It's June. Shocking, I know. Now that we are midway through the year, I wanted to do a little reading check-in for us all. Do you participate in yearly reading challenges? Where do you find them? How do you choose to track them? I have all the questions, and very few of the answers.
Generally speaking, I don't typically give myself reading challenges. Each year I set my goal on Goodreads to be something exceedingly accessible for my reading habits. I never want to feel like reading is work. The idea that I could be "behind in my reading" adds unnecessary stress to my most favourite hobby. The only challenge I participate in from year to year is the Summer Reading Bingo because the prompts allow me to potentially discover titles I had never really considered. And so, in anticipated of summer reading (somehow my most favourite of all the reading), I thought we could catch up with books I'd recommend from my 2025 reading journey...so far...
Though I am a COMPLETE late comer to the Hunger Games series, I am now fully invested in the world created by Suzanne Collins. I was (wrongly) concerned that we somehow knew too much about the end of Haymitch's story that I wouldn't be as invested in the journey as I was in the destination. Suzanne, you got me once again.
When I tell you I slept on this book, I am being the most serious I've ever been. Honestly, I was completely blown away by the post mortal world created by Neal Shusterman. (So much so that as I type this I am reading the third in the trilogy not even a week after finishing the first.) I love books that deal with morality, sweeping stories featuring characters with all different motivations. This is my introduction to Shusterman, and it could not have been a better first impression.
Of all the books on this list, in some ways this one surprised me the most. Jessa Hastings is most known for her Magnolia Parks series. For whatever reason, I never gravitated towards them. I am going to be controversial yet brave, and admit this was fully sold to me by its cover (and the fact that it is a standalone). This book has family politics, secrets, drama, melodrama, and everything in between. Such an enthusiastic five star read from me.
Last year I made myself a little side mission to catch up and complete Tahereh Mafi's Shatter Me series. There's something about how Mafi structures her stories that really appeals to me, and so when I discover a sequel series that takes place some ten years after the end of the aforementioned series, I was very interested. Revisiting Mafi's world never disappoints.
As a rule I do not typically pick up celebrity book club books -- and here is that exception. A few people at work were chatting about this one, and not being one to not be swayed by the book opinions of my coworkers I was lucky to pick this one up as a Hot Pick (fyi "Hot Picks" are popular books that don't allow holds that can be borrowed for one week.) What an emotionally engrossing book. It seemed somewhat slow, or quiet, and yet packed a big punch.
Did I read this to completely justify my own personal feelings about Facebook? Yes. Did it accomplish that? Also, yes. Recommend it.
This book is a fantasy about a woman who inherits a "magical" pawn shop where people pawn their biggest regrets. One morning she wakes up to find her father gone, and the shop ransacked and she and a companion move through mystical worlds to get the answers she's so desperately seeking, and reveal secrets that have been kept whole lives.
It is always really difficult to choose favourites, or recommend books - any given day the answers might be different. I hope your next favourite read is on this list, but until then let me know what you've been reading and recommending so far in 2025!
Add a comment to: 2025 Mid Year Reading Check-in!