My reading pace this month was about the same as last month’s. But while last month left me without a single read that truly grabbed me, this month gave me some favorites both in fiction and nonfiction.

Favorite Fiction: Whistler

Most of the time, when a book gets massive hype across multiple platforms, I find myself disagreeing with the crowd. Whistler is the exception. I have to admit, this book is full of surprises, and in a time as dark as now (with everything happening in the world right now) books have become my place to heal. I’m glad Whistler turned out to be exactly that: warm, calming, and entertaining all at once. It deserves every bit of its spot on the bestseller shelf.

Favorite Nonfiction: A Grief Observed and This Is Water

The similarity of these books are really slim, yet they carry more weight than their page count suggests. They’re proof that a book doesn’t need hundreds of pages to reach the deepest parts of a reader, at least, a reader like me.

A Grief Observed touched me in a way I wasn’t prepared for. C.S. Lewis writes grief beautifully that it feels less like reading and more like sitting with someone mid-mourning sharing his feelings, whose heart so soft and a mind so ingenious. Something beautiful to be experienced.

This Is Water, on the other hand, met my overthinking mind, asking how and what to pay attention to, especially now, in a time when overthinking feels almost unavoidable.

And that’s a wrap on August. Three books, three completely different kinds of comfort: a hyped-up fiction pick that actually lived up to the noise, and two slim nonfiction reads that touched my mind and soul than their page count let on. Not bad for a month that started off looking a little slow on the reading front.

See you next month, hopefully with another stack worth talking about.