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. 

Books Read in May 2026

 

I read nine books in May, more than I expected to, but it is a good thing, because with only 3 days left in June, I have only read three books. Plus I thought all of the books read in May were very good reads.

Graphic novel, Nonfiction

My Cat is Such a Weirdo, Vol. 1 (2023) by Tamako Tamagoyama (Writer and Artist)

This is the first in a manga series about cats. In this case the stories are true, based on the author's blog, and the emphasis on the weird behavior of the author's cats. We thought our latest cat was pretty crazy, in comparison to previous cats we had owned, but really some of his weirdness could be due to his age, about 4 years old, acting much like a teenager. One chapter in the manga was about the cats her parents had, and that one was especially good.

Fiction

Dept. of Speculation (2014) by Jenny Offill

This is the story of a marriage in vignettes. It is novella length, in 46 short chapters. The man and woman are not young when they marry and they suffer through some trials and tribulations. They have a child; the wife is not prepared for how much she loves their daughter. The wife tells the story, and when she talks about herself, she calls herself "the wife." The descriptions of her daughter as she grows up are lovely. I had some problems with the style; too fragmented I think. But I look back and think about how much it affected me, and that I liked it very much.

Nosy Neighbors (2024) by Freya Sampson

This was the first book I read in May, and I could not remember why I had purchased it. I like books with elderly protagonists and it is a mystery of sorts. In the end, I liked it very much, so it is good that I did read it. Nine residents live in a beautiful old Victorian apartment building that has not been kept up. There are young tenants, elderly tenants, and others in between. They soon learn that they will be evicted and their home will be torn down. Many of the tenants do not get along, but when faced with eviction they band together to fight against it. That is a very pared down version of the story and there is much more depth to it. 

Science Fiction

The City in the Middle of the Night (2019) by Charlie Jane Anders

The focus of this book was climate fiction; the setting is a colonized planet, where half of the planet is perpetually cold and in the dark, and the other half is always in the light and hot. It wasn't perfect but I found a lot to like. My review is here.

Crime Fiction

The Ivy Tree (1961) by Mary Stewart

Mary Stewart was an author well-known for her romantic mystery novels and her Merlin series. The Ivy Tree is an impersonation novel, and doesn't have much romance in it. A beautiful young woman who is visiting England from Canada is convinced by a man she meets while traveling to pose as a missing heiress in a scheme to get the inheritance. I liked it very much. See my review here.

Three for the Chair (1957) by Rex Stout

This is one of the Nero Wolfe books that consists of three novellas. Back in 2025, I read and reviewed "Immune to Murder," the second story in this book. In May of this year, I read and reviewed the other two novellas in Three for the Chair. They were all excellent stories.

An Ordinary Decent Criminal (2005) by Michael Van Rooy

I will say first that I enjoyed reading this book and could hardly put it down. But, in some ways it was the most shocking, violent mystery I have read in a long time. The protagonist is an ex-con who has turned his life around and has a wife and a young son. But many people will not give him a chance to prove that he has changed. The first two chapters were so violent I nearly quit reading it. I am glad I stuck it out to the end. Bill Selnes at Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan wrote a very good review of this book.

People Who Walk in Darkness (2008) by Stuart Kaminsky

This was the 15th book in the Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov mystery series and every bit as good as all the prior ones in the series. Rostnikov is the head of a team of investigators in the Office of Special Investigations in Moscow. His boss is Igor Yakovev, formerly of the KGB. In this book the Inspector is sent to Siberia to investigate the death of a Canadian man, who was killed while inspecting a diamond mine. Others on his team are sent to Kiev related to the same case. It was wonderful to get back to all the characters I had loved in previous books in the series. Sadly, the next book in the series was the last book, and after that one, I will have no more of them to read. On the other hand, Kaminsky wrote three other series and I can read more books in those series.

The Man Who Died Seven Times (1998) by Yasuhiko Nishizawa

This is a cross-genre novel. I see it primarily as in the mystery genre because the main theme is solving a murder, but the protagonist is stuck in a time loop so that firmly places it in the time travel genre. There are many versions of time loop novels, and this one is different than any of the ones I have read. It is far from perfect, but I liked it so well that I would read others by him if they were translated to English.

