June Book Pick 2022

Have you ever started a book and it took you the longest time to finish because it wasn’t good, but you felt a moral obligation to finish what you started? This describes my most recent read (not the June Book Pick 2022 or any book pick for that matter). The title of the book, The Camomile Lawn (no, that isn’t a spelling error), was far more enchanting than the book itself. The premise sounded good, but well, last night I had to make myself finish it, so I could move on with my life. It took me nearly a month and wasn’t even 300 pages. Hedonistic and unsatisfying are the words that comes to mind when thinking of this book. It is now back on the book shelf with its future home likely being the Goodwill.

Occasionally, a book like that crosses my path. The most memorable one is “The Third Policeman”, a book a college professor assigned years ago, and one which I don’t wish to remember. In fact, if I saw it on a course syllabus again that class would get dropped yesterday. The agony of the tortured read just isn’t worth it. And my inward moral compass doesn’t help as it always points to “finish”. However, the last few years the false guilt has lost its hold on me. Now, I am far less likely to keep reading if the book stinks. The only problem with this is having the experience that sometimes books just take a while to get going. So, sometimes I hang in there. And sometimes I hang in there for too long at which point I am obliged to grind through and finish as with Camomile Lawn.

June Book Pick 2022

This month, however, I am optimistic in my choice. The June Book Pick 2022 comes from a popular British author, Rhys Bowen, who is new to me. Her book the Tuscan Child was an amazon deal picked up last year and is my book pick for the month. Rhys Bowen is a British author, and I dearly love British literature, so there is enthusiasm for this book. And it is another WW 2 book, also a love of mine. A wounded British pilot ends up behind enemy lines in German-occupied Italy and a romance is born with a local Italian woman as well as a daughter. The book is a journey back in time for the daughter trying to work through her own current trauma as well as piece together the painful past of her estranged father and understand him better. Looking forward to starting tonight…

Have a beautiful day!