Backlist Books Challenge August

I am a week late getting my August reads up. I had planned to share them on Friday, but I ended up taking the day off. Over the weekend, I got a lot of reading done but did very little online work. But today, I finally had time to sit down and get my August reads done.

August was a good reading month for me but not great. Fall and winter is usually my best reading time. It isn’t that I read more during the fall and winter, but I think I enjoy it more.

Reading a book and drinking a cup of hot chocolate while sitting by the fire is my favorite way to spend a fall or winter evening. I can’t wait for cooler days and a cozy read.

And while I have loved my backlist books challenge that I did for 2021, I have also formed quite a list of books published in 2021 that I can’t wait to read come January.

August Reads

Enchantress of Numbers by Jennifer Chiaverini

The Enchantress of Numbers is a historical fiction book about the life of Ada Lovelace, who some have called the world’s first computer programmer. You can read my full review here.

The Englishman’s Daughter by Ben Macintyre

I really enjoyed The Englishman’s Daugther. It is a nonfiction book published in 2003, so it was one of Ben Macintyre’s early books. It is the story of four soldiers hiding from the enemy in a tiny French village during WWI. This is a time and setting that I knew very little about. I enjoyed reading this because I learned a lot about what a French village went through during WWI. The writing in the book though was a little bit hard to read at times. It just didn’t flow well and was a slow read for me. I am glad I read it, but it is definitely not a narrative nonfiction type of book. I think part of that is probably due to this being one of the author’s first works.

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Bartlett

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much is a true crime book published in 2010. I shared about this book in my post about nonfiction books about books. You can read my full review here.

Life from Scratch by Sasha Martin

Life from Scratch has been in my to-read pile for several years. It is a food memoir published in 2016. The author is a food blogger, who cooked her way around the world by cooking food from every country. You can read my full review here.

Under the Painted Sky by Stacey Lee

Under the Painted Sky is one of the two fiction books that I read this month. Yes, I only read two fiction books this month. I really do read more nonfiction books. You can read my thoughts about this one here.

Black Death at the Golden Gate by David

Yes, I am one of those people that read about plagues and pandemics during a pandemic. Black Death at the Golden Gate was published in 2019. Before the current event happened. The timing of its release could not have been better, but I don’t think this book got the attention that it deserved. You can read more of my thoughts here. Hint: I think this is a book more people need to read because most people have no idea of what the U.S has gone through over the years.

Make Something Good Today by Ben and Erin Napier

I listened to Make Something Good on audio while working on an online project that was tedious. This was a great book since the project took a lot of time, but not a lot of thought. I don’t really know why I chose this book except that I loved memoirs. I have never watched Ben and Erin’s show, but now I want to. Ben and Erin narrated this book and they made it come to life. I loved their southern accents. Their story was fun and interesting. Their success comes from hard work along with a love of family, friends, and the place they came from. You can tell that they truly care about the small town they live in and the people that live there. I am sure the print version of this would be great too, but the narration on this one is so good that I highly recommend that audio version.

What books have you been reading?