June Wrap-up & POM Award

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So...I was really hoping to add one more book the the June totals (it would have gotten me exactly half-way up my mountain in the Mount TBR Reading Challenge), but that didn't happen.  How exactly did June fly by so quickly?  Anyway...I'm continuing to combine my monthly wrap-up post with Kerrie's Crime Fiction Pick of the Month over at Mysteries in Paradise. And here we go (still lagging 7 books off the total needed for Goodreads Challenge conquering...but that's an improvement--I was 10 books behind).  Better get busy.  

Total Books Read: 18
Total Pages:  3,921
Percentage by Female Authors:  50%
Percentage by US Authors:  44%
Percentage by non-US/non-British Authors:  5%
Percentage Mystery: 66%
Percentage Fiction: 83%
Percentage written 2000+: 28%
Percentage of Rereads: 11%
Percentage Read for Challenges: 100% {It's easy to have every book count for a challenge when you sign up for as many as I do.}  
Number of Challenges fulfilled so far: 10 (36%)


AND, as mentioned above, Kerrie has started us up for another year of Crime Fiction Favorites. What she's looking for is our Top Mystery Read for each month. In June, twelve of the books I read count as mysteries:

The Secret History by Donna Tartt (4 stars)
Murder on Safari by Elspeth Huxley (3 stars)
The Girl in the Green Raincoat by Laura Lippman (4 stars)
The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers (2.5 stars)
Murder Within Murder by Frances & Richard Lockridge (4 stars)
The Chinese Parrot by Earl Derr Biggers (3.5 stars)
The Father's Day Murder by Lee Harris (4 stars)
Tragedy at Law by Cyril Hare (4 stars)
Devoured by D. E. Meredith (3 stars)
Death in Zanzibar by M. M. Kaye (3.5 stars)
Jack on the Gallows Tree by Leo Bruce (3.5 stars)
Death & the Gentle Bull by Frances & Richard Lockridge (3 stars)

Four June books have earned 4 stars each, but both The Girl in the Green Raincoat and Tragedy at Law are rereads so they are disqualified by my own arbitrary rules.  That leaves Murder Within Murder by the Lockridges and The Secret History by Donna Tartt.  I've featured the Lockridges before, so, without further ado, I hereby award this month's POM to 

The Secret History by Donna Tartt.  I find this story to be more of an intricate examination of how various personalities handle the pressures brought on by what the group has done than a regular whodunnit kind of mystery.  Tartt handles the psychological reactions very well and it is very interesting to see who falls apart, who remains stoic, and what Richard (the new kid on the block) makes of it all.  Kudos to Tartt for making such an appalling story--I mean, really...what these college kids get up to and how they treat those who are their friends--into such an appealing and absorbing read.