I spent a lot of the summer in a book drought, but looking back on what I read I think I covered a lot of ground.
Big fave would be the new Laura Moriarty, Sunlight Finds You. I had the galley sitting around my house all summer and was looking to kill 5 minutes while Loren finished up a phone call, so thought I’d just read the first few pages. When I looked up I was 150 pages in, Loren was in bed asleep and gosh isn’t that just the best feeling a reader can have?? It was great. I wasn’t expecting it to be so good so fast, and truth be told the storyline itself is pretty cliched. HOWEVER, I was invested, I loved it. Working-class kid moves to FL with her family in the 50s, she falls for a super wealthy (handsome but shy) boy a year ahead of her. His parents don’t approve, there are lies…it was great. 5 stars, if you only read one of these that’s what I would pick.
Another great read was Etna by Paul Yoon. This story is told from the point of view of a dog who is looking for home in an unnamed, war ravaged country. Trained to sniff out landmines, our Etna has seen a lot of terrible things. And all she wants to do is make it back to the farm she was born on. It’s sad, it’s short, it’s so engrossing. Totally unique. 4.5 stars
Everything was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt is another sort of buzzy sad book of the summer. Told from the point of view of Death (who’s a guy named Travis). Travis is just rolling along doing his job (which is beautiful, humane, deeply emotional) when he sort of falls into a relationship with the woman who lives across the hall from him. Death shouldn’t date, seems obvious. This was a beautiful way to think about death and dying, it was a comfort and also a reminder to live each day, really live it. 4.5 stars
Few and Far Between was strange but good! Set in Ireland, a brother-sister duo who are the last inhabitants of a cluster of little islands in the lough that are set to be flooded. They’re hiding some some things, and when a young scholar comes to their island to help try to save them from the flood a lot of those things resurface. A little bit of magical realism, a lot of the willies. 4.5 stars
Mad Mabel – really liked! Flew through it. Set in Australia, curmudgeonly old woman with a criminal past. When she discovers her (very, very) elderly next door neighbor dead, rumors starts to fly that she might have done him in herself. Chapters alternate between her childhood and present day. 4 stars.
A new Madeline Miller short story! This one is SO WEIRD. So, so weird. But of course I liked it, haha. This is the story of Mestra – her father was a king cursed by a goddess with the curse of insatiable hunger. When he sells Mestra off for 7 chickens, she discovers she has a special gift – the gift of shapeshifting. She escapes her new owner and uses her gift to help her father in his never-ending quest for more food. So bizarro. 4 stars.
Under Story, Partita and The Birthing Tree are all due out here in the next month or so. They’re all super hyped, they were all just OK for me. I loved the first third of Under Story, but then all the science and science-fiction lost me. I will say that because of this “duoverse” and “antiverse” are part of my recent day to day vocabulary. Pretty crazy theories to think about, I just wanted more of the Arctic, maybe. Partita left me wanting more too – I read somewhere that it was going to be this year’s Heart the Lover (you know I LOVED), and so maybe my expectations were just too high. Maybe if you take Heart the Lover and mix it up with Demon Copperhead…it was heavy and sad. And TheBirthing Tree I just finished last night – overall it was pretty good, some of the writing ticks annoyed me (like ending every chapter with a sentence from the viewpoint of the tree, ending every chapter with a pretty terrible sounding cliffhanger “if only I had known then, I could have prevented it.” You know, those ones that leave you with the sense of impending doom? Every chapter). All were between 3 & 4 stars.
One of my favorite aunts told my my picks were skewing young lately – but I can’t help but mention An Octopus Named Houdini. This is a children’s novel in verse and it was lovely. 5 stars! Ages 8-10ish!
I know people will probably debate me when I say that reading by the pool is the best thing about summer, go ahead and try. I get so much joy out of seeing people reading at our public neighborhood pool – I can’t wait to be one of them. I’ve read a bunch of good stuff since my last post – my two maybe faves don’t come out until September (the Ariel Lawhon and the Mary Beth Keane). Everything else is out now!
