Category: What I’m Reading

December 2025

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1. The Great Believers

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SUMMARY

In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico’s funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico’s little sister.

Thirty years later, Fiona is in Paris tracking down her estranged daughter who disappeared into a cult. While staying with an old friend, a famous photographer who documented the Chicago crisis, she finds herself finally grappling with the devastating ways AIDS affected her life and her relationship with her daughter. The two intertwining stories take us through the heartbreak of the eighties and the chaos of the modern world, as both Yale and Fiona struggle to find goodness in the midst of disaster.

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MY REVIEW:

In my own life, I feel there are two types of important historical events: those I lived through, and those I understood through a secondary source, often book or movie. I wasn’t there when JFK was shot, but I know exactly where I was when 9/11 happened. I can only learn about the Vietnam protests or read heartbreaking novels about the Holocaust, but I do have a memory of watching the Challenger explode on a TV in my elementary classroom. While the AIDS epidemic was technically a part of my childhood, I have very little memory of it IRL (as kids these days would say). I know Magic Johnson shocked the world when he confessed he was HIV+, but no one I knew in my life or my community was directly impacted by it.

Makkai writes a beautiful story of what it might have been like to live the life of a gay man in the 1980s. The fear, the stigmatism, the temporary relief of a negative test result, the inevitable death sentence of a positive test result. But it’s also a story of community as family, of the deep love of friendship. She throws in a side story about art and a “present day” tale set in Paris, which make the overall novel even lovelier.

Makkai doesn’t shy away from describing the gay life, so that might disinterest some, but her retelling of this decade in American history feels like an important one that should be told.

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2. Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man)

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SUMMARY

Ever since a man was found dead in Vera’s teahouse, life has been good. For Vera that is. She’s surrounded by loved ones, her shop is bustling, and best of all, her son, Tilly, has a girlfriend! All thanks to Vera, because Tilly’s girlfriend is none other than Officer Selena Gray. The very same Officer Gray that she had harassed while investigating the teahouse murder. Still, Vera wishes more dead bodies would pop up in her shop, but one mustn’t be ungrateful, even if one is slightly…bored.

Then Vera comes across a distressed young woman who is obviously in need of her kindly guidance. The young woman is looking for a missing friend. Fortunately, while cat-sitting at Tilly and Selena’s, Vera finds a treasure Selena’s briefcase. Inside is a file about the death of an enigmatic influencer—who also happens to be the friend that the young woman was looking for.

Online, Xander had it a parade of private jets, fabulous parties with socialites, and a burgeoning career as a social media influencer. The only problem is, after his body is fished out of Mission Bay, the police can’t seem to actually identify him. Who is Xander Lin? Nobody knows. Every contact is a dead end. Everybody claims not to know him, not even his parents.

Vera is determined to solve Xander’s murder. After all, doing so would surely be a big favor to Selena, and there is nothing she wouldn’t do for her future daughter-in-law.

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MY REVIEW

After reading the original Vera Wong book back in March, I was quite excited to read more about the unique and loveable character that is Vera. She’s nosy, she cares deeply about others, and she’s an amazing cook.

Unfortunately, the very characteristics I loved about her in the first book became wearisome in the second book. The basis of the plot of both books is the same: someone is dead and Vera takes it upon herself to find the murderer. It was cute and laughable in the first book, but it became overused and annoying in the second book. Vera’s son is dating a police officer who continually tells Vera to stop poking her nose into police business, and I as a reader couldn’t agree more. Additionally, the crime revealed at the end of the book was much darker than I would have expected from a novel which generally likes to keep things light and humorous.

Vera Wong’s first book is entertaining, but I would have to suggest passing on the second book.

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3. Small Things Like These

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SUMMARY

It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.

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MY REVIEW

I believe this is exactly what the holiday season needs: a short novella that reminds its readers of the goodness of humanity. Even though this book was published back in 2021, I feel that it became “the” book to read this year, I was deep in the line of holds at the library, so imagine my excitement when I learned that this book was available for me during the month of December!

