2026

Book #22	Book: Dear Edward		Author: Ann Napolitano
	Source: Library loan Format: Audiobook	Pages: 352	Duration: 03/27/26 – 03/31/26 (5 days)
	Rating: ★★★★☆	Genres: fiction, coming of age, young adult, trauma
📕10-word summary: Aftermath of a 12-year-old lone survivor of a plane crash. 🖌6-word review: Satisfying, intriguing, dual-timeline, well-paced survival story.
💭A favorite quote: “There was no reason for what happened to you, Eddie. You could have died; you just didn’t. It was dumb luck. Nobody chose you for anything.”
Description:* One summer morning, 12-year-old Edward Adler, his beloved older brother, his parents, and 183 other passengers board a flight in Newark headed for Los Angeles. Among them are a Wall Street wunderkind, a young woman coming to terms with an unexpected pregnancy, an injured veteran returning from Afghanistan, a business tycoon, and a free-spirited woman running away from her controlling husband. Halfway across the country, the plane crashes. Edward is the sole survivor. Edward’s story captures the attention of the nation, but he struggles to find a place in a world without his family. He continues to feel that a part of himself has been left in the sky, forever tied to the plane and all of his fellow passengers. But then he makes an unexpected discovery — one that will lead him to the answers of some of life’s most profound questions: When you’ve lost everything, how do you find the strength to put one foot in front of the other? How do you learn to feel safe again? How do you find meaning in your life?*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I only recently learned of this author, having read Hello Beautiful in February. I like dual-timeline stories, especially when both narratives are equally interesting, which was the case for me in this book. Of course, I liked that there was a gay (secondary) character — a passenger on the plane — in the book. I encountered one funny, and one just plain interesting, AI-related things about this book. The funny one was that it described Veronica, the chief flight attendant, as “professional and composed.” Uh, she had sex in the lavatory with a passenger! And the interesting one was that I asked it about the gay character (a soldier) in the book, and it said that he wasn’t gay, but that another character — the brother of the protagonist — was (secretly) gay. I was, like, “HUH???” Then I asked if the brother of the protagonist was gay, and it said, “No, he was secretly dating a girl he didn’t want his parents to know about, but he wasn’t gay.” So, I asked again about the soldier being gay, and (this is the interesting part, because it hasn’t happened to me before using AI, which I’ve used a lot), it said, “I apologize, I was wrong earlier when I said he wasn’t gay. Yes he was gay, and his chapters explore identity, secrecy, and longing.” And finally, one of the genres listed for this book is “young adult,” which I guess it could be, but it covers a lot of themes that I feel are a little beyond young adult. But then again, I’m an old fuddy-duddy and YMMV.

