June '26 Reading Recap
Spoiler-Free Reviews
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June was a fun reading month! I was juggling a number of different books in different genres, but I was pretty steady with it. No matter the mood, there was always a book for me to enjoy and here are the 4 that I finished this month!
June Book Club Pick
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
“There are so many ways of being despicable it quite makes one’s head spin. But the way to be really despicable is to be contemptuous of other people’s pain.”
For Pride month, we decided to read a book by a queer author and James Baldwin was the clear favorite. And after reading Giovanni’s Room, I understand why. I couldn’t have been more impressed with the prose and its storytelling. While it is very much a queer story, there’s so much one can get out of it who doesn’t identify with the queer community. It’s a story about failing to accept the parts of you you’re ashamed of and the consequences from it. And within it, is this tender, brief romance that ends in heartbreak.
The pacing is also incredible, it flows so smoothly. There’s a certain rhythm to it that I can’t quite explain that makes it such a breeze to get through. I knew within the first four pages of the book I would enjoy it, but I wasn’t expecting this to be one of my favorite reads of the year so far! There’s nothing more to say other than you should read it now if you haven’t yet.
Personal Reads
To Smithereens by Rosalyn Drexler
“Work is a load of pigshit”
This was very much one of the more interesting books I’ve read so far this year. Imagine if Woody Allen and Robert Crumb attempted to write a novel - it’d be something like this. I don’t say that as a bad thing, despite Allen being a horrible man. The story is set in 1960’s NYC where an art critic with a fetish for big women named Paul meets and dates Rosa, a young tall woman who is rather aimless in life. Paul convinces Rosa to try out wrestling and from there the story takes off into weird, psychosexual directions, that are also pretty funny.
I liked the book but nothing more. It flows rather awkwardly, which is my biggest complaint; it made the narrative feel disjointed. I understood Paul, more than I understood Rosa, but I also believe that to be intentional. I think Drexler wants to show women as complicated and strange little freaks the same way men are. Everyone’s a freak in this, but that doesn’t make every character interesting either.
More interesting than the book is the authors life. Rosalyn Drexler was/is: a wrestler, a novelist, and most famously, a talented artist of the Pop movement. Just from my brief research on her, her life would make an amazing book, likely better than this one. However that doesn’t deter me from wanting to read her other novels and get a better sense of her storytelling sensibilities.
Zama by Antonio di Benedetto
“For those who make a habit of injustice complete their work by splattering their victims with ignominy.”
I’ve been eyeing this book on my shelf for a long while and I knew I would get started during the summer. I underlined A LOT of passages while reading, which is a positive sign. There are 2 pages in the middle of this book that knocked me on my ass, I read it like 5 different times because of how beautiful and vividly it came across. It’s a book that once I started, I couldn’t put it down, but I still made sure to take my time because I had the feeling I was reading something special. And while I certainly enjoyed what I read, the story didn’t grip me like I thought it would.
Whether it was because of expectations (which is pretty fitting considering the themes of the book) or juggling two other books at the same time, the story did not hit me as much as I thought it would. But the prose is masterful, translator Esther Allen deserves her flowers because while I wasn’t gripped by the story, the writing itself held me captive and that’s what I want out what I read. I can see myself going back to this book time and time again and only makes me more curious for di Benedetto’s other novels.
Howling Dark (Sun Eater #2) by Christopher Ruocchio
“We trade the mythology of childhood for knife-edged reality and call it truth, forgetting that there are deep truths, and deeper magics in our universe.”
As someone who doesn’t read a lot of series, I’m really excited to go through this one. This space opera is melodramatic, action-packed, and methodical in its pacing that makes this one of the more fun books I’ve read so far this year. As a book #2, I think Howling Dark improves on the first in a lot of way, despite me still preferring the first one. Once again, the prose is truly the standout of this series. I haven’t read a whole lot of genre fiction in the past 5 years, but I feel confident in saying that this is one of the best written book on the science fantasy genre. And Ruocchio does an exceptional job at rooting for our hero and making us cheer for what he wants above all, even if it isn’t for the best. His Catholicism is also showing in this book, but I wasn’t complaining.
As a sequel, the world has expanded but it doesn’t feel bloated, it just builds from the previous book. The story is more bombastic, but similar to the first book, the pacing is slightly off in moments, but it was also an improvement. The slow moments are necessary and add much to our protagonist. Can’t wait to get to Book #3 when I get there.
Currently Reading:
The Odyssey by Homer (Translated by Robert Fagles)
The Power and the Glory by Jonathan Wilson
What did YOU read in June? Have you read any of the books I read? Let’s talk about it!
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How fucking good is Giovanni's Room.
Thanks for the rec on Zama. I have been wanting to read it and watch the film!