The Perfect Books to Read to Feel the Month of August

What are the best books to read in August 2020? We’ve shared a list of the fantastic new book releases coming in August 2020.  If you’re in search of still more ideas, here’s our take on the perfect books to read that capture the mood of the month of August. Not just August 2020 – any August.

recommended reads for the month of August

So many books, so little time! Reading can be one of life’s sweetest luxuries. But how to quickly find the next great volume to dive into?

To lend a hand, every month we share our Dandelion Chandelier Recommended Reads: books that we’ve personally read and loved – some brand new, and some published long ago. Selected to suit the season, we think they deserve a place on your nightstand. Or your e-reader. In your backpack. Or your carry-on bag. You get the idea.

In this edition: the perfect books to read in August 2020. We think these books best capture the mood and the essential spirit of the month.

what is the essential spirit of August?

Sweet summer breezes, sunflowers, state fairs, beach days, fresh tomatoes, friendship and family and freedom. The very name of this month makes us smile, and its arrival is a splendid event that we look forward to every year.

what makes for the best August reading list?

So what’s the perfect reading list for the month of August? It should include some works that are sunny, but that foreshadow the coming seriousness of September.

There should be an epic road trip, a smart steamy summer love affair, a beach book, and a thriller set in a glamorous vacation location. At least one book on the list should explore summer in the city. And there should be a book of poetry – because when, if not on summer vacation, will we make the time to read deeply in that genre?

perfect books to read in the month of august

Given all of that, here’s our list of 10 perfect books for August. Read one by flashlight in your tent after everyone has fallen asleep. Or under your beach umbrella. Or poolside. On the train home from work. In the hammock in the backyard. Before the concert starts. At sunrise. Or moonrise.

It’s August, and it’s all about summer love of every conceivable kind.

1. The Garden Party by Grace Dane Mazur.

The Garden Party by Grace Dane Mazur wins the prize for “most August of all.” It’s set in the lush garden of an estate on the outskirts of Boston. The occasion is the rehearsal dinner of Adam and Elizabeth, hosted by the groom’s wary parents. They’re bohemian creative writers and academics – the bride’s parents are successful hard-charging corporate lawyers. With 24 guests (or is it 25?) all around one table for one night, it’s bubbly like the summer, and smart and sober like the fall – just the novel we want this month.

2. We Begin our Ascent by Joe Mungo Reed.

We Begin our Ascent by Joe Mungo Reed is an exceptional debut novel set during the Tour de France that brings you deep into the minds and hearts of the competitors. Sol is a domestique – his role is to ride in the peloton and protect the most important cyclist on his team. His wife Liz is a research scientist, struggling with her ambitions after the birth of their first child and some disappointing lab results. It’s ostensibly the story of a bike race, and doping, and its consequences – but it’s actually about much more. Ambition, trust and honesty – and what happens when there’s too much or too little of each in our lives.

3. Collected Poems: 1974-2004 by Rita Dove.

Collected Poems: 1974-2004 by Rita Dove. This unabridged volume of 30 years of poems from the U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner makes for an engrossing read; this is a master at work, and a fine companion for wherever your travels may take you.

4. The Gone Dead by Chanelle Benz.

The Gone Dead by Chanelle Benz. Thirty-something Billie James returns to her childhood home in the Mississippi Delta to claim her meager inheritance: a shack that belonged to her now-deceased father. A renowned black poet, he died unexpectedly when she was only 4 years old. Thirty years later, she returns for the first time and begins to uncover long-kept secrets about race, justice and memory. The writing is pure and gorgeous. And although this book was published in the summer of 2019, it could not be a more urgent and relevant read in the summer of 2020 – when ghosts and heroes of the past seem to live again in the voices and spirits of those fighting for racial justice at great personal risk in the present day.

5. The Paris Diversion by Chris Pavone.

The Paris Diversion by Chris Pavone. What better place to set an exotic escapist summer thriller than Paris? Sure, in August in real life, all the “real” Parisians are out of town. But in the world of armchair travel, there’s no better time to pay a visit. And we love this latest entry in a fantastic series of interrelated spy thrillers. Kate Moore is back – now living in Paris, still married with kids, and trying to keep her new job running a clandestine intelligence desk for the CIA. A terrorist attack at the Louvre and a seemingly unrelated kidnapping set off a tense series of incidents in the City of Light. The protagonist and her nemesis are both smart, tough women. The setting is both elegant and gritty. The pacing is so well-engineered that you’re likely to be up all night turning pages. But since it’s summer, why not stay up reading until sunrise? That’s what summer is for.

6. Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson.

Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson. The author’s young-adult memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming, was a critically-acclaimed award-winner. This novel for adults examines black girlhood, a lost mother, friendship, and loyalty through the lens of an anthropologist who is expert in burial rituals that returns home to bury her father, triggering memories of her childhood in the 1970’s.

7. News of the World by Paulette Jiles.

News of the World by Paulette Jiles. We hadn’t read a novel set in the Old West in many years, and this one was worth the wait. An elderly man travels across the post-Civil War “Indian Territories” reading headlines from newspapers published back East; he agrees to return a kidnapped girl to her family in Missouri for a hefty fee. Their journey is both spiritual and literal, and it’s a fine experience to travel alongside them.

8. The Boat Rocker by Ha Jin.

The Boat Rocker by Ha Jin. Startlingly timely, this tale about a blogger and former journalist determined to speak the truth to power, no matter what it costs him, is also a story of heartbreak and romantic disappointment. What happens when your ex-wife publishes a book to great acclaim, when you know it to be false?

9. The Atomic Weight of Love by Elizabeth J. Church.

The Atomic Weight of Love by Elizabeth J. Church is the story of a young female scientist who begins her study of ornithology at the University of Chicago in 1941. She falls in love with her charismatic professor, marries him, and follows him to Los Alamos, where’s he’s at work on a secret government project. What follows is a melancholy and ultimately uplifting tale of frustrated professional ambition and the constrained roles of brilliant women in the post-war era.

10. Enter the Aardvark by Jessica Anthony.

Enter the Aardvark by Jessica Anthony. August is the month that sees raucous national political conventions every four years, so we’d be remiss in not including one book on our list that deals with politics. This one is about a politician, but only tangentially about his work. It’s actually a love story – make that two parallel love stories – that take place a century apart. In both cases, a stuffed aardvark is the talisman linking lovers who don’t feel free to live their lives out loud. The prose is quirky and memorable – and as a novel filled with ideas about race, sexuality and social norms, it’s utterly satisfying.

11. Summer by Ali Smith

Summer is the final entry in Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet. And unlike so many “final episodes,” where we are left feeling disappointed when a beloved cast of characters has to end their time with us, this conclusion to the series is brilliantly crafted, poignant and true to the spirit of everything that has come before it. We’re not ashamed to say that it made us cry – they were good tears and well worth it. It turns out that summer has a lot more to say than we ever realized. As does this author, who never seems to run short of insight and compassion for the way we are all living in the world right now. 

books that capture the essential mood of august

What to read in August? Those are our picks for 10 books to read in August that we think beautifully capture the mood of the month. What’s on your reading list this month?

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