August was another very good reading month for me. I read nine books, and five of them ended up firmly in my “Yes!” category. I also had a couple of books that I enjoyed well enough but are part of ongoing series, so I’m reserving final judgment for now.
There were several standout reads this month, across both fiction and nonfiction.
My Next Breath by Jeremy Renner was probably the biggest surprise of the month. This is Renner’s memoir about the horrific accident that nearly cost him his life and the long, difficult road to recovery. I found it incredibly compelling not just because of the accident itself, but because of what it reveals about resilience, family, and the determination to rebuild your life after something that changes it forever.
Summer Sisters by Judy Blume was another favorite. I somehow managed to make it this far without reading it, and I’m glad I finally did. It is a coming-of-age story about friendship, family, love, and the complicated ways people can remain connected to one another over the course of many years. There is something very nostalgic about Blume’s writing, but the relationships and emotions still feel remarkably relatable. I must say this is not a fluffy romance. I think going in with that knowledge will help not feel disappointed.
The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff was a beautiful and heartbreaking family story. It explores addiction, marriage, parenthood, and the ways that one person’s struggles can reverberate through an entire family. Definitely not an easy read, but a very powerful one.
I also really enjoyed Infinite Country by Patricia Engel. This is a relatively short but emotionally rich novel about a Colombian family divided between the United States and Colombia. It explores immigration, family separation, belonging, and the complicated meaning of home. I especially appreciated how much the author manages to accomplish in such a compact book.
Another nonfiction standout was Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green. I’ve read some of Green’s nonfiction before, but this one particularly impressed me. It is part history, part science, and part exploration of global health inequality, all centered around tuberculosis. It made me think about how differently we experience diseases depending on where we happen to live and how much access we have to medical care. An excellent example of nonfiction that manages to be informative without ever becoming dry.
Two books landed in my “Maybe” category this month: An Ordinary Sort of Evil by Kelley Armstrong and Portrait of a Scotsman by Evie Dunmore. Both are part of ongoing series, so I’m hesitant to make a final judgment based on a single installment. I’m still interested enough in the characters and worlds to keep going, but neither was a standout for me.
And then there were my two “No”s: Angel of Darkness by Daniel Kraus and The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden.
The latter deserves a little more explanation because it has made me reconsider an author I used to think of as a favorite. Katherine Arden became a favorite of mine because of the Winternight trilogy, which I absolutely loved when I first read it. However, her two most recent releases—The Warm Hands of Ghosts and now The Unicorn Hunters—have both been disappointing for me. I think the biggest issue is that they lack the dynamism and engaging plotlines that I have come to expect from fantasy. I want fantasy to pull me along, and neither of these books managed to do that.
Interestingly, my recent reread of the Winternight trilogy has made me question even that earlier love. I made it through the first two books, but only barely, and I never even picked up the third—which is still the book I remember most fondly from the trilogy. Perhaps this is simply a case of discovering that a book or author that once felt perfect for me no longer works in quite the same way. Reading tastes change, after all. Still, it’s a little sad to realize that an author who once felt like a favorite may no longer be one.
Overall, though, August was a very satisfying reading month. My Next Breath, The Bright Years, Infinite Country, and Everything Is Tuberculosis were all memorable for very different reasons, and I’m always happy when a month gives me a few books that stay with me after I’ve finished them.
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