August 2026 Books

Not only do I want to bring back the photologs, but I'd also like to go back to covering the books I read each month here. I still don't want to meticulously log things, but I like writing about what I read. August is almost over and I don't think I'll be finishing any other books before the month ends, so I'm going to go ahead and recap them now, starting with the ones I loved the most. Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker (2025) This book was published five years after the pandemic, but it takes us back to that time in stark clarity, reminding us what it was like and how scary it felt for multiple reasons. The story centers around a half-Chinese, half-white woman named Cora Zeng, who fears both germs and the proliferation of anti-Asian racism that came with the pandemic. The book focuses heavily on that racism, making it a difficult but necessary read. Cora is haunted by the ghost of her dead sister, who is pushed in front of a subway train at the beginning of…