Books Added to My Shelves in June 2026

This is my monthly roundup of books that I added to my shelves in June 2026. Some of the books came directly from authors or publishers; others were purchased or given to me as gifts. You’ll find books from all kinds of genres, including adult and children’s books. I’ll even share a few updates from our family’s life over the last month.

Family and Life Update

On a drive to my mom’s this month, the sky was showing off! What a beautiful Iowa day it was!

I’m back to volunteering at my favorite historical cafe, Youngville. Each week, I meet new people, catch up with our regulars, and have lots of laughs with the rest of the volunteers! If you want to know more, check out THIS PBS ROAD TRIP IOWA EPISODE about this special little Iowa cafe. Our part of the episode starts at about 12:30. You can also learn about my friend’s sunflower farm in this same episode!

Due to work schedules, we celebrated Father’s Day on separate days. Sad we couldn’t all be together, but glad we could still celebrate a great husband and father!

We ended the month with our annual cousin weekend at my cousin’s home near Winterset, Iowa. There are 11 of us 1st cousins on my Mom’s side. All but one cousin made it, and we even had some spouses there, too. It was such a fun weekend with lots of puzzling and games, too much amazing food, and so much laughter.

I finished 8 books in June, including some romance novels, some fiction, and a couple of nonfiction books. We’ve also been watching a lot of Modern Family in the evenings and have finished Season 5!

My current reads include SHOULD HAVE TOLD YOU SOONER, SEX ON MURDER ISLAND, and I’m listening to THE STORY KEEPER all for review.

This month’s new book stack includes some upcoming fiction and nonfiction as well as recent releases and a few children’s books.

If you have missed any of my recent book reviews, you can see them all by clicking HERE.  Or you can stay up to date with my monthly Quick Lit Roundup.

Clicking the photos of each book will take you to a purchase link. If you choose to purchase through any of the links, I may receive a small commission without you having to pay a cent more for your purchase.

ADULT FICTION AND NONFICTION

HOLLOW BONES
By: Jodi Picoult
Published: September 15, 2026
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Fiction
Format: eBook for Review

New Jodi Picoult book coming out? Of course I’m reading it! I’m still shocked that I actually receive her books for review. It’s my biggest thrill! I can’t wait to dive into her newest book!

On September 11, 2001, when Molly Fitzgerald was only two months old, her mother went to an appointment at the World Trade Center and never came home. Her father and the stepmother who raised her couldn’t have loved her more, but she still grew up with a healthy dread of disasters.

Now an adult, she runs the Rhode Island Department for Emergency Preparedness, mapping out ways to save lives during storms, epidemics, and airplane crashes. She and her husband, Jesse—a police polygraph expert with his own history of crisis—have found a love that is a solace in a dangerous world. But then the unexpected upends their new marriage, leading them both to question everything they thought they knew.

Moving between past and present, Hollow Bones is an epic story of the lies we tell ourselves as we write the narratives of our lives, the plans we design to protect ourselves at the worst moments, and the ties that bind mothers and daughters.

MARY KAY
How a Cosmetics Empire Transformed Women’s Work in America
By: Cassandra L. Yacovazzi
Published: November 3, 2026
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Non-Fiction
Format: eBook for Review

I have been a Mary Kay cosmetics user since I was 16 and was a consultant for almost 25 years. Mary Kay’s business story is quite amazing and even though I’m familiar with it, I’m curious to learn a new perspective on the business and how it tranformed how women were viewed in the workforce.

When Mary Kay Ash founded her company, Beauty by Mary Kay, in 1963, women had limited options in a male-dominated business world. By the 1970s, the cosmetics and skincare company had a salesforce of tens of thousands and became the first woman-founded firm listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Mary Kay and the pink Cadillac turned into cultural icons, and the company remains a billion-dollar global business. Often dismissed as a lipstick-selling side hustle or labeled a predatory multilevel marketing scheme, Mary Kay drove a major and surprising shift in women’s economic opportunities outside the office.

This book tells the story of Mary Kay Ash and the cosmetics firm that bears her name, from its founding and growth to the distinctive gendered corporate culture she cultivated. Ash combined direct sales and multilevel marketing strategies with workplace flexibility, a rhetoric of “be your own boss,” and a sense of community and recognition for American women as they entered the workplace. She monetized women’s social networks and fostered a lifestyle brand built on values of faith, family, and free enterprise. Cassandra L. Yacovazzi explores how women in Mary Kay have navigated opportunity, structural constraints, and shifting gender norms, showing how they are sometimes empowered and sometimes exploited. She also considers Mary Kay Ash’s complex personal life and carefully constructed public image, simultaneously a maternal icon and a driven executive. In this nuanced view of Mary Kay that elevates the voices of the women who participated, we find new insights into the history of the beauty industry, female entrepreneurship, and women’s work in the United States.

GOOD JOY, BAD JOY
By: Mikki Brammer
Published: May 5, 2026
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Fiction
Format: Audiobook Purchase

I forgot to share this one in last month’s round up as my Book of the Month choice. I just recently read THE COLLECTED REGRETS OF CLOVER, Brammer’s debut novel, and I loved it. I’m anxious to give this a listen.

For over eighty years, Joy Bridport has played by the rules: she’s been a devoted wife and mother, contributing to the community in her small Hudson Valley town. But her quiet existence is jolted when she learns that her best friend, Hazel, only has months left to live. Hazel has always been the more adventurous one of their duo, and she seems at peace with all that she’s squeezed out of her long life. Yet Joy realizes she can’t say the same.

Determined to live boldly and make the most of the time that she and Hazel have left together, Joy steps outside of her comfort zone—and into a bit of trouble. But as her foray into rule-breaking escalates into committing petty crime, Joy must consider what kind of legacy she wants to leave behind, and whether there’s a way for her to embrace the liberation that “Bad Joy” offers without losing all that she holds dear.

