The Cue Card

Hi Bookworms. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying beautiful fall days. It’s been amazing outside. We got back this week from Mexico City where we had a lovely time at my nephew’s wedding and exploring the area. We took an informative guided bike tour of the city — thanks to Luis — across multiple bike lanes and saw various monuments, churches, and old ruins. From there, you could see that the city was built on a drained lakebed (first by the Aztecs then by the Spanish) and that parts of it are sinking and some buildings are tilting. One tilted church we saw was closed due to possible cave-ins. No wonder earthquakes are so dangerous there.

It’s such a large city with a metropolitan area of about 22 million people, and it reminded me slightly of being in New York City … perhaps because of the traffic density and because we found it quite walkable amid the neighborhoods and we first stayed near a large city park —Chapultepec Park — which is said to be three times as large as New York’s Central Park. The park is nicely filled with big Mexican cypress trees and is perfect for cycling.

Near there, we went to a couple museums including the Anthropology Museum where we saw the famous Aztec Sun Stone created sometime in the early 1500s, which they believe was used as a ceremonial sacrificial altar. You could feed the Sun god and hopefully keep the universe moving. Here I am proud to be standing next to it.

We also took a guided tour of the pyramids at Teotihuacan about an hour away, which are roughly 1,800 to 2,000 years old. There are two main big ones — the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. They were built before the Aztecs arrived and found them abandoned by some ancient unknown civilization.

As you walk around the large site you can imagine the sacrifices to the gods that were being performed here. It’s a bit daunting … as hearts could be taken from live bodies and perhaps put on the altars, yikes. Here at left is the view that my husband took from the top of the Sun pyramid … as I did not go up as I am not good with heights nor with climbing up steep small steps.

Anyways it’s whetted my appetite to seeing more, but for now we must get back to books. I wanted to recap my reading this summer and the 15 books on my Summer List. From the original list I read 9 but then I added two subs (marked below with *) so it came out to be 11. I tried to put them in some kind of order of how I liked them, but the first five novels on the list below (all being over 4 stars) were all so strong and good reads that I found it hard to weigh a top favorite. These authors reigned supreme for me this summer. After those, two eye-opening nonfiction books followed and then a couple debut novels by promising authors and then the two last ones. So all in all it was a great summer. And with the fall lineup ahead, I feel it’s been a strong year in books.

• Land by Maggie O’Farrell / 4.5
• Kin by Tayari Jones / 4.3
• The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout / 4.3
• John of John by Douglas Stuart / 4.5
• Whistler by Ann Patchett / 4.3

• Strangers: A Memoir of a Marriage by Belle Burden / 3.75
• Family of Spies * by Christine Kuehn (nonfiction) / 3.75

• Dominion by Addie E. Citchens (debut) / 3.75
• Under Water by Tara Menon (debut) / 3.75
• True Crime: A Memoir by Patricia Cornwell / 3.65
• The Shampoo Effect * by Jenny Jackson / 3.5

And now I’ll leave you with a couple reviews of what I finished lately.

Strangers: A Memoir of a Marriage by Belle Burden/ Dial / 256 pgs / 2026

3.75 stars. This bestselling blockbuster was a buddy read with Tina at Turn the Page. Did you know there’s 40,223 reviews of this book on Goodreads and 334,372 ratings of it? In comparison, the bestselling Ann Patchett novel Whistler has 24,774 reviews and 194,506 ratings. And that was big this summer! So you can see that Strangers has struck a nerve with folks. People either liked it and were moved by it … or others disliked it and were critical of her and that she would write the book. I guess I’m more in the first group. Hell yeah. This happened … and she wanted to talk it through or write about it more than be silenced. It surprised me in that way since I’m more internal, but I had to give it to her particularly since I thought it was pretty well done.

For those who don’t know …. this is a nonfiction book about the dissolution of a marriage. One day while at the start of the Covid pandemic in 2020 … the author learned in a telephone call that her husband was having an affair. The next day he told her he wanted a divorce and was leaving her and their three teenage kids after 20 years of marriage. She was blindsided to put it mildly with no warning or explanation. She was left during Covid with two of her kids while quarantining at their secondary residence on Martha’s Vineyard, leaving their main residence in New York City.

She was thrown for a loop and man was she affected. During the months after she seemed to hit rock bottom … over losing her husband and identity. It’s all spelled out here in the book … her agony at the time, and her and her husband’s story of how they met and their history and that of her family’s. Much has been made about how privileged and well off she and husband were. She was rich from old money and he worked at a hedge fund, they didn’t have to worry, or did they? It seems for a while she thought her residences and private club on the island would be taken away but then they settled right before going to court. And she took main custody of the kids. He kept his accrued earnings from when they were married, which was what was in their prenup.

