#12 What to Read: August Edition

two gripping YA reads, a brain memoir, and McNifficents in paperback

Aug 06, 2024

Hello readers!

My father used to say that the older he got, the faster time went. I have to concur. How is it already August? I love the fall, but am trying to hold on to long summer days.

Here are three books I recently read and enjoyed. Since we have the same taste in everything (right?), I’m sure you’ll like them, too…

ONE OF US IS LYING by Karen M. McManus: Five teenagers walk into detention center. Each has a secret. Only four walk out. Who killed Simon and why? A Young Adult whodunnit that has rocketed to bestseller stardom, I finally read and enjoyed.
SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson: A friendless outcast in ninth grade, no one will speak to Melinda after she called the cops at a party last summer. Why? Another mystery but with a hugely important message of consent: speak up. I plucked this from a bookshelf while at a family reunion and was thus unavailable for the next foreseeable hours as I HAD TO FINISH. I promptly handed the book baton to my sister who was then unavailable for her next foreseeable hours. Slim, heavy topic, light touch. I realized, oh, this is why Laurie Halse Anderson is such a big deal. Remarkable writing with no graphic scenes, no language, you just GET IT by how Anderson writes the story. HIGHLY recommended for pre-teens and up.
ME VS BRAIN: AN OVERTHINKER’S GUIDE TO LIFE by Hayley Morris: With an hour to kill at a Cambridge UK bookstore, this is the one I ended up on a couch with. Me vs Brain is a series of essays about Hayley’s anxious brain that won’t shut-up. It’s funny, completely irreverent, and totally exhausting. Like some college roommates, you know? :) (p.s. the so-comfortable REEF sandals I’m wearing in this picture were a WALK-EVERYWHERE WINNER).

I started two New York Times Bestseller books that died a slow death on my bedside table. In Olympic-style, they were disqualified from competition. DNF. I almost listed them here, but what if someone threw my book under the bus and then drove over it a few times? Am I far too sensitive??? Anyway, it’s quite fascinating which books make it onto bestseller lists and are a no-go for me…

Books I’m excited to read: SANDWICH by Catharine Newman (I loooove a good family drama), FELIX POWELL, BOY DOG by Erin Entrada Kelly (pairs well with The McNifficents!), MONSTER TREE by

Sarah Allen

(I’ve been doing a lot of research on the secret lives of trees; fascinating), JAMES by Percival Everett (a reimagined Huckleberry Finn and Pulitzer Prize Finalist), and THE COVENANT OF WATER by Abraham Verghese (his first novel, CUTTING FOR STONE, blew me away).

And now…what are you reading or recommend?

Today is the day! THE MCNIFFICENTS launches in paperback!

If you’d like a copy of this book, or would like to give to a child or classroom, leave a comment and I’ll pick a winner to send a signed book to!