Read:
Prophet Song – Paul Lynch (Grove Press, 2023)
Pandora’s Jar – Natalie Haynes (Harper Perennial, 2020)
Damned If I Do – Percival Everett (Dreamscape Media, 2026)
Kingfisher – Rozie Kelly (Saraband, 2025)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – J.K. Rowling (Bloomsbury, 2000)
The Boy From the Sea – Garrett Carr (Picador, 2025)
Babel – R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager, 2023)
Currently Reading:
The Odyssey – Homer
Anne’s House of Dreams – L.M. Montgomery
Thoughts:
I’ve been largely absent from around here in August and while it was a somewhat deliberate choice, I have missed it! August is busy for me at work with the annual Writers Festival and then Pearl got her cast off and we’ve been trying to cram in as much Summer Family fun as we can. (More soon on some of our August adventures!) So while I haven’t been blogging, I have been reading and sitting in the sun and going to the beach and picking blackberries and drinking hot chocolate at the park.
I struggled through Prophet Song and then loved Pandora’s Jar, which spring-boarded me to now reading The Odyssey. I picked Damned If I Do as my audiobook because it’s short stories that I could listen to in short segments (my audiobook time is drastically reduced when my kids are off school) and then figured out that short stories in audio format don’t really work for me. I was disappointed by Kingfisher which had come highly recommended but was very impressed by The Boy From the Sea. I finished Goblet of Fire as a family read-aloud and started Anne’s House of Dreams. I brought Babel along on our last big summer trip and it was perfect. I’d like to still get some reviews up for my August reads but no promises.
2026 Reading Goals:
77/100 books (7 in August)
Theological: 0/12
Translated Works: 8/12 (none in August)
Pre-2025 TBR: 11/25 (none in August)
Goliaths: 8/6 (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Babel in August)
Owned: 20/25 (Prophet Song, Pandora’s Jar, Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire, The Boy From the Sea, and Babel in August)
Current TBR: 198 (previously 199)
What’s Next:
I have lots of audiobooks I want to get to once school starts, including a BBC version of Euripedes’ plays and an audio version of Natalie Haynes’ latest – continuing on my Ancient Greek theme. September is always a bit of a reset for me as we return to a stricter daily schedule. My hope is to use that restart to read some of the more theological books that have been languishing on my TBR for a long time. I have 4 or 5 I’ve earmarked for fall reading but that may be overly ambitious. We shall see.
10 Books of Summer:
The Golem and the Jinni – Helene Wecker
A Fortune of Sand – Ruta Sepetys
Prophet Song – Paul Lynch
The Boy from the Sea – Garrett Carr
The Odyssey – Homer (translated by Emily Wilson)
Abiding Dependence – Ron Block
Babel – R.F. Kuang
The Rise & Fall of Great Powers – Tom Rachman
A Horse at Night – Amina Cain
A Circle of Quiet – Madeleine L’Engle
Overall, not great. I ended up following my own whims when deciding what to read, more than following my list. Turns out, I love making lists more than I love completing lists. In the end, I read a lot of great books this summer and I did cross off some titles that I’d meant to get to for a long time so I don’t call it all a loss!
What Pearl Read:
Dragon Spear – Jessica Day George
Inheritance – Christopher Paolini
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library – Chris Grabenstein (You can read my review of this book from 2018 here.)
A Wind in the Door – Madeleine L’Engle
Mystery at the Manor – Alasdair Beckett-King
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – J.K. Rowling
Inkheart – Cornelia Funke
2026 Reading Goal: 69/100
Karissa Reads Books 