JULY 2025: Best and Worst Book of the Month

Hi everyone. Welcome back to my Best and Worst Reads of the month posts.  I read 5 books in July and in this post I will talk both about my favorite book of the month and my lowest rated book that I read this month. Note that this time I am not talking about a book I didn’t like, it is just the book that I rated the lowest; nonetheless, I still liked it. I will start with the best book I read in July. 

1. BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH: The Land of Open Graves by Jason de León

This book is an unforgiving and scathing critique of United States immigration policy, specifically the “Prevention through Deterrence” program implemented nationwide by Border Patrol in 1994. Read my full review here. I rated this book as I Really Liked It And Will Probably Read It Again.

2. LOWEST RATED BOOK I READ THIS MONTH: The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

I had two issues with this novel. This book is a retelling of The Iliad, and Part I is very well done. The second and third parts include Achilles as a point-of-view character, and if Barker’s intention was to give a voice to the women of Troy, Achilles’s point-of-view ultimately deters from this. It also changes the focus of the story. Second, Barker does not include the gods of Olympus in the story, and this, in my opinion, is a huge disservice to the source material. I did not dislike this novel, but I also didn’t love it as much as I did before. Read my full review here.

That is everything for now. Thank you for reading and see you next time.