Suggested Reads for August 2026

Millstadt Library
11 minutes ago
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Looking for some book inspiration? Here are some suggested reads for August!

These books have been on the New York Times Bestseller List and at the top of the Millstadt Library's most circulated list. At the end of these lists, Nichole picks a book or two that she personally recommends (not this month, she's been busy reading Webtoons.)

We just reviewed Murder in Little Egypt by Darcy O'Brien and are reading Every Tom, Dick & Harry by Elinor Lipman for our next Senior Center Book Club meeting on Monday, September 21 at 11 a.m.

Without further ado, here are this month's picks!

A Catered PTA Murder by Isis Crawford

It’s back to school for sisters and caterers Bernie and Libby Simmons when a killer decides to teach a PTA president a lesson…

When Rita Sullivan walks into A Little Taste of Heaven to hire Bernie and Libby to cater a PTA board meeting and supply cakes for an end-of-school-year gala, it’s hard to believe she’s the same nerdy wallflower they knew in high school. Rita’s now an influencer and CEO of Lavish Lipsticks, a hot new cosmetics company. She’s also the president of the Longely Junior High School PTA, where she’s made a considerable number of enemies.

When the sisters go to drop off the cakes, they find Rita lying on the floor with a knife in her chest. What’s more, using her company’s newest lipstick, Scarlet Shame, the killer has drawn a large red X across her body. Rita has been canceled.

The police zero in on Abby Roth, owner of the murder weapon, but her kids beg Libby and Bernie to clear their mom’s name. The sisters soon discover a quorum of suspects with motives to kill Rita, ranging from stolen cosmetics formulas and blackmail to broken marriages and property feuds. Figuring out which of them served Rita her just desserts will be anything but a piece of cake . . .

Genres: Mystery | Cozy Mystery

320 pages, Hardcover | Published June 30, 2026

The Lake House by Lori Foster

When Pixie Nolan first came to Bramble, Kentucky, the abandoned and desperate young single mother found hope, healing, and a fresh start. With the loving support of her best friends—Marlow Heddings and her handsome Marine husband, Cort—Pixie is now happily raising her toddler son in a cozy cottage, managing Marlow’s thriving boutique, and designing firefly logo t-shirts that are selling like hotcakes. The past is behind her, and life is good.

She never expected to make an electrifying connection with a summer renter, a retired Navy SEAL with his own complicated past . . .

A rugged warrior with scars both seen and unseen, Brogan Rafferty arrives with an adorable baby girl in tow and settles into the lake house next door. And while he’s a stunning addition to the gorgeous scenery, it’s his caring devotion that captures Pixie’s heart—the way he gently snuggles away the precious infant’s cries, or swoops Pixie’s delighted little boy high in the air with his tattooed, muscular arms.

But it’s no coincidence that Brogan has found Pixie, and his startling revelations make it clear she’s the key to healing old regrets and building new dreams. And when a hostile stranger turns up with shocking accusations against Bramble’s new hometown hero, Pixie must put her own fears and heartbreak away for good—and learn what it truly means to trust.

337 pages, Paperback | First published May 26, 2026

Take What You Can by Naima Coster

Val and Milly fell in love with France at the same time they fell in love with each other and became immediate best friends. Then, they bonded as the only Black students on a study-abroad trip. Now, they are in their thirties, each married and with a baby girl on the way. When Milly suggests Val move to New York to raise their daughters together after a decade apart, it’s a resounding yes.

Despite their excitement, the pair secretly wonder if their friendship has always worked best as a trio. From that first trip to France, these two motherless daughters were taken under the wing of an older woman named Helene. She showered them with money, love and attention, and showed them the possibilities of a meaningful future. But without Helene, who are Milly and Val?

Milly, a successful influencer married to restaurant royalty, is occupied with her desire for independence. Val, a brilliant journalist, is struggling to write her first book and fit into her old friend’s new world. The realities of class and social capital, of strained marriages and the demands of motherhood, serve as constant reminders of how far apart they’ve grown. And no matter how much they try to avoid it, everything comes back to the rift that began all those years ago in France. What they’ve long tried to bury may finally destroy their sisterhood.

Weaving between Brooklyn brownstones and the glittering beaches of southern France, Take What You Can is a dazzling novel exploring what it means to be a mother when you have none, a sister without blood ties, and a woman in pursuit of the life she wants. With her signature sharply-observed prose, Coster illustrates what it means to be—and to stay—someone’s person through all phases of life.

368 pages, Hardcover | First published August 4, 2026

The Unknown by Riley Sager

In 1926, five women disappeared from a remote island in Vermont. Now, one hundred years later, it’s happening again.

Struggling actress Marin Keane is shocked when she lands a role in a major motion picture about the unsolved mystery of New Avalon, an island on sprawling Lake Faraday in Vermont. She’s even more surprised when she learns that the role requires a weeklong research trip to that very spot.

Because New Avalon isn’t your ordinary island. A century ago, it was a commune for spiritual mediums—until they all vanished in 1926. The only trace of them was five dresses hanging from the branches of an old oak tree in the middle of the island, one for each missing woman. Some locals say they simply left. Others think they were murdered. But the prevailing opinion, thanks to a diary left behind by one of the vanished, a young woman named Daisy Rue, is that a séance gone wrong conjured something supernatural that took them all one by one.

Not long after arriving, Marin and her castmates, including legendary actress Violet Wright and white-hot director Ronan Peters, begin to realize all is not right with New Avalon. They hear strange noises in the night and notice mysterious symbols left behind by the island's previous occupants. And after a sudden health emergency leaves Marin, Ronan, and the other actors stranded on the island, the disappearances begin again.

