june 2025 reads
We're already nearly 2 weeks into July, so this reading log is somewhat delayed. However, I've been reflecting on what kind of reading month I had in June, while at the same time also procrastinating writing everything up. I haven't come up with anything particularly deep, but I feel like June was definitely the month of nonfiction audiobooks. I picked up a lot of them during a sale on libro.fm and I spent June listening to them.
It's interesting that I spent so much time thinking about bodies and life with those audiobooks because I actually had a really hard time health-wise during June. I guess it was my attempt to be amazed by biology and the human condition while also raging against the machine that is my own body.
Either way, it ended up being a pretty solid month for books and I'm looking forward to all the books I'm going to read over the rest of July!
Novels, Collections, & Nonfiction
I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong
This is a book that I listened to about microbes. I saw a lot of reviews that were kind of unhappy with this book because they thought it was going to be some kind of self-help book. It is definitely not a self-help book. It's about how cool microbes are and how better understanding of them could potentially revolutionize healthcare. Super cool book.
Siren Queen by Nghi Vo
This is another book I listen to and it was narrated by my favourite narrator, Natalie Naudus. Queer, magical Hollywood during the Golden Age. Full of a burning passion. Really enjoyed it.
Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew
I believe I got this from the library because it was part of Canada Reads this year. It's by a immigration(?) lawyer and focuses on a family that immigrated to Canada when they were stateless. It's actually a topic that's been on my mind quite a bit lately and it was a really impactful novel. Highly recommend.
The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste SF edited by R.T. Samuel, Rakesh K. and Rashmi R.D.
I backed this on Kickstarter and have had the ebook ready for a few months, but honestly I didn't like it at all. I don't think that I have remotely enough knowledge about the Indian subconscious for me to enjoy this. It's a me problem, but it is still unfortunate.
The Wisdom of Plagues by Donald G. McNeil
This is another book that I listened to and it was narrated by the author himself. It talks about global health and pandemics. I was a bit worried because the author was a reporter for The New York Times for many years, but the book was actually incredibly interesting.
The Last Wish by Andrezj Sapkowski (tr. Danusia Stok)
I cannot believe I have been holding off on reading the Witcher series because it was so popular. This book was absolutely incredible. I'm a fool for not reading any of them sooner.
To Save and to Destroy by Viet Thanh Nguyen
This is another book I listen to, also narrated by the author. It's compilation of lectures that he did and it's basically about insider versus outsider dynamics. It moved me while I was listening, but the specifics have largely faded.
Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper
This is another book that I read because of Canada Reads. It's kind of a fever dream of a book that jumps back and forth in time in rural Saskatchewan. Really interesting book, but I'm still not exactly sure what happened. Probably deserves a reread at some point.
Rediscovering Turtle Island by Taylor Keen
This is another nonfiction audiobook that I picked up in the sale I mentioned earlier. Unfortunately I didn't really like it. I think it relies a lot on images that are in the book, but because I listen to the audiobook I didn't have access to those images and there were no text descriptions of the images in the audiobook version.
Sword of Destiny by Andrezj Sapkowski (tr. David French)
This is the second book in the Witcher series and it was super awesome, just like the first one. It was interesting to read it nearly immediately after I read the first book though because the translator actually changed. And even though I don't know Polish, it was actually pretty obvious to me because of the tone of the writing that the translator had changed. Food for thought for me as a translator myself.
Manga
メタモルフォーゼの縁側 Vol.1-5 by 鶴谷香央理 (Kaori Tsurutani)
I'm going to count this entry as one thing because I read all five volumes in the series and one sitting. I have been holding off reading the final volume of this series for years because I was afraid something terrible would happen to the old woman. Finally having finished the books, I feel a bit silly about that.
Witch Hat Atelier Vol. 10 by Kamome Shirahama (tr. Stephen Kohler)
Awesome as usual. We're starting to get more views of the internal politics of the witches and there are a lot of increasing tensions overall. Very excited to read the next volume.
The Way of the Househusband Vol. 1 by Kousuke Oono (tr. Sheldon Drzka)
I've read several volumes of this in Japanese, but I decided that I wanted to read it in English because it's full of dialect and that's part of the humor. I really wanted to see how the release was handled in English and I'm happy to say that it's really cool still. The letterer (whose name I couldn't find because I've already returned the book to the library) did such a cool job on the sound effects as well. Very cool stuff.
And that was my June. I'm really happy that I read a lot of nonfiction books that were kind of related and I'm also really happy that I started the Witcher series finally. Actually, starting the series reminded me that I haven't been keeping up with my translated literature challenge, which means I have several months of catching up to do. Hopefully that works out and I'll be back with some progress to report at the end of July!
As always, happy reading!
Updated 1 month, 2 weeks ago