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.
The Lies I Tell (Julie Clark): This is a fun non-mystery. Meaning, there is no crime you’re trying to solve — you already know who did what. But it’s a clever story of cat and mouse where the characters don’t know how much the other characters know. I still had a few questions by the last page, but it was overall a super engaging read.
Wrong Place Wrong Time (Gillian McAllister): This was a fun, twisty mystery. The narrator’s life is moving backwards, starting on the day of a life-changing event, and jumping backwards in time each chapter so she can understand what happened. I figured out some twists early. Other things surprised me as they fell into place. This felt like reading a kaleidoscope with the pieces constantly arranging themselves. Very very well done.
How To Kill Your Family (Bella Mackie): Ads for this book were everywhere while we were in London. It is best described as wickedly funny. I truly liked Grace, the narrator, and it was a pleasure to spend time with her, killings aside. The end totally surprised me, and it was a fitting conclusion. I loved this.
The It Girl (Ruth Ware): I always like Ruth Ware’s books — I’m never blown away, but they’re totally solid. This gets a bump up due to the setting (a fictional college at Oxford) and the clever ending. I figured out the killer early in the book, but I couldn’t figure out the how or why. The big reveal was fantastic.
Death and Fromage (Ian Moore): This is the second book in the series, and it was even better than the first one. (And I loved the first one.) I felt so happy reading it — it’s such a pleasure to find a book that makes you feel good while you’re spending time with it. It was clever and funny and sweet. Really, the perfect read.
What did you read last month?
3 comments
Ooh, some of those sound good! 🙂
August was a pretty good reading month for me — five books finished. They’re all reviewed on my blog, as well as on Goodreads.
* “Exit” by Belinda Bauer (the Gateway/Lighthouse Women book club’s August pick). If I had to recommend just one book that I read in August, this would be it. I had no expectations going in, and I loved it. Shades of “The Thursday Murder Club,” but a little more dark, gritty and quirky.
* “Arrow Through the Heart: The Biography of Andy Gibb” by Matthew Hild. A competent, detailed telling of an ultimately sad story.
* “Don’t Stop Believin'” by Olivia Newton-John. I felt compelled to pick this one up after ONJ died in early August. Her personality really shines through. Despite the challenges she faced during her life, she remained upbeat to the end.
* “Anna and her Daughters” by D.E. Stevenson (summer re-read for my DES fan group). A young widow returns to Scotland after the death of her husband with her three teenaged daughters. Youngest daughter Jane narrates. I always enjoy Stevenson’s books — they are generally light, easy reads, with good writing and great characters — but I’ll admit, a few of the plot twists in this one didn’t sit well with me.
* “Sarah Morris Remembers” by D.E. Stevenson (read in advance of our group’s next discussion). Vicar’s daughter Sarah falls in love with her brother’s Austrian school friend Charles — and then World War 2 intervenes.
After an impressive start to the year (for me), I’ve lost my reading mojo. In August, though, I read one lovely book, Greta and Valdin by Rebecca Reilly. It’s a New Zealand novel, set in Auckland but with forays to Argentina and Ukraine, but could pretty much be set anywhere, about a brother and sister, their love lives, their family history. I really liked it, and gave it four stars which is a high rating from me.
Other books were lighter genre fiction, and not really worth reviewing. This is a good reminder for me to get reading again.
You are the third person who has recommended The It Girl. I have read and enjoyed a few of Ruth Ware’s other books (The Woman in Cabin 10, The Lying Game, and The Turn of the Key), so I’ve now added this one to my Want to Read list.
I am up to 74 books read since January 1! Here are a few I read in August and enjoyed:
Infinite Country by Patricia Engel. This was such a compelling and quick read. My first by this author.
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson. The chapters of this book were unusually short, and I liked the pacing. Lots of twists and turns here, and the book touched on a lot of issues, including family, racism, and identity.
The Change by Kirsten Miller. Is this a book written for “a certain demographic,” as my husband said when I told him the plot? Yes. But I am a part of that demographic (middle-aged women), and I was HERE for this book! I was practically cheering for the three main characters.
I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys. I enjoyed this YA book about a period in (recent) history and events about which I knew very little. This was my second book by the author, and I’m looking forward to reading more of her books!