Reading Log June 2025 - April 2026
11 months, 75 Books. Primarily memoir and essays. Several audiobooks. I’ve started listening to books while I garden instead of podcasts and most of the fiction titles I’m interested in I’m listening to. I’ve been reading a lot of NZ work and recent reading has been in preparation for the Auckland Writer’s Festival coming up this month. If I haven’t finished a book, it hasn’t gone on the list. I have half a dozen nonfiction books I’m making my way through slowly as reference for art and writing projects.
June 2025
Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigerian, fiction)
Bad Archive by Flora Feltham (nz, essays) Such an excellent book of essays.
These Precious Days by Ann Patchett, dipped back in to reread a few of her essays
Body Work by Melissa Febos, reread her essays on personal narrative
Strong Words #3 Otago University Press, (nz, essays)
Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey (memoir, stunning)
Dream State by Eric Puchner (fiction)
July 2025
This Compulsion In Us by Tina Makereti (nz, essays)
We Do Not Part by Han Kang (South Korean, fiction based on historical events)
Mukiwa by Peter Godwin (memoir, audiobook)
When the Crocodile Eats the Sun by Peter Godwin (memoir)
An American Childhood by Annie Dillard (memoir, audiobook)
Aug 2025
Specimen by Madison Hamill (nz, essays)
Ripiro Beach by Caroline Barron (nz, memoir)
Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico (fiction, audiobook)
Things Become Other Things by Craig Mod (nonfiction, photography, travel, awesome)
The Chthonic Cycle by Una Cruickshank (nz, essays, so good)
Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Carl Jung and Aniela Jaffe
The Dry Season by Melissa Febos (memoir)
September 2025
All the Way to the River by Elizabeth Gilbert (memoir)
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett (fiction, reread)
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (fiction, reread)
Lit by Mary Karr (memoir, audiobook)
October 2025
The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr (memoir, audiobook)
Refuse to be Done by Matt Bell (writing)
Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami (writing, audiobook)
Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton (swimming, essays, watercolour studies, amazing)
Reason for Hope by Jane Goodall (audiobook, memoir, very moving)
Flesh by David Szalay (fiction, audiobook)
The Tell by Amy Griffin (nonfiction, memoir)
Love Forms by Claire Adam (fiction, audiobook, so good)
Cherry by Mary Karr (memoir)
On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle (fiction, audiobook)
November 2025
The South by Tash Aw (fiction, audiobook)
The City and its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami (fiction)
Careless People: A Story of Where I Used to Work by Sarah Wynn-Williams (facebook, memoir, audiobook)
Finding Ultra by Rich Roll (memoir, audiobook)
Always Home, Always Homesick by Hannah Kent (memoir, Iceland, writing)
Hunger A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay (memoir)
Does This Make Me Funny? by Zosia Mamet (essays, audiobook, great)
Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor (reread, audiobook, nonfiction)
Heart the Lover by Lily King (fiction, so good)
December 2025
Good Things Come and Go by Josie Shapiro (nz fiction)
A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit (reread, essays, memoir)
Run Towards the Danger by Sarah Polley (audiobook, essays, really good)
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (audiobook, memoir)
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan (fiction, so good)
January 2026
The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit (memoir, very good)
Barbarian Days by William Finnigan (reread, surfing memoir, pulitzer, I love this book)
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado (memoir, audiobook)
Is A River Alive? by Robert MacFarlane (audiobook, nonfiction, so good)
February 2026
Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman (audiobook)
Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhoti Roy (memoir)
No Straight Road Takes You There: Essays for Uneven Terrain by Rebecca Solnit (essays)
The Mires by Tina Makareti (nz fiction)
The Mirror Book by Charlotte Grimshaw (nz memoir)
March 2026
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood (audiobook, fiction, very good)
The Red Parts by Maggie Nelson (audiobook, memoir, murder trial)
Book of Lives by Margaret Atwood (memoir, love her)
Euphoria by Lily King (reread, fiction, one of my favorites)
True Stories by Helen Garner (audiobook, Australian, nonfiction, my first Helen Garner, looking forward to more)
The Black Monk by Charlotte Grimshaw (nz, memoir loosely disguised as fiction)
What We Can Know (again) by Ian McEwan (love this book)
Artful by Ali Smith (audiobook, hybrid fiction and nonfiction, interesting)
Delirious by Damien Wilkins (nz fiction, very good)
April 2026
Ash by Louise Wallace (nz fiction, new mum climate disaster)
Atonement by Ian McEwan (reread)
Grand by Noelle McCarthy (audiobook, nz memoir)
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (audiobook, US fiction)
Tiny Moons: A Year of Eating in Shanghai by Nina Mingya Powles (nz memoir)
We Can Make a Life by Chessie Henry (nz memoir)
The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (audiobook, nz fiction, very dark, very good)
Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood (audiobook)
Surfacing by Kathleen Jamie (essays, UK author, some really good ones)
Kin by Tayari Jones (audiobook, US fiction)