The Pirate Queen (out in Sept) is a fascinating novel based on the life of Grainne O’Malley – a 16th century Irish pirate. “Pirate” doesn’t accurately describe her power and charm, I don’t think, nor the extent to which she ruled her domain. This one is probably going to be polarizing because the structure is…different. Lawhon picked three points in Grainne’s life and, in alternating chapters, continues each story line. So chapters 1, 4, 7, etc are Grainne’s early years (Maiden), chapters 2, 5, 8 etch are her middle years (Mother), and chapters 3, 6, 9 are her in her old age (Matriarch). It is a bit confusing at times – but I think it works so well in the end. In her afterword, Lawhon says if you feel like reading it a second time, she’d recommend reading it in chronological order (all the Maiden chapters, then the Mother chapters, then the Matriarch chapters..). Of course I loved it because it’s something I’ve never seen before! 5 stars
I’m in my Irish era, I guess, because I also loved Whale Harbor by Mary Beth Keane. This one is sort of a sweeping family saga about 11 brothers living in poverty. When their mother suddenly passes away, the brothers are scattered around the world – a handful go to America to work as cattle ranchers (how Lonesome-Dove-ish), a few are sent to seminary school, the babies are taken in by family. One son runs away. I loved watching them struggle and thrive and find each other again. I’d probably compare it to Colm Toibin’s Brooklyn, but from a masculine point of view. 5 stars, out in Sept.
Backstitch – fast moving story about 2 grown sisters trying to come to terms with their wild artist of a mother. One sister is an artist herself, instead of a map at the beginning of the book there’s a diagram of an art exhibit. We learn the stories behind all of the sister’s work sort of chronologically 4.5 stars
The Great Wherever – I wanted this to be so amazing, and it had its moments, but overall I thought it was too long. Story about a family farm and all the life that passed through it. 3.5 stars
Into the Blue – great audio, heavy romance, lots of yearning. It’s a second chance love story, the male is a famous actor, the female a sketch writer for SNL. When he comes to SNL as a host… Gosh it’s that and so much more. Parts of Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow…I could see it being a fabulous movie. 4 stars.
Honey in the Wound – if you like Lisa See, you’ll probably like this. Great historical fiction, but so tough, about a young Korean girl during the Japanese invasion. A little bit of magical realism, lots of abuse, beautifully written. 4 stars
The Burning Side – loved. If you’re looking for a great family/character story, filled with emotion and heartbreak and love, this one is for you. April and Leo’s house catches fire late in the night – the night the Leo asks for a divorce. They have to move in with April’s parents while they figure out what can be salvaged – both from the house and from their marriage. It’ll make you cry! I will also say that I didn’t love the The Bright Years, Sarah Damoff’s first. A lot of people did! So if you’re like me and didn’t – give this new one a chance it’s great. 5 stars.
The Shock of the Light – this is a debut novel that I picked up because the cover is so lovely. I really loved it! WWII, boy/girl twins Tessa and Theo join the Resistance – Theo as a fighter pilot, Tessa as a spy. One of them makes it home, the other is never heard from again. We get both stories – the one who survives and their quest to find the lost twin. Close to 5 stars!
Make Believe – this one has been in the literary news lately because in it Mac Barnett has a line that is something like “94% of children’s literature is crud.” Big backlash in the kidlit community but I will say that I found this whole little book to be very inspiring! It’s a lot about how adults are often the gatekeepers of children’s literature – they provide their kids with the books they loved or remember as children, they control what gets checked out from the library or purchased from the bookstore. It was a great call to remember that children deserve excellent stories, too. And to keep looking for them!
Dolly all the Time – no one will ever take Nora Goes Off Script but Dolly probably comes the closest. I listened to this on audio and it was great. Julia Whelan, of course, does a phenomenal job. Perfect easy listen/read! 4 stars.
