August was — well, it was August. With family visiting as usual, and the weather more wet than not, I went from phases of not reading to phases of reading a lot. I tend to mix up physical and kindle books — sometimes it is just more enjoyable to hold paper in the hand!
So here goes with the selection of books that I finished reading in August. And those that I did not.
The Devotion of Suspect X, by Keigo Higashino. My rating 5/5 (Crime Fiction, 2005)
Living a simple life with her daughter, working in a small lunch shop, she is surprised one day by the appearance of her ex-husband. He follows her home and in an unexpected turn of events, she and her daughter assault and kill him. Unknown to them, their math professor neighbor has heard it all and steps in to help them. What follows is an absolutely genius narrative of puzzling turns and twists that is hard to put down. No doubt I will be reading more books in the series. Thanks Avi.
Doctored: Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer's, by Charles Piller. My rating 4/5 (Medicine, Non-fiction, 2025)
A whistleblower - Mathew Schrag - discovers a massive scandal in the research for finding a cure for Alzheimer's disease, which affects millions worldwide and for which there is no cure. From there, the author, based on years of investigations, exposes a vast network of deceit and its players, all the way up to the FDA. Hundreds of papers based on false data and tens of thousands of patients drawn into tests for dubious drugs. It’s shocking and stunning, but only gets 4/5 rating from me because despite its attempt at simplifying the subject, I struggled in parts. Thanks Abhishek.
Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics, by Tim Marshall. My rating 5/5 (Politics, History, Economics, Non-Fiction, 2025)
When I first signed up on Twitter (now known as X), my bio said, inter alia, “amateur student of economics and history …”. Dear reader, you can imagine that this book was right up my alley! In ten chapters and ten maps, this book looks at the past, present and future and offers insights into the major factors that determine world history. Easy to read, yet broad in scope, I would suggest that this is essential reading for anybody interested in geopolitics. Understand how geographical locations and features determine the politics and fates of nations. Thanks Nando.
Dark Sacred Night, by Michael Connelly. My rating 5/5 (Police Fiction, 2018)
After reading two heavy books I needed to get back to a fast paced thriller and, as usual, Connelly did not disappoint. This is book #35 in the Harry Bosch universe.
Then there are the books that I started reading, but abandoned during August. I always feel bad leaving a book half-way, but somehow force myself to go with the sunk cost theory.
Heart Lamp: Selected Stories, by Banu Mushtaq, Deepa Bhasthi (Translator ). No rating (Short stories, Fiction, 2024)
Winner of the International Booker Prize 2025. This book contains 12 short stories originally written in Kannada, and relates the lives of women and girls of the Muslim community in Southern India. I picked it up as a recommendation from The Guardian.
The Overstory, by Richard Powers. No rating (Nature, Fiction, 2018)
The Overstory interweaves the stories of nine main characters whose lives become connected to trees and forests. The narrative spans multiple generations and locations across the United States (Wikipedia). Those who know me well can imagine why I picked up the book (trees and forests!). It has won several accolades including the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. I picked it up as a recommendation from The Economist.
++++
Endnotes:
Devotion was made into a Hindi movie in 2023 Jaane Jaan, streaming on Netflix.
I first learned about Doctored when I listened to a podcast by Abhishek Kumar.
A confession: Nando presented me with Prisoners in hospital and given my state at the time, I had forgotten about it until he asked me one day if I had read it and what I thought of it. My apologies, buddy.
I deleted my X (formerly known as Twitter) as well as my Facebook account sometime at the turn of the year. My post on this evolution.
Thanks again to Srishti for making the collage of book covers.
I think your book suggestions and movie suggestions (action oriented) are the posts I like best. My follow up may be weak, though.
Lamp meandered in my view. Having grown up in India and familiar with how Muslim (and other) women are treated, I did not enjoy the tales of misery.
Overstory - in about the third or fourth story I started to lose interest as it was not yet obvious how they would start to come together. 500 pages was also a bit daunting when I got to this stage. Maybe I will try the audio version later.