What I Read: July 2024

Finally, a month of GREAT reading.

I read a LOT of books in July, so there’s actually no physical room for me to write an intro here. On to the books, I guess!

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Here’s What I Read in July:

The Brothers: A Hmong Graphic Folktale {graphic novel}

by Sheelue Yang & Le Nhat Vu (Illustrator)

I pulled this off the new shelf in the youth section at our library. I don’t normally read graphic novels, but as Arthur starts to read more independently I know he’s going to be drawn to them and I should have some recommendations handy. This was a powerful and beautiful story — all was well and then BOOM the last page essentially broke your heart. This book has a “how to read a graphic novel” section, as well as discussion questions for the end. I think it would be a great entry for a 8-10 year old independent reader, especially if you’d like them to read something that isn’t about another superhero.

In college I read Kao Kalia Yang’s memoir, The Latehomecomer, and still think about it to this day — the Madison, Wisconsin area has a large Hmong population, and I’m interested to read more from Hmong authors. Any suggestions for me?

Goodreads | Bookshop

The Year of the Book {Playaway audiobook}

by Andrea Cheng

This was also a random selection from the library shelves for my children, but I ended up loving it more than they did. This is a quiet story that follows Anna, the child of Chinese-American immigrants, and how she navigates the 4th grade, Saturday Chinese school, and friendships when she honestly just wants to be left alone to read her favorite books. It’s the first of a series of five, and a few reviews say it’s a 3rd/4th grade reading level, and I agree. I will give one small content warning: one of Anna’s friends has a family situation where her parents are getting divorced and it doesn’t seem amicable. Laura’s dad shows up at Anna’s house when he is not supposed to, but the situation doesn’t go any farther than that. Still, your 8-9-10 year old may have some questions, and it’s best to be prepared. Great on audio, probably also in paperback.

Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM

There’s No Such Thing As Bad Weather: A Scandinavian Mom's Secrets for Raising Healthy, Resilient, and Confident Kids {nonfiction}

by Linda Akeson McGurk

I enjoyed this book and learning all about the cultural differences between raising children in Sweden and here in the U.S. Still, I think the book could have been much shorter. Each chapter had a book recommendation at the end of it, which was a blessing/curse since now my own list is much longer. I do find it hard to read parenting books from someone whose oldest kid is… maybe 8? 9? I’m not sure the subtitle bears out its promised if the kid isn’t entirely done being raised yet.

Goodreads | Bookshop

The World’s Greatest Detective {Playaway audiobook}

by Caroline Carlson

I LOVED this book. It should not surprise anyone, since it’s by the same author as The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates, which we also adore. This book follows 11-year-old Toby as he becomes an assistant to his detective uncle after living with a string of other relatives when his parents go missing, presumed dead. When his uncle leaves town for a weekend, Toby joins a contest to become the world’s greatest detective in his uncle’s place… but a murder occurs on the very first night of the contest which throws everything in to disarray. Will Toby make friends? Will he find out what happened to his parents? Will his uncle Gabriel allow him to stay living with him? Will he solve the case first? The entire book is witty and interesting and truly well-done. Arthur at 7.5 feels that it is a little scary, but I think a 10-14 year old would truly, truly enjoy this. I sure did.

Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM

Binti: A Novel {sci-fi/fantasy}

by Nnedi Okorafor

Scott has been raving about this short novel for a year now. I finally picked it up to help fulfill the “Sci-Fi/Fantasy” square on my summer reading bingo and enjoyed it very much. Binti is the first person of her race to be accepted into the main university across the galaxy, but her trip there goes awry when a jellyfish-like (?) enemy boards her ship and she is the only person left alive. Sci-fi isn’t usually my genre, but this one has an intriguing premise that I imagine the rest of the trilogy builds upon. If you like sci-fi, definitely pick up the series.

Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM

Attachments: A Novel {re-read}

by Rainbow Rowell

This is one of my favorite rom-coms of all time. It’s my comfort food read, so I packed it on a short trip to Chicago over the birthday. I started it the first night in the hotel, and finished it in the car on the way home — the first time I’ve maybe ever packed exactly the right amount of books for a trip in my life. Lincoln has just been hired in IT at a local paper, but his main job is to enforce workplace email rules. Beth and Jennifer regularly flaunt those rules — like swearing — in their personal emails to one another (another rule they break) during the workday. The problem is that Lincoln is slowly falling in love with Beth without every having met her… how can he meet her for real when he already knows too much about her personal life and doesn’t even know what she looks like? Slightly predictable, totally adorable, and a little nerdy, too — it’s like it was written just for me.

Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM

Divine Rivals & Ruthless Vows: A Novel {Young Adult “romantasy”}

by Rebecca Ross

When my friend Ashley Brooks told me she’d recently gotten into fantasy, I was surprised. She’s always been anti-intense world-building — it just wasn’t her thing. She recommended this book as a romance/fantasy a.k.a. a “romantasy” (I guess it’s a real genre?), where the relationship takes precedence over the world-building and I said I’d give it a try. Is it High Literature? No. But I definitely wanted to find out what happened next to Iris & Roman and got the sequel immediately. This one is maybe Lightening Thief meets Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society? It’s a bit mythology, a bit epistolic, and a lot tortured teen emotions, but it’s got a compelling plot and characters you can’t help but envision on a TV screen someday.

Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM || Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM

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What I’m Reading with the Kids:

This book about wombats — Wombats are Pretty Weird — was the highlight of our reading this month. We finished up Peter Pan. We started Story of the World Vol 1 and read a bunch of books about archaeology and ancient Egypt. This was our favorite, for sure.

We finished the Charlie and Mouse series, which is so sad to me. I love those books, and they are excellent early readers that are actually enjoyable to read. Sniff. We also enjoyed Something, Someday by Amanda Gorman and Christian Robinson (he also illustrated Last Stop on Market Street, which we read often at our house). A new-to-us book by Jan Brett that went along with Story of the World was The First Dog. Loved it!

In audiobook land, we listened to On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and the kids re-requested The Wild Robot series and The Trumpet of the Swan. I keep snagging their Playaways (see reviews above!), but they both listened to Year of the Book and Arthur’s working his way through The World’s Greatest Detective.

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What I’m Reading Next:

I picked Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner for my September book club to read, but then Lev Grossman’s The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur came in at the library for me, and it’s got a two-week turnaround since it’s brand new… but it’s 650+ pages. I may not get it finished in time! May August see me reading as much as July did. {fingers crossed}

What are you reading? Hit “reply” and tell me!