The Best Book I Read This Month: Slow Productivity by Cal Newport

The best book I read this month made me very angry. That strong response is why Cal Newport’s Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout I chose the book as my best read of June 2026.

To be clear, my anger is not directed at the book or its author. It’s anger at how the system exploits and harms workers, treating them like machines instead of human beings.

Newport argues that knowledge workers burn out from the relentless pace they are expected to work at and the amount of work they are expected to do. He points to the rise of what he calls “pseudo-productivity,” or the appearance of busyness, which often interferes with true productivity. Workers are expected to look busy all the time, when in reality, human beings need slow times and down times not just for their health but also to produce their best work. This feeds into another of Newport’s arguments: that the focus has shifted from quality of work to quantity.

Newport offers a plan to counter all of this:

• Do fewer things.

• Work at a natural pace.

• Obsess over quality.

It’s a good plan but not always realistic. Many knowledge workers do not have the power or authority to implement it, in whole or in part. To his credit, Newport does acknowledge this. Still, his book made me want to burn everything down so we could start all over again. Knowledge workers of the world, unite!

The Best Book I Read This Month: Detective Aunty by Uzma Jalaluddin

Five years ago this month, I read a delightful book called Hana Khan Carries On. It was the best book I read that month. I recently picked up another book by the same author (Uzma Jalaluddin), and it became the best book I read this month.

Detective Aunty is, as you might suspect from the title, a mystery. Set in Toronto, the story follows Kausar Khan as she tries to prove her daughter’s innocence after her daughter is accused of murder.

The mystery part of the story is a pretty standard cozy. The milieu in which it occurs is not. Detective Aunty focuses on a South Asian family that lives in a culturally diverse community, a community that is feeling the pressures of gentrification. The story’s big problem and Kausar Khan’s efforts to solve it are complicated by both personal and community issues. The characters, themselves, were also well-drawn. They were sometimes charming, sometimes trying, but always relatable and real.

I loved this book so much that as soon as I finished it, I looked to see if there’s more—and there is! The second Kausar Khan book is already on bookstore shelves. Don’t be surprised if it shows up here too one day. ;-)

The Best Book I Read This Month: The Story of Jane by Laura Kaplan

I struggled with my choice for best book this month. I read a fantastic dark fairy tale by Eowyn Ivey (Black Woods, Blue Sky) that fit the bill. But I also read a compelling work of nonfiction, and ultimately that is the one I have chosen. Laura Kaplan’s The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service does exactly what its title suggests: it tells the story of Chicago’s Jane Collective from its founding in 1969 to its closure in 1973 in the wake of the Roe v. Wade decision.

Because what Jane did was illegal, its organizers made a point of not creating or leaving written records. So Kaplan’s book is based on oral history (interviews) and her own experiences. (Kaplan volunteered with Jane.)

It was a timely read, with reproductive rights being rolled back and the growth of pro-democracy grassroots organizing in the United States. In addition to telling a compelling story about people who were both sympathetic and frustrating, The Story of Jane provides examples and lessons that serve both causes—lessons about leadership, recruitment, and organization, but also about intention, community, and allyship across socioeconomic and racial lines and, most of all, about what success might look like in an underground resistance movement.

The Best Book I Read This Month: Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

The best book I read this month was a pop culture delight. If you’re at all familiar with Scooby Doo cartoons, the title of Edgar Cantero’s Meddling Kids gives away the premise: a group of kids and their dog solve mysteries.

In Cantero’s version, the kids really were kids—tweens—when they solved their mysteries (as opposed to the older Scooby Doo gang) and their last case comes back to haunt them many years later.

Cantero’s detectives are not a 1:1 match to the Scooby Doo gang—the dog, for example, is a Weimaraner, not a Great Dane—but they were known for unmasking a monster to reveal it was an angry older man who did, indeed, call them “meddling kids.” And it all took place in a town near the Zoinx River. It’s a fun homage to Scooby and the gang. There are shout-outs to other pop culture properties, too, but I don’t want to give them away.

The story centers around the gang’s realization that their last mystery sent an innocent man to prison and their efforts to right that wrong by finding the real perpetrator. Along the way, they encounter old friends, old enemies, and dangers both real and supernatural. The story is fun and suspenseful, one that appeals not only to fans of Scooby Doo but also to those who love Stranger Things.

The Best Book I Read This Month: Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

The best book I read this month was a hard but powerful read. Prophet Song by Paul Lynch imagines an Ireland plunging into authoritarianism. We watch this descent through the lens of a single family’s experience.

The Stack family are an ordinary middle-class family living in Dublin. Larry is a teacher and union representative. Eilish is a scientist in a biomedical firm. They have four children: teenagers Mark, Molly, and Bailey and infant Ben. Eilish is also caring for her dementia-ridden father, who lives on the other side of town.

The story opens with a late-night visit from the police, who are looking for Larry. Things get worse from there. As the country’s authoritarian leaders clamp down, life in Dublin becomes more difficult—food grows scarce, travel is limited. The country becomes torn by civil war. Eilish struggles to keep her family together as the danger escalates.

It’s a dark story and one that does not offer much, if any, hope. Like other dystopian stories, it’s inspired by things that have happened (in this case, the Syrian civil war and refugee crisis) and a warning of what could be. Living here in the United States, it all hit just a little too close for comfort. Still, it is a worthwhile read, a reminder of the human cost of an authoritarian power grab and of the humanity that exists and persists under authoritarian rule.