It’s a quick read because of its short length, but the reader cannot help but slow down, take in all that Keegan has to offer. Through her main character Furlong, she challenges her readers, asking “was there any point in being alive without helping one another?” It is my hope that at Christmas and every other time of the year, our answer is a resounding “no.”

The Washington Post writes in its review: “A classic…get two copies: one to keep, one to give.” I wholeheartedly agree.

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4. How to Winter

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SUMMARY

Kari Leibowitz moved above the Arctic Circle – where the sun doesn’t rise for two months each winter –expecting to research the season’s negative effects on mental health, only to find that inhabitants actually looked forward to it with delight and enthusiasm. Leibowitz has since travelled to places on earth with some of the coldest, darkest, longest and most intense winters, and discovered the power of “wintertime mindset”— viewing the season as full of opportunity and wonder. Impactful strategies for cultivating this wintertime mindset can teach us not just about braving the gray, cold months of the year, but also the darker and more difficult seasons of life.

Inspired by cutting-edge psychological and behavioral science research as well as cultures worldwide that find warmth and joy in winter’s extremes, How to Winter provides readers with concrete tools for making winter wonderful wherever they live and harnessing the power of small mindset changes with big impact to help readers embrace every season of life.

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MY REVIEW

This book was recommended by a trusted reader (thanks Shelly!) last winter but I didn’t get around to it until now. I’m such a fiction lover, I don’t read nonfiction as much as I should. And then I went ahead and downloaded it as an audio book, something I almost never do. But I could not face another winter with my self-diagnosed Seasonal Affective Disorder. I was already dreading the cloudy, dreary, neverending month of January; when I need an excuse to avoid tasks I don’t want to do, I instead get on the internet and research warm, tropical places where I might want to retire.

In short, this book was a game changer for me. It might go down as one of the most impactful nonfiction books I’ve ever read. It’s akin to Mindset by Carol Zweck. Leibowitz builds her ethos by living for one year in the arctic; she defends wintertime and then explains how our experience with winter is mostly based upon our mindset and attitude toward it. Instead of fighting it, we should find ways to celebrate and enjoy cold temperatures, snow and darker days.

She poses this question in the novel: “What would it take to make your fall in love with winter?” For me, it only took listening to the first chapter for me to begin my list of things I enjoy about the winter: Christmas lights, soups, cozy clothing, fireplaces, candles, puzzles, going to dinner in heated outdoor spaces. She argues that we need to specify things that are only a part of winter; that way, we can actually begin to look forward to this season. And maybe it’s because I’m just coming off my gratitude journal, but I’m aware that if you look for it, you will find it. So I’m trying to appreciate how the light reflects off the snow at night, how the crisp, cold air fills my lungs, how cozy I feel inside snuggled under a blanket with a mug of hot tea.

And then, a few pages from the end, Leibowitz smacks the reader between the eyes: “Rethinking our relationship to winter is practice imagining what could be instead of what is…we begin to wonder what else we could reimagine, what else could be different.”

I’m accepting the challenge. I’m trying to experience winter with a different mindset, with positive language, with celebrating season-special activities and rituals.

This book gets two thumbs up, way up for me. I’d even recommend you download the book and listen to it while enjoying a few good winter walks.

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5. The Secret Christmas Library

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SUMMARY:

Mirren Sutherland stumbled into a career as an antiquarian book hunter after finding a priceless antique book in her great aunt’s attic. Now, as Christmas approaches, she’s been hired by Jamie McPherson, the surprisingly young and handsome laird of a Highland clan whose ancestral holdings include a vast crumbling castle. Family lore suggests that the McPherson family’s collection includes a rare book so valuable that it could save the entire estate—if they only knew where it was. Jamie needs Mirren to help him track down this treasure, which he believes is hidden in his own home.

But on the train to the Highlands, Mirren runs into rival book hunter Theo Palliser, and instantly knows that it’s not a chance meeting. She’s all too familiar with Theo’s good looks and smooth talk, and his uncanny ability to appear whenever there’s a treasure that needs locating.

