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 reads that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better at 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 Compound (Aisling Rawle): Like a new season of Traitors, it was hard to get into it until the numbers dwindled down and you knew the contestants better. And then I was all in. A character asks a question in the book that I’ve always wondered – why would anyone be a participant? It is so far from what I would choose that I would just love to hear why someone chooses to go on a show. In any case, it is a reality television competition in book form.
Vera, or Faith (Gary Shteyngart): I wanted to read this book so badly, but I didn’t enjoy it when I started it. But then I kept reading and it took awhile but it grew on me. So I ended it happy that I stuck with it. There are some gorgeous thoughts and phrasing in the book, and Vera is delectable, as she would say. So happy I read it, even though I was a little sad through the whole thing.
Mean Moms (Emma Rosenblum): A mindlessly fun book with a strange structure. You know the person behind everything halfway through the book but the characters don’t. It took a little of the tension out of the end of the book. But still a good summer read about terrible people.
The Collectors (Philip Pullman): A brilliant short story from the world of His Dark Materials. You can read it without reading the books, but you’ll get more out of it if you’ve read at least The Golden Compass. I’m rereading the books before the publication of The Rose Field. Love being in this world – it stays with you long after you close each story.
The Golden Compass (Philip Pullman): A second reading of this book in the same year. Or maybe last year? It is so nice to back in Lyra’s company. It’s like entering Narnia or falling into Wonderland. And I probably related to the story, especially the pain of separation, in a different way than I did so many years ago. Again, part of the re-reading before The Rose Field is released this fall.
The Marble Hall Murders (Anthony Horowitz): There is no such thing as a bad Anthony Horowitz book. I save Anthony Horowitz books for when I need a solid, perfect book — think of it as literary rainy days. And I needed to end summer on a high note. This one did it. I guessed a few things correctly but didn’t care. I just liked being along for the ride with Susan.
What did you read last month?
3 comments
I read Death at the White Hart on your recommendation. I didn’t particularly like it, but for the first time ever, I found a sentence so relevant that I took a screenshot of the page of my ebook. “I once read that the secret to happiness lies in the gap between how one see oneself and how others see us.” That was entirely true for my husband (not so much for me), and I will probably post about it.
(I didn’t care for the characters and the red hearings annoyed me because I could clearly see they were going to be red herrings.)
*herrings – how did it leave it correct the second time? This is why I will never be convinced of the value of AI.
I need to get to “Marble Hall Murders” — the other two in the series were so good (as were the TV adaptations!).
I got four books finished in August, mostly for book clubs/reading groups — all reviewed on my blog as well as on Goodreads & StoryGraph:
* The Two Mrs. Abbotts by D.E. Stevenson. I re-read this one in advance of my Stevenson group’s chapter-by-chapter reading & discussion, which runs through mid-October. It’s a sequel to “Miss Buncle’s Book’ and “Miss Buncle Married” and takes place in 1942 (was written and published around the same time, while the war was still going on). The usual gentle good humour, well drawn characters, romances and home front plots. 3.5-4 stars.
* “Drive Your Plow (Over the Bones of the Dead)” by Olga Tokarczuk. This was… different. The main character is a cranky older woman living in an isolated area of Poland, whose neighbours start dying under mysterious circumstances. She has her own strange (somewhat extremist) theories about who (or rather what) dunnit. Great writing, but not quite my thing…! (3.5-4 stars)
* “Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands” by Mary Seacole. First published in 1857 (!) and reflective of the language and attitudes of the day (some of which would be considered highly inappropriate and/or offensive today). Seacole was a black/Creole woman from Jamaica, a nurse/”doctress”/healer whose adventures (some more or less “wonderful” than others — at a time when most women did not leave the house unescorted) included trotting around the globe — often unescorted — back and forth from Jamaica to Panama, England and the Crimea (during the Crimean War!), running hotels/dining rooms, stores and other businesses, providing food and drinks and nursing the sick and wounded (on and off the battlefield), and even prospecting for gold. An interesting and entertaining read overall, although not without its flaws. I enjoyed her obvious zest for life and adventure, and her apparent ability to roll with the punches and deal with whatever challenges life presented her. (3-3.5 stars)
* “Death Comes to Marlow” by Robert Thorogood (#2 in the Marlow Murder Club series). This was not a book club pick, but I wanted to read it before the second season of the TV show began on PBS Masterpiece Mystery. Like the original book, this was a fast and easy read — light, entertaining, and quite funny in some parts, especially near the beginning. However, the same criticisms I had of the first book still apply here. While it’s great to see a strong older (childless) female lead character, Judith can be annoying and exasperating at times. The writing style is rather basic: sometimes it seems like every little detail gets spelled out in full, and the book is probably longer than it needs to be. (The explanation of whodunnit and why, spans TWO ENTIRE CHAPTERS and 46 pages on my e-reader!!). (3 stars)