Mrs Blackwell’s June Reading Log

I'm probably the only bookshop owner in New Zealand whose first choice of breakfast radio is The Matt and Jerry Show on Radio Hauraki.

For the uninitiated, this is a classic and contemporary rock radio station with a sense of humour designed to appeal to male tradesmen, and apparently, to the odd provincial bookseller too.

So, being a fan, I expected to enjoy Matt Heath's book A Life Less Punishing - 13 Ways to Love the Life You’ve Got. But, it turns out this is a stand-alone excellent book.

If you've ever said or done something you regret and found yourself endlessly ruminating on it at 3am in the morning, or spent money on something hoping it will make you happy, or finished a session on social media feeling horribly restlessness - then this book has useful advice for you.

Each chapter begins with a story of something humiliating or hurtful that Matt has done to himself and goes on to share the lesson behind each. I’d recommend this for fans of Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks and for anyone who likes the work of Ryan Holiday.

Speaking of Ryan Holiday… I also read the third book in his Stoic Virtues series Right Think, Right Now. This follows Courage is Calling and Discipline is Destiny.

This third book in the series examines the stoic virtue of Justice, and that's justice in the sense of decency, honesty and integrity, or what what our grandparents probably called character development. Where the other two books have been more focused on self development, this one is in a big way about doing right by others.

Like the other books in the series it's a big dipper - you can read it cover to cover or just open it up at any point for a short essay. Right Thing, Right Now is out in New Zealand in July.

Cowboys Are My Weakness by Pam Houston

This book is a collection of short stories published in the early 1990s. These are relationship dramas set in big sky country and although it’s a couple of decades old now, the writing holds up incredibly well.

The absence of technology is noticeable, but even then it doesn't really date the stories as they're all set in rural Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas. If Yellowstone has taught me anything, it's the cowboys aren't attached to their devices.

Fans of Annie Proulx's Wyoming Stories will enjoy this collection.

God of the Woods by Liz Moore

A suspenseful mystery/thriller novel set at a kids summer camp in the Adirondacks - which is upper New York State.

The daughter of the wealthy and influencial family who owns the site of the camp goes missing. As the story unfolds it reveals the many complex layers of the family's story and their relationships with the surrounding community.

I found the story suspenseful all the way from page one and personally didn't see the ending coming, despite thinking I'd figured it out several times!

This book is also avaiable in New Zealand in July.

Ghost Town Living by Brent Underwood

This is the story of a finance bro from Texas who buys a largely abandoned silver mine on the edge of Death Valley National Park in California.

I picked this for Wendy Batten’s Business Book Club and had really hoped to hear more about the business side of redeveloping this site - but the story focuses more on the challenges of building a life in such a remote location with massive weather extremes.

If you haven't been to that part of California, it's famous for being the hottest place on earth - routinely 45 degrees or more in summer and then snow in the winter.

While it wasn’t entirely fit for our purposes, it was a good read and I would recommend it to fans of Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild (or the film version). It's available in New Zealand as an audiobook from LibroFM and it’s narrated by the author.

You Learn by Living by Eleneor Roosevelt

Adam and I visited the Franklin Delano Roosevelt home and presidential library last year in Hyde Park, New York and I purchased You Learn by Living but hadn't had a chance to read it.

Written in the 1960s the first half is really great - it reads like a feisty older aunt giving you advice about self-confidence, overcoming fears and using your time wisely. The second half was just a bit too focused on child rearing for me personally but overall this was a short book and was worth the time I spent reading it.

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The video above was filmed at Dudleys Bookshop & Cafe in Bend, Oregon where I was their temporary intern and the reason I had early access to some of the books in the June roundup.