I’m settling back into a reading routine again and managed to carve out more time to read last month. Here are the 3 books I read in August.
I don’t know about you, but when I find it difficult to get back into reading after being out of it for a while, I try to ease back in with some ‘light reads’. Are you the same?
The thing is, though, that I wasn’t expecting these light reads to be so good!
The three books I read in August
Tom Lake – by Ann Patchett
This story is set in Spring 2020 and tells the story of a former actress, Lara Kenison, her husband Joe Nelson and their three daughters – Emily, Maisie and Nell. During the COVID lockdown, they all find themselves back in the family orchard together – picking cherries and revisiting the past. Having so much time together, the daughters quiz their mother about her romance with a famous actor, Peter Duke, when she was an actress in her twenties. The book jumps back and forth between the present and the past and tells a rich story of their lives over the years. It looks at young love, married love and this family’s love for each other. And Ann Patchett writes about all these relationships in a warm, endearing and relatable way. This was such a great story. Fun fact: Meryl Streep is the narrator of this audiobook. My rating is 4/5.
Order on Amazon US | Amazon UK | Bookshop.org
Related: Everything I read back in June
Emma of 83rd Street – by Audrey Bellezza and Emily Harding
I adored this book. Yes, it’s a romance novel and yes, it’s a slightly soppy love story, but it was just what I needed and the writing was good. If the writing had been awful, I would not have finished it, but I can honestly say this book kept me engrossed. It’s a Jane Austen Emma meets modern-day Emma from Manhattan.
Emma Woodhouse has lived on 83rd Street all of her 23 years and prides herself on being a great matchmaker. But as yet, Emma has not found the love of her life. With all her friends travelling abroad, Emma finds herself a little lonely as she starts her final year of grad school – until she meets Nadine, a potential new friend and project. However, her childhood friend and neighbour, George Knightley, is becoming increasingly annoying, always finding fault with Emma’s matchmaking efforts. Lecturing her on her silliness and her inability to grow up and be an adult, their long friendship starts taking strain. Sexual tension, anyone? The subject matter may be light, but the story has depth and touches on some very real emotions and relationships. This book would be a perfect summer beach read. My rating is 4/5.
Order on Amazon US | Amazon UK
The Bookbinder of Jericho – by Pip Williams
Twin sisters Peggy and Maude live on a narrowboat in Oxford and work in the bindery at the university press. Peggy is intelligent and feels dissatisfied with her job, yearning to be a student at Oxford’s Somerville College where she’d get to read the books not merely bind them. Her sister, Maude, is content with her lot in life and enjoys spending her days folding the pages of books with the other bindery girls. As Maude is vulnerable and different, Peggy feels obliged to look after her when their mother dies.
And then when World War I begins, their lives are forever changed when refugees arrive from war-torn cities of Belgium to live in Oxford. Peggy sees the possibility of a different future where she can get an education. But as the war continues, her love for a Belgian soldier and her responsibility for her sister hold her back from the life she dreams of.
Pip Williams also wrote The Dictionary of Lost Words and some of the characters from that book make an appearance in this story which I loved. Both of these books show women’s perspectives during that time in history which I find fascinating. My rating is 5/5.
Order on Amazon US | Amazon UK | Bookshop.org
Have you read any of these?
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