Yeahh, June has been by best reading month so far this year. Seven books. And all 3 stars and higher. This is when reading is fun. I don’t want to jinx it by saying I am back in the book game but it does feel good to have books again. That I’d rather read then do other stuff. Let’s have a Book talk so you know what I mean.
Leaving Mother Lake by Yang Erche Namu, Christine Mathieu | ★★★★★
Book Blurb: The haunting memoir of a girl growing up in the Moso country in the Himalayas – a unique matrilineal society. But even in this land of women, familial tension is eternal. Namu is a strong-willed daughter, and conflicts between her and her rebellious mother lead her to break the taboo that holds the Moso world together – she leaves her mother’s house.
First Sentence: Meine Mutter hat vergessen, wann ich geboren wurde | My mother forgot, when I was born.
What I thought: This was such an interesting and eye opening read. I googled so many things and looked at photos online and listened to the music to get a feeling and vibe of this society. I am interested in yak butter and butter tea and would try if I had the chance. The music sounds otherworldly. And the lake and region of china looks like the divine place a paradise would be placed. I planned to write a whole blog post about but I didn’t and know all my thoughts are buried already. I also like that this book was co-written by a scientist.
Curious count: none tracked as read in German and forgot.
Setting: Lake Lugu, Chinese province of Yunnan and Sichuan
Medium: eBook through Kindle unlimited, library | audiobook through library | paperback | hardcover
Original Language and Title: English
Publications: German title “Das Land der Töchter”
Recommend to: Everyone wanting to learn about a different culture and what of living.
Author’s Origin: born in Lugu Lake, China | August 1966
Read Around the World: Logged for China in my Read Around the World Challenge
Additional note: listen to her sing in this video or look at this slide show for images.
Last List of Mabel Beaumont by Laura Pearson | ★★★★✶
Book Blurb: Mabel Beaumont’s husband Arthur loved lists.
He’d leave them for her everywhere. ‘ eggs, butter, sugar’. ‘I love today, tomorrow, always’.
But now Arthur is gone. He softly, gently, not making a fuss. But he’s still left her a list. This one has just one item on it ‘Find D’. Mabel feels sure she knows what it means. She must track down her best friend Dot, who she hasn’t seen since the fateful day she left more than sixty years ago. It seems impossible. She doesn’t even know if Dot’s still alive. Also, every person Mabel talks to seems to need help first, with missing husbands, daughters, parents. Mabel finds her list is just getting longer, and she’s still no closer to finding Dot. What she doesn’t know is that her list isn’t just about finding her old friend. And that if she can admit the secrets of the past, maybe she could even find happiness again…
First Sentence: Seit zweiundsechzig Jahren stehe ich morgens am Wasserkocher und koche Tee für Arthur und mich. | For sixty-two years, I’ve been standing by the kettle every morning, making tea for Arthur and me.
What I thought: This book made me cry. Twice. First on page 28 and then again in the end. I don’t know what it was but this book moved me deeply. An older couple in the 80’s, childless and then the husband days (this is no spoiler). How does life go on from there? With all the sadness it was also full of humor, friendship and hope. I loved the different quirky characters of different age groups and backgrounds who happened to cross pass. Everything about this story was wonderful. And I just discovered minutes ago there is sequel that is already loaded on my kindle.
Curious count: didn’t count
Characters: Mabel Beaumont – elderly women, Arthur – late husband to Mabel, Dot – childhood friend to Dot,
Setting: some small town outside of London
Medium: paperback
Original Language and Title: English
Publications: German title “Mrs Mabels letzte Liste”
Recommend to: Everyone loving quirky characters and a heartfelt story.
Author’s Origin: born in Glasgow, Great Britain | May 30th, 1984
Heard of/Recommended by: birthday present by my best friend
Briefly Perfectly Human by Alua Arthur | ★★★★☆
Book Blurb: A deeply transformative memoir that reframes how we think about death and how it can help us lead better, more fulfilling and authentic lives. For her clients and everyone who has been inspired by her humanity, Alua Arthur is a friend at the end of the world. As our country’s leading death doula, she’s spreading a transformative message: thinking about your death—whether imminent or not—will breathe wild, new potential into your life.
First Sentence: The car horn blasts, snapping me back to my senses just as I slam my hands on the hood and instinctively pull my body away from the red and yellow taxi.
What I thought: This was a very uplifting read/listen despite the topic. There was so much energy and joy of life woven in. It gave some good pointers about what struggles at the end of life can be, what humans want to get done before the end is here and how to prepare for one self but also for people surrounding.
Curious count: none as on audio
Medium: audiobook through library
Original Language and Title: English
Publications: no German translation found but a few other languages
Recommend to: Everyone who wants to normalize death as part of life and who wants to be prepared or not leave chaos.
Author’s Origin: born in Ghana | May 29th, 1978
Read Around the World: Logged for Ghana in my Read Around the World Challenge
Additional note: Here is a TED Talk by the author.
Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley | ★★★★☆
Book Blurb: This is a love story. It’s the story of Howling Books bookstore, where readers write letters to strangers, to lovers, to poets. It’s the story of Henry Jones and Rachel Sweetie. They were best friends once, before Rachel moved to the sea. Now, she’s back, working at the bookstore, grieving for her brother Cal and looking for the future in the books people love, and the words they leave behind.
First Sentence: Dear Henry, I’m leaving this letter on the same page as ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ because you love the poem, and I love you.
