August 2024 Reading Review

Happy Wednesday, friends! I feel silly about my weather rant on Monday because this week has turned out picture perfect. In fact, I decided it was time to transition to hot lattes in the morning so I dug out my immersion blender to froth up some warm milk while my moka pot burbled away on the stove. It is such a treat on this 45*F (!) morning.

Are you tired of hearing about how much I’m loving StoryGraph? If you are, then you might want to skip today’s post because it is full of StoryGraph graphics. (Are we friends on StoryGraph yet? If not, please add me!)

My reading life in August was spectacular. It was a great mix of books; some were challenging and thought-provoking while others were downright fun. A handful were the perfect combination of both. Let’s break things down a little more and I’ll share my top 3 books of the month with you:

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General Statistics:

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These days I’m way more interested in the number of pages I read rather than the number of books. That’s been a slow transition for me but I love that I’ve been less and less intimidated by BIG books with this shift. 4,560 pages in a month works out to just under 150 pages a day, which is a good goal for me given everything else that pulls at my attention.

It’s likely that this is the first month of the year that literary has been the lead genre. That feels good because I think my old reading self is starting to return. Romance and fantasy got me through the first half of this year and I’m thankful for discovering those genres and still – I love literary fiction and it feels good to be indulging in it. And now I know that romance and fantasy will likely always be part of my stack of books and that’s exciting!

I’m a little puzzled by the fact that I didn’t finish a single audiobook in August. My audio habits vary wildly – some months I do almost all of my reading on audio and others I do none. I started an audiobook in August (This Strange Eventful History) and am only about halfway through it. I’ll be interested in how I manage audiobooks in September.

Highlights of the month:

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I rated three books with 5 stars in August:

Whale Fall by Elizabeth O’Connor
Manod is an 18 year old girl living on an isolated Welsh island in the months leading up to WWII with her father and little sister. After a whale washes up on the shore Joan and Edward, two sibling researchers from Oxford, arrive to study it and the village. Manod is bright and Joan and Edward quickly hire her as a translator and transcriber for their research.

Manod is delighted by their attention and begins of dreaming of a life in Oxford. But she is troubled by the way Joan and Edward seem to be writing and reporting about life on the island in small, incorrect ways that begin to become more important as those details add up.

This was such an atmospheric book – you could practically smell the damp wool and never-quite-dry homes. I was rooting for Manod and her happiness; I was so worried about her heart being broken. There was so much to love about this book.

Held by Anne Michaels
I wrote about this in two different posts a few weeks ago, so I won’t say too much about it here. Held jumps around a lot in time but starts in 1917 France with a wounded soldier on a battlefield. We follow him back home to England, trying to build a life with his wife after such a horrific experience. Then we jump forward and back through time: from 1910 France through The Gulf of Finland in 2025.

We explore ideas about memory and light and souls and where we come from. It’s such a puzzle of a book. I enjoyed studying each vignette and working to put all of the pieces together. This book captivated me and I spent days walking around, trying to sort it out. I love books this like that!

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon
This is the second book in The Roots of Chaos series and it was another captivating book for me. This is a fantasy book set in a world fearful of the return of The Nameless One, a creature made from molten rocks deep within the earth. There are different legends about who and what bound the Nameless One to start with, but all of the legends agree that it will return.

This book is beautiful. The imagery is amazing, the relationships are touching and sincere, and the adventure is out of this world. This story requires that the entire world overcome their differences, learn to trust each other, and work together in order to secure their safety. And Samantha Shannon is one of the best at taking seemingly disparate threads and bringing them all together into one beautiful story. It is perfection! A third book in this series is in the works and I am elated.

Booker Longlist Titles:

I’m slowly working my way through this year’s Booker titles. I’d love to read them all but doubt I’ll still feel that way once the shortlist is announced on 9/16. Let’s see how many more I can read before then!

❒ Wild Houses by Colin Barrett (up next)
❒ Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel
✔️ James by Percival Everett
✔️ Orbital by Samantha Harvey
❒ Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
✔️ My Friends by Hisham Matar
❒ This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud (currently listening)
✔️ Held by Anne Michaels
✔️ Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
❒ Enlightenment by Sarah Perry (currently reading)
❒ Playground by Richard Powers
❒ The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
❒ Stoneyard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

August Calendar

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This graphic became available about halfway through the month so I started logging my daily reading each evening before bed. That has been a ton of fun! I love seeing my reading life displayed like this and watching my progress through particular books. I don’t know how long I’ll be interested in doing this but it’s something I look forward to everyday. It’s helped me control scrolling on my phone by remembering that I’ll be doing this at the end of the day; such an incentive to read instead of scroll!

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How was your reading life in August? What was your favorite book of the month? Or maybe it was hard to find a book that fit your mood last month?

Sorry if this post has typos I haven’t caught – there’s stirring upstairs and I have to run! But I hope to be back on Friday with an update on my week. May your Wednesday be kind to you. Take good care!