Books are my favorite: affordable and portable, filled with mind-expanding possibilities. Through their pages, I explore new experiences and worlds, meet unforgettable characters, and deepen my understanding of…everything.
These are the books I read in August 2026, listed chronologically, graded by recommendation (highly recommend, recommend, and do not recommend).
The Broken Spears
Internalized racism alert!!! I didn’t know there were Aztec accounts of Mexico’s colonial conquest.
Like, I knew there were writings from Spaniards (especially friars) that described (some) pre-Columbus societies and their holocaust. I didn’t know that, at the time, the conquered were avidly recording their own doom.
But of course they did. Find out what they had to say about it; highly recommend.
Cosmos
More than one thing can be true at one time: Cosmos is a literary masterpiece, written by a master of the human psyche. It’s also features one of the strangest endings I’ve ever read.
One where the patriarch leads his family into the nocturnal forest so he can masturbate atop a boulder.
If that piques your interest, more power to you; recommend.
Ferdydurke
In 2026, nostalgia is king. Societally, we love a good reboot. We gleefully post memes about how dumb it was to want to be grown-up, how the 90’s are calling, etc.
But what if you were forcefully regressed, repurposed as a blank slate and plaything of the sociopolitical elite? That’s what happens to thirty-year-old Joey.
Published in 1937 (sixty-some years before terms such as “the predator class” reached mainstream), this book is fascinating read through a modern lens; highly recommend.
Five Years
Listen, I know On The Road was published first, but Paul Goodman is who Jack Kerouac wished he could be.
Years is a journalistic (as in like a journal, not reportage) account of an original thinker’s takes.
It’s a bit of a slog, but the excavated nuggets are well worth it; recommend.
A Universal History of Infamy
Did you know that experts consider this book to be the forerunner mystical realism? Me neither!
But give it to Borges to be a pioneer.
These stories are fictionalized accounts of real atrocities and the jerks behind them. If you ever catch yourself in the fallacy of thinking that evil is contemporary, open these pages; highly recommend.
New Reformation
This essay collection taught me many new terms, the most interesting being apologia pro vita sua, meaning, a defense of one’s life. This was Goodman’s last book of cultural critique, and one of his last books of all, as he checked out two years later.
Published in 1970, Reformation is a critique of the 1960’s American youth movement (mostly that it was performative, centralized, and didn’t go near as far enough), that lit me up.
It doesn’t make hippiedom look cool. Read it anyway; recommend.
The Maugham Reader
It feels like (one of) my favorite catty critics is fading from the zeitgeist, which sucks.
Justice for W. Somerset Maughm, a man as tightly and masterfully wound as his prose!
Check out this collection of his all-but-forgotten works, including super rare plays; recommend.
Brawler
Listen, I love Lauren Groff. She taught me everything worth knowing about Florida.
But I found the stories in Brawler lacking! Despite the strong female characters! One was even a diver on her high school swim team who literally brawled! I felt very little!
It must be me, cuz it can’t be her; do not recommend.
The Aleph and Other Stories
If the cover makes you think that the work within is trippy, you get a prize.
It’s the beginning of magical realism, yeah?
The title story refers to a point in space that contains all other spaces, if that drives the point home; recommend.
The Frenzy
This collection is presented as a concept book (like a concept album): all the stories concern mental breaks that result in…frenzies.
But if Frenzy is a concept collection, aren’t most of Oates’ work? It’s like they spelled “latest publication from JCO” wrong.
Anyway. It’s alright; recommend.
Memoirs of Hadrian
There’s a reason history refers to Hadrian as “one of the good ones.” (Of Roman emperors, that is.)
This is an interesting, fictionalized account of his life, told via deathbed letters to his heir; recommend.
The blue flower
Ever fallen in love with a developmentally disabled preteen? No? That’s probably because you’re a normal person! And it’s not the eighteenth century, where no one seemed to mind!
But the German Romantic poet Novalis was not a normal person, and in 1794, parents of 12-year-olds were like, “you think she has a noble soul? And you don’t mind about her dowery? Awesome, let’s plan a wedding.”
His family and friends are surprised at his attachment to Sophie, but no one calls the cops or anything. They do get married.
See how it all turns out by reading this novel; recommend.
The Beginning Comes After the End
The world we were born in (Millennials and older) is dead and gone. I find this comforting and exciting; most don’t.
But Rebecca Solnit understands.
Simultaneously acknowledging that late-stage Oligarchic Capitalism is awful, Beginning charts seismic cultural and societal shifts (in just the last thirty years), showing that while things may be bad, they’re not hopeless-and where to go from this fraught place (ahem, cough, extreme wealth disparity, dwindling resources); highly recommend.
Contrapposto
Will the introspective male protagonist and the feisty female protagonist move beyond their situationship/entanglement/friends-with-benefits situation to the true love the readers knows that they both feel??
Blah blah blah.
I wasn’t too interested in that. Maybe you will be.
It was the protagonists’ endless conversations about the nature of art that hooked me. I know, I know, that sounds super pretentious and boring. Just trust me; highly recommend.
Conclusion
In the quiet company of these August 2026 reads, I found stories and echoes of the human experience: resilience in the face of despair, the power of connection, and wisdom presented as stories.
I hope these bite size book reviews open up new literary adventures for you. What are you reading? I’d love to hear!
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Happy reading!
Love,
