My Summer Bookshelf – August
Welcome to the final edition of My Summer Book Shelf! Summer is wrapping up. Temperatures are finally closer to 90 than 100. (Hallelujah!) The Summer Olympics have come and gone. (Am I the only one who had trouble balancing life and reading and the Olympics? Sleep deprivation, anyone?!?)
But the books go on, do they not! Here’s how I did with my August “To Be Read” list:
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty: I enjoyed this book. It was a lot lighter than I expected but not total “fluff.” I thought she did a good job looking at marriage and all the little things that can easily sneak in a destroy it.
The Things We Wish Were True by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen. Haven’t started it yet.
Greater Than Gold: From Olympic Heartbreak to Ultimate Redemption by Olympic diver (as in he competed THIS year) David Boudia. This was an interesting read. David does a great job explaining the sport of diving and sharing his testimony. I enjoy his voice–he’s very engaging–but the book itself could use a little more polish. He jumps around in time a lot, and sometimes I ended up a little lost.
Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind by Ann B. Ross. This one was fun again! It’s been years since I originally read it. I had forgotten how sharp the wit is in this series!
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Ugh. Did NOT like this one! I know, I know. I’m supposed to love this one; everyone does. Nope. I had to force myself to finish it. This is touted as being a great suspense book, and I did enjoy it in the beginning. I knew there were things I didn’t know, and that was kind of cool…for a while. Then I just wanted to shake Rebecca and tell her to wise up already! I thought she should’ve been quicker to pick up on stuff.
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. Now THIS! THIS is a FANTASTIC book! It is also touted as a great suspense book, and it delivers in a lovely way. (Okay, some of the first part of the book isn’t “lovely,” but keep reading!) I found it much less predictable than Rebecca. Beautifully written. This one was hard to put down.
Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles, Book 2) by Marissa Meyer. This fairy tale meets cyborg series is a fun read! I’m looking forward to Book 3.
I started then abandoned Beach House Memories by Mary Alice Monroe because I didn’t want to read a story about a woman making unwise choices that could kill her marriage and because it was fluffier than I want to read right now.
I also started and abandoned Fates and Furies: A Novel by Lauren Groff. I ditched it because of some “ick” and because I just didn’t like it.
Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz. I haven’t gotten to this one yet.
And then there’s A Great Reckoning, by Louise Penny. This book released on August 30, and all I wanted to do was sit down and dig in! (I *might* have been a few minutes late for work that morning because I started the book over breakfast!) I shared what I love about this series on Tuesday, and this new book does not disappoint. We find out what came next for Gamache and his friends and family and watch him tackle new challenges. I SO enjoyed hanging out with my friends from Three Pines again! This book is powerful and beautiful. An excellent book.
Even though the My Summer Book Shelf series is ending, I plan to keep sharing a “books read this month” post at the end of each month, so I hope you’ll stay tuned for those!
Check out my friends at these blogs to see what THEY read in August!
Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After
8 thoughts on “My Summer Bookshelf – August”
I look forward to getting into the Louise Penny books! Haven’t started that series yet. I’m not finding the “can’t-put-it-down” stage of Thirteenth Tale. I’m hoping it clicks for me! I don’t like reading icky books either. Not enough time to read all the books I WANT to read!
I hope you like the Louise Penny books better than Thirteenth Tale! I agree about ick. And we each have different ick triggers, so that makes recommending books a little tricky sometimes. I’m struggling to finish the book I’m reading right now. Trying to decide whether to keep going or not.
I finally have two audio books to listen to. Yay! So maybe I will actually complete some books in a month’s time. Glad to read how you liked Thirteenth Tale. It is on my shelf, so time to bring it down to the nightstand. Alice is one of my audio books. Had thought it might be very sad and depressing, glad to read your review to the contrary.
Alice is sad to some degree, but there’s a nice strain of hope and humor as well.