June Reading Recap
June Reading Recap: 8 Books I Read this Month
By: Brittany Shields
We’re keeping with the ‘running late on this post’ summer trend I’m riding. July’s excuse is that I was picking my daughter up from camp and then America had a birthday.
I read the same amount of books this month as May, but far less pages. I read a lot of short ones so I could accomplish more than two books this month. I’ve been busy hitting the pools and splash pads and libraries and parks with my kids all month. Plus swim lessons, a trip to Kansas City, softball and t-ball. My reading time has decreased.
But it’s all good and I love my summer time with the kids!
I think I amassed seven different genres this month
4 qualified for prompts on the Shelf Reflection’s 2025 Reading Challenge.
3 were on my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2025.
There were a couple duds, a couple new genres for me, a few solid reads, and one nostalgic one— I think you can guess which one that was!
I’ve got lots more summer activities on the agenda— we will see how many books I get in during July!
Don’t forget to follow my Facebook page for more reviews, recommendations, and book-lover fun!
1. The Wilde Trials by Mackenzie Reed
Genre: YA
[Fulfilled ‘A book with a cover the colors of your favorite athletic team’ (aka Iowa Hawkeyes) prompt as part of Shelf Reflection’s 2025 Reading Challenge]
[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2025]
“I’m going to the Wilde Trials. For two weeks, it will be me, the forest, and these fifteen people. One of whom is a bully, another who used to be my best friend, a third who used to be my boyfriend, and a fourth who is annoyingly loyal to said ex-boyfriend. Great.”
I mean. Yeah. This book is wild.
I read Reed’s debut novel, The Rosewood Hunt, and enjoyed that one a lot (for a YA novel). Unfortunately, her second novel, a similar world to the first book, didn’t hit me the same.
The whole book centers around The Wilde Trials which is an invitation-only event for seniors at a private ‘rich people’ high school in which they compete for a $600,000 prize. They go out in the forest, sleep in an abandoned estate and compete in dangerous challenges.
But I have a qualm with this book. And I think the problem would have been solved had this been a fantasy or dystopian novel, but because it’s a real life/modern-day setting, the problem remains.
You can read my rant about it in my full review and also see what parts I liked and that I wanted to like.
2. Big Dumb Eyes: Stories from a Simpler Mind by Nate Bargatze
Genre: Memoir/ Humor
[Fulfilled ‘Book written by a celebrity’ prompt as part of Shelf Reflection’s 2025 Reading Challenge]
[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2025]
I’ve been a fan of Nate Bargatze since I saw him at our local comedy club in an audience of like 50 people. It’s been fun to see his shows get bigger and bigger. Of course I had to read his book!
If you’ve seen him live or watched one of his Netflix specials (do it) then reading this book will feel a lot like the show. You can hear his voice and delivery as you read, the same straight-faced humor about weird jobs, his dad being a clown, the dynamics between him and his wife, and his love of McDonalds.
This book is part memoir, part funny story-telling. He says from the very beginning that there is not really an overarching message:
“This book is never trying to say anything even close to important… you can open it to any random chapter you want and you’ll be just fine. There isn’t any real order. No rhyme or reason behind much of anything.”
And I would say he delivered on that. In a good way! It’s an easy, enjoyable read that will make you smile. It’s something you can come back to and read part or all of again whenever you just want something light and funny to escape from the chaos of the day.
Read my full review to see what the negative reviewers are saying about this book and how I would counter and see P.P. get another shout out.
3. No Time to Be Dumb: Letters to Teenage Girls by Rachel Jankovic
Genre: YA/ Christian Living/ Parenting
“You can’t afford the time that stupid sin will take. There is no time to have the dumb years… The longer you stretch things out, the more of your life you are wasting.”
This review was challenging to write. I feel more like (read: I am) one of the old church ladies than the teenagers it’s written for.
Jankovic has four teenagers so I’m sure this book, written as letters between an aunt and her niece, grew out of the many conversations and dilemmas that arose with her own kids, thus coming from a place of authenticity with questions and conflicts prevalent for teens today.
Some of the topics include: modesty, peer pressure, emotions, repentance, body image, boys, envy, and more.
The ‘no time to be dumb’ title is a bit provocative because no one wants to be called dumb, but I do think it’s a worthy endeavor to try to explain to teenagers how dumb sin takes more of them then they realize. That fighting sin, even little sin they think is a harmless ‘I just want to try it out of curiosity’ can still really hurt them or others in the present or their future self or spouse.
You can read my full review to get more details about the book and see why I was struggling to write the review and the recommendation, read more quotes, read about flattery vs kindness, and see how I respond to the critiques.
4. The Nicene Creed: What You Need to Know about the Most Important Creed Ever Written by Kevin DeYoung
Genre: Theology
[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2025]
This year is the 1700 anniversary of the adoption of The Nicene Creed.
