8 Books I Recommend – August 2026

“We tell ourselves stories in order to live.”
— Joan Didion

I had a good reading month. I almost read as many fiction books as nonfiction, which is an unusual balance for me! Several library holds became available near the same time, so that’s when I read them.

Here are 5 nonfiction and 3 fiction books I recommend this month.

[See previously recommended books here]

NONFICTION

1. Daily Rituals
How Artists Work
by Mason Currey

I’ve heard about this fascinating book for years. I’m glad I finally read it. It tells about the daily routines of 161 writers, artists, composers, etc. It was interesting to see how many of them preferred working in the morning hours, then going for long walks in the afternoon.

“Inspiration is for amateurs,” Chuck Close says. “The rest of us just show up and get to work.”

2. Why Won’t You Apologize?
Healing Big Betrayals and Everyday Hurts
by Harriet Lerner

I enjoy Harriet Lerner’s books because they make good sense and they’re easy to comprehend. In this one, she explains what makes a good apology and what doesn’t, both in the giving and receiving. She has lots of practical takeaways, including this:

“If your intention is to offer a genuine apology, it’s the hurt party’s anger and pain that matters. Save yours for a different conversation.”

3. I Belong to Me
A Survivor’s Guide to Recovery and Hope after Religious Trauma
by Tia Levings

This is Levings’ second book after escaping her fundamentalist upbringing and abusive marriage. It’s part memoir and part guide for anyone seeking to heal after religious trauma. I personally liked her first book better, A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy, just because it was more of her story, but this second book is valuable, too.

“At its core, deconstruction is simply the process of questioning beliefs, identifying their roots and outcomes, and determining if you agree with them. It’s asking, ‘Why?’”

4. Influence
The Psychology of Persuasion
by Robert B. Cialdini

I’m getting close—this is the 20th of the 21 books recommended by Daniel Pink in June 2025 that I wanted to read. I had already read 9 of them prior to last year, and have since finished another 9, abandoned 2, which leaves just 1 more to go (Mindset). They’ve each been so interesting in their own ways. This one by Cialdini is a classic about why people are persuaded to say yes to advertising, sales, politics, etc., giving us a heads-up about how we’re being influenced.

“We like people who are like us, and we are more willing to say yes to their requests, often in an unthinking manner. Another such factor is praise.”

5. In Love with the World
A Monk’s Journey Through the Bardos of Living and Dying
by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

This is about a strange experience I will never have. It’s a memoir by a privileged Tibetan Buddhist master who secretly snuck out of his monastery in India for four years to wander unknown. It’s interesting to read how he handled himself after a life of pampering, especially when he became deathly ill in the first few weeks on his own.

“I had never once bought a ticket for anything, and had never had more weight in my backpack than a bottle of water, perhaps sunglasses, and a hat.”

FICTION

6. Theo of Golden
by Allen Levi

My library hold finally became available, and as predicted, I did love this book. It’s about an older gentleman who moves into a small Georgia town and gets to know its residents in a unique way. I understand now what all the hype has been about. A lovely story.

“Asher was not used to talking so freely about matters so personal. He would remark later that the old man listened in a way that made one dangerously willing to talk.”

7. The Correspondent
by Virginia Evans

This novel also lived up to the expectations I’d heard about it. This one is a story told through a series of letters that an elderly woman writes and receives in the last few years of her life. Evans did an amazing job using this unique method for a tender novel about relationships, regrets, and joys.

“Isn’t it something wonderful to think that a story of one’s life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something, even if it is a very small thing, to someone?”

8. Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury

The banned book club I’m in chose this classic novel for our August selection. We had such an interesting discussion about it last Sunday. The book is set in a future where books are banned and firemen start fires with books instead of putting out fires. In the story, one of the firemen gets curious about why books are so dangerous. One thing leads to another in his quest for knowledge. I read the book years ago, and it seems more relevant than ever.

“There must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.”

WHAT I’M READING NOW

• The Art of Resilience
  100 Paths to Wisdom and Strength in an Uncertain World
  by Carol Orsborn
• The God Test
  Artificial Intelligence and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning
  by Robert Wright
• Anxiety Rx
  by Russell Kennedy
• How We Learn to Be Brave
  Decisive Moments in Life and Faith
  by Mariann Edgar Budde
• How to Defend Books and Why
  Book Bans and How We Fight Them
  by Danny Caine
• The Inner Work of Age
  Shifting from Role to Soul
  by Connie Zweig

Have you read any of these books? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I’m sharing at some of these linkups

• ← Four Unexpected Ways July Expanded My World