JUNE 2 is coming up next week and two great novels come out that day – Whistler by Ann Patchett and Land by Maggie O’Farrell (IRISH! AGAIN!) – I’ll be buying both for my shelf of favorites!
I’ve spent most of the year so far reading children’s books for work (see below!) but here are the adult titles that I’ve been able to get through. My attention span has been SO SHORT for adult fiction – there are lots of reasons for it but it also means that the ones I’ve been able to finish are really very good.
Briefly:
Homebound – out in May, sort of a mash-up of a bunch of books I liked – Clara & the Sun, Station Eleven, Cloud Cuckoo Land, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. I felt like the ending fell a little flat so I 4-starred it. The story bounces around from 1983 to 2081 to 2586 and all ties to a video game from the 1980s.
If Only Love – a memoir about a second chance at love. Fascinating because the couple meets at a boarding school in China – so fun to read about. But after that it just gets SO SAD. I was completely in it until a brutal SA moment…4 stars.
Theo of Golden – people have thoughts on this book! I’m an outlier with my 3-star rating. I thought it was MUCH too long.
This Story Might Save Your Life – out next Tuesday. I listened to this on my way to and from Middle School drop off and both my middle-schooler and I were hooked. Benny and Joy are best friends and co-hosts of a very popular podcast. Joy and her husband go missing, leaving Benny looking super suspicious. The story is told in a dual timeline – the unfolding investigation and snippets of the book Joy was working on at the time she disappeared. 4 stars
Ok now my three faves so far this year: Lady Tremaine – out already. I really have to FORCE myself to pick up famous or historical retellings (this is the stepmother from Cinderella’s) but I always enjoy once I start. This one made me think of Jesse Buckley in Hamnet – I really loved it. Was Etheldreda really evil? Or was she fighting to keep herself, her daughters, her household afloat. Lots of good action – the last 1/3 was unputdownable. 5 stars
Whistler – out in early June. Not going to say much because I don’t want to ruin it – just would say that it’s really very good! 5 stars
Yesteryear – big hype book coming out April 7. Plays into the idea of the “Trad Wife” – Natalie has a perfect husband and six beautiful kids and has become famous on social media for things like “making the perfect biscuit” and “keeping your husband happy” and “raising kids without screens” etc. This is another dual timeline novel – the first one is Natalie graduating college, marrying, and building her brand as a “traditional woman.” The second – Natalie wakes up and has no recollection of her surrounds. Her husband and kids look familiar (ish) but nothing else is the same. She’s not even sure she’s living in present day. Has she time-traveled? is she part of some perverse reality TV show? A page-turner for sure.
Here are the best of the children’s lit I’ve been reading. The Storm & Zoey and Sassafrass are ideal for early readers – maybe 6-8 years old. The Storm is part of an 8 book series (I read and loved them all) about a cat named Pandora who runs a lighthouse. She’s lonely, but loves the work. One stormy day she rescues a sheep dog named Seabold, and the two become friends while he recovers. Together, they save three little mouse orphans and build a sweet little family. Each book is a short story about another animal that they found family helps. Zoey & Sassafras is a much more modern and fantastical series about a little girl (Zoey) who can see magical creatures. She finds out that her mom can also, and that her mom (a doctor) has been treating them when they get ill. Her mom goes out of town and Zoey is in charge of this magical hospital. Lots of scientific process-talk – her hypothesis, her control and variables, her conclusion. So good.
Lightfall is maybe the best graphic novel I’ve read. It’s a three book series, book 4 is coming out. Not only is the story great (kind of reminds me of the animated movie Abominable) but the illustrations are INCREDIBLE. Incredible. Will be gifting this to all the 4th graders I know who like graphic novels.
