July 2026 Reading Wrap-Up
Hello and welcome to my July 2026 reading wrap-up! July was kind of a middling reading month for me, to be honest. Nothing ended up on my top favourites of the year, but I didn’t give anything less than 3 stars. I had a few DNF’s, but mostly because they turned out not to be my kind of thing, not because they were terrible.
All told, I completed 14 books: 5 were physical books I owned, 2 were NetGalley ARCs, 1 was an ebook from Libby, and 6 were physical books from the library. I want to start tracking those stats a little closer, because I need the biggest number to be physical books I own. My physical TBR is out of control, yet I keep on raiding the library as though I have nothing at home to read. 🤣
Each title below links to the book’s Goodreads page, in case you want more information. If you’re thinking of buying any of these books (or any book at all, for that matter), please consider helping your girl out and using one of my affiliate links to Bookshop.org (US/UK) or Booksellers.ca (Canada). I’ll earn a small commission from your purchase at no extra expense to you, and you’ll also be supporting a local independent bookstore near you. Win/win!
Now the 14 books I read in July…
Starting with the least favourite
The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
Hopefully this is the only time that my Steinbeck of the month is my least favourite read. 😅😭
I love you, John Steinbeck, but the level of animal cruelty in this one is off the charts. I’ll post about this book in more detail for my Steinbeck in Two Years project, if I can manage to say more about it than that. 😬
Some “okay” reads
I Will Find You by Harlan Coben
My brain has this weird quirk where it acknowledges words way faster than it figures out what images are, so I’d read this entire book (a physical book that I own) before I noticed the child on the cover. 🤣 Anyway…
My first Harlan Coben (though I’ve watched a couple of the Netflix series based on his books), and I kind of enjoyed it in spite of all the plot holes and far-fetched coincidences. It was a fun ride. But hopefully it isn’t his best.
Wild Fictions: Essays by Amitav Ghosh
Amitav Ghosh is an author whose works I studied in a university course on environmental literature, so I was interested to read this collection of his essays. I really enjoyed the ones on climate change and immigration, but his letters and writings on WWI didn’t interest me as much. Overall, it’s a good collection, just not entirely what I was hoping for.
Many thanks to NetGalley and University of Chicago Press for the ARC.
For a book as well-written as this is, I was half expecting it to end up a 5-star. But Raffi is a character I find it hard to take to, and this book didn’t end up changing that. And I don’t know how I feel about the way this book continues the story of one of my all-time favourite Trek characters. I don’t think I entirely approved of it. But then, the Picard TV series was kind of infamous for that.
All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall
I don’t know what to say about this. I like climate fiction and dystopian fiction, so I expected to love it. But I had a hard time following it at first, and then the characters started making ridiculous choices, so… I don’t know. I enjoyed it and didn’t at the same time.
The 4-stars
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
I was kind of lost for the first half of this. I had trouble keeping track of the characters, and it was just a LOT of dialogue sailing right over my head. But I stuck with it, because I’m in a space-opera kind of mood, and I enjoyed it once I got my bearings.
I’ll either have to read the rest of the series quickly or not at all, though, because I won’t have the patience to figure out the nuances of this universe twice if I wait long enough to forget.
Really enjoyed this. I love space-adventure science fiction as much as the next nerd, but it bugs me when people (*cough*Elon*cough*) make it sound like Star Trek can come true within our lifetime. So thank you, Mr and Mrs Weinersmith, for explaining in plain but humorous terms why that simply isn’t possible, or even wise. Our level of technology and scientific know-how is miles away from ready for colonizing space. I wish we’d focus on solving our Earth-bound problems before even thinking about spreading those problems across the solar system.
Anyway, this was fun and extremely informative. Highly recommend.
The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton
I really enjoyed this as a work of climate fiction. To follow one family through years of climate change is probably the best way to show how a steady stream of violent weather events will affect us all.
I wasn’t completely sold on the scifi or magical realism element, but I guess the second half would have been a bit bland without it. I also couldn’t quite empathize with people acting like the end of Florida is the end of human civilization in general and wanting to stay there throughout an apocalypse. But then, I can’t understand why anyone has ever wanted to live in Florida.
