July 2025 Reading Recap

Happy ... August?! Oh my, where did July go?

I read a lot of 3.5- and 4-star reads last month, and I made some good progress on my paper TBR (the list I started on paper before I switched to Goodreads).

All covers are linked to Goodreads.

Disability Pride Month

Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law, by Haben Girma

★★★.5

Genre: Memoir

"Born with deaf-blindness, Girma grew up with enough vision to know when someone was in front of her and enough hearing to know when someone close to her was talking. However, she had difficulty reading facial features or distinguishing people in group conversations. Relying on her own problem-solving skills, Girma overcame roadblocks while simultaneously obtaining her undergraduate and then law degree. In the process, she developed new methods of communication and found her calling in advocating for the deaf and blind communities in more accessible communication, education, and employment opportunities. As a lawyer and advocate, Girma shares a collection of vignettes illustrating the defining points in her life. She peppers her writing with a witty sense of humor and showcases her strength in facing obstacles, along with challenging antiquated societal beliefs about people with disabilities, whether describing her experience climbing Alaska's Mendenhall Glacier or helping a drunk friend get to his dorm by using her seeing-eye dog that he adores as a lure." (From Goodreads)

Haben is confident, funny, and passionate, and her memoir was a thought-provoking read. I especially enjoyed learning about the strategies and technologies that she uses to navigate and communicate, including her Braille computer, her Seeing Eye dogs, and ProTactile. I also appreciated the "Brief Guide to Increasing Access for People with Disabilities" at the end. I will say that I thought the book would be more about her conquering Harvard Law, since that's literally in the subtitle, and the writing style wasn't for me, but I still enjoyed learning about Haben's life and all the amazing things she's done!

Some quotes that stuck out to me:

"Communities designed with just one kind of person in mind isolate those of us defying their narrow definition of personhood."

"In this environment, I'm disabled. They place the burden on me to step out of my world and reach into theirs."

"When you do everything right and society stomps on you, over and over, it creates a piercing, gut-twisting pain. It causes you to question the conventional wisdom that a person who works hard will always overcome obstacles."

Fantasy/Sci-Fi Reading Challenge: A Book That Features Pirates

Vengeance of the Pirate Queen, by Tricia Levenseller

★★★★

Genre: YA Fantasy

"You can't be afraid of the dark when you're the monster lurking in the shadows. As an assassin working for the pirate queen, Sorinda is surprised when Alosa's next task for her is not to kill a new target, but to captain a handpicked crew on a rescue mission. Unfortunately, her sailing master is Kearan. He may be the best helmsman the pirate queen has, but Sorinda finds him a real pain in the arse. Sadly, there are few places on a ship to hide from an attentive man. As the crew of the Vengeance faces dangerous waters and deadly sea creatures, they accidentally awaken the King of the Undersea, a being who can control the dead. Their rescue mission quickly turns into a fight to save the world, but first, Sorinda must save herself from becoming an undead queen." (From Goodreads)

Interesting take on immortality! I’d never thought of it that way before. It took me a bit to get into the story, and it got super weird in the middle and it took me another bit to get my bearings back, but overall I really enjoyed this! A tad heavy-handed at times with the internal lessons/themes, but at least it was nice and clear! Also it bothered me that they said things like “okay” and “stuff”. I am so Team Kearan though.

Mood Reads

Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt (Audiobook)

★★★.5

Genre: Fiction

"Remarkably Bright Creatures [is] an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus." (From Goodreads)

I feel like I might have enjoyed this book more if I had read it with my eyes instead of my ears. The writing was lovely (although some of the metaphors really didn't work for me; I can't think of an example off the top of my head, but at times it just felt like Shelby Van Pelt was trying too hard), but it was a loveliness I think I would rather have read than listened to. Perhaps I am allowing the narrator's voice to unduly sway my rating of this book. Why did she read all the characters so ... annoyingly?! It felt like she was purposefully trying to make them unlikable (and she succeeded). I will say that she had a fantastic Scottish accent, and every character had a very distinct voice, which I appreciated. I did like Tova, and I loved Marcellus' sections, but Cam was super whiny (no wonder everyone thinks he's 24 or 25–he acts like a brat. Which, I mean, okay, I get that his mom was a drug addict who abandoned him when he was nine, but Aunt Joan seems like a really good influence, and not the kind of person who would tolerate whining. So I'm still not sure how he turned out the way he did). 

A note on Marcellus: as I mentioned, I loved his sections, but the mystery of Eric fell a little flat because Marcellus pieced it together and told the reader long before Tova and Cam figured it out. Which left the big reveal feeling a little ... well, flat. Also, it was unclear to whom Marcellus believed he was speaking. Is he talking to himself? That could have worked, but he was obviously talking to "the reader" ... which felt a bit too meta for me. 

All in all, this was an enjoyable read (or listen). I wonder if I would like it more if I came back to it in a couple years and read the print version. Also, I wish that the epilogue had been placed before Marcellus' last section.

