june 2025 reading journey
Since I have been back to teaching (in a less formal capacity), I have fallen behind on some of my personal projects lately including documenting my book reviews. On the bright side, I am reading so much more than the past two months, which has been good for my mental health.
This was helped, in part, by joining a book club for the summer: High Brow hosted by Mina Le. It was such a joy to share my notes with other people and to chew on their observations in return. Iāve enjoyed both of the books chosen, too, which has always been a worry of mine when agreeing to read alongside other people.
1. Animal Ark by Jenny Oldfield (Volumes 17-18)
My Animal Ark read-a-thon has fallen back on my priority list, and I think I needed the break from that world. Iāll pick it up again later this year when my schedule frees up a bit more. The two volumes I read at the start of the month have been documented in my most recent post in that series.
2. The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji
A breezy, locked room mystery novel inspired heavily by And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie; in fact, one of the characters - who are each part of a group of mystery novel enthusiasts - adopts āAgathaā as her pseudonym. The chapters alternate between the college student fans who are spending a week on an island where an infamous murder took place and with characters who left the group due to personal disagreements. As a result, there are two ongoing investigations: one at the infamous Decagon House and one on land as news comes forward that someone might suspect the group of past fowl play, putting everyone who left in potential danger.
You really have to go along with the premise with this one as there are quite a few elements that call for suspension of disbelief given the gruesome nature of the locked room design; however, I still had a lot of fun trying to solve the mystery. I could see a few of the twists coming, but that didnāt make them any less enjoyable to experience as a reader.
That said, I can understand why this might be a miss for a lot of people; some of the dialogue is a bit off and whole elements of plot are repeated a few times by different characters with new details revealed each time, mind you. Some people might find that a bit dull, especially if they are itching for the book to get on with it to the big reveal.
What worked best for me was Morisu Kyoichi, an outsider to the drama of the Mystery Club who, for his own reasons, decides to tagalong with the investigation taking place off-island. Iām interested to see how Ayatsuji will continue to use this character in his other novels.
3. Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, Vol. 16 by CLAMP
Such a bittersweet farewell to one of my favorite childhood series. Iām satisfied where Akihoās story brought her and happy to see Sakura settling into life with all of her loved ones - especially now that Tomoyo has decided to pivot from magical costumes to elaborate dresses for her dear friendās dates with Syaoran. Thereās still magic in the world, but we also see Sakura off to a potentially more stable future. If CLAMP were to return to this world, I would eat it up; I know not everyone was a big fan of Clear Card, but I just treasure these characters so much.
4. Baby Sisterās Little Sister: Karenās Prize by Shauna J. Grant
Karen was SO frustrating in this one. Basically, her school hosts a class spelling bee noting that it could open doors for many more competitions: against other students at the school, in the district, in the state, and in the country. Karen works her butt off studying, which does drag some of her friends and family down because it really becomes her biggest hyperfixation - spelling at the table, on the playground, in class, during every conversation. The big lesson here is about how people donāt just struggle with being a sore loser, but with being a sore winner; even as Karen excels at competition after competition, she burns a lot of bridges along the way because people are losing patience with the high horse she hoists herself onto. Itās a relevant message, but it wasnāt the most fun read as a result.
5. Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers
This was my first time reading a mystery by Sayers and it was good fun! Sir Peter Whimsy is such an odd ball character. We start with such a vivid, gross description of him in the first chapter: āHis long, amiable face looked as if it had generated spontaneously from his top hat, as white maggots breed from Gorgonzola.ā I donāt find him as charming as Poirot or as shrewd as Holmes, but he has his own qualities that keep the story entertaining - especially the moments when he grapples with his consciousness, aware that his obsession with solving the mystery outweighs his interest in the individual people affected, but also growing attached to the people that he interviews and feeling conflicted about how they might be implicated. Iāll surely be returning to Sayers and Whimsey again in the future.
6. Bonjour Tristesse by FranƧoise Sagan, translated by Heather Lloyd
I had never heard of Sagan prior to Mina Le announcing this novela as our group read for June, but I had a great time annotating it for discussion. The prose is simple, smooth, and easy - the perfect quick, summer read. The characters lean into archetypes that also make them easy to orient with respect to one another. Themes I found myself circling back to included coming of age, adulthood, societal expectations for sex and gender, grief, parent-child relationships, self-destruction, and existentialism. Under the surface, there is a lot of philosophical questions to chew on, which was very fun when reading alongside others for the first time in years. Even readers who disliked the main character enjoyed trying to understand her motivations and reactions. I wrote so many notes about the book that I might come back to them at some point to compose a more formal analysis of the story, but for now, Iāve set it down for Julyās novel.
7. The Expert of Subtle Revisions by Kirsten Menger-Anderson
Originally, I attempted to read this when I was not in the headspace for literary fiction so I paused my reading and switches to a bunch of mysteries before coming back to it almost a month later. I had reached the chapter where we switch to a new characterās point of view, which I found disorienting and hard to immerse myself in at the time. During this reading session, however, I fell deeply in love with the different characters, time periods, and the mystery connecting them. The book turned out to be something quite different from what I was initially expecting: historical, speculative fiction that has a good balance between sci-fi and fantasy and that found family/romance trope that always pulls me in. After warming up with Bonjour Tristesse, I found myself annotating and dissecting a lot of the novel and it feels satisfying to have that muscle working again.