Book Journal goes on vacation
I'm taking a break from posting Book Journal entries for the month of August and leaving you with lists lists lists
Salt air, and the rust on your doors. I never needed anything more…than a free hour or two, a good bookstore, an iced coffee, and a growing stack of books my long arms were designed to hold…
As much as I love talking all things books, I’ll be taking a little break from posting Book Journal entries for the month of August. I have, in true Gemini-style, an August schedule that is quite the dichotomy of work and play, i.e., grinding through all day work events and deadlines for the next two weeks and (finally) disconnecting for a real vacation in the UK for the second half of the month.
Rather than leaving you book nerds hanging, I’m sharing a few morsels of bookish content to keep the bookworm appetites satiated. Keep reading if you want to see my current line up, some recent book lists that have piqued my interest (and grown my TBR list, duh), and a round up of links you may have missed from Well…Actually over the past few months.
I hope your summer is bright, your August blues are manageable, and your TBR is as enticing and inspiring as mine!
Until September, xo, Cassie
Currently Reading + My TBR Short List
The Alternatives, by Caoilinn Hughes (**CURRENT READ; I’m halfway through this and loving it)
Shark Heart by Emily Habeck (our August book club pick!)
Margo’s Got Money Troubles, by Rufi Thorpe (up next, and I’ve heard amazing things about this one!)
The Anthropologists by Aysegül Savas (a small book with a unique premise)
Liars by Sarah Manguso (I’m a sucker for a divorce story, especially when the descriptors are “searing” and “eviscerating”)
The Hypocrite by Jo Hamya (a father-daughter story set in London and Sicily? hell yes.)
Past Book Journal Posts
The one that EVERYONE is reading…
The one you should bring to the pool or beach…
The one you should pick up if you’re nostalgic for Y2K…
Links Links Links
You can find all Book Journal Posts here
You can find my 2024 reading list here
Becca Freeman’s Substack (Book Enthusiast) generally and her recent endeavor to poll her readers to build an answer to NYTimes 100 Best Books of the 21st Century
The Center for Fiction 2024 First Novel Prize Longlist (anyone have thoughts about Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar or The Book of Love by Kelly Link?)
July’s Best Reviewed Fiction (Halle Butler’s Banal Nightmare looks right up my alley)
My favorite bookstore in Seattle has incredible recommendations—here’s Elliott Bay Book Company’s Summer Book Notes (I’m eyeing How it Works Out
by Myriam Lacroix)
The Booker Prize 2024 Longlist (I flagged The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden to pick up when I’m in the UK)
A LitHub list of fall reads from last fall
You can find book club related musings and reading lists on the Musings of Dear Readers Book Club Substack, including our 2024 picks
Past Well Actually Posts
The one with puppy content…
The one with nostalgia and the rare sports content…
The one with gallows humor, a poem, and a playlist…
The one with a passionate, unhinged soapbox…
The one on the female gaze, strange feathered ladies, and Taylor Swift…
Have a wonderful August!