The Bibliollama

June was not a great reading month, if I'm completely honest, as you can see from this graphic. I finished a whole 3 books - but I did also read the BBC Science Focus magazine, July 2023 edition but that isn't something I can log on Storygraph

Unfortunately, June continued not being a great time for my mental health - My car needed another couple of hundred pounds of work after its service, I was very stressed with work, Li's ceiling was being fixed so there was lots of moving of furniture and I ended up completely losing my daily rhythm because of it all. I fell hard into a couple of different mobile games as well.

Milly Johnson - The Teashop on the Corner
5 stars
I absolutely loved this book, which reduced me to tears on multiple occasions. The characters all had very distinct personalities and initially, as each one was introduced, I couldn't see how they would interact. The way Johnson weaved their stories in with the teashop, and how they met and friendships started blooming was fantastic

Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere
4 stars
Li's been re-reading Gaiman, and she was enthusing over Neverwhere so I picked it up as well. I read it like 10 years ago, there were bits I remembered perfectly and bits I'd completely forgotten which is always interesting how that happens. I did thoroughly enjoy the re-read (even if I started it in October and promptly forgot about it, whoops!)

Joanne Fluke - Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder
4 stars
That wonderful feeling when you fall in love with the first book in the series, read it in a couple of days and discover there's over 30 more books to read! I saw the first Hallmark movie based on the series ages ago, and we know I love a good cozy mystery! I'd been wanting to read this for a couple of years so was thrilled when I spotted it on Borrowbox

Looking more at the stats side of things:
3 books, 1,21 pages – 33% <300 pages, 33% 300-499 pages, 33% 500+ pages (and I couldn't have done that if I'd tried LOL)
The main mood was mysterious
100% medium paced
100% fiction - which is very unusual or me
Genre wise romance, mystery, fantasy & contemporary
My average rating was 4.33

I do still have a lot books in progress, and they all have about the same number of pages left so July should hopefully have more books finished in it!

I'm slowly working on bringing down the number of books I've started but haven't finished. It's currently sitting at 13 and I ideally want to get it to 10 or under (that's the number of different sources I have for books - and will be the subject of a later blog post where I ramble about how I choose the books I'm reading)

My reading goals for the coming week look something a little like:
finish Juliet Ashton - The Sunday Lunch Club (currently 44%)
finish Sharon Blackie - If Women Rose Rooted (currently 42%)
start Jeremy Clarkson - Diddly Squat: Pigs Might Fly
finish Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere (currently 40%)
start Alix E Harrow - The Starling House
finish Emily Henry - Book Lovers (currently 29%)
finish Milly Johnson - The Teashop on the Corner (currently 57%)
finish Matthew Reilly - Scarecrow (currently 59%)
finish Stacey Solomon - Happily Imperfect (currently 34%)
start Nancy Warren - Lace & Lies
(to be fair, I'm spending over 6 hours on trains on Tuesday so it's not as daunting as it seems!)

What's on your reading list for the week?