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Books in August - Book Recommendations
- The Little Bookshop
- 1 day ago
- 8 min read
Hello Book Dragons, we’re on our Summer break but we couldn’t NOT send you the August list. We hope you’re enjoying your Summer and we also hope this month will be a bit cooler than June/July ☀️ Anyway, we’re not here to talk about the weather (although lots of things to say ^^). So here’s our little list of books coming this month. (the ones published on the 6th of August will arrive on the 12th - when we’re open again)
Contemporary/Fantasy/Thriller/Sci-fi adults
If I Go Down With This Ship by Colby Wilkens (6 August)
Because a queer sea adventure is what we need in August
Laszlo Morgenstern has watched his friends fall in love while he’s been off globetrotting. After being hurt a decade ago, he’s terrified of opening himself up to heartbreak again. Forced to return home after struggling to write his latest book, his sister Louise drags him aboard a replica of the renowned pirate ship She Deceitful that sank in 1718, and he can finally see all the pieces of his book knitting together. Overcome with wonder, he’s drawn to the Captain’s cabin where he finds a blue wool coat. Curious, he pulls it on, only to travel 300 years in the past - this time with a knife to his throat at the hands of the handsome Captain Silas Night. On a ship crawling with pirates and far from his own time, Laszlo must work for his place amongst them. Soon he’s surprised to not only make a few friends, but to find himself growing increasingly attracted to the stoic magnetism of Silas. Laszlo thinks the jacket might be his way home, but as he and the captain fall for each other, he must choose between returning alone but in one piece to his time, more heartbroken than before he arrived, or to stay with the love of his life, knowing how, when, and where it all ends.
Tuesdays Are For Oversharing by Bella Osborne (6 August)
Because in the Summer I know quite some of you love their romance novels
After her brother’s sudden death, Louisa inherits his house in the picture-perfect village of Arden on the Green. Her plan? Lie low. Keep her feelings firmly under lock and key. Avoid neighbours. And absolutely don't crash into an annoyingly handsome nurse. Or ducks. (Long story.) Then her retired nosey neighbour drags her to the Cosy Café’s Tuesday club - a place for tea, biscuits and conversations about things most of us avoid. Louisa would rather hide than share her secrets, yet she finds herself drawn to these odd strangers. But when the struggling café faces closure and long-buried truths about her brother begin to surface, Louisa must decide how long she can continue to stay on the sidelines.
Freyja by Margarét Ann Thors (6 August)
Because during the warmth months is nice to read about Iceland (even when it’s a thriller ^^)
Unnur has secrets. A single mother to a beloved daughter, Lilja, she lives a deliberately quiet life in Reykjavík, working at a bakery under an assumed last name and pushing away haunting visions of the last summer of her childhood. Her safety—and Lilja’s—now hinges on discretion. But when her ex-husband returns to Iceland and brings with him a new girlfriend, who seems to know more about Unnur than she’s letting on, Unnur may finally have to face what happened long ago on a black sand beach in the remote Dark Valley—and the possibility that she herself might be responsible for her otherworldly friend Freyja’s disappearance. As a cold case investigation is launched and the intricate threads of past and present begin to entangle, Unnur must race to recover the broken memory of what happened all those years ago, or risk losing her own daughter. Steeped in stories from Icelandic folklore and myth, Freyja is at once a gripping story of a child’s disappearance, a testament to the power of a mother’s love, and an enthralling tale of redemption and forgiveness from a gifted new voice.
Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei (27 August)
Because I love stories about siblings
In Earth's not too distant future, seas consume coastal cities, highways disintegrate underwater, and mutant fish lurk in pirate-controlled depths. Skipper, a skilled sailor and the youngest of three sisters, earns money skimming and reselling plastic from the ocean to care for her ailing grandmother. But then her eldest sister, Nora, goes missing. Nora left home a decade ago in pursuit of a cure for failing crops all over the world. When Skipper and her other sister, Carmen, receive a cryptic plea for help, they must put aside their differences and set out across the sea to find—and save—her. As they voyage through a dying world both beautiful and strange, encountering other travelers along the way, they learn more about their sister's work and the corporations that want what she discovered. But the farther they go, the more uncertain their mission becomes: What dangerous attention did Nora attract, and how well do they really know their sister—or each other? Thus begins an epic journey spanning oceans and continents and a wistful rumination on sisterhood, friendship, and ecological disaster.
YA Book Recommendations
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (4 August)
Because this gets an honorary place because it’s Suzanne!
As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.
Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves. When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight… and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.
Nest of Tongues by Randy Ribay (11 August)
Because I enjoyed Randy’s previous book Patron Saints of Nothing
As Filipino vampires known as manananggal, Lily and her brother Caleb understand the value of a secret. After all, to hide is to survive. To lie is to live. They’d never harm another person—but people only believe their worst fears around creatures of myth. So the siblings stay quiet. They follow their community’s rules. Until a monster hunter turns up and kills a fellow manananggal, anyway. Until Caleb is marked as the hunter’s next prey. Suddenly, he and Lily realize there’s always been more at stake than the lives of their people. Because when doing everything “right” is still a death sentence, what can they take as truth? As the hunter nears, the siblings must decide if they’ll be driven from the only home they’ve ever known… or fight to protect a community that may already be lost.
