What I Read in August 📖
The 7 books I read in August and my favorite books from the summer!
While August isn’t officially over yet, my reading efforts for August most certainly are. I went all in on August— I took a two-week break from creating on Substack, and the days felt long and full. I savored the final moments of summer with my kids before our days filled with school preparations, open house events, and school day schedules. We went on a lot of walks, checked the last items off our summer bucket list, ate a looooot of peaches (and filled our bellies with several rounds of peach cobbler), and enjoyed so many perfectly timed end-of-summer books. It was everything I could have wanted and needed from late summer. When my kids set off for their first day of school, I felt satisfied and ready to welcome September, and the new school year, with open arms.
September is not only the literal and figurative commencement of autumn, but it’s also my birthday month (I know, #blessed!!), and I tend to have high expectations for what I want in my reading life in September, a little bit of whatever-I-wanna-read because I’m the birthday princess with some-cute-pink-books because still-the-brithday-princess and also alllll the fall reading.
This last week of August, I tidied and shuffled my bookshelves around to curate my fall reading stacks, organizing them by September reads (birthday girl fall vibes, whatever that means… honestly, who am I sometimes?!), and I’m ready to go all in. I’ll also be sharing some fall reading recommendations here soon. But first— let’s chat about the 7 books I read in August and the books I read this summer that stood out.
Love, Lists & Fancy Ships by Sarah Grunder Ruiz | liked it a lot!
While I’ve yet to watch Below Deck, I do love a boat setting. This romance was more than the light, fluffy read I was expecting. Yes, the romance was good, the setting was perfect for summer, and the female main character was fun to root for. But the most significant aspect of this book was the story of grief woven throughout. Jo is on the cusp of turning 30, and her world is turned upside down when her 11-year-old nephew is hit and killed on his bike. The story of Jo and her family navigating grief was what stood out to me the most about this book.
The Invisible Husband of Frick Island by Colleen Oakley | liked it
This book turned out to be a spot-on end-of-summer book and inspired me to share a roundup of other wonderful end-of-summer reads. I found this story, about a woman grieving the loss of her husband in denial of his absence, and the townspeople who go along with it, both fascinating and a bit too quirky for my taste. The author’s note was insightful and helped paint an even more vivid picture of the town and its people. I almost wish I’d read it first. If you enjoy romance stories that serve up more than just a romance, this might be a good book for you.
| liked it a lot!I was craving a juicy thriller, and after listening to
’s podcast about influencer culture a few years ago, I knew she would deliver the influencer tea in this trad wives influencer murder mystery, and she certainly did! Despite having dipped my own teeny tiny pinky toe into influencer life (and eventually realizing it was not for me), I haven’t read too many influencer books, so the tropes and insights were fresh to me, and fascinating! This one has some great twists and turns, and it felt like a fleshed-out fictionalization of the Ballernia Farm story. All in all, it was a fun popcorn thriller that kept me on the hook.The Days I loved You Most by Amy Neff | loved it!
Evelyn and Joseph have been in love their entire lives, so when Evelyn is in her 70s and at the end of her life, they decide to take matters into their own hands and leave the world on their own terms, together. From there, we watch their love story unfold from start to finish, highs and lows. While I didn’t particularly love Evelyn and Joseph as characters, I found Neff’s writing about love in all of its forms— romantic, motherly, familial— to be raw, beautiful, and deeply relatable. Set in a New England seaside town, at a quaint bed and breakfast, and spanning multiple decades, this is a story I savored and sobbed through.
Murder on Devil’s Pond by Ayla Rose | loved it!
I was also craving a summery cozy mystery, and after spotting this one at a local bookshop last year, I decided to give it a read— I inhaled it!! I love any cozy mystery setting, but the ones set in small Vermont towns are truly top-tier. We have a cute little town set against the lush Vermont green mountains, historic homes and buildings, and everyone is a suspect! Our amateur sleuth, who runs a bed and breakfast where she serves fresh and nourishing vegan (!!) food with ingredients sourced from the inn’s garden and the local farmer’s market (ofc, this is Vermont!) is uncovering lots of long-kept secrets to figure out who killed her curmudgeonly old neighbor, for a plot of land that has everyone in town licking thier chops. This was perfect— cozy in that late summer way, kept me guessing, and satisfying. I also had fun imagining the inn and the main character’s little apartment attached to it.
The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout | liked it a lot!
I could not wait any longer to jump back into Strout’s world, so when I saw The Burgess Boys available immediately on audio via my local library, I did not hesitate to hit play. We learn about the three Burgess siblings, but especially the brothers Bob and Jim (whose names cross the pages here and there in other Strout books I’ve read), who are both lawyers living in New York City. When their nephew ends up in legal trouble, they venture back to their hometown in Maine to help their sister navigate things, as we learn their family history alongside the story of Somali refugees who intersect their story. I especially enjoy the way Strout writes about ordinary(ish) life and commentary on society. I don’t think this is a book that everyone will enjoy, but it worked for me! I also don’t think you should start with this book if you are new to Strout’s writing— see this post for how I’m approaching Strout’s work this year.
The Guest by Emma Cline | loved it!
Oh! I’m so glad I squeezed this one into my August reading— I was surprisingly very into it. I was somehow expecting slow and unsatisfying, but I was wrong. I flew through this book in 48 hours and felt completely immersed in it (and equally grateful that I was not actually in it). We follow Alex as she grifts through Long Island for the last week of summer, somehow finding her way into strangers’ lives. I found it all wildly interesting. There are no bells and whistles; it’s not a loud book, but for me, that didn’t mean it wasn’t captivating and stressful— how is she going to swindle her way through a week of living on Long Island? Read and see!
