August Reads 2024
August Reads 2024: 6 Books I Read this Month
By: Brittany Shields
Finally read more than four books in a month! Feels good!
I read three new 2024 releases this month. Unfortunately, the one from my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2024 was my least favorite read of the month.
I also fulfilled 3 prompts for this year’s Shelf Reflection’s 2024 Reading Challenge.
Reading Challenge update: I think I’m barely halfway at this point, which based on hard month-math, that’s pretty far behind. We will see if I can pick it up the last part of the year but I keep wanting to read books that don’t fit my prompts!
How are you all doing with your own challenges?!
Spotlight of the Month
This month I’ll spotlight the fiction book The Lonely Hearts Book Club! It was a different speed than I’m normally used to but I really liked the combination of a book club with the intricacies and ups and downs of relationships. I am hopeful that readers will be inspired when they read it that life is calling them to come and live it!
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1. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann
Genre: Non-Fiction/ History
[Winner for the ‘Best History & Biography’ category of the 2023 Goodreads Choice Awards Reading Challenge ]
[Fulfilled ‘Book that won a categroy on the Goodreads Choice Awards’ prompt as part of Shelf Reflection’s 2024 Reading Challenge]
“Byron could not yet know for certain the true nature lurking inside his fellow seamen or even himself: a long, dangerous voyage inexorably exposed one’s hidden soul.”
This was quite the nautical tale!
It is Pirates of the Caribbean meets Gilligan’s Island but in the spirit of Lord of the Flies. Instead of Jack Sparrow’s humor, we are imbibed with anarchy and the desperation of starvation and fear of death that leads to dehumanization. But yes, there is treasure.
I was surprised with how this book kept my attention.
From the beginning Grann sets up the mystery: two different parties return to England with different stories about what happened. As a reader you already know there is mutiny, shipwreck, and murder, but you don’t know what ‘really happened’ out there. That is slowly unraveled.
Read my full review to see what nautical terms you use without even knowing it, to get a book recommendation similar to this one but even better, and to see what disappointed me about this book.
2. A Lovely Lie by Jaime Lynn Hendricks
Genre: Mystery
[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2024]
“I reconciled that night long ago, when the choice I had was college or jail for accessory to murder.”
I had enjoyed Jaime Lynn Hendricks’ book I Didn’t Do It , which, though that book had quite a bit of swearing, I thought there were some redeeming parts. So I was looking forward to this book.
Unfortunately, this one had way more swearing and sexual content without any of the redeeming parts.
This book followed the popular trope of ‘something bad happened back when we were in school and someone died but we promised never to talk about it until we’re adults and a stranger starts digging and asking questions and now we have to talk about what really happened back then.’
Most recently I read Only If You’re Lucky which also released this year and they are pretty similar stories actually.
Read my full review to get more plot details and all the things that I didn’t like.
3. Fragile Designs by Colleen Coble
Genre: Mystery/ Christian Fiction
My feelings about this book are pretty similar to the other Colleen Coble book I read- Strands of Truth. I would say Colleen Coble knows her audience and has mastered writing to them.
This story captures Coble’s fascination with Fabrege eggs and what could happen when a missing egg comes to light and several groups, including the Russian mafia, want it back.
I’m not exactly her core audience so there was enjoyment for me reading this book, but aspects of it that didn’t quite land.
Read my full review to see what and to get my ultimate recommendation.
4. Chosen for Life: The Case for Divine Election by Sam Storms
Genre: Non-Fiction/ Theology
“Election is God’s gracious and loving action to which we contribute nothing and for which, therefore, God receives all the glory.”
Predestination. Election.
Words that are sure to suck the life out of any room. At least in my circles, these topics tend to be avoided in conversation.
I think it’s pretty common. For two reasons: either people don’t really know anything about it and it feels like an overwhelming thought to entertain or people don’t want to end up in arguments and cause division.
I came into this book with a Calvinist belief already in place. I had done some study of it and most of the avenues of discussion are not new to me. However, I still found this book to be helpful because it turns out I had a skewed view of the Arminian side of the coin.
Sam Storms does a great job of presenting fairly both sets of beliefs and explaining them as the belief holders would. His hope in writing this book is to dispel the caricatures of both camps and bring clarity.
To put it plainly, both Calvinists and Arminians believe the Bible teaches election; the question at hand is: “Does God elect people because they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, or does God elect people in order that they shall believe in Christ?”
Read my full review to see how the book is divided, get a lot more quotes, and read my attempt at summarizing the points of the book and addressing the most common questions and objections for election for those who won’t take the time to read it for themselves, and then a bonus section with a couple big words for those who are into that sort of thing.
5. House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen
Genre: Psychological Thriller/ Suspense
[Fulfilled ‘Book with a character who has red hair’ prompt as part of Shelf Reflection’s 2024 Reading Challenge]
“A suspicious death, a silent child— the blueprint of my childhood is being drawn all over again. Everything I’ve held tightly inside for three decades is jarring loose.”
Pekkanen has co-written books with Greer Hendricks (An Anonymous Girl and The Golden Couple) but this was my first book by just her and I really enjoyed it— probably more than the joint books.
The joint books both looked at dysfunctional marriage in the context of a therapist character. This book was a little different. There is still a divorce in the plot, but the main character— Stella— is a best-interest lawyer tasked with determining which Barclay should get custody of Rose.
What makes this a psychological thriller is that the family’s nanny (Tina) had recently “fallen” to her death out of the third story window of their house after her affair and pregnancy with Mr. Barclay came to light. It was never determined to be a murder, but both parents and the live-in grandmother were suspects.
Before Stella can report back with what is best for their daughter, Rose, she needs to figure out what happened to the nanny. She can’t send Rose to live with a murderer. But things get tricky when Rose becomes a suspect, herself.
Read my full review for some more plot details, see my main negative of the book, read some of my random comments, and get another book recommendation that’s similar to this
6. The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore
Genre: Fiction
[Fulfilled ‘Book with a library or bookshop’ prompt as part of Shelf Reflection’s 2024 Reading Challenge]
[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2023]
“If I’d known my house was going to turn into the setting of a Jojo Moyes novel, I’d have let them put me in a nursing home in the first place.”
This is one of those feel-good books about friendship. I couldn’t read a bunch of these back to back but it was a refreshing read in between my typical thrillers! Even though it had a sentimental plot line, the writing style was very good and there was a lot of wit and humor that just made this book a delight to read.
I really enjoyed the message of the story— that life is worth living and that relationships are a mess worth making— and that it was encompassed in an unlikely book club made it all the better and is definitely one I would recommend.
As the title suggests, what ends up forming in the pages of this book is a book club full of lonely (inter-generational) hearts. Although, the people take awhile to figure that out.
Read my full review to see our cast of characters, get more plot details, see what the loneliness in the book reminded me of, see what classic book became prominent in the story, and join in the book title challenge the author proposes.
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