everything I read in July
the best reading month I've had in years
So I know I said June was my best reading month of 2025.
And that was true. At the time.
But the thing about June is that it’s child’s play. It’s nothing to me. It’s amoebas on fleas on rats.
July…Well, July blew June’s happy meal ass out of the water.
I read 28 books and it’s going to take me ages to get through talking about all of them with you guys, so we’d best get started now.
In other words, this email is going to be too long if you read them that way. Smash the view in browser button or download the Substack app. Or maybe it’ll be fun and exciting to end this on a randomly selected cliffhanger.
What paid subscribers got
But obviously before we get started I’m going to go through all my other little fun updates first.
As like a reward.
But for something I haven’t done yet.
Anyway, in addition to my love, affection, undying appreciation, etc., here’s what paid subscribers got this month:
Short books to break your slump: I am a short book loyalist, to an extent that I cannot just recommend them broadly without narrowing things down. So I shared my favorite real, actual, published books that are under 100 pages.
This post ends when I find a five star: We reached July and I had only five starred one book. So I began a quest to read until I found another one. Which, in a way, did work.
Low-rated books I love: Alternate title: The fun kind of unpopular opinion. No one else may like these, but they’re all wrong. They’re good.
How to read more classics: Basically an excuse to talk about my long classics project on Substack. And also to talk about how classics can be fun! like an after-school special.
Projects
I am about to say to you all one of the best sentences in the English language:
I only have one month left of the interminable punishment / Sisyphean task that is YEAR AND PEACE, in which I’m reading War and Peace over the course of a year.
The best sentence will be when I get to tell you I’m done.
I also finished THE JU(LY)NGLE BOOKS, which sucked. Rudyard Kipling is not my friend.
And then there were last month’s reading till I find a five star efforts. Tbd on whatever weird adventure no one asked for I’ll take on this month.
Review copies
This…I did not nail it this month.
I had so much fun reading books from the library (if the library is reading this, I love you) that I kind of forgot these were a thing until the last week.
Then I had to marathon a bunch of them, and none of them worked for me and now I’m in a reading slump.
But with the exception of one book I finished on August 1, I pulled off reading all of my published-in-July ARCs and e-ARCs in July. So I’ll take it.
Check back in a week to see if I still feel that way.
The books in question
This is going to be hard to do and I’m bad at typing so it’s going to make my wrists hurt and I also didn’t even like many of these books so it won’t even be fun.
This is what happens when I read 28 books.
The things I do for you.
The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi
June 30 - July 1 | Source: Library
Sometimes you just need to read the world’s nicest book and then not even like it that much. That explains a lot about my whole deal.
Rating: ✯✯✯
The Nimbus by Robert P. Baird
June 27 - July 1 | Source: Publisher
Halfway through I assumed this book about a glowing toddler was written by some kind of respected white dude writer who can now publish whatever he wants. But it turns out this is a debut. So I don’t really know.
Rating: ✯✯✯
This section will be modified to avoid spoilers. I read these books as part of my “reading until I find a five star” quest, and because I don’t want to just give that away to those of you who may be interested in whimsy and mystery in this life, I will list them in no particular order below.
There were also some I read in June. But those are here, too.
Promise Boys by Nick Brooks
July 2-3 | Source: Library
Both YA as a concept and dark academia at large are things I like in my heart but don’t usually enjoy in execution, and yet I keep coming back to with nostalgia again and again. This worked out better than many others.
Rating: ✯✯✯
Central Places by Delia Cai
July 1-4 | Source: Library
Ever since I saw the author of this book tweet that she got kicked out of jury duty for posting about the FBI agent on the stand being hot, I knew I wanted to read it. It never quite reached that level of perfection, though.
Rating: ✯✯✯
Hot Girls with Balls by Benedict Nguyen
July 6 | Source: NetGalley
This near-future satire about trans women in an enormously popular men’s international volleyball league made, well, so many choices I did not understand. But it seemed to have fun along the way.
Rating: ✯✯✯
If You Love It, Let It Kill You by Hannah Pittard
July 3-6 | Source: Publisher
You know how New York Mag seems to stay in business solely by convincing people to allow them to print articles about the biggest humiliations of their lives with utterly no self awareness? Do you remember the one about the author group of friends with the affair? This is by the least annoying one.
Rating: ✯✯✯
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
July 6-7 | Source: Library
I was drowning in a sea of three stars for most of this month, so it felt like as good a time as any to finally get to this debut from an author I’ve never enjoyed. And yet there it was. An oasis in the desert.
Rating: ✯✯✯✯
How to Dodge a Cannonball by Dennard Dayle
June 30 - July 8 | Source: Publisher
I think I might need to call it. It’s time to admit that satire just isn’t for me. It’s my opinion, unfortunately, that 300 pages is too long for even a good joke to be anything but annoying.
