whitneydaniell

June Was for Reading. Everything Else Could Wait.

I completely put life on hold this month and just… read. I’m not saying that was a good or bad decision—but it’s what happened. I even set up a “Reading” Focus on my iPad so that every time I opened the Kindle app, notifications were silenced and a timer started. According to Screen Time on my iPad, I averaged 25 hours a week reading on Kindle alone!

There wasn’t much rhyme or reason to my June reading list. A few Libby holds came through, and I snuck in a last-minute AAPI read to complete a Goodreads Seasonal Challenge.

The book I anticipated most was James by Percival Everett, a Pulitzer Prize winner by a black author. After finishing it, I went down a rabbit hole of Everett’s work and discovered that the 2023 film American Fiction is based on his 2001 novel Erasure—which I plan to read in July.

I also had six pending NetGalley requests this month. I was only approved for one and then, a publisher sent me an ARC directly, which was a nice surprise.

On the flip side, a couple of disappointing reads pulled from my TBR and Libby holds were The Townsend Family Recipe for Disaster by Shauna Robinson and Plus Size Player by Danielle Allen. I want to support black authors, but it always stings when I end up writing a more critical review. I do try to offer grace, but both of those really hit a nerve.

Anyway, here’s everything I read in June:

Here are my current Libby holds and NetGalley requests: