Summer break is beginning to wind down and that means my return to west Texas is imminent. That revelation has increased my stress level significantly as I attempt to tie up as many loose ends in the Geriatric Ward as possible before leaving. I’ll do anything to try to keep as much of this stress off of Mom as possible.
As the stress has climbed, reading has been a welcome escape. Reading a novel about death during the Black Plague was probably not the best choice for this season of my life, but I got through the book and enjoyed the read — despite the tears! Here’s a look at what I finished, what I’m reading, and how things went in the month of July.
What I Finished This Week
Bookstore on the Bay by Leeanna Morgan. Bookstore on the Bay was a charming romance about two older adults who find a second chance at love. Isabel and her three friends first met as teens at a summer camp in Sapphire Bay. Many years later, she returns to the Bay to start again after the death of her husband. Frank made his way to the small town after leaving a lucrative job in Seattle. When he found that a security company was acting deceitfully and putting people in danger, he sounded the alarm. Now they are out to stop him from testifying at any cost. After losing his daughter and her husband in a tragic car accident, Frank decides that Sapphire Bay is the perfect place for him and his grandson Thomas to find stability and safety while the lawsuit calms down. When Frank crosses paths with Isabel, the two know that they have found something they were not expecting. Leeanna Morgan creates a cute story that kept me turning the page to see what was going to happen to these loveable characters. 4 stars.
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. I was a bit skeptical going into my reading of this novel. So often, I find that many of the blockbuster novels don’t live up to the hype. O’Farrell’s novel was certainly worthy of the praise it received. I found it fascinating to watch the relationship between Shakespeare and Agnes grow and falter as they faced unimaginable tragedy in the face of the Black Death. The novel was poignant; I found myself marking several especially beautiful passages about death, grief, and the artistic process to revisit later. I’m definitely planning to investigate more of O’Farrell’s novels later. 4 stars.
What I’m Currently Reading
Voyager by Diana Gabaldon (p. 170 of 870). Progress in the latest volume of the Outlander series was stunted this week. With lots of other projects demanding my attention as I prepare to leave the Geriatric Ward later this week and getting pulled into Hamnet, I made less progress here than I had hoped. Still, the story is great! I’ve enjoyed watching Jamie’s leadership in prison as Claire learns more about what happened to her husband from another century. I’m just getting into Jamie’s indentured servitude and how he is being blackmailed by the young Lady of the estate. This will be the final Big Book of Summer for me this year, so I’m happy as long as I am steadily making progress.
The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (p. 42 of 370). On a visit to the Memphis library last week, I presented one of the librarians with a challenge that he admitted was one of the more interesting he had heard this year. As part of the Summer Beach Read challenge, I needed to find a work of historical fiction that had a six-letter word as the first word of the text. He furrowed his brow and asked if I meant the first word of the title. No, the prompt clearly says the first word in the book is to be six letters long. (I know! This is crazy, right?) I had decided to be very literal in my interpretation of the prompt and use the first word of the text as opposed to any introductory material. So we decided to begin our search by looking at authors who wrote multiple works of historical fiction that came highly recommended by library patrons. Then, it was just going to be a scavenger hunt. I was really lucky that the second author on the list he provided led me to two books that would fit the prompt: The Other Einstein and The First Ladies. The second novel sounded the most interesting to me in the moment, so that’s the one I have chosen to begin reading. (In case you are wondering, the novel begins with the sentence “Nearly fifty blocks whir past my cab window as I ride through the upper reaches of Manhattan from the Hotel Olga in Harlem.” This one is going to be about the unlikely relationship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune. I’m looking forward to getting further into this novel this week.
July 2026 in Review
July turned out to be my most productive reading month of 2026 thus far! I have to admit that I’m a little surprised at how much was accomplished given all that has been going on in the Geriatric Ward. Audio books and e-books certainly helped me out a lot.
- Books I read in July: 12 (up 3 from June)
- Pages read in July: 2,874 (up 224 from June)
- Highest rated book: Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez (4.75 stars)
- Lowest rated book: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (2.75 stars)
The 52 Book Club Challenge Progress
With the end of July, I managed to cross the halfway point of the 2026 challenge. That’s a month later than I would have liked, but I think I’m still in a fairly good place to finish on track. I have plans for several of the prompts that remain and only two of those are really worrying me at this point — the stand alone science fiction novel and the genre defining book. I had planned to read Dune for genre defining, but I’m starting to get cold feet about that selection. I may shelf that one for the 2027 challenge and find another option for this year. At this point, I just need books that I am really excited about reading that will keep me moving forward.
The 52 Book Club Summer Beach Read Challenge
Five of July’s reads moved me around the game board in the summer challenge. If you look closely, you will see First Ladies just before the start space. So I’m getting ready to make my second lap of the board! The game element getting added into the challenge has really made this one addictive and something I want to play through.
Reading for Me 
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