As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she read that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better about doing this.

So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.

These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from June.

The Marlow Murder Club (Robert Thorogood): This is up there as one of my favourite books of the year. It is similar to and almost as good as the Thursday Murder Club. I was blown away by the mystery wrap up. And the characters are wonderful. I cannot wait for the next book in this new series.

Carry On (Rainbow Rowell): ChickieNob and I listened to this as an audiobook while we walked. We both read the book before, but it was so much better the second time around. Plus, the man who does the voices is fantastic. He really made the book come alive.

Cover Story (Susan Rigetti): We watched Inventing Anna and chased it with this book, which maybe was one too many stories about scammers in a short period of time. It’s a really fun book. Just maybe… spread things out.

The Twyford Code (Janice Hallett): Very similar to her book The Appeal except you’re reading the transcripts from audio files. It takes your brain a little more work to read this book — words are sometimes “autocorrected” incorrectly, but you quickly adjust. Hallett weaves real history into a mystery of epic proportions. I only figured out a few things ahead of time.

The Woman in the Library (Sulari Gentill): This was such a cool book that fizzled instead of exploded at the end. It was building up to such a cool ending, and then… the book just… ended. So that was a downer. But it was a five-star read right up to the end. Temper your expectations so you can enjoy it, even if it doesn’t have a solid ending.

What did you read last month?

P.S. Likely not having a Roundup tomorrow.

Remember my quest for the perfect mint once we stopped being able to get our vegan Wilhelmina mint from Trader Joe’s? Well, we returned to Newman’s Own peppermints, except those mints were also discontinued. I am terrified to tell you about the newest mint we’ve landed on in case they also disappear. But here it goes: The Perfect Mint.

Jila is the closest in taste to the Wilhelmina mint. Not overpowering. Few ingredients. Lasts a long time. I feel like it’s a 10 along with the Wilhelmina. The Wolvog thinks it’s slightly better than the Wilhelmina, and the ChickieNob thinks it’s slightly worse but the taste is growing on her.

Please Jila Mints, do not stop producing these. I cannot go back to testing mints.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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This man can speak 37 languages. It’s an old article on hyperpolyglots, but I just refound the bookmark. Embedded inside is a video of him switching between multiple languages. It’s fascinating.

He can read, write, and speak at varying levels. I love how he uses languages to connect with people: “Because for Vaughn, every language is really a story about the people it connected him to.”

Isn’t this such a great story? I mean, the brain scan stuff is interesting, but I really love the reason he picks up languages.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

I would like to be the kind of person who can identify trees. I’m not into flowers, though I imagine that interest may grow once I have trees on lock. But I’d like to be the kind of person who can casually drop things like, “Look at that amazing Eastern red cedar” or “That’s a beautiful white ash.”

How would this enhance my life? I’m not sure. But birds have been difficult because they’re always moving, and trees are… stationary. I can take my time and not feel rushed. I found a tree identification site similar to eBird except for large leafy things. I mean, yes, all trees are large in comparison to a bird, but this site is literally documenting enormous trees.

Tree identification. I added it to the retirement list. Maybe it’s a better fit than birds.

I read an interesting idea on The Imperfectionist about why you shouldn’t set up new habits. Or a more nuanced read: Setting up new habits is kind of like not being yourself.

To start a new habit, “we first need to become the kind of person who does those things all the time. You want to become, say, the kind of person who meditates, or writes or makes videos or podcasts on a regular basis, or finds more time for your kids.”

Meaning, if you are working to not do something that you brain is telling you that you want to do (such as scrolling mindlessly) then you’re trying to be something you’re not. You first have to become the type of person who doesn’t scroll mindlessly, and then you can add your new habit — the kind of habit a person who doesn’t scroll mindlessly would add. Or, another example, changing my sleeping habits. My brain wants to stay up late. I’m trying to turn myself into someone I’m not by going to bed early.

They go off in a different direction, finding the problem with the idea of focusing on establishing the new habit vs. just doing the thing you think you should do. But where I got stuck was thinking about how to do something different, I need to not be me on some level. Because me isn’t doing that thing. It’s not a natural fit.

Though they have a workaround that they explain, too.

What’s one thing you could do, today, that you know would be a good way to use a small portion of your time, and would you be willing to actually do it? I’m precisely not talking about “relaunching your meditation practice”, but instead just meditating once, today.

Food for thought.

P.S. No Roundup tomorrow. Meet you back here on the weekend.