June 2025 Reading Recap

Hot!

Summer!

Sun!

Almost.

We got a heat wave. Then a cold snap. Some hot sun! Followed by rain. The weirdest summer in Toronto history continues!

June was an interesting month of reading for me. I read a few favourite authors, gave a few bestsellers a chance.

As per usual, here are all the books I read in June, ranked and mini-reviewed.

(This is the first time I've posted it on my personal blog, but there's almost 3 years of these reading recaps on Medium. They are a great tool. Sort of reading journals for me to look back on.)

1 — Billy Summers by Stephen King

I like Stephen King. He truly is one of the great writers of the last 100 years.

I’ve seen Billy Summers mentioned a lot as one of his best novels.

I enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t put it up there with The Stand or Misery. (My personal top 2.)

I went in knowing nothing about the book. It’s a surprising story. Not at all what I expected. My biggest complaint is that the book dragged quite a bit. You could cut 15% of the book without losing much.

That being said, it was excellent. The characters are memorable. The story is wild. The setting is very America.

4.5/5

2 — When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi

I had no idea what to expect with this one.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye is the story of the moon turning to cheese. The story is told over the first 2 months or so when it occurs, told from all sorts of different perspectives from around the US.

I expected the typical Scalzi humour, but this book surprised me with how much science and heart there was.

The moon turning to cheese is stupid. This book didn’t treat it like a children’s show. It was a serious matter, and we saw how random bits of the country reacted to it. From a billionaire wanting to eat it, to teenagers facing the apocalypse, to astronauts trying to figure it all out.

Just a lovely read.

4/5

3–The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss

The classic ‘you got this’ self-help/entrepreneur book.

This book has been out for a number of years now, sold millions of copies, blah, blah, blah.

It’s a bit out of date for today’s world, but it’s still a good read. It emphasizes the idea of living for more than work. Outsource what you can, take back more of your time, do things you want to do.

It’s a great message. It’s an okay book.

I’ve read a few books in similar veins and this one feels more outdated than most.

3/5

4 — Star Force Origins (#1) by Aer-ki Jyr

Star Force is one of the best-selling science fiction series on Amazon. It’s entirely self-published and I was curious to check it out after finding out it has over 300,000 sales and 300,000,000 page reads on KDP.

Turns out it’s a 94 book main series (and growing), and multiple spin-off series.

It’s pretty good. I find most of the fast-published series have similar issues. They could use a stiffer hand in editing. They tend to have dragging plots. Basically, they could use another few months to fine tune. But a lot of these authors rely on a publish fast and often model to make money.

In terms of fast-published books, this one was better than most. It’s a compelling world, and I can see how people get sucked in.

I don’t have any burning desire to read 94 books, but good for him.

3/5

5 — The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Umm.. I know people love this book.

They find meaning in it. All sorts of stuff.

Not for me.

Felt like he had a few inspirational sentences and ideas, and looped a story to connect them up.

2/5

— — —

That was quite a month.

Looking back at it all laid out.. It was a weird one.

Let me know if you have any book recommendations, or thoughts on these ones.

Cheers.