July 2025 Reading

Not a ton of reading this month.  Summer is not great for reading, it turns out, at least in my world.  I read four books this month.

 

Audio first.  I listened to First Test and Page by Tamora Pierce.  The thing I like best about this particular series of hers is that Pierce does not downplay the amount of hard work Kel has to do to begin and continue her training as she pursues her goal to be a knight.  The characters are well-drawn and the payoff is earned.  Thumbs up.  Will start listening to the next one as soon as it is available at the library.

 

As a result of a conversation a long time ago now with my kid, I bought the Mistborn trilogy by Brian Sanderson.  The deal was that he would read them first and then I would get to keep them and read them when he was done.  I am finally getting around to it.  I loved the first book, Mistborn.  The story is great and the plot was surprising and fun.  I enjoyed the way magic works in this world.  I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.

 

In my reading for Year of Water, I read Waves and Beaches by Willard Bascom and Kim McCoy.  This is a charming book.  I bought it on a whim at REI and I could not be happier with my purchase.  The photos are stunning, the text both informative and amusing.  Bascom died in 2000, but McCoy has kept the work updated.  I learned about physics and engineering without suffering!  There were stories about surfing and sailing and other adventures.  I loved it.  Check it out.

 

July total:  4

Summer to date:  10

2025 to date:  45.5 

June 2025 Reading

June is over and so is June reading.  (Don’t worry:  July is now!)  I finished six books in June.

The first two were re-reads for my Sacred Ground group.  I highly recommend both books and the Sacred Ground program.  The books are Howard Thurman’s Jesus and the Disinherited and Debby Irving’s Waking Up White.  I’ve written about them before, so I’ll just suggest that y’all read them.

 

I listened to the last of Susan Cooper’s Dark Is Rising series, Silver on the Tree.  It was an excellent conclusion to a great series.  I felt satisfied at the end and renewed.

 

For my Year of Water project, I read Joan Didion’s Where I Was From.  Somehow I managed to get to this old and have this be the first of her work I read.  I very much enjoy how she writes.  This particular book is a memoir and exploration of what it means to be Californian.  She’s not entirely convinced that Californians are a good thing.  It was an interesting read and had a lot of relevant water stuff in it that I will eventually discuss in my Year of Water Substack posts.  Short version:  good book.

 

I swear that when I went into Barnes and Noble, I was only planning to spend a gift card I had buying a baby gift (Moo, Baa, La La La, which both my kids adored) and another batch of Sudoku puzzles.  It is not my fault that not one, but two new Rick Riordan books jumped up and made me take them home with me.  They were the first two installments of the Percy Jackson Senior Year Adventures, The Chalice of the Gods and Wrath of the Triple Goddess.  There is nothing better for a bad day (or week, or year, or whatever this current mess is) than a good dose of Rick Riordan.  I laughed out loud.  I cheered.  I felt better about the possibility for good in a complicated and often not good world.

 

June total: 6

Summer total to date:  6

Year to date:  41.5