After Visiting Friends

 Book 81 of my 2026 Reading Challenge

read from August 19 - 21

After Visiting Friends

by Michael Hainey

4 stars

This book was riveting and he's very good at pacing.  I wanted more after the information was found out, especially with his mom.  Reflection on how things remained hidden for so long (why not curious at all then hunting so deeply for answers) would've been interesting too.

How lucky he was that newspapers held the information he was looking for.  I'm sure many people have mysteries in their families that remain mysteries because their relatives didn't have articles written about them.

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Ways This Book Met my 2026 Reading Goals:

- 81st book read in 2026 (my goal is 100)

- A book I own (my goal is to continue chipping away at my shelves/boxes of unread books)

- A book I own that is leaving my house for a new reader to find (my goal is to declutter and make progress on whittling down my shelves/boxes of books in my house)

An Unhappy Medium

 Book 80 of my 2026 Reading Challenge

read on August 18

An Unhappy Medium

by Dawn Eastman

3 stars

I read the four books in this Family Fortune Mystery series pretty quickly because the paperback format and light content was perfect for traveling.

This book, the fourth, passed by very quickly.  My concerns before reading it about the author dropping off rather than wrapping up the series intentionally were unfortunately true, although there wasn't as much of a cliffhanger as there could've been.  There was more to explore in the family and the town but things were settled enough that I'm okay leaving it behind.

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Ways This Book Met my 2026 Reading Goals:

- 80th book read in 2026 (my goal is 100)

- A book I purchased in 2026 (my goal is to read any books I buy within 6 months of purchasing them)

A Fright to the Death

 Book 79 of my 2026 Reading Challenge

read from August 13 - 15

A Fright to the Death

by Dawn Eastman

3 stars

After reading Pall in the Family, I decided to buy the other 3 books in the Family Fortune Mystery series and they were perfect paperbacks to take along on our trip.

This book, the third in the series, was a flip for me.  In the first two I liked the family dynamics more than the actual mysteries.  In this one, the dynamics were barely there and what was there was super annoying - I'm over Vi inserting herself everywhere.  The mystery was good though, other than a random genetic reveal at the end.

There's only one more book and I will be curious to see if that will feel intentional or the author stopped writing them for some reason.  I really wish Clyde would lean more into her "talents" instead of beating around the bush.

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Ways This Book Met my 2026 Reading Goals:

- 79th book read in 2026 (my goal is 100)

- Title starting with 'F' (I'm doing an A-Z title challenge)

- A book I purchased in 2026 (my goal is to read any books I buy within 6 months of purchasing them)

Be Careful What You Witch For

 Book 78 of my 2026 Reading Challenge

read from August 10 - 11

Be Careful What You Witch For

by Dawn Eastman

4 stars

After reading Pall in the Family, I decided to buy the other 3 books in the Family Fortune Mystery series and they were perfect paperbacks to take along on our trip.

This book, the second in the series, passed quickly and I enjoyed it.  Again, it was more for the family dynamics than the mystery plot but the mystery was decent too.

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Ways This Book Met my 2026 Reading Goals:

- 78th book read in 2026 (my goal is 100)

- A book I purchased in 2026 (my goal is to read any books I buy within 6 months of purchasing them)

History is All You Left Me

 Book 77 of my 2026 Reading Challenge

read from August 9 - 10

History is All You Left Me

by Adam Silvera

2 stars

I bought this at a book sale and didn't realize at the time I've had this on my TBR since 2017.  So the book has caught my eye at least twice.

During the first few chapters of the book the characters were absolutely fictional but I didn't care because they were so cute.  But as the book continued, I liked it less and by the end I wasn't invested.   

I think the scenes could play well visually in a teen movie though.

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Ways This Book Met my 2026 Reading Goals:

- 77th book read in 2026 (my goal is 100)

- A book I purchased in 2026 (my goal is to read any books I buy within 6 months of purchasing them)

- A book I own that is leaving my house for a new reader to find (my goal is to declutter and make progress on whittling down my shelves/boxes of books in my house)

Sweeter Voices Still

 Book 76 of my 2026 Reading Challenge

read from August 6 - 9

Sweeter Voices Still:

an LGBTQ Anthology from Middle America

3 stars

I liked the concept but not necessarily the execution.  My favorite essay was "Jell-O Salad" by Gabrielle Montesanti.

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Ways This Book Met my 2026 Reading Goals:

- 76th book read in 2026 (my goal is 100)

The Irish in America

 Book 75 of my 2026 Reading Challenge

read from July 17 - August 6

The Irish in America

by Michael Coffey

2 stars

Very dry.  It was already hard to focus but the format made it worse.  There were inserts of texts and photos scattered throughout the book.  The inserts were usually vignettes of people or essays by someone and could be anywhere from 1-4 pages.  I understand why they were part of the book but the way they were inserted was a problem.  They weren't put it at text breaks of the chapter so I could be mid-sentence in a chapter, turn a page, have pages of unrelated text, and then back to finish the sentence and continue the chapter.  Switching back and forth and having things broken up made it even harder to concentrate.

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Ways This Book Met my 2026 Reading Goals:

- 75th book read in 2026 (my goal is 100)

- Title starting with 'I' (I'm doing an A-Z title challenge)

- A book I purchased in 2026 (my goal is to read any books I buy within 6 months of purchasing them)

- A book I own that is leaving my house for a new reader to find (my goal is to declutter and make progress on whittling down my shelves/boxes of books in my house)