I’m excited to take part in a new linkup with the ladies at Literary Quicksand and Allison at My Novel Life. The first Wednesday of each month, we will share all the books we hope to read for that month. Since I will not have read any of the books listed, descriptions of the stories will be from the publisher or other trusted sources, but I will explain why I want to read it. I’ll try and cover everything from who recommended it to what kinds of reviews its gotten to whether it may be a guilty pleasure 🙂
Here’s the TBR for August 2018:
How To Build a Girl, by Caitlyn Moran
I’ve always been drawn to this book because the girl on the cover has Doc Martens on, and I was a huge fan of Docs back in my teenage years. I also saw that filming recently started for a movie adaptation of the book, so I want to be ahead of the “read it before you see it” curve.
Summary: After she shames herself on local television, Johanna Morgan reinvents herself as Dolly Wilde–a fast-talking, hard-drinking Gothic hero–until two years later, while eviscerating bands as a music critic, she realizes she’s built Dolly with a fatal flaw. ~ From OCLC
A Place for Us, by Fatima Farheen Mirza
A Place for Us is the debut novel from Sarah Jessica Parker’s new publishing imprint, SJP for Hogarth. I’ve liked a good number of the books she’s chosen for her book club, so I’m hopeful that this one is a winner. It’s also a pick for the Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club, which I am part of, so I’m reading it for our next book chat.
Summary: An Indian-American Muslim family gathers together in their Californian hometown to celebrate the eldest daughter’s wedding — a match of love rather than tradition. In a narrative that spans decades and sees family life through the eyes of each member, A Place For Us charts the crucial moments in the family’s past, from the bonds that bring them together to the differences that pull them apart. ~From the publisher
Endling the Last, by Katherine Applegate
I have loved everything Katherine Applegate has written (Newbery winner The One and Only Ivan is my favorite), so I will read anything she has written. Endling the Last is her latest and I’ve heard it’s great!
Summary: Byx is the youngest member of her dairne pack. Believed to possess remarkable abilities, her mythical doglike species has been hunted to near extinction in the war-torn kingdom of Nedarra.
After her pack is hunted down and killed, Byx fears she may be the last of her species. The Endling. So Byx sets out to find safe haven, and to see if the legends of other hidden dairnes are true.
Along the way, she meets new allies–both animals and humans alike–who each have their own motivations for joining her quest. And although they begin as strangers, they become their own kind of family–one that will ultimately uncover a secret that may threaten every creature in their world.
Bluebird, Bluebird, by Attica Locke
My neighbor raved about Bluebird, Bluebird the other day when I went to get my mail (she knows I’m a librarian and likes to talk books 🙂 ). It’s been on my Goodreads TBR since it came out last September when Book Riot included it as one of the best new releases in an All the Books episode. And if that’s not enough, it won the Edgar Award for Best Novel this April!
Summary: When it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules–a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger, knows all too well. Deeply ambivalent about growing up black in the lone star state, he was the first in his family to get as far away from Texas as he could. Until duty called him home… ~From OCLC
A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini
The Kite Runner and it’s amazingness came up in conversation at work the other day, and I realized I’ve wanted to read Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns forever. It was recommended to me by the wife of a friend of my husband’s at a party at least five years ago. She said it was even better than The Kite Runner. If that’s case, I’m going to LOVE it.
Summary: Afghan women Mariam and Laila grow close, despite their nearly twenty-year age difference and initial rivalry, as they suffer at the hands of a common enemy–their abusive, much-older husband, Rasheed. ~ From Follett
Educated, by Tara Westover
I just recently found out about the Girls Night In newsletter and was nerdily excited to see that there is a Girls Night In Book Club that meets near me! The July/August choice is Educated, so I’m reading it for the meeting, but it’s been high on my TBR anyway. I’m going to enjoy it as an audiobook because I’ve heard it’s an excellent recording.
Summary: Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her “head-for-the-hills bag”. In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father’s junkyard.
Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent.
Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home. ~ From the publisher
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