This is a very short (85 pages) book taking you through the creed— what the Council was all about, what the creed says, what it means, and why it matters.
DeYoung wrote a similarly short book on The Lord’s Prayer and these also remind me of Jen Wilkin’s book, Ten Words to Live By, about the ten commandments. All three books take specific ‘statements’ that the church practices or believes and fleshes them out in deeper ways than an average church-goer may even know about.
Just because something is tradition and been taught for years and years doesn’t mean it’s to be discarded, but you should know what it means and why you memorize it and quote it. These books help your understanding.
Check out my full review to get some of the (often misunderstood) historical context to the creed, consider the dichotomy of right living vs right doctrine, think about false teachers, and read DeYoung’s summary take-away statements for the creed.
5. Rift (Rift Trilogy #1) by Steven James
Genre: YA Folklore Horror
[Fulfilled ‘Two books by different authors who have the same last name’ prompt as part of Shelf Reflection’s 2025 Reading Challenge]
“There’s a lot of history here in the region, and where there’s a lot of history somewhere, you can be sure you’ll find a lot of tragedy. And where there’s a lot of tragedy, there always seem to be a lot of ghosts— or at least stories about them.”
Steven James is one of my go-to authors for good suspense thrillers. I’ve read the vast majority of his books including the Patrick Bowers series and the Travis Brock series— both excellent.
Rift, though, is a departure from his MO. At least in terms of content and genre (and MC gender).
It’s set in the Appalachian mountains and, having visited that area multiple times, James definitely captures the Smoky Mountain folklore vibes and mystery.
The basic premise revolves around Sahara, her storytelling nature, the tragic death of her father, and the basement of the library she works at where she found a ‘thin place’— a rift between the real world and another realm. A nefarious realm.
When her stories start to manifest in her world, Sahara and her friends have to find a way to close the rift before something worse happens.
Read my full review to get a few more plot details and see what deeper threads James has woven into this tale, contemplate two thought provoking quotes, and see my recommendation and thoughts on how creepy or dark this book actually is.
6. The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God by D.A. Carson
Genre: Theology
[Fulfilled ‘Book by an author whose last name is also a first name’ prompt as part of Shelf Reflection’s 2025 Reading Challenge]
“The love of God in our culture has been purged of anything the culture finds uncomfortable. The love of God has been sanitized, democratized, and above all sentimentalized.”
If you feel confused by the idea that the love of God is a ‘difficult’ doctrine, it’s possible you’ve drifted into a sentimentalized view of what God’s love is.
This book, less than 100 pages, may be a great way for you to evaluate the way you think about what you mean when you talk about God’s love. Clearly we can’t reduce or comprehensively do justice to all that God’s love entails, but, for such a short book, Carson does a really good job of covering some big pieces— including the relationship between God’s love and his providence, his love and his wrath, and his love and his sovereignty.
Read my full review to see the framework Carson poses distinguishing the different ways the Bible talks about God’s love, see some things that stuck out to me, and see what the most surprising thing was to me.
7. Save Me an Orange by Hayley Grace
Genre: Poetry
[Fulfilled ‘A book of poetry or a novella’ prompt as part of Shelf Reflection’s 2024 Reading Challenge]
I have a mixed relationship with poetry just like I have a mixed relationship with art. What makes good poetry? Bad poetry? Good art? Bad art? So much of it is subjective and dependent on what speaks to or engages the reader/viewer.
This book sent me on a fun rabbit trail of pondering poetry and asking others some of these questions. It wasn’t necessarily the content of this book that was thought-provoking for me, but to think about the concept of poetry and how one should/could write it.
This one is hard to give a recommendation for because I haven’t read much to compare it to, but I do my best to help you decide if this one is for you.
You can also read my full review to see what kind of content is in this poetry, see what I liked and didn’t like, and see how this book made me feel.
8. Sunrise on the Reaping (Hunger Games #0.5) by Suzanne Collins
Genre: YA/Dystopian
[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2025]
“That’s part of our trouble. Thinking things are inevitable. Not believing change is possible.”
This is the second prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy, the sequel to The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
BoSaS was kinda a weird prequel because it was President Snow’s ‘origin’ story and so you aren’t sure how to feel sometimes while reading, knowing what he turns into.
But Sunrise on the Reaping is Haymitch’s story— a beloved character— and so there are no mixed feelings, just rooting for him. And I liked it more for this reason. Everyone wants to love the hero.
Again, we know he doesn’t die and that he wins his Hunger Games, but we also know he turns into an aimless drunk. So what happened to him that leads to that?
Check out my full review to get more plot details, hear what my favorite part was, consider some parallels from this book and Katniss’s trilogy, and see how I respond to the negative reviews, and get my ultimate recommendation.
Please browse my site and share any book reviews to your social media that resonate with you! And follow me on Facebook for more updates and book-related posts!
Share this list to your social media!