Hello readers! It has been a few months now since I did a wrap-up post, so I thought I could do one now, wrapping up everything I read this year by month.
I read a total of 28 books in the first half of 2026, which I am very happy about! That is almost as many as I read in all of 2025. I realized one thing making me read more consistently this year is graphic novels. I’m having a great time making my way through graphic novels this year.
January
January was an interesting month in which I read books by Dr. Seuss for a post, my favorite book of 2026 so far, and some others I disliked. I did a dedicated wrap-up for this month, so you can see my thoughts on those there.
February
The other month I already wrote a dedicated wrap up for was February. I read some interesting Roald Dahl books, started Amulet, and overall had a very chaotic reading month.
This is reminding me I need to do the next problematic authors post! I do have the author lined up, I just need to aquire the books.
March
End of Watch is the third and final book in the Bill Hodges trilogy. This one was weird in the series because it had a paranormal aspect, unlike the other books.
Overall, it was a good story that I enjoyed reading, but the paranormal element felt off. It felt like it didn’t belong in this series. However, I am excited to see what happens next with the Holly series. I have no idea if this character appears at all in that series, but I hope he makes a cameo at some point.
Holly has always been the highlight of this series. She is probably my favorite autistic character in a book I’ve ever come across. I loved seeing her over this series gain her independence and confidience, all while being fully accepted for her quirks.
Squished is a middle grade graphic novel about the oldest sister in a family being suffocated by her situation. Through the book, she battles growing up, parentification, wanting her own space, and never really feeling prioritized.
This was such a great story that I know plenty of people with a lot of siblings can relate to. It was quite frustrating reading because she is put under so much stress as the oldest girl, and the oldest brother is never given that level himself, and even has his own room.
I personally am an only child, and I have a lot of opinions about people who have this many kids. But the story overall was really good. I’m glad I bought this one from my library last year.
Animal Crossing book two was the continuation of this chaotic story. I think this series is cute and fun, but also not for me.
I’m still curious who the intended audience is. I feel like the people who would like this would be very young kids despite this game being majority played by adults.
Camp is the 2nd book in the Click series. This one follows Olive who goes to camp with her friend.
There is this mismatch between expectations of her and the friend. The friend wants to just spend time with Olive, while Olive is much more extroverted and wants to make friends.
This was actually really sad to read because Olive wanted to make her friend happy, but also wanted to spend time with others, which made the friend angry.
I enjoyed Click much more than Camp, but I still liked it and plan to keep going with the series. I already started book three, I just need to sit down and read it.
In Amulet books two and three we were still getting to know the characters and also meeting new ones.
After book one when they discover this alternate world, they learn much more about it and their familial past in these two.
Mr. Lemoncello’s Very First Game is a prequel to the Mr. Lemoncello series. This one following Luigi Lemoncello as a child where he discovers his love of games for the first time.
I always enjoy reading a Lemoncello book. I love solving the puzzles with the characters. And this one had some backstory about Luigi, his childhood, family, and the beginning of his journey.
I am pretty certain the series is over, but I hope the author writes something similar down the line.
April
Unhappy Camper follows two sisters who have very different relationships with their Taiwanese culture as they go to a Taiwanese camp. The older sister, Claire, loves her heritage. She has spent a few years attending this camp and has even learned some of the language.
Michelle is the younger sister who rejects the culture to fit in with girls at school, and is attending the camp reluctantly for the first time.
I previously loved this author’s book, Measuring Up, so I was excited to finally get around to this one. But I just didn’t really love it. I really enjoyed reading from the perspective of the two sisters and what caused them to have the relationship that they do with their culture. Michelle had experienced being mocked for her background, causing her to reject it.
I just wish we spent more time focusing on the camp itself and the characters there. Each person at the camp had a different level of experience with Taiwanese culture, and I wanted to explore that more.
Instead, we focused more on the friends outside the camp that Michelle wanted to fit in with, despite not really fitting in with them at all. I would love to read more from this author in the future because she does write great characters.
Amulet books four and five were good additions to the story. I started to feel like we were getting some good character growth from Emily, and Navin was getting his own storyline as well.
My biggest issue at this point was the constant churning of characters. We meet a character, they will get lost, and then we meet someone else who travels with either Navin or Emily.
However, I overall enjoyed the story. I was excited to continue and finish the series.
May
May is the only month this year that I did not finish a single book! I am actually very proud of myself for that one.
June
The Good Samaritan follows two perspectives. One is Laura, who works at a suicide hotline. However, she uses her time to find people to convince them to end their lives. The other perspective is the husband of one of her victims, who tries to expose her.
This was a really good story, but I didn’t love the ending. There were plenty of twists and turns along the way, which is something expected from John Marrs. He really does know how to tell a good story and keep you engaged from beginning to end.
Amulet was a fun series to read. I really was having a great time with it until I got to the end. It really went downhill at book 8 and never got better.
There was a lot going on in the story, and everything seemed to resolve very quickly at the end without much effort from anyone. What is even more surprising is that book 9 took six years to publish. I was wondering if Kibuishi was just tired of the story or if something else happened.
Happy blogging and bookish adventures! 📚🦒✨
This post was created by Allison Wolfe for www.allithebookgiraffe.com and is not permitted to be posted anywhere else.
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