Chelsey's July 2025 Reading Recap | 15 Books
Another month is over, and I finished 15 books this month: 3 spiritual, 4 fiction, and 8 nonfiction. As you’ll see in the following recap, it was a really good reading month. I’d love to know if you’ve read anything I read this month and what you thought!
The best book of the month
The Spiritually Healthy Leader: Finding Freedom from Self-Sabotage by Dave Wiedis
I guess the book that made me cry on vacation because I realized something I hadn’t admitted to myself in decades is the winner. It could also be the loser since it made me cry, depending on how you look at it, but it led me to being able to realize some really important things about myself, so we’ll call it the winner. It was closely tied with two other books, though, so all in all it was a good reading month.
Christian read this book first, and I started reading it the day he finished, because he had been stopping to tell me about the book as he was reading, which is not something he normally does. While it has “leader” in the title and is somewhat directed at pastors and ministry leaders, 95% of the book is applicable to anyone. I found it relevant to not just my life as a person but also as a parent, a friend, and a church member. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Stay tuned for a post devoted solely to this book.
The worst book of the month
Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo
This was a month where every book I read got either 4 or 5 stars, so it feels a little disingenuous to pick the “worst” book. But if we’re just talking about the book I enjoyed the least, I think it was probably this one. I loved the author’s other book, The Most Fun We Ever Had—in fact, it was my favorite book the month I read it! The problem was not the writing; it was the premise. Without spoiling too much, one of the main plot points in the book is an extramarital affair. While I acknowledge it is a thing that happens in real life, I find it extremely uncomfortable to read about. Our family had our life upended by the consequences of someone we were close to having an affair, so it’s not something I take lightly. Consider that a trigger warning if your feelings are similar.
The spiritual books I read in August
Other than The Spiritually Healthy Leader, I read two other books in what I call my “spiritual category.”
God, Gift, and Guide: Knowing the Holy Spirit by Gregg Allison
I have never read a book entirely focused on the Holy Spirit, and now I wish it hadn’t taken me so long. Much of this book was not new information, but the author has so many practical applications based on the truths he shares about the Holy Spirit. This goes in the “books every Christian should read” pile.
Saints, Sufferers, & Sinners: Loving Others as God Loves Us by Michael R. Emlet
The author of this book is both a doctor and a counselor, and having heard him speak before, I will read anything he writes. This book is somewhat geared toward those in counseling roles, whether officially or unofficially, but the truths in it were helpful for my own heart as a Christian. The book is divided into three sections, and in each, the author walks through how to experience change through the lens of being a saint (a Christian who is loved by God), a sufferer (someone who has experienced painful things), and a sinner (which is all of us). He is also straightforward about the fact that we are all of these things!
The fiction books I read in August
Summer of ‘69 by Elin Hilderbrand
I read my first Elin Hilderbrand book last summer at the beach and really enjoyed it, so I picked up another one for this year’s trip. This book is truly the quintessential beach read. It follows various plot lines in one family over the course of (you guessed it) the summer of 1969, a summer with a lot of major historical events. Different chapters of the book are written from the perspective of different members of the family, and I thought the author did an excellent job in the chapters written from a 13-year-old’s point of view. I read this whole book in one day, sitting on the beach in New Jersey, and it was perfect.
I can’t remember where I heard about this one, but having read many books that cover complicated family relationships, I wanted to give this one a try. These kinds of books, I’ve found, can be really great or really awful. This one was very good, with a few caveats. First, there is the depiction of a lesbian relationship involving one of the sisters. Second, there is some open door sexual content—not a ton, but enough for me to give this caveat. Other than those things, I thought this book was tremendous. There is compelling character development, and the sisters grow and change over the course of the book. They act like real people. I listened to most of this while at the beach with my sister, and I think that any woman with sisters will find at least parts of this book relatable.
I came across this one randomly while looking for a short fiction book to listen to while we were on vacation in Tennessee. It starts out as a normal family drama set in modern history about a Vietnamese family, but then the alternate history aspect begins as terrorist attacks cause the government to begin placing Vietnamese-Americans in internment camps, reminiscent of what happened to Japanese-Americans during World War II. There are some parts of the plot that might seem stereotypical, but I actually thought the way the author wrote about trauma and loss were extremely nuanced and interesting.
