Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

While lounging at the pool or beach, you may use this thread to tell us about your reading in August.

What if I never lounge at a beach or pool? I have had skin cancer.

We got a new dutch oven, so even though it's summer, I'll be trying some new recipes!

My August plans are to finish Shōgun: Volume 1 and Same Bed Different Dreams and try to listen to the audiobook Isola by Allegra Goodman. I also have a couple of non-fiction books checked out from the library that I probably won't finish but want to see if they are worth reading. And, I still need to finish War and Peace before the end of the year.

In August I will have to go back to work so my reading will slow down. I hope to finish Sandwich and Atmosphere

Give the Boys a Great Big Hand – Ed McBain – 3***
First published in 1960, this is book number eleven in the 87th Precinct mystery series, and starts with the discovery of a severed hand in a tote bag. It’s a classic police procedural mystery that held my interest throughout. There are several red herrings (both for the cops and for the reader), but the boys of the 87th precinct are nothing if not tenacious. They WILL get the guy or gal responsible.
LINK to my full review

I'm still working on my breezy beach read Don Quixote. In fact, it's so light and breezy that I am having to take a break between Vols I and II for some additional frothy fare (I'm being facetious), currently working through Hilary Mantel's short, early Muriel Spark-ish novels Every Day Is Mother's Day and Vacant Possession. Meanwhile my commute audiobook is The Stepford Wives (fun!) and I'll probably do Revolutionary Road next for two books about suburbia in different genres. Sigh, I wish I had some beachy time off in August, but I already used a week of PTO in June and I only get 2 weeks a year :( My son goes back to school next week -- where the heck did summer go?

Beautyland was my first book this month, and I ended up loving it.

Leftover from last month:
The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience - great short essays. Better read in short bursts.
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender -

Right now I’m juggling some really good books:
Middlesex is incredible. It’s very long, and the audio narration is very energetic, so I’m spreading it out.
My Real Children by Jo Walton is an alternate lives book - like the firm Sliding Doors. This would be perfect for a prompt about a fork on the road (with both paths), or the road not taken.
Leaving the Witness: Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life -memoir set in China
The River Has Roots - gorgeous prose

Planned:
Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha
Real Americans
Sounds Like Love
Prophet Song

The Soul Of an Octopus – Sy Montgomery – 4.5**** (rounded up)
Subtitle: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness. Montgomery spent a year volunteering at the New England Aquarium to study and learn about octopuses. This is her memoir of that time, and it’s marvelous!
LINK to my full review

Oh man - I want to lounge at the pool, but my kiddo got their hair bleached and colored and won't go to the pool with me. Boo!!!! ;)

I am currently reading the second Stormlight Archive book by Brandon Sanderson. Each of these darn books is over 1000 pages. What have I gotten myself into?! LOL. My husband and oldest kiddo are also both reading the series, so that's fun. My husband is ahead of us, and he told me, "Thanks for letting me get so far ahead, so you won't catch up as quickly!" LOL. I'm also reading a book I got in Yellowstone about women of the early 20th century in Yellowstone.

I loved 2 books about families and relationships
A Forty Year Kiss and
Mary Jane

I have these "on-deck" for August:

Finished:
* The Colony by Annika Norlin - LOVED it
* Neighbours: The Story of a Murder by Lília Momplé
* The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares

Currently reading:
* Great Big Beautiful Life- great storyline ruined by the romance part of it (doesn't help that I'm listening to it in the car and I swear it gets steamy every time I'm stopped at a red light!! I realize I'm not the intended audience...)
* Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck

Rest of schedule:
* Hai kur mamashu chis: I want to tell you a story by Cristina Zarraga
* Sucker Punch: Essays by Scaachi Koul
* bell hooks: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations by bell hooks
* Glorious Boy by Aimee Liu

The Secret Book and Scone Society – Ellery Adams – 2.5**
One of my book club buddies suggested this for our group so I re-read it. My opinion didn’t change much, though I did enjoy the discussion. The relationships between the four friends stood out more. But I also see that there is another secret that hasn’t been revealed. A ploy that I view as “forcing” readers to continue the series, and one that I hate.
LINK to my full review

GailW wrote: "(doesn't help that I'm listening to it in the car and I swear it gets steamy every time I'm stopped at a red light!!..."

