Books read: 8
I started off so well this month but hit a bit of a reading slump towards the end of the month – I’ve been trying to read an arc of a new fantasy novel for a couple of weeks as I know it needs a review soon, but I just can’t get into it. My favourite read this month was The Wise Man’s Fear, but I was really disappointed by The Sense of an Ending. The Power by Naomi Alderman was also a really interesting read and this month won the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction.

• The Shadow Sister, Lucinda Riley
• The Wise Man’s Fear, Patrick Rothfuss
• The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes
• The Power, Naomi Alderman
• House of Names, Colm Tobin
• Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
• He Said/She Said, Erin Kelly
• The Roanoke Girls, Amy Engel

Books acquired: 4
After last month’s buying spree, this month I was a lot more reserved. I only acquired four new books, all of which I’m really looking forward to reading.

• Behold the Dreamers, Imbolo Mbue
• All Our Wrong Todays, Elan Mastai
• The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Arundhati Roy
• Three Days and a Life, Pierre Lemaitre

Blog posts published: 6
By far the most popular posts on The Stacked Shelf this month was the discussion on my most overused expressions in my book reviews, which sparked some really interesting comments. I posted less regularly this month than in other recent months, so my ambition for June is to definitely post at least twice each week.

• May wrap up
• The Ice, Laline Paull
• Discussion post: Reading outside your comfort zone
• Into the Water, Paula Hawkins
• House of Names, Colm Tóibín
• Discussion post: Overused expressions in book reviews

TBR for July:
I managed to read four out of the six books I set for my TBR for June, which was good going for me. I’m hoping I can continue on this successful streak in July. This month, I’m most looking forward to reading A God in Ruins. I loved Life After Life and I’ve been looking forward to reading this follow up for ages. I also have a few arc reads to catch up on this month.

• Darien, C. F. Iggulden
• The Heart Goes Last, Margaret Atwood
• Behold the Dreamers, Imbolob Mbue
• The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Arundhati Roy
• Three Days and a Life, Pierre Lemaitre
• A God in Ruins, Kate Atkinson
• The Good Daughter, Karin Slaughter

Challenge progress:

Goodreads Challenge: My Goodreads reading goal is to read 50 books this year. I’ve now completed 43 books – meaning that I’m currently ahead of schedule by 19 books. This was a conservative goal which I’ve always been confident of achieving, but this challenge was mainly about tracking how many books I’m reading, as I’ve never kept count before. (43/50)

Beat the Backlist Challenge: The Beat the Backlist challenge is all about knocking off titles that have been on your TBR for a while. Books need to have been published prior to 2017, and I’m only including books that I actually bought before 2017 and that have been sitting around waiting for me to read them – so no new purchases or library reads. This month, one of my reads qualified, so my total has crept up to three books towards a goal of twelve. (3/12)

How was your June? What was your favourite read? What do you have planned for July?