Snowlands is also a graphic novel – major Lion King vibes – about a white wolf cub who is kicked out of the pack for being unlucky and she decides to set off alone to figure out where all the bad luck (lack of food) is really coming from. Very good! Perfect for fans of Wings of Fire or Warrior Cats.
If you asked me what my single favorite read of 2026 has been so far – hands down it’s Nell O’dell Hates Quests. I LOVED this middle reader (ages 10-12ish) story about Nell O’dell, daugher of famous questers, who wants nothing more than to stay home, tend to the inn and make her garden grow. When she decides to travel to the capital to see why the inn’s deed has been revoked – she, of course, finds herself on the greatest quest of all. The characters are perfectly divine, I laughed, I cried. Everyone should read this! 5 stars.
Looking ahead to a whole new year of reading is one of my most favorite things about this week between Christmas and New Years. I have a LONG tbr already, and deciding where to start – gosh- it’s the best kind of stress. Here’s what I’m excited for in 2026:
Of these, I’ve already read Saoirse – a thrilling tale of a female painter in Ireland who is hiding some terrible secrets in her past. When she unexpectedly finds herself in the spotlight, everything she’s built up threatens to unravel. Really good!
I’ve also read Wait for Me, by Amy Jo Burns. I loved her last one, Mercury, so so much and this one was also great. It’s a story in two timelines, the first is a motherless girl who is trying to figure out who she wants to be; she’s got a best friend and a dad who love her dearly and she also the idea that her mother was a famous country star who disappeared years ago. The second storyline belongs to the famous country star who disappeared years ago… This was a very solid read, I gave it 5 stars but am already hazy on the details. If it strikes me to read it again later this year, it might have a spot on my 2026 top ten.
Like most everyone else, I can’t wait to dig into the Ann Patchett and the Maggie O’Farrell, these are two always-reads for me. And Emily St. John Mandel! that will be a big one, too.
And Emma M Lion #9! No date yet, but I’ll probably drop everything to read it when it shows up.
Here they are! I read around 130 books this year, and these twelve were the cream of the crop. This was certainly my best reading year in a long time – I had trouble even cutting it down to 12. Here’s what I loved about them, in no particular order:
*Slanting Towards the Sea – I loved this novel set in Croatia. Vibe-wise, it’s Lily King meets Normal People (the Hulu show, not the novel). Ivona is 10 years divorced but still stuck on her ex, in financial trouble, and dealing with the recent death of her mother. When a new man comes to town and starts to woo her, all of the carefully balanced relationships in her life start to wobble. This is full of yearning, a little steamy, set in a beautiful country I knew very little about.
*A Guardian and a Thief – This was a fast and propulsive read set over one week in Kolkata, India. At the beginning of the novel, we meet Ma – she lives with her father and her two year old daughter and has finally, finally obtained passports and visas for all three so they can join her husband in Michigan at the end of the week. Just in time, because things in Kolkata are not that great – there’s massive food scarcity, housing scarcity, flooding – it’s time to go. When a thief breaks into her home and steals her purse, precious passports inside, Ma finds herself scrambling. In alternating chapters we get the story of Boomba, the young man / older boy who stole her bag. I loved thinking about who was the guardian and who was the thief – I never fully convinced myself who was who. Ends with a bomb! (Instead of a bow).
*Heart the Lover – I knew this was going to be one of my favorites of the year before I even started it, that’s how good Lily King is. This one opens with a woman, we know she’s a successful novelist, has two children (one of whom is in the middle of a health crisis) and she gets a call that her first love is dying and wants to see her. Flashback to her senior year of college (as a lit major, in lit classes – loved), we see her fall in love and watch it crumble apart. Everything about this story felt so nostalgic – if you had a good college experience (and were a lit major!) then you’ll love this too. This one will make you cry, cry and then wonder at how Lily King did it. So smart.