Almost as soon as Mirren and Theo arrive at the castle, a deep snow blankets the Highlands, cutting off the outside world. Stuck inside, the three of them plot their search as the wind whistles outside. Mirren knows that Jamie’s grandfather, the castle’s most recent laird, had been a book collector, a hoarder, and a great lover of treasure hunts. Now they must unpuzzle his clues, discovering the secrets of the house—forming and breaking alliances in a race against time.

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MY REVIEW:

If I can help it, I try to read one Jenny Colgan novel every December. I’m not one of those naturally festive, December-cheery people, so I need to find outside forces that make me appreciate the holiday season more. This year it was a weekend getaway to Chicago in December (which was frigidly cold but full of lights and holiday festivity) and a purchased copy of Jenny Colgan’s new book. I can’t exactly explain what she does for me, but I might describe her as my version of a December beach read. Her plots are simple, her characters are enjoyable, all of them take place in the UK, and all novels I have read take place around Christmastime. Her novels are like a mug of a favorite warm beverage; sippable, and they leave you feeling warm and cozy on the inside.

The holidays were so hectic this year I didn’t finish The Secret Christmas Library until New Year’s Eve. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, this one was not my favorite. I wasn’t enraptured with this plot and didn’t fall head-over-heels in love with her characters as I normally do. I was entertained, but I wanted more. And her 2-3 pages of a fully descriptive bedroom scene just didn’t fit on par with her normally PG novels.

Next December, I strongly recommend reading a Jenny Colgan novel (or two). Just maybe not The Secret Christmas Library.

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November 2025

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1. When Breath Becomes Air

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SUMMARY

Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.

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MY REVIEW

This book had been on my “must reads” list for quite some time. Perhaps it was an overdose of too much fiction (is that even a thing?); maybe the firework explosion of colors on the trees reminded me that in the Midwest we are in the season where leaves die before winter.

Within this short memoir, Kalanithi packs a poignant punch of what it means to walk the line between living and dying. As a neurosurgeon, he experienced that almost daily as he navigated his way around fragile spinal columns and complicated brains. He thought he understood the reality of death and our own finite timelines…until he himself was given a terminal cancer diagnosis.

I loved how this memoir was written in two sections: one of his life pre-cancer and one after it. In the first part, we empathize with his fast-paced, goal-oriented life. How much can he get done in a day? How can he advance his career? He celebrates crawling into bed at night, beyond exhausted, from having accomplished more than was humanly possible. He thought he was living life to the fullest.

And then. Life came to a screeching halt with his cancer diagnosis. Not just early stages either–stage 4. Kalanithi writes about how time changed, from a clock-driven, calendar-based concept to something more arbitrary. Instead of “what time is dinner?” or “what day should I get that done?” he asks himself, “what should I do with the rest of my life?”

Despite his father’s relentless positivity, Kalanithi’s story does not end happily. Or maybe it does. As his wife writes in the epilogue, Paul lived his life with an authenticity as he “griev[ed] the loss of the future he planned and forge[d] a new one” (219).

Maybe that’s all we should strive for in our own lives.

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2. Challenger Deep

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SUMMARY

Caden Bosch is on a ship that’s headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench.

Caden Bosch is a brilliant high school student whose friends are starting to notice his odd behaviour.

Caden Bosch is designated the ship’s artist in residence to document the journey with images.

Caden Bosch pretends to join the school track team but spends his days walking for miles, absorbed by the thoughts in his head.

Caden Bosch is split between his allegiance to the captain and the allure of mutiny.

Caden Bosch is torn.

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MY REVIEW

Neal Shusterman is coming to a writing festival a local university holds in my area, and this was a recommended read. I am always looking for a middle grade-to-young adult novel; there’s something for me in the way authors of this genre are willing to tackle seemingly “adult-only” topics and bring them down to the middle school and high school level. I feel we have always underestimated this age group, and my years teaching middle school and high school confirmed this. They are clearly aware of what is going on in the world and what is happening to people; they just need it brought to them on a level they can understand. Since the onset of the internet and mobile devices, I believe this is even more true today. We shouldn’t shelter this age group from reality; instead, we should carefully choose how to present it to them.

