August 2024 Reading Wrap Up
Need some new books for your TBR?
I’m sharing with you what I read (and am currently reading) for the month of August
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Full Show Notes (Transcript)…
Hi there, I'm Stephanie Leopold and I am excited to welcome you to the Readerly Collective Podcast, where bookworms unite and geeking out is highly encouraged. Join me as we explore the world of books in the reading life, celebrating all types of readers and all types of genres. Grab your favorite beverage, cozy up in your reading nook, and let's dive in.
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Hey there readers! Welcome to another episode of the Readerly Collective podcast! We are on the last Monday of the month, can you believe that - that this is the end of August? This year has just flown by. Because it's the last Monday, I thought I would come back and do another monthly reading recap, just to share what I've read this month, what I am in the middle of reading, and what I'm looking forward to reading. Hopefully that'll give you some ideas, some new books to try out, or put on your TBR.
In July's recap, I said I was in the middle of a book called The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny, and I actually did finish listening to that on audio in the month of July, so I just kind of wanted to follow up on that. It was really good. I love the Louise Penny Inspector Gamache series. It is just a good solid mystery series. I think In last month's episode, if you listened to that, I said I call them a comfort mystery, not necessarily a cozy mystery. They are very dark, and sometimes a little bit more graphic and I think that kind of disqualifies it from a cozy read, but the setting and the characters just make me feel comforted. It makes me feel like I could just cozy up in a blanket, at the B& B, in Canada where all of this takes place and have a coffee and a croissant, and if you've read the books you know what I'm talking about! So, I did finish that one in July and it was really great. I will continue to read on in that series.
Also in the last month recap I was in the middle of a book called Humor Me by Cat Shook and I finished that one in August. This was okay. I did enjoy it, but I did like her first book better, which was called If We’re Being Honest. This one, Humor Me, is a little bit more rom com-y. It makes a lot of references to rom coms, which I really liked, specifically Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks rom coms. There are a couple of You've Got Mail references, which is one of my favorite movies of all time. This book really picked up for me about halfway through to three fourths of the way through. As I said, it is kind of rom com-y, but I also think, by the end of the book, that that is the secondary storyline, and it's really about female friendships, and being there for your friends, and how that changes through life. It has a lot of really good commentary on female friendships. So it was good, I liked it. I would recommend it, but I would definitely recommend her first book.
Also in August, I read The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean. This was a 5 star read for me. It opens with a missing girl being found. She's been missing for two years and she just shows up in the woods one day, and hikers find her, and then the story goes on from there. The detective that is on her case to help find the person that kidnapped her also had a sister go missing when she was a teenager, and so she is really personally invested in this, getting answers, bringing someone to justice. This took a couple of turns that I was not expecting. It goes back and forth in timeline, and points of view, so we have the point of view of the detective, back and forth from her teenage years when her sister went missing to now and how she's trying to find the current kidnapper. And it also goes back forth from Ellie, Ellie Black, the girl that was missing, and what she went through, how her captors treated her, and then trying to heal after being found. I loved it and will recommend it.
Then I listened to Like Mother Like Daughter by Kimberly McCreight. This is also a mystery/thriller/ suspense. A mother goes missing the college aged daughter takes it upon herself to figure out what's going on and where her mom could be. She gets to her mom's house and there's signs of a struggle, but no other thoughts or evidence of what happened or where mom is. This also goes back and forth timelines. Mom has some very dark buried secrets that are coming back to essentially haunt her and affect her daughter, and as daughter daughter starts to unravel some of these secrets she realizes that mom was keeping a lot from her. Overall, I really liked it, this was a solid read. I, personally, did not love the through-line of what connected mom’s past and daughter’s present (and that’s what books are all about, right? Is that it’s a personal preference of them.) While I didn’t love the reveal, the author did a great job of building tension, and kept me guessing. I still would recommend this, but it might just not be my first choice.
I also finished reading The Storied Life of A.J. Fickry by Gabrielle Zevin, and this was also a five star read. This book is just so good and delightful. It is about a bookstore owner. When you meet him, I think he's in his 40s, but he's very curmudgeonly and grumpy. You find out he's been widowed and owns this bookstore that his late wife really was the mastermind behind the bookstore. And it just follows his life. It's about family, blood, family, and found family, and just how people can change over time. This also explores how people can be dealt a really crappy hand in life and be hardened by that, but then also have the right people around to break down some of those barriers, if that makes sense. This book was wonderful. It's a book about bookstores, and a book about a life. It's just wonderful and I highly recommend it.
So that is what I read in August! . Currently I am listening to One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware. I have listened to one or two of her other books and have really liked them. This one of course is no different. She is just a solid mystery writer. I think I might finish that before the actual end of August.
And then I have literally just last night started reading The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton. He wrote The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle which I read a couple years ago and really liked. I was told this book is like X Files meets Lost and I said I don't need to hear anything else! So I am only like 30 pages in and I am obsessed right now. So you will hear that probably in next month's recap.
So I hope that gave you guys some new books to look into. Let me know what you're reading. I hope it's something great. And until next week, friends, take care.
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