*The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion – This was my most amazing reading experience of 2025. I read all eight (EIGHT) books faster than I wanted to. I’d recommend thinking of #1 and #2 as one book and reading them back to back with no gaps. Mostly because #1 is 100 pages and it’s 100 pages of stage-setting – I guarantee that by book 4 you will be OBSESSED. In book #1, we meet Emma M Lion, a young woman about to come of age in 1880s England. She’s on her way, by carriage, to the home her parents left her upon their death – her great uncle Archibald has been managing the house and her monetary inheritance until she comes of age (now!). When she gets to the house, Lapis Lazuli, she discovers that Uncle Archibald, villain that he is, has squandered her fortune and the house itself has seen better days. And then we follow her, through her journals, trying to navigate life, make friends, find her place in the town of St. Crispian’s – some reviewers say this is like Jane Austen meets Stars Hollow (Gilmore Girls) and that feels pretty spot on! Witty, funny, dear, just the most feel good reads of the year for me. I’m on pins and needles waiting for #9. Thanks for the rec, Lena!
*Beasts of the Sea – If you loved North Woods, The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven and/or A History of Sound like I did, then you should check this out. A novel in 3 sections, all revolving around Steller’s Sea Cow, an animal long extinct. The first section is in the 1740s, an ill-fated arctic expedition (swoon), a naturalist trying to survive amongst a bunch of sailors, the discovery of the Sea Cow. The middle section is in the late 1800s, the mayor of a small town in Alaska decides he’s going to make a name for himself (and for Russia) by being the first person to successfully recover the entire skeleton of the long-gone sea cow. And the final section is that skeleton making it’s way to a Natural History Museum in the 1900s. This was great, weird, educational (all based in truth) – give it a chance if you liked the others I mentioned. Full Five Stars and then an internet deep-dive to see what was truth and what was fiction.
*Night of the Scourge – This is the thrilling conclusion to a trilogy that I loved so much I have a hard time talking about it. Partly because I treasured it and almost don’t feel like sharing, and partly because it’s an investment! The Sister Bells Trilogy follows one family, the Hekne family, over three generations in the small Norwegian town of Butangen. Seeped in folklore and myth and family stories – everything sort of builds on the original Hekne. He lost his wife during childbirth, she bore him twins – conjoined. At the time it was seen as omen, the worst possible thing and many in the town told him the girls should be sacrificed. He wouldn’t hear of it, and went out of his way to show his girls love and affection. They turned out to be expert weavers – one sister weaving from the left, the other from the right – who wove many tapestries that brought great honor to the town. They died at their loom, weaving what became known as the End of Times tapestry, thought to portray the end of the world. Hekne was so devastated upon their deaths that he liquidated his entire fortune to have two giant silver church bells cast in their memory. The bells are said to toll on their own to warn the town of danger. The three novels follow Hekne descendants, now paupers, through three generations but this story of the End of Times tapestry and the lore of the conjoined sisters runs through the entire thing. If you love a family saga – this is the one I’d pick!
*Family of Spies – Historical non-fiction! A rarity for me! This read like an novel and I’m guessing it will be one of the most gifted books this holiday season. Christine Keuhn, the author, is going about her life when the phone rings. A man is on the other end of the line, and he says “Hey Christine. I’m working on a documentary about German spies in Hawaii leading up to Pearl Harbor and I’m having a heck of a time getting through to your dad. Can you help?” That phone call launched Christine on a 30 year journey in which she discovers that her paternal grandparents, her aunt and her uncle were all involved in the innermost circles of German/Japanese espionage in Hawaii. In fact, it’s looking like someone from her family might have even given the signal to launch the attack. This story is INSANE and if you like WWII novels, if you like WWII non-fiction, if you love a good bizarre true story, this one is for you.
