Books Read in June and July 2026

 

I read a lot of good books in June and July. For various reasons I only read 3 books in June, and I was grateful that I was able to finish 6 books in July.  Since we are now in September, I can report that I did not even come close to finishing my list of books for the 20 Books of Summer event. In June, July, and August I read a total of 14 books. Two were not on my 20 Books list. So I am continuing to read books from that list through September and October, interspersed with other books.

Here are the nine books I read in June and July...

Fiction

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk (2017) by Kathleen Rooney

Lillian Boxfish is 85 years old and decides to take a long walk in New York City on New Year's Eve, 1984. That is very impressive to me, but for her it was easy because she always walks a lot. She meets a lot of different people along the way. The story of her life is told as she takes the walk, mostly through her thoughts. She loved her work in advertising and she was very successful, but there were some very sad stories about her life. Lillian reminded me of the protagonist of The Correspondent. She is outspoken, doesn't mince words, and is opinionated. But still a very likable protagonist. I liked that she did not conform to accepted norms and behaviors. Lillian is based on a real woman, poet and ad woman Margaret Fishback. I bought this book at the September book sale last year and I am so glad I did. 

Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop (2024) by Hwang Bo-Reum, Translated by Shanna Tan

This was another great read. It is about a South Korean woman who left her high-stress job and got a divorce and started a book store. One theme is how reading and books help people, but it also has a strong focus on the protagonist's goal to create a good bookshop that people will visit again and again. What I liked best were the philosophical thoughts on what people want out of life. The characters (employees and customers) are all ages and visit the store for many different reasons. My husband read this book and Every Day I Read by the same author, and liked them both. In Korea, this type of book is called "healing fiction." Without a doubt, I will read this book again.

Fiction, Classic

Middlemarch (1872) by George Eliot

I read this book for my 20 Books of Summer list. I had never been interested in reading Middlemarch until recently, but in the spring  of this year I got interested in the book and my husband owned a nice copy. I started reading it on June 4th and finished reading on July 4th, with a 10 day break somewhere in there. It was quite an experience.  My review is here.

Science Fiction

Floating Hotel (2024) by Grace Curtis

This is another science fiction novel my son read first, then loaned to me. I am a sucker for novels set in hotels, so I was eager to read it. It starts out as a simple story about a ship that functions as a luxury hotel, going from planet to planet, with guests and occasionally employees taking time to visit the planet below.  My review is here.

Crime Fiction

Murder on the Yellow Brick Road (1977) by Stuart M. Kaminsky

Stuart M. Kaminsky is one of my favorite authors. His Toby Peters mystery series is set primarily in Hollywood, California. Each book in the 24-book series is centered around a celebrity. Toby is a perpetually down-on-his-luck private eye; the books are humorous and clever. Murder on the Yellow Brick Road is set in 1940, and Judy Garland is one of the primary characters. My review is here.

The Father Hunt (1968) by Rex Stout

Rex Stout is my favorite author. This book is part of his Nero Wolfe series, and one of my favorite books in the series. Amy Denovo asks Archie to find out who her father was. Her mother had been killed a few months earlier in a hit and run incident. I liked Amy because she is a strong young working woman who knows what she wants. She is living with Lily Rowan because she is working on a book about Lily's father. I always like the books that feature Lily, a very good friend of Archie's. I read this book when I was on jury duty for two days in June. It was the only book on this post that was not on my 20 Books of Summer list.

A Graveyard for Lunatics (1990) by Ray Bradbury

This is the 2nd in a three-book mystery series. The first book, Death is a Lonely Business, is a homage to mystery writers such as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Ross Macdonald. A Graveyard for Lunatics seems to be based on Bradbury's experiences in Hollywood in the 1950s and 60s. Both books include bizarre happenings and strange, eccentric characters. The story in this book is so fantastical that it is hard to take seriously as a mystery. Yet, in the end I enjoyed the story and was very glad I read it. The magic of Ray Bradbury's writing turns it into a lovely story.  My review is here.

Glass Houses (2017) by Louise Penny

This is the 13th book in the Inspector Armand Gamache series. I have been really impressed by the last four books I read in the series, and this was no exception. I always feel like Penny's Inspector Gamache novels are too dark and serious while I am reading them, but at the end I always give them 5 stars. This one had a very complex plot. The story starts out with Inspector Armand Gamache on the witness stand testifying at a trial, and after that it goes back and forth between the trial and the events that preceded it. Sometimes that gets confusing, but it also created a lot of suspense.

The Sisters (1985) by Robert Littell

This is a weird and wacky story of two KGB agents from the USSR. One of the agents is a sleeper agent in the US. The "Sisters" of the title are two male CIA agents; they are partners and have planned an illegal scheme which is not revealed until the very end. The whole thing is very complex, but the joy is in the journey of reading it, and it is very humorous. It has been a long time since I had so much fun reading a spy story. 

About the photos:

At the top of the post is our cat London, who has been living with us over a year now. He has changed a lot from the cat who first came to live with us. Glen likes to say that London has flipped the maturity switch, although he sometimes switches back to an earlier version. And he has gained 2 pounds; he is now at 14 pounds.