Still despite the differences I might have with Belle, I was moved by her journey over the dissolution of her marriage and a bit or her re-discovery. I thought she wrote it well and made good points. It was a bit eye-opening as I had not thought of the particulars over such a hardship. Everyone is different … as is every marriage … we might not be totally similar to Belle but we can understand and sympathize. I thought it took courage and much fortitude and I applaud her for that.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia /Del Rey / 320 pages / 2020

3.5 stars. I remember how popular this novel was when it first came out in 2020. It took off and really brought the author to a new level of recognition. For whatever reason, I did not read it back then, but later I read another of her novels The Daughter of Doctor Moreau which is loosely a follow-up to H.G. Wells’s 1896 novel The Island of Doctor Moreau. I liked it and thought I’d read more … even though I’m not usually a reader of the horror genre or the supernatural. Though to be fair I think Moreno-Garcia is a bit of a literary savant who seems to be able to write across multiple genres.

So I took this atmospheric novel on our trip to Mexico City and it was good for that. It is set there in the 1950s where Noemi, a college student, is a bit of socialite who goes to various dances and events, stringing men along in her wake, and who’s flighty about what she wants to pursue. She’s recently changed her attention to the study of anthropology. But then her father asks her to go check on her cousin Catalina who has sent him a worrisome letter from outside the city.

Noemi sets off for High Place, a crumbling old mansion high in the hills, to see Catalina who not long ago married into the prominent Doyle family, who once owned and managed a profitable silver mine before a strange epidemic killed so many of the miners. But when Noemi arrives all is amiss and not exactly what it seems. Plus the family is strange and acting poorly, restricting her on what she can do and where she can go.

High Place is a spooky place filled with strange fungus, mold, and a deluge of rain. After various nightmares, sleepwalks, and odd happenings, Noemi begins to investigate what is truly going on there — and whether she and her cousin are being poisoned … and whoa it is something to behold. Moreno-Garcia does well to bring to life the dilapidated, eerie mansion of High Place and the cemetery out back where many are buried. Mexican Gothic has some similarities with her another novel The Daughter of Doctor Moreau … with strong female protagonists dealing with spooky places and sticky situations. I liked it for a quick atmospheric, escape read.

That’s all for now. What about you — have you read any of these and what did you think? Oh and I forgot it’s my birthday today, lol. I guess it’s another year of mischief, ha ha.

Hi Bookworms, happy Labor Day weekend. I hope it’s fun and relaxing where you are. We are having three days of rain here. Bahhh, I had hoped to get yard work done before our trip this week to Mexico City for my nephew’s wedding (woohoo).

Here’s a shot from the end of the road.

I’ll be bringing Mexican Gothic in the travel bag … the 2020 novel by Silva Moreno-Garcia. I’m hoping it might add to the atmosphere. We plan to explore the city.

Now September is upon us. Can you believe summer is about over? Yikes, it’s definitely cooler in the mornings here, but fall should be nice, and this month — my birthday month — is usually one of the prettiest of the year. I hope my tennis and golf playing will still be possible into mid-October.

I’ll be recapping what I finished on my Summer List next time. I just finished Belle Burden’s memoir Strangers about the collapse of her marriage, which was a buddy read with Tina at Turn the Page. I’ll review it next time.

Until then there’s much to discuss about what’s coming out this month. So many notable authors have new novels releasing including: Marlon James, Kate Atkinson, Robert Harris, John Green, Ariel Lawhon, R.F. Kuang, Emily St. John Mandel, Patrick deWitt, Jodi Picoult, Min Jin Lee, Hernan Diaz, and John Boyne. There’s also new mysteries by Ann Cleeves and Richard Osman and popular reads by Deesha Philyaw, Elin Hilderbrand, Amanda Peters, and Chloe Benjamin among others. I’m looking at these and a few others highlighted below.

First is Emma Cline’s novel Switzy (due out Sept. 8) about a retired man with dementia who’s on his final journey to Zurich to accept his fate. On the way he plans to see his daughter in London and an estranged boyhood friend in France. But what is evident is his mind seems to be unraveling.

This novel sounds moving and sad, but I’m not totally sure it’s advisable for me to read considering past losses … though Emma Cline is quite a young talent and I’ve read and liked her other two books. Switzy has been longlisted for the Booker Prize and we’ll have to see if it makes it onto the shortlist when that’s announced on Sept. 22.

I’m also curious about Philippe Collin’s translated debut novel The Barman at the Ritz (out Sept. 1), which has been a big bestseller in France, about a bartender in Paris during the Nazi Occupation who is trying to hide a secret about himself while also helping the Resistance. Apparently the story draws on the real life of Frank Meier who served Nazis at the Ritz Hotel during WWII.

