It’s time to say goodbye to this month and reflect with my 2025 August reading wrap looking back on my reading habits noticing areas for improvement and what needs to shift and change. Join me as a prepare for September and let’s see all that we’ve accomplished for August!
2025 August Reading Wrap Up Statistics 📊
Contrary to July’s hustle and bustle making it impossible to concentrate and prioritize reading. August was a slow, intentional month where I began prioritizing self-care and entering into my soft life gentle reader era rejecting the importance of achieving arbitrary reading goals and pressuring myself to consume and read more books. In favor of becoming intentional, reading for joy and prioritizing engaging more critically with the books I read.
This meant I wasn’t pushing myself to read all the things but seeking more enrichment from what I did spend my time reading and it was way less stressful and more enjoyable. This is what my reading stats for this month look like with this approach.
I picked up novels from two authors I’ve read before, Lisa Jewell and Akwaeke Emezi. And I gave three new authors a try, Sophie Stava, Rickey Fayne, and Kristy Greenwood with Rickey Fayne becoming an author I’ve added to my watchlist.
I also read two new releases by completing Lisa Jewell’s recent release and Rickey Fayne’s debut novel. I also enjoyed exploring Akwaeke Emezi’s backlist and ended the month with one of her novels.
My reading pace has definitely decreased and it took me an average of fifteen days to complete my books. Yet, I’m ok with that as there’s been many life changes recently (like getting a new puppy) that are requiring me to dedicate my time and attention elsewhere.
My top three reading moods were to consume books that were emotional, tense and mysterious. I also maintained my consumption of medium paced books with seventy five percent of books being three hundred to four hundred and ninety nine pages, and twenty five percent being three hundred pages or less. And one hundred percent of my books being fiction.
The top three genres I read from were books that fell under the contemporary, LGBTQIA+, and magical realism genres. True to form my reading format of choice was print with four books being hardcover and one paperback. Lastly I read a grand total of 1,390 pages with an average rating of 4.5 ⭐️.
August Book Acquisitions 📚
Due to August being my birthday month you’d think I’d lose my mind and take the opportunity to buy all the books. Trust me that was the plan but I made a decision to adopt the sweetest, cutest puppy named Prince from my local humane society and became obsessed with him. Needless to say my book budget was out of the window and plans to go on a birthday book crawl were quickly trashed.
However, I did manage to purchase some wonderful books that I’ve had my eye on. I purchased three books from Barnes & Noble, one book from Amazon and one book from my Aardvark subscription box. Here’s a short list of what I bought and added to my collection.
Dream Count (Special Edition) by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie (Barnes & Noble)
The Killer on the Road/The Babysitter Lives (Collectors Edition) by Stephen Graham Jones (Barnes & Noble)
A Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell
The Measure (Collectors Edition) by Nikki Erlick (Amazon)
The Once and Future Me by Melissa Pace (Aardvark)
August Reading Wrap Up 📖
Count My Lies by Sophie Stava | Mystery/Thriller
When Sloan Caraway, a pathological liar with obsessive tendencies, becomes fixated with the Lockhart family managing to weasel her way into their home under the guise of a nanny she quickly realizes not everything is as it seems. True to its name there was a lot of lying and misdirection in this twisty mystery/thriller. And I enjoyed the suspense and the messy drama of these deeply flawed characters. It featured one of my favorite mystery/thriller tropes the unreliable narrator and had a catchy sarcastic yet self-aware writing style. Stava did well at manipulating your perception of the truth and reality switching things up to decrease predictability and boredom. However, despite all this I still felt the story was predictable and slow with more telling than showing as though Stava didn’t trust the reader to understand what she was doing. Lastly, I felt she also dropped the ball at creating a unique voice for each of the characters as each of their narratives read the same with similar speech and thinking patterns. This would be great for someone new to the mystery/thriller genre but seasoned pros might find this a bit too predictable for them. Add Book to Your Collection!
The Devil Three Times by Rickey Fayne | Historical Fiction
When Yetunde is ripped from her family and her village into slavery in the Americas the Devil takes piton on her plight and tries to offer her and her offspring protection. And so begins an epic story across eight generation of the devil coming to the family’s aid in times of distress. But is he helping them or damning them to their own destruction? After completing this debut novel I stared transfixed at the wall utterly mind blown by what I’d read. It was that good friends and ticked all the boxes. Multi-generational family saga, check. Generational trauma, check. Epic, complex storytelling, check. It had EVERYTHING. What made this a standout masterpiece of a debut novel was how well executed and thought out it was. Fayne took his time to create a fascinating structure paying homage to the art of storytelling and oral history in Black culture, the evolution of faith and spirituality courtesy of colonialism and chattel slavery, and the cyclical nature of generational trauma with the next generation trapped repeating the sins of those before them. I also really enjoyed the rich history. Being able to follow the Laurent family across eight generations in which witness key moments in Black history from the Antebellum south, Reconstruction era, the Great Migration and modernization. This was such a cerebral reading experience rife with themes and ideas that you can discuss and study for hours. That being said this book isn’t for everyone. If you find multi-pov novels overwhelming, struggle to follow various subplots, do not like character-driven novels, or you’re not a fan of magical realism I would sit this one out. Add Book to Your Collection!
Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell | Mystery/Thriller
Grieving the sudden loss of her father from a tragic accident Ash becomes suspicious of her father’s former associate Nick as he begins dating her mother. I truly feel that Lisa Jewell is one of those author’s that I begin to appreciate more with each new release. I enjoyed this twisty psychological suspense. The structure and multiple points of view made it fascinating trying to piece together the timeline and uncover what was truly happening. And perhaps that is what made this novel so fabulous. Jewell didn’t pull any cheap tricks but allowed the reader to unpack what she was trying to accomplish but maintain a few tricks up her sleeve so you couldn’t tell what would happen next or how things would shake out. I also loved how Ash’s character wasn’t stupid but remained smart and kept her wits about her. While I can’t say the same for some of the other characters and felt they were a little too gullible I still had a good time with this. And, I really appreciated the ending. I thought it was fabulous. This is a great read for those looking to dip their toe into the genre and has plenty of twists for established Lisa Jewell fans and lovers of mystery/thrillers. Add Book to Your Collection!
The Love of My Afterlife by Kristy Greenwood | Romance
After choking on a hamburger and dying Delphie’s ho humdrum existence becomes chaotic. With afterlife coaches and a beautiful stranger that’s her soulmate until he’s sent back to earth. Now Delphie has ten days to make him fall for her and give her a kiss or return to the land of the dead for good. This was a surprisingly silly goofy rom-com with heart that kept me cackling. I loved how the prose fit the vibe of the novel and balanced being carefree and humorous true to its rom-com roots while still tackling bigger themes and serious subject matter. The side characters truly made for a well-rounded novel as they brilliantly reflected to Delphie what she didn’t realize she needed. The pacing was steady with some minor predictability. The only critique I have is that the romance felt rushed and not altogether believable. There was no tension, longing, or build-up before we have the love interests becoming intimate and falling for each other. Aside from that I had such fun with this and recommend to those that are fans of Ashley Poston’s work. Add Book to Your Collection!
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi | Literary Fiction
A poignant story of life, love, loss and identity. Chronicling the life and tragic death of Vivek Oji from his close relationship with his cousin Osita, an overprotective loving mother, and distant father. We see the varied factors that made up the tapestry of Vivek’s life while exploring how well do we really know the ones we love? This was such a tragic and beautiful story. Emezi has this way of delivering poignant, reflective novels that touch every place within your heart and challenging the status quo about identity, love, loss and belonging. I love how this novel is structured around telling the story of Vivek through the eyes of the family and friends that were closest to him. How this beautifully revealed the layers of nuance that exists within each of us as we wear differing personas when it comes to family versus the freedom one can feel within friendships. The prose was stunning written with such beautiful and raw emotion. Lastly, Emezi didn’t shy away from topics, themes and realities that impact those in the LGBTQIA+ community shifting perceptions and challenging perspectives. If you enjoy complex queer stories this will definitely be a good one to pick up. Add Book to Your Collection!
New Music on Heavy Rotation 💿
Private Music- Deftones
Label: Reprise, Warner | Release Date: August 22, 2025
This is the tenth studio release from one of my all-time favorite alternative metal bands. And wow it did not disappoint. I’ve been listening to it for the past week and I’m still unpacking it. But I know enough to say that I highly enjoy it and this truly solidifies the Deftones as that band that can manage to stay true to their original sound while remaining relevant and progressive and infusing modern elements to keep things feeling fresh. Their ambiguous lyricism remains alive and well but I felt that there was a bit more transparency in some of their songs and I appreciated that. And as a millennial and forever fan of analog musical mediums I was thrilled to learn they released vinyl and cassette versions of their albums as well as CD versions. Looking forward to saving up to purchase the vinyl and cassette to add to my collection.
Self Care & Lifestyle🌱
When it comes to self care I really wasn’t focused on new products but instead fixated on all things plants and puppy! 🐶
This past month I purchased my first plant an aloe aristata or lace aloe named Eddie. I’m still learning about proper care but I already feel the itch to invest in more household and patio plants and begin experimenting with my green thumb.
And the biggest change of all has been my new puppy Prince. Oh he’s such a joy and a little bit of a mischievous terror when he gets caught up in his puppy moods. But, he’s the best part of my day and my heart is full to overflowing coming home to see his waggly tail and cuddle with him everyday.
Some items that has really helped with the puppy transition has been his slow feeder bowl which has decreased his need to wolf down his food at lightening speed and the puppy kong which has been indispensable in easing his seperation distress as he learns to enjoy his time away from us when we’re off at work or running errands. I’ve been filling it with his kibble and pumpkin puree and he just loves it!
I’m forever amazed by how smart he is and how he’s catching on to things so quickly. I’m really appreciative of the Good Pup training that was recommended to us when we adopted him from the San Antonio Humane Society as having his training sessions done in the privacy of our home and their detailed training guide has made it fool proof with how to train him properly.
That’s a wrap for August! Looking forward to what September brings as I continue with this gentle intentional reader lifestyle prioritizing quality over quantity and transitioning away from the stress, and overconsumption that has become apart of the bookish spaces. What are you grateful for and what are you looking forward to?
