August is a popular vacation month. It’s the last chance to relax before the kids are back in school and businesses start their fourth quarter push.
It’s a great month to commit to the latest beach read or summer memoir. Lose yourself in a fantasy or a period romance.
Discover or rediscover a classic or read a biography about someone you admire. The possibilities are endless.
People are reading differently because of social media and smart devices. Our attention spans are becoming smaller as AI churns out instant answers and many online publications offer us the world in 200 words or less. We’ve mastered the art of the quick read, but we’re losing the meaningful reads that stay with us forever. Let’s fall back in love with books. Here are a few suggestions to get you started.
Story of My Life (Story Lake Book 1) by Lucy Score – Hazel, a romance novelist, develops writer’s block after a bad break-up. After missing deadlines, she is in danger of being dropped by her publisher. Hazel flees the distractions and memories of Manhattan and on impulse buys a historic home in Story Lake, Pennsylvania. The house, which comes with a seat on the town council, is a wreck, and the town just lost its largest employer… so much for the peaceful writer’s retreat she envisioned. Will the hunky local contractor become her muse or another unwanted distraction?
15 Summers Later by Rae Anne Thayne- Ava and her sister, Madison, survive a horrible childhood ordeal. It’s an experience they’d prefer to keep in their hidden past. When the past comes calling, Ava husband abandons her leaving her with no choice but to return to her hometown and the sister who shares her secret. At first, Ava is an unwelcome intrusion on Madison’s carefully created new life. Madison’s love interest is the son of the man who forfeited his life to rescue the girls. How will he react when he learns the truth? Will he blame her for his father’s death? What do you do when secrets refuse to remain in the past?
Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez – Justin is cursed. Every woman he dates finds her forever love after she breaks up with him. At first it seemed like a coincidence, but people started talking. Women lined up to date him, so they could dump him and find their forever love. Justin thinks he’ll be alone forever until a woman with the same problem DM’s him. They concoct a plan to date and break up with each other to end their curses and find true love. What could possibly go wrong?
The Getaway Girls by Dee Mac Donald – Three women who meet at a boring floral arrangement class become friends and make a pact to reclaim their lives by sharing a grand adventure in Europe. Gill wants romance. Connie wants to discover her Italian roots, and Maggie is trying to escape a secret that will impact all their lives.
Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne – This book chronicles rise and fall Comanche Nation, one of the most powerful Native American tribes in history. Gwynne recounts the epic saga of Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed blood son, Quanah who becomes the leader of the Kwahadi band of the Comanche Nation.
A Summer of Hummingbirds by Christopher Benfey – Love, art, and scandal in the intersecting worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade after the end of the American Civil War.
The Dangerous Summer by Ernest Hemingway – Hemingway returns to Spain with his wife in the 1950’s to visit old friends he made during his time as a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War. As he renews relationships, he and his wife are invited to follow the bullfighting circuit. Hemingway examines the camaraderie and competition between matadors. His observations offer a complex look at the sport through the eyes of one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.
My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir – The twentieth century environmentalist studies the American West and chronicles his attempts to preserve and protect the Yosemite Valley. Because of John Muir’s writings and activism, the Yosemite Valley became Yosemite National Park.
The Summer Game by Roger Angell- This is Angell’s first book about America’s favorite pastime. He transformed how future writers would cover the sport. His study of baseball in the 1960s recounts the growing pains of expansion, increased television coverage of sports, the dominance of pitchers, owner relationships, and competition with other sports. He also writes about the legends who helped elevate the sport, Mays, Clemente, Robinson, Gibson, Koufax, Yastrzemski, Seaver, Palmer, Stengel, and others.
The Summer of 1787 by David O. Stewart – Read about the men who conceived of the idea then created the U.S. Constitution. During four moths of sweltering summer heat, our founding fathers debated to refine the ideals included in the document that would become the constitution of the world’s first constitutional democracy. They also wisely allowed for amendments to be included to reflect the changing needs of its people.