July Reading Recap

Mysteries, museums, and Mexican history

I read nineteen books this July, courtesy of long weekends, my ever-teetering and a series of scorchingly hot days where all I wanted to do was languish right next to the air conditioner and read. After lagging behind for most of the year, I finally caught up on my nonfiction reading goal and picked up some classics, buzzy new releases, and one book that’s been sitting on my shelf for almost ten years. I’m also starting to suspect that the second half of my reading year might become a Barbara Kingsolver year. The Poisonwood Bible is one of my all time favorite books but until this year, I hadn’t read any of her other novels and I’ve loved my reading experience with both Prodigal Summer and The Lacuna.

If you’re looking for my review of Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood, that’s here! I also read Hazelwood’s Not in Love to get some background on the characters and it was…fine? I don’t think the first-third POV split (first-person for the heroine, third for the hero) gives the reader the kind of insight into Eli that it should or quite succeed in balancing the story evenly between them. You definitely don’t need to pick it up to enjoy Problematic Summer Romance.

My July reading categories were:

• Two books that have been on my shelves for over a year: The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver, You Are Here by David Nicholls

• Two anticipated releases from the first half of 2025: Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid, A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett

• One book that feels like summer: Finders Keepers by Sarah Adler

• And one romance published at least fifteen years ago: Vision in White by Nora Roberts

In August, I want to read:

• Two international novels that aren’t by a British author

• Two backlist romances by authors I love

• One book published at least forty years ago

• And one book from the Booker longlist

Favorites of the month

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett (Shadow of the Leviathan #2)

In the farthest reaches of the empire, brilliant detective Ana Dolabra and her assistant Din investigate a murder whose consequences threaten to strike at the empire’s very lifeblood. If Bennett wants to write ten more books about Ana and Din voyaging around the empire and solving crimes, I will read every one of them. I love how wildly creative and weird this world is--if you like weird plants, this is the series for you--and how skillfully Bennett uses the mystery elements to weave in the world building. It's an incisive look into a flawed yet functioning empire that feels fresh and new in the fantasy genre. Ana and Din's Holmes and Watson-esque dynamics is such fun to read and Ana triumphantly explaining the solutions to seemingly insolvable mysteries is a true bookish delight. Clever, utterly engrossing, and stubbornly optimistic in a way I really responded to.

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

A young man is caught up in history and between the United States and Mexico over the course of decades. This is a story that reveals itself as slowly as its protagonist and rewards sustained, careful attention with a sweeping, compelling historical epic that effortlessly blends fiction and history. It's a rich reflection on both individual and national identity, the power of the media to twist reality and shape narratives, and the enduring affection of friendship. The sections set during the Red Scare feel more relevant than ever and are deeply infuriating and riveting. I found myself pausing, marking passages with book darts, and unpacking it passage by passage. By the end, I was just floored by the scope and depth of what Kingsolver had accomplished.

Consider Yourself Kissed by Jessica Stanley

Australian transplant Coralie meets journalist Adam, falls for him, and builds a life with both him and his daughter Zora…but what has she lost along the way? I love a slice of life book and Stanley is remarkably gifted about blending domestic, intimate details with life-changing world events, as the book goes from 2013 to 2022. I also loved Coralie, who felt like a dear friend from the very first chapter and who I was sad to say goodbye to when the book ended. The supporting characters are wonderfully done and nuanced too and Adam and Coralie’s relationship is particularly well sketched. You understand exactly what she loves about him, what frustrates her about him, and the joys and agonies both big and small of the world they build together. Funny, warm, smart, and highly recommended for fans of Dolly Alderton.

Really liked

Finders Keepers by Sarah Adler

I was thoroughly charmed by this romance between estranged childhood best friends, both unexpectedly back in their hometown, who team up on the same treasure hunt that shattered their friendship years ago. Adler has a quirky sense of humor, a gift for crafting down-to-earth and deeply appealing main characters, and a talent for capturing the softest, squishiest, most anxious parts of the human heart with a great deal of nuance and compassion. This was the perfect blend of funny and sincere for me. I loved Nina and Quentin together and found overachieving, perpetually worried about falling behind Nina a very relatable heroine. I also adored Nina's mom, with her panoply of hobbies, insatiable nosiness, and endless reservoir of affection for her daughter, and the loving portrayal of a positive mother-daughter relationship that feels surprisingly rare in romance. (Open door, medium steam.)

