Auntie's Annex: July Books

My 50th post!! Gold medal for me!

Hello lovely readers! Welcome to another Auntie’s Annex, where we take a break from kid-lit and take a peek at the books on my nightstand/kindle/earbuds for the month. What have y’all been reading?

Remember how last month I wrote about training for my first 5K since my children were born? Though I have been humbled and amazed by the Olympic athletes this week, I am still proud of completing my race with a smile.

Would we call that smiling? Me, gasping for air on the right…

If you want a tip on running your first 5K, may I suggest an almost all slightly downhill course in a location with a temperate climate? It was a real treat. I’ve gotten back to Texas and haven’t been able to run 3 consecutive miles since — it’s sweaty here y’all, even at 7 am.

Beyond fitness milestones, I am hitting some substack milestones this week! This is my 50th newsletter (cue the champagne corks) which feels like a true accomplishment. Thanks for being here and following along, and don’t forget that you can always check out all my previous posts for book recommendations and to see how my substack is slowly evolving as I learn and grow. I also just made it to 300 subscribers (!!), so I want to personally thank each and every one of you for finding me, for sharing my posts, for leaving comments, and for telling your friends. I wouldn’t be slowly growing without your support. Grateful for you!

Enough with the accolades, self-affirmations, and mushy stuff, on to the bookshelf!

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MY JULY TOP PICK

Is a two-way tie for gold (the crowd goes wild), both from the YA category

YA FTW!!

PICTURE US IN THE LIGHT by Kelly Loy Gilbert

Danny and his best friends are seniors dealing with the pressure of choosing colleges, the tragic loss of a classmate, and the confusing emotions of adolescent love. When Danny discovers a box of mysterious papers of his fathers, his life starts to unravel as a family secret begins to unfold.

This story is a perfect weaving of family drama, high school emotions, real-life pressures, and mystery. Danny is discovering his parents as flawed humans, his life as complicated, and his friendships as love. It is a champion of a book that deals with difficult topics like teen suicide, immigration rights, and being gay without focusing exclusively on any of those topics. It is a book about hope and friendship, family, loss, and love. It is about believing in yourself and figuring out what comes next.

TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN by John Green

Best friends Aza and Daisy use their tepid connection with Davis, the eccentric billionaire’s son to try and find the missing billionaire and collect a reward. What they find along the way is the importance of making true and real connections in life.

I want to write John Green a thank you letter for writing the best YA books I have ever read. I love them all. His stories make me laugh and they make me cry. They are all quirky and strange and beautiful. They all have complex characters and themes and aren’t afraid to take taboo subjects and face them head-on. In this book, Ava deals with spiraling anxiety and OCD tendencies, both of which Green has experienced firsthand. I love how candidly his writing brings these experiences to light and fleshes out the beautiful complexity of being human.

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FROM THE STAX

ROMANCE TITLES

RIGHT ON CUE by Falon Ballard

Emmy, an Oscar-winning Hollywood-raised screenwriter, is about to have her second-ever screen debut after a disastrous first one in her early teens. When the leading man unexpectedly breaks his leg (wakka wakka) and has to be replaced, it just so happens the new actor is the very man who ruined Emmy’s career, will she be up to the challenge of making movie magic? Drama ensues. Spicy drama.

Is it cheesy if a character who is a Hollywood nepo-baby is called Emmy? Yes. Yes, it is. And the cheese doesn’t stop there. This book was one sweater reference away from a hallmark Christmas special. It was cute enough, but my main beef was how the man never had anything to apologize for and the only character growth had to occur for our sweet little Emmy. Pretty classically patriarchal to never apologize, dude.

THE SIZZLE PARADOX by Lily Menon

The youngest in her grad program, Lyric feels hypocritical trying to run data on true love when she is so terrible at finding it herself. Enter the common romance trope of “let us pretend-date and then accidentally fall in real love.” Lyric and her best friend slash roommate go on fake dates under the guise of improving each other’s love life. I bet you can guess how this one goes.

This book was not for me. It may have been tainted by the audiobook voice actor who was hard for me to listen to, but bad acting aside, I felt the plot was too obvious. There were no surprises here. I will also be haunted by one open-door date scene at a yet-to-open restaurant (bff is connected) where they ate dinner and then got “dessert” if you know what I mean. I think maybe the restaurant should pause its grand opening until they remedy the sex on the table problem. Good thing nobody came in to top off their wine glasses. Awkward.

