As we step into August, we are getting lots of new releases as well as some interesting re-releases. This gives us the perfect opportunity to get hooked on a new storyline or relax with characters that we’ve known for a long time. From time travel to romance under the Palm Springs sun, here’s everything to read, watch, and know in August 2026.
In case you missed these musts…
June
Alan Opts Out by Courtney Maum
This new release has already been scooped up by HBO for adaptation with Emily Kapnek and Bill Lawrence attached. Alan goes from being a high-level ad exec to completely opting out of his career. His wife, however, was really looking forward to climbing the final wrung of the social ladder. When he decides to dive into a simpler life, it isn’t what his wife had planned, but it seems to be catching on and attracting more to his new way of looking at the world.
Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon
The Wash-Ashores by Hannah McKinnon
Holly is in for the test of her life. She is hoping to inherit her grandmother’s Cranberry Inn in Cape Cod, but she will not be getting it without pulling off running it for the summer. This is her one shot and an elite family with a social media influencer is her chance to pull it off. Ben, a love interest from the past, is also starting a business nearby. Now she must navigate complex feelings, a dream business within reach and a summer filled with pushing her to her limits.
Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon
July
Everything to the Sea by Alicia Upano
Jane is spending one last summer in her hometown working before she will leave the island forever. Come fall, she will go back to the continent, finish her senior year of college, and become an architect. Though she didn’t remember him at first, Kenji, the cute Hilo boy from her high school, quickly becomes her summer fling. Jane tells herself that the summer is the perfect opportunity for a little bit of fun. However, their season of loving quickly comes to an end when a tsunami sweeps their families out to sea. Kenji remains in their hometown devoted to rebuilding while Jane, consumed by loss, follows her best friend to California. They remain separated by an ocean for seven years until they meet on a new coast and might just have the opportunity to try again.
Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon
Must Read Classic
The Bell Jar
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We are very excited for a new Bell Jar film adaptation that is aiming for a 2027 release. The Oscar award winning writer and director Sarah Polley will be adapting and directing the film starring Billie Eilish as Esther Greenwood and Carey Mulligan as her mother. There are also rumors swirling that Heated Rivalry’s Connor Storrie has joined the cast that we can only hope are true. In The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood is about to spend her summer in New York interning for a magazine. Even though her life is going the way she wants it to, she feels extremely disconnected from her life and is struggling to live in the women’s hotel like the others. She continues to slip into a depression even after she moves home to Massachusetts. Ineffective treatment leads Esther to feeling darker and lower than she ever has.
Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon
Must Re-Read
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
August brings the 20th anniversary of The Time Traveler’s Wife and with that it also brings a new collector’s edition. This is a must re-read in preparation for the sequel Life Out of Order that will be released in September. The Time Traveler’s Wife follows Henry DeTamble, a charming librarian who travels through time uncontrollably with a pull towards deeply emotional moments in his life both past and future. He meets Clare Abshire, an artist that lives through time normally. They fall for each other and learn how to navigate a relationship through decades in time.
Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon
New Must Reads
Breathing Under Water by Jacqueline Friedland
Berry is struggling to balance her life as a vice principal and a mother to her son, Leo, a sixteen-year-old boy with autism. The opportunity for a promotion arises but it challenges everything that the family really needs. College student McKenna, is sinking. She is facing burnout from caring for her grandmother with dementia, has lost her college swimming scholarship, and is facing homelessness. Everything about her world is crumbling but she finds solace in her job as a swim instructor. There she teaches swimming lessons to children with autism including Leo. As Berry and McKenna interact with each other, they’ll come to find that they have the power to save each other.
Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon
Lost and Found by Tarah DeWitt
Bea has always wanted to have kids but she never expected that she would lose her best friend in the process. With her best friend’s eggs and a bucket list, Bea is trying to navigate her new life. Luckily she is not alone. A longtime friend Silas offers her a place to stay when she needs it. Silas is a firefighter struggling in the wake of an accident leaving him in a similar place to Bea. Both are working on rebuilding and might just find love with one another in the process.
Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon
Big Little Truths (Big Little Lies, #2) by Liane Moriarty
Ten years later, Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata, and Bonnie are raising teenagers who are navigating high school, relationships, drugs, alcohol, and sex. Parents are in an uproar after the principal is mailed a threatening package, but Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata, and Bonnie are a bit preoccupied. Madeline is facing one of the hardest things she has ever gone through. Celeste’s mother-in-law is behaving weirdly. Jane’s marriage is dangerously close to an end. Renata is enjoying her life after revenge. Lastly, Bonnie can only find so much relief in yoga. Their attention is captured when a stranger begins to lurk around the school asking questions that might just have to do with the big little truths that these women have hidden.
Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon
Embrace (Off the Ice Book, #4) by Bal Khabra
Kian Ishida’s late dad wanted nothing more for him than to get a college degree, but Kian has been focused on nothing but hockey and parties. This becomes a problem when he realizes he’s about to leave college for the NHL with no degree in sight. To fix this, Kian joins a study group led by Scarlett Kilner. She’s gorgeous, smart, but most importantly, she’s the coach’s daughter. As Scarlett helps Kian study, what began as innocent tutoring turns into something more.
Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon
The Phone Swap by Lia Louis
Could an accidental phone swap lead to love? An ambitious scientist and a soft-hearted actor accidentally trade phones on a plane and what starts as trying to hammer out the logistics of getting their tech back, soon turns into something more real. While managing the other’s life and slowly migrating towards making the exchange, can the intimacy in their text messages translate into real-life?
Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon
See You at the Sunset by Susan Lee
Jia Chung is facing pressure to move home from her mom after she was fired yet again. Instead she takes her grandmother’s offer to spend the summer in Palm Springs at the Sunset Hills Senior Living Community. It is the perfect place for Jia to enjoy the sun even if it’s with eighty-year-olds. Corporate lawyer Henry Shin is finally spending some time away from work, helping his grandfather move into a new home. Dennis is Henry’s only family so he wants to make sure that Dennis will be safe and enjoy the zumba classes, happy hours, and spicy book clubs that his new senior living community offers. At the head of these activities is none other than Jia Chung, a woman that Henry had a one night stand with a few months ago. In fact, she’s also the woman that he had to fire the day after. As the summer heats up both physically and romantically, Henry and Jia grow much closer, but what will happen when summer ends and the pair must go back to reality?
Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon
Must Watch
The Dog Stars
Peter Heller’s apocalyptic novel is being adapted and directed by Ridley Scott. The Dog Stars follows Hig played by Jacob Elordi. Hig’s wife and friends are gone. His house is a small abandoned airplane hanger and his roommates are his dog, Jasper, and an intense hermit, Bangley played by Josh Brolin. His life changes when a radio transmission randomly connects to his 1956 Cessna. This chance message gives Hig hope that there is a better life beyond the perimeter of their controlled world. Tempting fate, he flies beyond the point of no return, following the static radio trail and finds more than he could have ever expected.
Ted Lasso Season 4
Our favorite American coaches are returning for another season both on screen and on the pitch. This time Coach Lasso and Coach Beard will be overseeing a newly formed women’s team. Many of the actors from previous seasons will be returning such as Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple, and Brett Goldstein but we will also see some new faces like Tanya Reynolds, Faye Marsay, and Abbie Hern.
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