August Preview

 Hello Interwebs!

It's the beginning of August and I've got my August TBR sorted out. I have two book clubs I'm participating in so we'll start there and then we'll get to the rest of the TBR. So without further ado here are the books. 

First up I have the books I'm already working on. There's two: one physical and one audio. 

1. So Happy For You by Celia Laskey: this is a hardcover library book I got after seeing several people on BookTube reading it for various things. This is kind of a dystopian friendship story about Robin and Ellie who have been friends since high school. After Ellie asks Robin to be her maid of honor Robin begins wondering if everyone is out to get her including Ellie. I'm two chapters into the book and to be honest I'm not really vibing with it quite yet but I'll probably give it another couple chapters or so before I make any decisions. 

2. Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix: I picked this book up on audio from my library after finishing The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires during Summerween. I'm about 60% of the way through the audiobook and I'm really enjoying it. It's a haunted house style story about people in an Ikea knockoff and it's equal measures creepy and hilarious. I have both the physical and ebook copies that I own and the book is just so much fun and is formatted to look kind of like an Ikea catalog. 

Next up I have my two book club picks for Literati and for The Book Troop. I'll probably watch the live show at the end of the month for the Literally Dead book club since they're reading What Moves the Dead by T Kingfisher which I read an arc of a while back and loved but I'm not rereading it so that's not on the table really. 

1. Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell: this is the book club pick for Elin Hilderbrand's Beach Reads Literati book club. This is a historical fiction that takes place during the British heatwave in 1976 and follows a woman whose husband has disappeared and her three grown children who have come home for the first time in ages. This book looks and sounds interesting and considering it appeared in the middle of a heatwave here (seriously 100-110 degree temps off and on for the entire last week or so) I think it's meant to be. 

2. Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier: this is a recently released thriller that is the selection for The Book Troop. It follows a woman who is arrested in her bathroom, covered in blood, holding a straight razor next to her celebrity husband's dead body. It sounds pretty good and I'm always ready to take a chance on a thriller. 

Then finally the rest of my TBR. I picked out twenty books randomly from my Summer reads TBR and then read the first chapter (or part) of the book to narrow it down to 10 books, plus the next Becky Chambers book. So without further ado here's the rest of my TBR. 

1. Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers (Wayfarer #3): this is the next Becky Chambers book in the series I'm working on and follows the captain from A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet and specifically his sister and her child. I've really enjoyed the other two and I assume this will be no different. 

2. The Last to Vanish by Megan Miranda: this is a new release thriller that I replaced another thriller on this TBR with since my hold came in quicker than I expected from the library's Libby app. This follows the disappearance of a journalist investigating disappearances in a resort town. When the journalist's brother shows up in town a woman helps him try to find what happens to his brother and the others who have vanished. 

3. The Deep by Alma Katsu: this is a horror that's been on my TBR and bookshelf for a while. It's a historical fiction/horror that takes place on and around the Titanic and involves some kind of creatures that are behind the sinking of the ship. I really liked her novel The Hunger and I know I'll like this too. 

4. The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon: this is another book I've been meaning to read. This follows a woman who misses multiple calls from her older sister and then finds out she's drowned in their grandmother's pool while investigating the history of their family. Also sounds pretty good. 

5. The Remaking by Clay McLeod Chapman: this is a horror about Virginia city beginning with the burning of a young woman and her young daughter for beign witches and achieving legendary status. Then in the present day (1970s/1990s) they're making and remaking a movie based on the Witch Girl of Pilot's Creek which becomes something of nightmares. 

6. From Below by Darcy Coates: yet another water-based horror since my TBR decided that watery horror was best. This is about a crew diving on a shipwreck where horrifying things end up happening. 

7. The Newcomer by Mary Kay Andrews: this is a contemporary fiction about a woman on the run with her niece after her sister is murdered, allegedly by her husband, and ends up at a hotel where the locals look at all newcomers with disdain. It sounds pretty good and I love the cover. 

8. Something Wilder by Christina Lauren: this is a recently released romance about a woman who is conducting treasure hunts using her father's old maps in an effort to get back the ranch she loved and ends up reconnecting with the only man she ever loved. Sounds cute and fun for summer. 

9. Mestiza Blood by V Castro: this is a short story collection all about the chicana experience and the short stories sound amazing and after reading the first one during my try a chapter thing I absolutely was drawn into this and I'm looking forward to it. 

10. The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse (Detective Elin Warner #1): this is a thriller I inserted into my TBR because I have the sequel to it on hold at the library (I didn't realize it was part of a series until I already had the sequel on hold. This is about a detective staying at a hotel that was a former sanatorium in the Swiss Alps for a wedding. Then a storm cuts off access and guests start to die. 

11. The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle by Jennifer Ryan: this is a historical fiction about a group of women including a young woman who is getting ready to get married and is trying to fix her mother's wedding dress to wear and a seamstress who is trying to find a purpose during WWII. I really loved the domestic historical fiction from her previous book The Kitchen Front and I'm excited for this as well. 

12. The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin (Great Cities #1): this is a sci fi/fantasy in which every city has a soul and five New Yorkers come together to save the city from some sort of ancient evil threatening it. The book is beautiful and the premise sounds interesting. 

So that's everything I'm planning on reading in August. I absolutely know that I'm probably not going to finish all of this but I have plenty of options for the month and I plan on having a good reading month. 

Happy Reading!

Richelle