Shusterman accepts this challenge and presents a world where Caden Bosch lives in a deep dark place of mental illness. “Unable to function in everyday society” mental illness. “We have no choice but to hospitalize you” mental illness. It’s a fascinating journey into Caden’s head, to experience med changes and hallucinations and friendships and reconfiguring life. But the world of mental illness is not an easy one for those who live it, or for those who love someone with it.

Shusterman’s ability to write so poignantly comes from–as I feared while reading this novel–his own pain and heartbreak as he watched his son battle mental illness. The drawings in the book come from his son. Not all stories end well, but Brendan Shusterman “found his piece of sky and escaped gloriously from the deep” (Author’s Note).

I appreciated Shusterman’s final thoughts that he hopes Challenger Deep will help others “to empathize, and to understand what it’s like to sail the dark, unpredictable waters of mental illness” (Author’s Note).

This was a difficult, but worthwhile read. And I would gladly put it in the hands of someone of a younger age who is able to handle the depth and struggle of this topic.

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3. What Happened to Rachel Riley?

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SUMMARY

An eighth grader uses social media posts, passed notes, and other clues to find out why a formerly popular girl is now the pariah of her new school in this #metoo story.

Anna Hunt may be the new girl at East Middle School, but she can already tell there’s something off about her eighth-grade class. Rachel Riley, who just last year was one of the most popular girls in school, has become a social outcast. But no one, including Rachel Riley herself, will tell Anna why. As a die-hard podcast enthusiast, Anna knows there’s always more to a story than meets the eye. So she decides to put her fact-seeking skills to the test and create her own podcast around the question that won’t stop running through her. What happened to Rachel Riley? With the entire eighth grade working against her, Anna dives headfirst into the evidence. Clue after clue, the mystery widens, painting an even more complex story than Anna could have anticipated. But there’s one thing she’s certain about, if you’re going to ask a complicated question, you better be prepared for the fallout that may come with the answer.

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MY REVIEW

When a beloved middle school teacher “highly” recommends a book, I read it. In fact, in this particular case, I walked to the library that very afternoon and picked up a copy. She was spot on that this was a great read, and I had it finished within 48 hours.

I loved how this book was told through different elements in addition to narrative writing. There were emails and announcements and text strands, completely immersing itself in contemporary Middle Grade fiction. Because the story was told in reverse order (we don’t actually know what happened to Rachel Riley until the end of the book, although the “what happened” occurred before the book was written), many of the emails and announcements don’t entirely make sense as we untangle the massive plot knot that is teenage relationships.

More importantly, this is a novel about what constitutes as bullying and teasing. Yes, there is a gendered aspect to this particular tale and it is an important one. However, what is critical for this age group in our social media filled society is understanding what qualifies as bullying, “soft” as it may be. People may laugh it off or say it was “just for fun” and that “no one was really hurt,” but until we can teach this next generation to protect themselves physically, mentally and emotionally and to place their own safety first, we have to keep preaching loudly. Personally, I find a MG novel is the perfect way to do that.

All ages should read this book. And, if you’re a parent of a teenager, read this book and talk about it together.

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4. Wreck

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SUMMARY

Rocky, still anxious, nostalgic, and funny, is living in Western Massachusetts with her husband Nick and their daughter Willa, who’s back home after college. Their son, Jamie, has taken a new job in New York, and Mort, Rocky’s widowed father, has moved in.

It all couldn’t be more ridiculously normal . . . until Rocky finds herself obsessed with a local accident that only tangentially affects them—and with a medical condition that, she hopes, won’t affect them at all.

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MY REVIEW

After reading and loving Sandwich earlier this year, I highly anticipated Newman’s sequel. I had considered purchasing it as my special Winter Break vacation book, but when my hold request became available at the library, I decided to read it early.

