Summer's Almost Over, Fading Like a Tan. Vacation Time is Running Out Like an Unplugged Fan.

Seems like a good day to write my books as escapism post for the month of August. Since we were transitioning from Summer fun to cyclocross racing season, I didn't have a ton of time to read, but I still got some good book traveling in with the six books I read. I didn't read any non-fiction in, but I did get a Young Adult book read. So, let's go.

1.) The first book I read in August was "The Leavers" by Lisa Ko. I loved this book. It took me to Upstate New York, NYC and China. It looked at immigration issues at what it's like to be a first generation immigrant in the USA.

2.) "Flight Behavior" by Barbara Kingsolver was the second book trip I went on. It took me to the Appalachians in the near future. It was about what climate change could do to the Monarch butterfly population and to humans as well. It was a scary trip, but it's a journey we're all already on these days.

3.) My third book trip was "My Grandmother Told Me to Tell You She's Sorry", by Frederik Backman. He's also the author of a "Man Called Ove" and if you haven't read that, you definitely should. Anyway, this book to me to Sweden and to an apartment building full of lovable freaks - my favorite kind of people. If you want to read something that gives you hope for humanity, I suggest you go visit this novel.

4.) "The Story of a Marriage" by Sean Andrew Greer was a beautifully written novel that took me to San Francisco after WWII. It talked about what war does to people and the kinds of choices people had to make during that time.

5.) My fifth book was the last book in Jane Smiley's trilogy, "Golden Age". It took me all over the place from 1987 through to the future, but mostly it centered around a farm in central Iowa. It wasn't as good as the first two books. I also wish she hadn't tried to predict the future in it. She was so good at her past pop culture references and now that some of what she predicted for the future has become the past and the present and her predictions are different than what actually happened (is happening), it really took me out of the novel.

6.) My final read of August was one of my favorites. "Eleanor and Park", by Rainbow Rowell is a Young Adult book that I wish had been around when I was a young adult. It takes place in 1987 in Nebraska and tells a really sweet high school love story. It's the kind of novel that I'll want to travel to again and again.

So, now that we're already halfway through September, I've already read some great books that took me to interesting places this month. I'm excited to see where else I go.