Kirkus calls it a “compelling story of entrapment and survival,” and Shelf Awareness says it’s a “sensitive portrait of a man forced to make impossible choices.” I have read several WWII novels set in Occupied France, but this one sounds like I shouldn’t miss it.

Next is Tananarive Due’s novel Mazywood (due out Sept. 22), which the publisher says is a literary thriller that follows the grandson of a famous Black actress who returns to his grandmother’s cabin retreat in the California mountains only to encounter a legacy of rage and secrets that has haunted his family for generations. The novel explores their family’s history while the grandson tries to piece together the true story of his grandmother who brushed shoulders with the stars of Old Hollywood.

I meant to read the author’s prior novel The Reformatory, which received much praise and now this book is doing the same. Both books are lengthy and apparently have a touch of the horror genre about them. She seems like an author who can spin an enticing yarn. She also teaches at UCLA.

Lastly I’m looking at Ayad Akhtar’s new novel The Radiance (out Sept. 29) about a writer who undergoes a startling transformation after being involved in a hit-and-run accident. Later he reaches out to a friend who teaches at the local college and then finds himself being pulled into a scandal there that threatens to destroy them both.

The novel — like Akhtar’s debut Homeland Elegies — is autofiction, which is genre I’m not usually a big fan of … whereby the author plays a main part in his or her own novel. Still the book has received an assortment of high praise so I’m going to check it out. Is it as profound and unforgettable as some are saying?

In what to watch this month — there’s Season 6 of the spy series Slow Horses with Gary Oldman as the grumpy chief spymaster starting on Sept. 16 on AppleTV, which is said to be bringing back some former characters, so stay tuned for that.

As well as there’s a new comedy-drama series Youth (starting Sept. 20 on HBO) starring Sharon Horgan as a 50-year-old divorcee literary agent who juggles dating life while taking care of her parents and adult son. Horgan, an Irish actress and the show’s creator, is funny in these types of roles and many liked her in the 2015 series Catastrophe and the more-recent series Bad Sisters, which was a fun spoof that features the five (bad) Garvey sisters who just might have covered up a crime.

I’m also eager to see the miniseries Trespasses (on PBS starting Sept. 20) about Cushla, a Catholic schoolteacher who falls dangerously in love with Michael, an older, married Protestant barrister in 1975 Northern Ireland. Cushia lives with her mother a widow and alcoholic (played by the great Gillian Anderson). It’s based on the 2022 novel by Louise Kennedy, which I reviewed here and was shortlisted for the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Check it out if you get a chance.

Lastly in music this month, there’s new albums by Beck, Miley Cyrus, Neil Young, Susanna Hoffs, and Leon Bridges among others. I’ll pick Leon Bridges new studio album Happiness Anytime (out Sept. 25), which is his fifth. Here’s the sounds of the smooth and delectable single Talk It Over. Enjoy.

That’s all for now. What about you — which new releases are you looking forward to? Happy September.

Hi Bookworms, what say you? It’s a bit hard to believe but August has gone by the wayside and only a few weeks of summer remain, though some say it’s over after next week’s Labor Day. In the news you might have seen the devastating flooding in Nepal and Tibet. Please give to international efforts to help if you can. It looks totally horrific and scary what happened to communities there.

I didn’t post last weekend as I was waiting to finish a couple books, which I did, so you can see the reviews below. We took Willow to the river where she enjoyed a swim and was able to cool off in the hot weather. Next weekend, I’ll likely post a September Preview of what’s coming out, and then my husband and I will be away for a week in Mexico City for my nephew’s wedding, woohoo. We will explore and check out the sights. We have not been before. Have you?

Meanwhile there’s a lot of fall books coming out soon, and Kirkus has put out an enticing list of the 60 Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2026. Of these I’d like to get to: Emma Cline’s novel Switzy (on the Booker Longlist), Bonnie Garmus’s second novel Peck & Peck, Chad Harbach’s novel The Brightness, Barbara Kingsolver’s upcoming novel Partita, and Imbolo Mbue’s Every Story is a Love Story among others.

Also, I plan to go to the book festival Wordfest in October here, where such authors as Tayari Jones, Jenny Jackson, Emily St. John Mandel, Bonnie Garmus, Ruth Ozeki and debut author Larissa Pham will be speaking. It should be good. Do you have any big books of fall or author events that you’re looking forward to?

And now I’ll leave you with a couple reviews of what I finished lately.

John of John by Douglas Stuart / Grove / 400 pages / 2026

4.5 stars. This is sort of a squirm-worthy family tale set in the 1990s about a closeted gay son Cal Macleod, age 22, who returns home after art school in Glasgow to a remote island off of Scotland where his strict Calvinist father John and profanity-loving grandmother Ella live and keep sheep.

