june reads that blew me away
everett, monaghan, and tjr 📘💕🚀
This is an updated version of something I wrote over a year ago and posted on Instagram. Summer reading is so intrinsically linked to a particular summer that I feel the need to put that summer down in writing.
It’s the Midwest, late 1980s. I’m maybe nine or ten, spending hours in the basement of my childhood home. Not because it’s the most comfortable, trust me, it isn’t. It’s spacious and furnished, but I wouldn’t call it cozy. Faux wood paneling, multi-colored shag carpet, and a scratchy floral couch that I’m pretty sure used to belong to my grandmother.
But that basement had one thing going for it: it was cold. Noticeably colder than any other spot in the house. And when it’s Midwest-summer hot, drought hot, and your home has no A/C, you claim the coolest space you can find. That’s how the basement became my official summer reading zone.
When I think of summer reading, I’m always transported back to that time. Long stretches of nothing to do but fall into a book, surrounded by the stillness and shag carpet.
These days, summer reading is more of an idea than a reality. With kids, work, and all the spinning plates of adult life, those lazy reading days are few and far between. Which is why I’ve become extra particular about my summer reads. I want to be swept up, fully immersed, emotionally hooked.
I’m happy to say that this past month, my choices delivered. Each book gave me exactly what I needed, maybe even a little more.
📘 James by Percival Everett
“I had never seen a white man filled with such fear. The remarkable truth, however, was that it was not the pistol, but my language, the fact that I didn’t conform to his expectations, that I could read, that had so disturbed and frightened him.”
There’s nothing I can say about this book that hasn’t already been said. It’s powerful, brilliant, and deserving of all the praise. Every award, every accolade earned. Believe the hype.
💕 It’s A Love Story by Annabel Monaghan
“Love happens over breakfast…Romance happens over dinner. The candlelight, the wine…That’s the romance of it. But at breakfast everything’s just as it is, in the light of the day. No one wears lipstick to breakfast. And this is where you talk about your day and the part of the roof that might leak this fall. You bring your real self to breakfast.”
I always tell people: Monaghan writes romance for grown-ups. Her books are smart, compulsively readable, and her main characters are typically self-aware and, bless, over 30.
So I was a little surprised by Jane, the protagonist in her newest novel. She’s in her early thirties, yes, but she’s deeply stuck in the past, dwelling on unresolved emotions. I liked her, but I didn’t always love her. She sometimes felt a bit frozen.
But then there’s Dan. Oh, Dan. Confident, grounded, emotionally open. And his big Long Island family? Immediate buy-in. It was giving Dan in Real Life vibes (and if you love that movie, we need to be friends). Once the story shifted to Long Island, I was all in. I finished the book in 24 hours.
Was it my favorite Monaghan? No. Nora Goes Off Script still holds the crown. But the Finnegan family? They’re going to live in my heart for a long while.
🚀 Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
“You make my life worth something. And I can promise you with my entire body that you will never be alone. Every day, you can wake up and go to bed knowing there is someone whose heart is bursting, barely able to contain how much they love you. I know you’re my niece, Frances. But you have always, too, been mine.”
One of the things I admire most about Taylor Jenkins Reid is how much research she puts into her stories. I’ve never been into tennis (Carrie Soto Is Back) or space (Atmosphere), but I came away from both books with a genuine appreciation for those worlds and the remarkable people who inhabit them.
More than that, TJR consistently writes women who feel fully realized: intelligent, complex, and unapologetically human.
I didn’t love every part of Atmosphere; it took a while to fully pull me in, but by the second half, I was hooked. I loved Joan and Vanessa as individuals and as a couple. Their relationship felt grounded and mutually respectful, refreshingly free of melodrama or self-sabotage. Just two people doing the work, loving each other well.
I also appreciated the portrayal of women in STEM, especially the nuance in how gender dynamics played out at NASA. The men weren’t caricatures of toxic masculinity. They were often supportive, even endearing. That balance felt honest.
But what sealed this book for me was Frances. Oh my heart. I adore it when children play a central role in adult fiction, and Joan's love for her niece is pure, unconditional, and deeply moving. Every child deserves someone who loves them the way Joan loves Frances. That relationship pushed Atmosphere into 5-star territory for me.
☀️ In Conclusion…
Summer may look different now than in that chilly, shag-carpeted basement, but the magic of a great book hasn’t changed. I am probably squeezing in chapters before bed or devouring pages while at a track meet, but I still crave the same feeling: escape, connection, emotional truth.
This month, I found all of that. Times three.
If you’ve read any of these, I’d love to hear your thoughts. And if you have a summer read you’re obsessed with right now, please tell me! I’m always looking for my next book to fall into.
Until next time! Happy Reading!
As always, each book is linked, so you can read more about the book if you are so inclined. If a book was not linked, the book most likely is out of print, so I highly encourage you to check for the book at your local library. All the books mentioned today can be found here. I receive a small percentage if a book is purchased through a link, and bookshop.org supports independent bookstores, so your purchase is doing double the good! Of course, the other options are to check for these books at your local library or your favorite independent bookstore. Thank you, as always, for supporting the work I do here.