August Wrap-Up and September Hopefuls

 

August Reads

 

August Wrap-Up

• Finished: 4
• Started but not finished: 2
• Total pages read: 1,409
• Average rating: 4

I finished three fantasy novels and one nonfiction book in August. Amélie Wen Zhao’s Chinese-inspired young adult fantasy Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White (4/5 stars) is the second book in a duology and a satisfying ending to the series. Lena Jeong’s Korean-inspired young adult fantasy And Break the Pretty Kings (3/5 stars) was more of a disappointment, and although younger teen readers might enjoy it, I don’t think I’ll be continuing with the series. M.L. Wang’s adult fantasy standalone Blood Over Bright Haven (5/5 stars) was an amazing read and one of my favorite books I’ve read this year.

Jane Austen July 2026 Wrap-Up and August Hopefuls

Jane Austen July 2026 Reads

July Wrap-Up

• Finished: 6
• Started but not finished: 2
• Total pages read: 1,914
• Average rating: 4.2

This was my third year of participating in Jane Austen July, and again, I had a great time. That means that most of the books I read this month were Austen-related.

June Wrap-up and July Hopefuls

Two of my June reads

June Wrap-Up

• Finished: 9
• Started but not finished: 2
• Total pages read: 2,738
• Average rating: 3.944

I had not expected that I’d read so many books in June! I thought I’d have time to finish five books, but I read four more. In the beginning of the month, I read one novel in verse, Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming (5/5 stars), which was also my favorite book of the month. I also read Sarah Brooks’s steampunk fantasy The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands (3/5 stars), which unfortunately was a bit of a disappointment.

May Wrap-Up and June Hopefuls

May reads

May Wrap-Up

• Finished: 11
• Started but not finished: 1
• Total pages read: 4,102
• Average rating: 4.25

I read a lot of books in May! Four of them were novels. I read the last two books in Saara El-Arifi’s fantasy trilogy The Ending Fire, The Battle Drum (3/5 stars) and The Ending Fire (4/5 stars). I also read the first book in Hannah Kaner’s fantasy trilogy Fallen Gods, Godkiller (4.5/5 stars). And I reread Suzanne Collins’s YA dystopian fiction The Hunger Games. Since that book is so well-known by this point, I’m not reviewing it. Suffice it to say that it’s still worth five stars. You can find my reviews of the other three books behind the links.

April Wrap-Up and May Hopefuls

April reads

April Wrap-Up

• Finished: 8
• Started but not finished: 3
• Total pages read: 2,620
• Average rating: 3.25

I finished two novels in April: the second book in Rebecca Ross’s young adult fantasy duology, Ruthless Vows (4/5 stars) and Gabrielle Zevin’s literary fiction Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (3/5 stars). You can find my reviews behind the links.

I also finished five nonfiction books about the ancient Greek novels and Psyyke, a Finnish psychology handbook. In terms of ratings, April wasn’t the best month, as I only gave three or four stars to all of the books I read. Here’s hoping that May gives me more enjoyable reads!

March Wrap-Up and April Hopefuls

March Reads

March Wrap-Up

• Finished: 5
• Started but not finished: 3
• Total pages read: 1,423
• Average rating: 4.33

I finished three novels in March: Stephanie Garber’s young adult fantasy A Curse for True Love (3.5/5 stars), Paulo Coelho’s literary fiction The Alchemist (5/5 stars), and Rebecca Ross’s young adult fantasy Divine Rivals (4.5/5 stars). You can find reviews of the books behind the links.

In terms of nonfiction, I finished the final two of my old high school textbooks. They were about language and literature.

February Wrap-Up and March Hopefuls

February reads

  

February Wrap-Up

• Finished: 3
• Started but not finished: 2
• Total pages read: 1,462
• Average rating: 3.75

 

I finished two novels in February. They were the first two books in Stephanie Garber’s young adult fantasy trilogy, Once upon a Broken Heart (4/5 stars) and The Ballad of Never After (3.5/5 stars). I also started the final book in the trilogy, A Curse for True Love, and as I finished it on March 1, I already have a review up for that book as well. You can find reviews behind the link.

