First Half June Reads, Borrows & Bought

I finished two books in the first days of June so my month is artificially weighted this round.   To get a jump on this, I'll split my record into first & second half this month.  Good news: I've made it through half the month without borrowing or buying any new books (whew!).

China Mieville came to Powells at the end of May, inspiring me to pick up a couple of his books and hear his reading (or rather his delightful vocabulary and British accent!).  He writes what some call "weird fiction" but I would describe as a cross between steam punk and modern lit.  I'm always on the lookout for new, smart takes on fantasy since I love the genre but have to filter through a lot of crap to find the gems.  It's been awhile  since I've attended a book reading and this time exceeded my expectations for a few reasons - 1) Mieville is marvelously clever and a joy to listen to (and fun to look at!) & 2) the audience made for excellent people-watching and they asked interesting questions rather than the pretentious I-worked-on-this-question-for-a-week-so-I-would-sound-deep questions I'm used to cringing at during modern lit author readings (or worse, poetry readings!).

My first reading of Mieville was his foray into children's books & while the tale didn't blow me away, it encouraged me to read more if only to see how he continually creates new worlds to explore.

Now, to hit the highlight of the month so far...  my book club read The Help by Kathryn Stockett several months ago and I chose to read the alternate book instead because I thought the story would be heavy and depress me.  I didn't hear much of the conversation about the book but in the intervening months, a friend here and there have mentioned how much they liked the book and wanted to discuss it.  Then, with the impending movie (and I like Emma Stone so I'll likely see it), I finally decided to plunge in and read the tale. 
I was blown away.  I found the characters so incredibly vivid and believable, and could empathize alike with those breaking with and those brainwashed by their culture.  The story has a little bit of everything; a girl establishing her independence, racial issues, class issues, familial love and conflict, danger, history, loss and hope.  Instead of a story of ignorance and blame, this was a story of one woman's emergence from Plato's cave and the myriad impacts in her life both difficult and wonderful.  If there is a moral to the story, it matches that of "Mean Girls:" we are all women facing similar challenges in the world... if we would just help each other, we can change our lives and our futures for the better.