Let's cut to the chase: August was a whirlwind (as has also been, essentially, the other four final months of 2026, which is why this blogpost is only coming to you in the last week of December).
The month kicked off with my best friend's Bachelorette weekend, followed by her wedding a few weeks later, a major work event we've been planning for since January, my brother starting his first full-time teaching job, and then, of course, the impending onslaught of a three-days-off-in-twenty-one-days work schedule.
To be honest, the fact that I managed to read six-and-a-half books in August is nothing short of a miracle. The fact that so many of them ended up being GOOD defies all logic, too!
Seattle Public Library & Seattle Arts and Lectures' Summer Reading Challenge Book Bingo
Bingo Square: "Gender Bender"
I've left my body.
I'm staring at myself. I'm staring at Ghost Me.
Oh my god, I have died."
A relationship on the rocks gets tested further, when an unexpected lightning strike in a field on the drive to a wedding leads to Amy and Flynn swapping bodies... and Amy's the Maid of Honor. Could this sudden change in perspective help them see eye to eye, or will this glamorous, high-stakes weekend mark the end of more than just their relationship?
It's one thing to say that "Books are Better than Movies." But the reality is, there are quite a few things one format can do, that are limited in the other... for instance, adding a soundtrack cue to add nuance in a pivotal scene, or including straightforward visuals that translate immediately, rather than having to rely on paragraphs of description. Or a Body Swap Plot.
The convoluted nature of trying to parse out who was who - and what body they were inhabiting, while talking to which fellow member of the huge cast of characters, and what those relationships looked like, and how they might be perceived by an outsider - made for a plot device that completely took out at the knees any kind of momentum once the narrative had gotten rolling. It made picking up and putting down the book nearly impossible, because to abandon the characters at any given moment would result in becoming completely unmoored from any kind of anchoring framework or context.
Put on top of that some uniquely unhinged plot points - [MODERATE SPOILERS] take, for instance, the gradual reveal of a woman who believes she killed her dad but *gasp* didn't, or a man how might have fathered an infant by way of one of the other wedding guests, but *gasp* didn't do that either - and on the whole, you're left on the either side just kind of confused. Why introduce such befuddling, emotionally-weighty elements in such an already convoluted narrative framework?
And WHY does the marketing material for this book keep trying to tell me it's a Rom-Com? I have a significantly difficult time finding anything remotely humorous about any part of this, and instead, spent a lot of time wondering about why every character felt called to make terrible choices around each other.
At this point, Body Swap comedies should remain solely under the jurisdiction of respected professionals like Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis. I don't think I want to ever read a book with a plot like this again.
two stars
Bingo Square: "BIPOC Historical Fiction / Nonfiction"
An unexpected global supernatural event leads to hundreds of notable historic figures coming back to life, in the modern world. When a washed-up hip hop producer gets contacted by the team representing the newly-revived Harriet Tubman, he's offered a chance to help assemble a rap album that could change the world... if he's brave enough to face the music again.
I heard the words "Major Female Historical Figure with Ties to the Political Power of the Abolition Movement Gets a Modern-Day Rewrite with a Feminist Bent and a Tendency Towards Music and Stage Performance" and thought "Didn't Oh Mary just win a whole bunch of Tony's for something very similar?
But the reality is, the approaches between the two are entirely different from each other, as both the voices of Cole Escola and Bob the Drag Queen are entirely different from each other (and to be honest, each fairly singular, on the whole). Whereas Escola plays Mary Todd Lincoln with high camp and outlandish comedy, Bob pitches Harriet Tubman as serious, with significant historical understanding to establish context and shape to her unconventional occupation of a contemporary space. "Harriet Tubman produces a rap album" might sound like the beginnings of an SNL bit, but Bob treats her with clear and focused direction, value placed on historical translation and heart, and what is so evidently a care for representation and appreciation.
(What's even more interesting is that the promotional material for marketing this book primarily relied on comparisons to Hamilton... which I also don't think is as easy a collation as people might think.)
