August 2024 Reading Recap

Reading in a month of heavy mental chatter...

August is an emotionally charged month for me, and so I never really know how my reading is going to shake out. Some years it’s very slow, and some years reading is the only thing that settles me down and quiets the mental chatter that ramps up in this season.

This August felt almost normal, in the sense that it was a lot like other months this year. I had a few days where I sat down and finished an entire book, and some stretches where I read almost nothing. But I kept my reading streak alive and finished a few great books, so I can’t really complain.

Here’s a recap of what I read in August:

Almost all of those spikes in pages read are on the weekends!

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📘 The Wren in the Holly Library by K.A. Linde

I love romantasy and I love a good heist, so I think I was primed to love this one. Kierse is a gifted thief in a world where humans and monsters are living in an uneasy truce. When she’s caught during a job, she’s forced to make a deal with the monster she was stealing from – help him complete a heist in exchange for not losing her life. Because it’s romantasy they catch feelings for each other while completing the mission, which turns out to be much bigger than Kierse was led to believe. This one was so fun! Kierse is a great main character, and I loved her supporting cast of friends – I can’t wait for them to be more center stage in the sequel.

📘 A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft

This is my second Allison Saft book, and I think she’s quickly becoming one of my favorite young adult romantasy writers. In this book, a lonely sharpshooter and an aspiring alchemist team up to compete in a hunt for a mythical fox. This book was really lovely, with a gentle romance that brought together two people who had been let down by family and community in various ways. Some of the cultural and religious persecution in their society felt a bit odd to me (in the sense that it was in a fantasy world, but was very clearly about real-world groups), but overall it was an enjoyable read.

📘 Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong

This book is a futuristic fantasy story loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Every year, citizens of San-Er attempt to compete in a lethal game to amuse the palace and placate the public. Calla, a secret princess, and August, an exiled aristocrat, find it advantageous to team up in the games, and are helped along by a rogue prince, August. There were lots of interesting things in this one, but I think what I liked most was the way the cliffhanger ending really opens up the world into something a lot more vibrant than the games that are the primary plot of this novel. I’m excited for the next book coming out this week!

📘 The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza

Sara Marsala is grappling with the failure of her business and her marriage when her beloved great-aunt Rosie passes away. But her inheritance offers an escape – a ticket to Sicily and a mystery to solve about the family’s beloved matriarch, Serafina. The book alternates between Sara’s twisty journey and Serafina’s story in the early 1900s, with menacing forces coming at both women from all sides. I saw this one get a lot of love on social media, and it seemed like a fun book to start the month out with. I liked the messiness of the main characters, as well as the way the multi-threaded mystery came together. It was a great mystery to read on a beach!

📘 The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

This is probably the buzziest book of the summer, and I can see why! In the early morning of August 1975, counselors discover a 13-year-old camper has gone missing. But Barbara Van Laar isn’t just any camper – she’s the daughter of the camp owners, and the younger sister of a boy who disappeared 14 years ago. The book jumps back and forth between the two mysteries, slowly unveiling secrets of the Van Laar family and members of the working-class community around the camp. I absolutely loved this one – it was twisty and tense, with a really great upstairs/downstairs vibe that plays into how the various storylines resolve. So good!

📘 The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion by Aminata Forna

I’ve had this collection of essays on my shelves for a while, and I’m glad I finally read it. The thread across these essays are themes of “displacement, trauma and memory, love, and how we coexist and encroach on the non-human world.” It seems like a lot, but it works. She writes beautifully about traveling, impacts of colonialism, treatment of animals, complexities of race and immigration, and so much more. If you like essays, this is an excellent collection.

📘 The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso

Hortensia and Marion are widowed neighbors living in a small community in Cape Town. They’ve been enemies for decades, but when an unexpected event forces them together they have an opportunity to start bringing down the walls that have grown between them. I don’t think I was quite in the mood for this book – I could tell it was good, and that the author had some really interesting things to say about race and community in South Africa, but it was a little too reflective for my August reading tastes. Still, interesting!

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Final Thoughts

My one reading goal for 2024 was to read 24 books from “Mount TBR” — backlist books that I owned prior to 2024. At the end of August I was at 15 titles, which is just one short of being on track. I’m optimistic I can get be on pace by the end of September.

And in case you hadn’t heard, September is Library Card Sign-up Month! If you don’t have a library card, it’s a great excuse to go get one — in almost all cases, getting a library card is free, and it gives you access to a lot of cool things. My day job is doing communications for a public library system, so if you have questions about libraries I am happy to help.

To celebrate, I want to close by sharing a very silly thing I got to help make for work — yay for libraries!

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Do you use your local library? What’s your favorite thing about libraries?