Archives for August 2025

Every month we let you know what we’ve been reading and our monthly recommendations. You’ll get to see new titles with fabulous reviews from the Bay Books team. We’re sure you’ll love these fantastic books just as much as we do. We recommend a wide range of genres and themes. So get ready to explore more books!

Becky’s Pick

Orbital by Samantha Harvey
Join Stephen Colbert’s book club with this meditation on space — a moving elegy of our
humanity, environment and planet. This is a snapshot of a day in the life of six astronauts and cosmonauts, from America, Japan, Russia, Britain and Italy, as they travel over seventeen thousand miles an hour over earth. The reader travels with them as they experience sixteen sunrises and sunsets, float in gravity-free sleep and communicate with their far away families. They record the silent blue planet below and the marks of civilization. Winner of the Booker Prize in 2024, this is a small but mighty read. Enjoy!

Tina’s Picks

Bandersnatch: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and the Creative Collaboration of the Inklings by Diana Pavlac Glyer
Not only do you get to read the reflections and observations of this collegial group of talented writers, but you’ll receive tips on how to develop functional (and happy) writing groups yourself. Emphasizing collaboration and intrapersonal skills, it draws focus on the writing and thinking NOT the ego. Each chapter starts with a charming drawing, almost like a woodcut, in which there is a dragon hidden. This makes turning the pages even more delightful. This is a must read for those who are in writing groups now, thinking about starting one, or just want to enjoy reading more about the lives of these intelligent authors who have given us so much joy.

The Puzzle Box by Danielle Trussoni
This is the second book in the Puzzle series but you don’t have to read the first one, “The Puzzle Master”, to enjoy this one, although don’t be surprised if you definitely want to do so! Well written, it follows the story of Mike Brink, a good guy who suffers a head injury that gives him acquired savant syndrome, particularly in the area of mathematics, logic, eidetic memory and of course, puzzle solving. But there are folks who want to use him for evil, and some who might want to use him for good. The puzzle in this case is The Dragon Box and was designed by a sadistic constructor who wishes more to defend its secret with poisons, booby traps and the like rather than have it solved. But what is hidden that is so wanted? A riveting story that will keep you enthralled and inform you as well. Enjoy!
Notes from the Porch: Tiny True Stories to Make You Feel Better About the World by Thomas Christopher Greene.

What a beautiful, comforting book of short essays that make you appreciate the good things in your life. If you want the perfect, feel-good book to give someone, this is it.

Wendy’s Pick

The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb
Fans of Wally Lamb waited a long time for his latest work, and it was undoubtedly worth the wait. This gripping novel drops us into the lives of a young couple in crisis. Corby, a young husband and father, is trying to cope with the loss of his job, his new role as a stay-at-home dad of toddler twins, and some weighty emotional baggage from a dysfunctional relationship with his father. All of this has culminated in a serious alcohol and addiction problem, which he keeps hidden from the love of his life – wife, Emily. Corby is responsible for a tragic accident that rips their family apart and forces him to face his life in new and profound ways. This is a heart-wrenching read – a tremendously impactful, un-put-downable story, crafted expertly by an iconic author in American fiction.