The two photos below are of plants on our front walkway, which were planted in March of this year. The top photo is a cuphea, in a pot. They attract hummingbirds, and we have at least four pots of those in the front. The bottom photo shows a geranium (or pelargonium), which we were lucky to find with that coloration. All of the photos were taken by Glen. Click on the images for the best viewing quality. 

Middlemarch: George Eliot

I read Middlemarch by George Eliot for my 20 Books of Summer list. I had never been interested in reading Middlemarch until recently, but my husband was interested in the book and found a nice copy at the September book sale in 2022. Then in the spring  of this year I got interested in the book myself. I started reading it on June 4th and finished reading on July 4th. It was quite an experience.

A summary of Middlemarch at the publisher's website:

A triumph of realist fiction, George Eliot’s Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life explores a fictional nineteenth-century Midlands town in the midst of sweeping change. The proposed Reform Bill, the new railroads, and scientific advances are threatening upheaval on every front. Against this backdrop, the quiet drama of ordinary lives is played out by the novel’s complexly portrayed characters—until the arrival of two outsiders further disrupts the town’s equilibrium. Every bit as powerful and perceptive in our time as it was in the Victorian era, Middlemarch displays George Eliot’s clear-eyed yet humane understanding of characters caught up in the mysterious unfolding of self-knowledge. 

For me, this was a book about marriages. Some of them were happy and some of them were unhappy, but all of them had bumps along the road. The story begins with Dorothea Brooke's engagement to Mr. Casaubon. Dorothea is nineteen and Casaubon is in his fifties, a clergyman and a scholar. Later, Dr. Tertius Lydgate, who is new to Middlemarch, courts Rosemond Vincy, who has a very high opinion of herself and is used to spending money as she pleases. Both of these couples go into their marriage with very little knowledge of their future spouses. 

My focus on the relationships of these characters may be misleading, because their stories and the stories of many others in the book give us a picture of life in provincial England in the early 1830s, and the many changes that were going in the nation and the world at the time. 

My experience with reading Middlemarch

I usually try not to read reviews of a book before I begin reading it. I don't want to know any plot points in advance. However, in this case, that probably was not a good idea. Although I had read suggestions to take time to read the book, I really did not plan to spend that much time on it. Otherwise I would not have put it in on my 20 Books of Summer list.

Once I got started I got bogged down immediately. I would estimate that the first 200 pages were very hard for me to read; I was not enjoying the writing style or the characters. At times I wondered if I could finish the book. The next 300 pages improved and I started liking all the separate story threads, some of them intertwining. The last 300 pages were very good and I was motivated to read more each day.

My takeaway from all of this is that anyone reading this for the first time should plan to spend a good bit of time on the book. I personally would not make it a year-long read, but I should have read the book at a more leisurely pace. 

 

What did I like best about Middlemarch?

How the story is told:

The narration in this book really impressed me. The narrator often breaks off and seems to have a conversation with the reader about the characters and their behavior, or admonishing the reader to have sympathy for some of the most unsympathetic characters. The narrator sometimes slips from third-person narration to first-person narration, which can be jarring but it kept me paying attention to what was going on.

Good characterization: 

A few of the characters don't show up that much and thus are not fully developed characters. But the majority of the primary characters are fully fleshed out over the course of the book. Some of the characters I did not like at the beginning but I sympathized more and more with as the story progressed. 

Caleb Garth is only a supporting character but he was one of my favorite characters. He is a land agent and surveyor, and he has integrity in his work and personal relations. 

I learned a lot:

The 1830s were an interesting time and I knew very little about that time. There was a section in the book about the railroads (and how their arrival could affect the area around Middlemarch) and I admit that I did not understand it at all. And that makes me want to learn more on the subject.  

It has an excellent ending:

Not every reader of Middlemarch would agree with that, I am sure.  But for me the last 100 pages had me on tenterhooks. The ending was very emotional for me.  

In conclusion, although my first experience with Middlemarch was not all pleasant, I plan to reread the book; I would like to reread it again in 2027, but before that I plan to read My Life With Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead, where she discusses her experiences with reading Middlemarch over the years. 

I read my husband's copy of Middlemarch. It is a Zodiac Press edition, first published in 1950. His copy was the 6th Impression, reissued in 1982. It is a hardback edition featuring a distinctive geometric patterned cover. The print size is not as large as I would like but I did not have a hard time reading it. The number of pages was around 790.

George Eliot was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans. She wrote seven novels between 1859 and 1876. Per Goodreads, "her works are known for their realism, psychological insight, sense of place and detailed depiction of the countryside." I have not read any other books by her.

Floating Hotel: Grace Curtis

Summary from the back of the book:

Welcome to the Grand Abeona Hotel: home of the finest food, the sweetest service, and the very best views the galaxy has to offer. All year round it moves from planet to planet, system to system, pampering guests across the furthest reaches of the milky way. The last word in sub-orbital luxury—and an absolute magnet for intrigue. Intrigues such as: Why are there love poems in the lobby inbox? How many Imperial spies are currently on board? What is the true purpose of the Problem Solver's conference? And perhaps most pertinently—who is driving the ship?

