July 2026 Reading Recap

July—what a month! The first start of the second half of the year, my last full month in D.C., and a month that despite me protecting from Prof Devo trips and classes filled up VERY quickly. I traveled for almost three weeks in July, and had two days where I got in from one trip, switched suitcases, and left on another that evening. Usually, travel is good for my reading! Some of this travel was—but car travel was not quite the reading boon, for obvious reasons. Ultimately, I read 21 books in July, and while that isn’t a ton by my usual standards, it ultimately involved a lot more pages that usual, and also included several books I’d own for toooo long and finally read. 

Here’s what I read in July 2026: 

4 Branches Chapter Books

These were one-offs in series I was hoping to build familiarity with for future readers’ advisory, and none were amazing. The Pug Diaries series was…fine. The Moldylocks one was funny enough. I wasn’t a fan of the Pets Rule one, but Owl Diaries was a bit better. None of these are going to be new favorites—no Dragon Masters among them, but a fine way to spend a bit of reading. 

1 Play

I have owned a copy of William Jackson Harper’s Travisville for toooo long. I bought it at Drama Bookshop in New York City ages ago after a rewatch of The Good Place and…just never read it. I ended up breezing through it without much surprise—I had just seen Purlie Victorious too many times and it didn’t feel as standout as I wanted it to. Oh well. 

3 Audiobooks

I did three audiobooks this month—two short kids ones, and the new David Sedaris essay collection. I love a David Sedaris audiobook—the only thing that consistently gets me doing audiobooks and not just NPR all day. New collection is good—very good, and all recorded live. I also listened to a Who Was? Book on Vincent Van Gogh and the third Mac B Kid Spy book. 

4 Quick-er Chapter Books

I had a few short books I powered through this month so that I could drop them in Little Free Libraries. One was an American Girl doll book—the Felicity one where Elizabeth’s sister almost gets married off to a guy with a mean sister, a Freddie Ramos book (I did one with my 2nd graders this past year), and two American Revolution books I’d picked up over the years. Those two Revolution books were Guns for General Washington and The Fighting Ground. Both were a bit….”look at me I’m a book for boys” but not terrible. 

2 Novels-in-Verse
This month’s reading featured two novels in verse. One was a book I was reviewing for Booklist, and enjoyed, and the other was Salt in the Water, which I’d owned for years since an ALA convention, and found…less enjoyable. It was fine as I was reading it, nothing stellar, and but the ending was lackluster. 

1 Horse Book

No, horse book is not normally a category for me, but Phoenix was great! I enjoyed it a lot—reading it for a book discussion group I’m in and it was a quick read I started while waiting for the Apple Store to assess my broken keyboard…

SIX Adult Fiction Books

When was the last month I read SIX adult fiction books of my own choosing? It’s been…awhile.  I read SIX adult fiction books this month in an attempt to get them off my ever-present TBR pile/shelf ahead of my move. I read Emma Cline’s The Guest, which I enjoyed, and Greenwich Park, an ARC I had since like 2021 that was fine, but the pacing was weird. Libby Lost and Found was also good but not quite what I expected, dealing with a 40 year old author with early on-set dementia. Then I read the big thick The God of the Woods (for my 450+ page book goal) and really enjoyed it—-almost flew through it in like three days. I definitely recommend it! Finally, I read My Brilliant Friend for the Princeton Book Club (which I ended up not being able to attend, lol) and The Husbands, which was a much talked about book from 2025 that I only recently got around to. Both My Brilliant Friend and The Husbands were enjoyable reads!

Now, as August lays ahead, we will see if truly not working and having more free time does result in me reading more….or if I’ll find other ways to spend the time.