Well, here it is the middle of May, and I just realized I never shared my reading from the first three months of 2026! That's something I am pretty sure that I can handle doing right now, so here you go.
The Listeners, by Maggie Stiefvater. I tried so hard with this. It takes place in my beloved WV, during WWII, which seemed like it would be great. But I made it just a bit more than halfway through, and ... just no.
So I'll move on to the next thing.
When Christmas Comes, by Andrew Klavan. Cameron Winter is an English professor with a mysterious past. During the holiday break at his school, his former lover Victoria asks for his help. He travels to the small town of Sweet Haven to check things out. The town is right next to an Army base for the Army Rangers, and is populated primarily by military retirees and their families.
Victoria's case involves Travis Blake, a widowed Army Ranger who is accused of - and has admitted to - the brutal murder of his girlfriend Jennifer Dean, who was an extremely popular and beloved elementary school librarian.
Victoria feels there is something else going on that she needs to know.
As he starts looking into it, Winter is reminded of his own unhappy childhood, and the only things that ever made his Christmases happy. He is a very mysterious character, and you are unsure of how you should feel about him.
His investigation becomes quite complicated and somewhat harrowing, and the whole story ends in a manner I did not expect.
This is the first book in the Cameron Winter series. I may try to read one in two more to see just how I feel about him. But this was a really interesting read.
Book Lovers, by Emily Henry. An enjoyable enough read about two sisters who grew up in New York City - Libby, a married soon-to-be mother of three who is usually ready to enjoy life; and her elder sister Nora, who took charge when their mother died, and is a career-obsessed woman who works in publishing.
The story is narrated by Nora, and tries to stand the usual tropes found in a Hallmark movie on their head - for instance, what if the driven career woman who visits the small town and falls in love *doesn't* give up everything for love? What if she gives up love instead?
When Libby arranges for them both to visit a small town where a hit romance novel is set, Nora balks at first; but when Libby frames it as a trip for her to have some time to herself before her next baby arrives, Nora agrees to go.
It turn out this adventure marks major life changes for both, and Nora us faced with her worst fear - "losing" Libby.
Like I said I enjoyed this well enough to read. I'm not much for romance novels, but this is a good on with a decent story.
Castle of Water, by Dane Huckelbridge. Three people are on a private jet heading to a remote Polynesian island - Barry Bleeker, a former Wall Street type who has decided to embrace his artistic side, and travel to where Paul Gauguin spent the end of his life; and Sophie and Etienne, newlyweds visiting a place where Jacques Brel lived. Their pilot is a drunkard, who does not want to be bothered with flight plans, etc., and besides it's never been a problem before.
Except now, when he tries to fly the plane through a huge storm and it crashes into the sea. Barry and Sophie are the only two who survive, and they are on an uncharted island inhabited by terns and wild banana trees.
This book does not give you the feeling that it will all turn out OK, and in major ways it doesn't. But it does tell you a story of two people figuring out how to survive and not give up, even when it does seem that they will never leave. The worst that can happen allows one of them to leave and hope for a chance to be saved.
A good read, but the sending left me wanting at least a little more information.
Small World, by Laura Zigman. Joyce Melishman lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she works for an archival digitization company. She is recently divorced, and adjusting your life on her own. One of her favorite things you do is look at the online site Small World, where people can get help with local issues or problems.
When her older sister Lydia calls from Los Angeles to say she's moving back east after her divorce, Joyce tells her she can share her apartment for awhile. Joyce hopes that they can become closer as a result. As children, they were somewhat ignored by their parents, who were busy caring for their late sister Eleanor, who suffered from cerebral palsy and a seizure disorder.
But life with the two of them together again turns out not to be that great. And when a couple move in upstairs and take yo Lyfia, things become more strained than ever.
Only when a long held family secret comes out do things change at all, and Joyce finally understands what Lydia has tried to do for her.
The Searcher, by Tana French. Cal Hooper is a retired Chicago cop, who has moved to a small village in Ireland, and spends most of his time giving up the decrepit cottage he bought, with the occasional evening visit to the local pub.
At first when a local asks him for help tracking down a missing sibling, he wants no part of it. But as he learns more he gets drawn in, and eventually agrees to do it.
He ends up finding more than he bargains for, both about the siblings and his neighbors.
Tana French has once again written a book that keeps you reading, with characters who seem like real people dealing with the real world. This is a good one.
