It’s the first Thursday of the month, so it’s time to let us know: 
What is the best book you read in June 2012 and why did you love it? It doesn’t have to be a newly published book, or even SFF. We just want to share some great reading material. Feel free to post a full review of the book here, or a link to the review on your blog, or just write a few sentences about why you thought it was awesome.
(And don’t forget that we always have plenty more reading recommendations on our Fanlit Faves page and our 5-Star SFF page.)
As always, one commenter will choose a book from our stacks.
July 5th, 2012. Posted by Justin Blazier | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 24 comments | 
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Glasshouse: SF to the extreme but with a social agenda
Monster Hunter International: Entertaining dude-lit
Vault of Deeds: Fantasy satire
June was the first time in a while that my reads where equally split between speculative fiction titles, and Thrillers and Litfic. My favorite SFF read of June was probably Red, White and Blood by Christopher Farnsworth. I mean, it’s a battle between a Vampire and the Boogeyman during a presidential election. What’s not to love?
For my favorite of June, soooo hard. It’s close between a bunch of titles, but I think A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash has to take it. Probably my favorite literary thriller since RJ Ellory’s A Quiet Belief in Angels.
I’ve been in a MEGA reading slump. Woe to the author whose book I try next…
But in June, I did read and really, really enjoyed Julie Moffett’s No One to Trust. There was this one scene where I thought it was going to be simply too ridiculous to believe…but yanno, when all was said and done, I loved that silly book and I wish there were more in the series already out. (It’s not really sci/fi or fantasy. There’s this one sci/fi element about it, but even that is pushing the definition.) It’s mostly a cozy mystery, the second in a series; third if you count the prequel.
It had to be Railsea, by China Mieville.
Hard to decide, really, which was the best book I read in June. I’ve been in hospital with my e-reader at my side, so got through all of Trudi Canavan’s Age of the Five trilogy and Patricia Wrede’s Enchanted Forest Chronicles, both of which I loved. One I picked up almost at random and truly did love, however, to the point of immediately going out to get the sequel, was Helen Lowe’s “The Heir of Night”. It has a few traditional fantasy tropes mixed in with some very good characterisation and some interesting and unusual twists.
They were all so good but I’m going with LETHAL RIDER by Larissa Ione. I love the storyline and any time Wraith shows up it makes me happy ;).
I finally read FEED by Mira Grant in June. ZOMG it rocked my world. That book was so good I read it in like 2 days.
Probably Swordspoint, by Ellen Kushner. Now I can’t wait to read the rest in the series — but I might, until they are up on Audible, because the “Neil Gaiman Presents” version of Swordspoint was outstanding.
I’ve read a couple of decent books recently but the one that tickled me the most was Dragons of Wendal by Maria Schneider.
@Joel — Swordspoint is a classic!
Joel, I just purchased Swordspoint on audio, too. It was in one of Audible’s recent sales (I was so excited!). I’m glad to hear you liked it!
The audio is great. It is mostly traditional narration (by the author), but some sections have voice actors doing the dialogue, with music and sound effects in the background. I thought it was a really clever way to open up the production without going the whole-cast route, which I typically don’t enjoy.
It would have to be Heir of Night by Helen Lowe. The only bad part is book 3 and 4 aren’t out yet.
The two volumes of The Stratford Man by Elizabeth Bear (Ink & Steel and Hell & Earth). It took me a while — they’re complex. But the effort was worth it, and I love the period (the Stratford man is Shakespeare).
@Tizz—oooh, another book about Shakespeare! I’ll have to track this one down!
I read Blackout by Mira Grant. It was a great finish to the trilogy.
Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson. It is the first on the Malazen books and just so good 900 pages of awesomeness. He is by far the best Canadian fantasy writer and I cant wait to keep reading all 10 books!!
Re-read The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. Fantastic as always, still my favorite book.
Need to add an honorable mention for The Forever Girl: Sophia’s Journey by Rebecca Hamilton. Read in on my Kindle for PC. I thought that it was very well-written.
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson. More at length here:
http://audiblesff.tumblr.com/post/26462358438/listening-report-may-2012
Part of it: “There’s a solar system-spanning medium future of “qubes” (quantum computer AIs), terraforming and thousands of hollowed out asteroid “terraria”, explorations of gender, and post-capitalist extra-terrestrial economies — amidst the grim passage from here to there through climate change, failed geoengineering fixes, and political and economic crises. There’s interstitial future history “non-fiction” excerpts. There’s an honest to goodness, memorable, building love story.”
I’m glad to read the love for Mira Grant’s NEWSFLESH trilogy. I just saw in the latest Locus that the books have been optioned for the movies — of course, that doesn’t mean much these days (except that Grant is probably considerably better off financially, and yay for that).
I read an awful lot of short fiction in July, and two of the anthologies I read were superlative: A Book of Horrors, edited by Stephen Jones, and Supernatural Noir, edited by Ellen Datlow. These two probably couldn’t turn out a bad anthology if they tried. One story seems better than the next, straight through both of the anthologies.
I think the best book I read in June was In Conquest Born by C.S. Friedman. This was my first book by Friedman, but definitely not my last.
@Marion
It struck me yesterday that I should probably mention the Bear is, um, rather fruity in places.
REPLAY by Ken Grimwood would have to qualify as the best book I read in June, as it was the only book I read in June, but don’t think that means it might be a bad book. It really is an excellent read. It’s a thoughtful look about what a person might do if they suddenly died and were forced to live nearly their whole life over and over again, watching everything they worked for vanish each time. Highly recommended.
Viki S, if you live in the USA, you win a book of your choice from our stacks. Please contact me (Tim) with your choice and a US address.