A slumpy month with two best-of-the-year-level favorites

I read very little in June in part because of travel with family and in part because I found myself in the middle of four 500+ page books at the same time. I only ended up finishing two of those tomes in June and the experience reminded me that I enjoy my reading much more when I focus on one (or two tops) books at a time. Now my goal is to finish up ev…