The Perfect Divorce, by Jeneva Rose. I'm not really sure why I took this book out of the library, but I borrowed it and started reading. It's the story of a couple divorcing, an old murder case being reopened, and the search gor a missing woman. There are a lot of double-crossing moving parts, and I'm not sure I got them all. But I read the whole book to find out what happened.
It was readable, but not really worth the time and effort.
The Incredible Kindness of Paper, by Evelyn Skye. Chloe Hanako Quinn and Oliver Jones meet when they are in elementary school, through a pen pal program. They become the best of friends, until Oliver and his family disappear one night, never to be heard from again.
Years later, when Chloe is living in New York City, and loses her high school guidance counselor job, she is somewhat unmoored and not sure what to do next. On a whim, she makes some origami yellow roses with encouraging words inside, and leaves them in various places. She used to give her high school students the same things, and they were very popular.
Oliver is also living in New York City, working a job in finance that he hates. His family's vanishing act years earlier was part of a series of similar events caused by his mother, who always had grand plans, but ended up stealing her investors' money. So the bulk of his teenage years were spent on the run with his family, His mother is now in prison, but Oliver has spent his life taking care of his father and his younger brother. It broke his heart to leave Chloe all those years ago, but he had no choice.
When Chloe's yellow roses become a national phenomenon, will she and Oliver end up finding each other again?
This book was a very pleasant story, and you were rooting for Chloe and Oliver. The author never ventured into sappy territory, instead making you want to root for everyone that Chloe was able to help. And it was an excellent reminder that a tiny act of kindness can change someone's day.
Mornings with Rosemary, by Libby Page. This is a story about lifelong love, and finding your people.
Rosemary Pearson, widowed and forcibly retired when the library where she worked was closed, lives with her loving memories of her husband and her daily routine of swimming at the local lido where she lives. It's also one of the places in her London neighborhood, Brixton, that played a huge role in her life.
Kate Mathews is a young woman who moved to Brixton for a journalist job at a small neighborhood newspaper. She lives with a bunch of roommates that she barely knows, and crushing loneliness and anxiety.
When her boss learns that the neighborhood lido is under threat of closing so that a developer can build high end residences, he assigns Kate the story.
Kate talks to Rosemary, a regular at the lido, and not only do they develop a friendship, but their attempts to save the lido opens up both of their lives in new ways.
This was a lovely book.
The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach. I've been wanting to read this book for a long time, and finally got around to it. Since spring training for baseball is here, it seemed like a perfect time to check it out.
The main character, Henry Skrimshander, is a very good high school baseball player in a South Dakota town. He has always been in love with baseball, but assumes that once high school ends, he'll work at the factory where his father also works.
But when he gets the chance to play college ball at Westish College, a small school in Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Michigan, it's like a dream come true. And things just continue to improve ... until they don't.
All of a sudden, the other people around Henry - Owen, his roommate; Mike Schwartz, the team captain and Henry's mentor; Guert Appenlight, the college president; and, Pella, the president's daughter - are not just trying to figure out how to help him, but also what they need their own lives to be.
I liked this book - as a baseball fan, I could appreciate all of that, and why it was so important to Henry. But this was also one of those books where I didn't have an overarching love for any character - they were all fine, and I wished the best for them - but I needed to finish the book because I was invested in finding out how the stories would end.
Due or Die, by Jenn McKinlay. Lindsey Norris is starting to feel more comfortable in her job as library director in Briar Creek, and as a member of her community. When a new person is elected as head of the Friends of the Library, things start to go downhill.
The issues: along-time staffer suspicious of Lindsey; threats from those who feel the new head of the Friends has to go; them under of that person's husband; a major snowstorm; and, the destruction of the warehouse where some gift books - some rare - were stored.
Good things: Lindsey adopts a sweet puppy, in spite of herself; she helps the new head of the Friends deal with her husband's murder; inadvertently solves through murder; and finds anew romantic interest.
This is the second book in the series, and it is pretty nicely done.
Darling Girls, by Sally Hepworth. Jessica, Alicia, and Norah are three adult women who declared themselves sisters when they lived in a foster home in Port Agatha, about two hours away from Melbourne, Australia. They have always had each other's backs, and are deeply devoted to one another.
When the foster home is torn down, and a body is found buried underneath it, the local police ask them to come back to Port Agatha for questioning. They are forced not just to face their respective pasts, but the narcisstic, unpredictable Miss Fairchild who was their foster mother.