The third book I finished was a high school geography textbook, and now I’m almost done with my old schoolbooks project. Only two remain!

January Wrap-Up and February Hopefuls

January Reads

January Wrap-Up

• Finished: 5
• Started but not finished: 1
• Total pages read: 1,145
• Average rating: 4.333

I had a very slow start to the year and finished only one novel in January, but when it comes to ratings, I had a great month. The novel was Andy Weir’s science fiction novel Project Hail Mary (5/5 stars). You can find a longer review behind the link.

I also finished two high school biology textbooks and a “memoir” of a Samoyed dog Tunski. The latter was a cozy comfort read while I was recovering from the flu. I’ve read it several times, and it never fails to make me happy.

December Wrap-Up and January Hopefuls

December Reads

December Wrap-Up

• Finished: 9
• Started but not finished: 1
• Total pages read: 2,304
• Average rating: 4.42

I finished three novels and one memoir in December. The novels were Lauren Groff’s historical fiction The Vaster Wilds (5/5 stars), Octavia E. Butler’s dystopian fiction Parable of the Sower (4.5/5 stars), and Jacqueline Harpman’s I Who Have Never Known Men (5/5 stars). You can find longer reviews behind the links. Tara Westover’s memoir Educated (5/5 stars) I’m reviewing below. As you can see from the ratings, I had a great month in December!

I also started one novel in December, The Beekeeper’s Promise by Fiona Valpy. I finished it in early January, but since I read most of it during the Christmas holiday, I’m reviewing it in this post as well.

November Wrap-Up and December Hopefuls

November Reads

November Wrap-Up

• Finished: 5
• Started but not finished: 3
• Total pages read: 2,125
• Average rating: 3.75

I finished two novels in November, Leigh Bardugo’s young adult fantasy duology Six of Crows (4/5 stars) and Crooked Kingdom (also 4/5 stars). I had hoped that they’d both be instant five-star reads, but unfortunately, they didn’t quite live up to the hype. I did give both four stars, because I liked the worldbuilding and in the end, even came to care for a few of the characters. Click the links if you want to learn more about what I thought of the books.

October Wrap-Up and November Hopefuls

October Reads

October Wrap-Up

• Finished: 22
• Started but not finished: 1
• Total pages read: 3,603
• Average rating: 4.25

Twenty-two books, are you kidding me? To be honest, only two of them were novels, and they were the only two books that I rated. I read R.F. Kuang’s dark academia historical fantasy Babel (4.5/5 stars). The themes in that book were hugely important, but unfortunately I didn’t quite love it enough to give it five stars. The second book I finished was Heather Fawcett’s light academia fantasy Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries (4/5 stars), which was a perfect cozy fall read.

September Wrap-Up and October Hopefuls

September reads

September Wrap-Up

• Finished: 7
• Started but not finished: 2
• Total pages read: 2,509
• Average rating: 3.83

September was a bit of a hit and miss for me in terms of reading. I finished a lot of books and read a lot of pages, but rating-wise, it wasn’t a great month. I did read one book I loved, Marjan Kamali’s historical fiction The Lion Women of Tehran (5/5 stars). I also finally finished my Jane Austen July classic, Frances Burney’s Cecilia (4/5 stars). The rest of the novels I finished, however, were somewhat disappointing reads. I finished two fantasy books: a romantasy The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon (3.5/5 stars) and a historical fantasy The Winter Goddess by Megan Barnard (also 3.5/5 stars). I also listened to one audio book, a Finnish translation of This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (3/5 stars). You can click the links to read more about my thoughts.