Is it the work of someone trying to derail the movie? Or is the island’s alleged supernatural past catching up with the present? As fear and suspicion mount, Marin turns to Daisy’s diary, hoping it holds the key to figuring out what really happened to the women of New Avalon—and how to keep the island’s terrible history from repeating itself.

353 pages, Hardcover | First published August 4, 2026

The Women in White by Sarah Pekkanen

In 1964, four remarkable young women at a prestigious university became the subjects of parapsychology experiments by a visionary scientist. On the cusp of a historic breakthrough, the women mysteriously vanished and the program was erased from history. Decades later, Riley Bell, newly divorced and desperate for a fresh start, accepts a caretaker job for an elderly widow named Betty. Riley steps into a home that is frozen in another era - no microwave, television, or cell phones, and Betty has never heard of the internet. Why has Betty lived in such profound isolation for so many years, and why does she need Riley now? As the story unfolds across two timelines - Betty’s 1960s era of 5 o’clock martinis and high-stakes experiments, and Riley’s quest to uncover the truth about the missing women - old secrets rise to the surface. And the only way to survive is to confront the mystery that has lingered for sixty years.

291 pages, Hardcover | First published August 4, 2026

The Amateur by Chris Bohjalian

When a young woman, a golf prodigy, accidentally kills a caddy with a stray ball at the country club, the investigation of this freak accident reveals a dark and shocking tale of secret affairs, predatory men, and a teenager on trial in this spellbinding novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant.

1978: It is the first Thursday in August and temperatures are flirting with ninety when Mira Winston, eighteen years old, drives a practice ball from her tee with a wooden club. The golf ball, weighing 1.6 ounces, tears through the net, travels 150 miles per hour for fifteen yards and slams, with sickening force, into the forehead of a high school junior named Kenny Foster, causing a traumatic rupture in the frontal lobe of his brain. Kenny brings his right hand to his forehead, then topples to his side. He is dead before the ambulance even arrives.

In the wake of this terrible accident—and everyone, at first, agrees it was an accident—Mira looks for comfort in all the wrong places: In her lover, Theo Catton, a married man forty years her senior. In her mother, a well-kept woman with secrets of her own. In the dead caddy’s little sisters, girls bewildered by grief. But when Henry Fallows, the golf pro, looks more closely at the torn net, when the detective investigating the case recalls Mira’s history of recklessness, and when Kenny’s father spies Mira with her married lover, the affluent and mannered community turns on this once promising young woman. A gripping story that takes the reader from the sun-soaked greens of a tony Westchester country club to the fluorescent-lit stand of a district courtroom, The Amateur What happens when one small moment—a swing, a ball, a piece of string—changes the course of an entire life?

336 pages, Hardcover | First published August 4, 2026

Autumn at the Cat Café by Kathleen Fuller

Via Dalton has sworn off men to focus on the two things she loves most: her quirky cat café, Pawsitive Vibes, and the charming town of Pecan Corner, Ohio. But her peaceful world is shaken when Earl Brewster, the owner of the beloved Second Chapter Books next door, passes away. Via is determined to buy the shop and preserve Earl's legacy, but her plans hit a snag in the form of a tall, handsome, and completely unexpected heir.

Leo Brewster's life is thriving in LA, and the last thing he needs is an inheritance in the middle-of-nowhere, Ohio. But the alternative--letting his estranged mother inherit--has him packing his bags to receive the inheritance, quickly sell it off to the highest bidder, and hightail it back to LA. What he didn't count on was the list of stipulations in the will that has him staying in the small town for a month. Oh, and the determined, sunny café owner next door who refuses to let him destroy the town's heart without a fight.

Desperate to convince Leo the bookstore is vital to her community, Via challenges Leo to complete her Autumn Bucket List. As they navigate corn mazes, pumpkin patches, and fall festivals, Leo begins to see the magic in Pecan Corner--and in Via. Despite her vow to stay single and his plan to leave, the attraction between them simmers like hot cider.

Can a season of small-town charm convince a city boy to stay, or will Via lose both the bookstore and her heart?

Grab a warm drink and curl up with this delightful grumpy/sunshine, opposites-attract story of unexpected love and small-town charm.

304 pages, Paperback | First published August 1, 2026

NICHOLE'S RECOMMENDATION

Over the last month I fell in love with the tv show Rivals on Hulu which is based on the novel of the same name by Jilly Cooper. Unfortunately, the newest season has been cut in half and I have to wait until November to finish it. I hate waiting.

So I looked into the series, aptly named, The Rutshire Chronicles. The first book happened to be Riders, and it was a fun romp through the events that happened before the show. I have since also read Rivals and am starting on the third book in the series.

These books are entertaining with stories that weave British show jumping, elitism, and the 80's pop culture that goes along with it. The drama is intense, but so are the laughs. If you're looking for a series with characters to fall in love with and to distract from life, this is a great pick.

Riders by Jilly Cooper

Set against the glorious Cotswold countryside and the playgrounds of the world, Jilly Cooper's Rutshire Chronicles, Riders, Rivals, Polo, The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous, Appassionata and Score!, offer an intoxicating blend of skulduggery, swooning romance, sexual adventure and hilarious hijinks.

Riders, the first and steamiest in the series, takes the lid off international showjumping, a sport where the brave horses are almost human, but the humans behave like animals.

The brooding hero, gypsy Jake Lovell, under whose magic hands the most difficult horse or woman becomes biddable, is driven to the top by his loathing of the beautiful bounder and darling of the show ring, Rupert Campbell-Black. Having filched each other's horses, and fought and fornicated their way around the capitals of Europe, the feud between the two men finally erupts with devastating consequences during the Los Angeles Olympics.

919 pages, Paperback | First published January 1, 1985

*all descriptions of the novels and the book covers are from GoodReads.com

Suggested Reads for August 2026

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