August 2026: Books I Read Last Month

Written by Graeme

July was quite a funny month for me when it came to reading. It really felt like I didn’t read a lot at all. As I sat down to write this column I thought “Yikes – what do I even have to write?”

Then I pulled up my list of books read at Book Notification and was pleasantly surprised.

I had been traveling in the UK for the majority of the month which hampered the reading somewhat, however I was so busy that it completely slipped my mind that I was at a cottage for the first week of July. and was able to cram in lots of reading there.

Here’s what I read:

The Last Stop Video Shop by Keith A. Pearson: Excellent, excellent book. Keith writes a lot of time-travel humour novels or related to that sort of sci-fi topic, but this one he warned was darker than normal. While it was, it was still a fantastic read. Such a great author, and highly recommended. Although I’d always recommend people start with “The ’86 Fix”.

When I Kill You by B.A. Paris: She’s one of the best thriller novelists out there, and this one continued to add to that. It was about a woman with a hidden past, and someone is out there planning on killing her.

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins: While in London I was going to see the Hunger Games live show (which was fantastic). So I decided to re-read the first book in the series to remind myself of what happened. Then I had to watch the movie. Then i had to read the other two books, and watch the adaptations for them too! I never get tired of The Hunger Games.

I also watched The Housemaid by Freida McFadden on the flight to the UK. I’d seen this in theatres and read the book of course. I put it on expecting to fall asleep to it, but ended up engrossed throughout the entire movie. Such a great adaptation.

No Place Left to Hide by Megan Lally: A YA thriller. This one didn’t land with me. If you’re a young adult I think you’d like it. And I did enjoy That’s Not My Name by Megan. I just feel sometimes a YA thriller works for adults, sometimes it doesn’t, and this was the latter.

Denied Access by Don Bentley: His second entry into the Mitch Rapp series. Excellent. I really am happy with how that series has worked out since Vince’s sad passing. Both Don and Kyle have really carried on the legacy.

One By One by Freida McFadden: I read this one a couple of years ago and loved it. We listened to it as a family while driving from country to country in the UK – whifch was cool. However I didn’t think the narrator added to it – if anything they detracted from it and I didn’t enjoy it as much.