I'm working my way through #VirtualMountTBR2025. Here's my current To-Be-Read List, and here's the list of titles I have read this year.
In June 2025
Books read: 8
Books I decided NOT to finish: 1
The Garden: Recommended solely by title by a colleague. I struggled with the slowness of the plot and the sense of looming dread. Obviously there were secrets behind the life of these weird sisters, but when I realized I was more than halfway through the book without having learned any, I acknowledged that I just wasn't curious enough to sit through the rest.
Books left on the TBR List: 34 (plus 4 checked out/in progress)
Best book of the month: Plants That Feed Us
Surprise! A nonfiction title for young readers from the 1950s captured my attention. Although I have a few concerns that might need fact-checking (such as the etymology of "gumbo" originating from Portuguese sailors? Not enslaved West Africans?) and tripped over a couple of publishing-date-appropriate anachronisms (tinned powdered mustard on your mom's shopping list?), I'd feel comfortable transmitting most of the content to my small gardener as we work together on the vegetable beds and in the kitchen.
Worst book of the month: Jay's Gay Agenda
I feel bad, because it's nice to have queer rep in YA lit, and less of it is about men. But I had to convince myself to keep going (against my proclamation of only-what-I-like!) and didn't really love it. Maybe it's an authentic take on what it's like to be a gay teen guy, but I kept wishing there wasn't so much about the main character's pantsfeelings.
I actually returned most of my library check-outs at one point this month. Then I got fussy because I didn't want to finish the book I was in the middle of, didn't have anything else to read, and checked out five more. Once I read a chapter or two of each and decided I could keep going, I only DNFed one of the five (and I finished the one I'd gotten stuck on in the first place). Later, when I ran out of books at camp for a week, I made use of their lending library shelves. So not much progress on the TBR list overall.