Is it ever too late to become who we’re meant to be? With laugh-out-loud hijnks and emotional heft, Good Joy, Bad Joy is a heartwarming and wise celebration of the choices we make, the friendships we cherish, and the lengths we go for love.

THE BRITISH ARE COMING
The Graphic Novel Edition, Volume 1
By: Rick Atkinson
Adapted by: Nora Neus
Illustrated by: Federico Pietrobon
Published: June 2, 2026
Publisher: Ten Speed Graphic
Non-Fiction Graphic Novel
Format: Hardcover for Review

I think any time you can make reading and learning about history more accessible and enjoyable, its a good thing. With the upcoming 250th Celebration of our country, this is a perfect time to read about these battles in a graphic novel format! This hardcover is quite stunning.

This striking graphic edition adapts the first half of the New York Times bestselling The British Are Coming, the opening volume in Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Rick Atkinson’s extraordinary trilogy about the American Revolution

From the battles at Lexington and Concord in the spring of 1775 through the Siege of Boston in 1776, American militiamen and the newly created Continental Army take on the world’s most formidable adversary: the British Empire. The gripping saga is alive with astonishing characters: Henry Knox, the former bookseller with an uncanny understanding of artillery; Nathanael Greene, the blue-eyed bumpkin who becomes a brilliant battle captain; Benjamin Franklin, the self-made man who proves to be the wiliest of diplomats; and George Washington, the commander in chief who learns the difficult art of leadership when the war seems all but lost. The story is also told from the British perspective, making the mortal conflict between redcoats and rebels all the more compelling.

Full of riveting details and iconic stories, The British Are Coming is a tale of heroes and knaves, of sacrifice and blunder, of redemption and profound suffering. Expertly rendered in gripping graphic novel-style artwork, the battle for our nation’s independence is brought to life like never before. Discover the first act of America’s creation in this vividly illustrated graphic history.

A MARRIAGE AT SEA
A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck
By: Sophic Elmhirst
Published: July 8, 2025
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Memoir
Format: Hardcover Purchase

I’ve been hearing about this book for awhile but I wasn’t sure I wanted to read it. Then a friend told me about it and she convinced me to give it a try.

Maurice and Maralyn couldn’t be more different. He is as cautious and awkward as she is charismatic and forceful. It seems an unlikely romance, but it works.

Bored of 1970s suburban life, Maralyn has an sell the house, build a boat, leave England — and its oil crisis, industrial strikes and inflation — forever. It is hard work, turning dreams into reality, but finally they set sail for New Zealand. Then, halfway there, their beloved boat is struck by a whale and the pair are cast adrift in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

On their tiny raft, their love is put to the test. When Maurice begins to withdraw into himself, it falls upon Maralyn to keep them both alive. Filled with danger, spirit, and tenderness, this is a book about human connection and the human condition; about how we survive — not just at sea, but in life.

CHILDREN’S FICTION AND NON-FICTION

TAKE IT APART
By: Katey Howes
Illustrated by: Elizabet Vuković (E.V.)
Published: August 4, 2026
Publisher: Carolrhoda Books
Fiction
Format: Hardcover Picture Book for Review

A great story for kids who like to know how things work or that like to take things apart!

This rhyming picture book joyfully celebrates the many benefits of breaking big things down into smaller pieces. From gathering spare parts for fixing things to learning math and spelling to recycling and composting, taking things apart can be a surprisingly great strategy! Energetic rhyming verse and playful illustrations will inspire readers to see taking things apart in a whole new light!

ISAIAH JOHNSON AND THE BIG GAME
The Johnson Family Books
By: Esau McCaulley
Illustrated by: Emmanuel Boateng
Published: May 5, 2026
Publisher: Convergent Children’s
Christian Fiction
Format: Hardcover Picture Book for Review

Forgiveness can be hard for kids to understand. This Christian perspective offers a great lesson.

Isaiah Johnson’s baseball team has made it to the championships, and he’s up to bat! Most of the Johnson family is in the stands cheering him on . . . but someone is missing: Isaiah’s dad.

When Dad finally shows up, he apologizes for his absence and asks for Isaiah’s forgiveness. But Isaiah is still hurt and isn’t sure if he can forgive.

As a dad who’s made plenty of mistakes himself, Esau McCaulley has crafted a biblically informed story that offers plenty of avenues for discussion on the power of forgiveness.

SHARKS IN KANSAS
The Ancient Sea in the Middle of America
By: Melissa Stewart
Illustrated by: Becca Stadtlander
Published: July 7, 2026
Publisher: Random House Studio
Non-Fiction
Format: Hardcover Picture Book for Review

If someone had told me there were sharks in the Midwest, I would have said they were crazy. There are no oceans around here. Melissa Stewart, a leading voice in children’s nonfiction, shares how sharks were in Kansas.

Sharks in Kansas? Seems impossible, right? After all, Kansas is smack dab in the middle of the United States—more than 1,000 miles from the closest ocean. But the world hasn’t always looked the way it does today.

Once upon a time, 85 million years ago, the middle of America was submerged in water–and incredible creatures roamed the sea. On a typical afternoon, a small herd of Claosaurus munches on plants along the shoreline. Above them, a Pteranodon glides across the sky in search of fish… when, suddenly, a Squalicorax grabs a young dinosaur with its bone-crunching bite. Chomp!

From the flightless bird Hesperonis to the mighty Tylosaurus, here is a fascinating look at many kids’ favorite creatures and the mysteries of an ancient ocean.

Which books are you adding to your reading list?

Click HERE to see all the posts featuring new books on my shelves.

So many books, so little time!