August Reads
All the books I sailed through this month + some online reads I enjoyed.
The dog days of summer, they say. While it hasn’t been as hot as the earlier summer months, the humidity hangs heavy and the cicadas have gotten much louder. A signal that summer is on its way out the door.
I lied. When I first started this roundup, we were having pleasant weather. Now, we’re under excessive heat warnings. 🥴 I, for one, welcome the cool down and cannot wait for fall to arrive. I’m ready for cardigans and hoodies, cozy blankets and hot coffees, and more books.
More books. I’ve officially read 60 books this year! It thrills me to my core to see that number continue to rise. I may have gone a little wild in the last two months with my book purchasing. I’m suspending all of my Libby holds in September to get through some of the growing stacks around my home office. My holds are always maxed out.
You see, I have this problem where I stalk newly published books, or watch for books to hit shelves… and I use that nifty little “Notify Me” tag so I get an email and a push notification once the book is available from my library. I hit borrow right away so I can be one of the first to take it in. Then, if I love the book so much and need it for future inspiration, like many books I read, I run to the bookstore and get a physical copy. That stack is growing wildly and now, I need a new bookshelf. What a problem to have, I know.
August was full of fantastic reads. I know it’s my bias talking but damn, I know how to pick them. I haven’t DNF’ed (did not finish) a book all year! There have been exactly two that I started but quickly shelved because I wasn’t in the mood for the subject matter. I will get back to them later this year. And, I got sick near the end of the month and was worried I wouldn’t get through my goal, but I made it happen. Go me!
Anyway, let’s get into everything I enjoyed this past month, including some articles and Substack reads I’m digging.
FICTION
THE HOLLYWOOD ASSISTANT, by May Cobb
This was a breezy, fast-paced suspenseful read. I couldn’t put it down. I thought I had it mostly figured out, but was pleasantly surprised. We’re following Cassidy, who leaves her life in Austin behind for a new start. Her best friend, Lexie, gets her a job as an assistant to a hot Hollywood couple — the wife is an actress and the husband is a filmmaker. She gets closer to each of them and realizes, of course, that things are not as they seem. When one of them ends up dead and Cassidy looks like the best suspect, things get messy. I gave this one four stars on Goodreads and really enjoyed it!
THE GOD OF THE WOODS, by Liz Moore
BOOK OF THE SUMMER! This one was everywhere, it seems, and for great reasons. I picked it up and was immediately drawn to the story. In 1975, a thirteen-year-old camper goes missing from her bunk. She’s the daughter of the camp’s owners, and to make things weirder, her brother also went missing over a decade before… and he was never found. This story unfolds via the POV of a rookie investigator, the bunkmate, the mother, and more. A very rich tapestry, well-woven, and compelling. Highly recommend if you haven’t picked it up already.
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS, by Alice Feeney
Devoured in a day!! This follows a couple who is having a rough time in their marriage. Adam has face blindness and Amelia feels ignored. They go away together for a weekend without distractions, but the whole thing feels really weird from the jump. Amelia “won” a getaway to a Scottish Airbnb that used to be an old chapel, renovated into a house. Complete with a crypt in the basement that is now a wine cellar, this place is spooky from the jump. I was delightfully surprised in the end and thought this was another perfectly paced thrilling story that kept me turning the pages, and quickly. I loved it. No more notes.
HOUSE OF GLASS, by Sarah Pekkanen
Another banger this month! I’m on a roll. This story is about a lawyer who is tasked with making a recommendation on which parent a child, Rose, should live with once their divorce is finalized. Oh yeah, Rose’s recently pregnant nanny ended up dead at the beginning of the divorce proceedings. The lawyer, Stella, is perfect for this case because she shares something in common with the child: she once suffered from traumatic mutism. That’s right, the events of the nanny’s death sent Rose mute and Stella is here to help her in any way she can. This is twisty and I had suspicious from the start but loved how it all came out in the end. Highly recommend this one!
