These are the eight books I read during the month of June:

· Witness, Jamel Brinkley. Like his previous short story collection, an awesome and inspiring work exploring the witnesses we are as we negotiate the challenges we face. Beautiful writing!

· Yoga, Emmanuel Carrère, translated by John Lambert. My first outing with Carrère’s nonfiction. An incredible story about the difficulty of finding inner peace in an unraveling world.

· Poetics of Relation, Édouard Glissant, translated by Betsy Wing. This nonfiction work pushed my comprehension but I was attracted to his idea of the rhizomatic thought that is the Poetics of Relation. Will give it a second read in search of understanding.

· Emotional Alchemy, Tara Bennett-Goleman. Another nonfiction for June, a useful guide to using mindfulness to understand and restructure negative thinking and harmful habits.

· Cosmogony, Lucy Ives. My foray into Ives’ short fiction: just as inventive and enjoyable as her novel Life is Everywhere. Love her style.

· Steps Under Water, Alicia Kozameh, translated by David E Davis. My second book from this author and as good as the first. Further mining of the impact of repressive regimes on personal and societal lives.

· Bezoar, Guadalupe Nettel, translated by Suzanne Jill Levine. Always a pleasure to read another Nettel collection. Intriguing analysis of bodies and the consciousness which lies within.

· The Employees, Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken. I avoided this novel for a bit because of its sci-fi label but am glad I finally buckled (NDP rarely fails). Nice investigation into a dehumanising workplace and the question of what actually makes us human.