June was here! Summer holiday arrived and with it came Midsummer, the peak of the Finnish summer calendar when nearly everything closes. Most shops and restaurants pull down their shutters. Even the libraries close for the celebration. With the city slowing down (or even shut down!), stay at home was the only choice and there was really only one thing left for me to do, it happened to be my favorite: reading.

Knowing the libraries would close for Midsummer, I went on a borrowing spree beforehand. I wanted to be sure the best company I could ask for was already waiting at home, stacked and ready. To make it better, Akateeminen Kirjakauppa happened to be running one of their occasional deals: buy three books, get the fourth free. I couldn’t resist, and four new titles came home with me, just in time for the holiday.

Most of what I read this month leaned toward the popular and the praised, a couple had even picked up prizes along the way. But the book that impressed me the most this month wasn’t new at all.

The Book That Found Me Late: A Man Called Ove

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, my favorite author, published more than a decade ago, and somehow I’m only getting to it now. I’d already cried my way through the film few years ago, so I knew what was coming. The book undid me far more thoroughly. Fredrik Backman always impresses me through his beautiful stories and wonderful writing style. I don’t regret showing up late to A Man Called Ove. When it comes to great books, nothing is ever too late.

A Whole New World: The Moomins

June also marked my first real venture into a genre I’d skipped my entire adult life: the classic Moomin series. Moving to Finland a few years ago made that gap impossible to ignore. Living here, I can’t escape the Moomins. They peer out from mugs and shop windows and tram posters. Literally everywhere. The final push came from a game I played during Midsummer, Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth, and before long I was attached to the characters, curious enough that reading the whole series felt less like a decision and more like an inevitability. I borrowed the books from the Helsinki City Library, and by the end of June I’d made it through three of the nine.

So far, they’ve been pure magic. Wandering this far outside my usual lane turned out to be the refreshment I didn’t know I needed, waking up a corner of my imagination that had gone dormant for far too long.

Looking back to my reading list this month, June turned out to be the slow month for my reading journey. Between an old favorite that took its sweet time finding me and a brand-new genre that entered my reading shelf, my reading life becomes more colorful. And the season is only getting started!

Six Moomin books still wait their turn, and the four books I bought at Akateeminen remain untouched on the shelf (library loans come with due dates, so I kept letting them jump the queue, forever racing to return each one before its time ran out).

The long Finnish summer stretches out ahead with nowhere it needs to be. If this is how the holiday begins, I can hardly wait to see what July piles onto the nightstand. Until the next recap! Happy reading, everyone!