Rating: ✯✯✯
Oddbody by Rose Keating
July 7-9 | Source: NetGalley
A collection of interchangeable short stories trying to be edgy while having nothing unique to say…it could take me completely out if I’m not careful. That’s why I read with walls up, you guys.
Rating: ✯✯
Very Cold People by Sarah Manguso
July 11-14 | Source: Library
I am very much trying to get back to my backlist roots now that my NetGalley addiction and need to talk about what everyone else is keeps me on new releases, but. Every time I read a new book I enjoy and go back to the author’s early stuff…well it’s not working out for me.
Rating: ✯✯✯
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
July 10-15 | Source: Library
You know how earlier, when I was talking about Promise Boys, I mentioned that every once in a while a lethal combination of nostalgia and false memory makes me think I still enjoy YA? This was that again.
Rating: ✯✯✯
Flying Solo by Linda Holmes
July 16-19 | Source: Library
I had read this author’s other two romances, and both worked for me, which is roughly in line with winning the lottery / trying a chocolate chip cookie from a coffee shop and it’s actually good / getting struck by lightning in terms of chance, so it was exciting to pick this one up. I would never have guessed how much of it was wood duck-based.
Rating: ✯✯✯
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
July 9-21 | Source: Library
Ocean Vuong’s debut novel is one of my favorite books of all time, but his poetry is — to me, admittedly a hater of the genre — cringe and lame.
I can’t believe I’m saying it, but this (my most anticipated read of 2025) was much closer to the latter.
Rating: ✯✯✯
Recognizing the Stranger by Isabella Hammad
July 19-21 | Source: Library
After spending most of the year with just one five star read, I had two this month. Reading this was a balm and inspired me single-handedly to write about all the great books I’ve picked up in 2025 (even in the midst of possibly my worst reading streak in terms of quality in recent memory).
Rating: ✯✯✯✯✯
Bitter Sweet by Hattie Williams
July 14-23 | Source: NetGalley
I love to read about women making life-ruining mistakes. On-page representation matters. (Bonus points because the ending was a pleasant surprise to me, and I consider myself VERY well-read in this made-up genre.)
Rating: ✯✯✯✯
Betty by Tiffany McDaniel
July 15-24 | Source: Bought
This has been on my TBR for 3 years and my physical TBR specifically for 2. I don’t know why I put it off for so long because I always had a feeling I would really, really like it. And I really did.
Rating: ✯✯✯✯
Jamaica Road by Lisa Smith
July 12-28 | Source: NetGalley
The themes of this month: reading a lot, reading a lot of e-ARCs, reading a lot of meh books. This wasn’t bad, but it is on theme.
Rating: ✯✯✯
A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping
July 17-28 | Source: NetGalley
Sometimes I like a book by an author, so I decide I’m going to read the next book by that author, but the “next book” in question is just a blank cover with no title or release date on Goodreads, so I add it and I wait, and then it comes out years later and I’ve accidentally created way too much hype. This is that.
Rating: ✯✯✯
Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson
July 26-29 | Source: NetGalley
Holly Jackson’s adult debut…well, I can tell you guys she had fun. Did I have fun? I don’t know how to tell you this.
Rating: ✯✯✯
The Other Wife by Jackie Thomas-Kennedy
July 29-30 | Source: Publisher
Finally, some low-rated lit fic with a pretty cover about women being horrible to soothe my soul. Honey, I’m home.
Rating: ✯✯✯✯
An Oral History of Atlantis by Ed Park
July 29-30 | Source: NetGalley
There are bad books in every genre. But to me, bad short story collections are somehow worse.
Rating: ✯✯
Mayra by Nicky Gonzalez
July 30-31 | Source: NetGalley
Horror, in my experience, is usually either boring the whole time with a great ending or really exciting with a lame finale. This is the latter, which I guess I do prefer over the alternative.
Rating: ✯✯✯
Love Forms by Claire Adam
July 31 | Source: NetGalley
This batch of three books: Binge read at the end of the month to stay on track, ultimately disappointing, even more so because of their great covers. Seriously, look at this trio.
Rating: ✯✯✯
Summing things up
You win some, you lose some.
In other words, my best reading month in ages comes at a cost: It’s the worst quality month I’ve had in a while. And now I’m slumpy.
Out of these 28 books, I would fully recommend to you 9 of them. That’s 32%, which is insane. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.
I will talk about: my top and bottom reads. The very best book I read was Recognizing the Stranger, and the very worst book was…either of the terrible story collections (Oddbody and An Oral History of Atlantis).
Fun little charts below! But first, tell me:
What are your best and worst reads of July? How was your reading month? Have you read any of mine?
My best reads were Mean Moms and These Heathens and my worst read was Bunny.
In Emma we trust 🫡