everything i read in august

Riley Sager, witches in Ireland, and pre-WWII writing

Hi friends,

August evaporated.

It was a month of long dinners over many bottles of wine, weird sleep schedules, getting back into the rhythm of packing school lunches, and all the weirdness that often accompanies a shift in season.

On top of that, a lot of what I read this month left me with a thick book hangover, where I couldn’t imagine reading anything but whatever book I just finished. What’s more, I didn’t feel there was a single dud in the lot. They all really worked for me, but even as I was reading them I could tell they all were a strong flavor, and matched my weird, lethargic mood going into these last few weeks of summer.

The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager

I picked up my first Sager novel at the recommendation of a good friend. The thing about his books is that you never really know where they’re going. He tends to write mystery/thrillers (yes, in that order!) that have a tinge of the Gothic to them, which I love. They’re darkly dramatic, spooky without being scary or horrific, and he isn’t afraid to lean into the absurd.

The House Across the Lake is about Casey, a recently widowed actress, who is sent by her loved ones to recuperate at the family lake house during the off season. The lake is relatively quiet, except for the glamorous couple across the lake, and a mysterious handsome stranger renting the cabin next door. When the woman across the lake disappears without a trace, Casey is determined to find her.

To say I did not expect the twist and turns in this book would be an understatement. I don’t want to say too much about it because I don’t want to ruin the part where you think “Is this really happening? Yes, this is happening.” But it does have a fun twist I wasn’t sure about at first, and weirdly ended up enjoying by the end. Iykyk.

This is my third Riley Sager book, and I’ve noticed he always writes from the point of view of a female protagonist— which I think is interesting considering he’s a man.

In general, I don’t like it when male fiction writers write women because it’s rarely convincing. I’ve read too many descriptions about “pert breasts” and phrases like “she wasn’t a beauty, but her eyes were captivating in their darkness” for my liking. Unless these descriptions are absolutely ESSENTIAL to the plot, I find them at best annoying, and at worst, a bit pervvy.

But in my opinion, Riley Sager does a brilliant job writing from a female perspective. To the point where I looked up if the name “Riley Sager” was actually a pseudonym for a female writer. Turns out, his real name is Todd Ritter, but he is a man. According to Ritter/Sager, he chose the gender-neutral non de plume to connect with as many readers as possible, and enjoys writing women characters because, in his words, “they’re more emotionally complex.”

Anyway, if you’re looking for something kind of spooky for fall, maybe check this one out at your local library!

All Our Hidden Gifts trilogy by Caroline O’Donoghue

I picked up this series because it popped up in my Libby app after being on hold for over a month. I devoured All Our Hidden Gifts in about two days, leading me to download the other two on my Kindle. By the end of the week, I had finished the series in quick succession.

The premise is this: Maeve is a 15 year old girl living in a small Irish town, struggling to make friends at her all-girls Catholic school. One day, in the basement during detention, she finds a pack of tarot cards and learns how to read them. It’s all fun and games until one day, after a fight, her childhood friend goes missing and Maeve knows it has something to do with the cards.

Time and time again, I’m reminded that so many of my favorite books are classified as YA, and this series is no exception. The storytelling stands out, the characters are well realized, and it was a completely immersive experience.

My only slight criticism is that I felt some of the points being made about gender and sexuality were a bit heavy-handed for my taste. Not in that I didn’t agree with the take aways, as much as I felt like I was being told at every point what the “right” answer was and not allowed to come to those same conclusions on my own. After first I thought maybe O’Donoghue took this approach for the very reason that the series was written for a younger audience, but I tend to think teens are capable of more nuanced thought than we give them credit for.

There’s a character that undergoes some radical changes over the course of the series, and the way he questions his religious upbringing was especially poignant for me personally.

Anyway, all that said if you’re looking for something slightly spooky and witchy to read going into fall I highly recommend these!

Abigail by Magda Szabó (translated by Len Rix)

We had an hour or two to burn in midtown Manhattan before our show, so my husband and I strolled down to Rizzoli to peruse the books a bit. This book caught my eye in the “Staff Recommends” section, partially because I love the colors in the cover, but also because in a sea of “New York Times Bestsellers” it was one I hadn’t heard of before.

I decided to buy it on a whim, in large part because the description was listed as “for fans of Harry Potter and Jane Austen.” (!!!)

What to say about this book? It’s probably my favorite from a month of really fantastic reading, and stylistically unlike anything I normally read. The prose definitely reads a little more “old fashioned” and the pace reflects an audience who aren’t regularly trained to consume video reels as their main form of entertainment.

But if you can get yourself into the head space to read something a little “slower” I think the payoff is TREMENDOUS. By the end of the book I felt like I was watching a movie.

The story is about Gina, the only daughter of a Hungarian general in Budapest, who foresees the turn of the tides of war during WWII and realizes his precarious position as a war general. To protect his daughter, he sends her to a religious boarding school deep in the country with no outside communication. During her time there, Gina has to learn how to survive the strange school with its traditions and codes. One of those traditions is that the girls of the school have long written their grievances to a statue of a girl in the courtyard called Abigail, and the statue hears their cries.

I really loved how spacious this story felt. The tension in the last few scenes of the book still makes me emotional to think about. Favorite read of the month for sure!

Shocking Life by Elsa Schiaparelli

My path to this delightful autobiography was one of those wonderful Substack rabbit holes I know we all experience on here. Someone posted a newspaper clipping in Notes featuring an advice column with a quote on how to dress elegantly on a small budget. The quote really moved me. Perhaps in a world where luxury brand names like Schiaparelli are almost exclusively the domain of the ultra wealthy, there was something really compassionate and genuine about how Elsa recognized the female desire to present her best self at ANY budget.

I sent the newspaper clip to a professor friend of mine who teaches history of fashion at a local university, and she recommended I read Schiaparelli’s autobiography. So I ordered it immediately.

In general, I’ve been really interested in what “normal life” was like for people in Europe during WWII. Because of how we’re taught history, it comes across like everyone just hit pause on living during the war, but of course that’s not true. People still made art, made a living, had children, and cooked. This autobiography is a really intimate look into what it was like living and traveling around Europe during the Paris Nazi occupation. Especially as someone who was a resistor (unlike Chanel!)

One quirky thing about this book is that Schiaparelli switches from first to third person throughout her storytelling which is sometimes confusing, but mostly I found it incredibly charming once I got used to it.

In for Dinner by Rosie Kellet

Substack’s own

Rosie Kellett

has finally published her long-awaited cookbook with tremendous results! It’s beautifully photographed and I loved reading through all the blurbs preceding the recipes, they’re written in the disarming voice that Kellet maintains across all her platforms.

This cookbook is fantastic for anyone, but particularly it stands out as a book I will be gifting to my friends moving into their own apartments, graduating uni, or as a housewarming present for roommates. The recipes are mostly vegetarian and written with affordability in mind. Perfect, in my opinion, for a young adult venturing into life on their own for the first time.

Anyway, I hope you all have enjoyed this month’s reading diary. I have documented alllll of my reading this year so far, so none of these books sound good, maybe check out these other recommendations. Happy reading!

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love,

g xx

2025 READING LIST