Ahhhh, summer! Where did you go? If you’re anything like me, you’re in a little bit of mourning over the end of summer. I know it’s technically got a few more weeks, but September never feels like summer to me. My August started out with a sprained wrist, a black eye and stitches in my forehead, so it could only go up form there! And it did, including getting through nine books, at least one of which will likely end up on my “best of 2018” list this year. With nine books a month for the last three months, I’m now about ten books ahead on my Goodreads goal for the year. (Good thing because fall is always busy!) I hope your August in books and life was wonderful.

{My August, Books & Blog}

The Cream of the Crop

Books I enjoyed the most…

• Where the Crawdad Sings by Delia Owens – I loved this gorgeous debut about a “marsh girl” finding her own unique place in the world. (my review)
• VOX by Christina Dalcher – Another debut that knocked my socks off in August. In this dystopian/thriller mash-up women have been limited to only 100 words a day. (my review)

A Cut Above

Great stories…

• A River of Stars by Vanessa Hua – I had a love-hate relationship with this story about a pregnant Chinese immigrant hiding in plain sight. Her story was wonderful, but the side stories bored me. (my review)
• The Distance Home by Paula Saunders – I think this 1950’s-1960’s era story of a dysfunctional family struggling to love one another in small town South Dakota is an under-appreciated gem. (my review)
• Our House by Louise Candlish – I grew very weary of one of the main characters in this long audiobook, but the surprise ending saved it for me! (my review)
• The Golden State by Lydia Kiesling – A character study at its best, Kiesling’s debut tells the story of a young mother working through what means the most to her in life. (review coming next week)
• Not Our Kind by Kitty Zeldis – While I can’t say I loved this book, I also sped through it and was always engaged. There was nothing truly unique about the story, but I found it compelling. (review coming next month)

Subpar

Books I could have skipped…

• A Double Life by Flynn Berry – For me this was melodrama at it’s most annoying. (my review)
• All Happy Families by Jeanne McCulloch – I simply didn’t find McCulloch’s memoir of her parents very memorable and chose not to review it.

DNF

• The Oracle Year by Charles Soule – Only one in August! I got to the halfway point in The Oracle Year, but just couldn’t do any more.

Top Blog Posts

• As I expected, my Novel Visits Fall Preview 2018 saw the most views by double anything else. Everyone loves to see what books are coming up.
• When you review four widely different books all in one shot they tend to get some attention as my Summer Mini-Reviews did.
• Where the Crawdads Sing got the most views of any single book in the month of August and I’m thrilled about that!

{From the Book Blogging World}

Favorite Reviews & Recommendations

Links take you to these wonderful reviews…

• I don’t read a lot of mystery/thrillers, but know many of you do, so I want to pass along a wonderful review of The Barbed Wire Heart by Tess Sharpe from Annie at The Misstery. I may try this one on audio soon.
• Renee over at It’s Book Talk took a little break, but she’s back. Yay! Check out her double review of 2 Page Turning Books to Read Before Summer Ends.
• I always like it when I come across a review of a book I’ve heard almost nothing about and that was just the case when I came across the review of Another Woman’s Husband by Gill Paul from Stephanie at Stephanie’s Novel Fiction. (Stephanie has had a bit of a health scare recently, which you can read about on her blog. We all wish her well.)
• A similar surprising review was of Playing With Matches by Hannah Orenstein from Karen at Reading and Eating. This one really sounds fun!
• And in case you’d somehow missed it here are a few more takes on Where the Crawdads Sing. Check out these reviews from Catherine at The Gilmore Guide to Books, Sarah at Sarah’s Bookshelves, and Jennifer at Tar Heel Reader.

Fun & Useful Blog Posts

So many great posts on book related topics were delivered in August. Here are a few that really inspired!

• With so many book bloggers out there, I found it both interesting and enlightening to see A.J from Read All Things had done a post on Why I Love Your Book Blog for a Top Ten Tuesday.
• In a similar vein, Angela at Musings of a Literary Wanderer had a great post on 5 Things I Would Tell  Myself as a New Blogger.
• More great advice came from Catherine at The Gilmore Guide to Books when she wrote about Riding Out A Reading Slump. (Unfortunately, something we all need to do from time to time!)
• Have any nonreaders in your life? Don’t we all? Sarah at Sarah’s Bookshelves tackled that in How to Inspire New Readers, where she got a little help from her sister-in-law, a new devotee to reading.
• I’m still struggling to find a good relationship with my local libraries so I appreciated reading Public Libraries Today – You Gotta Love Them! from Lynne at Fictionophile.
• I’m not the only one who shared a fall preview last week. Sarah had her My Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2018 up and Amy over at Read A Latte had a terrific list of Fall Thrillers to Add to Your TBR.
• And finally, on a non-book related topic, I just had to add a fun post from Beth at Beth Fish Reads. In Review: MixAndMatchBox.Com — The Best Style Box Ever? Beth shared her favorite clothing subscription service that sounds a lot more curated and a much less of a commitment than most. Might be fun to try this fall.

That’s a wrap! How was your August?

Disclaimer: There are Amazon Associate links contained in this post.