Here’s everything I read in June, what I actually thought, and, because this is where my head really lives, what each one is turning into next. Consider it the table of contents for my month. Seven books, three of them quietly growing reading trees, and one that handed me enough material to keep me busy for weeks.
By the numbers
7 books, all free from the library
12 Google searches, from Lilith to the Siege of Sarajevo to a well in Italy named after an Irish saint
4 emotional essays incoming
3 reading trees growing
6 four-star reads and 1 three-star
5 on audio, 2 in print, 3 of them narrated by Julia Whelan
39.3 hours in my headphones at 1.5x speed, which would be 58 hours and 54 minutes at normal speed
1.9 days of my life spent inside a book this month
Top genre: historical fiction, obviously
Currently reading: Buckeye (Patrick Ryan) at 20 percent and The Sirens (Emillia Hart) at 66 percent
The Villa by Rachel Hawkins
Audiobook (Library) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
One book that handed me three essays and a research rabbit hole, so it punches above its rating. Childhood best friends at an Italian villa with a buried 1974 murder, told through song lyrics and podcast transcripts, all about ambition and friendship and who gets to own a woman’s work. Julia Whelan narrates, which is an automatic yes for me now. Closer to a 4.75 than a 4 for me.
Coming up: the busiest book of my month. A Things I Googled, plus three essays, one on friendship anniversaries, one on women’s horror and travel safety, and one on the work voice my family makes fun of.
The Astral Library by Kate Quinn
Physical (Library) ⭐⭐⭐
Kate Quinn’s first swing at magical realism: a hidden library where books are doors you can live inside and time in the real world stops while you’re gone. Alix moves through Austen, Sherlock, and Gatsby in a love letter to libraries and readers. The concept and the bookish charm carried it for me, but the emotional middle stayed a little distant, so it landed at a fond three stars rather than the gut-punch I get from her historical fiction. Still sent me down four Google holes, which tells you how much fun it is to read.
Coming up: a Things I Googled from those four holes, and a custom essay called Bookmark Your Life.
Pretty as a Picture by Elizabeth Little
Audiobook (Library) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I came for Julia Whelan and left attached to Marissa Dahl, a film editor who narrates her own life in movie scenes because that is genuinely how she works out what she is feeling. She is an introvert who says the wrong thing, knows it, and has stopped caring, right down to a bedtime routine of small specific rituals. I felt so seen by her it was almost uncomfortable. The murder mystery on a chaotic island film shoot is fun, but the voice is the whole thing. I knocked it out in two days over a long drive and a rained-out weekend. First Elizabeth Little for me, and not the last.
Coming up: nothing formal yet, but Marissa is living in my head rent free, so do not be surprised if she turns into an essay.
The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation by Rosemary Sullivan
Audiobook (Library) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Narrated by Julia Whelan, who was honestly part of why I picked it up. This reads like a true crime podcast about who betrayed the Frank family. A team including a retired FBI agent uses modern technology and old records to investigate a question that has been open for decades. The part that stuck with me most is the possibility that Otto Frank knew who was responsible and chose silence to protect that person’s family. Quick listen, well paced, and a great companion to any Anne Frank fiction.
Coming up: no piece of its own, but it’s another branch on the Anne Frank reading tree that started with When We Flew Away by Alice Hoffman. That tree is still growing.
Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris
Physical (Library) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I read this because Girl at War made me want to understand wars I was never taught, and this one took me inside the Siege of Sarajevo. It is quiet and human and gorgeous, one painter staying behind in a city that keeps closing around her. The title is the ash of a million library books raining down over the city after the National Library was shelled, and I have not stopped thinking about it.
Coming up: a piece from the Bosnian War rabbit hole it pulled me into, and a new branch on the Girl at War reading tree about the wars I was never taught.
The Glass Ocean by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White
Audiobook (Library) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Comfort-zone historical fiction with a love story braided through the danger, split between the doomed Lusitania in 1915 and a present-day writer chasing a family secret. Solid and cozy, a little predictable in the modern half, and I will admit I was halfway in before I clocked that the Lusitania sank in WWI, not WWII. Just ok on audio, so I would point you toward print.
Coming up: something short, still taking shape.
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Audiobook (Library) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I DNF’d Tom Lake and almost wrote Patchett off, then Threads talked me into trying The Dutch House on audio for the Tom Hanks narration, and it made me a convert. Danny and Maeve are a brother and sister locked out of their childhood mansion by their stepmother, circling that house for decades. Patchett turns the house into a character and makes ordinary family resentment feel epic. A warm, aching four stars.
Coming up: no piece of its own, but it kicked off a whole Patchett reading tree, and Tom Lake is next, so that thread is just beginning.
What is a reading tree?
It’s my favorite thing I make, and I haven’t actually published one yet, so here’s the short version. A reading tree is the chain of how one book pulls me into the next. Girl at War made me want to understand wars I was never taught, which led me to Black Butterflies, which sent me down the Bosnian War. That’s a tree, and it keeps growing as I read. I’m building these into a series for paid subscribers, and the first ones land soon. So when I say a tree is growing, that’s the thread I’m following.
The thread running through it all
Three of these books quietly grew reading trees this month: the Anne Frank tree that started with When We Flew Away and a brand new Patchett tree that begins with The Dutch House. That’s the part I love most, watching one book pull me straight into the next.
If you make me pick a favorite, I can’t, but The Villa, Black Butterflies, and Pretty as a Picture are the three still living in my head.
Tell me what you read in June. I want the one that wrecked you and the one you couldn’t finish.
The Dutch House is my favorite Ann Patchett novel. I loved everything about it, including the cover. The Astral Library is currently sitting on my Libby holds list. I've heard several reviews similar to yours, which has made me a little hesitant to pick it up. The premise still really intrigues me, though. My favorite reads in June were The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett and The Kennedys and the Windsors by Caroline Hallemann.
Also Julia whelan is seriously the best