July Book Report

A month full of comfort reading; lots audiobooks and old favorites

It’s been a month full of….. well, lots of things. Endless summer days mean I fill them to the brim with too many activities on my plate (something I am always fighting against) and crash into bed at the end, only to fall asleep a few sentences later.

more evidence that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree with this one

I also read a few duds this month, so it was easy to give into sleep.

Later in the month, my brain was full of Big Life Stuff and I needed reading to be an escape, a mental break. The weather also cooled, which gave me permission to rest.

As I’ve said before, reading is a deeply personal act. I make lists and plan what to read next but ultimately, what I pick up depends on the day and how I am feeling. I’m still working on books to fill some of my more challenging BINGO squares and had big plans this month to check some of the boxes off, but it just didn’t happen.

So I reverted to re-reading some old favorites, devouring a book I don’t have an open BINGO square for, and listening to audiobooks while I kept my hands busy and body in motion.

I aimed to learn from some big nonfiction reads this month, but instead, I learned through fiction. And this is the big gift of fiction, I think. Our time reading in any capacity is valuable—all those “fluff reads” are pushing my brain! Even though they’re fictional, phrases, characters, and events stick with us and help us understand and engage with our nonfictional world.

It was still a great reading month, just different than I expected. ✨

“The kind of deep reading that a sequence of printed pages promotes is valuable not just for the knowledge we acquire from the author’s words but for the intellectual vibrations those words set off in our own minds. In the quiet spaces opened by the sustained, undistracted reading of a book… we foster our own ideas.”

Katherine Johnson Martinko of The Analog Family

July reads

Sandwich by Catherine Newman

I read this review of Sandwich and went immediately to the bookstore to buy it.

The next night, I read it cover to cover in a fever dream while having a night away from my family. I was enveloped in a hotel robe and plush bedding plowing through the raw emotion of this novel and just yearning to be ensconced in the nostalgia of my own childhood annual beach vacation. I was reliving layered memories of my childhood, wanting to cuddle my child (who is growing up way too fast!), and anxiously mourning the visible aging of my own parents— all at the same time.

Much like parents will go out of town (for a break! I need a break!) and spend most of the time looking at pictures of their kid (why are we like this?), I was on an intentional break from parenting and family time, devouring a book about the interweaving relationships of family life.

There was so much feeling in these words! I underlined and dog-eared pages and wrote in the margins and immediately want to read it again but also want to stop reading and experience my own life in the same full way. I will probably do both.

What I’m trying to say is that Sandwich is a book about a middle-aged mom dealing with her adult kids and her aging parents but it’s also decidedly not that. It’s a book that plumbs the experience of parenthood without being about parenthood. It’s a book that sings about the beautiful liminal moments of parental corporeality - the soft heaviness of a baby sleeping on one’s chest - only to bring us back to earth with sticky, grabbing, needing hands and the effort of ongoingness.

Sara Petersen

My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan

This was a great audiobook, and I especially enjoyed the vibrant descriptions of Oxford. As a new teacher, I completed a student teaching semester in a Cambridge primary school, so reading this book about a driven American girl adjusting to life in the UK brought back some sweet nostalgia for me.

The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren

This was another very sweet audiobook. I loved that single mom Jess was raising her daughter within a non-traditional family and the ways her village showed up and supported her.

The Comfort of Ghosts (Maisie Dobbs) by Jacqueline Winspear

Another audiobook — this one I devoured! And at the same time, was so sad to finish. I am so sad to say goodbye to Maisie!

You may remember my love of Maisie Dobbs from last year, and this final installment of the series came out in June. I loved the way this story brought back threads and characters from previous cases as if to allow us to say goodbye to them all. 💚

Harry Potter

When life feels heavy, I always turn to Harry Potter, and as this month started to feel heavy, that’s exactly what I did.

I admit that I may have contributed to my own weighty feelings — at one point a few weeks ago, I was trying to read Dopesick, The Anxious Generation, and Poverty by America all at once (all excellent! And heavy! Causing me some angst about the state of our world.).

Anyway, when being a grown-up feels like a bit too much, Jim Dale narrating the Harry Potter audiobooks is like a comfort blanket I can carry around with me. If you’re new around here, read more about the origins of my love for HP here:

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And that’s all for now! What unexpected books are you reading? Drop a comment to share!

Hi! I’m Liz. Thanks for being here and reading my journals on the journey. If you’re new, learn a bit more about me and this space here and consider subscribing to my weeklyish posts. You can choose which types of posts to receive via email or make other changes to your subscription with the button above.

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