The nonfiction books I read in August
It was a heavy nonfiction book for me—more than half of the books I read.
Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams
One of my favorite topics to read about is rich and powerful people behaving badly, and this book did not disappoint. I’m also fascinated by narcissistic tendencies in successful people, and the author of this book paints a clear picture of what that looked (looks) like in the upper management at Facebook. This book begins with a shark attack and ends with her being fired for, in my opinion, being a normal person. This book made me want to never use Facebook again, but, alas, the responsibilities of my life have made that almost impossible.
How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks
This was almost my favorite book of the month. If I hadn’t read the book I mentioned initially, it would have been. I plan to do a whole post on this book, so I won’t go into detail, but if you’re looking for a way to grow in your own self-awareness as well as emotional intelligence, this is the book.
Cults Like Us: Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America by Jane Borden
If you know me well, you know I love cults. At least—learning about them. This book isn’t about any one particular cult, although the more famous ones and the less famous ones all get a mention. Rather, it traces the history of conspiracy theories and us vs. them mentalities all the way from the Puritans to modern day. If I had one qualm with this book, it would be with the way the author occasionally breaks the fourth wall and lets in a little of her own opinion in. Of course, an author can do whatever he or she wants, but it seemed to break with the overall tone of the book, and I did not enjoy her particular brand of snarkiness (rich of me, I know).
Thirty Below: The Harrowing and Heroic Story of the First All-Women’s Ascent of Denali by Cassidy Randall
I read Into Thin Air in middle school, and I’ve had an affinity for books about climbing huge mountains ever since. I also have an affinity for books about catasrophe, which is almost always a complete overlap with books about climbing huge mountains. This book was fascinating not only for the mountain climbing parts but also for the background of the women involved. The sport of mountain climbing was not friendly to women in the 1960s, in the same ways that most male-dominated fields weren’t, and these women went through enough of a journey just trying to get to the point of beginning the mountain climb. Their tenacity and perseverance was inspiring.
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
I read this almost 10 years ago when I was deep into my newfound love of Stephen King. This book is, of course, different from every other book he’s ever written. I have read close to 40 of King’s books at last count and I consider him one of my favorite authors. This book on writing can help explain why: he writes about real people doing real things, even as weird stuff is also going on. As I have been writing for this Substack and venturing into the idea of writing a book—nonfiction and fiction—I have wanted to improve my writing. This book did give a lot of practical tips, but more than that, I found it made me want to put it down and open up my laptop and actually start writing.
Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age by Amanda Hess
By the time the author of this book was pregnant with her first child, I was pregnant with my fourth, and my oldest was almost 10 years old. I was pregnant with our first before most people had smartphones, although they were available. I didn’t even get a smartphone until my oldest was three, and in 2013, the app options were limited. And so in some ways this book was not very relatable, because I was not tempted to the kinds of tracking and information that the author investigated. That said, I thought it was a fascinating look at how technology has changed the experience of being pregnant, unless you try to avoid technology all together, which is extremely difficult. This book also discusses a medical diagnosis the author’s child had, so there are many sections about her dealing with that. If you have ever been pregnant, I think you will appreciate this book.
Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America by Clay Risen
This book checked a lot of boxes for me: Russia, conpsiracy theories, and narcissistic politicians. I knew very little about the details of this period of history—everything I knew I had either picked up from films or the deep recesses of memory where I retained some portion of my AP US History class from 20 years ago. This was a well-researched, comprehensive, interesting histry of the Red Scare from the mid-1940s and beyond. I had no idea how fear of communism intersected with racism and changing views on sexuality. I didn’t know how many people I’d heard of were involved and even blacklisted in Hollywood. It was a lot to digest, but it was exactly the kind of nonfiction book I love.
The Care and Keeping of You: The #1 Body Book for Younger Girls by Valorie Schaefer
It is still hard for me to process, but it was time to get this book for my daughter! She’s 8 and while what’s going on with her body is her own business, I can share that she’s begun asking questions that I wanted a little help answering. A friend recommended this, so I ordered it (very cheap!) and read through it before I gave it to her. I felt totally comfortable with her reading every page, and I told her that when she’s done with it, we can flip through it and answer any questions she might have. If you’ve got a daughter in the 8-11 year old range, I highly recommend this!