Tell us about your books you are reading in June.

I am just starting As Bright As Heaven by Susan Meissner. It gets great reveiws has anyone read it yet?

Love this author.  Just put that one on my WL and TBR.  Thanks Alice!

I finished it bit depressing about Flu epidemic in 1918 (how could it be cheerful though). Well written does a good job getting the feel for flu epidemic and end of WWI.

Alice

I've started The Yard by Alex Grecian.  I'm about 2/3 of the way through and it's very good.

Alice --- that book sounds interesting.  Have put it on my list.  Understand the dreariness of the subject matter, however, I read a book that chronicled smallpox and the early "cure" and though a dismal subject, was a fascinating book.  Thanks for the recommendation.

I am current reading a "true story" about a nurse on one of the Hebridean Islands in the 70s and it is very interesting --- "Call the Nurse", Mary J. Macleod.  It is rather like the James Herriott veterinarian series if any of you are familiar with those books. 

I just finished Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.  The experience of Koreans in Japan, beginning in Korea in 1910, through the colonial and war years, and post-war years with a last few chapters in the 1980's as told through one family's history.  Very interesting.  NOT a happily ever after type story though. 

Cheryl:  Really enjoyed The Yard and am working on those following it.  Good one.

Am now working on A Blunt Instrument by Georgette Heyer which I started awhile ago and had trouble getting into it.  Just began The Violinist of Venice by Alyssa Palombo.  Normally read two to four books at a time unless one really grabs me.

I am loving the Maggie Hope series by Susan Elia MacNeal right now!

Reading "The Chinese Puzzle", T.M. Raymond.  Have just begun this one.  It is set in Shanghai in about 1929.  When visiting there it was fascinating learning a bit of the history of the place during this time period --- it was one of the "hot" spots to be in the world at the time.  Some of the wonderful Art Deco architecture had been saved, but so much destroyed during the "Enlightenment" period --- such a waste!!!  Evidently this book is the beginning of a series --- probably have it on my Kindle as it was either free or very inexpensive!!!

The Blunt Instrument was a good mystery.  My first read by this author, I liked it.  However, The Violinist of Venice by Alyssa Palombo was incredible.  Its depth was astounding.  It may be listed as a romance but there is so much detail about classical music and the emotions that it provokes that I gasped at times.  What a wonderful experience coupled with characterization that brings both mythical and real people to life.  Five stars and rising!
 

Gosh that one sounds good, REK.  I think I will have to add it to the wishlist!  I've finished up The Yard by Alex Grecian and I thought it was very good.  I will certainly be considering reading other books in that series.  Now I have started The King's Gold, the fourth Captain Alatriste adventure by Arturo Perez-Reverte.

Well --- "The Chinese Puzzle" did not begin to live up to Shanghai --- I did not finish it.  Cannot remember when I have simply stopped reading a book, but that I did.

Now I have started something called "Patient H.M." by Luke Dittrich.  It is a story (based on truth I believe) about a man who was given a lobotomy in the mid 1940s and the years and years of research about him.  Also about the whole "lobotomy" catastrophe (in my opinion) of those years well into the 1950s when it was thought that the procedure was the only way to "cure" mental illness.  The book itself is not particularly well written, again in my opinion.  It seems to jump about somehow.  I am reading it at the same time as my granddaughter who is studying psychology in university right now --- she hopes to to into criminal justice.  We have begun our own book club!!!

I'm reading history right now but it's written almost like a historical mystery. I can hardly put it down because I'm enjoying it so much even though the topic makes my blood boil. The book is titled Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. This story takes place in the 1920s primarily in the areas that are now Oklahoma and Kansas. Wealthy Osage Indians are being killed off along with some men who have tried to get to the bottom of these killings. The newly formed FBI gets involved and it's evident that the saying "history repeats itself" is true. We have leaks, obstruction, outright lying and corruption. After writing all of this, I'm not sure why I'm enjoying this book so much - must be the author's writing!

I've heard very good things about that book, Jeanne.   I have it on my wishlist.

I'm reading Circe by Madeline Miller.  I really enjoyed this author's previous book, Song of Achilles, and I think this one is even better.

Reading and enjoying The Secrets of Flight by Maggie Leffler.  Has anyone else read it? 

By the way Jeanne your book sounds fascinating but I think if I want to read it soon I'll have to get it from the library.  Thanks so much for sharing.

It sounds really good REK let me know how you like it

Some books are great fun to read and this was one.  When I read The Secrets of Flight by Maggie Leffler I experienced sheer joy.  I just immerse myself in such books and keep on reading till the end.  Everything else comes to a halt. 

If any of you enjoy reading about the women pilots of WWII I recommend this historical fiction.  Briefly, here's how it develops.  An elderly Jewish woman with no family shares her story with an intriguing teen-ager who agrees to type her memories into book form and a friendship develops.  What is surprising is that the woman is not who everyone around her thinks she is and as the story unfolds the reader becomes drawn deeper into her life and that of the teenager.  I should not have been surprised by the ending but I was.  The author did a marvelous job of keeping the ending from this reader until suddenly there it was.  Good, good read.  Yes, Alice I really like this novel.

I took The Blackstone Key by Rose Melikan with me to the beach last week. I enjoyed it!

I just finished a really good book The Atomic City Girls by Janet Beard. It takes play in Oak Ridge, Tenn during WWII.  Very  interesting and informatiive about creating uranium for the atomic  bombs. History was interesting and characters lives wove into it. Highly recommend.

I just finished The Gaslight Stalker : Nobody Is Safe in Whitechapel by David Field.  This an interesting fictionalized take on Jack the Ripper.  A young police officer meets a seamstress while investigating the murder of her friend. She becomes enmeshed in the investigation when they both feel the police are on the wrong track. Though fiction, it does stick to the main facts and includes Martha Tambram whom many believe was the first victim of The Ripper. Well-written and draws you into the seamy life of the residents of Whitechapel. 

Not h/f but it sure reads like a crime novel, Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.  This book is excellent but really creepy when you realize it actually happened!

Cheryl I read that for a book group it was excellent.

Cheryl, I just finished  H.H. Holmes: The True History of the White City Devil by Adam Selzer which debunks many of the myths surrounding Holmes, including the oft-repeated ones included in The Devil in the White City. Very well researched but rather dry and tedious to read.

I am reading The Girl in Disguise by Greer Macclasister. Set in 1856 Chicago. I MC Kate is the first woman Pinkerton officer. True story very interesting.