When people ask me what Newman’s books are about, I usually respond with a shoulder shrug and the word “nothing.” Because Newman’s books aren’t about driving plots or action over the course of a certain period of time. Both have been about a middle-age woman living with all the thoughts and feelings that come with the age and learning to unpublished rule book that comes with having adult kids.

In a way that Sandwich was lovely to me, Wreck felt a little bit too much like its own title. Perhaps it’s because this book was not set in the nostalgic beach home with her family on vacation. Perhaps it’s because both wrecks in the novel, an external event and her own internal one, posed a much darker view on life. For me, whereas Rocky was pleasantly emotional in the first book, she became unpleasantly mental in this novel. A friend saw this coming with the first book and told me that Rocky just thinks everything and every situation is about her.

Ultimately, I am glad I did not spend my money on purchasing this rather expensive, shortish-length hardcover book. It did continue to offer provoking thoughts and perspectives on middle age and what “wrecks” us (or, maybe more astutely, what we allow to wreck us), but overall it felt like a country song where the same, sad tune was sung, just different lyrics in the second verse.

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October 2025

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1. My Friends

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SUMMARY

Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.

Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream, a reason to love.

Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and to decide what to do with it. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes about what she’ll find. Louisa is proof that happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this stunning testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art.

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MY REVIEW

I have always been a fan of Frederik Backman. He captured me first with A Man Called Ove and had never let me go. My friend Kim (yes, I’m actually referring to another person) gifted me with her hardcover copy to read and enjoy on my own time with no library due date. I

didn’t know it, but I would need all the time to slowly and carefully read this deep and moving story of four friends and a painting that would change all their lives. I have confessed before that I can be a skim reader, but this book required a detailed read of every chapter, every page, every sentence. I felt like every third or fourth sentence was profound enough to be a poster on someone’s wall. Backman’s writing is witty and heartfelt and deep…and then he makes some reference to a fart (endearing and funny a few times, mostly weird and redundant in my opinion).

This is a story about a painting. But it’s so much more. If you were given a checklist of thematic options, my guess is most readers would check almost all of them: love, pain, grief, sacrifice, friendship, death. So I guess that makes this novel the single most handbook on “how to live life.”

Readers, this one is worth it. Find your copy, whether it be at the library, the bookstore or your good friend Kim (side note: everyone should have a good friend Kim in their lives). Read it, enjoy it, savor it. Let it take up rent in your head long after you’ve finished it. And then pray to the gods in Hollywood they never try to mess it up by making it into a movie.

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2. The Keeper of Lost Things

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SUMMARY

Anthony Peardew is the keeper of lost things. Forty years ago, he carelessly lost a keepsake from his beloved fiancée, Therese. That very same day, she died unexpectedly. Brokenhearted, Anthony sought consolation in rescuing lost objects—the things others have dropped, misplaced, or accidentally left behind—and writing stories about them. Now, in the twilight of his life, Anthony worries that he has not fully discharged his duty to reconcile all the lost things with their owners. As the end nears, he bequeaths his secret life’s mission to his unsuspecting assistant, Laura, leaving her his house and all its lost treasures, including an irritable ghost.

Recovering from a bad divorce, Laura, in some ways, is one of Anthony’s lost things. But when the lonely woman moves into his mansion, her life begins to change. She finds a new friend in the neighbor’s quirky daughter, Sunshine, and a welcome distraction in Freddy, the rugged gardener. As the dark cloud engulfing her lifts, Laura, accompanied by her new companions, sets out to realize Anthony’s last wish: reuniting his cherished lost objects with their owners.

Long ago, Eunice found a trinket on the London pavement and kept it through the years. Now, with her own end drawing near, she has lost something precious—a tragic twist of fate that forces her to break a promise she once made.

As the Keeper of Lost Objects, Laura holds the key to Anthony and Eunice’s redemption. But can she unlock the past and make the connections that will lay their spirits to rest?

