My January through July in reading

Okay, apparently I don’t have the brain space to blog about the books I’ve read anymore. It’s probably because I quit my corporate job and acquired roughly a dozen micro-part-time jobs instead. I have no regrets.

Here’s what I will give you: Every book I’ve read from January through July 2026, plus what I posted about it on Bluesky. I’ve also included a ✨ next to my particular favorites.

✨ Private Rites by Julia Armfield (narrated by Hannah van der Westhuysen)
The post-death bureaucracy horror novel of my dreams! Plus climate change horror! Plus zealotry horror! I loved it.

✨ Babel by R.F. Kuang
I literally just spent five straight hours finishing this book because it was so good. You must read it. I insist.

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C.M. Waggoner
At first I thought this was going to be a typical cozy mystery—and then it wasn’t typical at all, which I very much appreciated.

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margareta Magnusson
I’d read excerpts of this before, but never the whole thing. It is…adorable? The cutest book I’ve read in ages. And tremendously useful, of course! Makes me miss my grandparents, though.

Howls from the Dark Ages, edited by P.L. McMillan and Solomon Forse
Gory short horror stories that take place in the medieval period. What more could you want? Let’s go, creepy monks!

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo (narrated by Lauren Fortgang)
Thought this was going to be a vampire novel. It is decidedly not! More of a historic romantasy, which isn’t my fav genre, but Bardugo is a competent author, so it worked.

Le Plongeur by Stéphane Larue
It’s been forever since I read a book in French, but I figured my recent trip to Montreal was a good excuse—especially because this novel is a romp through Montreal’s drug- and booze-fueled restaurant scene from the perspective of a new dishwasher.

The New Life by Tom Crewe
A queer historical fiction in which nearly every character is forced to make impossible choices they’d never be forced to make had they lived a century later. Our existence in the new life (or something closer to it) makes the novel more hopeful.

Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle
I first read it about a decade ago, but something called me to re-read it now. Maybe it’s that the bleak violence of today’s world makes escape in a game seem appealing. But it’s not escape, just another layer of reality.

The Round House by Louise Erdrich
This is the second novel of Erdrich’s I’ve read, and it was absolutely engrossing—but the subject matter is brutal. Narrated by a 13-yo Ojibwe boy whose mother is attacked. Trigger warnings for basically everything.

✨ Jawbone by Mónica Ojeda (translated from the Spanish by Sarah Booker)
Had the pleasure of rereading this for the Butcher Cabin Books book club. Just as surreally terrifying as the first time around. A modern horror masterpiece. 🤍🐊🦷

Happy Death Club: Essays on Death, Grief & Bereavement Across Cultures by Naomi Westerman
A charming series of essays about death and grief. Very fun. Right up my alley.

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
I love books where narrators get knocked off their high horse. This novel, with its for-hire spy who infiltrates a leftist commune in France, is a great example.

Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen (narrated by the author)
Considering the premise, it’s amazing how weird this funny little novel isn’t. It’s so earnest—I was along for the ride from the first sentence. The audiobook version has two songs at the end!

Convent Wisdom: How Sixteenth Century Nuns Could Save Your Twenty-First Century Life by Ana Garriga and Carmen Urbita (narrated by Aida Reluzco)
Even as an ex-Catholic, I have a great admiration for nuns and would rather take advice from them than from most people. This is also a charming book about the authors’ friendship.

Galápagos by Fátima Vélez (translated from the Spanish by Hannah Kauders)
Wild to read this fever dream of a book about a group of wayward artists slowly dying of AIDS while I have a literal fever. Bravo to Hannah Kauders for the translation—this nearly periodless novel must have been a doozy!

A Death Doula’s Guide to a Meaningful End by Jane K. Callahan
I was already proud to call Jane a friend, but I’m especially proud after reading her book. A must-buy for everyone who’s going to die someday. (That’s you.)

We Show What We Have Learned by Clare Beams
It’s been a while since I read a short story collection, and I really enjoyed this volume of quietly weird tales. “World’s End” and “All the Keys to All the Doors” were particular favorites!

The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han
It took me 3 days to read this 50-page book. Interesting ideas if you can manage the linguistic obstacle course. I like his theory that we’re living in an age of auto-exploitation & bosses like it, but I think allo-exploitation can coincide!

Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett
I’ve had this answer to Kafka’s Metamorphosis on my shelf for years, and I’m glad I finally got around to it right before its sequel comes out, apparently! It’ll be interesting to see what Furo Wariboko, aka Frank Whyte, is up to these days.

✨ Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico (translated from the Italian by Sophie Hughes)
If you want to feel uncomfortable as a cosmopolitan millennial with a computer job, this is the novel for you! It’s mercifully short (complimentary). I enjoyed it.

How to Blow Up a Pipeline by Andreas Malm (narrated by Brian Arens)
Ironically listened to this while driving hundreds of miles across state lines. At least I was driving a hybrid? Found it really inspiring.

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover (narrated by Julia Whelan)
Finally got around to this bestseller. It was harrowing, for sure. Trigger warnings for basically everything. I thought it was a little too long? But overall, glad I listened.

✨ Anarchism and Other Essays by Emma Goldman
Originally published in 1910 but uncomfortably relevant to the present day. You can tell she was a good public speaker; it’s easy to get swept up in her arguments without thinking—though I agree with much of what she said anyway.

Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa (translated from the Japanese by Polly Barton)
Darkly funny, subversively erotic, tough as nails novel about a severely disabled woman’s bargain with her incel caretaker. Messed up (complimentary).

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino
Is our narrator an alien sent to Earth to fax observations about our planet to her extraterrestrial superiors? It doesn’t really matter—she’s human regardless, and that is beautiful.

Mad Prairie by Kate McIntyre
Toto, we are in Kansas and it is very weird. Loved these connected short stories—the novella was a particularly good (and bizarre) depiction of grief.

The White Album by Joan Didion
Never read Didion before, so I decided to fix that? Her writing is very elegant, and I enjoyed it. Though it’s wild to get closeups of some of the most prominent moments in 60s counterculture from someone so conservative.

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
Decided on a Didion double feature. I really enjoy the cadence and style of her writing. Yet while I know it was her job to think, sometimes I’m like…girl, you are overthinking it. Anyway, makes me want to go back to California.

Jonah’s Gourd Vine by Zora Neale Hurston
Second time I’ve picked up this ZNH anthology I inherited from my great aunt. Not as good as Their Eyes Were Watching God, but still compelling enough that you’re inclined to forgive John Pearson his sins.

Renegade Grief: A Guide to the Wild Ride of Life After Loss by Carla Fernandez
Even as someone who talks about my parents’ deaths all the time, I still have an internal scold that tells me I’m grieving wrong. Fernandez’s book is a good reminder to ignore that voice. I can grieve however I need or want to.

The Cipher by Kathe Koja
As I was reading this cosmic/body horror combo I was initially under the impression that I didn’t like it, but by the time I finished the book I think I really, really liked it? Is the novel itself a funhole? Perhaps…

Against the State: Anarchists and Comrades at War in Spain, Myanmar, and Rojava by James Stout
I was familiar with much of the Spanish Civil War stuff because I’m a history nerd, but the parts about Myanmar and Rojava were eye-opening, heartbreaking, and inspiring. Jin jîyan azadî!

Spread Me by Sarah Gailey
What if The Thing but horny? I devoured it in one sitting. 🦠

A Century of Change 1912-2012: Loretto’s Second Century by Patricia Jean Manion SL and many other Loretto Community members
I’m in the process of joining Loretto Link, and this book is a remarkable history of bold women working toward social justice.