June 2023 TBR! | NERD Book Edition! 

I adored the Judas blossoms!

I hope you enjoy all the books for June Allen- love Greek history. I'm glad I did Ancient History as an elective in highschool. The Judas Blossom sounds really intriguing tbh- I may check it out. The only good thing about recovering from major surgery is that I have ample time to read.

The liveshow you did for An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors was one of the most hysterical streams I have watched in a long time, your French pronunciations were THE BEST. Can't wait to see what you think of book 2, I have a feeling you'll enjoy it a lot! Happy reading Allen 🤩

Hello Allen! The Howlers are descending from their lairs. In June I am reading: Red Rising by Pierce Brown Golden Son by Pierce Brown Morning Star by Pierce Brown (All those are rereads) The Name of All Things by Jenn Lyons Blood of Dragons by Robin Hobb Wool by Hugh Howey (audio) Red Rising mania is upon us my goodman! It will be a prime month! Cheers Allen!

I support you doing nothing but reading ever again 😂 Good luck with your June reads!!

I love getting your personal history pet peeves sprinkled throughout your videos lol. I am also not a fan of the Mongols! and I don't read a ton about Greek battles but your description is making me think that Greek tragedies don't exaggerate much 🤔

gates of fire is great, really enjoyed it. I don't think you can say you don't like the Mongols until you learn about Subutai. You will love Subutai

Hey Allen, The Judas Blossom is historic fantasy. It's a lot lighter on the fantasy element compared to my previous books, so the main events in the book are all historically accurate...but only up to a point. Don't expect dragons or fireball hurling wizards, but there are some fantastic elements.

I do need to get back to Red Rising, but I think I'll be going back through with the Graphic Audio adaptations they've started dropping. The graphic novel prequel they already did was pretty solid!

The mood reader brain really kicked in again (both a blessing and a curse lmao) and now I've got too many books started so I've put most of that to the side for now but I'm currently reading: *Grimdark Fantasy* First Law 1: The Blade Itself (re-read) - While I am loving this and it's like putting on an old favourite jumper, Fantasy hasn't been doing a lot for me the last few weeks so maybe this will fix that but right now I'm prioritising standalones for now. *Historical-Fiction* Gates of Fire / Steven Pressfield (re-read) *Horror* Something Wicked This Way Comes / Ray Bradbury *Western* Blood Meridian / Cormac McCarthy - Very brutal and bleak so far. I'm surprised how slowly I've been reading this cuz I devoured The Road and No Country for Old Men but I'm obsessed. Seeing how much this influenced R Scott Bakker's Second Apocalypse (especially the Aspect-Emperor sequence) is really making me more eager for a re-read of that series.

Very excited to read The Will of the Many and The Book that Wouldn’t Burn!

Waiting for Suave Allen to bring his pet goose next time

I don’t make TBRs, but in June I will probably read some of Gemmell’s Drenai Saga, The Little Country by Charles De Lint, To Lie with Lions by Dorothy Dunnett (the sixth book in The House of Nicollo, a historical series about the rise of a merchant in 15th century Europe, and a lot cooler than that sounds). Currently reading Cryoburn, the penultimate book in Bujold’s Vorkosigan series, and Herodotus.

As someone who’s studied a bit of Ancient Greek history myself in college, you’re giving me fomo with all these history and hist fic reads! I’m locked into some series right now though so I need to finish Feast for Crows and do Ship of Destiny and Jade Legacy. Maybe I’ll try to fit in Gates if Fire though!

100% recommend the first red rising trilogy on audio, he's one of my favorite narrators

I pretty much put a stop to everything else i was reading and started re-reading First Law and Gates of Fire.

The audio for the first three Red Rising books is fantastic as it's all done by TGR. The audio for Iron Gold is hit or miss as they switched to multiple narrators and a couple of them are good while a couple aren't. The audio for Dark Age is better than Iron Gold because they still use multiple narrators but the main one people complained about was switched. Pierce Brown has said that for Light Bringer, it will go back to TGR doing all the audio.

I am reading The Shadow of the Gods and hoping to start The Grace of Kings. I listened to Red Rising on audio. I liked it, but I'm also not very picky about audiobook quality so there's no telling if it's actually good lol

Currently well into The Month of Allen 😂 I'm (Carlos) closing in on 100 pages of Guards Guards and loving it! Reminding me a lot of old BBC sitcoms and sketch shows I grew up on, like Only Fools and Horses and The Two Ronnies. And Yolanda has started LPQ!

The Red Rising audio was good enough that I hunted down more from the narrator and then found Riyria

Hooray for bullied buddy reads! I'm reading Vagabond too "all by myse-eh-elf" 🎶, but I thought you didn't like manga. I also might be starting LPQ this month. 👀

Happy reading in June Allen! LPQ is definitely on my list. I’ll get to it eventually.

