📚On Reading In June 2026 (Best of)

Because I was writing/participating in multiple Best of the Year So Far lists my June reading was all over the place. I soft-DNF’d a lot that I realized wasn’t going to be on the lists but that I was very much enjoying and would pick right back up in July—and this is in part why I equally love writing lists of my favorite books and also feel deeply guilty.

Anyhoo, because I had strict parameters for reading last month I ended up liking everything I finished reading so I’m sharing it all (including overlap with my list for Best Mystery & Thrillers of the Year and my Favorite Books of the Year So Far).

Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream by Megan Greenwell

I highly recommend everyone read this narrative nonfiction—even if it’s just the intro to this book, which explains why so much feels like it’s no longer working. Spoiler: laws and regulations don’t apply to private equity firms as they do for the businesses they purchase so they reap maximum benefit with a mindset set only for maximum financial gain and they’ve been infiltrating many systems from healthcare to media.

Greenwell does a great job of tying each system and business to a specific employee, showing the very real life cost of private equity firms buying everything.

Watch Out for Falling Iguanas by Edwidge Danticat, Rachel Moss (illustrator)

A fun, and educational, picture book about the real phenomenon where iguanas in South Florida literally fall out of trees like frozen reptile popsicles when the temperatures dip too cold.

Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie dePaola

A classic I had no memory of reading which has a humorously dark-ish ending to a woman solving her problem of wanting to eat pancakes for breakfast.

Father Material (London Calling #3) by Alexis Hall

I deeply love this series—which has an excellent audiobook narrator, Joe Jameson—that follows an anxious and insecure man (with legendary rockstar parents) working at a charity for a dung beetle (yes, hilarious related dialogue included). It starts out in a fake relationship with his complete opposite (Boyfriend Material) and is now concluding the series with a “should we have kids” and once again having to save his job of saving a dung beetle plot. This is a true romcom—in banter, physical comedy, and ridiculous characters—that is filled with so much heart!

The Mystery of the World Cup Trophy by Angela Cervantes

I loved this middle-grade mystery about a young boy grieving his mother who doesn’t want to be the soccer star his father envisions but rather a detective like Hercule Poirot. Even though it involves grief the book is fun, bookish, and set in Miami amongst the World Cup.

The Tuxedo Society by Paul Rudnick

Action, thrills, spies, and a secret society – all with a quippy, Jewish, gay lead. Super fun.

A Murder Most Camp by Nicolas DiDomizio

An entertaining, summer camp set, adult murder mystery. This starts with the premise of an almost 30-year-old being forced to work at his family’s summer camp because of his irresponsible spending. At the camp he’s forced to deal with family issues (including his relationship with his child-aged aunt because a former high school classmate married his grandfather and had a child), a toxic friendship, a new potential love interest, and a past murder mystery from the camp…

The Clock House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji, Ho-Ling Wong (Translator)

Give me all the puzzle mysteries! This has a lot of characters (from mystery author to mystery club students), a remote setting (house famous for its unusual architecture), and plenty of murder (à la And Then There Were None).

Augusta Pine Does Not Exist by Emily Lloyd-Jones

Unique premise with great pacing! A teen girl whose hacking adventure accidentally led to a friend’s death was given the option by a secret organization to either go to prison or let them fake her death and she works for them. When she tries to use a job to get close enough to her grandmother (who thinks she’s dead along with everyone who knows her) she ends up in a fight for her life situation with her grandmother and other apartment building residents…

Together We See by Ari Tison

This is a great murder mystery wrapped around identity, difficult parental relationship, culture, activism, and land rights. I especially loved the Costa Rican setting and learning about Bribri culture.

The Girl with a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean

I loved this book but much of the enjoyment comes from how it unravels and so I really don’t want to say much about it. I will say that the opening scene, of a ghost talker trying to help a man whose deceased grandmother’s spirit isn’t moving along, gripped me so tightly that I rearranged my schedule to keep listening to the audiobook.

The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

This is a heavily awarded, highly rated, dystopian middle grade novel that uses the trope “chosen one to save the human race.” It’s worth the hype/awards/rating, I wish this book had existed when I was a kid, the cover is gorgeous, and I’m looking forward to continuing with the series!

Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

I love time travel, out of sequence storytelling, and a novel that balances a fun premise with real life drama, emotions, and consequences. I also love how wildly different from each other my two favorite novels by Margarita Montimore are (Acts of Violet — highly recommend the audiobook format!).