Clare L. Deming

I didn’t do too badly with my June reading, and with the end of June, this also brings us to the halfway point of 2025. Despite my unrealistic goal of 96 books that I set on this post here, I am doing really well with my reading with 25 books completed so far, thereby putting me on track to read 50 books for the year. That is realistically the highest number I’ll ever hit unless I start reading significantly shorter books, quit my day job, or stop doing any writing, exercise, or cooking.

Overall I’m happy with my reading progress for the year so far! I’ve even managed to keep up with my posts and book reviews here (more or less). On top of that, I put together an e-book of one of my own short stories that is one of my favorite things that I’ve written. You can find my story, Renewal, by following this link.

In June, I finished listening to The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst as an audiobook. I finally had a chance to pick up the second book in Mark Lawrence’s Library Trilogy with The Book That Broke the World. You can find my review of the first book, The Book That Wouldn’t Burn, here. Then I finished up Inverse by Margot Conor, one of the members of my writing group. With my recent back problems, I needed something easy to read to finish up the month, so I jumped into the third book in the ACOTAR series by Sarah J. Maas – A Court of Wings and Ruin (paid links).

Total pages read in June = 2,014.

I’m currently reading only two books. Expeditionary Force: Columbus Day is an audiobook that starts a military science fiction series, and I only have 6 hours left to go. The Book That Held Her Heart is the final book in Mark Lawrence’s Library series, and I’m less than 100 pages into it (paid links).

Looking ahead for the next month, I have a few books that I’m definitely planning to read in July, either for book club discussions or as upcoming releases that I’m reviewing for Net Galley. The ones that are book club picks include To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose and Artificial Condition (Murderbot Diaries #2) by Martha Wells. I received an ARC of The Feeding by Anthony Ryan and an e-book copy of Artificial Wisdom by Thomas R. Weaver from Net Galley to review (paid links).

I expect that I’ll start the next audiobook in the Outlander series with A Breath of Snow and Ashes (#6) sometime in July, and then if I’m doing really well, perhaps the next book in The Wheel of Time series with The Path of Daggers (#8) (paid links). There are plenty of other books that I’ve had on my upcoming reads list, and I may also pick up one of those, depending on my mood later in July.

Of course, I wouldn’t be myself if I didn’t pick up some new books this month. Orbital by Samantha Harvey is about astronauts and won the Booker Prize recently, so I picked this up in audiobook format. It’s quite short (5 hours), so I might use it to break up my Outlander listening (paid link). Artificial Wisdom is one of the books I already mentioned receiving from Net Galley.

After I enjoyed The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong so much (review here), I was ecstatic to see that the publisher approved me for a copy of the author’s upcoming book, The Keeper of Magical Things, on Net Galley. Then the latest surprise book that I received from Fairy Loot is the new bestseller Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab. I’ll put a coupe of photos of the special edition below.

How have you done with your own reading goals for the year so far? What books are you most looking forward to reading later this year? Let me know in the comments!