I’m glad to see the end of this August. It was so hot and humid, and the summer was especially tough on me since I’m very intolerant of heat. Fortunately I saw a doctor who specializes in dysautonomia and he was very thorough. I have some more testing to do, but I am really hoping to get some answers and learn how to manage this better.

Mom and I have attended quite a few medical appointments, and I was able to secure in-home physical therapy and occupational therapy for her. The next step is to find an aide who can come to the house for a few hours each day to help with the things I can’t physically do. Taking care of Mom and my own health are like a full-time job, making it really difficult to focus on things that I enjoy, like reading, blogging, and music. I did get very involved in listening to podcasts. I tend to search for podcasts that focus on true crime or various periods in history.

I’m still relying on ChatGPT to organize my days into a manageable order, and it even adjusts the schedule to be ADHD-friendly and accommodate my own physical limitations. It breaks the larger tasks down into smaller, bite-size subtasks that are easy to do, as opposed to looking at the one task as overwhelming and not knowing where to start. I know there is a lot of discourse around the dangers of AI, but I only use it to create daily schedules and accomplish meal planning and it only takes a few minutes. Meal planning used to take me hours. It also allows me some downtime when I need it, and alternates shorts bursts of physical activity (cleaning, cooking, etc.) and then longer periods where I can sit or lay while getting other tasks done.

I didn’t read nearly as many books as I would have liked to finish, but this is what happens when life shows up and gets busy. I am planning a vacation in a few months, and have to focus on getting someone to stay here and take care of Mom for two weeks. I’m hoping that my niece comes up from North Carolina to help out, because she takes such good care of my mom and both of my dogs. But I did manage to read and review a significant number of NG ARCs, and even a publisher ARC. Hopefully I’ll have more time to read once Mom has a home health aide.

Here’s some of my August highlights:

• My reading took me to New Orleans, Louisiana; New York City; rural Virginia; Cairo, Egypt; rural Vermont; Maracaibo, Venezuela; Porto Alegre, Brazil; Northern California; various states in India; and the Appalachian Mountains.
• I read 9 books, with 1 DNF.
• Most of my reads this month were great.

Here’s my breakdown of monthly totals for August: 

August Totals:

• Books read: 9
• Books DNF’d: 1

Genres Read:

• Cozy Mystery: 2
• Fantasy: 1
• Historical Fiction: 1
• Horror: 1
• Literary Fiction: 1
• Mystery/Thriller: 2
• Romance: 1

Backlist vs. New Releases:

• Backlist books: 0
• 2026 releases: 9

Fiction Vs. Nonfiction:

• Fiction: 9
• Nonfiction: 0

Format Read:

• Print: 1
• Digital: 5
• Audio: 3

Age Range:

• Adult: 9
• YA: 0
• MG: 0

My favorite book of the month was Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher.

Here’s what I read in August:

1. Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher (Swordheart #2) (NG ARC) | Goodreads | Amazon
2. The Girl with Seven Lives by Vikas Swarup (NG ARC) | Goodreads | Amazon

1. Soon by You by Dahlia Adler (NG ARC) | Goodreads | Amazon
2. Between a Roquefort and a Hard Place by Linda Reilly (Grilled Cheese Mysteries #7) (NG ARC) | Goodreads | Amazon
3. A Murder at the Mansion by Ellie Alexander (Novel Detectives Mystery #3) (NG ARC) | Goodreads | Amazon

1. Meet Me in the Garden by Nina LaCour (NG ARC) | Goodreads | Amazon
2. The Winds of Maracaibo by María Elena Morán (NG ARC) | Goodreads | Amazon
3. The Winter Folk by Jen Julian (Pub ARC) | Goodreads | Amazon

1. The East Wing by Danielle M. Wong (NG ARC) | Goodreads | Amazon

1. Under the Crescent by Bat Ye’Or (NG ARC) | Goodreads | Amazon

How was your August? Did you read anything great or do something fun?