My August 2024 TBR

July was a tough reading month. I got COVID, which was bad for me and mostly bad for my reading too. Then I had my birthday, went to two concerts, and worked 6-day-weeks three weeks in a row. Between that, I've tried to sneak in hikes, river trips, and plenty of reality TV. So I haven't been getting heaps of reading in. 

Then all my library holds showed up this week. Instead of getting a giant stack in at once, every day I've gotten word that another book is ready for pick-up. So on my way home from work each day, I get to run into the library for a new book. This has quickly made me realize I need to get reading ASAP before everything has to go back to the library. Two of these books are still on my to-do list to pick up this weekend. There are only so many days I can go to the library in a row!

Daddy 

by Emma Cline

I started this early into the month because my digital library hold finally came in. I wasted most of it, so now I'm in the final few days to read the last stories before it gets taken from me. I didn't like The Girls and was indifferent to The Guest, but there's something that makes me want to come back to Emma Cline and keep giving her a chance. I'm glad I did because, so far, I've been loving these short stories. I have mixed feelings a lot of times about anthologies, but this one is succeeding.

Goodreads Summary: These outstanding stories examine masculinity, male power and broken relationships, while revealing – with astonishing insight and clarity – those moments of misunderstanding that can have life-changing consequences. And there is an unexpected violence, ever-present but unseen, in the depiction of the complicated interactions between men and women, and families. Subtle, sophisticated and displaying an extraordinary understanding of human behaviour, these stories are unforgettable.

No Judgement 

by Lauren Oyler 

This essay collection definitely stirred up its fair share of controversy upon publication, so I was curious to read the book itself. I'd bought Oyler's fiction novel at a book sale with no WiFi, so I didn't get to read the reviews before purchasing. After looking at its Goodreads page, I haven't picked up the book. So far, this essay collection has been a bit of a slog. There's some interesting ideas, whether I agree with them or not, but the density of the essays and the sentences themselves gets taxing quickly. There are so many semicolons holding together never ending sentences that I lose track of where I am in single sentences. And I like a long sentence! This is one I'm casually reading in the background between fiction books. 

Goodreads Summary: From the national bestselling novelist and essayist, a groundbreaking collection of brand-new pieces about the role of cultural criticism in our ever-changing world. In her writing for Harper’s , the London Review of Books , The New Yorker , and elsewhere, Lauren Oyler has emerged as one of the most trenchant and influential critics of her generation, a talent whose judgments on works of literature—whether celebratory or scarily harsh—have become notorious. But what is the significance of being a critic and consumer of media in today’s fraught environment? How do we understand ourselves, and each other, as space between the individual and the world seems to get smaller and smaller, and our opinions on books and movies seem to represent something essential about our souls? And to put it bluntly, why should you care what she—or anyone—thinks? In this, her first collection of essays, Oyler writes with about topics like the role of gossip in our exponentially communicative society, the rise and proliferation of autofiction, why we’re all so “vulnerable” these days, and her own anxiety. In her singular prose—sharp yet addictive, expansive yet personal—she encapsulates the world we live and think in with precision and care, delivering a work of cultural criticism as only she can. Bringing to mind the works of such iconic writers as Susan Sontag, Pauline Kael, and Terry Castle, No Judgment is a testament to Lauren Oyler’s inimitable wit and her quest to understand how we shape the world through culture. It is a sparkling nonfiction debut from one of today’s most inventive thinkers.

Wedding People

by Alison Espach

This feels like one of *the* it books of the summer. I heard the author talk on The Shit No One Tells You About Writing and learned more about the book than I'd gleaned from the many photos I'd seen on Bookstagram. I'm very intrigued by the mix of dark and light in this book, and I'll always go for a story about a literature professor. This also has just the setting I'm looking for in a summertime read.

Goodreads Summary:  It's a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamt of coming for years―she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she's here without him. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe―which makes it that much more surprising when the women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns uproariously, absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach's The Wedding People is a look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined―and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

Same As It Ever Was 

by Claire Lombardo 

I've seen this on so many different newsletters and lists of new books to keep an eye out for that I just have to read it. It sounds like a generational story that focuses on a part of life that rarely gets discussed in books–a lady in her fifties coping with the unique changes at that time that come to a life that feels relatively stable. I didn't realize how long this book was until I grabbed it from the hold shelf though. It's going to take a lot for me to get over the intimidation of such a thick book when I have so much I need to read this month.

Goodreads Summary:  Julia Ames, after a youth marked by upheaval and emotional turbulence, has found herself on the placid plateau of mid-life. But Julia has never navigated the world with the equanimity of her current privileged class. Having nearly derailed herself several times, making desperate bids for the kind of connection that always felt inaccessible to her, she finally feels, at age fifty seven, that she has a firm handle on things. 

She’s unprepared, though, for what comes next: a surprise announcement from her straight-arrow son, an impending separation from her spikey teenaged daughter, and a seductive resurgence of the past, all of which threaten to draw her back into the patterns that had previously kept her on a razor’s edge. 

