Hey guys! I’m here with my TBR (to-be-read) list for August, and I can’t wait to share it with you guys! June was a terrible reading month, and though July was better, it wasn’t all that I’d hoped for. I’m hoping that with school being out, I’ll have a lot more time to read! with that being said, let’s dive into what books I’m hoping to pick up this month! Take a look! (Major Spoiler Warnings!)

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

Genre: Fantasy

Synopsis: To end the Final Empire and restore freedom, Vin killed the Lord Ruler. But as a result, the Deepness—the lethal form of the ubiquitous mists—is back, along with increasingly heavy ashfalls and ever more powerful earthquakes. Humanity appears to be doomed.

Having escaped death at the climax of The Well of Ascension only by becoming a Mistborn himself, Emperor Elend Venture hopes to find clues left behind by the Lord Ruler that will allow him to save the world. Vin is consumed with guilt at having been tricked into releasing the mystic force known as Ruin from the Well. Ruin wants to end the world, and its near omniscience and ability to warp reality make stopping it seem impossible. Vin can’t even discuss it with Elend lest Ruin learn their plans!

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I think I might be a little sad once this book comes to an end. I already feel the “lost a best friend” feeling coming on, and I’m not even done with the second one yet! The first book took me on such a wild ride, and it’s now my favorite book (and Brandon Sanderson is now my favorite author as well!). It will be so strange once this is over!

The Hound of Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Genre: Mystery

Synopsis: Could the sudden death of Sir Charles Baskerville have been caused by the gigantic ghostly hound that is said to have haunted his family for generations? Arch-rationalist Sherlock Holmes characteristically dismisses the theory as nonsense. And immersed in another case, he sends Watson to Devon to protect the Baskerville heir and observe the suspects close at hand. With its atmospheric setting on the ancient, wild moorland and its savage apparition, The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of the greatest crime novels ever written. Rationalism is pitted against the supernatural, good against evil, as Sherlock Holmes seeks to defeat a foe almost his equal.

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I always love a good Sherlock Holmes! Part of me wants to wait until the fall, since I feel like mysteries and fall go hand in hand, but as these stories are shorter, I’d like to get caught up on my reading goal before the chaos that is fall semester begins!

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

Genre: Mystery

Synopsis: The peaceful English village of King’s Abbot is stunned. First, the attractive widow Ferrars dies from an overdose of veronal. Not twenty-four hours later, Roger Ackroyd—the man she had planned to marry—is murdered. It is a baffling, complex case involving blackmail, suicide, and violent death, a cast that taxes Hercule Poirot’s “little grey cells” before he reaches one of the most startling conclusions of his fabled career.

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As you can see, I am suddenly in the mystery mood! I read Murder on the Orient Express early this year for the first time, and I really loved it! I can’t wait to read this next story from Agatha Christie, and I know I won’t be disappointed!

Final Fantasy Type-0 Manga by Takatoshi Shiozawa

Genre: Fantasy/Manga

Synopsis: The cadets of Akademeia’s Class Zero are legends, with strength and magic unrivaled, and crimson capes symbolizing the great Vermilion Bird of the Dominion. But will their elite training be enough to keep them alive when a war breaks out and the Class Zero cadets find themselves at the front and center of a bloody political battlefield?!

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And here is the manga that I started long ago but never finished, and I probably won’t this time either. As much as I love Final Fantasy, I really, really don’t like Type-0. Last December, I ended up getting my hands on the game, and within thirty seconds, I ended up turning it off and never going back to it. The story, I think, is just a little much for me. It goes deeps and Square Enix doesn’t hold back in telling war like it is, and, well, I don’t do to well with that.

However, I think I may have better luck with the manga version of the story. I had started in a few years back, but put it down when I got bored with it, and it was a busy time when I picked it up. Hopefully this time I can finish it!

The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan

Genre: Fantasy/Adventure

Synopsis: How do you punish an immortal?

By making him human.

After angering his father Zeus, the god Apollo is cast down from Olympus. Weak and disorientated, he lands in New York City as a regular teenage boy. Now, without his godly powers, the four-thousand-year-old deity must learn to survive in the modern world until he can somehow find a way to regain Zeus’s favour.

But Apollo has many enemies—gods, monsters and mortals who would love to see the former Olympian permanently destroyed. Apollo needs help, and he can think of only one place to go… an enclave of modern demigods known as Camp Half-Blood.

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I read the entire series of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, as well as Heroes of Olympus, and I’m a huge fan of them! However, I never felt like picking of the Trials of Apollo series, mostly because, well, it’s not about Percy and he’s barely in it at all. I suddenly wanted to read it this month though, so I’m going to give it a try!

They Went Left by Monica Hesse

Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis: Germany, 1945. The soldiers who liberated the Gross-Rosen concentration camp said the war was over, but nothing feels over to eighteen-year-old Zofia Lederman. Her body has barely begun to heal; her mind feels broken. And her life is completely shattered: Three years ago, she and her younger brother, Abek, were the only members of their family to be sent to the right, away from the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Everyone else–her parents, her grandmother, radiant Aunt Maja–they went left.