About The Photos

At the top of the post is our wonderful cat, London. The photo was taken at the end of May; London had been with us about ten months then and he is close to four years old. His personality is very different from either of our two previous cats and he is huge; I can barely pick him up.

The other two photos were taken at the Rose Garden across from the Santa Barbara Mission. One was taken in June 2020 when most places were still closed down due to Covid. The other was taken in June 2021 when places were beginning to reopen after Covid. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.

Books Read in April 2026

Basically in April I read four mystery novels and one graphic novel. So, not a lot of variety. But I enjoyed all the books, and that is what matters. Two of the mysteries were in the spy fiction genre, plus Death in a Darkening Mist, a historical novel set in Canada immediately after World War II ended, bordered on spy fiction. 

Here are the five books I read in April.

Graphic novel

Over Easy (2014) by Mimi Pond (Writer and Artist)

This graphic novel is about a young woman working in a diner in Oakland, CA, after having to leave art school due to losing her financial aid. It is based on events in the author's life. I liked the art and the story. It is 272 pages long.

Crime Fiction

Soviet Sources (1990) by Robert Cullen

I may have mentioned that one of my favorite genres is spy fiction. I only recently discovered this first book by Robert Cullen, published in 1990 and later reprinted by Felony and Mayhem in 2006. The main characters are an American journalist for the Washington Tribune, stationed in Moscow, and a Russian journalist who is being manipulated by the KGB. It took awhile to get started, a lot of setting up the individual characters, but it got very interesting at about 100 pages (out of 424). This is part of a three book series and I have all the books.

Death in a Darkening Mist (2017) by Iona Whishaw

This is historical fiction, set in Canada in 1946, immediately after World War II.  Lane Winslow moved to Canada to get away from the UK after her traumatic experiences as a British intelligence agent during the war. She gets involved with an investigation into the death of a Russian man at a local hot spring near King's Cove; is it suicide or was it murder? This is the 2nd book in the series; the first book was very good; this one was even better.

The Romeo Flag (1989) by Carolyn Hougan

I also discovered this book as a reprint published by Felony and Mayhem. I had read another book by this author, Shooting in the Dark, and was very impressed by that book. The Romeo Flag was even better than that book. I would rank it as one of the top espionage novels I have ever read. The plot was amazing; very complex and very convincing. Another very interesting thing in this book (for me) was the connection to Shanghai. I have read two books recently about Shanghai in 1938 and I find that time and place especially intriguing. A significant sub-plot concerns a group of people living in Shanghai in 1941. For anyone who is interested in spy fiction, this book is worth seeking out.

Tatiana (2013) by Martin Cruz Smith

This is the eighth book in the Arkady Renko series; the first book was Gorky Park, published in 1981. This is sort of a police procedural set in Russia; I say this because Arkady is a police investigator, still working for the Procurator in Moscow, but really going his own way in an unsupervised investigation. So there is not much procedure involved. I enjoyed this book tremendously; the story still sticks with me. See my review.

For the past 2-3 months we have been working on cleaning up and redoing the two garden beds we have at the front of our condominium. We still are working on potting new plants in that area; today we potted 6 geraniums. Usually when we go to the nearby plant nursery, my husband takes photos while we are there. The photos at the top and bottom of this post are from recent visits. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.

Books Read in March 2026

 

March was a very good reading month for me. I enjoyed every book I read. There was enough variety to make me happy. A nonfiction graphic novel, an epistolary novel, science fantasy, a book of short stories in the historical fiction genre, a vintage mystery and two contemporary mysteries.

Here are the books I read:

Graphic novel / Nonfiction

Do Admit! (2025) by Mimi Pond (Writer and Artist)

My husband and I both read this graphic nonfiction book in March. It was perfect book for me. I am very interested in reading about the Mitford sisters. Mimi Pond writes about her own obsession with the Mitfords in this book. The full title is Do Admit!: The Mitford Sisters and Me. The art is gorgeous and the information is presented well. The only problem with this book is that it is so full of information that I am sure I missed a lot the first time I read it. I will definitely have to read it again.