His father is a deacon at the church and weaves wool to sell, which Cal is now expected to do in their small community (Falabay) of around 26 people. His father is no longer with his mother who lives a ways off. From the beginning you know that the son hides his gayness because he thinks he will be disowned if it comes out, but there are also things his gruff father and grandmother are not telling him.

Whoa the father is violent at times — he tries to force Cal to cut his long hair and change his weird clothes after his return from school — but he doesn’t want to lose Cal, and the grandmother is close to Cal and tries to ease his way. There are the neighbors: his father’s best friend Innes, who doesn’t speak with his estranged brother Sorley in the same house; the pub and inn keeper Flash Calder who gives Cal’s some work shifts; and Cal’s friend Doll Macdonald who shirks him upon his return.

You soon see this is a rocky, isolated place full of guarded people and little economic prospects and it’s no wonder Cal didn’t want to return. It has an old world feel of Gaelic speakers, church dwellers, sheep herders, and rough sea fisherman. There are some turns the story takes between Cal and his father and some of the others in the community, but it’s best to find out for yourself. It has secrets that unfold … and going into it blind is best.

I hadn’t read Douglas Stuart before, but I was compelled by his storytelling of Cal’s family and their home on the rocky, isolated island, which apparently the author based on his 2019 trip to the remote Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides (Scottish isles). Not perhaps since Charlotte McConaghy’s Wild Dark Shore has an island setting been so vivid in the story. It transports you to their world hook, line, and sinker.

You might recall the author’s debut novel Shuggie Bain won the Booker Prize in 2020, but I haven’t picked it up yet since I heard it’s a pretty brutal story of alcoholism and its effect on a family. Though I want to read it sometime — now that I’ve read John of John, which is up for the Booker as well. Like Shuggie, this novel has some intense moments and gay male sex … so perhaps that’s good to know before picking it up, but it’s not overly brutal.

Oprah picked John of John for her book club in May 2026 … and she has an interesting interview with Douglas Stuart about the book, but I would definitely read it first as the show gives away some secrets in the book … so watch it after you read it.

Douglas Stuart continues to be a great writer to watch. And since he now lives in New York City, I wonder whether his next novel will be set there? Or will he return to his Glasgow roots? We will have to wait and see.

True Crime: A Memoir by Patricia Cornwell /Grand Central /464 pgs/2026

3.75 stars. Cornwell has had quite the whirlwind life from rags to riches. Half the long book shines the light on her troubled childhood … in which her father left and her mother had a couple mental breakdowns requiring hospitalizations. Patsy (as she was called) and her two brothers wound up in foster care with a harsh foster parent that made life a bit hell.

Then months later they got back with their mother who relocated them to Montreat, N.C., where she took Patsy to the estate of evangelist Billy and Ruth Graham’s. Ruth became a benefactor to young Patsy and a friend for life. Later Cornwell ended up going to Davidson College, which opened up a world to her … with books and meeting influential professors, one of which would later become her husband for some years. Afterwards, Cornwell first worked in journalism and then at the morgue in Richmond, which lead to ideas for her fictional crime books.

It seemed to me this memoir spends a lot of time on her hard childhood … over half the book and then speeds it up in the second half when she becomes a well-known crime author. I was ready to find out more about her writing life earlier. She touches on much adversity including: the early life with her unstable parents; a date assault while with the Charlotte Observer newspaper; the end of her marriage; a hair-raising car crash in 1993; and being outed as bisexual in an affair scandal in 1996-97.

It makes for a pretty dramatic read, which is interesting to hear Cornwell narrate the audio for. She seems fairly candid in various parts. And late in the book she writes about the book and screen projects she took on and drops names of all the celebrities — actors and politicians — she’s known. I thought some name dropping was all right to make it dishy, but it seems overall the memoir could’ve been streamlined and edited shorter. It becomes a lengthy and slightly tiring journey.

In it, she mentions she’s been the highest paid female author (other than JK Rowling) which I guess I didn’t really realize … all her millions. I haven’t read her Scarpetta books since the very early days, but it is nice to hear about how she got her start and how her career came together.

I’m not exactly sure why this memoir was on my Summer List as I haven’t been a big reader of her crime books or seen her new Scarpetta TV series on Prime Video, but I guess she has had quite a roller-coaster life in which she’s experienced a lot. I didn’t realize how much the evangelist Billy and Ruth Graham had been in her life, or that she was married once to her professor Charlie, and is now married to neuroscientist Dr. Staci Gruber. Her life and career have been a bit here, there, and everywhere it seems.

That’s all for now. What about you — do you know these authors and what did you think?

Hi Bookworms. It rained for three days this past week so that helped with the wildfire smoke and drought. My golf and tennis were canceled but at least things are looking greener. The sun came out and we biked in a Granfondo ride event yesterday, which went well. Meanwhile we’ve had a Mama deer and her two fawns staying around our place for the past couple weeks. I haven’t been able to get a picture of the little fawns with their spots but the Mama deer (pictured here) has been more available.

