What I’m reading in Summer 2026

What books do people have on their reading lists? Here’s a look at some of the books I’m reading during Summer 2026.

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Sharing joy in reading to (hopefully) reverse its decline

An interesting column in the latest Phi Kappa Phi Forum talked about the decline of reading for pleasure in the United States. To address this decline I think it’s important for those of us who love reading, to willingly make ourselves visible as readers. And so here are two ways that I try to promote a reading culture among young people at the library where I work.
https://youtu.be/T5KtBbgEqeo

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‘Read Harder’ Challenge: Some books I’m reading in 2026

I’ve set a goal to read 60 books in 2026. Many of the books will be applied toward prompts for the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge.
https://youtu.be/wERb3kVZ85A

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Book Riot’s 2025 Read Harder Challenge

For 2025, I’ve completed all prompts in Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge. There are 24 prompts, which average out to two prompts per month, and they “invite readers to explore formats, genres, and perspectives that might go beyond their reading comfort zones.”

UCM’s SOLIS Book Club : Our pick for Fall 2025

Poll results are in and we have a winner! In Fall 2025, UCM’s SOLIS Book Club will read Life Hacks for a Little Alien, by Alice Franklin. Franklin wrote this book in the second person and, in an interview with NPR’s Scott Simon, Franklin said she “wanted readers of the story to feel as much empathy as possible” with the titular “Little Alien.”
https://youtu.be/GP3OdRWoj5g

Autistic Pride : Books for Autism Acceptance Month

Being autistic myself, I’ve read a lot of books by and about people on the autism spectrum. For Autism Acceptance Month, I wanted to share some books that were meaningful for me. Slideshow created in Canva. Music is “Wide Space” by AudioCoffee.

SOLIS Book Club : What shall we read in Fall 2025?

During Spring 2025, University of Central Missouri: we had another enjoyable meeting of the SOLIS Book Club (that’s an online book club among students of LIS). Looking ahead, what book do we want to read for Fall 2025? Here’s a brief overview of three potential candidates.
https://youtu.be/sz_Wak6dSu8

Five-year reflection as a Booktuber

The year 2025 marks five years of posting videos to my YouTube channel. To commemorate, I decided to do a Q&A video using the Booktube Newbie Tag.
https://youtu.be/q5tUPIeOdBw

Book Riot’s 2024 Read Harder Challenge

This is my third year of completing the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge, a set of 24 prompts “that invite readers to explore formats, genres, and perspectives that might go beyond their reading comfort zones.” I employed a genre substitution to complete one of the prompts, but otherwise, I remained true to each prompt’s objectives. Here is my list of books to meet the 2024 Read Harder Challenge.

Book haul : Friends of the Library, summer 2024

I’ve acquired several great books from “Friends of the Library” venues, including More Tales to Keep You Up at Night, by Dan Poblocki; The Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Sam Maggs; The Otherwoods, by Justine Pucella Winans; Puzzleheart, by Jenn Reese; Loveless, by Alice Oseman; and The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a short-story anthology.
https://youtu.be/Is4LtXrXoa0

Let’s build a Community of Readers (2024)

“When children see the adults around them using reading and writing in their everyday lives, they’re more likely to become readers and writers themselves.” — How to Create a Literate Home: Young Child and Kindergartener, PBS Kids, March 26, 2012. I created flyers for colleagues to display a book that they are currently reading. My design is based on one by Andrea Trudeau. https://youtu.be/9agrAN5Nbts

Book Riot’s 2023 Read Harder Challenge

For 2023, the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge invited readers “to explore settings, characters, formats, genres, and perspectives that might be outside of their reading norms.” Here are some books I read to meet the 2023 challenge.

Developing readers’ self-identity

When Bang-Jensen informally interviewed 12 upper-elementary students, she related that the students “had a lot to say about the role their peers play in their own book selection” (2010, p. 172). She cited one fifth-grader, Megan, describing a “chain reaction” of reading. “When kids hear how good these DCFs are, they start reading. And when they start reading and then tell other kids to start reading, it is a chain reaction of reading books” (Bang-Jensen, 2010, p. 169).

Readers’ choice awards

Part of my studies were focused this week on readers’ choice awards. Bang-Jensen (2010) focuses on a specific readers’ choice award, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award for children in the state of Vermont.

Books (and libraries) are for everyone!

To commemorate Banned Books Week in 2023: Books and libraries are for everyone, but not every book will appeal to every reader, nor should anyone expect it to. People can decide for themselves which books they want to read, and parents can decide for their own children, which books are appropriate – but they don’t get to make that decision for everyone else’s children too.

Creating a culture of reading among young people

The Library Science class I’m taking is talking this week about building a culture of readers. In her article for Knowledge Quest (2017, p. 24), Karen E. Smith asks: “How do we create a culture of readers without driving them away?”

LGBTQIA+ books for Pride Month

For Pride Month (June 2023), here is a “book-haul” video featuring two books for children and three for adults or teenagers. In this video, I also share my thoughts about the spate of book bans targeting books that center LGBTQIA+ experiences. Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel if you are enjoying my videos.

What I’m reading : Beasts and Beauty

Here are 12 dangerous tales of mystery, magic, and rebellious hearts. Each twists like a spindle to reveal truths full of warning and triumph, truths that free hearts long kept tame, truths that explore life . . . and death. 

New York Times bestselling author Soman Chainani respins old stories into fresh fairy tales for a new era and creates a world like no other.   (From publisher’s description)

Beasts and Beauty was the winner, in 2022, of the Kids’ Book Choice Award, in the “Favorite Book Cover” category (voted on by readers ages 12 to 14).

SOLIS Book Club at UCM

UCM’s SOLIS has formed a Book Club, which will meet this fall and discuss All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir. That was a highlight, for me, of the SOLIS members’ meeting on March 29, 2023.

LIS 5804 : Haiku and reflection

For my first week of studies in LIS 5804, The Public Library, I was to write a haiku in response to a photograph in Robert Dawson’s The Public Library: A Photographic Essay.