Having left my International Booker Prize reading far behind, I was able to stretch my wings a little in June. There were plenty of review copies waiting to be read, but having decided to reward myself for a part-time return to work, I also had a few of my own purchases politely requesting to be read. In the end, what came out of all that was an enjoyable month with a bit of a Japanese flavour, but before we get into the specifics, let’s start, as always, with the numbers – yes, it’s stats time 😉
*****
Total Books Read: 10
Year-to-Date: 79
New: 6
Rereads: 4
From the Shelves: 4
Review Copies: 6
From the Library: 0
On the Kindle: 0 (0 review copies)
Novels: 5
Novellas: 0
Short Stories: 1
Non-Fiction: 1
Poetry: 1
Drama: 2
Non-English Language: 9
(6 Japanese, Spanish, Korean, Cantonese)
In Original Language: 0
*****
Books Reviewed in June were:
1) Morel by Maxime Raymond Bock
2) The Hairdresser’s Son by Gerbrand Bakker
3) The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature, edited by J. Thomas Rimer & Van C. Gessel
4) Takaoka’s Travels by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa
5) Joy, Despair, Illusion, Dreams, translated by Royall Tyler
6) Five Modern Noh Plays by Yukio Mishima
7) Un Amor by Sara Mesa
8) Table for One by Yun Ko-eun
Tony’s Turkey for June is: Nothing
In a very solid month, there was nothing remotely turkey-like to be found – sorry about that…
Tony’s Recommendation for June is:
Maxime Raymond Bock’s Morel
Nothing really stood out this month, owing more to the sustained quality rather than any perceived lack thereof, which made selecting a winner a little tricky. Honourable mentions go to a couple of my Japanese reads, namely Shibusawa’s enjoyable journey in the company of royalty and the Columbia anthology, a book that has been languishing on my shelves for longer than I care to remember. However (and with apologies to several other excellent books I’ve had to overlook), I’ve decided that my pick for June is the latest QC Fiction release, a wonderful story of a man and a city, and how their stories are intertwined 🙂
*****
I’m not expecting any great change in my July reading, so look out for more excellent choices from my shelves and the kindness of overworked publicists. I suspect there’ll be more J-Lit involved, but I’ll do my best to venture elsewhere, too – I wonder where else my reading desires will take me next month…
Tony's Reading List 
I am trying to leave you a comment about Sara Mesa’s book “Un Amor.” The copy of the book that I have was published in 2023 by Open Letter at the University of Rochester. I do not know if this makes a difference but this copy has numerous syntax errors in the sentences indicating a lack of proofreading. I am having some difficulty with incorrect wording or words left out. Is this to be expected? Grammar is important to me in my reading,
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nmblakely – That was the US edition. To be honest, I can’t say I noticed that when I was reading this, but it’s been a while now. Some errors always slip through, especially for smaller presses, but perhaps some were picked up for the UK edition…
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Thank you.
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