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MY REVIEW

I believe I saw a recommendation for this book on social media, and not by any person I knew. But their review said that reading this book was “like getting a hug,” and I thought I could use a bookhug right now.

I wanted to like this book more. Perhaps it’s Backman’s fault for exposing me to the highest level of literature for my previous read. I believe the plot is worthwhile; the synopsis reminded me a bit of The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper (Patrick) which I thoroughly enjoyed. And the running themes of lost love and found love and friendship and holding out hope when all seems bleak–these are all themes I appreciate in a good novel.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find myself caring about the characters, and as a result, I could not connect to the plot. This might have been a book I would have abandoned halfway through had it not been the feeling of responsibility to finish and report on it to you, my dear readers. Perhaps it moved too slow for my fast-paced brain; perhaps I’m not someone who can appreciate “charming” books the way others can.

Goodreads claims this is a book for readers who loved The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (Bender). Now that is a book that I loved and would highly recommend to any reader.

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3. How to Read a Book

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SUMMARY

Violet Powell, a twenty-two-year-old from rural Abbott Falls, Maine, is being released from prison after serving twenty-two months for a drunk-driving crash that killed a local kindergarten teacher. Harriet Larson, a retired English teacher who runs the prison book club, is facing the unsettling prospect of an empty nest. Frank Daigle, a retired machinist, hasn’t yet come to grips with the complications of his marriage to the woman Violet killed.

When the three encounter each other one morning in a bookstore in Portland—Violet to buy the novel she was reading in the prison book club before her release, Harriet to choose the next title for the women who remain, and Frank to dispatch his duties as the store handyman—their lives begin to intersect in transformative ways.

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MY REVIEW

At this point, how this book got on my “to read” list is insignificant; the fact that it got into my hands and I got to devour it in a few short days is all that matters. The title gives nothing away, so I had no idea what to expect. Imagine my shock and surprise when the novel opens in a prison ward.

This book was an absolute delight to read in so many ways. It captured a small glimpse into prison life and what it means for those women to live on the Ins. It enforces the importance of literature and reading and education, and how that is the one universal freedom we all are given. Yes, it’s about friendship and romance, but I loved how it viewed those idyllic aspects of life through broken humans who repeatedly screw up.

I think I adored this book so much because above all, it is a story of forgiveness and offering grace. I believe those are what we need today, in this world, above all else.

Do yourself a favor and find a copy of this book. Even better if you buy it and share it around. This one deserves circulation.

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September 2025

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1. Middlesex

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SUMMARY

The astonishing tale of a gene that passes down through three generations of a Greek-American family and flowers in the body of a teenage girl.

In the spring of 1974, Calliope Stephanides, a student at a girls’ school in Grosse Pointe, finds herself drawn to a chain-smoking, strawberry blond classmate with a gift for acting. The passion that furtively develops between them–along with Callie’s failure to develop–leads Callie to suspect that she is not like other girls. In fact, she is not really a girl at all.

The explanation for this shocking state of affairs takes us out of suburbia- back before the Detroit race riots of 1967, before the rise of the Motor City and Prohibition, to 1922, when the Turks sacked Smyrna and Callie’s grandparents fled for their lives. Back to a tiny village in Asia Minor where two lovers, and one rare genetic mutation, set in motion the metamorphosis that will turn Callie into a being both mythical and perfectly a hermaphrodite.

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MY REVIEW

I decided to read this book because my husband nagged me to read it recommended it to me. My error was choosing to read a 500+ page book in the end of August, when all of life gets busy and I have little to no reading time. I found myself reading this book in five and ten minute increments.

This novel is a stew in your LeCrueset dutch oven. It requires many ingredients that are carefully, painstakingly prepared, and then it is set on a low heat for hours, if not days. This story moves slowly, taking almost 400 pages to get to the primary story of the narrator. Eugenides, through the voice of the narrator, is unapologetic. Less than halfway through the novel the narrator speaks to you, the reader, directly. “Shall I get right to it? No, slowly, leisurely, that’s the way” (232).

