August is the beginning of the new school year, which automatically means less reading time for me. However, I squeezed in a late summer/ early birthday trip that involved some plane, pool, and beach reading right at the end. This month I read:

• Copper Sun by Sharon Draper – In searching Sharon Draper’s backlist titles, I found this historical fiction gem that I had never heard of. This is a very important and hard book to read. We meet Amari as a young African woman in what is now Ghana, loving her life, her family, and her village. When pale-skinned strangers visit, her village throws a welcome feast in celebration. By the end of the celebration, there is mass devastation and Amari has been captured. Without knowing English, we experience the horrific acts of stealing humans, abusing, punishing, and packing them like cattle on a ship, and everything that it took to get her to America to be sold into slavery. The entire first part was so hard to read, but so important to know because it was based on a sick reality of our history. The rest of the story follows Amari and the friends she makes along the way, with Polly and Tidbit becoming as beloved to the reader as Amari is. This is a beautiful, heart-wrenching, bittersweet story of pain and hope.
• That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America by Amanda Jones – I saw this book while purusing shelves in my library. While I had never heard of Amanda Jones specifically, her story is very familiar. Amanda is a middle school librarian who chose to speak at her Louisiana town’s public library board meeting on her own time about the importance of staying away from censorship. For some reason, out of the many speakers that night, she was chosen as the person to attack by two men. These men, who she has never met nor interacted with in person or online, who don’t live in her town, began a harassment campaign against her, calling her a groomer, saying she was pushing the teaching of anal sex to elementary children. Amanda’s memoir details the horrors of the attack, her anxiety that resulted, and the decision to file a defamation lawsuit and to fight back. She outlines the playbook of groups like M-M$ for Lib&rty and alt-Right Christian Fundamentalists who are trying to take over libraries, schools, government, and everything else. It was hard to read some of her story, because of how similar is it to experiences closer to home. It was also hard to read because she was repetitive and angsty throughout the retelling. I don’t thinks she was far enough out of her trauma to fully process it yet, though she tries hard. Reading this was also hard because she finished it before the Department of Education was attacked and even more educational attacked continued. It’s all hard right now. But libraries should represent all people and reading books makes us better.
• The Summer Guests by Tess Gerritsen – I read the first book in The Martini Club series a few years ago and was happy to discover the second book was published earlier this year. In a small town in Maine, a group of retired CIA agents are living a quiet life, under the radar, until a crime happens in their town. Then they are racing along side the police chief to solve the crime and help to find the missing girl, Zoe, a summer guest. This story combined the privilege of wealth with secrets and lies for a propolsive mystery where there are many likely suspects and a few red herrings. I enjoyed it and hope the series continues!
• The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani [audiobook] – This is a very sad, sweet middle grade story told from the point of view of a young girl in 1947, when India gained independence from British rule and also drew a partition to create Pakistan. Nisha and her twin brother are Half Muslim and Half-Hindu, thanks to their parents, but unclear of what is happening in their home country of India. When they have to leave their home quickly, we travel with them through dangers and fears, all told through Nisha’s diary letters to her deceased mother. Nisha’s young eyes don’t understand every thing they see, but they see more than they should at their age. The author’s note helped me understand the author wrote this story to help herself understand what her father and his family went through as refugees forced to leave the only home they had ever known.
• No One Tells You This by Glynnis MacNichol – I found this book during my search for books about adults who lost their parents and was even more intrigued because the author is also a single woman, never married, without kids, which is hard to find represented well in books. Glynnis’s memoir takes us through her mother’s sad decline with Alzheimer’s in Canada, while this freelance writer is finding joy in NYC on her 40th birthday. We are with her and she happily chooses the single life, when friends are all busy with marriages and babies and strangers constantly ask her why she isn’t married. Her writing is slow-paced as we meander through her thoughts, but I loved her honest reflections. I highlighted so many lines that felt like my own thoughts. Her life as a writer is very different, allowing her to spend a month on a Dude Ranch and traveling in unique ways. I enjoyed her story.
• Accidentally on Purpose by Kristen Kish with Stef Ferrari [audiobook] – I first discovered Kristen Kish on the reality show Fast Foodies, which I watched with some friends. I loved her personality on that silly, fun show where celebrity chefs cooked recreations of famous fast food dishes. Her energy, her smile, her vibe were so great. Not being a big Top Chef fan, I had no idea she was first “discovered” by winning that, and now she is one of the hosts. This memoir takes us through her childhood, which was wonderful, where she was adopted by a lovely midwestern family and never felt the need to explore her Korean roots. Then we watch her stumble and fall before finding a home and found family in Boston. We travel with Kristen through reality tv, restaurants, successes and failures, until we catch up with her beautiful life today. I enjoyed her honesty and her story.
• Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King – After my Stephen King Summer book club reads, I decided to go back into his catalog and read this book, which I had heard rave reviews of. This is more like is modern crime thrillers, where we are following Retired Detective Bill Hodges as he decides to try to figure out one of his infamous unsolved cases, while also seeing into that killer’s mind and life. This was a wild ride, but I won’t share any spoilers here! I enjoyed the interest cast of characters and look forward to reading more in this mystery trilogy.
• A Good Cry: What We Learn From Tears and Laughter by Nikki Giovanni – Something I read this summer sparked a memory of a book that used Nikki Giovanni’s poetry. I sought out some of her poetry books from my local library, and then realized that this heralded poety just passed away last December. I enjoyed reading about her life, and reading this book of poetry, which gave tribute to Maya Angelou, spoke about her abusive father, connected her life to so many other famous Black writers and creators, and told stories with joy and dignity.
• Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory – This romance was a perfect vacation read – fun, funny, silly, romantic, with the usual romcom ups and downs, and great characters to root for! Early in the story we meet Avery, recently single and ready to explore her bisexual side by dating women, though she has no experience there yet. Our other main character, Taylor, has just made a bet with her BFF that she won’t sleep with anyone this summer. When Avery meets Taylor, a serial flirt and notorious lesbian dater around Napa, they form an unlikely plan. Taylor will teach Avery how to flirt with women, and unknowlngly, Avery will help Taylor win her bet. Imagine the hijinks that ensue, especially as these two, of course, have chemistery together. This was such a fun read!
• Summer Island by Kristin Hannah – I was given a paperback copy of this from one of my reading friends at work, after she enjoyed the book on a recent vacation. I saved it for my beach vacation and it was perfect! The setting of the San Juan islands in Washington was beautiful. I loved some of the characters and their rich backstory and I was equally annoyed by some of the characters and their stubborn unwillingness to be honest or get to the root of their issues. Ruby, the wanna-be comedian, returns home to take care of her estranged mother, famed writer and advice giver, Nora, after an accident. Ruby hasn’t spoken to her mother in years, because Nora “abandoned” her family when Ruby was a teenager. As we get to know what happened in Nora’s marriage, and what hurt Ruby and caused her to hurt her first love, who also happens to be home this summer, we hope they can repair their relationships and find love again before it’s too late. This was dark, cringy, happy, sappy, sweet, and sad at times. It’s not my favorite by Kristin Hannah, but I do love her writing style!