What I thought: This was a cute audiobook to listen to. I loved the idea of a second hand bookstore with a shelf of books people used to send messages to strangers or for secret lovers. I liked the characters and the struggles. A beautiful story about love, grief, friendship. Overall this was a wonderful time spent.
Curious count: not counted as audiobook
Characters: Henry Jones – boy, Rachel Sweetie – girl, Cal – deceased brother to Rachel, George – sister to Henry, Amy – girlfriend to Henry
Setting: second hand bookstore in Australia
Medium: audiobook through library
Original Language and Title: English
Publications: German title “Das tiefe Blau der Worte”
Recommend to: Everyone loving a story placed in a bookstore and needs some feel good story.
Author’s Origin: born in Melbourne, Australia | December 23rd, 1971
The invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab | ★★★★☆
Book Blurb: France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever – and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.
First Sentence: A girl is running for her life.
What I thought: I enjoyed the story. In the beginning I was very much comparing it to “The sudden Appearance of Hope” and was not sure if it was copied but it became its own story. There is a lot of walk online that it is boring and slow. I can not really agree. But it is also not your fast paced book people seem to like these days.
Curious count: 8
Characters: Adeline / Addie – girl who can’t leave a mark and is immortal, Henry – lover another doomed soul, Luke – good looking devil
Setting: span of three hundred years mainly in France but other European countries and the U.S.
Medium: eBook through Kindle unlimited
Original Language and Title: English
Publications: German title “Das unsichtbare Leben der Addie LaRue”
Recommend to: Everyone loving fantasy, historical facts interwoven, slightly darker at times and a devil to fall for.
Author’s Origin: born in California, U.S. | July 7, 1987
Tropic Envy by Nate van Coops | ★★★★☆
Book Blurb: For pilot and mechanic Luke Angel, the local airport is his home. But a community of attention seekers, hotheads, and daredevils isn’t a quiet place to do business. After a selfless act of heroism is caught on camera, Luke is thrust into an unwanted spotlight, and he’s getting to know more of his neighbors than he’d bargained for; including the bombshell influencer, the disgruntled instructor, and a snarky corporate charter captain.
First Sentence: Falling out of an airplane’s the number one stunt Americans associate with thrill-seeking.
What I thought: I enjoyed this book. Just what I needed when another book was a bit too slow. I love the quirky humor of the author and the characters. I love the lifestyle oozing of the pages.
Curious count: 11
Characters: Luke Angel – pilot/mechanic/business owner, Reese – employee, friend and former military member of Luke, Tyson – young mechanic, Rip – jump instructor, mechanic, Sierra Noble – influencer, Diana – charity owner and love interest to Luke, Bud Truman – flight instructor, Nina Yee – flight student
Setting: Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg, Florida,
Medium: eBook through Kindle unlimited, library | audiobook through library | paperback | hardcover
Original Language and Title: English
Publications: no translation
Recommend to: Everyone who has read the first three books
Author’s Origin: born in Calistoga, U.S.A. | November 1980
Additional note: book 4 in the Archangel Aviation Series
Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman | ★★★✶☆
Book Blurb: As a member of the strictly religious Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism, Deborah Feldman grew up under a code of relentlessly enforced customs governing everything from what she could wear and to whom she could speak to what she was allowed to read. Yet in spite of her repressive upbringing, Deborah grew into an independent-minded young woman whose stolen moments reading about the empowered literary characters of Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott helped her to imagine an alternative way of life among the skyscrapers of Manhattan. Trapped as a teenager in a sexually and emotionally dysfunctional marriage to a man she barely knew, the tension between Deborah’s desires and her responsibilities as a good Satmar girl grew more explosive until she gave birth at nineteen and realized that, regardless of the obstacles, she would have to forge a path – for herself and her son – to happiness and freedom.
First Sentence: On the eve of my twenty-fourth birthday I interviews my mother.
What I thought: This was fascinating reading. Such a different world. Such alien experiences. Very heard to fathom the treatment between men and women. And yet it seems to make sense in the society. There were scenes that are heard. Things heard to understand. I was left with the feeling that once again books and knowledge mean freedom. If you restrict these things you can control people. Manipulate.
Curious count: forgot to count in all the one taking
Setting: Williamsburg, small town New Jersey
Medium: paperback through library
Original Language and Title: English
Publications: German title “Unorthodox”
Recommend to: Everyone wanting to know about another religion.
Author’s Origin: born in Ney York, U.S.A. | August 27th, 1986
Additional note: We read this in our church group and had a book discussion about this.
Additional note: There is a Netflix mini series based on the book.
Additional note: The author now lives in Berlin with her son.
Book Stats for June 2026
Books I couldn’t finish
These are the first DNF’ed books this year.
- The Age of Innocence – abandoned at 36% – I had to admit that I will not finish this and was not interested enough to read after the book club was over.
- You’ve reached Sam – stopped at 8% – picked up for church bulletin recommendation but didnt finish in time, recommended anyways
New books on the shelves
Always buying books even though I am trying to reduce my TBR pile. Here is this month purchases. Please hold me accountable and ask if I read them or just piled them up.
- The Last List of Mabel Beamont by Laura Pearson – birthday gift by my friend
What’s your best reading month so far in 2026? How many books did you DNF this year? Any new books you snatched in June? How many library books are currently at your home? What is a summer read you need me to pick up?