But do not think the backstory is boring or unimportant. At times I felt the story had a little Forrest Gump feel to it, with the characters living out important aspects of history. Add in that much of the story is based in Detroit, and we Michiganders feel some fondness toward this Mitten State story.

At the heart of the story is a hermaphrodite, so the reader must hold comfort with gender fluidity and confusion. But it’s also about so much more, as it weaves a beautiful tale of three generations of one family, about immigration and living the American dream. It’s about relationships, both love and friendship. Ultimately it’s a book about understanding one’s own personal identity.

If you have the time to commit to this, I promise you a thought-provoking read.

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2. Rural Voices: 15 Authors Challenge Assumptions About Small-Town America

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SUMMARY

Think you know what rural America is like? Discover a plurality of perspectives in this enlightening anthology of stories that turns preconceptions on their head.

Gracie sees a chance of fitting in at her South Carolina private school, until a “white trash”-themed Halloween party has her steering clear of the rich kids. Samuel’s Tejano family has both stood up to oppression and been a source of it, but now he’s ready to own his true sexual identity. A Puerto Rican teen in Utah discovers that being a rodeo queen means embracing her heritage, not shedding it. . . .

For most of America’s history, rural people and culture have been casually mocked, stereotyped, and, in general, deeply misunderstood. Now an array of short stories, poetry, graphic short stories, and personal essays, along with anecdotes from the authors’ real lives, dives deep into the complexity and diversity of rural America and the people who call it home. Fifteen extraordinary authors – diverse in ethnic background, sexual orientation, geographic location, and socioeconomic status – explore the challenges, beauty, and nuances of growing up in rural America. From a mountain town in New Mexico to the gorges of New York to the arctic tundra of Alaska, you’ll find yourself visiting parts of this country you might not know existed – and meet characters whose lives might be surprisingly similar to your own.

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MY REVIEW

I stumbled upon this book as I was researching a potential literary agent. After working my way through some longer, slower reads in August, I was ready for something I could quickly pick up and digest. In addition, the topic very much interested me. For years, I used a different short story series entitled “Voices from the Rust Belt” by Anne Trubek in my community college EN101 class. I loved the gritty stories with tough characters in communities like Flint, Buffalo, Cleveland.

To my (pleasant) surprise, all of the stories told were about teenagers trying to find their identity in relation to the small town in which they live. Some are trying to space themselves from their zip code; others struggle with being viewed as outsiders. All want to be true to themselves and find balance in their lives.

This is the kind of book I would love to teach in a high school (or my community college) classroom. I find the stories to be authentic to teenagers’ lives, and I would love to hold discussions and assign projects and hear their perspective on these stories.

If you are someone who loves short stories, or someone who appreciates the value in a collection of short stories (the ability to read one at a time instead of cover to cover), I recommend this book to you.

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3. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

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SUMMARY

Most people want to avoid thinking about death, but Caitlin Doughty—a twenty-something with a degree in medieval history and a flair for the macabre—took a job at a crematory, turning morbid curiosity into her life’s work. Thrown into a profession of gallows humor and vivid characters (both living and very dead), Caitlin learned to navigate the secretive culture of those who care for the deceased.

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes tells an unusual coming-of-age story full of bizarre encounters and unforgettable scenes. Caring for dead bodies of every color, shape, and affliction, Caitlin soon becomes an intrepid explorer in the world of the dead. She describes how she swept ashes from the machines (and sometimes onto her clothes) and reveals the strange history of cremation and undertaking, marveling at bizarre and wonderful funeral practices from different cultures.

Her eye-opening, candid, and often hilarious story is like going on a journey with your bravest friend to the cemetery at midnight. She demystifies death, leading us behind the black curtain of her unique profession. And she answers questions you didn’t know you had: Can you catch a disease from a corpse? How many dead bodies can you fit in a Dodge van? What exactly does a flaming skull look like?

