Hello!

I had every plan to combine my May wrap up with my June tbr, but when I noticed my wrap up post was over 1500 words and I hadn’t even started on the tbr section, I decided that I’d write a little bonus blog post this week!

I’ve managed to read 7 books a month two months in a row now, so being able to finish my 6 book tbr should be achievable in theory! I’ve also figured it out that I didn’t have any books leftover from May to finish off when the month started, so I picked up my first tbr book on June 1st and I’m reading with determination!

As always, I call my tbr a ‘functional’ tbr – not because I don’t think other people’s tbrs aren’t functional, but because mine has one. The goal is to make sure I’m reading my book club books, my subscription box books and a couple of books from my 24 in 2024 list – it’s not been particularly successful so far this year but I’m working on it!

Let’s jump right in with the book club – in summary, I started my book club because when my husband and I got married we asked our guests to gift us a copy of their favourite book and in an endeavour to read them all we take it in turns to choose a book each month and I read it and he doesn’t. In June it was my turn to pick and I decided rather than picking one that I liked the sound of, I just wanted to pick one at random and try something that I’m not naturally drawn to! So I went along the top shelf and picked the first one that I hadn’t read yet (that wasn’t 500 pages long, I’m not ready for that 😂) and chose A Sense of Freedom by Jimmy Boyle – this is a non-fiction autobiography by one of Scotland’s most wanted criminals and how he turned his life around.

I have already started this one and so far I’m actually really enjoying it – it’s very dense, so in terms of page numbers it looks like I’m going quite slowly, but despite the subject matter it feels somewhat cosy? A bit like sitting with your grandparents and letting them tell you stories of ‘the old days’ but that might be because I’m still on the bit about his childhood. The narrative style is very easy to read and I’m genuinely enjoying it much more than I thought I would!

As a subsidiary of the book club – my mum gave us a box set of the first 10 Famous Five books and rather than reading all 10 back to back, I set myself the challenge of reading one a month, so in the sixth month of the year I’ll be reading the sixth book in the series Five On Kirrin Island Again. I’m feeling a bit bored of the Famous Five at the moment, so my plan is to leave it till the end of the month and read it in one or two sittings like I did with the last couple, just to give myself a little bit of space with the series!

For my subscription box book this month, I only have the one as there are dispatch issues with Illumicrate, so my Afterlight book is One Last Shot by Betty Cayouette, which looks like the perfect summer romance! The endpaper artwork is all set in a bakery and the basic plot is a supermodel receives a notification on her phone about a marriage pact that she made with her high school best friend, who is now a fashion photographer. So she gets herself cast as the lead on his next project and he’s not as excited to see her as she is to see him, but does that have one last shot at love?

Second chance romance, bakery, photography – I’m in! Hoping for a sunny day to read this one.

The new release that I’ve preordered that comes out this month is Not In Love by Ali Hazelwood and I’m truly so excited to read another adult Ali Hazelwood romance! Don’t get me wrong – I liked her YA debut ‘Check and Mate’ and I did enjoy her paranormal debut ‘Bride’, but an Ali Hazelwood contemporary romance will always hit and I’m really excited to read this one when it comes out on the 11th!

And last but not least, I used one of those spinners you can make online to choose my 24 in 2024 books for the month (bearing in mind there’s still 22 on the list…) and this months picks were Gild by Raven Kennedy and The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult. I’ve been really hyped about reading ‘Gild’ (and have started listening to the audiobook whilst I’m driving, so far – very different to what I expected!) and ‘The Book of Two Ways’ I have attempted to read before and soft-DNFed it. I know I’m more of a broader reader now and I’m looking forward to trying it again and ticking off a book that I’ve struggled with before!

And those are the 6 books on my tbr – it feels super achievable, I’ve started it early and I’m really focusing on actually achieving it this month so I can start working on my leftover tbr and every other unread physical book I own! I’m definitely not getting it down to zero this year, but I’m very focused and really trying not to buy anything new.

Let me know if you’ve read any of the books on my list and anything you’re excited to read this month!

Thank you for taking time out of your book,

Sophie xx