It's the halfway point of my 6th year of sharing quarterly reading round-ups! As a reminder, I have a goal of 80 books for this year, 100 as a stretch goal and have been in a huge Non-Fiction phase. Here is how April, May and June went...
Check out Quarter 1 here! > What I Read Last Quarter // January - March
April
The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole (Audio) 🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Extinct Animals by Sami Bayly 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Sentient: What Animals Reveal About Our Senses by Jackie Higgins (Audio) 🌟🌟🌟
Lost Animals: The Story of Extinct, Endangered and Rediscovered Species by John Whitfield 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Lynx and Us by David Hetherington [eBook] 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Extinct by Anton Gill & Alex West 🌟🌟
Lost Animals by Errol Fuller 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Nature’s Ghosts: The World We Lost and How to Bring It Back by Sophie Yeo (Audio) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
The month of extinction reads. I had a much bigger TBR pile set aside to read for this month, but it turns out some of the larger (in actual size, not length) books took longer to read than expected. As with the majority of non-fiction that I read, I always feel that more people need to be reading this stuff. Such a large amount of the general public are so set in their beliefs and ideas that they think they know everything, but reading more into extinction and evolution provides such insight into a range of topics, from racism to dietary choices.
As an animal lover, I obviously highly enjoyed the majority of this month's books. Nature's Ghosts and Lost Animals were true highlights.
May
Spring: The Story of a Season by Michael Morpurgo 🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Hounds of Penhallow Hall: The Moonlight Statue by Holly Webb 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Baker Street Four by Penny Chrimes (Audio) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Hotel for Cats by Marie Pavlenko 🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Wolf Trials by Kiran Millwood Hargrave 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
What Sadie Saw by Dick King-Smith 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Puloma and the Bear by Jasbinder Bilan 🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Nine Lives of Montezuma by Michael Morpurgo 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Spider Sparrow by Dick King-Smith 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Finnish Guide to Happiness by Melanie Dower (Audio) 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Sarah Sparrow and the Scullery Maid by Jani Tully Chaplin 🌟🌟🌟
May saw us driving to France for our holiday, and so I expected to have less time to read. Therefore, I decided I'd theme my reads on all the smallest books I could find on my shelves. As seen from the ratings, shorter reads do not mean less quality, and there were lots of lovely books throughout May. You can never go wrong with Michael Morpurgo, Holly Webb, or Dick King-Smith, can you?!
May saw us driving to France for our holiday, and so I expected to have less time to read. Therefore, I decided I'd theme my reads on all the smallest books I could find on my shelves. As seen from the ratings, shorter reads do not mean less quality, and there were lots of lovely books throughout May. You can never go wrong with Michael Morpurgo, Holly Webb, or Dick King-Smith, can you?!
June
Life: The Wild Wonders of Biodiversity by Jennifer N R Smith 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Rewilding: Bringing Wildlife Back Where It Belongs by David A. Steen 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Wild Chorus: Finding Harmony with Whales, Wolves, and Other Animals by Brenda Peterson (Audio) [DNF]
Black Ops and Beaver Bombing: Adventures with Britain's Wild Mammals by Fiona Mathews (Audio) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Wild Handbook: Seasonal Activities to Help You Reconnect with Nature by Emily Thomas 🌟
Land of the Last Wildcat by Lui Sit 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Wild World: The Adventures of Bali & Bhola by Deepak Arora (Audio) 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Twitch by M.G. Leonard (Audio) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Last Year of the Wild - Volume 1: Winter by Lizzie Pepper 🌟🌟🌟
Wild Service by Nick Hayes 🌟🌟🌟
Spark by M.G. Leonard (Audio) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Clutch by M.G. Leonard (Audio) 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Feather by M.G. Leonard (Audio) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Cull of the Wild: Killing in the Name of Conservation by Hugh Warwick (Audio) 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Summer's Hum by Angela Harding 🌟🌟🌟🌟
In honour of 30 Days Wild, June was the month of books with the word 'Wild' in the title! The only thing that disrupted that streak was listening to Twitch by M.G. Leonard, and after I did so, I had to finish the series! It's been a series I've put off for a long time, but one I adored! Birdwatching and mysterious crimes to solve? So good.
Sadly, June also brought my very first DNF of the year - an audiobook I actually returned! This is the only time I have done this, but I was so angry at the opening chapter of 'Wild Chorus: Finding Harmony with Whales, Wolves, and Other Animals' that I could not continue. With triggers of animal hunting and continuous descriptions of adoration for this barbaric 'way of life', I couldn't listen to any more. I fully understand that there are some people who live like this because it is their only way of survival. Ingrained in their culture, and they are thankful for and use every part of the animal, but it doesn't mean I want to hear about it. Not every book is for every person, and that is perfectly okay. I just wish the blurb hadn't been so misleading.
Conversely, a book that also discussed the killing of our precious wildlife - Cull of the Wild by Hugh Warwick - was an important and interesting listen. So much so, I ended up buying a hard copy to have in my collection.
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I've definitely peaked for the year! At 6 months into the year, I am 62% towards my goal of 100 books, though as I write this, my reading has tapered off quite a bit this month. The quality of what I have read so far in 2025 is incredible, and that is the main thing!
Just some quick stats...
Total books read in the second quarter of 2025 - 37
Physical books - 23
Audiobooks - 13
Longest book - Land of the Last Wildcat, 273 pages
Shortest book - Life: The Wild Wonders of Biodiversity, 40 pages
DNF - 1
Average days to read - 3.3
Five Star Reads - 15
'All Year Reads' page total - 376
Favourite book from each month...
April - Lost Animals by Errol Fuller
May - Spider Sparrow by Dick King-Smith
June - Twitch by M.G. Leonard
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