This is another science fiction novel my son read first, then loaned to me. I am a sucker for novels set in hotels, so I was eager to read it. It starts out as a simple story about a ship that functions as a luxury hotel, going from planet to planet, with guests and occasionally employees taking time to visit the planet below. Eventually more and more facts about the ship and its visitors reveal that it may be much more than it seems to be. There is definitely a mystery at the core of the story, and there are even elements of espionage. 

Most of the chapters focus on a single character or in some cases a couple or a group of characters. The first chapter is about Carl, the manager of the hotel, who first boarded the ship as a stowaway at the age of twelve. There were a lot of characters, which can get confusing. I loved the way the story is gradually revealed, although even at the end I was still trying to figure out parts of it.

The  story is described as cozy science fiction, but initially I disagreed with that categorization. Not cozy at all. There is humor, but the story is serious, and a bit too much violence and villainy to be called cozy. 

I enjoyed this story; for me, it was a good read, and I rated it 5 stars. It had a lot of intrigue, and only 324 pages. I could easily read it again. First I will find some of Grace Curtis's other books to read.

Regarding the designation of this book as "cozy," I found an article at The Herrick District Library website titled "Cozy Sci-Fi: The Subgenre You Never Knew You Needed." In addition to explaining about this subgenre, it pointed to two series that fit that definition: The Wayfarers Series by Becky Chambers and The Murderbot Series by Martha Wells. That seemed reasonable to me, since I had read books from both series. 

Signing up for 20 Books of Summer 2026

This is my eleventh year of participating in the 20 Books of Summer reading challenge. The event was originally hosted by Cathy at 746Books. This year, Annabel from AnnaBookbel is hosting the event.

The challenge is very flexible. You don't have to aim for the full 20 books; instead, you can opt for 15 or 10. 

Here are some of the rules...

• The #20BooksofSummer2026 challenge runs from Monday June 1st to Monday August 31st
• The first rule of 20 Books is that there are no real rules, other than signing up for 10, 15 or 20 books and trying to read from your TBR.
• You can pick your list in advance, or nominate a bookcase to read from, or pick at whim from your TBR.

For more information and the place to sign up, check out this post at AnnaBookBel. There is also a book bingo card if that appeals to you.

I love to make lists of books to read, so I would start with a list whether I plan to stick with it or not. However, I do plan to stick with my list, and here it is, in no particular order.

The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and his Mother) by Rabih Alameddine. Won the National Book Award for Fiction (2025).

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz. Mystery. 2018. 2nd book in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series.

Mortmain Hall by Martin Edwards. Mystery. 2019. 2nd book in the Rachel Savernake series. 

The Customer is Always Wrong by Mimi Pond. Graphic Novel. 2017.

Wednesday's Child by Yiyun Li. Short Stories. 2023.

Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li. Won the Pulitzer Prize for Memoir or Autobiography 2025.

Count Them One by One: Black Mississippians Fighting for the Right to Vote by Gordon A. Martin, Jr. Nonfiction. 2010.

Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum, translated by Shanna Tan. Fiction. 2022.

Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis. Cozy Science Fiction novel, 2024. Read and recommended by my son.

Middlemarch by George Eliot. Classic novel. 1872.

Find a Victim by Ross Macdonald. Mystery. 1954. Book 5 in the Lew Archer series.

The Birds and the Beasts Were There by Margaret Millar. Nonfiction, Nature, Memoir. 1971.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Classic Novel. 1847.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Classic Novel. 1818.

Murder on the Yellow Brick Road by Stuart Kaminsky. Mystery. 1971. Book 2 in the Toby Peters series

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Katherine Rooney. Historical Fiction. 2017. 

The Sisters by Robert Littell. Spy Fiction. 1985.

A Graveyard for Lunatics by Ray Bradbury. Mystery. 1990. Book 2 in the Crumley Mysteries series.

Glass Houses by Louise Penny. Mystery. 2017. Book 13 in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. Set in Canada.

Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper. Mystery. 2015. Set in Canada.

Bleeders by Bill Pronzini. Mystery. 2001. Book 27 in the Nameless series.

Trophies and Dead Things by Marcia Muller. Mystery. 1990. Book 10 in the Sharon McCone series.

The Cyclist by Tim Sullivan. Mystery. 2020. Book 2 in the DS George Cross series.

#HYH25: Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

I read this book for Neeru's Hundred Years Hence challenge. The goal is to read one or more books that were published for the first time in 1925.  The challenge runs until the end of 2025.

Reading Mrs. Dalloway was a good experience for me. It was the first book I had read by Virginia Woolf, plus I had never read anything written in stream of consciousness style. It did take me a good while to adjust to that style of telling a story, and it got even more confusing when the story moves from Mrs. Dalloway's thoughts to various other people's ruminations.

The story is basically a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway. As she goes through her day she muses about her past and her future: her daughter; her daughter's friend, who she doesn't like; and her own relationships with men over the years. She is probably thinking about the men in her life because an old boyfriend will be visiting her soon. He has been out of the country (in India) and they haven't seen each other for a long time. 

The old boyfriend is Peter Walsh, and he still has feelings for Clarissa. Peter Walsh musings as he visits London and Clarissa are second focus of the book. There is another couple whose thoughts are shared in the book, although they have no real connection to Mrs. Dalloway other than proximity to her when she goes out on her morning walk, to pick up flowers for the party she will be giving in the evening. That couple, Septimus and Lucrezia Smith, have an interesting story and it is kind of a downer.

