Looking Back at August 2021

Well I guess the summer kind of got away from me, since I missed doing a wrap up post last month. But I’m back with an August wrap up! I usually talk about more than just books, but somehow I managed to read 18!! books this month, so I’m gonna just stick with a bookish wrap up this time. This month I’ve been just relaxing and taking care of a few necessary relocation related things, so I’ve had quite a lot of free time. Clearly this translated into me reading all the time haha. There were a ton of great reads! I’m going to separate my reads into different genres to make it less overwhelming for you all (and for me lol).

Romance

• The Switch by Beth O’Leary
• So We Meet Again by Suzanne Park
• Experimental Marine Biology by Susannah Nix
• The Princess Trap by Talia Hibbert
• Happy Endings by Thien-Kim Lam

All of these were great fun. If I was picking favorites, I think I might go with The Switch. I really liked following both Leena and her grandmother’s lives. The overall message of the book is that it’s never too late to make a change, or start over, and I think that’s a really valuable thing to remember. I somehow manage to always read romance books way faster than any other genre, I’ll read one of these in a couple hours haha.

Science Fiction

• Velocity Weapon by Megan E. O’Keefe
• Dark Disciple by Christie Golden
• A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
• The Past is Red by Cathrynne M. Valente
• The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

Dang, this month was a bangin’ month for sci-fi. I absolutely LOVED Velocity Weapon and A Psalm for the Wild-Built. The two of those have completely different vibes. VW is fast paced and intense, a grand space epic following a sentient spaceship AI, a soldier main character, and the search for a planet killing weapon. On the other hand, Psalm is a quiet soothing novella involving tea, tea monks, and robots. Both are incredible, and I highly recommend them. The other three are amazing as well! Don’t sleep on those ones either. Though I know the Star Wars novel might be for a smaller set of sci-fi fans haha.

Fantasy

• This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron (YA)
• Forest of Souls by Lori M. Lee (YA)
• All the Stars and Teeth by Adalyn Grace (YA)
• Blood Heir by Amelié Wen Zhao (YA)
• Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee (adult)
• The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu (adult)
• The Maleficent Seven by Cameron Johnston (adult)
• Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust (YA)

It’s hard to choose favorites! I hate choosing favorites haha. Especially with books, I think you can like books for different aspects. This is all to say that I cannot pick one out of these eight, but I LOVED This Poison heart, All the Stars and Teeth, The Maleficent Seven, and Girl, Serpent, Thorn. I talked about The Maleficent Seven in a review that I posted yesterday, so I won’t talk about that here. The other three are excellent young adult fantasy books. This Poison Heart and Girl, Serpent, Thorn, both had myth/fairytale elements to them, and we all know I’m a sucker for those. Plus, they’re both sapphic! And TPH features a Black protagonist with two moms. GST is so underrated, and I wish more people would read it. Demons and magic and monstrous girls and more. It’s wonderful. All the Stars and Teeth has creepy magic and is really dark and I love seeing that in young adult!

Kind of a short wrap up post today (to contrast with the long list of books I read? lol). But I hope you check out some of the ones I mentioned! Did you have any favorites/standouts from this past month?