I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately and I’m convinced it’s to do with lack of sun. We’ve had rain for the past several weeks and I’m about ready to buy one of these thingies. I swear I’ve never seen a summer like this in Texas before.

Lucky for me something did brighten my spirits today and that was the arrival of several BookMooches. Here’s what I got:

• A Sensible Life by Mary Wesley. She was a thin, lonely child with huge eyes and an extensive vocabulary of French foul language. Amongst the elegant middle-class British families holidaying in Dinard in 1926–leading their privileged lives of secure routine pleasures–Flora was a ten-year-old misfit. Ignored by her self-absorbed parents, unloved, and pitied by the pleasant, stylish people in Brittany that summer, Flora was–peripherally–included in their gracious circles. And there, meeting kindly civilised people for the first time, she fell in love–with Cosmo–with Hubert–with Feix. It took forty years for the love affairs to be explored, consummated and finally resolved.
• Melted into Air by Sandi Toksvig. Frances Angel’s life has seen better days. A theatrical impresario by trade – an impression of an impresario in reality – her current production of Macbeth is so bad that one of the three witches falls into the cauldron through laughing so hard. To make matters worse, her beloved Alistair has done what actor lovers always do – exited stage left.
• Crow Lake by Mary Lawson – Here is a gorgeous, slow-burning story set in the rural “badlands” of northern Ontario, where heartbreak and hardship are mirrored in the landscape. For the farming Pye family, life is a Greek tragedy where the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons, and terrible events occur—offstage.
• Frangipani by Celestine Vaite. A heroine you’ll wish was your best friend. Her name is Materena Mahi, and she’s the best listener in Tahiti. In Tahiti it’s a well-known fact that women are wisest and mothers know best. But it’s Materena Mahi who really knows best of all.

Ah, books to the rescue. I still have quite a few points so maybe I’ll indulge in more BookMooch therapy. And, if anyone has some sun to spare would you mind sending it my way. Muchas gracias!

Two challenges down and several more to go. I forgot to mention how I did in the Chunkster Challenge. I signed up to read three books but only finished one. Oh but what a good book, The Hummingbird’s Daughter was. It is right up there as one of my favorite reads of the year. I had a write up of the book but can’t find it (must organize soon) and I’m a bit too lazy to re-write it right now but take my word for it, it’s a must read book. In the meantime, I just wanted to say a big thank you to Nancy, aka Bookfool, for organizing this fun challenge.

So what did I finish this month? Take a look:

The Last Summer (of You & Me) by Ann Brashares (my review)
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (my review)
The Hummingbird’s Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea
The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz (my review)
The Mermaids Singing by Lisa Carey (my review)
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Buter (my review)
Volk’s Game by Brent Ghelfi (my review)

As this is the half way point of a reading year I went back to my January post to see how I was doing on my reading resolutions. I was flexible but I did say that I wanted to read more Classics and non-fiction books. I actually said I wanted to read five non-fiction books.

I’ve only read one Classic, but I have read four non-fiction books already so that is a good thing. I’ve also read a couple of young adult and several sci-fi books so it’s been fun to branch out in other genres.

I’ve got lots of great books (keeps fingers crossed) waiting for me so can’t wait to see what the rest of the year brings. Oh and let’s see if I do better on these other reading challenges.