These deer — along with others who visit — are eating machines. I told them they could have the bird seeds from the feeders that fall on the ground but not to eat the plants, trees, and bushes near the house. This talk with them was only partially successful and I need to get the anti-deer spray for a few essential plants. Generally we give them quite a bit of leeway and don’t scare them off .. as the fawns are cute little things and Mom is hungry. But occasionally we have to draw the line.

In book news I’m making good progress on Douglas Stuart’s novel John of John in hardback and Patricia Cornwell’s memoir True Crime on audio. Both seem pretty good and hopefully I’ll finish them next week for a review.

Till then I thought we could discuss the New York Times’ recent ranking of the 50 Best Thrillers of the 21st Century, which came out a few weeks ago. A few other bloggers have also talked about the list, which is interesting to look at and see which ones you’ve read. Granted, I often say I don’t read many “thrillers” but as go through the list I actually see I’ve read quite a few of these and/or seen the screen adaptations. I’m not generally a big mystery reader but I occasionally will read crime fiction.

And I agree a lot of these on the list are quite good. Gillian Flynn, S.A. Cosby, Liz Moore, and Dennis Lehane are pretty go-to authors for me when I’m in the mood for a whopper. I still need to start into the books by Tana French (!) and Attica Locke. I’ve put asterisks by ones on the list (below) that I’d like to read and I’ve put parentheses besides books (below) that I’ve either read or seen the screen adaptation for. Some I’ve read and seen.

A few on the list I don’t really consider thrillers … Donna Tartt’s epic The Goldfinch (#23) and Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer (#30), both of which I’ve read … seem more like great literary fiction in my estimation. They have crimes or secrets that are found out by the end … but in a general sense they are more literary epics and less fast-paced thrillers. Sarah Waters’s novel Fingersmith might also be a bit like this, but I haven’t read it yet. The list makes me want to read more of these …. and some I haven’t thought of in years.

All have their own thriller style or formula. Some of them are super intense like: Emma Donoghue’s Room, or Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin, or William Landay’s Defending Jacob … and others are twisty crazy (Gone Girl! The Girl on the Train) … and others start more subtly and then explode in some surprising way, like Blacktop Wasteland and Shutter Island.

Apparently the books on the list were voted on by 291 crime novelists, editors, booksellers, librarians and other book lovers. I think they did a pretty good job placing these. If they want to put crazy Gone Girl as #1 and dark Mystic River at #2 … I think I’m okay with it, lol. What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have any recommendations?

The New York Times’ List of the 50 Best Thrillers of the 21st Century

1. Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn (book & movie)
2. Mystic River, by Dennis Lehane (movie)
3. In the Woods, by Tana French *
4. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson (book & movie)
5. No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy
6. My Sister, the Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite (book)
7. The God of the Woods, by Liz Moore (book)
8. Razorblade Tears, by S.A. Cosby (book)
9. Slow Horses, by Mick Herron (TV series)
10. Bluebird, Bluebird, by Attica Locke *
11. Blacktop Wasteland, by S.A. Cosby (book)
12. The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins (book & movie)
13. Case Histories, by Kate Atkinson (book)
14. We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver (movie)
15. Dare Me, by Megan Abbott
16. The Lincoln Lawyer, by Michael Connelly (TV series)
17. Shutter Island, by Dennis Lehane (book)
18. 11/22/63, by Stephen King *
19. Sharp Objects, by Gillian Flynn (TV series)
20. Broken Harbor, by Tana French *
21. Room, by Emma Donoghue (movie)
22. The Constant Gardener, by John le Carré (movie)
23. The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt (book & movie)
24. The Dry, by Jane Harper (book & movie)
25. Winter’s Bone, by Daniel Woodrell (movie)
26. The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown (book & movie)
27. Big Little Lies, by Liane Moriarty (TV series)
28. The Perfect Nanny, by Leila Slimani (book)
29. The Plot, by Jean Hanff Korelitz (book)
30. The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen (book)
31. Defending Jacob, by William Landay (book & TV series)
32. Notes on an Execution, by Danya Kukafka *
33. The Witch Elm, by Tana French *
34. The Likeness, by Tana French *
35. All the Sinners Bleed, by S.A. Cosby *
36. The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides
37. Your House Will Pay, by Steph Cha (book)
38. I Am Pilgrim, by Terry Hayes
39. Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters *
40. Dark Matter, by Blake Crouch
41. Tell No One, by Harlan Coben
42. You, by Caroline Kepnes
43. Lush Life, by Richard Price
44. Jar of Hearts, by Jennifer Hillier
45. Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia *
46. Before I Go to Sleep, by S.J. Watson (book)
47. The Push, by Ashley Audrain (book)
48. All the Colors of the Dark, by ChrisWhitaker
49. Magpie Murders, by Anthony Horowitz
50. None of This Is True, by Lisa Jewell

That’s all for today. I hope you all are enjoying your Sunday. August is flying by and sadly I’m not getting to the beach this month. I hope you are. Cheers.

