Anticipated Books of August 2021

 The end of the month always means it’s time for me to look ahead to books coming out the next month that I’m excited for.  And thank goodness there are slightly fewer books I’m dying to read coming out in August because I’m already having trouble keeping up with the books published so far this year - not to mention in the years before that!  

Indeed, I have ARCs of a few of these but haven’t managed to get to them yet.  So you’ll just have to wait for my actual reviews.  Without further ado, here are the books I’m most excited for which are coming out in August 2021:

Anticipated Books of July 2021

You know me - the end of one month means I’m already looking ahead to books being published the following month!  Not a TBR list necessarily, but books I’m keeping an eye out for and/or want to highlight for others.  I’ve only read one of these so far, Yoga Pant Nation, and you’ll see my review below.  (The other July book I was excited enough for that I already read it, Such a Quiet Place by Megan Miranda, was a bit of a disappointment and only 3 stars for me so I didn’t include it on this list.)  So without further ado, here are my anticipated books publishing in July 2021, in order by publication date - and a good mix of genres too. 

Anticipated books of June

 Another month drawing to a close means another month to look ahead to the books being published the following month, even if I haven't gotten yet to all the books from the current month and before!  Not surprisingly, with summer reading season upon us, June has a lot of good ones!  I usually try to limit my monthly posts to 10 books but June has so many (with a ton of them publishing on June 1st), it was really hard so I went with 11!  Note that while I have received free advanced copies of some of these books, that in no way affects my opinions or why I'm excited to read them.

Fun Mom-centric Novels

In honor of Mother's Day, I thought I'd suggest some fun Mom-lit books, with a focus on books that are entertaining and light, while insightful - nothing too heavy or depressing.  More the kind of books that will have you laughing while at the same time nodding at the relatable nuggets of wisdom.

Anticipated books of May 2021

As usual, I still haven't read all of my anticipated books from earlier in the year, but I'm already eagerly looking ahead to the books being published in May.  And there are SO MANY books being published in May which I want to read!  In fact, I was lucky enough to get advanced copies of some of them from Netgalley, so I've already read some of them!  (But I promise that did not in any way affect my opinions.)   Here are some of the ones I'm most looking forward to, in order of publication date.

5 Star Review: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

I’m very picky with my ratings, so I’m happy to say that Project Hail Mary was amazing and my first 5 star review of 2021.  When it starts, the narrator wakes up alone with no idea who he is, where he is, or why.  As he explores and his memories start to come back, with the book unfolding both in the present and his flashback returning memories, both he and the reader discover that he is alone on a spaceship on a very important mission.  There is SO much more to it than that, but because of the nature of the book, pretty much everything about it is a spoiler and it’s so much better to see it unfold yourself.  Just know that it is absolutely terrific.

For the vibe, think of the best of intellectual science fiction - books like The Sparrow and Children of Time, movies like Interstellar and Arrival, and of course both the book and movie of The Martian, Andy Weir’s first book.   Iit is both a little more science-y (which even though I couldn’t understand it, was interesting), and more science fiction-y than The Martian, but it’s funny and emotional as well. It was a long book but I read it quickly because I couldn’t put it down.  I was thrilled to get an advanced copy from Netgalley (it’s out 5/4), and I highly recommend reading it as soon as possible both because it is great, and to avoid spoilers.

Favorite Books You're Less Likely to Have Heard Of

If you look at enough book recommendations, sometimes you start to feel like you’re just seeing the same books over and over again.  No surprise, and there’s nothing wrong with that - plenty of popular books are absolutely terrific and among my all time favorite reads!  But sometimes you want a recommendation that is a little more off the beaten path - whether because you’re a voracious reader that has already read the usual suspects, or maybe you’re looking for a book that might actually be on the library shelf instead of having a miles-long waiting list.  So today I thought I’d share with you some of my favorite books that are a little more obscure, books you don’t see people talking about much.  If you have read these before, it might be because you have similar taste to me - or if you’re someone who has been following me for a long time, it might just be because you saw this book on one of my top 10 lists of old!  These are all books that I rated either 4.5 or 5 stars, and mostly books that were on one of my top 10 lists in the past, and as a criteria for “less popular,” I chose only books that had less than 5,000 ratings on Goodreads.