Bridget and Gabe Are Not Okay by Lex Croucher (13 August)
Because we have Gwen and Art Are Not in Love so we need #2
They fell in love. They won a great battle. It should have been happily ever after. But now, Camelot’s famous couples have fallen apart. Newly crowned King Gabriel is having panic attacks in cupboards in-between council meetings. He can't tell Arthur just how not okay he is – so he's set him free, to find love with someone who can get through the day without breaking down. Bridget has lost her spark for sparring, forfeiting again and again in the lists. When she’s invited to join Gabriel's round table, she hopes it’ll be the change she needs. But trying to navigate the post-happily-ever-after reality of a relationship with Gwen, when Bridget no longer feels like the dashing knight Gwen fell in love with, feels impossible. With the kingdom still reeling from an attempted uprising, and rumoured sightings of the holy grail, the questing beast and the green knight happening across the country, the gang depart on a PR tour destined for disaster. Can Gabriel be the king his country deserves? Can Bridget get her jousting groove back? And will they find their way back to the courtly love that once seemed fated?
A Dead Thing Like Me by E.G. Young (13 August)
Because I’d like to discover this beyond-the-grave coming-of-age YA novel
One hot dog with banana peppers. That’s all Hot Dog wants. An invisible teenage ghost, she haunts a food cart outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Until one night, she’s accidentally summoned via Ouija board to a house party in Florida… where finally finally finally, people can see her. All the party guests scatter, except for Logan: the cool artist girl who doesn’t just see Hot Dog, she actually wants to talk to her. Logan, who isn’t scared of Hot Dog’s stitched mouth or chattering dress. Logan, who’s grieving her own dead BFF—and called Hot Dog by mistake. Hot Dog wants to prove it’s not a mistake. She can be Logan’s new best friend. She can go to Logan’s Halloween party. She can eat snacks, have sleepovers, and hang out. She can definitely smile without scaring people. Exactly like a real, human girl. There’s one problem: Hog Dog’s not a real, living human girl, and something in Logan’s sprawling house knows it. It scratches like rats in the walls. It opens a secret door in Logan’s attic. It wants to drag Hot Dog into the nothingness where dead things go. And unless Hot Dog can confront the dark truth of how she died, it will unmake Logan too.
Children’s Books
Cinderlad and the Sea Dragon by Gillian McClure (1 August)
Because there’s a Sea Dragon and it’s a retelling of a Scottish folktale
Assipattle, nicknamed Cinderlad, forever tending the peat fire, spends his days dreaming up heroic adventures. But when a monstrous Sea Dragon arrives, Cinderlad's imagined battles suddenly become real. With the land in danger and no one else stepping forward, Cinderlad must face the beast himself.
The Dragon Who Couldn’t Breathe Fire by Roger Lam (6 August)
Because there’s a dragon!
At the bottom of Emerald Depths, there lived a family of dragons. Their names were Baba, Mama, Ge Ge and Long Long, and they had just arrived from China... Long Long can't wait to meet the other dragons at his new school, until he notices the differences between them. He doesn't have wings and he can't breathe fire! But he can control the weather... and when a fireball threatens to burn down the school, Long Long discovers how incredible it is to be a Chinese dragon.
The Bakery Dragon by Devin Elle Kurtz (13 August)
Because this one is adorable and there’s a dragon (again!)
Ember has always been different from the other dragons. His fearsome roar sounds more like a polite sneeze, and when he breathes fire, the villagers just pat his head and say awwww.
Ember fears he’ll never collect a respectable hoard of gold until a chance encounter with a baker causes his fortunes to turn (and his stomach to grumble). As the little dragon soon discovers, the gold you make is way better than the gold you steal—and gold that is shared? That’s best of all.
Wilomina: The Land of Dreams and Nightmares by John Chalmers & Sandra Marrs (13 August)
Because this sounds like a great graphic novel for 8-12yrs
On their way to visit Mum in hospital, Wilomina, her father and baby brother Kes get stuck in the middle of nowhere. Desperate, Wilomina leaps aboard a mysterious train - and away from the world she knows. On board, she meets Mephisto, a talking cat - and this is only the beginning of the absurd... Soon, Wilomina is separated from her family, tumbling into Nocturna - a parallel land where dreams and nightmares come from. But something eerie is happening: the nightmares are taking over. With Mephisto's help, Wilomina must find her family and seek the gate that will lead them home. On their journey, they meet spectres, dragons and spider-witches, crossing monster-infested waters and facing impossible puzzles at the maze-like Premonition Library. But worst of all: Nocturna is slowly transforming Wilomina into a ferocious 'werepire'. Can she fight the monster within... and find the way home?
We hope you enjoyed our little list and that it gave you some book inspiration!
Looking to pre-order one of these books? Just follow the path! 👇
This blog post is written by The Little Bookshop, your bookshop for English books in Rennes.
