August Wrap Up

I had a lot of starts and stops this month as I finished my summer reading. So while I did read 20 books, there were only a few favorites.

Total Number of Books: 20
Total Number of Pages: 7,134
Physical: 8
eBooks: 6
Audiobooks: 6
Favorite (New) Reads of the Month: Wild Blue Wonder by Carlie Sorosiak AND Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner

Physical:

The Last Thing You Said by Sara Biren – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Four Weeks, Five People by Jennifer Yu – ⭐️⭐️
Love, Life, and the List by Kasie West – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Liars of Mariposa Island by Jennifer Mathieu – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Happily and Madly by Alexis Bass – ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Wild Blue Wonder by Carlie Sorosiak – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo – ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I mean, I could yell about my love of Jennifer Weiner’s Big Summer for hours. A true rollercoaster ride. My last read of the month ended up being my favorite—Wild Blue Wonder. Carlie Sorosiak book really surprised me, especially because of the bits of magical realism, but I loved it. Definitely on my top book list. I loved closing out my summer with some great summer reads like The Last Thing You Said and Love, Life, and the List. I almost never give books a two star rating but I felt that Four Weeks, Five People really did a disservice to the mental health representation. Of course, this is just my opinion and while I do suffer from my own bouts of mental illness, I just did not like what it did with recovery.

eBooks:

The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly by Jamie Pacton – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sing Like No One’s Listening by Vanessa Jones – ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Throwaway Girls by Andrea Contos – ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
The Assignment by Liza Weimer – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
All Eyes on Her by L.E. Flynn – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Now That I’ve Found You by Kristina Forest – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Check out these reviews posted now!

Audiobooks:

The New One: Painfully True Stories from a Reluctant Dad by Mike Birbiglia – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Stay Gold by Tobly McSmith – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Look by Zan Romanoff – ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Only Black Girls in Town by Brandy Colbert – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

I just now realized that almost all of my audio picks this month are centered around LGBTQ+ stories. Both Stay Gold and The Henna Wars were really close to being five stars but there were just some small aspects that bothered me. However, The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth was such a wonderfully queer summer read that took place in Ireland. And of course, I’ve said it a million times—Brandy Colbert can do no wrong!