The edition I read had a Foreward by Jenny Offill and an Introduction by Elaine Showalter.

My Thoughts:

This book is just filled with lovely quotes, sad quotes, quotes to think about. But I had a difficult time reading it. So many characters are touched on that I got lost at times. Since it is told in stream of consciousness style, this makes perfect sense, but it still did not make for a pleasant read. There were many pages and sections that I had to reread to make any sense of. 

The story has a lot of depth to it. It is about a middle-aged woman, doubting herself as she gets older and her daughter nears adulthood. It takes place on one day in June in 1923, so the reader sees a picture of life 100 plus years ago, in London, written by someone living at that time. The story of Septimus and Lucrezia Smith involves the husband's mental illness due to his experiences in the Great War. 

One thing I noted while reading this novel and even more so afterward is how much difference it might make whether you read this novel for the first time when you are a teen, or thirty, or fifty, or like me, in your seventies. Jenny Offill expanded on this idea in her Foreword (although I recommend not reading the Foreword until after you have read the book for the first time).

Since I am not familiar with Virginia Woolf's novels and stories, I did not realize that the character of Mrs. Dalloway shows up in other writings by her. She appears in Woolf's first novel, The Voyage Out, and in at least one short story, "Mrs. Dalloway of Bond Street." That makes me want to read more by Virginia Woolf (recommendations are welcome). 

I do hope to reread this book sometime to see what more I can get out of it on a second reading, when I am not distracted by the unusual structure.

Pesticide: Kim Hays

This summary is from Kim Hays' website:

In Pesticide, a street party in Bern morphs into a brutal riot. Hours later, with the medieval downtown a shambles, a young man is found beaten to death with a policeman’s club. That same day, twenty miles away, an organic farmer turns up on his land, dead and drenched in pesticide. Swiss homicide detective Giuliana Linder and her younger colleague Renzo Donatelli start out on two separate cases, but it doesn’t take long before they find links between their victims. Working together on what has become a single, puzzling case, the two can no longer ignore their attraction to each other.

 

Pesticide is the first book in the Linder and Donatelli series. When reading mysteries, I have a preference for police procedurals because they are more believable. Detective Giuliana Linder is an experienced homicide detective; she has worked with Investigator Renzo Donatelli before but this time they start out on different cases in very different locations. It is assumed that the death of the young man in Bern is drug-related, but soon officials realize that the elderly man who owns and works on an organic farm outside of Bern had business dealings with the younger victim and decide to combine the cases.

My thoughts

I like to read police procedurals set in countries other than the US, because I like to learn about how the various legal and law enforcement departments work in each country. The author of this book does a great job of showing all the different types of people working on the case, and in this novel, we get to see two groups of investigators coming together to solve two related cases. Although a lot of the focus was on the procedure of solving a crime, the pacing was good and the story never dragged.

Getting a peak at organic farming in this story is fascinating. I learned a lot about the mechanics of farming and the rules of organic farming. The story divides its time between the police in Bern and the community in the outlying rural area, where one of the crimes occurred.

I liked the characters in this story, both the main characters and secondary characters. The ending was very good; the  mystery was tied up well and realistically. I will definitely be reading the next book in the series.

For more details on the plot, please see Kevin Tipple's excellent review at Kevin's Corner.

Kim Hays has dual Swiss/American citizenship, and has lived in Bern with her husband for 37 years. She has a very nice website with information about Bern and Switzerland, in addition to descriptions of her books.

Books Read in July 2025

 

Another month where every book was a very good read. I finished seven books in July. Two were short story books; that is unusual. Four were crime fiction, including one espionage thriller. And one science fiction story in a military setting. At the end of July I had only read 12 books for my 20 Books of Summer list. It is now mid-August (unbelievable!) and I have only read two more. So I don't think I will finish all 20 books for the challenge. We'll see.

Fiction

Five Tuesdays in Winter (2021) by Lily King

I started this book of short stories in December 2024. I read the first four stories and I liked them all; you can check out my thoughts on those stories here. In July, I read the remaining six stories in the book. Many of those stories are slice-of-life stories. I especially liked the characterizations; the stories were serious but ended on an upbeat note. Check here for my thoughts on the last six stories.

Olive, Again (2019) by Elizabeth Strout

Olive, Again is the follow-up book to Olive Kitteridge.  It is a very good book but not an easy read. Olive is in her seventies in this book. She is widowed and has a tenuous, troubled relationship with her son and his family. This is described as a novel composed of interrelated short stories. Only seven of the thirteen stories are directly about Olive and her life in Crosby, Maine. The other stories take place in the same area or nearby but Olive is not the main focus. See my thoughts here.

Science Fiction

Ninefox Gambit (2016) by Yoon Ha Lee

Ninefox Gambit is a military science fiction/science fantasy/space opera novel. I did not know a lot about the book going in, although I assumed it was a space opera because of the cover illustration. The world building was very complex and confusing for me, but the writing was very good and pulled me into the story. I loved the ending. See my thoughts here.