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Book #21	Book: Bridgerton: The Duke & I		Author: Julia Quinn
	Source: Library loan Format: Audiobook	Pages: 339	Duration: 03/21/26 – 03/25/26 (5 days)
	Rating: ★★★★☆	Genres: historical fiction, romance, regency
📕10-word summary: Regency-era family dramatic enough to have their own TV series. 🖌6-word review: Not bad for a romance novel.
💭A favorite quote: Colin: “I hate when you’re right.” Penelope: “I know; pity for you, I so often am.”
🎓New-to-me words: ton, rake, woolgathering
Description:* In the ballrooms and drawing rooms of Regency London, rules abound. From their earliest days, children of aristocrats learn how to address an earl and curtsey before a prince—while other dictates of the ton are unspoken yet universally understood. A proper duke should be imperious and aloof. A young, marriageable lady should be amiable…but not too amiable. Daphne Bridgerton has always failed at the latter. The fourth of eight siblings in her close-knit family, she has formed friendships with the most eligible young men in London. Everyone likes Daphne for her kindness and wit. But no one truly desires her. She is simply too deuced honest for that, too unwilling to play the romantic games that captivate gentlemen. Amiability is not a characteristic shared by Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings. Recently returned to England from abroad, he intends to shun both marriage and society—just as his callous father shunned Simon throughout his painful childhood. Yet an encounter with his best friend’s sister offers another option. If Daphne agrees to a fake courtship, Simon can deter the mamas who parade their daughters before him. Daphne, meanwhile, will see her prospects and her reputation soar. The plan works like a charm—at first. But amid the glittering, gossipy, cut-throat world of London’s elite, there is only one certainty: Love ignores every rule…*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This is the first (of 8) in the Bridgerton book series. I read a “TV tie-in” edition, which is identical to the original novel but contains an extra epilogue. Since I don’t watch TV and Bob rarely reads books, we usually aren’t able to discuss storylines, but since he has seen the first 3 seasons of the Netflix series, we were able to compare and contrast our thoughts about this story on which the first season was based. I typically only read the first book of a series that become movies, as I did with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and The Hunger Games — and that’ll be the same with this series. I’m not interested in reading the other 7 Bridgerton books. Romance is not a genre I enjoy — and it’ll suit me just fine if I never again hear about his corpulent manhood arriving at her cradle of femininity, after which he spilled his seed on the bed instead of deep inside her. With that said, I’m glad I read this, if for no other reason than it adds some tiny tidbits into my vast void of pop culture knowledge. Tangential ejaculation: You don’t ever want me on your trivia team!

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Book #20	Book: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers		Author: Mary Roach
	Source: Library loan Format: Audiobook	Pages: 292	Duration: 03/19/26 – 03/20/26 (2 days)
	Rating: ★★★★☆	Genres: nonfiction, science, medical, humor, death, history, biology
📕10-word summary: A scientific, intellectual, and emotional look at our bodies’ destinies. 🖌6-word review: Informative, at times humorous, and detailed.
💭A favorite quote: “The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship. Most of your time is spent lying on your back. The brain has shut down. The flesh begins to soften. Nothing much new happens, and nothing is expected of you.”
🎓New-to-me words: venerated, divarication, many other biology, chemistry & medical terms
Description:* Mary Roach takes the age-old question, “What happens to us after we die?” quite literally. And in Stiff, she explores the “lives” of human cadavers from the time of the ancient Egyptians all the way up to current campaigns for human composting. Along the way, she recounts with morbidly infectious glee how dead bodies are used for research ranging from car safety and plastic surgery (you’ll cancel your next collagen injection after reading this!), to the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin. While the myriad uses for cadavers recounted are often graphic, Roach imbues her subject with a sense of dignity, choosing to emphasize the oddly noble purposes corpses serve, from organ donation to lifesaving medical research.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This was a interesting, informative, and at time, light look at a subject that a lot of people find heavy and shy away from, but that I find interesting. I only took off a star (4, instead of 5), because I’m not really into medicine, biology, and chemistry to the depth explained in this book. So, YMMV depending on that. One frustration I had reading this now-23-year-old book was that I wondered how some of the ways to “process” dead bodies just beginning to be explored in 2003 (e.g., water cremation) have progressed. Well ChatGPT & AI to the rescue! Q: What are the eco-friendly ways to avoid burial and cremation? A: natural (green) burial | conservation burial | human composting (natural organic reduction) | water cremation (alkaline hydrolysis) | tree pod burial | mushroom burial suit | reef burial | biodegradable caskets & shrouds | and home funeral + natural burial.

