Exit Ticket: June 2025
12 books to read and 1 more reason to read Colorado authors
Happy Summer! Here it is, almost the 4th of July, and my summer is half-over. I promised myself I wouldn’t think about school/work at all until July,1 and though I don’t consider
work, somewhere along my train route between Scotland and England last month, I decided that this break should extend to my newsletter, too. I needed a full month of reading for pure pleasure: no notes, no self-imposed deadlines, no lesson plans simmering in the corner of my brain.Reader, it was glorious.
So while I don’t have a deep-dive “You Should Read” post for June, I do have my June reading list to share, and I’ve got fantastic titles lined up for forthcoming posts. Ready, set, go!
12 Books to Read
The Parisian by Isabella Hammad — In 1914, Midhat Kamal escapes the Great War by moving to France from Nablus, a Palestinian town under Ottoman control. As he pursues his studies, he is plagued by a sense of otherness. He adopts the role of “Midhat the Levantine, with his mouchoir and new suit, now thoroughly estranged [from Nablus]: the figure of the Parisian Oriental as he appeared on certain cigarette packets in corner stores” (158). When he finds himself back in Nablus, he finds that his time in Europe now keeps him from fitting at home, too. No summary can capture this rangy, thoughtful book. If you’re looking for something to sink into (and if you liked Claire Messud’s This Strange Eventful History), you might give The Parisian at try.
Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson — I’m not sure anything can live up to Nothing to See Here, but it’s hard to go wrong with a Kevin Wilson book. This one reminded me of this ridiculous movie called Eulogy, which had me laughing until I cried back in 2004.2 Run for the Hills follows Madeline Hill and her recently discovered half-siblings as they cross the country to collect each other and confront their father.
When We Grow Up by Angelica Baker — I’m going to pull a Thumper here and just say that this book was like Sally Rooney meets White Lotus. If that’s your thing, by all means, read this book.
The Jealous One by Celia Fremlin — We spent the first two weeks of summer traveling across in the UK, so I got myself into a British murder mystery rut, which was delightful. This book was originally published in 1965, but Fremlin’s depiction of the pettiness that makes Rosamund and Geoffrey’s marriage tick still reads true today. They bond over a shared sense of superiority over their neighbors, but when free-spirited Lindy moves in next door, everything changes. The novel opens as Rosamund recovers from an unexplained illness . . . just as Lindy has gone missing. Are Rosemund’s muddled images of “Lindy’s hated, beautiful face, hurtling away into the darkness,” from a nightmare or a memory?
To the Dogs by Louise Welsh — We didn’t make it to Glasgow on this most recent trip, but I visited in 2011 and Welsh’s novel brought me right back to the city. Jim Brennan is professor criminology on the verge of a big promotion. When his n’er-do-well son is arrested, Jim must put his knowledge, and morals, to the test as he navigates the seedy underbelly of Glasgow. This book is an entertaining mystery, but it’s also an interesting commentary on the unintended consequences of gentrification in Glasgow.
We Solve Murders by Richard Osman — I love all things Thursday Murder Club, so this was an easy win! Osman fans might have been disappointed that he took a year from TMC’s squad of senior-living sleuths, but don’t worry: There are plenty of comical pensioners involved when Amy Wheeler enlists her retired father-in-law to help her track down the criminal billionaire who’s trying to kill her.
Don’t Read Poetry by Stephanie Burt — This book was so refreshing that after I finished the e-book, I immediately ordered a copy for myself. There are pages upon pages of wisdom I want to copy and share with students next year! Burt’s thesis is that thinking of poems as Poetry is limiting and intimidating. There’s not a single thing that is a Poem. Instead, “poems work in various ways toward various ends and give us various reasons to read them” (13). She outlines six such ways: feelings, characters, forms, difficulty, wisdom, and community. This book is for those regular poetry readers and stubborn poetry avoiders alike. Highly recommended for English teachers!
