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My August reading was solid…but, just solid. No one book stood out far above the others, but almost everything I read was good! Sometimes I wonder if I’d prefer a single out of this world book among a sea of “meh” or if I’d rather have a string of solid, 4 star reads. What do you think? Tell me in the comments!
I read 8 books this month…which is about normal for me. I read more backlist than usual and also listened to two audiobooks! I also mood-read more in August than usual…which I guess fits right in with the lazy days of summer!
Winners
- FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE MONTH: The Wildlands by Abby Geni and Foe by Iain Reid
- A Beautiful, Terrible Thing by Jen Waite (Audiobook)
- Everything Here is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee
- Forever is the Worst Long Time by Camille Pagan
- Living Out Loud by Anna Quindlen
- The Line That Held Us by David Joy (my review)
- The Residence by Kate Andersen Brower (Audiobook)
Losers
None! I DNF’d everything that wasn’t working for me this month!
DNF’s
- Ohio by Stephen Markley (My Quick Thoughts)
Best-Selling Book (via my affiliate links)
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (my review) – good, it should be!
Announcements
- It’s time to start thinking about Fall books! I shared My Most Recommended Books of Fall 2018 last week. So far, I’ve read two books on this list and really liked them both!
- And, Fall means school starting up again! I wish more books like these had been on my school curriculum!
- Personalized Book Recommendations and the Superstars Facebook Group are available to anyone who supports Sarah’s Book Shelves on Patreon!
August Quality and Recommendation Sources
Reading Quality
August 2018
- % Successful Books Attempted (includes DNF’s) = 89% (above my 43% success rate from 2017)
- % Successful Books Finished (does not include DNFs) = 100%
2018 Year-to-Date (through August)
- % Successful Books Attempted (includes DNF’s) = 61% (above my 43% success rate from 2017)
- % Successful Books Finished (does not include DNFs) = 86%
Successful Recommendation Sources
- Author Megan Abbott (The Line That Held Us)
- Amy at Read a Latte (Everything Here is Beautiful)
- Ashley Spivey (Forever is the Worst Long Time)
- Blog Reader (Living Out Loud)
- Book of the Month (The Line That Held Us)
- Malcolm Avenue Review (A Beautiful, Terrible Thing)
- Nicole Bonia (Everything Here is Beautiful)
- Pam Cady, Seattle bookseller (Foe)
- Read It Forward’s Favorite Books of the Month (Everything Here is Beautiful)
- Susie at Novel Visits (Everything Here is Beautiful)
- Tara at Running N Reading (Everything Here is Beautiful)
- The Millions Great Second-Half Book Preview (The Wildlands)
- Trusted Author (The Line That Held Us)
If you’re interested in tracking these types of stats, my “Rock Your Reading” Tracker does all the heavy lifting for you! Enter your book details and it automatically compiles everything into Summary Charts in real time! Go here for more details.
Septemeber Releases I’m Excited About
The Wildlands by Abby Geni (September 4)
Foe by Iain Reid (September 4)
The Golden State by Lydia Kiesling (September 4)
The Real Lolita by Sarah Weinman (September 11)
Most Popular Posts
Posts Actually Published in August
Book of the Month August 2018 Selections: What Book Should You Choose?
My Favorite Nonfiction Audiobooks
August 2018 Books to Read (and Skip)
Overall Posts
Am I the Only One Who Didn’t Love Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine?
Book Club Recommendations
Behind Her Eyes and THAT Ending: Spoiler Discussion (#WTFthatending)
Favorite Posts by Fellow Bloggers
It’s a light month for blogger shout-outs, mainly because I was awful at keeping track of posts I loved! Chalk it up to the lazy days of summer? I’ll do better next time, I promise!
- I love food and used to read tons of foodie memoirs (somehow, this has fallen by the wayside), so I loved Rikki & Michaela at The Ardent Biblio‘s list of Best Books for Foodies & Lovers of Food Writing.
- I love a good campus novel (the darker, the better…I’m looking at you, The Secret History), so I was thrilled to peruse Modern Mrs. Darcy‘s list of 10 Campus Novels that Will Take You Back to Your School Days.
- Big, buzzy book season is upon us and bloggers have been sharing their Most Anticipated Books of Fall (here’s mine!). Check these out: Bookpage (nonfiction), Novel Visits, Modern Mrs. Darcy, Read a Latte (thrillers), Novels and Nonfiction (September books).
How was your reading month?
I’m adding Foe and The Line That Held Us to my library hold list, both sound out of my comfort zone but great for fall reading.
Foe would make excellent fall reading! Has that creepy vibe…
I think I’d rather have all my books wow me! lol I hope September is another great month for you.
I read Everything Here Is Beautiful and A Beautiful Terrible Thing this summer and had same reaction: fine, kind of meh. I think I’d rather have a few standout reads among the forgettable.
I’d rather have no meh books, a bunch of good books and then a great book. Too much to ask?
Glad you had such a good month, Sarah. Only one DNF is always a plus, and the fact that you liked everything else is fantastic. (I have a thought on all this, but no time to share right now. I’ll get to it eventually.)
Looks like I’m going to need to try Foe sometime this fall. Thanks for the link.
I’m glad you had a solid reading month. My reading was pretty much the same as yours in August. Lots of “meh” and “good” books, but nothing that blew me away.
I will have finished 9 books for this month with 3 DNF’s and these are from authors I usually love. I guess every author can write something that doesn’t resonate with us once in a while, if it gets to be too many in a row its time to read other authors. I am sad to say I have a favorite mystery writer now in that category, and I’m not sure if there writing/character changed or that maybe its me that has changed.Oh well its still sad its like moving on from a old love.
To answer your question I would love more A+ books and certainly never reading a C book but that might be too much to ask for. Most of my books were solid B’s with 1 A+ and 1 C.
Thanks for including my September new releases list in the link section Sarah! I was considering including The Wildlands in the list but when I was reading the premise it just sounded like such a weird concept with the tornado and the lab animals. I may have to rethink that after your recommendation.
I’ve always thought about reading “The Residence” and now I definitely want to add it to my TBR pile!
I finished Foe in one sitting! I thought it was excellent so have to let my friend know she did a great job recommending it.
At this point in 2018 I’d like a solid month of 3.5-4 star books versus 4s and 2s. The roller coaster is tiring. The good news is that September is starting off strong so I’m hoping fall will be steady reading.