June 2014 Reads

Another eclectic batch. No real duds here.
All from my favorite libraries unless otherwise noted.

Fiction
Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932: A Novel; Prose, Francine
 Paris between the wars has generated a lot of literature recently. This one is very good. I never read anything by Francine Prose before and now she shows up twice on my June list (here and in the preface to Piano Stories below).
The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden; Jonasson, Jonas;  Rachel Willson-Broyles (Translator)
  This was so much fun. Remember The Mouse that Roared?
Harlequin's Millions; Bohumil Hrabal; Stacey Knecht (translator)
 I carried on with this thanks to encouragement from Tony Messenger and ended up liking it.
Autobiography of a Corpse; Krzhizhanovsky, Sigizmund; Joanne Turnbull (Translation); Nikolai Formozov (Translation)
Piano Stories; Hernández, Felisberto;  Francine Prose (preface); by Italo Calvino (introduction); Luis Harss (translator) 
 See my post of June 26, 2014
Summer House with Swimming Pool; Koch, Herman; Sam Garrett (translator)
 This was creepy, I didn't like it as much a Koch's The Dinner and Arnon Grunberg's Tirza was better.

The following three were electronic review copies provided by Penguin Books First to Read program. I liked all three, in the order listed.  I posted brief reviews on Goodreads.
The Invention of Exile: A Novel; Manko, Vanessa
Conversion; Howe, Katherine
The Major's Daughter; Francis, J.P.

Audio
Selected Shorts: Even More Laughs; Space, Symphony (various authors & readers)
 A nice relief from the (mostly) heavy June list.  How can you go wrong with readers that include  Alec Baldwin and Stephen Colbert? I must admit that I did not listen to Christine Baranski reading Thomas Meehan’s Yma Dream. I saw this on TV when Anne Bancroft originally did it (with Lee J. Cobb as the silent, dead-pan therapist) and I just couldn't bear to intrude on my memory of it.

Non-fiction
Bright Bazaar: Embracing Color for Make-You-Smile Style; Taylor, Will
  Copy courtesy of publisher - Posted brief review on Goodreads
Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War; Vaill, Amanda
 Correspondents, loyalists, insurgents, spies, adventurers, tourists, and even a few genuine patriots; war stories and love stories; true stories and damned lies--it's hard to tell which is which. Excellent!
A Drifting Life; Tatsumi, Yoshihir;  Adrian Tomine (Design); Taro Nettleton(translator)
 See my post of June 22, 2014.