*Wild Dark Shore – This is one of the buzzier books of the year, and also my first 5 star read of 2025. Set on an island off the coast of Australia, this book follows one man, Dominic, and his three children as they prepare to leave the island (they live in a lighthouse, automatic 5 stars!). The waters are rising and the scientific research station on the island is compromised, so everyone has left and Dom is the last one out. One dark and stormy night, a woman washes up on the shores – unconscious, injured, freezing – and Dom and his children bring her in and nurse her back to health. Things might seem very cozy, but both Dominic and this mystery woman are filled with suspicion. What was she doing in the ocean, on a boat, near the island? What’s really going on at the research station? No one is very forthcoming. Builds to a crazy ending that will have you tearing through pages and tearing up.
*The Artist and the Feast – Maybe my first ever 5 star read in December, this was a last minute addition to my Top Ten. Set in Provence in the 1920s, this author describes her inspiration in the prologue saying basically that she can’t talk or think about some of the big, larger than life male painters of this time (Picasso, Cezanne, Gaugan) without wondering “who was cleaning their paint brushes? doing their laundry? who bought that perfect orange to sit on the table to be painted?’ The answer, of course, is “some woman.” This is the story of a fictional powerhouse painter named Edouard Tartuffe, called Tata, and his orphaned niece – who lives with him, cleans up after him, cooks for him, sets the table that inspires the masterpiece. One day a British journalist turns up at their door looking for a story – and gosh does he get one. Comp this to The Paris Wife! Great historical fiction.
*Before I Forget – If you love a contemporary family drama, think J Courtney Sullivan or Julia Glass or maybe even early Kristin Hannah – this one might be for you. A young woman named Cricket moves back to her upstate NY hometown to be a full time caretaker for her father who is falling deeper and deeper into his Alzheimer’s. She has some weird feelings about being back home (unresolved trauma involving her high school love), but overall is enjoying the time with her dad. Weirdly, as her dad has lost more and more of his past, he seems to be able to predict the future. Not in an crazy ways, but he’ll say something like “let’s go to the lake next week when the loons come back.” And Cricket will say “Dad! There haven’t been loons on the lake in over a decade!” But sure enough – the next week, there are loons. Her father starts to develop a reputation as being an oracle. There’s a lot going on in this one!
*Cursed Daughters – I loved this Nigerian tale about a family of women – guys this is a lot of writing if you’ve made it this far – I’m tempted just to say read it! And be done. But. Ok. A young woman is trying to break her family’s curse (a curse upon the woman stating that they will never be able to keep the man they love) while also struggling under the burden of being her dead cousin’s doppelganger. We get the story of the deceased cousin, Monife as well – and it’s a doozy.
*A Rebellion of Care – A LitPicks first! Poetry! For a very long time, I’ve been intimidated by poetry. I’m not deep enough, I don’t have enough time to really analyze and my comprehension is low – it’s work! These are all excuses I’ve made in my head. One of my good friends reads poetry every morning – and it’s been an inspiration. If you read a lot of poetry, maybe this isn’t the book for you. But if you, like me, have been intimidated by poems, this is a great place to start. Super accessible, super relatable, poems about parenting and laughing and loving and finding hope where there sees to be none. Poems that will make you want to do one little good thing now instead of ruminating on the many good things you want to do in the future. Loved it! Would be a great gift for anyone who is poetry-curious.
Thank you for making it to the end! Tomorrow, or next week, I want to do a post with the handful of kids titles I love (because some of them could’ve been on this list). Runners up this year included The Correspondent, Isola, and Black Woods Blue Sky.
If you can’t make it to my Top Ten party tonight, expect an email tomorrow morning with the big reveal! I had such a great year of reading – it was hard to narrow it down.
I’ll be revealing my top ten favorite reads of 2025 on Thursday, Dec 11 from 6-8pm. I’ll bring the beverages, my friends at Monstera’s will be bringing the books and my mom will be making all the snacks. The address is 204 W 73rd Terr, KCMO 64114. This is my favorite night of the year! I hope to see you all there!