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Book #19	Book: Perfection		Author: Vincenzo Latronico
	Source: Library loan Format: Print	Pages: 125	Duration: 03/17/26 – 03/19/26 (3 days)
	Rating: ★★★★☆	Genres: fiction, Italian literature, existentialism
📕10-word summary: Millennial expats Anna and Tom drift in search of perfection. 🖌6-word review: Excellently simulates existential ennui — without dialog.
💭A favorite quote: “But each time, after a while, they would remember those trips more generously, as if the act of remembering could alter the experience itself.”
🎓New-to-me words: monstera, acanthus, vibratile, koine, tillandsias, “travel rabbit“
Description:* Millennial expat couple Anna and Tom are living the dream in Berlin, in a bright, plant-filled apartment in Neukölln. They are young digital creatives, freelancers without too many constraints. They have a passion for food, progressive politics, sexual experimentation, and Berlin’s 24-hour party scene. Their ideal existence is also that of an entire generation, lived out on Instagram, but outside the images they create for themselves, dissatisfaction and ennui burgeon. Their work as graphic designers becomes repetitive. Friends move back home, have children, grow up. An attempt at political activism during the refugee crisis proves fruitless. And in that picture-perfect life Anna and Tom feel increasingly trapped, yearning for an authenticity and a sense of purpose that seem perennially just out of their grasp.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: My friend Todd mentioned he was reading this book, so I checked it out. The main characters are “digital creatives,” and I appreciated the industry-related tools and technologies named throughout the book — graphic-design tools, photo- and image-editing tools, social-media platforms, and internet infrastructure. There was no dialogue at all in this story, as the author has said he has “a terrible ear for dialogue.” As a result, there was a lot of description in it. Critics have noted that “the lack of dialogue makes the book read like a catalogue of objects and curated spaces, mirroring the couple’s image‑driven lives.” The main themes explored include: the illusion of aesthetic perfection; expat life and cultural detachment; ennui, aimlessness, and millennial drift; and authenticity vs. performance. I think the author succeeds in making ennui interesting, which is why among its awards is being shortlisted for the International Booker Prize.

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Book #18	Book: Audition		Author: Katie Kitamura
	Source: Library loan Format: Print	Pages: 197	Duration: 03/14/26 – 03/16/26 (3 days)
	Rating: ★★★★☆	Genres: fiction, family, identity, existentialism, acting
📕10-word summary: A woman, her husband, and possibly her son contemplate identity. 🖌6-word review: Compelling storytelling with lots of ambiguity.
💭A favorite quote: “Lou immediately stood and went to him, and I remember thinking that even if he was without talent he would enjoy some level of success, in some capacity, he had a face that was made for being looked at.”
🎓New-to-me words: languorous, sinuous, carapace, mottled, avidity, rictus, contrapuntal
Description:* Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an elegant and accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubling, and young—young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In Audition, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day — partner, parent, creator, muse — and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us best.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I loved the author’s voice in this story. I kept thinking of this book as very, very interesting — as opposed to fascinating. The beginning of Part II brought forth the figurative “record scratch” eliciting a great big “HUH???” from me. I’m not a fan of ambiguous endings, which this book definitely has — and in fact, there’s a lot of ambiguity throughout it — but I was surprisingly okay with it. What I wasn’t okay with was not one, not two, but three instances of the (overused & my nemesis) word, conspiratorially.

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Book #17	Book: What Happened Next		Author: Edwin Hill
	Source: Free First Reads download Format: Kindle	Pages: 292	Duration: 03/09/26 – 03/12/26 (4 days)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: fiction, mystery, thriller
📕10-word summary: Investigation of 25-year-old crime uncovers betrayal and community, family secrets. 🖌6-word review: Intriguing. The bodies really pile up.
💭A favorite quote: “Our father opted for the dog races at Suffolk Downs, not the polo grounds in Newport.”
🎓New-to-me words: lichen, antitorque pedals, selectperson, “gave up the ghost”
Description:* Charlie Kilgore was too young to remember anything, really, about how events on the lake unfolded 25 years ago. He just knows what he’s been told: that his father stabbed a man to death, left Charlie’s mother critically wounded, and then disappeared, never to be seen again. Now Charlie believes there must be more to what happened. But when Charlie [returns to his hometown and] starts asking questions of people with so much to hide, getting to the truth becomes dangerous. Because on this lake — in this family — the past isn’t dead and buried at all. In fact, it’s back with a vengeance.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This free, advanced copy (it’s schedule to be published in April 2026) was an unexpected delight. There’s a lot going on in this small town as a 25-year-old murder is questioned by a young man who was in the thick of it, but as an infant, when it all went down. A lot of suspects emerge, and a lot of people “give up the ghost” as the bodies of even major characters pile up. One thing that was nice was that there were 3 gay characters who were just people who happened to be gay, which is to say it didn’t affect the plot in any way, so it wasn’t a big deal at all. I like stories that normalize being gay. I’d not heard of this author before, but several reviewers said they love all of his books. I’ll probably read another one of them this year.

