Read With Keri: Books I Read in August

Oh, August. You were a good reading month.

I have to admit, half of the books I read this month were audiobooks because all of my library requests came in AT ONCE. That seems to happen from time to time, but thankfully, they all ended up being worth the wait.

As of today, I have officially read 40 books this year, which means I have 10 left until I achieve my reading goal for 2022! I hope to accomplish that by October, but we shall see. You can always view my progress on Goodreads or check out my Bookshelf for an up-to-date list of my 2022 reads.

Here are the 6 books I read in August.

Naturally Tan — Tan France (3/5 stars)

Tan France is definitely my favorite of the Fab Five (with Antony in a close second). I think his style is incredible and secretly want him to take me shopping and find all the best outfits for me. In Naturally Tan, he shares about his childhood, how he got into the fashion industry, and the pros and cons of becoming a celebrity basically overnight.

The Lazy Genius Kitchen — Kendra Adachi (5/5 stars)

Kendra Adachi, author of The Lazy Genius Way, which I read last month, recently published a second book, The Lazy Genius Kitchen. I listened to this as an audiobook, which she narrates, and I enjoyed it because it felt very much like listening to her podcast. She shared great tips and tricks about how to Lazy Genius your kitchen, from meal planning to organizing and decluttering your cookware.

The Blue Bistro — Elin Hilderbrand (4.5/5 stars)

I listened to a few podcast interviews with Elin Hilderbrand and she kept saying that one of her favorite books she’s ever written was The Blue Bistro. Obviously, this meant I needed to read it ASAP! I loved this. It’s one of her older books, which is pretty apparent in some of the details, but had an intriguing plot. If you read this book, please let me know because (without giving it away), I really need to discuss the ending with someone!! Also, if you plan to read The Hotel Nantucket (Elin’s latest novel), read The Blue Bistro first since it features some of the same characters, which I loved!

The Sweetest Connection — Denise Williams (3/5 stars)

This is a novella about a romance that centers around two airport employees. One employee finds an anonymous love note in the trash and tries to figure out who it’s from with the help of her best guy friend/fellow airport employee. It’s pretty predictable and surprisingly spicy at some points, so I ended up skipping/skimming through some of it.

The Flight Girls — Noelle Salazar (4/5 stars)

I picked this up in Barnes and Noble because anything set during World War 2 peeks my interest immediately. Although this is written a bit amateur for my taste, this story focused on the role of female pilots during WW2. I didn’t know much about the Woman Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), but it’s truly incredible what these women did behind-the-scenes during the war.

Every Summer After — Carly Fortune (5/5 stars)

I truly do not know what took me so long to read this, but I finally read Every Summer After and it was amazing. Seriously one of my favorite books of the year by far, and once I started reading it, I couldn’t stop! It takes place over six summers and follows the ups and downs of Percy and Sam, a “friendship turned into something breathtakingly more before it fell spectacularly apart” (an excerpt from the book description). There are a few explicit/spicy scenes, so it’s definitely not for a young audience, but I loved pretty much everything about this. It’s definitely one of those books that I will be re-reading next summer.