Flip through the Monitor’s 10 best books of August 2024
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This month’s 10 best picks include novels that probe issues such as masculinity, reconciliation, ambition, and remembrance. They span historical eras from 18th-century Venice to 1960s America.
Among the nonfiction titles is the story of a wrongly incarcerated man and the Texas legal system that kept him imprisoned for decades. And a history of bookstores in the United States explores how many of these shops served as centers for social change.
Why We Wrote This
August books straddle the seasons – they are more substantial than beach reads but less serious than September’s big releases. Our picks for this month offer both diversion and thoughtful writing.
The Singer Sisters, by Sarah Seltzer
Songwriter Emma Cantor was born into folk music royalty. But Emma’s parents and aunt – music legends since the ’60s – hid a big secret from her. Is reconciliation possible? Seltzer’s debut novel ends on a high note that will leave readers whistling.
Burn, by Peter Heller
Why We Wrote This
August books straddle the seasons – they are more substantial than beach reads but less serious than September’s big releases. Our picks for this month offer both diversion and thoughtful writing.
Storey and Jess are on a hunting trip in Maine when secessionists in the state spark a civil war. Peter Heller’s page-turners, typically set in the wild, peek beneath the hood of rugged masculinity. His complicated heroes fight to uphold human decency.
The Instrumentalist, by Harriet Constable
How to balance ego and ambition with community and kindness? Harriet Constable gives voice to violin prodigy Anna Maria della Pietà, a real-life musical genius raised in a Venetian orphanage in 1704 and taught by none other than composer Antonio Vivaldi. The city’s shimmering wealth and fetid corruption leap from the page; so, too, does music’s transcendent, radiant power.
Mina’s Matchbox, by Yoko Ogawa, translated by Stephen B. Snyder
Yoko Ogawa’s gemlike novel is a coming-of-age story about 12-year-old Tomoko, who goes to live for a year with her delightful cousin Mina and her family. The girls become kindred spirits, sharing secrets, wonderment, and several key world events. Ogawa’s storytelling is radiant.
There Are Rivers in the Sky, by Elif Shafak
Elif Shafak’s affecting novel follows characters molded by history. In the 1840s, London-born Arthur is bent on escaping his rough-and-tumble origins via a talent for interpreting Mesopotamian texts. In 2014 Turkey, young Narin learns of her rich Yazidi heritage as threats loom. And in 2018, 20-something hydrologist Zaleekhah confronts her troubled history while afloat in the Thames. The novel offers a forceful plea for remembrance and responsibility.
The Truth According to Ember, by Danica Nava
Ember, whose background includes Chickasaw, Choctaw, and white ancestry, is applying for accountant jobs. But it’s not until she checks only the box for “white” as her race on an application that she lands an interview and gets the job. In Danica Nava’s witty rom-com, multifaceted Native characters take center stage. The story – zippy, appealing, and, heads up, spicy – explores how even small lies undermine integrity.
The Hidden Book, by Kirsty Manning
Kirsty Manning’s compassionate novel is inspired by a real World War II covert mission in 1940s Austria to smuggle out photographic evidence of the treatment of prisoners at Mauthausen concentration camp. In the 1980s, a survivor’s granddaughter is intent on bringing the hidden photo album to light.
Peggy, by Rebecca Godfrey, with Leslie Jamison
Peggy Guggenheim – heiress, modern art visionary, feminist icon, socialite, and mother – springs to life in Rebecca Godfrey’s imaginative and empathetic novel. Leslie Jamison seamlessly completed the novel after Godfrey’s death.
Bringing Ben Home, by Barbara Bradley Hagerty
Ben Spencer was wrongfully convicted of murder in Dallas in 1987. This compelling nonfiction book tells the story of his flawed trial, the barriers built into the Texas legal system that made it nearly impossible to get the decision overturned, and how he and a small group of supporters worked to secure his release. Barbara Bradley Hagerty has written a true-crime story that reads like a legal thriller and, at same time, recounts the systemic failures of the judicial system. It is eye-opening, discouraging, and inspiring.
The Bookshop, by Evan Friss
Historian Evan Friss explores how American bookstores have helped shape the nation’s culture, from social movements to retail trends. Although the demise of small indie bookstores has long been forecast, devoted shop owners continue to defy this prediction.