ONE PERFECT COUPLE, by Ruth Ware
Ruth Ware always hits for me. I don’t think I’ve disliked a single story she’s created, and this was no exception. Lyla, a PhD virologist, and her actor boyfriend Nico set off to participate in a reality television show filming in a remote corner of the Indian Ocean, One Perfect Couple. They, along with four other couples, will compete to win a cash prize. Everything about the show seems suspicious from the jump — the island doesn’t seem “finished” (it’s a “newer” resort) and the first challenge leaves the contestants, especially Lyla, reeling. A major storm hits the island and chaos ensues, people end up dead, and tensions are through as supplies dwindle. A great way to cap off your summer — I couldn’t put it down!
I NEED YOU TO READ THIS, by Jessa Maxwell
This was a quick read that I could not put down. Alex is a copywriter living quietly in the big city. She impulsively applies for and gets a dream job as an advice columnist… replacing the original beloved advice giver who was murdered. Big shoes to fill! Alex receives strange letters almost immediately after starting the job and it leads her to take a look into why the killer of the original columnist had never been found. She starts putting the pieces of the puzzle together and her past comes back to haunt her… a recipe for a great thriller! I really enjoyed it and while I figured out one piece of the puzzle (I just can’t help myself), I was delightfully surprised by the ending.
NONFICTION
IN PIECES, by Sally Field
Wow. Sally Field. Iconic woman in every way. I had no knowledge about her early life and career going into this and it was interesting reading about how she got her start, as well as her childhood — her complicated but close relationship with her mother, the trauma inflicted by her ex-stepfather, and her first marriage/being a young working mother in the early days of her career. This wasn’t a salacious read, but rather a tender reflection on the harder moments in her life despite the fame and fortune she found herself with as a working actor across multiple decades of film and television. I thought it was well-written and compelling and if you love Field, you’ll enjoy this read.
BRAT, by Andrew McCarthy
I’ve had a soft spot for Andrew McCarthy since I first saw St. Elmo’s Fire when I was a teenager. When I saw he did a documentary about the so-called “Brat Pack” on Hulu (BRATS), I was excited to watch… then I realized he wrote a memoir, so I devoured this first. McCarthy’s memoir walks through the beginning of his career mostly, and when it took off, creating a great time capsule of what it was like for a young and upcoming actor in the early 1980s. He does touch on the iconic “Brat Pack” group and reflects on their actually very short time spent together when they were all young, which can explain why this memoir didn’t go deeper like I thought it would. I think I, like a lot of other people, were under the impression this group of people were very tight knit and had intertwined lives, and that it was going to be a bigger part of McCarthy’s story. Reading this and then watching BRATS showed me otherwise; these bodies of work painted that group, as well as McCarthy, in a new light for me. All that said… I did really enjoy this memoir.
INSIDE OUT, by Demi Moore
This was so good. A peek behind the scenes of Demi’s real life, which is exactly what you want from a major Hollywood celebrity memoir. If you like Moore, you will enjoy hearing about her life and journey: navigating a difficult upbringing, becoming a major celeb, being a woman in the public eye, and her relationships with Bruce Willis and Ashton Kutcher. Well-written and read, this was yet another audiobook I highly enjoyed.
JOYFUL RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAUMA, by Paul Scheer
This memoir has so much heart and was genuinely funny. I’ve been a fan of Paul Scheer’s for a long time and was really excited to read this one. I had many laugh-out-loud moments while listening. Scheer recalls what he once thought were fond moments from his childhood and adolescence with a fresh sense of “oh, yeah, that was kind of traumatic, wasn’t it?” A nice bonus was within the audiobook, he popped in some fun live segments from his popular podcast, How Did This Get Made? and that just enhanced the book overall for me. I loved it!
See what else I’ve read this year:
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All the (non-affiliate) links for the books reviewed go to Bookshop.org, a wonderful site where you can purchase your books and support your local independent bookstore(s). 📚
I’ve gotten such incredible recommendations from you!