Well Traveled, by Jen DeLuca

★★★.5

Genre: Romance

"A high-powered attorney from a success-oriented family, Louisa 'Lulu' Malone lives to work, and everything seems to be going right, until the day she realizes it’s all wrong. Lulu’s cousin Mitch introduced her to the world of Renaissance Faires, and when she spies one at a time just when she needs an escape, she leaps into the welcoming environment of turkey legs, taverns, and tarot readers. The only drawback? Dex MacLean: a guitarist with a killer smile, the Casanova of the Faire…and her traveling companion for the summer. Forced to spend days and nights together on the road, Lulu’s interest in the kilted bad boy grows as he shows her a side of himself no one else has seen. The stresses of her old lifestyle fade away as she learns to trust her intuition and follow her heart instead of her head. But when her time on the road is over, will Lulu go with her gut, or are she and Dex destined for separate paths?" (From Goodreads)

For most of this book, I would have given it three stars. The ending bumped it up a little for me. I liked the Renaissance Faire setting (that's the reason I read it, after all), but relationships built on sex (even if they morph into something more) really aren't my thing. I mean, let's face it: if Lulu had been ugly, or if she hadn't been great in the bedroom–or if the same things had applied to Dex!–would there even have been a relationship in the first place to take root and become something lasting? My favorite part of the book, honestly, was the fortune-tellers. (And Stacey. I want to be friends with Stacey in real life.) But the fortune-tellers never made a reappearance at the end. I want to know if they got a new receptionist!

Also, fun side note: I was tickled to discover in the acknowledgments that the Advice Lady, who plays a small but crucial role in the book, is based off of Gwendolyn from The Gwendolyn Show. No wonder she seemed so familiar!!

Miracle Creek, by Angie Kim

★★★★

Genre: Thriller

"A literary courtroom thriller about an immigrant family and a young single mother accused of killing her autistic son, Miracle Creek is a powerhouse debut about how far we'll go to protect our families, and our deepest secrets." (From Goodreads)

Wow. Angie Kim is SUCH a good writer. This book had some very dark themes and disturbing descriptions, but I loved her exploration of truth, justice, family, disability, and motherhood.

Nonfiction

The Whydah: A Pirate Ship Feared, Wrecked, and Found, by Martin W. Sandler

★★★★

Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction

"The exciting true story of the captaincy, wreck, and discovery of the Whydah the only pirate ship ever found and the incredible mysteries it revealed." (From Goodreads)

This was a fascinating read! It's technically children's nonfiction, but it didn't feel dumbed down or condescending at all and I really enjoyed it.

Paper TBR

Girls Made of Snow and Glass, by Melissa Bashardoust

★★★★

Genre: YA Fantasy

"Sixteen-year-old Mina is motherless, her magician father is vicious, and her silent heart has never beat with love for anyone—has never beat at all, in fact, but she’d always thought that fact normal. She never guessed that her father cut out her heart and replaced it with one of glass. When she moves to Whitespring Castle and sees its king for the first time, Mina forms a plan: win the king’s heart with her beauty, become queen, and finally know love. The only catch is that she’ll have to become a stepmother. Fifteen-year-old Lynet looks just like her late mother, and one day she discovers why: a magician created her out of snow in the dead queen’s image, at her father’s order. But despite being the dead queen made flesh, Lynet would rather be like her fierce and regal stepmother, Mina. She gets her wish when her father makes Lynet queen of the southern territories, displacing Mina. Now Mina is starting to look at Lynet with something like hatred, and Lynet must decide what to do—and who to be—to win back the only mother she’s ever known…or else defeat her once and for all. Entwining the stories of both Lynet and Mina in the past and present, Girls Made of Snow and Glass traces the relationship of two young women doomed to be rivals from the start. Only one can win all, while the other must lose everything—unless both can find a way to reshape themselves and their story." (From Goodreads)

This was a beautifully done retelling of Snow White. I loved the direction Melissa Bashardoust took with it, and the elements she chose to include. The themes were so strong, and the characters so well defined. That being said, something was missing for me in the writing itself, although I can't put my finger on exactly what.

The Dying Game, by Åsa Avdic

★★★★

Genre: Thriller

"A masterly locked-room mystery set in a near-future Orwellian state, in which seven people are brought to a remote island to compete in a 48-hour test for a top-secret intelligence position, and one woman must stage her own death." (From Goodreads)

Wow. This was pretty messed up, but a great read. Think of this as a mashup of Clue, And Then There Were None, a police procedural, an alternate history, and a psychological thriller. I'm gonna have to sit with how I feel about this book for a while.

Splintered, by A.G. Howard

★★★.5 stars

Genre: YA Fantasy

"Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now. When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own." (From Goodreads)

I did enjoy this, and it was wonderfully weird, as all Wonderland-inspired stories should be, but as soon as they actually got to Wonderland, I felt like there was too much backstory being revealed in clunky dialogue–and it just got worse the further into the story I got. For example: "'Your husband's sacrifice was for nought!' Ivory screams. 'Red's spirit was in the hairpin ... she's united with the girl ... they are one being!'" I'm not even kidding, that's a direct quote. I really liked the creative spin that A.G. Howard put on Lewis Carroll's familiar tale; I just felt like the exposition could have been handled in a more "show, don't tell" manner.

Reading Challenge Updates

Organized challenges I'm participating in:

2025 Cover Lovers Reading Challenge - 2 books

Fantasy/Sci-Fi Reading Challenge - 1 book

2025 New Release Challenge - 0 books

Personal challenges:

Books I Didn't Get to Last Year - 2 books

National Month - 1 book

Middle Grade - 0 books

Did you enjoy the books you read in July? How is your summer going? Let's chat in the comments!