August ended, and I didn’t even notice because I live in Phoenix, Arizona and it’s still over 100 degrees so what difference does it make that it’s technically September? But here is what I read this (last!) month.
Slow Dance is one of the best books of the year, and I would like to live inside of a Rainbow Rowell novel. Two best friends are reunited after time and life have pulled them apart. One is a divorcee living with her two young kids in her mom’s house, the other is in the Navy and trying to care for his aging mother from halfway around the world. Obviously they are in love and just never knew it before, and the number of times I gasped aloud at the gorgeousness of Rowell’s storytelling was enough to annoy people at the pool (NOT LIKE I CARED!). Amazon | Bookshop | Target
Song of Achilles was just sitting there at the bookstore and I thought, look, let’s give it a shot even though the cover indicates that it will be — to me — boring. IT IS NOT BORING! It is so beautiful! Fan fic about Ancient Greece and Achilles? A love story between two teenage boys? I couldn’t put it down and now I’m onto Circe, which I stole from Sophie’s bookshelf. Bookshop |Amazon
The Rumor is classic Elin Hilderbrand (I told you I was going to be an Elinhead and I kept that promise). A multi-POV story of two intertwined families who are each falling apart in different ways (an affair! A blocked author on deadline! A real estate agent dabbling in sex trafficking?? Teenagers doing coke on the beach!!). A treat, as is every Elin book. Bookshop | Amazon | Target
The Identicals is a tale of twins separated by their divorced parents, and raised on different islands: Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. They’re forced back together by the death of their father and like all Elin books…it’s complicated! These books are true escapism for me, and I swear I will read another author soon, okay??? Bookshop | Amazon | Target
Worst Case Scenario is — like all of T.J. Newsman’s work — not a book for people who are scared of flying. But I read it while sitting in the ER at Phoenix Children’s Hospital because nothing will take your mind off a potential worst case scenario with your kid like, oh, a book about potential nuclear meltdown? Bookshop | Target | Amazon
The Friday Afternoon Club was a dishy “family memoir” by Dominick Dunne’s son Griffin. If you’re looking for hot goss about Joan Didion, you won’t get it here. But you will get a lot of name-dropping and family trauma and drama from a bygone era. Bookshop | Target | Amazon
For Reading Nerds Only
You can download this little reading tracker here. Because it’s fun!