Happy summer! It’s the middle of July now, and I’m finishing and in the middle of a few of the books from my Late Summer To-Read list. But in the meantime, here’s what are (supposed to be) tweet length reviews of June: YA, heavier chick-lit, and a decorating book you can curl up with.

Paper Towns John Green
Very, very typical John Green YA, but enjoyable for it. I liked Quentin, I liked Margo to the extent that I think we were supposed to (though not much more than that), and enjoyed the late-high-school world they inhabited.

Washed and Waiting Wesley Hill
Hill takes readers through his own journey with his acceptance and dealing-with as a Christian of his own homosexuality. He spends particular amounts of time discussing concepts of loneliness—and while for him, and for his audience in the same position, that conversation centers around celibacy, he also engages those outside of it with loneliness as a concept we all deal with. I’m looking forward to following this title up with Justin Lee’s Torn, a different approach to a similar position.

The Nesting Place Myquillyn SMith

I bought this because it looked gorgeous from the review I’d read of it—but honestly, I expected it to be another coffee table book that I flipped through a few times but didn’t actually read, like Domino. But, nope. This book from the Nester is gorgeous AND great for curling up with. I kept it at home and read it slowly, a chapter here and a chapter there. With chapters on dwelling in possibility, taking risks, limitations, and small tweaks that make a difference, Myquillyn deals in both the practical and philosophical of decorating in a way that will likely bring me back to this book in future times of decorating-uncertainty.

Me Before You Jojo Moyes
This is when I learned that I am really going to love Jojo Moyes. I’m actually writing this the day after finishing another of her books, and am now a devoted fan. Me Without You is not your usual chicklit. Janssen @ Everyday Reading refers to it as chick-lit with heft, and I tend to agree. Me Before You takes on some big issues and surprises you, in the end.

Finnikin of the Rock Melina Marchetta

This older-YA fantasy took me forever to get into, and then equally forever to finish, but I liked it enough by the end that I’m happily starting the second—and accepting that it might take forever as well.

Mark of Athena Rick Riordan
This is part of the quick moving, mythology-based kid-lit/YA Percy Jackson series. Well, part of the second series Percy Jackson series. I really like these, even if I did find out I was reading the same book as my 11-or-so year old cousin. (Ok, I actually somewhat enjoyed it more because of that. I love finding “kid” books that are also enjoyable as an adult!)

Sandry’s Book,
Tris’s Book,
& Daja’s Book Tamora Pierce

I read most of the book’s in this world of Pierce’s a long time ago. I like them. They’re purely YA, and don’t particularly read as anything else, but I don’t care; I like her worlds. Plus, they’re quick and feel comfortably nostalgic.