june's reading wrap*up: books & more books!

june’s weekly reading book reviews!

below, you’ll find each of monday morning’s weekly reading book review episodes for june!!

below each video are links to learn more about each title at bookshop.org, where you can conveniently buy books online while supporting independent bookstores across the country. :) {seriously, who doesn’t love book mail?!)

as ever, let me know in the comments what stories you’re reding, loving, and enjoying, too!

with all my teddy graham ice cream sprinkle wishes,

xo,

*hallie :)

weekly reading book review june 2024: episode one!!

this week i read:

currently reading:

might read next:

weekly reading book review june 2024: episode two!!


here’s what i read this week:


currently reading:


might read next:

currently enjoying:

  • BLUEY, season 3!! (i’ve got the dvds, but i hear it’s on disney+, too.) ;)

weekly reading book review june 2024: episode three!!

here's what i read this week:

currently reading:

  • DUET by elise broach

might read next:

STILL ENJOYING WATCHING:

bluey, season 3!!

and here’s the link to my blog about 2 weeks without instagram so far!

weekly reading book review june 2024: episode four!!

here’s what i read this week:

  • DUET by elise broach

  • TRUE GRIT by charles portis (with an afterword by donna tartt; also watched the 1969 john wayne movie; not to be cliché, but the book was 9,000x better.)

  • ITTY BITTY BETTY BLOB by constance lompardo, illustrated by micah player (we’ll do a picture book deep*dive video in the crayon box & substack in july!)

currently reading:

miiiight read next:

  • BRUNO, CHIEF OF POLICE by martin walker (grown-up cozy detective mystery in small town france)

  • THE GIRL WHO KEPT THE CASTLE by ryan graudin (standalone middle grade fantasy)

  • CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN by sayaka murata (adult fiction; yes, i was drawn in by the fact it’s a. japanese fiction so i’m hoping for oddities and surrealism, b. an adorable cover photograph, c. a pink spine, d. a tiny book, and strongest in its favor the side cover blurb: “a celebration of noncomformity that is both joyous and unsettling.” bwahahaha.)

BONUS!! the next two people who sign up for the crayon box this week shall get the LAST TWO felix (the red panda) temporary tattoos in their june sticker happy mail!!

and DOUBLE BONUS: coming in july are TWO happy stickers in your happy mail!! whee!!

crayon box details here: https://www.patreon.com/halthegal

let me know what stories you’re reading, loving, & enjoying ! :)

xo,

*hallie :)

& after all that, here were my personal favourite reads of the month:

DREADFUL by caitlin rozakis

i mean, look at those painted edges! bahaha. skulls and garlic? i was sold. it was weird and funny and a total spin on all the old fantasy tropes of yore. (short take: a dark wizard wakes up in his lab with amnesia and has to figure out WHat The evil pLan is and Why there’s a kidnapped princess in his dungeon.)

THE LANGUAGE OF GHOSTS by heather fawcett

this one’s not in the picture above because i already leant it out! it’s middle grade perfection: three royal siblings on the run on an invisible island they steer through the seas of their kingdom as they escape the hostile insurrection. (i promise it’s not as serious as it sounds.) by the author of EMILY WILDE’S ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FAERIES. also, can we give it points for the best book title ever?!

A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN by virginia woolf

another classic i somehow missed? reads more like an essay, but it’s powerful and so beautifully written, and i can’t believe how little has changed for women in the 100+ years since it was written.

TRUE GRIT by charles portis

still in awe as to how i’d gone so long without reading this book, too. it’s incredible: the voice of the narrator. the style of storytelling. the brilliant, snarky banter between the u.s. marshall and the texas ranger. it’s thrilling and a wee bit violent, but hello, the american west. it’s a must-read.

SHAKESPEARE: THE MAN WHO PAYS THE RENT by dame judi dench

transcript of dame judi dench in conversation about her 75+ years of performing in shakespeare productions and movie adaptations. funny and wise. not just for her insight into the plays (and the sometimes irredeemable characters she’s played), but hints about acting, preserving language, and for being a creative in this fast-paced world of immediacy.

THE BARD AND THE BOOK: How the First Folio Saved the Plays of William Shakespeare from Oblivion by ann bausum, illustrated by marta sevilla

a nonfiction kids’ book with all the kinds of quirky trivia i love, broken down into understandable info. accessible and enjoyable for all ages.

ITTY BITTY BETTY BLOB by constance lombardo, illustrated by micah player.

while it was digital/photoshop illustrations, it was still a spooky*cute colourful explosion of being yourself and the cover under the wrap is the wallpaper i want in my life. it’ll be next month’s picture book deep*dive video in the crayon box or right here on substack!


(book title links take you to the book on bookshop.org where you can conveniently shop for books online while supporting independent bookstores across the country who support their local economies and serve their neighbors with literary, author-supporting, and educational book events instead of price-gouging to control the publishing industry to send non-tax-paying billionaires into space. it’s just my book-shopping preference.) ;)

hallie bertlingComment