Crime Fiction

At Bertram's Hotel (1965) by Agatha Christie

This is a Miss Marple mystery with a huge cast; the plot can be confusing, but it is an entertaining story set at a lovely hotel. Chief Inspector Fred Davy is a Scotland Yard detective who does most of the detecting. See my thoughts here.

The Amateur (1981) by Robert Littell

Charlie Heller is a cryptographer for the CIA. When his fiancée, Sarah Diamond, is murdered by terrorists at the American Embassy in West Germany, the CIA decides not to pursue her killers. Heller is determined to find them and kill them himself. So this is a revenge thriller. Heller has none of the necessary skills, but he forces the CIA to train him. Nothing in this book is predictable; the story was compelling and I enjoyed it very much.

The novel has an interesting history; the story was first written by Littell as a screenplay, and was made into a Canadian film released in 1981. Shortly after that, the novel was written based on the screenplay. Recently another film adaptation was released starring Ramie Malek.

The Murder of Mr. Ma (2024) by John Shen Yen Nee and S.J. Rozan

Reading this book was a no-brainer for me. I will try anything written by S.J. Rozan. I was a bit uncertain about a book that she co-authored but still, it seemed like a safe bet. 

The two protagonists of the book are fictionalized versions of Judge Dee Ren Zie and Lao She, a Chinese academic and author. I have never read any of Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee mysteries, but my husband has. The story focuses on their investigation into the deaths of Chinese immigrants in 1924 London.

I was very happy with this book. It felt like an adventure story as much as a mystery, and was a lot of fun to read. John Shen Yen Nee and S.J. Rozan have come together in a great writing partnership and you can read about that at CrimeReads and Mystery Fanfare. The second book in the series is already out and I will be reading it.

A Death in Tokyo (2011) by Keigo Higashino, translated by Giles Murray

This is the third book in the Tokyo Police Detective Kaga series to be translated to English from Japanese. I have read the two previous books that are available in English, and they all work well as standalones. Detective Kaga is not part of the homicide division, but he often works with the homicide detectives when the case in in his district. He works in an intuitive way, and follows up painstakingly on every detail. In this case a prominent business man has been murdered; he is found at the base of a statue on a bridge, but that is not where the murder took place. His wife and two teenage children don't know why he was in that area of town. It is a very complex case, and has an interesting and complex resolution. 

The photos at the top and bottom of this post were taken by my husband at the garden center during our last visit. We enjoy both buying plants and supplies and viewing the variety of plants and pots and decorations on display. Click on the images for best viewing quality.

At Bertram's Hotel: Agatha Christie

 

Description at Goodreads:

Miss Jane Marple has checked into Bertram's Hotel in London for a much-needed vacation. The last thing she expects is that this elegant establishment, known for its service and old-world charm, could be embroiled in scandal. But after a series of strange events—including the disappearance of a fellow guest, the arrival of a notorious celebrity bad boy, and finally, a shocking murder—she finds herself drawn into a multifaceted mystery.

This portion of the description at Goodreads is an accurate description, but later there is an implication that Miss Marple gets involved in the investigation, which is not accurate. Miss Marple observes useful pieces of information, and along the way she does reveal her thoughts to the reader on many of the events. The real investigator in this mystery is Chief Inspector Fred Davy, who has noted the connection of many of the guests at the hotel to various crimes in the area, and the story works more as a police procedural than is usual in a Miss Marple novel. All of that worked very well for me and I had no complaint. Fred Davy was a great character.

There are a lot of coincidences in this story; for example, Miss Marple runs into various guests at the hotel in the city of London who seem to be in questionable relationships. 

At Bertram's Hotel is a later book in the Miss Marple series and it didn't measure up to other books in that series for me. However, it was a fun read, with some humor.  I like books set in hotels and Bertram's Hotel was lovely. There were several interesting characters, so overall I liked it and I plan to finish the series. 

Short Story Wednesday: Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout is the follow-up book to Olive Kitteridge.  It is a very good book but not an easy read. Olive is in her seventies in this book. She is widowed and has a tenuous, troubled relationship with her son and his family.

This is described as a novel composed of interrelated short stories. I would quibble about considering this a novel, since only  seven of the thirteen stories are directly about Olive and her life in Crosby, Maine. The other stories take place in the same area or nearby but Olive is not the main focus. I am going to briefly summarize some of the stories, but there are several of them I don't want to discuss because it could impact the reading experience.

The first story, "Arrested," focuses on Jack Kennison, a man near Olive's age that she met near the end of the previous book. He is a widower and has been estranged from his daughter for many years because she is a lesbian. He drives to Portland, and on the way back to Crosby, he is stopped by the police for speeding.

In "Labor," Olive attends a baby shower and ends up delivering a baby when one of the pregnant guests goes into labor. Two days later, she calls Jack Kennison and they meet again after she had been avoiding him for a while.

"Cleaning," the third story, focuses on a 14-year-old girl who makes money cleaning houses. This is a complicated story. Kayley regularly visits an older woman at a nursing home. The only connection to Olive in this story is that Olive also visits a friend at the nursing home and she has a supportive conversation with Kayley, who is the younger sister of some of Olive's students when she was teaching. 