Epistolary Fiction

The Correspondent (2025) by Virginia Evans

This is an epistolary novel, made up of the correspondence in letters and emails, etc. of an older retired woman. I have always enjoyed this type of novel, and this one was especially good. The main character is Sybil Van Antwerp and she spends most of her time writing letters to people. Some of her friends and relatives respond and some of the famous people, often authors, respond. Others just email her and she does not like that kind of correspondence very much. She is cranky at times and very outspoken about her views and feelings. 

I loved that Sybil included what she was reading in almost every letter she wrote, and also asked the recipient what they were reading. Occasionally Sybil would give her opinion or thoughts on the books. Over time, the reader discovers more about Sybil and events in her life. Family relationships are a big part of the story, and I always like reading about families. The end of the book was extremely moving, and I was very emotional at times.

Science Fantasy

A Wrinkle in Time (1962) by Madeleine L'Engle

This is a classic young adult science fantasy novel about three children who have an adventure in space and time. The main characters are Margaret Murry (called Meg), her younger brother Charles Wallace Murry, and their friend, Calvin. Calvin is two years older than Meg, and Charles Wallace is much younger than either of them, but they make a great team working together. A Wrinkle in Time is the first book in the Time Quintet. I did not know this until after I had read the book and reviewed it, but each book in the Time Quintet is very different and has a different focus. See my review.

Crime Fiction

Contemplation of a Crime (2025) by Susan Juby

Juby is a Canadian author, and the setting is a small island off Vancouver Island. This is the third book in a mystery series about a butler with a Buddhist / contemplative background. Helen Thorpe works for a very rich couple and she ends up having to rescue her boss after he and his son are kidnapped. All of the characters are eccentric. This is the third in a series and I liked the first two also. I like the way that the main character handles unexpected and stressful events. My favorite part of the book is the mindfulness theme. Helen is a very appealing character, who is (almost) never ruffled by anything.

A Brush with Death (1950) by Sheila Pim

Between 1945 and 1952, Sheila Pim, an Irish crime novelist and horticulturist, published four mysteries set in Ireland and with a focus on gardening. A Brush with Death was the third of those mystery novels, published in 1950. The story involves two families. Paul and Hester Fennelly and their daughter Barbara live in Dublin. Hester's brother, Fergus Gandon, is a well-known artist who lives in an isolated rural area with his wife, Nell, and their three young children. They live in the Dower House of Castle Kiskour, and act as caretakers for Lord Kiskour when he is away, which is much of the time. See my review.

Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night (2013) by James Runcie

The Grantchester Mysteries is a series of short story collections by James Runcie. The short stories are all connected and follow the criminal investigations of Sidney Chambers, a vicar in Grantchester. This is the second book in the series.  I enjoyed the first book, and this one was even better. See my review.

First Do No Harm (2026) by S.J. Rozan

This is the 16th book in the Lydia Chin / Bill Smith series. They are private investigators. Bill Smith lives in Manhattan; Lydia Chin is an American-born Chinese who lives in New York’s Chinatown with her mother. They are not officially partners but they often work together. The unique element in this series is that the narrator of the books alternates. Usually books centered on Bill's cases are grittier; Lydia's cases are more fun. In this book, Lydia's brother, a doctor who is in charge of the ER department, has asked her to suggest a lawyer for a man who works in the hospital morgue, who has been accused of the murder of a nurse. The lawyer then calls in Lydia and Bill to investigate when the morgue assistant is arrested. This is an eye-opening view of hospital politics and corruption. S.J. Rozan is one of my favorite authors and I have read all of the books in this series. I loved this book.

For the past month and a half we have been working on cleaning up and redoing the two garden beds we have at the front of our condominium. We still are working on potting a lot of new plants, mostly geraniums and succulents. We have been to the nearby plant nursery multiple times to get plants, bark, and potting soil. The photos at the top and bottom of the post were taken by my husband at the nursery. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.

Books Read in February 2026

 

This was another good reading month. Mostly mysteries this month, but that is OK. I read a very long, very heavy graphic memoir, but it was worth it. I read a book from my Classics list, in eBook format. And a mystery by a Canadian, set in Saskatchewan.

