Literary Blog Hop Winners
Thanks to everyone who entered the Literary Blog Hop earlier this month! Carol N Wong won the copy of One of Ours and Kristia won The Killer Angels. According to the Book Depository your books are on the way. Happy Reading!

Books Read in June (Links go to my review):
I read nothing but really good books this month. None of them was even close to being just “meh.”

Fiction:

• The Murder Farm by Andrea Maria Schenkel. This crime novel was a huge seller in Germany when it first came out. I’ve recently heard that it is used as a teaching tool at some police academies. Based on a true crime, this fictionalized account is pieced together from interviews, memories, and hearsay. I can see why it is used as a teaching tool. 
• Blossoms & Bayonets: A Story of Love, Faith, and Courage under Japanese Occupation by Hi-Dong Chai and Jana McBurney-Lin. This book came to me by way of TLC Book Tours. I love the opportunity that tours provide to expose myself to books I may not find on my own. This book is classified as fiction, but gets most of its material from coauthor Hi-Dong Chai’s experience as a young boy in Korea just before, during, and after WWII. I’d recommend this one to middle schoolers on up. Its a powerful historical narrative.
• A Long, Long Time Ago & Essentially True by Brigid Pasulka. I can’t believe I haven’t blogged about this fantastic novel yet. I suppose its one of those books that I need to let percolate for a while. The tale of a Polish family from just before WWII to shortly after the end of the Cold War.

Nonfiction:

• From Here to Paris – Get Laid off. Buy a Barge in France. Take it to Paris by Chris Hammond. I read this one for France Book Tours and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a light read but one that causes you to reflect on your life and check-in with your own life intentions.
• Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. This book had been on my TBR list for years and I finally listened to it on audio. The narrator, Shelly Frasier, is a perfect fit for this book. Her dry delivery makes both the heavy parts and the humor shine.

Currently Reading:

• Born on the 4th of July by Ron Kovic. I saw the Tom Cruise movie based on this memoir when it first came out and have had it in the back of my mind to read the book ever since. Painful, but good.
• The Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Hyder Kabani. Listing to this on audio and I don’t particularly like the narrator so it’s taking forever to get through. The content lends itself to

Coming Up in July:

The Killer Angels Read-a-thon starts this week!

Here’s the plan for Week 1:

• Read through the section “June 29” (about 46 pages)
• Come back to chat at the end of the week. Discussion post will be up on July 7th.

I’d also like to read The Quick by Lauren Owen asap.
Here’s the link to Goodreads if you haven’t heard about this one yet. Sounds like a good old Gothic spine-tingler, doesn’t it?