Next is "Motherless Child," and it is an important story. Olive is the focus; she has invited her son Christopher and his wife and four children to visit her in Crosby. She has not seen them in several years, and she is not prepared to host four young children, but they all muddle through. In this story and others in the book, Olive realizes that over the years, she failed both her son, Christopher, and her first husband, Henry, in many ways. Patricia Abbott reviewed this story at her blog.

In "Helped," the main character is Suzanne Larkin, who returns to Crosby to handle business details when her father dies in a fire in his home. An excellent and moving story. Olive shows up in this story only peripherally.

Cindy Coombs, a former student of Olive's, is the center of the sixth story, "Light." She has cancer and Olive takes the time to help her out at the grocery store when she has problems, and later visits her at home.

"Exiles" is a story about Jim and Bob Burgess; Jim lives in New York and he and his wife visit Bob and Margaret, who live in Crosby, Maine. I enjoyed this one a lot, but it does have what I consider a major spoiler for Strout's book The Burgess Boys.

Although I have liked all of the books I have read by Elizabeth Strout, I found Olive Kitteridge to be the most challenging. All of the stories in that book were depressing, and I could not read more than one story a day. Olive, Again was different. I was prepared for the tone of the stories and the issues addressed showed the changes in Olive. Although many of the stories were very serious and sometime sad, I enjoyed the read much more. 

Ninefox Gambit: Yoon Ha Lee

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee is the first book in the Machineries of Empire trilogy. This is the summary of the book at the author's website:

Kel Cheris, a disgraced captain of the hexarchate, is given the opportunity to redeem herself by recapturing the formidable Fortress of Scattered Needles from heretics. Cheris requests—and receives—a single devastating weapon to aid her in her task: the revived, near-immortal traitor, General Shuos Jedao. Feared throughout the stars and undefeated in battle, he is the perfect weapon. But Jedao is gripped by a madness that saw him massacre two armies in his first life—one of them his own. Preserved for his brilliance and tamed by his handlers, no one knows how long his good behaviour will last. Cheris must work with the mass murderer to destroy the heresy and save the hexarchate—before he destroys her…

A tale of math, madness, and massacres in outer space.

My Thoughts:

This is a science fiction book and specifically a military space opera. In many ways, it feels as much like fantasy as science fiction. Here the reader is dropped into a universe where the scientific laws that govern the universe are based on a "calendrical" mathematics system that seems more like magic. There are groups of heretics who refuse to follow the accepted mathematics systems. However, there is no attempt to explain all of this to the reader. For at least the first third of this book I had no idea what was going on.

On top of that, there were no characters that I cared about or could invest in. 

At the point that I was about to give up on the book, I read a review that called this book "brain-breaking" but also said to just hang in there and it would be worth it. That reviewer was right and it was worth reading. I finally caught onto the general idea of what was going on, and was hoping that the author was going to give me a satisfactory ending. And I did get it. I was invested in the two main characters; the ending was amazing. That is good, because I already have a copy of the second book in this series, Raven Strategy. 

So, if you like science fiction, you might want to try this series, or at least read a few reviews of the book to get other opinions.

Additional notes:

I have read military science fiction before; John Scalzi's Old Man's War series is an example. But those stories are remarkably easy to read compared to this one. 

Apparently there are a lot of science fiction books / series that start out like this series, throwing the reader into an imaginary setting with little explanation. Readers are divided on whether they like that or not. And now I can think of mystery novels (with sort of a science fiction or fantasy flavor) that are this way too. For example, The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton.

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Publisher:   Solaris Books, 2016
Length:      384 pages
Format:      Trade paperback
Series:       Machineries of Empire, #1
Setting:      Outer Space
Genre:       Science Fiction 
Source:      On my TBR since 2020.

Books Read in June 2025

 

I read six books in June, and all of them were from my 20 Books of Summer list. I liked all the books; four of them were upbeat and fun; two of them were more serious and somewhat depressing.

Fiction 

Table for Two (2024) by Amor Towles

This is a short story collection. There are six stories plus one 220 page novella. The short stories are all set in New York City. See my post on some of the short stories here.

In the novella, "Eve in Hollywood," Towles returns to a character in his first novel, Rules of Civility. I did read that book, but I don't think you need to have read it to enjoy the story. "Eve in Hollywood" is set in the Golden Age of Hollywood, and it features Olivia de Havilland as a character. I enjoyed the novella very much.

The Burgess Boys (2013) by Elizabeth Strout

I have read four books by Elizabeth Strout, and I have rated all very highly, but they are always difficult reads, with hard to like characters and family difficulties. This one is my favorite so far. My review here.

Fantasy / Time Travel

Oona Out of Order (2020) by Margarita Montidore

I read this book because I like time travel books and this one was on a list of "time loop" novels (the film Groundhog Day is a good example of a time loop). In this book, Oona jumps from one year to another year in her life, randomly. I liked it. I have been thinking about it off and on since I read it. But it can be frustrating. My review here.

Crime Fiction

Death by Accident (1998) by Bill Crider

This book was my first read for 20 Books of Summer. The Sheriff Dan Rhodes series by Bill Crider is set in a small town in Blacklin County, a fictional county in Texas. It is a cozy series; Sheriff Rhodes solves crime mostly with his intuition and avoids computers where possible. Death by Accident is the 9th book in the series. See my review.

