What I Read in July 2025

Happy end of July, friends! Here’s everything I read this month:

BUTTERMILK GRAFFITI: A CHEF’S JOURNEY TO DISCOVER AMERICAN’S NEW MELTING-POT CUISINE by Edward Lee

If you’re like me and obsessively watched Culinary Class Wars on Netflix, Edward Lee is the Korean American chef from the show. Naturally, I had to read his James Beard-winning food memoir Buttermilk Graffiti. I actually listened to the audiobook and wish I had read a physical book instead, both because the audiobook is not narrated by Edward Lee himself and I think I would’ve processed some of the essays better in a written format.

Some of the chapters are based on his recent travels throughout America, primarily for this book it seemed, whereas some are inspired by his lived experience as a Korean American growing up in New York, now living in the South with his German American wife. While I enjoyed some stories more than others, it was fun listening to Edward Lee’s explorations of small businesses and local cuisines all over America and their connection to American history and immigrant stories in particular.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS by Emily Brontë

My BIL Daniel picked Wuthering Heights for the latest AP Lit Book Club, which gave me an opportunity to read Wuthering Heights in full text! Technically, I knew of the overall plot because Korean people love to make children read a simplified/abbreviated version of Classics (for example, I read a children’s/illustrated version of The Picture of Dorian Gray when I was a single digit age).

Since I’m currently in my Jane Austen era (this is what I’m claiming after reading two of her books recently), I thought I would have a relatively easy time navigating the text for Wuthering Heights but I was mistaken..! While the dialogue between the characters in Wuthering Heights may be less fluffy, the overall narration Emily Brontë employs is more poetic and challenging, at least in my opinion. It took me a while to get through the first half of the book, something like three weeks?! While I didn’t struggle through the second half as much, I’m not sure if I can confidently say it was easier and/or if it made up for the first half. I will say it is a very interesting piece of literature, and I’m glad to have read it. (IT IS NOT A ROMANCE!!!!! But you already know that.)

PASSING by Nella Larson

Passing is yet another book I read based on Sinners-inspired TikTok recommendations. As the title suggests, the act of passing as a white person is central to the plot of Passing which is primarily set in the 1920s NYC. Irene, who lives a picture-perfect life with her doctor husband and two sons, unexpectedly reunites with her childhood friend Clare who now presents herself as a white woman, even to her own racist husband. Claire enthusiastically and persistently resumes her friendship with Irene, who somewhat reluctantly gives in.

Larson’s writing is psychological and delicate, which is pretty well translated into the 2021 film adaptation. FYI I did rely heavily on the endnotes to understand Larson’s intentions with certain references and the historical context (I read the Modern Library edition).

NO MORE TEARS: THE DARK SECRETS OF JOHNSON & JOHNSON by Gardiner Harris

Following a chance encounter with a Johnson & Johnson sales rep, Gardiner Harris began investigating the pharmaceutical and consumer product giant which led him to uncover decades of wrongdoing. The topics of Harris’s reporting ranged from their iconic baby power (casually contaminated with asbestos) to the COVID-19 vaccine (which was not very effective). I have been telling everyone to read No More Tears because I was so shocked by it (even more so than by Bottle of Lies!). The audiobook is narrated by the author himself, who does “voices” for quotes.

JADE CITY & JADE WAR by Fonda Lee

My older sister Jiyoung has been quite literally harassing me to read The Green Bone Saga (or Jade City series as I like to call it) for the last five years. I don’t know why I suddenly decided it was time this month but oh boy!!! I flew through the first two books because they are pretty unputdownable… I will preface by saying I, for some reason, went into the series thinking it was a YA fantasy series set in the 21st century. It is undoubtedly an adult fantasy, and the setting is likely in 1970s or so based on the fact that they rely on landline phones.

Fonda Lee creates such an intriguing alternative universe where the people of Kekon, like the Green Bone clans, can draw magic from jade though it requires years of training and genetic predisposition. I am currently about 40% into the last book of the trilogy, and I will just say Fonda Lee is ruthless and things do not stop ever…!

P.S. I’m currently reading Jade Legacy & The Dragons, The Giant, The Women!