Copper Script by K.J. Charles

A buttoned-up detective and charming graphologist join forces to solve a mysterious case that may point to corruption in the highest ranks of the Metropolitan Police in this queer romance set in 1920's London. I'm especially fond of a historical romance set in a less common time period and the historical details that bring 1920's London to life are great. So is the banter, the sense of intrigue and danger, and the character development. For a relatively short romance, Aaron and Joel feel incredibly fleshed out and Charles has a knack for perfectly revealing character details. I'm hoping this becomes a series? I would read several more volumes of Aaron and Joel solving mysteries together. (Open door, high steam.)

Along Came Amor by Alexis Daria (Primas of Power #3)

An emotional romance between a divorced teacher and a wealthy hotel owner who embark on a no-strings-attached fling, only to find both that they're rapidly falling for each other and that they're part of the same wedding. This is on the longer side for a contemporary romance but I so enjoyed spending time with Ava and Roman and their emotional slow burn of a love story. Their chemistry sparkles from the very first chapter and Roman is wonderfully smitten with Ava from the moment they meet. He pursues her in a thoughtful, committed, and thoroughly romantic way, while also having his own fully developed character arc. Ava and Roman are both classic oldest children, wrestling with their many responsibilities and the impulse to leap in and fix everything for the ones they love, and Daria parallels their emotional journeys so well. I also loved how very authentically New York this was. (Open door, high steam.)

Dancer from the Dance by Andrew Holleran

A gritty, glittery tragicomic whirl through the gay club scene in 1970's New York and a modern classic. It's told through an almost choral narration style, switching between "I" and "we" in a way that reflects the arrival and departure of men from the scene and that captures both the communal glory and the abiding loneliness of the time. Holleran crafts both a beautiful portrait of queer community and a wrenching one of isolation. There's a thrumming tension and push-pull throughout the book and a sense that this time of excess can't last forever. (Made even more poignant by the fact that this book was published before the AIDS crisis.) Especially recommended if you want to discover a lesser known classic or be transported to a different time and place.

You Are Here by David Nicholls

A story of unexpected romance, second chances, and two lonely people connecting in unexpected ways as they walk across Britain that’s sincere, clever, and just a lovely read. These characters feel so very human and real--I was totally won over by them--and there's a blend of wistfulness and hope that I was deeply charmed by. The descriptions of the walk are all the more wonderful for not being completely idyllic and it's an excellent bit of armchair travel, especially if you happen to be a hopeless Anglophile like me. Warm without being overly sentimental, sneakily funny, and the kind of book I could see myself recommending to all sorts of readers.

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

An absolutely riveting story about two women who fall in love while training to be astronauts at NASA in the 1980's, what it means to dream of the stars, and the love of the family you choose. All I wanted to do while I was reading this book was to go back to it. (I even would have stayed on the subway longer to keep on reading it!) Jenkins Reid is a great storyteller: skilled at creating tension and at getting the reader invested in her characters immediately, to the point where I nearly cried multiple times reading this. I also found all the NASA details fascinating. If you want more astronaut romance, I’d highly recommend the Fly Me to the Moon series by Emma Barry and Genevieve Turner.

Vision in White by Nora Roberts

A contemporary romance between a wedding photographer and a high-school teacher that feels deeply lived-in and organic in a way that I found refreshing. The love story just flows and in a time when some contemporary romances seem deliberately constructed out of a series of tropes, I really enjoyed Roberts' storytelling skills. I also swooned more than a little over Carter: a thoughtful, kind English teacher who's deeply passionate about his work, thoughtful in the way he pursues Mac, and the owner of a three-legged orange cat. The friendship at the heart of the series, as Mac and her three best friends run a wedding business together, is lovely and all the wedding details and wedding-day dramas are especially fun to read. (Open door, low steam.)

Would recommend under certain reading circumstances

Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner by Natalie Dykstra

An interesting look into the life of an eccentric and influential woman and the museum she created to reflect her taste. I was fascinated by the intricacies and hierarchies of Boston society, the accounts of Isabella's travels, and everything about the Gardner, which remains one of my favorite museums. I did sometimes find myself wondering if I needed to hear about every gown Isabella bought or party she attended, although the depth and breadth of Dykstra's research is impressive. I would recommend this as a commuting or lunchtime book--read in discrete chunks of time--and as a tandem read with something else.

Objectively very, very good but a sometimes frustrating reading experience

Milkman by Anna Burns

In an unnamed town in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, a young woman is stalked by a local paramilitary, rumors spread, and violence lurks around every corner. I was amazed by the beginning and ending of this darkly funny novel, loved some of the side characters (the wee sisters!) and when I was locked into the story, I was absolutely locked in. However, there’s a sizable chunk in the middle where the already circuitous story and narration style almost comes to a standstill and I found myself yearning for a sentence that I didn’t have to stop in the middle of, backtrack, and read from the beginning again to understand. It’s a book written in long chunks of text and in a totally unique style that conveys the claustrophobia and paranoia of the Troubles through complex, winding prose and many a tangent. Recommended if you’re looking for challenging, original, and voicey literary fiction.