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone (2022) by Benjamin Stevenson

This story takes place at a remote ski resort in Australia, where Ern Cunningham's family is having a family reunion. They are coming together because Ern's brother is getting out of prison, after having killed a man. Family relationships are strained. Shortly after the majority of the family arrives, a man's frozen body is found near the resort,  and the weather begins to get very bad, threatening to snow in all the guests.

This is a very unusual mystery. Ern Cunningham, who is narrating the story, writes books about how to write mysteries. The books starts with a list of classic rules for mysteries as published by Ronald Knox in 1929. So it is a traditional fair play mystery, but of course there is lots of misdirection in the clues, and for the most part the author kept me fooled for most of the book. I enjoyed the book, although I sometimes got frustrated with the repetition of the "rules." I liked it enough so that I will read the next one to see how it goes.

A Death in Summer (2011) by Benjamin Black

This is the fourth book in the Quirke series written by John Banville, under the name Benjamin Black. Quirke is a pathologist in Dublin, Ireland in the 1950s. He often is called in to examine dead bodies before they are moved, and to perform autopsies. Inspector Hackett will sometimes seek his advice on crimes, when he thinks the case is tricky. I like the slow pace of the writing and the emphasis on the characters as much or more than the crime investigation. I like the continuing characters. This one was about a sordid subject, and depressing. Yet I will persist and read more of them. 

The photos at the top and bottom of this post are recent pictures of plants in our back yard patio area. The top photo is of a cuphea plant (on the left) and a blue sage plant that are hummingbird attractors. They have been doing a good job of attracting hummingbirds and bees.

The two photos below are closer shots of blue sage plants. We have two other pots of those plants in the back. I love the little buds on the blue sage. Click on the images for best viewing quality.

Oona Out of Order: Margarita Montimore

This story starts on New Year's Eve 1982; at the stroke of midnight, Oona will turn 19. She expects to be making a decision about whether to go to school in London the next year or stay in Brooklyn and tour for a year with the band she and her boyfriend are in. But when midnight comes, Oona is jerked out of her current situation. She awakens in a lovely house, in her 51st year. She is appalled to see how old she is, and that she is overweight. 

Oona is living one year of her life at a time, but out of order (hence the title). She has awakened in 2015. Fortunately, there is a man waiting there for her to explain the situation, and she is living in a gorgeous home. The man is Kenzie and he introduces himself as her personal assistant and friend. She freaks out and he does his best to calm her down. 

After that, every year at midnight on New Year's Eve, the same thing happens; Oona either jumps ahead to a future year or goes back to an earlier year that she has not experienced before.  It makes poor Oona very cranky to be jerked off to a different year in her life every New Year's Eve.

This is a time travel book, but there is no explanation of why this phenomenon is happening to her, thus it is more fantasy than science fiction. I enjoyed this a lot while I was reading it; I gave it five stars, and I still think it deserves that rating, but I am pretty generous with my ratings. So as far as entertainment value goes, it did very well. 

Family is a recurring theme in this book. Of course, I loved that part of it. Most of the time I liked Oona's mother Madeleine and Kenzie better than I liked the lead character. Oona is often bratty and immature. She may look older at times but she hasn't had that many years of actual living to mature. 

I was frustrated that not that many years in Oona's life are covered. In a way, each year was approached as if it was a short story and you are getting a glimpse of her life. But because she has no memory of any year that she leaves behind... the reader sometimes knows more that she does. 

In summary, I liked the premise of this book and it was fun and the writing was well done. As with many time travel books, I was confused at times. It was 340 pages long and it was the rare book that I wish was much longer.

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Publisher:  Flatiron Books, 2020.
Length:      336 pages
Format:     Trade Paper
Setting:      New York City
Genre:       Fantasy / Time Travel
Source:     I purchased my copy in 2024.

The Burgess Boys: Elizabeth Strout

In a short prologue, the Burgess family is introduced, focusing mainly on the two boys, Jim and Bob. They both have legal careers and left their home town of Shirley Falls, Maine, to pursue their careers. Bob has always been the lesser brother, the one who plods along but did not succeed spectacularly like his older brother. But he also is the one who every one likes, who is nice and kind and thinks well of people.

Then an incident happens in Shirley Falls, Maine, where Susan, their sister, still lives. Susan's nineteen-year-old son, Zach, commits a crime and the Burgess boys feel like they have to go back to their home town to help her. Jim is going on a vacation with his wife and another couple and he drafts Bob to go and help. But Bob doesn't handle the situation very well and Jim is bent out of shape.

I like books about families and this is a very unusual family. There is a tragedy in their past which has affected all of the relationships in the family. The children's father was killed when they were all under ten years of age; although he was only four years old at the time, Bob was blamed for his father's death and it has affected his self-image, to put it mildly. The dynamics within the family are strange. Jim, the older brother, is needlessly cruel to his brother, taunting him mercilessly. Most of the time this just rolls off of Bob. Susan is Bob's twin, but she is also often disparaging of Bob and his abilities. 

The rest of the story is about how Zack's problems are handled, and the effects these events have on all of their lives.

