June Reading, Thus Far

Here's what I read in the first half of June. My reading suffered a little because I was a) working full-time and b) wanting to spend A LOT of time outside. Thus, I read less than what I normally might read in two weeks.

This book took me an unusually long time to read because I didn't want to finish it. It was so fun (and funny) and quirky and I wanted it to last forever. This might be one of my favourite books I read this year.

I had heard so many great things about this book and I didn't love it. It took me about half the book to get into it and I don't know -- maybe I just couldn't relate. There are some relationships in this book which I would say are abusive and I didn't love reading about those. It's possible I just don't know a lot about transgender culture and that this is an honest look at it but I found this book hard to read. I think I either missed the point or it wasn't the book for me.

I read the last two Bridgerton books and now I'm sad they're over. Why can't there be more stories??? These are books I might actually consider buying because I could see reading them again and again. Yes, they're predictable romances (with a slightly steamy edge to them) but they're the kind of thing I reach for when I need to escape.

Okay Americans can I be honest here? You call yourself the "home of the free" and you claim to be "the greatest place on earth" but honestly, what on earth?!?!? I read this (what I assume is) honest look at voting in the US and maybe I'm naive, but I honestly can't imagine the things Abrams outlines in this book happening in Canada. Like I said, maybe I'm naive and voting suppression does happen here but Dave and I talked about this, and we really don't think it's an issue here. It might be because our voting system is nationally run and leans towards voter inclusion rather than exclusion. In fact, for our last national election, over 95% of the voters were automatically registered. I check a box on my taxes every year saying that I want to vote and then, when an election comes around, I receive a voter card in the mail.

Now Abrams is clearly a Democrat and points hard fingers at the Republicans. She admits that both parties have engaged in voter suppression but doesn't take a hard look at the Democratic instances of doing it. Anyways, this book is shocking and frustrating, and as a Canadian who doesn't live in the American system, it's depressing and confusing. I guess it's shockingly easy to vote in Canada, compared to the US, and so the whole issue just seems very foreign to me.

So that is what I read in the first part of June. As I said above, since the weather is nicer, I can already tell that my June reading is going to be less than other months this year. If you track your reading, do you find you have a month (or two or more) where your reading drops off too?