Listening to the audiobook in particular really helps amplify the experience, because of Bob's uniquely commanding, then conversational, tone. There's a natural sense of humor in the way that he talks and tells his story in a way that really brings such a fantastical circumstance into reality - and as an added bonus, two of the songs "written" by Tubman are included at the end of the audiobook, and performed in a way that only someone like Bob has the gravitas and genre understanding to do.
five stars!
Bingo Square: "Disability"
Disability activist Rebekah Taussig shares friendly, funny, and often heart-breaking stories from her life, about growing up as a wheelchair user, and how the world could stand to learn a thing or two from the perspectives of those often forced to the outside of global conversations.
On one hand, it's a conversational, relatively brief series of essays, penned by a childhood cancer survivor and paralyzed woman who never wanted to be a disability advocate, but found herself naturally turned into one anyways.
On the other hand, I printed out three-double sided pages of notes that I had highlighted while reading the Kindle version of this book, that now live in the back of my Book Journal, in addition to the two-and-a-half handwritten pages of notes that I have in place of a "real" review for this book.
Instead of me talking, I think you should hear some of these actual bangers from Taussig herself:
"Disabled people are expected to cope with their own social ostracism, to handle being misunderstood and misrepresented, and at the same time, to put at ease those who perform the ostracism. In order to be seen as equally human, we have to find a way to be seen on the fringe by those firmly situated on the inside, to make those who would otherwise ignore and erase or misread us feel comfy and cozy and entertained while we attempt to delicately challenge their assumptions."
Or this one:
"When we arrive at job interviews, go to the grocery store, show up at a fertility clinic or adoption agency, create online dating profiles, get pulled over by the police, entrust our bodies to medical professionals, pick up our kids from school, enter a place of worship, we are moving through a world where our image is shorthand for something incompetent or unreliable, helpless or dangerous, not worth living or inherently wrong, sinful or contagious, impotent or taboo, perverted or sexless. And these manifest into tangible results, from neglect to hate crimes, condescending laughter to sexual assault, unwelcome prayers to exorcisms, pity to assisted suicides, infantilization to police violence, dismissal to invasive medical procedures, familial rejection to domestic violence, idolization to social isolation."
And let's just end on one of my favorites:
"Instead of disability as the limitation, what if a lack of imagination was the actual barrier?"
four-and-a-half stars
Bingo Square: "Great Escapes"
Well, no matter what choices she did or did not make, there was still a task remaining.
Toadling, a fairy changeling stolen from her parents and raised amongst the ponds of Fairyland, is given a quest: return to the world she was taken from, and bestow a blessing upon the life of a royal infant. A simple task, leading to disastrous consequences...
After centuries have passed, and the walls surrounding the castle have grown lush with thorns, a curse of unending sleep remains that has yet to be broken. Toadling will do anything to keep it that way.
Oh my gosh. Every once in a while, you just need to come across a new installment in a genre you've been a fan of since middle school, to really get your life back on track.
I'm such a fan of fairy tale retellings, in a way that was deeply shaped by being a huge Disney nerd as a teen, and having Once Upon a Time airing on TV during my collegiate years. However, as an adult, it feels like a lot of that weight falls onto Literary Magical Realism (like Helen Oyeyemi) or Romance Novels (like Teresa Medeiros), which only really serve to highlight bits and pieces of what the story requires, rather than the truly whimsical, dark, sweeping, transformative power of a real fairy tale.
Thank goodness for the Fantasy genre.
And thank goodness for T. Kingfisher, who - like Seanan McGuire, similarly - has seemed to really find her lane writing excellence in the novella form. Stripping away superfluous detail or unnecessary world-establishment, taking a scant word count a long ways, and using it to make some real magic happen. There's a great deal of economy happening in what I'm sure is a rigorous editing process, and it translates beautifully.
