth
William Shakespeare
Paperback
8/10
Borrowed
I really enjoyed re-reading Macbeth.  There are a number of books on my TBR which I ought to have read or have done, but cannot remember them. I studied Macbeth in school when I was in year 7 or 8 and I don't think I really understood it. I feel like I have absorbed more from the general Macbeth zeitgeist of being a literature student and talking about Shakespeare. But now I can genuinely say that I have read it all. I was very pleased that I still understood Shakespeare, I think a lot of people see it almost as a different language. I watched the movie, I've read it twice, and I've seen three school productions. Next stop: The Globe.

Don't Tell The Boss
Anna Bell
Quercus 19/06/14 paperback
7/10
Competition win (Quercus)

My review of Penny in Don't Tell The Boss can be read here.