This was an interesting story, with a lot of sorrow, mystery, and twists that I didn't expect. It helps you understand why each grown woman turned out as they did, but also makes you extremely glad they had each other.
Is This a Cry for Help?, by Emily R. Austin. When Darcy returns to work after medical leave, things are heated in the community. People in the community are worked up about library policies they think are wrong, and causing a lot of problems for her and the rest of the staff.
Darcy tries not to let it cause her to spiral. Her medical leave was necessary because she had a mental breakdown after learning a former boyfriend had died - they had been together for a few years before she realized she was gay, and she feel so much guilt. So her confidence and mental strength are already a bit tenuous. With the help of her wife, her therapist, and those around her, she comes to realize things are not so bad, and she is stronger than she thinks.
This book really spoke to me, as someone with mental health issues. But I loved it even more because if its portrayal of what libraries are, what they mean, and why we need to value them and defend their purpose.
One of my favorite books I've read.
When the Cranes Fly South, by Lisa Ridzen. Bo is an elderly man, counting on visits from caretakers, his son Hans, and his granddaughter Ellinor. He is reaching the end of his life, with his loyal dog Sixten for company, and the memories of his life within wife Frederika, who is in a care home with Alzheimers disease.
The loss of Sixten, who his son feels is too much for him to handle, and the death of his good friend Ture, cause a crisis for Bo. He wants to go on, but he knows he doesn't have the strength or the will anymore, once his friend dies and his dog is gone. But he does come to the realization that he wants his son and granddaughter to know he loves them.
This is a sad book, because the reader knows the eventual outcome; however, it's also a reminder of the importance of love and care for those closest to us, even when we are not sure we understand or appreciate each other.
Empresses of Seventh Avenue : World War II, New York City, and the Birth of American Fashion, by Nancy MacDonell. This is a really interesting read, and offers a really fascinating look into the world of haute couture in Paris, and how World War II more or less leveled the playing field for American based designers. The history of fashion and its importance in France was fascinating to me, but mostly I found the history of ready-to-wear from American designers even more enlightening. Not ever being able to afford really expensive clothes, reading about the concepts of clothing for the masses, so to speak, really informed me about things we take for granted these days.
It also made me glad that I was able to live in a time when the frand department stores still existed. Unlike a lot of other people, I actually miss them.
This book is well worth reading, if not for fashion history, for a good look at the social history covered.
Some Bright Nowhere, by Ann Packer. Claire and Eliot have been married for years, and have two adult children. After 8 years of various cancer treatments, where Eliot has been her willing and constant caregiver, she'd ides she's done with treatment. At the beginning of her at home hospice treatment, she makes a decision that sends Eliot reeling.
This is a heartbreaking book in lots of ways, frustrating in others. I found it hard to understand some of each character's decisions from time to time, but I think that may have been the point. Just because someone is dying, you can't keep them from thinking how they want things to be; and you can't always really control your own reactions.
A good and thought-provoking read.
Work in Progress : Confessions of a Busboy, Dishwasher, Caddy, Usher, Factory Worker, Bank Teller, Corporate Tool, and Priest, by James Martin. I have to admit to a fondness for Jesuit priests, since I went to college at one of their schools, and learned so many important things. I slso have a soft spot for the author, having followed him for years, and also having gone to a talk with him regarding this book at the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Anyway, this book is his memoir from his early high school years upnyo yhe time he joined the Society of Jesus. What is great about it is that he was from a Catholic family with a Catholic background, but not from a overly devout or holy family (known in my family as "The Ideal Parishioners.") So much of his story is familiar, from the childhood rhymes when playing games to the college experience and trying to find your first job after getting that degree. I am 4 years older than Father Martin, but could identify with so much in this book. And since it takes place in the Philadelphia area, many locales were familiar.
Father Martin has a friendly, approachable manner of writing, and is a good storyteller. He is someone who remains friends with so many of those he talks about that you can only imagine that it's a lot of fun when they are together.
*****
Writing this post makes me feel like I read these books years ago, though it's not that far in the past. But it's been a tough year so far, with such soaring highs and such desolate lows. But books are there for you no matter what, you know?
I hope you have been letting reading help you as well, even if your life has been on a pretty even keel. Let me know if there are any amazing books I should be on the lookout for, or any really awful terrible books to avoid.
I hope you have a lovely weekend.
