Books I Read in August

including a book I hated (a first!)

Sep 01, 2024

This was a good month for books! Found a few new to me authors, really enjoyed what I read, and am excited to keep digging into these books for the rest of the year.

Listed in the order I read them and linked here.

The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton. I really liked this! Think: A plague wiped out all of humanity except for a band of people who found refuge on an island. A benevolent AI speaks to them and a group of 3 Elders run the island. Except… all is not as it seems! This book got served up to me as a dystopian style read (my fave genre) but it wasn’t until the acknowledgements (I love reading these) that I realized this was the same author as The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (was not a fan of this book the 1st time around, finally finished it and ended up liking it). Turton said his goal as an author is to write completely different books than his last, which intrigued me. So I sent off to find another one, which I read later this month.
Swipe Up for More!: Inside the Unfiltered Lives of Influencers by Stephanie McNeal. Interesting book! Think: you guessed it, the inside lives of influencers. McNeal follows three different types of influencers and gets into the nitty gritty of how they make money, what their lives are like, etc.
VenCo by Cherie Dimaline. Loved this. Think: a down on her luck girl finds a silver spoon in her building’s basement. The spoon turns out to be a witch coven’s calling card - soon, she gets an invite to join the coven (which i all new to her btw) and they must find the final spoon (and witch) while also avoiding being killed by one of the last remaining vampires. New author alert for me. I really enjoyed this book - fun, original idea and I really hope there is a 2nd on its way.
All This & More by Peng Sheperd. Loved it! Think: Main character gets the opportunity to choose any live from a multiverse of life until she crafts the perfect one. The book itself is written in a “choose your own adventure” style which should be a fun throw back for any 80s/90s kid. I have enjoyed all of Peng’s other books as well.
youthjuice by E.K. Sathue. Hate, hate hated this book. Think: mad woman scientist kills young interns to harvest their blood for beauty products that deliver enteral youth, or do they? It is RARE that I really do not like a book. I had better hopes for it as it’s billed as a “what people would do for beauty” type of thing that sounded fun, but it went a little too far for me in some of the sub plots and descriptions of things. I ended up skimming just to get to the end. Hard pass.
A Mirror Mended (Fractured Fables, #2) by Alix E. Harrow. Love, love, loved. Think: short story with the plot point of: a Sleeping Beauty who ends up in Snow White’s world through multiverse type travel. Harrow is one of my favorite authors and has a fairy tales meet modernization theme in her books.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Liked! Think: global plague wipes out most of humanity. Settlements have popped up with survivors, including one called The Traveling Symphony. They walk to each village and when they arrive, they play a classical symphony and put on a Shakespeare play. Their moto: “Survival is insufficient.” Throughout the book, there are sub plot points that follow characters from before the collapse into the collapse and it’s interesting to see how they all come together. I’m not sure why it took me so long to read this book (it is our book club pick this month), but I really enjoyed this. Apparently there is a TV show as well. The book itself was beautiful - you know how there are just authors who write sentences and stories in that way? A fun note about the author - she has several books and while the “worlds” are not the same, each book has a few of the same characters.
The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton. Fun, if a little too long. Think: family setting sail aboard a ship, plagued by mysterious hauntings and happenings, and hijinx ensue. I did not like this as much as the Murder one - it was fun, but felt like it dragged a bit. It was definitely different than his other two books!
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel. Really loved (more than Station Eleven!). Think: intersecting lives of a heroin addict trying to be a musician, a half sister for whom everything seems to work out (including becoming the wife of a high profile, financial guy), a ponzi scheme, and the lives of everyone affected. The overall plot is based loosely on the Madoff Ponzi scheme, but you wouldn’t know it util halfway through. There are layers upon layers of characters and lives. How they intertwine is a writing aspect Mandel just does beautifully.

Book I Loved the Most:

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel. There is just something about Mandel’s writing that is very striking for me - it’s interesting, deep, and sort of casts this spell on you. I am always intrigued by authors who can create worlds with ease.

Book I Would Add to My Collection:

A Mirror Mended (Fractured Fables, #2) by Alix E. Harrow. I just love these! So fun, wholesome, and the writing itself is very smart.

Honorable Mention:

VenCo by Cherie Dimaline. Finding a new author with other books out that I want to read always feels like a treat. Expect to see more of Cherie in future round ups.

What to see what else I’ve read so far in 2024? Check out:

THOUGHTS FOR YOU:

What have you not been able to put down?

Vogue [ish]

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