Hi Bookworms. Can you believe August is passing by so quickly? We had friends visiting from Richmond, Virginia, this week, so were busy catching up, showing them around, and going to the mountains for a couple hikes and lunch afterwards at the golf course.

It was a nice visit … though sort of smoky here from the wildfires in British Columbia and around Spokane, Washington. I managed to get this shot before the gray air set in. We are hoping to get rain this week that will hopefully help the situation. It’s been dry as dust during July and early August.

We should have a couple quiet weeks now before September kicks in. We are starting to get our salads from the vegetable garden, which is nice, and I’ll be playing two days of both golf and tennis this week, and riding in another bicycle event next Saturday. So I’m staying active while I can before fall and cool weather set in.

Here’s another fuller picture of the vegetable garden, which my husband is doing a good job staying on top of. Notice the high fence to keep out all the deer and critters.

Meanwhile I don’t really have any good book news this week, but I’ll likely be starting Patricia Cornwell’s memoir True Crime in print and the novel Five by Ilona Bannister on audiobook. These two are on my Summer List, which I am still focusing on. I also have the novel John of John in the wings as well as the nonfiction book Thirty Below about the first women climbers of Mount Denali, which Tina at the blog Turn the Page and I plan to do a buddy read of soon. And now I’ll leave you with reviews of what I finished lately.

Land by Maggie O’Farrell / Knopf / 400 pages / 2026

4.5 stars. This is a long epic novel that follows each member of a family in Ireland in the 1860s after the Great Famine. There’s the son Liam (age 10) who accompanies his father Tomas, a talented map-maker, on an excursion to a secluded peninsula working for the hated redcoats (the British army). Tomas finds a mystical spring while out there that changes him … and he moves the family to a ruined cottage on the peninsula.

His wife Phina doesn’t know what’s come over him, nor his son Liam who turns away from him and goes off to become a missionary. Older daughter Enda, a fiddle player, sneaks away too on a ship bound for Quebec but is naive to what awaits her. Younger daughter Rose helps at home with their loyal wolfhound Brith, while the youngest child Eugene is a quiet child connected to the land and its history. The family parts ways and also comes together … while experiencing tragedies and challenges along the way.

I was caught up in all their stories and the beautiful language and prose that O’Farrell uses to spin the tale. I think I liked the novel, which I listened to on audio, perhaps even better than her novel Hamnet, which is saying a lot. That novel was filled with the tragedy over the loss of Shakespeare’s son and this novel also has its share of tragedy … but has more to it, and I liked following the different characters.

I am just flabbergasted that Land did not get a Booker Prize nomination. What the heck. Apparently O’Farrell, who was born in Northern Ireland, has never received a Booker nomination … which begs the question: what does it take? I’ve only read two of O’Farrell’s historical novels but man she can write! I only wish her tales had less tragic elements to them — various of her characters seem to die at particular points during the story … just when you come to connect with them, bahhh. That’s my quibble.

I’ve now finished 4 women authors’ books on my Summer List that have been top-notch; they are: Maggie O’Farrell, Elizabeth Strout, Tayari Jones, and Ann Patchett … with two other females’ promising debuts by Tara Menon and Addie E. Citchens. It’s been a line-up hard to beat … and I still have the latest from Lauren Groff and Lisa See to come. Though the next great whopper on my Summer List could be John of John by Douglas Stuart. So we will see.

Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor by Christine Kuehn / Celadon / 272 pages / 2025

4 stars. This is the true story by a woman who was living in suburban Maryland with her family in 1994 when she received a letter out of the blue asking about her family’s Nazi past, which she was unaware of. The letter writer was researching the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and wanted to talk with her father about the role of German spies in the attack. Stunned, Christine called her 72-year-old father Eberhard at the time who finally came clean to her about the German family he grew up in and their past. Whoa, this is an unreal wild tale … that’s hard to even believe.

It reveals how back in the 1930s the author’s father grew up in a prominent Berlin family — with parents Otto and Friedel Kuehn — who became involved with the Nazis. His brother Leopold worked for Joseph Goebbels’ Ministry of Propaganda and stepsister Ruth was even said to have an affair with Goebbels before he found out she was half-Jewish and sent the family packing (except for Leopold who stayed in Berlin). Eberhard’s parents were offered jobs as spies in Hawaii where they were paid by the Japanese to monitor military movements around Pearl Harbor among other things. It’s all quite eye-opening. You can’t make this stuff up.