I'm starting a reread of Soldier's Son by Robin Hobb. Doing the audiobooks this time and they are good so far. I'm also reading Tigana and enjoying it so far.

WELL AAACTUALLY

Awesome TBR! I have done the Red Rising series exclusively on audio and I LOVED it.

YAAASSSSS!!! Gates of Fire. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts through this.

Gates of Fire is awesome. It’s always sold as ‘it’s about Thermopylae’ but it’s actually much more than that. Some of the best aspects are nothing to do with battle.

If you need an easy breezy audiobook to listen to, I recommend : Before They Were Hanged narrated by Stephen Pacey The Last Kingdom narrated by Jonathan Keeble Eye of the World narrated by Rosamund Pike Or The Fellowship narrated by Andy Serkis, skip the prologue

I'm audiobooking Soldier's Son by Robin Hobb and a few others.

My TBR is ever-growing and changing due to read-alongs and new self-pub releases, but not least because of your recommendations. So, in June, I'll be continuing the Greatcoats series with Saint's Blood. I'll also be reading The Will of the Many, Waybound (Cradle book 12), the Poison Song (Winnowing Flame book 3), and the Bone Ships. As a fellow teacher, I'd also like to believe I'll get through these and more, but I have to transition my curriculum to a new textbook so...

I feel for you man. 😅 The books I should be prioritizing this month are Enemy of God by Cornwell (48% into it and loving it for now - I might jump right into the third book once I'm done), Dictator by Robert Harris (so excited! Loved the two first books in the series with my basic knowledge of that time and place - I'm hoping to see more of Julius Caesar's political maneuvering and I'm curious about Cicero's and Tiro's journeys), Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake (I've been so curious about this series! I did try the first paragraph just to have a feel of the writing style and wow, I was so impressed!), and I should be listening to The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes on audio in anticipation for the movie coming out in November (I had put it off because of that ridiculous title and Murphy's negative review, but then I saw a great review highlighting the parallels and nods with/to Roman history and I just couldn't help myself - it's also very nostalgic to me, I loved The Hunger Games as a teenager). I do have other options if I have time, but these are the main priorities. I read Daughter of The Empire in May and it was my favourite read of the month. I just watched your latest discussion with Jimmy Nutts and can confirm that it's definitely an Allen book. I thought it was brilliant and Petrik told me that it just gets better and better! I'm so excited! Great prose and characters, medieval Japan inspired (seppuku applied to nobles as much as warriors), interesting political intrigue based on strict social rules, a low magic system, a fascinating world. I couldn't put it down. I can't wait for your readalong! I started it so I wouldn't be behind for your discussions like I was (and am) with the Cicero trilogy.

Crap! Now I really want to read LPQ again.

I am reading Bone Shard War. And Legend from David Gemmell. I finally have all the Drenai books, so they are a reading goal this year

Justice for the Thebans and the Thespians! That said, being born and raised in the Norwegian Bible Belt, I do have also have more sympathy towards the Persians in generally, as they are presented a lot more positive than the Greeks in the Bible! Personally, I am about to start on «Speaking Bones» by Ken Liu (book #4 and final book of the «Dandelion Dynasty») and «The Conscience of the King» by Alfred Duggan (Digital Read: Set during the Anglo Saxon Migration and the creation of the Kingdom of Wessex). On my June TBR, I have the «Arthurian Age»-series by Sean Poage, the first omnibus of «Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser» by Fritz Leiber, «Badon Hill» by I, Anonymous and «Salammbo» by Gustave Flaubert! Might also start on my first annual GGK read: «Under Heaven» and the «Vindolandia» Trilogy (set along Hadrian’s Wall) by Adrian Goldsworthy. Will also get to «Bold Ascension» by Vaughn Roycroft and «The Prophet of Edan» by Philip Chase, as soon as they are released!

Here's my tbr for June End of watch by Stephen king Karamo brown memoir Can't resist her by kianna Alexander Hellbent by leigh bardugo Astrid parker doesn't fail All adults here by Emma straub The fireman by joe hill To kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee

Sad in Scarab Path Looking forward for your reaction to Judas Blossom. I’d like to read it sometime soon

Allen! Are you saying the movie 300 is historically inaccurate?! Also, you might care more about the Mongols if you were facing an army of them with their awesome equestrian archers! Just for you, I will endeavor to be as unreasonable as possible in the future! 😁

Yay for all the nonfiction ❤❤ And here I was thinking the Judas Blossom was fantasy 🤔 As for TBRs - I’ve decided to go rogue already and dump the TBR I think

I'll be reading The Tyrant's Law in June... and lots of other things you don't care about. 😂

I'm adding Taken at the Flood to my tbr. This period is a huge gap in my knowledge that i need to fill. It's hard to find good books about it

le HONK

:D

Allen, how do you pop in book covers to your video? I've been wanting to do this for my audiobook reads but I can't figure it out...

How is school already out? Doesn't it end in june like in europe?

I apologize for nothing!