Overall, though, I found it very engaging and beautifully written. (Except for one instance of a character releasing a breath they didn’t know they were holding. A cliche that overused doesn’t belong in an otherwise well-written book.)
Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman
I picked this up because I wanted to immerse myself in page-turny-suspense vibes for a couple days. It definitely delivered on that score, as well as being surprisingly well-written. I need to read more of Catherine Steadman’s work if this is what she pulled off in her debut novel!
As for the ending, I talked about that under a spoiler cut here in my Goodreads review.
The bottom line: Don’t read this book expecting a mind-blowing thriller, but if you enjoy more of a slow-burn psychological thriller, this one is a fun ride.
A couple of 5-star nonfictions
Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old by Mary Beard
If, as Mary Beard advises, we take the blind reverence out of our dealings with the classics, why should we still care about them? I really enjoyed (and fiercely agreed with) her answers to that question. She’s probably preaching to the choir here, since I doubt that many people who don’t already care about classics will pick this book up, but it would probably be helpful to teachers and academics who are struggling to retain the next generation’s interest in “old” things. Classics are cool!
Wow. Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island (aka North America) can teach the rest of us a thing or twenty about what Christianity is supposed to be.
I requested this ARC from NetGalley months ago, mainly because I’ve joined a Celtic Christianity church group that reads from the First Nations Version of the Bible, a biblical translation that uses terminology and interpretations that best speak to an Indigenous viewpoint. Celtic Christianity was a form of Christianity in the Middle Ages that blended the traditional Celtic connection to the natural world with the teachings of Jesus, so of course it was persecuted and abolished over time. But it was the religion and way of life of my ancestors, and I’ve always felt that it’s how I want to worship, even before I knew there was a name for it. Members of our group feel that our ancestors had a lot in common with the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island, so the First Nations Version of the Bible really speaks to us, too.
This book beautifully explains how Indigenous peoples interpret the Bible and Jesus’ teachings through the lens of their own lived experiences and traditional beliefs, and it’s really opened my eyes to a lot of misunderstood passages that Western Christianity is largely based on. I absolutely loved and was fascinated by every page of this book. I especially loved how the authors came with receipts from the Bible itself to justify the blending of Indigenous cultures with Jesus’ teachings. It’s literally what Jesus and the Apostles did! As far as I’m concerned, there isn’t one and only one “right” way to worship Creator. And frankly, the mess that many so-called “Christians” have made of modern Christianity desperately needs an overhaul. If you feel the same way, I strongly encourage you to pick up this book.
Many thanks to NetGalley and IVP Academic for the ARC (and sincere apologies for such a late review).
A couple of weird but perfect-for-me 5-stars
The Clockwork Dynasty by Daniel H. Wilson
Parts of this are a little rough, but this blend of scifi, horror, adventure, and anthropology was EXACTLY what I needed to read right now. There’s something about Daniel H. Wilson’s imagination that really appeals to mine.
Dead Weight by Hildur Knutsdottir
In a weird way, this novella felt… therapeutic. Granted, there’s really nothing new or groundbreaking about it, but for someone like me who doesn’t read horror for scares or gore but for psychological insight and social commentary, it really hit the spot.
Also, I appreciate Knútsdóttir’s effort to redeem herself after certain things she wrote in The Night Guest. Job well done! 😸
And my favourite book of the month…
Surprisingly, I really really enjoyed this. It’s a very low-stakes prequel to the Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series, and at first it seems kind of pointless. Nice to be hanging out with these characters again, back before life jaded them… but do we really need a novella about a murder mystery game?
Yes. Yes, we do. At least, I do. The way it becomes extremely relevant to the entire trilogy is actually kind of genius. (And as a fan of the Netflix series, I love that they incorporated the game into the show, too, even though they changed its relevance to make more sense where they placed it.)
And I just love Pip so much. I had a lot of fun hanging out with her and her friends again.
Leave a Reply