The Kuehns spent lavishly with the salary they were given, though the FBI seemed to be watching them. They weren’t very careful and were arrested after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. You have to read on to the end to find out more … but the author’s father Eberhard turned his back on his parents and enlisted in the army at 18 fighting for the American side.

It’s all very curious. And how the author researched and pieced together for 30 years her family’s hidden background is a bit of the story. It’s quite a feat that she was finally able to put this book out in 2025 … about her paternal grandparents being German spies for the Japanese and taking the family with them down that road … and how her own father never told her any of it … until she confronted him in 1994. The book is carefully constructed and follows the family’s path and WWII chronologically, capturing some of the author’s surprise, horror, and shame about her family’s past along the way. I thought it was well done … and I was caught up in finding out about this tragic and unusual story of this particular family.

It sort of reminded me of Irmgard Hunt’s 2005 memoir: On Hitler’s Mountain: Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood … which is another chilling read but important to know about … involving dictators and indoctrination.

That’s all for now. Do you know any of these books above and what did you think?

Hi all. It appears we’re in the dog days of summer now and I know many in the Midwest and East have been living with a lot of wildfire smoke. I hope it leaves soon and you get clear skies again.

We have a little smoke here but nothing like it’s been there. I took this photo last Wednesday when it was more clear coming home from golf. I hope you like the yellow serenity. 

Meanwhile I’m headed out of town for a few days to officiate the provincial tennis tournament. I’ll be back later in the week.

In book news, some might have caught wind of an upcoming article in the August issue of the Atlantic titled The End of Reading Is Here by Rose Horowitch … which I haven’t read since it’s behind a paywall but is talked about elsewhere. It notes the dismal percentage of those reading among the next generation. Apparently fewer than half of all U.S. adults reported having read a book of any kind in 2022. So what — the article posits — does that mean for society? Nothing good I think, but I know us bookworms will keep the torch burning bright for reading.  

In response I made a chart (above) of all the people waiting for a slew of popular books at the two libraries that I’m a member of. In parentheses is the amount of copies the library owns. You can see the number on hold for e-books and audiobooks of titles by such authors as Jenny Jackson, Patrick Radden Keefe, Virginia Evans, Belle Burden, and Ann Patchett is very high … including Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, which had the most holds of all. Did you know that 6,508 people are on hold waiting for an e-book copy of Yesteryear at the Los Angeles Public Library, which owns 979 e-book copies? I wonder how long that would take to get. You can do the math … it’ll be a while. So I like to think that a lot of us are still reading for pleasure out there.

And now I’ll leave you with reviews of what I finished lately.  

Dominion by Addie E. Citchens / Farrar, Straus / 240 pages / 2025

3.7 stars. Whoa this was a bit darker tale than I expected going in. It’s set in a town called Dominion, Mississippi, about an affluent Southern Black family — the Winfreys — whose father is the reverend at the big Baptist Church in town and has five sons with his wife Priscilla. One of the sons Emanuel is known around as Wonderboy, and is a star high school quarterback, a really fast runner, and a great singer who seems to be going places. 

Meanwhile his father is caught up in his sermons and philanderings, taking Priscilla for granted. Then Wonderboy catches the eye of a struggling girl named Diamond who falls for him. They begin dating but later an encounter Wonder has at the track with a stranger … changes everything … and sets their world in a troubled direction. After that, Wonder asks Diamond if she’d set out on the run with him. 

Told mostly by Priscilla, Wonder’s mother, and Diamond, the orphaned girlfriend — with a bit of Wonder’s narration too — you soon come to see how the two women are in predicaments, one with the father and the other with the son. Their narrations are lively and compelling, and I wasn’t sure if they’d come out of it all right. It turns sort of violent.  

This debut novel received considerable attention last year and was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and a finalist for PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. I thought it was a promising debut though the ending and some parts of the characters and story kept me from overly loving it.

Under Water by Tara Menon / Riverhead / 224 pages / 2026

3.7 stars. This is another promising debut, which I read with Tina at the blog Turn the Page, about two close friends Marissa and Arielle who grow up in Thailand. Marissa, who narrates, lost her mother when she was young and relishes being with Arielle and diving together off a nearby island helping the research that her father, a marine biologist, does involving the habits of manta rays. 

Alternately, years later in 2012, Marissa, age 24, is living in NYC and working at a magazine. As Hurricane Sandy approaches, she is flooded with memories of her friend Arielle and the 2004 Indian Tsunami that changed their lives years earlier. (This is not giving anything away as it’s mentioned near the beginning.)

The narrative jumps between the timelines of present and past and between Thailand and New York. It gets a bit scrambled at times but what is apparent is that the two grew up close friends and shared a love of the natural world and diving in Thailand. Some of the descriptions are quite beautiful, especially involving the water and the manta rays. But in the present, Marissa has a lot of PTSD over what happened to Arielle, which you don’t find out about till the very end. 

