2016 Discovery Challenge – June Roundup

After reading Joanne Hall’s thought-provoking post, I decided to read and review at least two women authors unknown to me each month. Did I succeed in achieving this target in June?

Magic Bitter, Magic Sweet by Charlie N. Holmberg
Maire is a baker with an extraordinary gift: she can infuse her treats with emotions and abilities, which are then passed on to those who eat them. She doesn’t know why she can do this and remembers nothing of who she is or where she came from. And then this ghostly winged man starts to appear to her – and nothing is the same, again…

This intriguing novel in first person viewpoint tells of Maire’s struggle to regain something – only she isn’t sure what it is. Only that she can influence and help people with the magic she adds to her baking. Intertwined in the story of loss and longing, are a number of fairy tales in a slightly altered version, adding to the otherworldly tone of this lovely book. I read it a couple of weeks ago, but it won’t leave me alone – it’s definitely one of my favourite books of the year so far, see my review here.

And that’s it. A lot was going during June, and the majority of the books I requested from NetGalley this month happened to be written by men. However, if I look at the stats halfway through the year, I should have read 12 books written by women new to me, whereas I have actually read 21 books which I’ve reviewed and published on my blog, on Amazon UK and NetGalley, so I’m not going to get too concerned about this blip to my 2016 Discovery Challenge.

Tackling my TBR
This is in response to my habit of continually gathering up new books – and not reading them. I want try and reduce the teetering pile by my bed, so I’ve decided to report back on how I’m doing in the hope that it will nudge me to read more of them! I haven’t made a storming start to this challenge, unfortunately. In fact – I haven’t read a single book from my TBR pile this month. Hm… let’s hope July is better. In the meantime, have a great reading month, given that the weather isn’t enticing anyone outside for more than an hour or so before we all get drenched!