The halfway point

I'm about to turn in my June books for the competitive reading club.

You remember the competitive reading club--invented by my nephews, the book club that has no required reading other than "something." You must read something each month in order to keep your membership current.

At the end of each month, you send in the list of books you've finished reading, along with a star rating and a six-word review.

I won two years ago, discovered blogging, and fell back to second place the next year.

This year I am in fourth place in a field of fifteen. But with my new responsibilities at work I will be doing a lot of reading, and so I am taking myself out of the running for the prize. An arrogant move on my part, since I'm nowhere near the front and there's no guarantee that I will suddenly surge ahead and smoke everyone else. 

But still. It takes the pressure off. And removes any unfair advantage I might have. Anyway, at the halfway point, here are the twenty-eight books I've read so far this year, starting with June and working backwards to January. I'll spare you the star ratings and the six-word reviews; you can probably guess which ones I liked and which ones I didn't.

Which have you read?  Which have you liked?  What are you reading now?

THE GATHERING, by Anne Enright

TIME IS A RIVER by Mary Alice Munroe

UNACCUSTOMED EARTH by Jhumpa Lahiri

DRUNKARD: A HARD-DRINKING LIFE by Neil Steinberg

THE BIELSKI BROTHERS; THE TRUE STORY OF THREE MEN WHO DEFIED THE NAZIS, BUILT A VILLAGE IN THE FOREST, AND SAVED 1200 JEWS by Peter Duffy

A SHORT HISTORY OF TRACTORS IN UKRAINIAN by Marina Lewycka

CLOSING TIME by Lacey Forsburgh

AND WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER?  by Blake Morrison

A VOYAGE LONG AND STRANGE by Tony Horwitz

THE KILLING OF MAJOR DENIS MAHON; A MYSTERY OF OLD IRELAND by Peter Duffy

THE SOLOIST  by Steve Lopez

THE DEPORTEES by Roddy Doyle

THE LOST CONTINENT; TRAVELS IN SMALL-TOWN AMERICA by Bill Bryson

RUNNING A HOTEL ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD; FIVE YEARS IN TIBET by Alec LeSueur

GREENSLEEVES by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

AN IRISH COUNTRY DOCTOR by Patrick Taylor

FINDING IRIS CHANG; FRIENDSHIP, AMBITION AND THE LOSS OF AN EXTRAORDINARY MIND by Paula Kamen

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen

THE RETURN JOURNEY by Maeve Binchy

BRINKLEY'S BEAT; PEOPLE, PLACES AND EVENTS THAT SHAPED MY TIME by David Brinkley

THE STORY OF CHICAGO MAY, by Nuala O'Faolain

THE THIRD ANGEL by Alice Hoffman

THREE MOTHERS by Sonia Lambert

IF TODAY BE SWEET by Thrity Umrigar

BORN STANDING UP  by Steve Martin

MARY: MRS. A. LINCOLN by Janis Newman

THE LAST BEACH BUNGALOW by Jennie Nash

THE SINS OF THE MOTHERS by Frank Delaney

Your turn.