Zofia’s last words to her brother were a promise: Abek to Zofia, A to Z. When I find you again, we will fill our alphabet. Now her journey to fulfill that vow takes her through Poland and Germany, and into a displaced persons camp where everyone she meets is trying to piece together a future from a painful past: Miriam, desperately searching for the twin she was separated from after they survived medical experimentation. Breine, a former heiress, who now longs only for a simple wedding with her new fiancé. And Josef, who guards his past behind a wall of secrets, and is beautiful and strange and magnetic all at once.

But the deeper Zofia digs, the more impossible her search seems. How can she find one boy in a sea of the missing? In the rubble of a broken continent, Zofia must delve into a mystery whose answers could break her–or help her rebuild her world.

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I’ve had this book on my shelf for awhile now, and now I’m finally going to get around to it! I’ve found my love for Historical Fiction once more, especially for the World War II timeline. This one sounds like it’s a real punch to the gut, so that’s just lovely. Wish me luck with this one!

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier

Genre: Non-Fiction

Synopsis: Developing video games—hero’s journey or fool’s errand? The creative and technical logistics that go into building today’s hottest games can be more harrowing and complex than the games themselves, often seeming like an endless maze or a bottomless abyss. In Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, Jason Schreier takes readers on a fascinating odyssey behind the scenes of video game development, where the creator may be a team of 600 overworked underdogs or a solitary geek genius. Exploring the artistic challenges, technical impossibilities, marketplace demands, and Donkey Kong-sized monkey wrenches thrown into the works by corporate, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels reveals how bringing any game to completion is more than Sisyphean—it’s nothing short of miraculous.

Taking some of the most popular, bestselling recent games, Schreier immerses readers in the hellfire of the development process, whether it’s RPG studio Bioware’s challenge to beat an impossible schedule and overcome countless technical nightmares to build Dragon Age: Inquisition; indie developer Eric Barone’s single-handed efforts to grow country-life RPG Stardew Valley from one man’s vision into a multi-million-dollar franchise; or Bungie spinning out from their corporate overlords at Microsoft to create Destiny, a brand new universe that they hoped would become as iconic as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings—even as it nearly ripped their studio apart.

Documenting the round-the-clock crunches, buggy-eyed burnout, and last-minute saves, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels is a journey through development hell—and ultimately a tribute to the dedicated diehards and unsung heroes who scale mountains of obstacles in their quests to create the best games imaginable.

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Again, another book I’ve had on my shelf for a long time! Seeing as I hope to become a video game developer, and am well on my way to doing so, I thought it would be neat to read what it’s like to have that job! This book sounds really neat, and I can’t wait to get to it!

Namesake by Adrienne Young

Genre: Fantasy/Adventure

Synopsis: With the Marigold ship free of her father, Fable and the rest of the crew were set to start over. That freedom is short-lived when Fable becomes a pawn in a notorious thug’s scheme. In order to get to her intended destination, she must help him to secure a partnership with Holland, a powerful gem trader who is more than she seems.

As Fable descends deeper into a world of betrayal and deception, she learns that the secrets her mother took to her grave are now putting the people Fable cares about in danger. If Fable is going to save them, then she must risk everything—including the boy she loves and the home she has finally found.

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If you read my last post, then you know I’m looking forward to this book. Namesake is the second book in the Fable duology, and I want to read it soooo bad! I’m not even sure why since I can’t really place why I liked the first one so much. I had seen a review saying this one was even better than the first one, so I can’t help but have high expectations. I hope to be reading this soon!

The Inheritance Games

Genre: Mystery?

Synopsis: Avery Grambs has a plan for a better future: survive high school, win a scholarship, and get out. But her fortunes change in an instant when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves Avery virtually his entire fortune. The catch? Avery has no idea why–or even who Tobias Hawthorne is. To receive her inheritance, Avery must move into sprawling, secret passage-filled Hawthorne House, where every room bears the old man’s touch–and his love of puzzles, riddles, and codes.

Unfortunately for Avery, Hawthorne House is also occupied by the family that Tobias Hawthorne just dispossessed. This includes the four Hawthorne grandsons: dangerous, magnetic, brilliant boys who grew up with every expectation that one day, they would inherit billions. Heir apparent Grayson Hawthorne is convinced that Avery must be a con-woman, and he’s determined to take her down. His brother, Jameson, views her as their grandfather’s last hurrah: a twisted riddle, a puzzle to be solved. Caught in a world of wealth and privilege, with danger around every turn, Avery will have to play the game herself just to survive.

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I’m not exactly sure what genre this is, or what to even make of this plot. The hype is real for this book, and I’ve been seeing it all over the place, so I thought it was about time I picked it up. I’m trying not to have any expectations going into it, but I can’t help but get a little excited for it after all of that hype going around for it! I’m hoping it lives up to it!

Dune by Frank Herbert

Genre: Science Fiction

Synopsis: Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice” melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for…

When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream. 

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Aaaannnddd to absolutely no one’s surprise, Dune is once again on this list. My goodness, will I ever get this book done?! I have seen the latest trailer for the Dune move, and although it was a poorly put together trailer, I am hyped for this movie, and it gave me a new motivation to get this book done! In fact, I hope to pick it up this week! Wish me luck, y’all!

So that’s my list! I’m glad that most of the books are new on this list! I will be having some time off before school starts back, so I’m hoping to use that time to get caught up with my reading goal. Wish me luck guys, because I think I’ll dreadfully need it!

Thanks for reading! God bless y’all and have a wonderful week!

Synopsises taken from Goodreads