I loved the twist of the origins of our main character, the twist on what makes a fairy tale, the twist on the self-actualizing power of a happily-ever-after. I loved our twisted villain, and the twisted environment in which she lived.
It was just a really damn good story.
five stars!
Ripped Bodice Bookstore Romance Book Bingo
Bingo Square: "Happily Ever After"
After a collegiate prank goes awry - threatening the standing of the heir of St. Patrick's Day within the rest of the royal community - Kris, the younger prince of Christmas, decides to do the right thing, and apologize. Making amends gets interesting, when a plot to magically siphon some of Christmas' power is revealed, and the clues to the culprit behind the theft lead straight back to Ireland, and the unexpectedly attractive Prince Lochlan. Could there be a pot of gold at the end of this rivalry's rainbow, or is Kris' luck about to run out?
Not only was I immediately infatuated with the deranged romance antics of TNBK back in July, but I knew I had to have more: I pretty immediately grabbed a library hold on Go Luck Yourself, and knew that as soon as I was home from my bestie's Bach weekend, I was going to treat myself to a real good time with this one.
It somehow manages to be even more bonkers and horny than the first installment. Being that those were two of the reasons I had such a great time on my first rotation, I knew that I was in for a real treat.
The world-building discrepancies I had an issue with in the first book are absolutely still here: the magic system still defies all attempts at logic (Why is their sole source of economic collateral so easily liquidized? Why is all of the holiday magic controlled and dispensed by only one person per court? What the hell is luck magic supposed to actually manifest as in a material sense, and is it problematic when it's used for financial gain?), and the treatment of global religion only gets more confusing (St. Patrick's Day is one of the primary holidays in question. It's viewpoint has nearly nothing to do with St. Patrick, or even Ireland, necessarily, but more like Boston's version of St. Patrick's Day).
If I wanted to go more in detail about either one of those things, though, I'd have to reread the books. It wouldn't be a hard lot: I wanted to start back form the beginning pretty much as soon as I'd finished, and even if I did choose to read, I wouldn't be as focused on the insane authorial choices as much as I was as the tremendous fun I was having, just like I did the first time 'round.
four stars
Bingo Square: "Grand Gesture"
"Just imagining the tagline to this low-budget Lifetime film is enough to make me cringe:
He wants the bride, she wants the groom. But what is all they really want... is each other?"
After her guy best friend - the man she's been in love with since their collegiate days - tells her he's finally proposing to his longtime sweetheart, Marcela knows she has to keep her mouth shut, no matter how much it hurts. If only she could convince the groom's brother to do the same, after she catches him on the verge of drunkenly confessing his own feelings to the soon-to-be bride. Now, they're fake-dating, hard, as unconventional accountability buddies in leaving the happy couple alone... but when secrets come to light, will the truth set anyone free, or just make everything worse?
There was definitely a part about 7% of the way into this book where I thought to myself, " I know I hate it, but I have to keep going so that I can check off the Bingo Square." Honestly, though, I kind of wish I had also listened to that answering voice in my brain who rebutted "Not that badly."I should have clocked the pun in the title sooner - a play on the phrase "next best thing," as in a reference to the fact that despite our plus-sized heroine being in love with a man for over a decade, she could always JUST FALL IN LOVE WITH HIS BROTHER instead - but I was honestly so put off by the unbelievable choices being made by the majority of the main cast that I got a little bit distracted. The object of our heroine's initial affections was so immediately and obviously repugnant, it was impossible to take her seriously; if anything, it made her own seriously questionable behavior only more obnoxious. I had concerns about what either of their actual supposed love interests saw in them, and questioned their own decision-making skills in return.
And I get that this is form a series called "Librarians in Love," but it did a thing with librarian characters that I really hate to see: it chooses one of two primary, equally-irritating archetypes (aka, Serious Spinster Who Only Appreciates REAL Literature, or Squee-ing YA-or-Romance TikTok-y Book Club Lover) and leans stereotypically hard into it, making the character feel completely foreign to someone who actually does like to read books as well, let alone has spent quite a bit of time around librarians.
