What is the biggest decision you’ve faced lately? Our August must-reads have decisions that range from everyday dares to life-changing discoveries. Defy expectations with a trip across the world. Decide to let love ruin your life or change your path. Follow the unexplained or stay safe and normal. What choice would you make? Find out how it all plays out in this month’s titles from our TBR.
My Salty Mary by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows
What if the little mermaid’s life at sea took a different turn? Instead of the life of a princess, Mary’s complicated love story leads her to turn pirate. Anything but a timid, voiceless girl, Mary ambition to become captain is her one hope at avoiding being heartbroken by the prince and turning into sea-foam forever.
It turns out being a pirate is difficult, especially if you’re a girl, and you can find people to crush on even on the high seas. Mary will have to prove herself in more ways than one to make all her dreams come true.
If you like: Romance, drama, coming of age, fantasy, pirates, mermaids, historical fiction
A Bánh Mì for Two by Trinity Nguyen
Is it possible to be the perfect daughter? Lan is trying, but even with the responsibilities of taking care of her widowed mother and their bánh mì stall in Sái Gòn, she has other things on her mind, like the food blog she started with her father before he died.
On the other side of the world Vivi Huynh’s freshman year of college is wrapped in secrecy as she decides to study abroad in Vietnam to find out more about her parents’ seemingly traumatic past. Lan has been her unwitting guide, giving Vivi food recommendations from her dormant blog.
Will meeting help both girls unpack their pasts, explore the city, and find new adventures to look forward to?
If you like: Romance, contemporary, coming of age, college, food,
Sunderworld Vol. 1: The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry by Ransom Riggs
You don’t usually expect TV shows to come to life around you. Unfortunately for Leopold Berry, weird things are happening in Los Angeles. As more and more unexplainable things begin to happen, Leopold realizes the world of a 1990s fantasy TV show called Max’s Adventures in Sunderworld, the show he’s been obsessing over since his mom died and his dad turned into the hardest-to-impress man in the world, is taking over his life.
Recruiting his best friend Emmet to help save Los Angeles, the Sunderworld and themselves, Leopold wants to prove to everyone that he can be extraordinary. The journey there is just going to be very very difficult.
If you like: Fiction, fantasy, bizarre circumstances
The Sticky Note Manifesto of Aisha Agarwal by Ambika Vohra
In pursuit of the perfect college admissions essay overachiever Aisha Agarwal is trying to become more confident. After being stood up at winter formal, Aisha dives into the unexpected, making a deal with Quentin Santos, tutoring him in math in exchange for a series of dares that will push her out of her comfort zone.
The Stanford admissions prompt is “How have you gotten out of your comfort zone?” Will getting content for the essay change Aisha’s life and will it even be worth it?
If you like: Contemporary, realism, coming of age, dares, high school, college, romance
The Wilderness of Girls by Madeline Claire Franklin
Rhi wasn’t expecting her new job at Happy Valley Wildlife Preserve to lead her to discover “The Wild Girls of Happy Valley,” four feral girls guarded by a pack of wolves. For the outside world, they’re the next big topic in the true crime circuit, but to Rhi who has recently been working , they might just be her new home.
As she discovers more about the girls who claim to be princesses and Rhi’s lost sisters, Rhi is drawn in by their mystery, delusion, and possible magic. Will she help the girls escape back to the wild? Will she go with them?
If you like: Fantasy, adventure, magic realism, mystery
