July Recap 2026
Well it’s about that time when the month is over! I can’t believe summer is already making its way to the end right now. I still have so many books I want to read! I have been super busy with work the last couple weeks so I haven’t gotten much time to prepare my recap, but here’s what I read and some of the reasons why you should or shouldn’t read these books.
Saving Zoë by Alyson Noel- This book honestly wasn’t worth my time. There’s some stuff in the book that probably shouldn’t have happened and it is confusing as to if Zoë actually died or not throughout the whole book. Echo, her sister, is reading her sister’s journal half of the time. I did not see any major reason to go back and read this again.
How to Read a Book by Monica Wood- This book was kind of different than what I would expect. The story involves a book club that occurs in a prison and there’s three main characters basically. Harriet is the one who runs the book club, Violet is the one who killed Frank’s wife in a car drunk-driving accident. Frank and Violet kind of run into each other because of Harriet and then the rest of the book is all of their story. I thought this was an interesting plot to a book. To me, it kind of shows that life isn’t always what we would expect it to be and I guess that’s how you read a book. Haha Overall, I enjoyed this book, but it wasn’t a favorite of mine. I felt like some things could have been left out and other things weren’t super clear at times as to what was going to happen, etc.
Anxiety Happens by John Forsyth & Georg Eifert- I really enjoyed reading through this book because it was a quick read, but had some good insights as to how to reduce anxiety and how to meditate so you can really have peace of mind. A couple of ways I liked were to teach us “that the mind can create an illusion of anxiety monsters that are really not monsters at all. The monsters are words, linked with images and sounds that have meanings that you have learned to give them”. The other way I liked was “when you’re faced with your anxiety tiger, don’t feed it. Stop doing what you’ve always done. Instead, do something radically different from what you have done before”. I liked both of these ideas because it kind of pulls us away from the anxiety to recognize that it’s just a thought that we have that often controls us. Overall, I learned some cool techniques from this book that I hope to start using in my day to day life. I gave this book 4 stars because it had some different perspectives on how to train yourself to reduce anxiety in your life and wasn’t just another self-help book in the line up. If you’re interested enough, I may do a longer review on this book to point out some more insights that I felt were more important than the average self-help book.
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan- I always love reading books written for younger people because they are always so creative and fascinating. This one definitely fit those categories. Also maybe I’m behind, but I have never read this series before so maybe you know more about it than I do. Basically, Zeus’s lightning bolt was stolen and Percy Jackson is the main suspect for who stole it. Percy is given about 10 days to find it and return it for peace in Mount Olympus. Overall, very creative story throughout with lots of mythological characters.
The Enemy by Sarah Adams- I think I have either listened to or read most of Sarah Adams’ books by now so I think it’s time for me to move onto something else haha This one was interesting and kind of funny though. The two main characters, June and Ryan, kind of have a rivalry against each other since high school and well we all know how this one is going to end. Kind of expected plot, but has some funny dialogue mixed in as well.
The Match by Sarah Adams- This wasn’t a favorite of mine that Adams has written. I gave this one 2 stars because it wasn’t really making the cut for me. It just felt like another story with a predictable ending. Nothing really stood out to me either. Kind of funny, but nothing to really get super excited over some of her other stories are much more entertaining.
Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell- I have never read a novel by this author before and I don’t read thrillers very often. This one seems to be interesting and entertaining, but nothing over the top. So far I’m about halfway through this story and there’s nothing to really freak out over or anything. Ellie, the daughter in this story, disappears and the mom has not a clue where she ended up, but still hasn’t lost hope that she will be found. The mom, Laurel, discovers pieces of her daughter’s story mostly towards the last half of the book through the man that she is dating named Floyd. I still haven’t finished the book so I’ll try to update you on what I rated it as next time!
Overall, I had fun this month with my reading! I hope you did too! Let me know in the comments what you like about any of these books if you have read them or know anything about them! I hope you have had a fantastic summer! I’ll be posting tomorrow about what I plan to read in August, if you want to check out more books!