(And I know I'm jumping the gun, here, but those two Librarian Types are going to come up in discussion in regards to a Romance novel I read later this Fall, as well. At this point, I just need someone to point me towards a librarian in this genre who doesn't fit either archetype, so I can sleep knowing they really exist.)
two stars
Bingo Square: "Historical Ruins"
'What?' Andrew's eyebrows went up.
'And a brown fedora?'
He stared at me as if I had turned into an ogre, then smiled. 'For a moment I thought you were changing the subject to some fetish you have.'"
When a mysterious package gets delivered to the door of her suite at a fancy vacation resort, Adriana can't believe her luck. In actuality, it's the opposite: the beautiful bracelet inside isn't a souvenir from a secret admirer, but an improperly-delivered clue to an international mystery that ended up in the wrong person's hands. Now that the bracelet is stuck on her wrist for good, Adriana has to tag along with Andrew - the package's rightful recipient - to track down the missing treasure of a long-dead pirate... before the rivals right on their trail get there first.
Again, I knew pretty early on that I was not going to love this book.
I found the main character to be incredibly grating; I thought her brother was pitched as too much of a stereotype; I thought the villains were cartoonishly evil; and I thought our main love interest was so exaggeratedly perfect, so unreal, so perplexingly ideal, that I was truly, fully prepared for him NOT to be the "real" love interest by the end of the story. Seriously, I sailed through the first 50% of the book waiting for a shoe-drop / heel turn, where the facade would strip away to reveal the "real" bad guy, and the heroine would have to do a little more of the Indiana Jones-ing herself to right the wrongs and save the day.
I think that was my brain's attempt at turning this book into something other than a fairly paint-by-numbers action plot. With the sheerest veneer of mystery and character development, it really ended up reminding me more like something of a plot synopsis for a mid-tier action blockbuster... but at least those usually have pretty people to look at, and fun visual effects to enjoy. Like with the Body Swap Plot convo around If I Were You, maybe an Action/Adventure plot is best left in the hands of capable Hollywood directors.
At the endo of the day, the parts of the book I ended up being most impressed by were the incredibly comprehensive and lovingly-curated Spotify playlist published at the front of the novel, and the anti-AI theft warning nested into the front pages with the copyright materials.
two stars
Bingo Square: "Who-Doin-It (fka, who-done-it) Mystery Romance"
Thrown to the Wolves (Big Bad Wolf #3), Charlie Adhara
I ended the month of August about 51% of the way through, so you'll have to wait for a future blogpost to hear all about it!
So, how did it all go?
I can't believe I did it!!
In total, across three months, I read twenty-and-a-half books, allowing me to get a total of FOUR book bingos, across the two sheets I was playing!
As always, I don't do this for the actual sport, but for the love of the game. I don't turn in my bingo cards or anything, but because I love the challenging nature of these reading challenges -- getting to read outside of my comfort zone; pick up new titles, authors, genres, I haven't tried before; and take a chance to really push myself at a time of the year where I have typically had a little more free time on my hands (I say "typically" because this year, more than ever before, that has emphatically not been the case).
Of course, there's a very evil little voice muttering in the back of my head, the one I can never fully get to shut up:
It doesn't really count, because you included a book you haven't finished yet. It doesn't really count, because some of these were only novellas, and not "real" books. It doesn't count because a lot of these were on audiobook. Back in the day, you could read 25 and more books on Summer Vacation, so I don't know what you're so pleased about. Think of how much more you could have read, if you hadn't bothered wasting so much time on your damn phone.
But that voice will always live there. And maybe there's something to be said about never quite being satisfied with what you've accomplished, and how it can continue to propel you on to bigger and better things.
But right now, I'm trying to get better about acknowledging my wins as they come. And I did a great job!
What was the best thing you read in Summer 2025? What were some of the titles you didn't quite get to? Let me know, in the comments below!
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