My thoughts:

• I liked how parts of the story are told from the point of view of characters outside the main family:  Abdikarim Ahmed, a member of the Somali community in Shirley Falls, who testifies against Zack at his hearing; Bob's ex-wife, Pam, who left him because they could not have children;  and Helen Burgess, Jim's wife, who is having problems with an empty nest after her children leave home.
• The majority of the characters in this book are unlikable, but I continued to be interested in reading about all of them. This was partly due to the author's writing style, but also because I was sure that I was going to learn more about them and be able to figure out why they were so disagreeable or unappealing. 
• Coincidentally, the two fiction books I read prior to this one were kind of downers, and this one continued that trend. Unexpectedly, this book probably had a more optimistic outcome towards the end than those books. And certainly this one was more upbeat than the other books by Strout I have read (Olive Kitteridge, My Name is Lucy Barton, and Anything is Possible). 
• This was a compelling read but not an easy read. My description above leaves so much out. That is intentional, so as not to spoil the reading experience. The novel is very rich with important themes and topics.

John Grant wrote a very detailed review of this book in 2019, which can be read either at his blog, Noirish, or on Goodreads.

Death by Accident: Bill Crider

The Sheriff Dan Rhodes series by Bill Crider is set in a small town in Blacklin County, a fictional county in Texas. It is a cozy series; Sheriff Rhodes solves crime mostly with his intuition and avoids computers where possible. He and his second wife are in their fifties. He loves Dr. Pepper in glass bottles and junk food for lunch, which his wife disapproves of. Death by Accident was published in 1998.

Two men die mysteriously in or near Clearview, Texas – one explodes, and the other is found drowned in a swimming pool. Sheriff Dan Rhodes cannot prove that those occurrences are not accidents, but he can feel it in his bones. He quietly investigates this theory, talking to people who knew those who died. Not long after these deaths, a third man is killed in a hit and run. A hit and run is a crime, but the death could have been an accident. Nevertheless, three unexplained deaths in such a short time convinces Rhodes that he is on the right track.

Often these books have a subplot going on. In Death by Accident, there are issues related to the competition between two historical societies in Clearview – the Clearview Sons and Daughters of Texas and the Clearview Historical Society. The Sons and Daughters group maintains the site where the swimming pool-related death took place. The other group wants to physically remove a historic building from that site. Sheriff Rhodes doesn't really think that anyone in those two groups is plotting murder, but there is a lot of mayhem and subterfuge going on. Because Rhodes has only a small staff, all of this keeps him busy. Along the way in this story Rhodes adds a new dog to the family and acquires an Edsel that needs to be refurbished.

I only have 16 books to go to finish this series. The last book in the series was published in 2019, so I imagine that Rhodes has to start using computers sometime along the way. We'll see. But I continue to enjoy police procedurals and other mysteries that were written at a time when technology was not so prevalent. And Dan Rhodes is one of my favorite fictional sheriffs.

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Publisher:   St. Martin's Press, 1998
Length:      277 pages
Format:      Hardcover
Series:       Sheriff Dan Rhodes, #9
Setting:      Texas
Genre:        Police Procedural
Source:      I purchased my copy.

Dust jacket painting by Alan Dingman.

A Summer Challenge: 20 Books of Summer 2025

It's almost time for 20 Books of Summer. This is my tenth year of participating in this reading challenge. The event was previously hosted by Cathy at 746 Books. When she decided to stop hosting last year, Annabel from AnnaBookbel and Emma from Words and Peace took up the mantle.

The challenge is very flexible. You don't have to aim for 20 book but can also opt for 15 or 10. Here are some of the rules...

• The #20BooksofSummer2025 challenge runs from Sunday June 1st to Sunday August 31st
• The first rule of 20 Books is that there are no real rules, other than signing up for 10, 15 or 20 books and trying to read from your TBR.
• Pick your list in advance, or nominate a bookcase to read from, or pick at whim from your TBR.

For more information and the place to sign up, check out this post at AnnaBookBel. There is also a book bingo card, which is new.

I love to make lists of books to read, so I would start with a list whether I plan to stick with it or not. However, I do plan to stick with my list, and here it is...

At Bertram's Hotel | Agatha Christie   (mystery)

The '44 Vintage | Anthony Price   (spy fiction)

State of Wonder | Ann Patchett    (fiction)

Before Your Memory Fades | Toshikazu Kawaguchi   (fantasy / time travel)

The Burgess Boys | Elizabeth Strout   (fiction)

Olive Again | Elizabeth Strout   (fiction)

Table for Two | Amor Towles    (short stories)

The Murder of Mr. Ma | John Shen Yen Nee and S.J. Rozan   (mystery)

A Death in Tokyo | Keigo Higashino   (mystery)

A Death in Summer | Benjamin Black   (mystery)

Death by Accident | Bill Crider   (mystery) 

The Amateur | Robert Littell   (spy fiction)

The Killing of the Tinkers | Ken Bruen    (mystery)

Mrs. Dalloway | Virginia Woolf    (classic, fiction)

Oona Out of Order | Margarita Montimore   (time-loop fiction)

Pesticide | Kim Hayes   (mystery)

The Day the World Came to Town | Jim DeFede (nonfiction)

Perplexing Plots | David Bordwell   (nonfiction)

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone | Benjamin Stevenson   (mystery)

Ninefox Gambit | Yoon Ha Lee   (science fiction)