Whelp. The year is nearly over and this was my lowest blog year ever. It’s actually a good thing – my life has been full and beautiful and busy this year. Around this time of year every year I start to panic about my Top Ten list; is it good enough? am I missing something great? what should I prioritize before my holiday pop-up? (Dec 11). So! Let’s catch up. I’d love to hear your favorites so far this year in the comments so I can cram it in before December!
I left a lot of books that were only so/so off – what you’re looking at here is the cream of the crop.
Bog Queen / Irish Goodbye / Finding Grace – these are all fun. Bog Queen goes back and forth in time between an archaeological dig of a bog-preserved woman and then back in time to see what happened to her. Irish Goodbye is a Jenna read right now – solid, Thanksgiving family drama. Finding Grace is a wild ride. It’s not *quite* a thriller, but definitely feels a bit like that. Like it’s driven by suspense and this sort of dread of waiting for the other shoe to drop. I’ve never read anything like it, really.
Rebellion of Care is a book of poetry – maybe Litpicks first EVER book of poetry. But I got so much out of it. If you’re feeling like the world is in a scary place and people are going crazy, these poems will be a balm. Also good on audio!
Seascraper is short – feels Dickensian about a young man making as a shanker. Every morning he leaves his mother’s house with his horse and cart to hunt for shrimp along a gloomy beach. Not a ton of action, very moody – felt a bit like Claire Keegan but, maybe, more gray.
The Book of I is such a weird little book. I loved it! It opens in a big gruesome sacking of the island of I. Lots of burning and pillaging and terrorizing of women. When the pillagers leave, only 3 people remain on the island: a young monk who had, to his great embarrassment, hidden in the latrine, and older woman who brewed such strong mead for one of the attackers that he passed out and was left for dead. These three then have to make their way – rebuild, live together, rely on each other. It was lovely (after the first bloody chapter).
I would bet money that Before I Forget is going to be some big book club pick when it comes out in December. It was great – about a young woman who works for a company modeled after Goop (whacky health care and lifestyle tips) but moves home to take care of her father as he falls into dementia. The funny thing, if there could be a funny thing, about the father’s memory loss is that while he is losing his memories of the past, he has an uncanny way of predicting the future. This was just everything that you want in holiday-time read – nothing that will make you think too hard but enjoyable (and sentimental) to the last.
The last 8 I’m just going to one-line:
When Cranes Fly South – so sad, heartfelt, first-person narrative of an older man at the end of his life.
Best Offer Wins – insanely addictive thriller based on the real-estate market. A crazy, wild romp.
Dungeon Crawler Carl – way outside of my usual zone but so, so fun on audio. I have probably listened to 100 hours of Carl (it’s an 8 book series and they’re all chonky). The story is dumb but the characters are hilarious. Sci-fi, video-game style, apocalyptic…easy to have on in the background of driving or dishes or laundry what have you.
The Book of Guilt – this one is also outside my general reading vibe. It’s a creepy story set in a re-imagined future (there was no winner of WWII, Hitler was assassinated and things just….stopped…but some of the experiments did not). The story centers around a set of triplets who live in a big house with a nurse – immediately you get the feeling that something is not quite right. But what, exactly, is wrong? This got weird. But was engrossing.
If you have a 6-10yr old, the Heartwood Hotel series is just a must-read. The sweetest little books about Mona the mouse – she gets lost in a storm and ends up at the Heartwood Hotel, a wonderful hotel for woodland creatures hidden inside a towering Oak tree. Highly recommend!
Life & Death & Giants by Ron Rindo. All the Owen Meany vibes you could want. Great on audio, also.
Sandwich – am I probably the last person ever to read this? I really liked it, Rocky (the narrator) annoyed me a little bit, but at the end I realized probably just because I’m so close to *being* her. There is a sequel out this winter called Wreck and that one, in my opinion, is even better.
