My August hopefuls offer a rich variety of reading experiences

The dogs days of August usually provide more time for reading (now that I’m retired from teaching and not about to start a new school year). At the end of each month, I look at my TBR list and make a new, shorter list of books that suit my mood and/or are being published in the coming month. That’s my Monthly Hopefuls list. It nearly always includes a few books from the previous month or two that I haven’t gotten around to yet.

Here’s a quick preview of my August hopefuls.

•Two 30-something best friends in Mexico City make conflicting decisions about motherhood

•a young Filipino woman is disowned by her family and sent to live with relatives in the US

•an unsettling psychological thriller involving a young girl and her charismatic new (female) teacher at a private school in New Zealand during the 1980s

•a murder mystery set among northern Sweden’s reindeer-herding Sami people

•a story collection about South Indian immigrants in the US

•An enslaved groom in 1850s Kentucky, a gallery owner in 1950s New York City, and a scientist and art historian in 2019 Washington, D.C. are connected by their interest in the greatest thoroughbred of his time, Lexington

•a fantastical story set in 18th century India involving a teenage word carver who is asked to build a tiger automaton as a gift for the king’s sons; a coming of age story, an adventure, and an exploration of India’s history

•a Chinese girl is kidnapped and smuggled into America; fleeing her captors, she struggles to rebuild her life in the American West of the 1880s

•a captivating family drama involving half-sisters who are the guardians of their family’s ancient books of magic

Have you read any of these books? I’d love to hear your thoughts, whether you want to encourage me to read a favorite book first or warn me away from a book that didn’t live up to the hype (or even the synopsis on the flyleaf).

And what are you planning to read this month?