THE DETECTIVE SERIES SAGA CONTINUES

THE LONG WAY HOME by Louise Penny

Peter is missing. Gamache is retired. Clara, Gamache, and their friends go on a wild goose chase to find the artist in hiding. Someone gets murdered. Police get involved. Asbestos is also involved.

Aptly named, this book took me forever to finish. I had to renew it not once but TWICE from the library. Usually, this series is all five stars for me but this one didn’t quite impress. When the final act crescendoed I didn’t even know who all the players were and didn’t really care to go back and find out. I wouldn’t skip it because I don’t mess around with a series like that, but I will soon forget it.

THE NATURE OF THE BEAST by Louise Penny

Laurant runs into town spouting about a giant gun and a beast hidden in the woods. In a spin on The Boy Who Cried Wolf, nobody believes Laurant, but when he goes missing and is found dead in what the police are calling an accident, it is Gamache’s refusal to accept the verdict that cracks open a bigger mystery than anybody was ready to find.

So many plotlines and mysteries are woven into this book that it is hard to write a synopsis of what happens without giving too much away. There is history, there is a serial killer, there is a play, there are two murders, there is a giant gun, there are so. many. things. I have been knitting while watching the Olympics and this story is like the tangled web I was trying to unravel — so many crisscrossing threads that are truly just part of the same beautiful yarn. (Ooo that worked on both levels).

This is the first audiobook in the series not narrated by Ralph Cosham (RIP) and I miss him. The replacement, Robert Bathurst, does an impeccable job, but every once in a while a character I have grown to feel I know (namely town curmudgeon Ruth) is voiced in such a different way that I feel betrayed.

AND SOME ADULT AND MG LIT

US AGAINST YOU by Fredrik Backman

Back in Beartown, this time in the fallout of last season’s scandal (check my review of the first book here). Will the Bears be able to regroup and save the club? Will everyone be able to salvage their lives, their reputations, their friendships, and their marriages? And when the simmering violence comes to full boil, who in the town will suffer the most?

Yet another book full of staccato sentences and peppered with poignant and quotable passages, this book will break your heart. It takes a while for me to ramp up into Backman’s writing style, but once I buy in, I buy in all the way. I’ve commissioned

Sounds of a Story

to write a musical piece inspired by one of the characters in this series (Benji, I love your beautiful complicated soul) and am so looking forward to share what comes out of that collaboration. It is that kind of book, the kind that makes you want to create more art around it. Be ready with a box of tissues and a quotebook notebook nearby.

ALANNA: THE FIRST ADVENTURE by Tamora Pierce

Alanna and Thom are twins who decide to swap places — Thom will head to the convent to be trained as a wizard, but this story follows Alanna, disguised as Alan, to the castle for knight training. How long will her disguise remain a secret in the tough and grueling life of a page?

A little bit of magic, a little bit of deceit, and a whole lot of loyalty and heart. This book was an unexpected delight. A middle-grade read, which is a genre I usually don’t dabble in, I can’t wait to share this story with my knight-obsessed son when he gets a bit older and can better understand the nuances of necessary violence (even that phrase feels wrong, but mostly it’s about figuring out when and how to fight back). Some thieves are heroes, some bullies must be defeated alone, and an element of dark magic and mystery that makes for a compelling series. I will have to read on to find out who can be trusted in Alanna’s world.

I never would have picked up this book if it had not been for this 2024 reading challenge set up by the impossibly cool

Jess Tholmer

for her

completely booked

newsletter. Alanna is a YA book published the year I was born (hello 1983). Thanks Jess!

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ON THE NIGHTSTAND:

in hand: Lunar Love by Lauren Kung Jessen

on Kindle: I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

in ear: A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny

ON DECK:

The next and last book in Backman’s Beartown series: The Winners. Bring it.

My dude is an English teacher so a perk of summer is helping him back up his bookshelf and stealing all the YA books I want to read…here are all the ones I borrowed this time (better get reading!)

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ADULTING:

Life hack: If you want to check if a candle on a high-up shelf is lit do not check said candle by tipping it toward your line of sight. This may or may not seem like an obvious and never needed tip, like something nobody in their sound mind would ever need to be told, and you may or may not be right.

Complete unrelated life hack: If you ever want your toilet bowl to smell delicious with little to no effort, drop a little hot candle wax into it, and then don’t even worry about cleaning it up right away (or ever. Still smelling good in there).

See you next time and happy reading y’all.