Liked with minor quibbles

Destiny’s Embrace by Beverly Jenkins (Destiny #1)

Seamstress Mariah Cooper leaves Philadelphia—and her cold, cruel mother—to become the housekeeper for cocky rancher Logan Yates. My favorite part of this historical romance was smart, steely Mariah and the entire world of the ranch that welcomes her after a childhood full of neglect, especially her friendship with Alanza, the fierce matriarch of the Yates family. The bits of California history Jenkins works in are also fascinating and I flew through this one despite my quibbles. Mainly, Logan and Mariah's love story feels a little too convenient--once they decide to be together, there's really nothing standing in their way--and the week-long timeframe doesn't quite give the reader time to savor them falling for each other. However, I am going to continue with the series, especially because I’ve heard book two is fantastic. (Open door, medium steam.)

Set Piece by Lana Schwartz

An actor on the rise and a bartender have a steamy one-night stand, only to meet again five years later on the set of yet another adapatation of The Great Gatsby where she’s working as a production designer. Something about this celebrity-normal person romance felt very tidy, in a way that didn’t quite make the dark moment hit, and the sheer number of real-life actors mentioned kept on pulling me out of the story. (It’s a nitpick but reading about a fictional character starring in a movie with Lily Collins just feels wrong to me!) However, I did enjoy Jack and CJ’s shared film nerdery and all the behind-the-scenes details, as well as their palpable connection and CJ’s lovely relationship with her filmmaker dad. (Open door, medium steam.)

A Death on Corfu by Emily Sullivan (Minnie Harper Mysteries #1)

Ready to start a new phase of her life, widow Minnie Harper finds herself caught up in investigating the murder of a local woman. This is a series starter with some promising elements, although I did successfully guess the murderer a little over a hundred pages in. (Which I normally don't try to do! But I had a feeling about the culprit and then was proven right.) I enjoyed the richly described Greek setting, our heroine Minnie's determination to get justice for a woman dismissed by society, and her burgeoning slow-burn romance with grumpy writer Stephen Dorian, as well as some of the other plot threads Sullivan promises to unravel over the course of the series. Recommended if you're looking to sample a new historical mystery series.

Interesting but I feel like I’ve read this book before?

Girl on Girl by Sophie Gilbert

Maybe I've just read a few too many articles analyzing the casual cruelty and misogyny of aughts pop culture over the last few years but this collection of essays tracing the trajectory of pop culture attitudes towards women throughout the 2000's and 2010's felt like well-trod ground to me. Gilbert does have a good eye for the most shocking tendencies of 2000's culture, especially when it comes to the fashion world, and for the one-step-forward, two-steps-back of women's progress in the 21st century. However, I found myself wanting more analysis of how these cultural trends trickled down into women's daily lives and, as the book’s subtitle suggests, “turned a generation of women against themselves”.

My least favorite Laurie Colwin (sobs)

Illustrator Jane Louise finds herself pondering relationships, family, and motherhood in the year after her marriage. This is the first Colwin novel I've read that feels dated, both in its portrayal of an interracial relationship between two of the supporting characters and in Sven, the office lothario who mainly just comes off as a creep who should be fired. I'm just not sure what role Sven is supposed to play in the book? And whatever it is, it doesn't feel successful. What I did like were Colwin's wry observations about marriage, family, and friendship and the delightful bond between Jane Louise and Edie, the always-in-contact best friends. Even if this wasn't my favorite, there's something comforting about being back in Colwin's very specific, now-vanished milieu and I’d highly recommend Happy All The Time, Family Happiness, and The Lone Pilgrim.

Let me know your favorite July reads in the comments!

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Currently reading: Time Loops and Meet Cutes by Jackie Lau, because a time loop romance is pure catnip to me.

Recommendations, miscellany, and little bits of joy:

• I’m late to the party on this one but we played Wavelength at a board game cafe this weekend and liked it so much we bought our own copy to play when we have friends over. So fun and so easy to learn!

• The Trader Joe’s cookies and cream pretzel slims, my latest lunchtime treat.

• I gave up on season seven of Love Island USA about a third of the way through (and do not regret it!) but I have started this season of Love Island UK and it feels like a classic Love Island season in a good way.