Lol, the most racist or antisemitic parts of books always pop up at red lights, too! I've had to roll up windows before!

I'm having a good reading month! I've finished 3 excellent books:
1, Shōgun, Part 1 - The story is very engaging and gives you both perspectives - European and Japanese.
2. It Rhymes With Takei - Graphic novel memoir which includes LGBTQ+ rights history, which has been a very important focus of Takei's life.
3. Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park - I really enjoyed it, while learning a lot about Korean historical figures. Although, there is an underlying question throughout the book of "what is history?" and it's not always clear what is historical and what is revisionist history as part of the novel. Structure-wise, it is a challenging book and has been compared to Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. It took me ~160 pages to really feel invested in the book and understand what it was doing. After that, I flew through it and, after finishing it, I wanted to read it again!

Currently reading:
1.A Confederacy of Dunces - The audio with the New Orleans accents is very good! I'm doing a combo of audio and print since I have a hard time following audiobooks.
2. The Bullet That Missed
3. The Crying of Lot 49

Sun Dog Memory – Doug Armstrong – 3.5***
A Depression-era family saga full of lies, treachery and vengeance. Armstrong goes back and forth in time from 1930 to 1911. We learn how the Albrights came to the Kansas homestead and their efforts to make a go of it, and how their fate becomes intricately linked to that of the town’s wealthy railroad executives. There’s a lot of intrigue here and the reader is just as clueless as the main character, Jed. I’m not sure that I ever figured out who was really behind all the treachery, and while I thought the family saga had a satisfactory resolution, the epilogue threw me for a loop.
LINK to my full review

My goals for August are still possible:

1. Finish Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. This is an 875 page small print mass market book. I have 60 pages to go.
2. Finish Shaman, the second book of the same title for PopSugar. This one is 519 pages.

Both are books I own and so frequently take a back seat to library books with due dates.

Pam wrote: "My August plans are to finish Shōgun: Volume 1 and Same Bed Different Dreams and try to listen to the audiobook Isola by [author:Allegra Goodman|1..."

I notice you didn't update Isola... I started it the other day because she's the headliner for my city's lit fest next week and I'm not feeling it..

Jennifer W wrote: "GailW wrote: "(doesn't help that I'm listening to it in the car and I swear it gets steamy every time I'm stopped at a red light!!..."

Lol, the most racist or antisemitic parts of books always pop..."

I just finished Moby-Dick or, The Whale and was stopped at the McD's drive through on the chapter that introduces Pip and the narrator kept saying/yelling the N-word. Oh, that was interesting.

Pamela - I didn’t have time to get to Isola. I have the print edition checked out but am reading something else. I’m trying to not read too many books at one time! It still looks interesting to me.

Pam wrote: "Pamela - I didn’t have time to get to Isola. I have the print edition checked out but am reading something else. I’m trying to not read too many books at one time! It still looks interesting to me."

I might give it a couple more evenings

A Certain Age – Beatriz Williams – 3***
Williams gives us a novel of romance, family secrets, and scandal in New York Society, set during the Roaring Twenties. The title refers to two things: the age of the era in American society, and a woman of “a certain age.” Williams definitely gives the reader a sense of the era … speakeasies, flappers, bathtub gin, horse races, etc. I saw through the murder mystery pretty quickly, but it held my attention throughout.
LINK to my full review

Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All - Finished finally! Goal achieved.

I definitely haven't been at the beach or pool because I'm in Western Australia where we've been having the coldest and wettest winter on record! Have read some good books though, including Barnaby Rudge