August 2023 | What to Read this Month
This month we have we have the perfect summer list. Nothing too heavy, but everything interesting and fun! First, our main book starts with a chance meeting of two strangers that share a birthday, but perhaps not? Following, is a delightful spy-saga lost twin romantic adventure that zips across Europe. Rolling along with our mystery theme is a cozy murder-mystery led by a detective who just wants to chill in her hammock and drink Arnold Palmers. For our non-fiction pick we shift gears to a heroin addicted soccer mom who heads to jail and then follows a path to redmption via Oprah and the Dalai Lama.
Moving on to books for the under 18s we have four fun picks. Our two YA choices are both set in elite private schools, but one channels Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars while the other is a Jane Austen with a twist of X-Files. For our Middle Graders a dystopian fire-ravaged land that relies on the youngest members of a community to keep safe. Finally, for the youngest readers a sweet bear who becomes addicted to reading and finds the perfect place where books are for everyone!
What will you read this month? Head over to our Facebook Discussion Group where we are happy to talk all things books. Or catch up with us on Instagram. And, for more book talk, read along with me and you might get a sneak peek of future books. I bookstagram at VictoriaIsBooked.
Let’s turn pages!
Victoria
Book Lady for GHM
August 2023 | What to Read
None of This Is True | Lisa Jewell
Publishing Date
August 8, 2023
GENRE
General Fiction
Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summer crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins.
A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.
Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realize that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.
But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.
Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?
The Blonde Identity | Ally Carter
Publishing Date
August 8, 2023
GENRE
Romantic Comedy, Women’s Fiction
It’s the middle of the night in the middle of Paris and a woman just woke up with no memory. She only knows three things for certain:
1. She has a splitting headache.
2. The hottest guy she has (probably) ever seen is standing over her, telling her to run. And oh yeah…
3. People keep trying to kill her.
…when she sees footage of herself fighting off a dozen men there’s only one explanation: obviously. . . she’s a spy! Except, according to Mr. Hot Guy, she’s not. She’s a spy’s identical twin sister. Too bad the only person who knows she’s not the woman they’re looking for is this very grouchy, very sexy, very secret agent who (reluctantly) agrees to help her disappear… Luckily, no one is looking for a pair of lovesick newlyweds on their honeymoon. And soon they’re lying their way across Europe—dodging bullets and faking kisses as they race to unravel a deadly conspiracy and clear her sister’s name.
Birder, She Wrote | Donna Andrews
Publishing Date
August 1, 2023
GENRE
Cozy Mystery & Thrillers
Meg is relaxing in the hammock,… watching the hummingbirds at their feeders when her hopes for a relaxing early summer morning are dashed.
First her father recruits her to help him install a new batch of bees in the hive in her backyard. Then Mayor Shiffley recruits her to placate the NIMBYs (Not in my backyard), as she calls them – a group of newcomers to Caerphilly who have built McMansions next door to working farms and then do their best to make life miserable for the farmers…Cordelia drafts Meg to accompany her and the reporter, alas – in their search for a long-lost African-American cemetery. Unfortunately what they discover is not an ancient cemetery but a fresh corpse. Can Meg protect…Caerphilly – from the reporter who seems to see the worst in everything . . . and help crack the case before the killer finds another victim?
The Many Lives of Mama Love | Lara Love Hardin
Publishing Date
August 1, 2023
GENRE
Non-Fiction, Memoir, Biography, Humor
No one expects the police to knock on the million-dollar, two-story home of the perfect cul-de-sac housewife. But soccer mom Lara Love Hardin has been hiding a shady secret: she is funding her heroin addiction by stealing her neighbors’ credit cards.
Lara is convicted of thirty-two felonies and becomes inmate S32179. She learns that jail is a class system with a power structure that is somewhere between an adolescent sleepover party and Lord of the Flies…. jailhouse politics aren’t that different from the PTA meetings she used to attend.
When she’s released, she reinvents herself as a ghostwriter. Now, she’s legally co-opting other people’s identities and getting to meet Oprah, meditate with The Dalai Lama, and have dinner with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But the shadow of her past follows her… Lara must learn how to forgive herself and others, navigate life as a felon on probation, prove to herself that she is more good than bad, and much more.
The DARK PLACE | BRITNEY S. LEWIS
Publishing Date
August 8, 2023
GENRE
YA, Romance, Time Travel
Seventeen-year-old Hylee Williams didn’t ask to disappear. But she did disappear, and not only that, but when she vanished from our world, she materialized in a dark, twisted version of the night that changed her life forever: the night her older brother went missing.
Just as Hylee realizes this moment could be the key to unraveling the truth about her brother, she’s yanked away from the dark place back to our world. Craving a sense of normalcy, she goes to a party with her best friend—where she meets Eilam Roads. Tall, handsome, and undeniably, inexplicably familiar, Hylee can’t help the pull she feels towards him. It’s a classic teen girl-meets-boy situation, until it happens again. She disappears, right in front of him.
Together, Hylee and Eilam investigate the truth about time, space, and reality, with Hylee increasingly convinced her time travel holds the key to saving her brother. But the more they learn, the more Hylee begins to see darkness lurking in her world—and in herself.
Where the Lockwood Grows | Olivia A Cole
Publishing Date
August 15, 2023
GENRE
Middle Grade Fiction, Dystopian
Twelve-year-old Erie has never lived life fully in the sunlight. After destructive wildfires wreaked havoc on the world around her, the government came up with a plan—engineer a plant that cannot burn. Thus, the fire-resistant lockwood was born. The lockwood protects Erie and her hometown of Prine, but it grows incredibly fast and must be cut back every morning. Only the town’s youngest and smallest citizens can fit between the branches and tame the plant. Citizens just like Erie.
But one evening, Erie uncovers a shocking secret that leads her to question the rules of Prine. Alongside her older sister, Hurona, she’ll journey from the only home she’s known and realize that the world is much more complicated than she’d ever imagined. Packed with surprising twists and a cast of courageous characters, this gripping novel encourages readers to stand up for justice and challenge the status quo.
Books Aren’t for Bears | Mark Barry
Publishing Date
August 1, 2023
GENRE
Children’s Fiction (4-7), Picture Book
When Bear finds a book in the woods, his world is changed. His friend Owl teaches him to read, and Bear wants more! Bear decides the city will offer him what he’s looking for, but when he reaches the busy streets, he’s sad to discover that some people think that “Books aren’t for bears!” Can Bear find a place where books are for everybody?
LAST MONth’s Popular Book Club Picks
Which ones will you be reading this month?
Note: Many of our books were read courtesy of NetGalley ARCs. While this does give us a sneak peak all suggestions and opinions are our own – we have no obligation to provide positive reviews. We will never recommend books we would not read ourselves or share with our own family. Additionally, italicized descriptions are from the publisher. Throughout the month we are so excited to discuss our opinions on all these picks – please join us here, on our Bookstagram, and in our Facebook discussion group!
