1000 Books: What shall we read in August 2026?

Community Book Clubs Side Read: 1000 Books to Read Before You Die
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@1000_Books - Here are our options as supplied by @Ruth_Hollandsworth and @Gabi_J:

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester is a 1956 science fiction novel. It is a futuristic retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo. The story follows Gulliver Foyle, an average man stranded in space, who becomes a ruthless, vengeful outcast on a quest to hunt down those who abandoned him.

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson is a humorous 1998 travel memoir. It chronicles his real-life, flawed attempt to hike the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail with his out-of-shape, eccentric friend, Stephen Katz. While the book focuses on their hilarious struggles and misadventures, it also serves as a fascinating guide to the wilderness.

The All of It by Jeannette Haien is an award-winning 1986 novel about an Irish Catholic priest, Father Declan de Loughry, who uncovers a massive, fifty-year-long secret from a grieving parishioner. The book explores complex themes of morality, empathy, transgression, and absolution.

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri is a Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of nine short stories. It primarily explores the lives of Indian immigrants and Indian-Americans navigating cultural displacement, broken marriages, and the search for identity.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt is a true-crime book and vivid Southern travelogue written by John Berendt. It centers on the 1981 shooting death of a young man named Danny Hansford by Jim Williams, a wealthy, prominent antiques dealer in Savannah, Georgia.

Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai is a 1980 novel that follows the fractured Das family in Old Delhi. Moving backward and forward in time, the story explores how childhood resentments and traumatic historical events (like the 1947 Partition of India) echo into the adult lives of four siblings, ultimately teaching them about forgiveness and acceptance.

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I’m still working on the best way to pick a book, and I’m going to try to divide it up into two simultaneous votes. The first will be all the books you’d be OK reading in August 2026. The second will be the book you’d most like to read. Let’s see how that works…

The books I’d be OK with reading:

  • The Stars My Destination
  • A Walk in the Woods
  • The All of It
  • Interpreter of Maladies
  • Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
  • Clear Light of Day
0 voters

The book I’d most like to read is:

  • The Stars My Destination
  • A Walk in the Woods
  • The All of It
  • Interpreter of Maladies
  • Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
  • Clear Light of Day
0 voters
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OK, @1000_Books folks, round two it is! Please pick one:

  • Clear Light of Day
  • Interpreter of Maladies
  • The Stars My Destination
0 voters

Note: I dropped A Walk in the Woods from the poll. Although it had the most “most want to read” votes, only three people said they’d be willing to read it. The other three books each had five “want to reads.”