Same As It Ever Was traverses the rocky terrain of real life, —exploring new avenues of maternal ambivalence, intergenerational friendship, and the happenstantial cause-and-effect that governs us all. Delving even deeper into the nature of relationships—how they grow, change, and sometimes end—Lombardo proves herself a true and definitive cartographer of the human heart and asserts herself among the finest novelists of her generation.

Sandwich 

by Catherine Newman

This one's been on my radar for a while now, and my hold has finally come in. This is going to be an ambitious reading month, but August feels like the perfect time for these books with the pastel, gauzy cover art and coastal settings. I love literary fiction set at costal vacation houses, and this delivers on that. Interestingly, this book covers a similar phase of life as Same As It Ever Was, so a theme is emerging with these August books.

Goodreads Summary: For the past two decades, Rocky has looked forward to her family’s yearly escape to Cape Cod. Their humble beach-town rental has been the site of sweet memories, sunny days, great meals, and messes of all kinds: emotional, marital, and—thanks to the cottage’s ancient plumbing—septic too.

This year’s vacation, with Rocky sandwiched between her half-grown kids and fully aging parents, promises to be just as delightful as summers past—except, perhaps, for Rocky’s hormonal bouts of rage and melancholy. (Hello, menopause!) Her body is changing—her life is, too. And then a chain of events sends Rocky into the past, reliving both the tenderness and sorrow of a handful of long-ago summers.

It's one precious week: everything is in balance; everything is in flux. And when Rocky comes face to face with her family’s history and future, she is forced to accept that she can no longer hide her secrets from the people she loves.

How To Leave The House

by Nathan Newman

I came across this book in an article previewing books to be released later in the year and immediately put in my library request to make sure that it was stocked and I would be first in line to read it. When the librarian notified me it would be purchased, she even included a note that it sounds hilarious. Just a friendly reminder that you can preorder books through your library!

Goodreads Summary: This is the story of twenty-four hours in the life of Natwest, and his small-town odyssey in pursuit of the missing package. And yet it's also the story of a middle-aged dentist who dreams of being a respected artist - but the only thing he can seem to paint is the human mouth. And it's the story of a tortured imam involved in a quasi-romantic entanglement with the local vicar; and an octogenerian mourning the death of her secretive husband; and a troubled teenager whose nudes have leaked on the internet. It's the story of Natwest's obnoxious ex-boyfriend, and his class-traitor mother and her childhood boyfriend, and the life-changing secrets he knows about Natwest's past.

Alternating between Natwest's idiosyncratic inner world and the perspectives of the other characters - and dazzling in its energy, imagination and originality - this is an outrageously funny and tenderly moving story about being connected to everyone and everything at all times; about love, friendship, and the lies we tell ourselves; about unhappy endings, happy endings - and whether anything really is as simple as one or the other.

Misrecognition 

by Madison Newbound

I've been going to the library so much that I've fallen behind on my ARC reading. Misrecognition came out in the chaos that was July, and I haven't managed to get to it since its pub date. I want to get caught up on summer ARCs to get ready to read the slew of great fall ones on my shelf in a few weeks here.

Goodreads Summary: Elsa is struggling. Her formative, exhilarating relationship—with a couple—has abruptly ended, leaving her depressed and directionless in her childhood bedroom. The man and the woman were her bosses, lovers, and cultural guideposts. In the relationship’s wake, Elsa scrolls aimlessly through the internet in search of meaning.

Faithfully, her screen provides a new obsession: a charismatic young actor whose latest feature is a gay love story that illuminates Elsa’s crisis. And then, as if she had conjured him, Elsa sees the actor in the flesh; he and an entourage of actors, writers, and directors have descended upon her hometown for the annual theater festival. When she is hired as a hostess at the one upscale restaurant in town, Elsa finds herself in frequent contact with the actor and his collaborators. But her obsession shifts from the actor to his frequent dinner companion—an alluring, androgynous person called Sam. As this confusing connection develops, Elsa is forced to grapple with her sexuality, the uncomfortable truths about the dramatic end of her last relationship, and the patterns that may be playing out once again.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

by Aimee Bender

Aimee Bender taught at my alma mater, and even though I didn't take a class with her, I did read one of her short stories in a creative writing class and really enjoyed it. I had, however, forgotten about my intention to actually read one of her books until my coworker saw me writing this post and wanted to tell me about her favorite book of all time. It happened to be this book. So on one of my various library expeditions, I picked it up from the shelf. I always get super nervous reading other people's favorite books because I don't know if I'll feel the same way, but I think this will be the book I end the month on. So shout out to Sarah on this one!

Goodreads Summary:  On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the periphery of schoolyard games and her distracted parents’ attention, bites into her mother’s homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother’s emotions in the cake. She discovers this gift to her horror, for her mother—her cheerful, good-with-crafts, can-do mother—tastes of despair and desperation. Suddenly, and for the rest of her life, food becomes a peril and a threat to Rose. 

The curse her gift has bestowed is the secret knowledge all families keep hidden—her mother’s life outside the home, her father’s detachment, her brother’s clash with the world. Yet as Rose grows up she learns to harness her gift and becomes aware that there are secrets even her taste buds cannot discern.

More on Reading, Writing, and Me:

The Ministry of Time review

The Wren The Wren review

A Very Late Mid-Year Freakout Tag

Memory Piece review