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Best Books of August

As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she read that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better about doing this.

So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.

These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from August.

Still Life (Penny Louise): I am a late arrival to Penny Louise, but I make up for it with passion. We’ve already started making French Canadian book-themed meals for dinner, finding recipes for every food mentioned in the pages. The world is lucky to have good books, and this is the best kind: when you want to go to the place in the pages because you love the people and stories so much. I’m only at the beginning of the series, but I can’t wait to get to the later books because I’ve heard they get better and better, and I already loved this one a lot.

The Box in the Woods (Maureen Johnson): This is a hard one because I loved the first books in the series. I was sad when the series was over. And then, suddenly, it wasn’t over! There was going to be another book! But this is maybe a case where the series should have ended where it ended. I liked it enough, but I never felt like I was in western Massachusetts. The situation didn’t feel believable. I spent a lot of time thinking, “But why didn’t they just…” and that is never a good sign with a book. BUT I still enjoyed it so much more than many other books. So worth reading, but not the same level as the other Truly Devious books.

Tokyo Ever After (Emiko Jean): This book made my heart happy. Great writing, great characters, great location—everything added up to a truly enjoyable read.

The Other Passenger (Louise Candlish): The writing drew me in—and I’ll definitely read more by this writer due to the strength of the writing—but the plot twists are pretty obvious. It didn’t detract from the reading enjoyment. Maybe it’s the opposite: it didn’t detract from the enjoyment, but I kind of wished things had been a little more surprising to add to the enjoyment.

The Last Thing He Told Me (Laura Dave): This book received so much buzz that I probably held it to an unrealistic standard going into the reading experience. But it was just okay. It was solid. I liked the writing, but I never believed the choices the characters made. Not because humans don’t make these sorts of choices but because I didn’t believe THESE humans would make these choices. I sort of felt like I was getting a story about random neighbours, even though I should have been closer to the characters due to the first-person narration.

What did you read last month?

6 comments

1 Peg { 09.15.21 at 9:19 am }

So jealous you are just starting Louise Penny. Such a good series. I want to go to Three Pines. New one is out but I’m waiting to read until I finish up another series.

2 Rivqah { 09.15.21 at 9:44 am }

I just finished Meet Me at the Museum, by Anne Youngson, and that was a five-star read for me, an epistolary novel between an English farm wife and a museum curator in Denmark.

3 Sharon { 09.15.21 at 12:50 pm }

Loved Still Life, and like you, I am looking forward to reading more from Louise Penny.

Here are a few of my favorites from August:

While We Were Dating by Jasmine Guillory. Light, fun romance.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Believe it or not, I had never read this book! It holds up disturbingly well despite having been published nearly 80 years ago.

The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths. I discovered this author recently, and this is the second book in a series she writes about a forensic archaeologist named Ruth Galloway. Solid.

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. This is the third book I have read by this author, and unlike a lot of books that get a lot of buzz, I enjoyed it and thought it was excellent.

4 Beth { 09.15.21 at 3:11 pm }

I am reading The Last Thing He Told Me right now and am feeling the same way. It’s good and I look forward to picking it up. But I’m not convinced of the characters, totally.

I read We Were Never Here by Andi Bartz
and Such A Quiet Place by Megan Miranda and really enjoyed both. WWNH had an unexpected, almost confusing ending (what really happens?) but it worked.

5 Turia { 09.15.21 at 4:55 pm }

YES LOUISE PENNY

I discovered her a couple of years ago and read the whole series immediately. She’s so good. I don’t usually read or like mysteries but she is fabulous.

6 loribeth { 09.15.21 at 5:12 pm }

I still haven’t gotten around to reading Louise Penny, but my sister has read all her books and adores them.

I read six books in August, and they were all pretty good. All reviewed on my blog.

* “The Mother of All Dilemmas” by Kathleen Guthrie Woods of Life Without Baby and 52 Nudges. A wonderful memoir about how Kathleen, turning 40 and still single, struggled with the decision whether to attempt solo motherhood — and how an “internship” — i.e., taking care of her toddler nephew for two weeks — helped her make up her mind.
* “The Gifts of Imperfection” by Brene Brown. I’d never read any Brene Brown before, and this book is a good place to start. I found a lot of the content and concepts familiar to me, after 20 years in the online infertility/pregnancy loss/childless communities, which shows you just how much they’ve entered the vernacular.
* “How to Pronounce Knife” by Souvankham Thammavongsa (for one of my online book clubs). A collection of 14 short stories — brief glimpses/slices of life about Laotian immigrants navigating the strange new world of North America. The writing is sparse and a little bleak but amazing nevertheless.
* “The Reckoning” by Mary L. Trump. Donald’s niece, a clinical psychologist, analyzes American history from a trauma/PTSD perspective.
* “Emily of New Moon” by L.M. Montgomery (for another online book club). Somewhat darker than Anne of Green Gables and the character Montgomery said was most like herself.
* “I Have Something to Tell You” by Chasten Glezman Buttigieg. Probably my favourite read of the month. A chatty, funny, frank, keenly observed and often poignant coming-of-age and coming out memoir. As the husband of presidential candidate (now Transportation Secretary) Pete Buttigieg, it’s also an interesting inside look at the U.S. political campaign process and the role of political spouse.

(c) 2006 Melissa S. Ford
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