August Wrap-Up and September Hopefuls

August reads

August Wrap-Up

• Finished: 5
• Started/continued but not finished: 4
• Total pages read: 1,949
• Average rating: 4.8

August was another great reading month for me. Four of the five books I finished were five stars, and one was four stars. The two fiction books I’ve written longer reviews of were both written by Madeline Miller, novel-length Circe (5/5 stars) and short story Galatea (5/5 stars). Needless to say, I loved them both! Click the links to read more about my thoughts.

Jane Austen July 2025 Wrap-Up and August Hopefuls

July reads

July Wrap-Up

• Finished: 6
• Started but not finished: 2
• Total pages read: 1,743
• Average rating: 4.58

This was my second year of participating in Jane Austen July, and even though it wasn’t quite as fun as last year, I still had a great time. And as the average rating shows, there was nothing wrong with the books I read, as most of them were four or five-star reads. Besides Jane Austen related books, the first book I finished in July was Agatha Christie’s A Murder Is Announced (4/5 stars). I actually reviewed it as part of my June wrap-up, as I started it in June and finished it in the beginning of July. The rest of the books were Austen-related, though.

Mid-Year Reading Check-In

My 2025 Reading Journal

Mid-year reading stats:

• Finished: 30
• Total pages read: 13,296
• Average page count: 443.2
• Average rating: 4.14

It’s time for a mid-year reading check-in! My goal this year is to read fifty books, and I’m on track to reach my goal with 30 books read in the first six months of 2025. If I keep up at this pace, I should read sixty books this year, but I’m not going to change my goal. The average page count seems high, but I have read a few massive books this spring.

June Wrap-Up (with Mini Reviews) and July Goals

Some of My June Reads

June Wrap-Up

• Finished: 9
• Started but not finished: 1
• Total pages read: 2,184
• Average rating: 4.38

June was a great month when it came to reading! Not only did I finish nine books, but they were also really good: four five-star books, three four-star books, and one three-star book. One nonfiction book I left unrated. I finished six fiction books and three nonfiction books. Three of the fiction books I read during a short summer vacation at my mother’s, and I’ll give you mini reviews of them below (there's also a bonus review of a book I finished in early July). Two of the fiction books were fantasy: The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi (4/5 stars) and Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao (also 4/5 stars). One was a collection of ancient Greek novels, Collected Ancient Greek Novels (5/5 stars). Click the links to read longer reviews.

May Wrap-Up and June Goals

May Reads

May Wrap-Up

• Finished: 4
• Started/continued but not finished: 3
• Total pages read: 2,278
• Average rating: 3.75

April Wrap-Up and May Goals

April reads

April Wrap-Up

• Finished: 5
• Started/continued but not finished: 4
• Total pages read: 2,746
• Average rating: 3.2

April was a lackluster month, at least rating-wise. I finished five books in April, but only one of them was a novel. I read an ancient Greek retelling, Sarah Underwood’s Lies We Sing to the Sea (2/5 stars). I had high hopes for that book but unfortunately, it was a massive disappointment. You click the link and read more about why I didn’t like the book.

March Wrap-Up and April Goals

March Reads

 

March Wrap-Up

• Finished: 5
• Started/continued but not finished: 3
• Total pages read: 2,320
• Average rating: 4.1

I finished five books in March, and two of them were novels. I read the final two books in Stephanie Garber’s Caraval trilogy, Legendary (4/5 stars) and Finale (also 4/5 stars). They were nice reads, but I admit I didn’t love them as much as I had expected. They didn’t have the same magical effect on me as they seem to have had on other people. You can click the links to read longer reviews.

February Wrap-Up and March Goals

February Reads

February Wrap-Up

• Finished: 4
• Started but not finished: 4
• Total pages read: 2,012
• Average rating: 3.75

I finished four books in February, and two of them were novels. The first was Stephanie Garber’s Caraval (4/5 stars). It was an enjoyable young adult fantasy, but I admit I had expected a lot more from it. It didn’t quite reach my expectations, as you can see from the four-star rating. Click the link to read a longer review.