Honest and heartfelt, self-deprecating and ironic, Caitlin’s engaging style makes this otherwise taboo topic both approachable and engrossing. Now a licensed mortician with an alternative funeral practice, Caitlin argues that our fear of dying warps our culture and society, and she calls for better ways of dealing with death (and our dead).

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MY REVIEW

f you have come to know me in the past few months, you will know that I have an interest in death and dying. Caitlin Doughty’s book “From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find a Good Death” was a cornerstone source of information for my MFA Master’s thesis about why we must write about death and dying in fiction. In that book, Doughty explores different death rituals practiced around the world and explores how we deal with death impacts how we live life. It bordered on uncomfortable at times, but for me she always ended the chapter with a beautiful understanding.

I’ll confess that Smoke Gets in Your Eyes was a bit creepy and overly morbid, even for me. She approaches death and morbidity with a bluntness, a matter-of-fact approach, and she doesn’t shy away from details or soften explanations in this book. There are moments in this book when you are standing right next to her at the door of the crematorium, ready to open it and slide a body in. Doughty is real and raw and descriptive in a way that will make most readers squeamish. Which is too bad, because she has beautiful, important thoughts about death and dying that would make any reader think. Her chapter about embalming made me look at it from a completely different angle and I’m perhaps less horrified about the concept of cremation than I was before I read this.

If you are someone who can stomach her all-too-real descriptions of the funeral industry, or if you have a “morbid curiosity” as I do, than I recommend this enlightening book.

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4. The Thursday Murder Club

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SUMMARY

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders.

But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it’s too late?

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MY REVIEW

This book came to me through a recommendation, although for the life of me I cannot remember exactly who or where (that’s what I get at my age for writing things down).

After finishing a nonfiction memoir about working at a crematorium, I was ready for something a little more lighthearted and fun. This definitely fit the bill. It reminded me of How to Age “(Dis)Gracefully which I read a few weeks ago; both use a group of older people who refuse to age and as a result are generally up to shenanigans.

As far as murder mysteries go, this one wasn’t my favorite. I didn’t find it to be a page turner as the mystery of multiple murders unraveled, and when the plot was finally revealed, I didn’t feel the same sense of satisfaction that I had with Two Nights in Lisbon.

But as far as a fiction novel, I did find that I appreciated the characters, their quirks and idiosyncrasies, and the friendship formed amongst them as they used their combined wit and wisdom to solve murders.

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5. The Hotel Avocado

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SUMMARY

Gary Thorn is struggling with a big decision. Should he stay in London, wallowing in the safety of his legal job in Peckham and eating pies with his next door neighbour, Grace and her dog Lassoo, or should he move to Brighton, where his girlfriend Emily is about to open The Hotel Avocado? Either way, he’d be letting someone down.

But sinister forces are gathering in a cloud of launderette scented-vape smoke, and the arrival of the mysterious Mr Sequence puts Gary in an even worse [situation]; soon he might be dead.

All Gary wants is a happy life. But he also wants to be alive to enjoy it…

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MY REVIEW

After reading The Clementine Complex earlier this year, I eagerly awaited the arrival of its sequel for the continued saga of Gary and Emily. Alas, I could not find it in any local library district, and so I was forced to purchase it.

It was well worth the money. Mortimer is British, which makes the writing and dialogue even more lovely. Some of the characters are a bit crass, so the reader needs to be willing to have a few cuss words and general fowl language thrown their way. But the plot of this sequel is simply enjoyable, possibly even more so than the first. In this story we are already friends with the main characters; we could sit down on the couch with them and enjoy a “cuppa” tea and perhaps a slice of Battenberg cake.

Gary and Emily find themselves individually neck deep in troubles and issues, and living apart has brought other people and relationship temptations in their lives. The talking squirrel, perhaps one of my favorite aspects of the original novel, returns in this story and even has an additional friend to provide conversation and insight for Gary.

If you read The Clementine Complex and enjoyed it, I highly recommend the sequel. If you have not read the original, I suggest you place it on hold at your local library right now. It is worth the read.

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