Wellness by Nathan Hill — I don’t just love my brother-in-law because he hooks me up with Adidas gear; he also sends me really solid book recs like this one. Wellness does so many things at once. It’s a study of a marriage; an indictment of the self-care industry; a take-down of social media’s toxic algorithms; an exploration of monogamy; a tale of buried trauma and its generational effects; an evaluation of the role and value of art; and so much more. Parts of it reminded me of Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot, which I love3, and parts reminded me of Amy Fusselman’s The Means (see below).
Instructions for Traveling West by
— Sullivan’s autobiographical poems will appeal to fans of Kate Baer or Lynsay Rush. These poems may be accessible, but they aren’t simple. Organized largely chronologically, they tell Sullivan’s story of ripping her safe life up by its roots and traveling across the country as a way to remind herself, again and again, that “joy is not a trick.” My favorite part in this collection, which I sadly returned to library and can’t quote precisely, is the lemon/fruit motif that carries through many of the poems.Endling by Maria Reva — If the words metafiction or autofiction make you squirm, it’s your loss because this book is incredible. The last time I read a book that truly awed me and left me thinking, “How in the hell did the author pull that off??” was Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. But that book is not a comp for Endling because this book was unlike anything I’ve read. Yeva is a scientist on a one-woman attempt to save Ukraine’s dwindling snail population. Nastia is a teenager trying to keep a roof over her head and find her missing mother. The two women meet through Ukraine’s marriage industry (“Romeo Meets Yuliet”) and are halfway through pulling off an outrageous stunt when Russia invades Ukraine. Please read this book.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro — In the not-too-distant future, families with means “lift” their kids via genetic engineering and provide “AFs,” or Artificial Friends, for companionship. Ishiguro narrates from the Klara’s AF point-of-view as she first longs for a home and then struggles to adapt to the strangeness of her adopted human family. The robot-and-bleak-future genre is not my go-to, but Ishiguro is always worth reading.
The Means by Amy Fusselman — Boy, do I feel sorry for those GoodReaders who didn’t realize this novel was a satire! If you want to like—as in, be friends with—your characters, this is not the book for you. But if you enjoy an intelligent book that uses humor and hyperbole to skewer America’s messed-up relationship with money, you will appreciate this story of Shelly, a stay-at-home mom in NYC who gambles her family’s future to build her coveted beach house in the Hamptons.4 There’s a whiff of Wellness-esque critique in this book, so if you like one, you might like the other.5
1 More Reason to Read Colorado Authors
One of my goals here at
, as both a book-lover and a Colorado native, is to share the wonderful work of Colorful Colorado authors with a wider audience.6 Substack tells me I’ve got subscribers in 18 other states, so I consider that a win! In May I shared my recommendation for The Alchemy of Flowers by fellow Centennial State-dweller . Now, she’s paying it forward with a new title from another writer from the Mile High City: In the Beautiful Dark by Melissa Payne.
Thanks, Laura! I can’t to check out this book from an author of the Land of Columbines and Lark Buntings (maybe? I’m running out of nicknames here).
Until next time,
Kate
Good timing! It’s July 1st, and my copy of
’s More than Words: How to Think about Writing in the Age of AI just showed up.Honestly, it would probably still have that effect. “What’s a vag?”
That scene in the subway!! “I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you.” I’ll never forget it.
The narrator of the audiobook for The Means is outstanding.
My favorite motif in The Means is how Fusselman names snacks, like Caring Bars and Loving seltzer, to make fun of how both brands and consumers virtue-signal.
Need to catch up? You should read: Penitence by
, Three Keys by Laura Pritchett, The Sky Was Ours by Joe Fassler, The Past Was Never by Tiffany Quay Tyson, and The Alchemy of Flowers by Laura Resau.
I LOVED Wellness as well. Can’t wait to order that poetry book — looks amazing. And a work free June sounds fabulous!