Tina and I both seemed to like some of the writing and descriptions in this novel, though I don’t think we felt we fully knew the characters. The jumpy structure between the timelines made it feel at times like scenes perhaps rather than a deeper story with fuller character development. Still the friendship and loss come through pretty viscerally and reminded me of those awful days in 2004 after the world heard about the tsunami and its aftermath. Some 230,000 lives were lost across various countries, which was beyond devastating. The particulars of the disasters — the tsunami and Hurricane Sandy — seemed well researched by the author. 

That’s all for now. What about you — do you know these books and if so, what did you think?

Hi Bookworms, I hope you had a good week and a Happy 4th. We had a nice Canada Day last week and now have some hot weather in store for us after a deluge of rain in June. Luckily we didn’t get the sweltering heat wave that the East Coast did.

As you can see, I’m not posting my July Preview this week as things have been busy the past weeks — with new kitchen countertops, a bathroom renovation, yard work, golf, activities, dog care, etc. — and I haven’t been on the ball about gathering all the info on new releases lately. Maybe next week? The summer days are going by quickly and there’s much to do. Yesterday we participated in a bike ride “Gran Fondo” event with 1,500 other cyclists in the Canadian Badlands area a couple hours away. I biked the 32-mile route and my husband pedaled 62 miles. It went well and it seems my new knee is holding up. It doesn’t bend as much as it should but at least I can still pedal a bike, yay. 

On the way home we passed various yellow canola fields, which are common to see this time of year. Meanwhile it’s time to look back and see what I read in May and June (see photo below). My reading took a plunge and I only got to three novels in each month. It’s a bit strange but that’s the way it goes sometimes. I got tied up with a PW project and went down a rabbit hole, but I feel I’m back now that it’s July, yay. It’s hard to pick my favorite among these — there’s good things about each — but Whistler and Kin seem neck and neck for top honors. 

• The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff — A broken family saga that deals with the father’s alcoholism (a 2025 debut novel). 
• Yesteryear by Carol Claire Burke — One of the most talked about novels of the year. It’s a doozy … with some bedeviling twists (a 2026 debut novel).
• Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su —A twenty-something girl is going through a rough patch until she finds a blob organism that offers her something new (a 2025 debut novel). 
• American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee — A long epic having to do with the obsession of Koreans with education, and one family’s fate after having to start over from scratch (an upcoming September novel by the acclaimed author of Pachinko). 
• Kin by Tayari Jones — Two life-long childhood friends in the 1950s go off on different life paths … until their journeys cross once again. 
• Whistler by Ann Patchett — a 53-year-old woman reunites with her stepfather after many decades and recalls an accident they went through in 1980.  

And now I’ll leave you with a review of what I finished lately.

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout /Random House /207 pgs /2026

4.35 stars. I’m glad that Elizabeth Strout is back with a new standalone novel after her popular series with Lucy Barton and Olive Kitteridge. Over the years, I have read all of her novels except two — Abide With Me  from 2006 and Anything Is Possible from 2017 and she has never disappointed. Seemingly she can get into the heads and hearts of everyday people — perhaps like no other and can put you in their shoes lickety-split. Often her characters face grim realities: deaths, suicides, accidents, abuse, trauma, neglect, pandemics … whatever it is, her characters have lived it. Her novels can be dark and they can be heart-rending. And this latest one was no exception.

High school history teacher Artie Dam, age 57, is her latest protagonist. He has a kind sense about him and an empathetic moral compass. He lives with his wife Evie in a nice house along the Massachusetts coast and has a grown-up son Rob who is very dear to him, along with his colorful students who like Mr. Dam a lot. But lately Artie hasn’t felt the spark for living. He sees things around him that take the wind out of his sails so to speak … and one day he has an accident in his beloved sailboat that jolts him and his family. 

Then later Artie learns of a family secret … which he isn’t sure he’ll make it known that he knows it. Poor Artie, he lives with the secret but struggles a bit with what to do with it. In the backdrop, the recent presidential election has happened … the political divides are apparent as are the spoils of what is happening under the current administration. Artie is happy that his son Rob and daughter-in-law Francesca leave it all behind to move overseas though he also misses them a great deal.   

The novel is set during current times and tells it like it is, which is brave. We’re not living in a vacuum here. Strout puts it out there … and shows how the political turmoil envelops us these days. It’s a bit like Strout’s novel Olive by the Sea did about the pandemic. I found it enriched the plot and that her characters’ concerns felt right on to me. I was immersed in Artie’s world for a while and felt for his predicament. I could relate in ways. Even without her well-known characters Lucy or Olive, Strout is still a master of interior details.

That’s all for now. What about you — have you read any of these books above and if so, what did you think?