August 2024 Wrap Up

Since my mid-month wrap up, I read 4 more books! That makes a total of 6. Which is a lower total than any other month this year, but it's whatever. I'm still ahead on my total for the year. Anyway, here are the last 4 books I read in August.

Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire Peter Stark - I remember liking this book, but apparently, I only rated it 3 stars. I knocked it down for not being logically told. It skipped around in time which made it difficult to follow. Also, there were some parts that dragged if you can imagine such a thing in a book about adventure over land and sea.

John Jacob Astor had the bright idea to open a trading post on the West Coast of America (which wasn't even America at the time. Lewis and Clark hadn't even gone that far on their expedition.) He paid for two groups of men to go there and set up the trading capital of the West. One group went overland and one group sailed around the bottom of South America and back up to Oregon. Neither group got there at the appointed time. SPOILER: They did eventually make it, but it wasn't pretty and the trading empire didn't last long. The men were mentally and physically at their end, and the Canadian group came and bought them out.

This fulfilled the challenge to read a book about a historical event. Also it was from my shelves.

The Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik - This is the Young Readers Edition of the adult version by the same title. I learned a lot from it and really enjoyed reading about her life. This was written before she died, so that wasn't here, and that is ok with me. She and her husband lived in Oklahoma for a couple of years and her daughter was born here. How about that? I enjoyed all the pictures, also. This was a fun time.

This was a book from my shelves, but I don't think it fulfilled a reading challenge prompt.

Cat + Gamer, Vol. 5 by Wataru Nadatani - In this installment, the kitties discover the joys of toilet paper and their mom commentates their zoomies races. It's just so cute and wholesome. I love reading this series.

This one did nothing to complete any challenges except to read 100 books.

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley - This book met the challenge to read a book set in Paris, but honestly it could have been set anywhere. There was a lot of French thrown around, but this book isn't about Paris. It's about this creepy AF apartment building. Jess shows up one night just a few hours after letting her brother know she's coming. She thinks it's weird that he's not there after he said he would be, but she doesn't start really worrying until the next day when he hasn't shown up. She's tallked to the other tenants and everyone is really weird except for the one guy that went to college with her brother and got him this cushy pad. The things this girl finds out while looking for her brother are unbelievable. It's told from the perspectives of all the people in the building, which gives you a look inside their minds, but doesn't give away any of the twists. You find everything out when Jess does. I am not a big thriller reader, but I really enjoyed this one. The short chapters made it easy to "read just one more."

This met the Paris setting challenge and is a book from my shelves.