So, here are the books I read:

Graphic Memoir

You Can Never Die (2025) by Harry Bliss

This is a graphic memoir by Harry Bliss. My husband and I and both read this one. It is 400 pages and very heavy. But even with all the text, it is a relatively fast read. Initially I thought this book was mostly about his dog, Penny, that he had for 17 years. And there is a lot here about the grief that Harry Bliss experienced after Penny died. But there is a lot more about his life than that. His parents and siblings, what his childhood was like. The  writing is good, and I love Bliss's art. But in some cases I think he shared too much. He had a very difficult childhood; his parents were abusive and fought a lot; and he had drug abuse problems. Still I am very glad I read it and it is a book I will enjoy reading again.

Fiction, Classic

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961) by Muriel Spark

I did not enjoy reading this book at all. In retrospect, I can appreciate the good points of the book; it had a unique structure with shifts in time both backwards and forward, which at times was confusing. I can understand why most people have a higher opinion of the book than I did. Read my review here.

Crime Fiction

Going to Beautiful (2022) by Anthony Bidulka

This book was the 2023 winner of the Crime Writers of Canada Award for Best Crime Novel. It is a mystery, but the overarching story is about a man working through his grief after his husband of thirty years dies, and I found it very compelling. The mystery plot sort of sneaks up on you. The story starts out in Toronto, but it is set mostly in Saskatchewan. See my review here.

Violent Ward (1993) by Len Deighton

Len Deighton is best known for his spy fiction, but this book is not in that genre at all, it is comedic crime fiction, and very well written. The setting is Los Angeles, around the time of the Rodney King trial; the main character, Mickey Murphy, is a very shady lawyer in financial trouble. He has gotten himself involved financially with an old acquaintance primarily because he used to be madly in love with the man's wife. A man is killed and the police suspect that Mickey killed him. I enjoyed this book; it was a lot of fun. 

Flair for Murder (2024) by Frances Lockridge and Richard Lockridge

Frances and Richard Lockridge wrote three mystery series together starting in 1936 and ending in 1963: The Mr. and Mrs. North series, the Capt. Heimrich series,  and the Nathan Shapiro series.  Richard continued writing two of those series after Frances's death. This short story book consists of 13 short stories, one about Mr. and Mrs. North, and the others all about Capt. Heimrich. In this post I reviewed the first three stories in the book. In a more recent post, I talked more generally about the other stories in the book. Most of the stories were under 10 pages long.

Death at Greenway (2021) by Lori Rader-Day

I read this book because I wanted a book that had Agatha Christie as a character, but not acting as a sleuth; this fit the bill perfectly. And also because Glen had given me his copy of the book a few years ago. Greenway was Agatha Christie's home in Devon and this mystery is about a group of evacuees living a Greenway during the war. This is a fictionalized version but there really were ten young evacuees, some of them infants, moved to Greenway during the war along with two nurses. There are lots of details about living in a country house in Devon, and how the war affected the people who lived in the area. The mystery revolves around a stranger in the area who is murdered shortly after the evacuees arrive. This book was very well written, possible a bit long at 450 pages, and I enjoyed it very much.

Murder of a Lady (1931) by Anthony Wynne

This book is a vintage mystery and a locked-room mystery. So if you like mysteries about impossible crimes, this could be for you. I felt that this story spent too much time on the locked-room aspect, and not enough on the characters, but still I mostly enjoyed the book. And the setting in Scotland in the early 1930s was interesting. See my review here.

Shanghai (2024) by Joseph Kanon

This book is set in pre-World War II Shanghai in 1938, at the time many European Jews were emigrating to Shanghai because it was the only place that would take them. In December 2025, I reread Shanghai Moon by S.J. Rozan, which was partially set in Shanghai at the same time, and I was motivated to read more about that time and place. Kanon's book is set almost entirely in Shanghai prior to World War II. This is only the second book I have read by Kanon, and I will be reading more by him.

The photos at the top and bottom of this post were taken recently when we went for a walk at Alice Keck Park Memorial Garden. The garden has several lovely Hong Kong Orchid trees and Glen took photos of the pink flowers on those trees. The decorated stones were in a creek there. After our walk, we went to a favorite café nearby. The photo below was my son's breakfast (French toast), which he always orders there. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.