3 Fantastically Awesome Books BJ Thinks You Need to Read: August 2025

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry Alice is a writer trying to find that one famous person to get in with and write about. She manages to track down a reclusive heiress, Margaret Ives. Margaret was the daughter of a media magnate, and wife of a famous musician in the 60s, and just constantly unwillingly in the spotlight. Then she removes herself from public life and Alice tracks her down. On the same day she gets to interview Margaret, another writer, Hayden, who is also interviewing her for his own book. Of course Alice is irritated and intimidated, this guy won a Pulitzer for another biography after all. Margaret puts the two against each other and allows them to interview her for 2 weeks and then make their pitch to her and she will decide which writer will get the job. They aren’t allowed to speak to each other about what they learn, but eventually they each uncover parts of Margaret’s secrets until the two writers fall in love. A refreshing and original story, loved it.

 

The Business Trip by Jessie Garcia  I was super into this one. Jasmine is escaping an abusive relationship and she gets on a flight to Denver. She’s seated in the same row as Stephanie, a woman on her way to a work conference. Another passenger asks if they are sisters because they look so much alike. When Stephanie gets up to use the bathroom Jasmine decides to steal her identity and try living her perceived glamourous life. But then murders happen, and Jasmine has to figure out how to cover everything up while she's pretending to be somebody else and it all spirals way too far out of control. 

 

Isola by Allegra Goodman This one was based upon a true story that took place in the 1500s. Marguerite is French royalty, and her parents died when she was young. Because she’s a woman alone she has a male cousin who is her guardian who makes all her financial decisions for her, and of course she has no idea what he’s doing with her money and of course he does whatever the hell he wants with it. He invests in exploring the new world and decides to take her with him on the trip. While on the trip she and his right hand man fall in love, and the guardian isn’t psyched about that. So he abandons them with her made on a tiny island off the coast of Canada where she lives for two years and figures out how to survive and outlives everyone else. It is an incredible story of how someone who was incredibly sheltered gathers her strength and learns how to survive in one of the harshest climates in the world.  Then she gets rescued and gets to pay back the karma. An awesome story.