I’m sitting at my desk listening to The Green Kingdom/Cornelia Funke in preparation for middle-reader book club at Monstera’s tomorrow morning and it struck me that I’ve read SO MANY great chapter books this spring/summer. So many. Children’s literature can be so, so fun and they’re great slump-busters because they usually jump right into the story.
The one I’m most excited about comes out in August (preorder here) – Where Only Storms Grow. If you have any interest in the Dust Bowl, if you loved Number the Stars as a child, if you love compelling characters or historical fiction or tales of survival, you’d really enjoy this one. The main character of this novel is a young girl who lives on a farm in Oklahoma with her older brother, her twin brother and her parents. There are lots of novels (for adults) about the Great Depression, but this one felt uniquely impressive. 5 big stars, want everyone to read ASAP.
Tuck Everlasting turns 75 this year! To celebrate, they’re re-releasing it and Alexis Bledel (Gilmore Girls) narrates the upcoming audiobook. It was BEAUTIFUL and made me cry.
The Library of Unruly Treasures is out this fall, the first thing Jeanne Birdsall has written since the Penderwicks. It is LOVELY. As a child I loved a silly movie called The Gnome Mobile – about a brother/sister duo who are picnicking with their grandfather when they come across an entire village of gnomes. This really has that same vibe – a young girl, spending the summer with her great uncle, discovers a community of 8 inch tall, winged, gnome-like creatures. They need Gwen to help them as their home (the children’s room in a large public library) is about to be demolished/renovated.
Dragonborn is also out this fall – high adventure, amazing writing and, duh, dragons. This one is about a young girl named Alex who discovers that she can morph into a dragon (like her dead (or missing?) father). A Dumbledore-like old Dragon comes to her home to escort her to what is basically a dragon academy. There’s a bad guy (dragon!) that is starting to threaten life as the dragons know it – could Alex be the key to their survival??
The Chronicles of Whetherwhy, Age of Enchantment is the start of a new, fantastic, magic-school series by Anna James (author of the Bookwanderers series, which was also wonderful). Such a fun magic system in this world, and our young narrator unknowingly has major magic abilities.
Heartwood Hotel: A True Home is a maybe for a little younger reader than these other titles – I’m reading it with my 7-yr-old right now. The story of a little mouse who gets swept away in a storm and winds up finding the idyllic Heartwood Hotel, where the owner (a badger) hires her as a maid. The biggest, funniest cast of characters (all animals, of course). I’m loving it and my very-much-boy boy is loving it too.
Hoping to get a post out today or tomorrow about the adult things I’ve been reading!
Don’t tell my husband but I’m in the middle of a bookish romance. My entire spring has been consumed with Emma M. Lion (thanks to my friend Lena for the rec!). Written by Beth Brower, self-published (but available at Monstera’s Books), this series is just the most wonderful, calming, feel-good thing I’ve got going right now.
Set in 1880s London in a charming and super quirky town called St. Crispian’s, Emma Lion is just trying to make her way as an upper-middle-class orphan. She’s about to come in to her inheritance – but her comically villainous great-uncle Archibald has spent her entire fortune. All that’s left is her childhood home, Lapis Lazuli. You will fall in love with Emma as you watch her make friends and get in (and out) of trouble – this will no doubt be my favorite reading experience of 2025. If you love Jane Austen, if you like PG Wodehouse, if you loved Edenbrooke (like I did) then you need these on your nightstand.
Here’s what else I’ve been reading – some of them aren’t out quite yet. Highlights would be the Lily King (absolute stunner, out in October) and non-fiction (!) A Marriage at Sea about a couple in the 1970s who decide to sail to New Zealand. They get capsized by a whale in the middle of the ocean and end up spending 118 days stranded in a dinghy, unable to even lay down, before they’re rescued. It is a very fast, crazy read. I also really liked Home of the American Circus – one of those stories about a woman who comes back home and has to repair relationships and deal with past trauma. Really good, felt in parts like Tell the Wolves I’m Home.
Lit Picks. 