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Book #16	Book: The Price of Honey		Author: Liane Moriarty
	Source: Free First Reads download Format: Kindle	Pages: 34	Duration: 03/08/26 – 03/08/26 (1 day)
	Rating: ★★★☆☆	Genres: fiction, short stories, novella, thriller, mystery, sci-fi
📕10-word summary: Tech billionaire’s widow and ex-wives surprised at unexpected funeral shenanigans. 🖌6-word review: Disarrayed programming, technology, AI, sci-fi mash-up.
💭A favorite quote: “She’s rarely referred to as Luisa. Always her full name: Luisa Long. It’s just one of those names.”
🎓A new-to-me word: epigenetic
Description:* In the car on the way to her husband’s funeral, Honey Beckett still can hardly believe that Barney is actually dead. Granted, he was more than twice her age. But he was Barney Beckett, visionary tech genius, full of surprises—by turns romantic, inspirational, and controlling. Always in control. At the service, she impulsively goes to sit with the three ex-wives: practical Rita, fiery Svetlana, ambitious Meredith. Each broke up the other’s marriage in turn—and now, one final betrayal awaits.*From amazon.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I didn’t dislike this book, but I was glad it was short. This was my 4th book by this author — Nine Perfect Strangers (read in 2019), What Alice Forgot and The Husband’s Secret (both read in 2020) — and it was my least favorite of them. It’s hard to pinpoint why this storyline didn’t really work for me, but it’s something to do with it being unclear whether what was happening was due to a programming error, sinister technology, or AI gone awry, and it took a little too long (especially relative to the length of the story) to get what was actually happening. My favorite quote (above) was because that’s exactly the case with my name. At almost every (professional) job I’ve had, my colleagues have tended to say my whole name when they see me: “Hi, John Martin.” When it was all said and done, I was glad this book was a free download.

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Book #15	Book: Annette: Sierra Summer		Author: Doris Schroeder
	Source: Friend loan Format: Print	Pages: 285	Duration: 03/03/26 – 03/08/26 (6 days)
	Rating: ★★★★☆	Genres: fiction, young adult, childrens, mystery, juvenile
📕10-word summary: Annette (based on Annette Funicello) has an exciting, adventurous summer. 🖌6-word review: Has definite young-adult vibes. Easy reading.
💭A favorite quote: “C’mon, Annette! Let’s get into our sunbonnets!”
🎓Some new-to-me words: ailanthus, gasser
Description:* Annette’s summer began with an invitation from her cousin, Tonia, to visit the town of Lost Creek, located in the Sierra foothills. Her invitation was full of excitement as she explained Lost Creek’s centennial celebration plans. The town would turn back time to gold rush days, wear pioneer costumes, and choose a centennial queen. And Tonia’s gang would be there for the fun — handsome Johnny Abbott and all the others. It did sound wonderful, and as Annette climbed into her little white sports car, she was anticipating a pleasant visit. Little did she realize as she sped along that this would probably be the most exciting summer of her life. Annette becomes involved in a mystery before she even arrives at the home of her cousin — a mystery that threatens to ruin the lives of several people.*From amazon.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: As a big fan of Annette Funicello, my husband owned this book from way back. Ready to “give it up” (i.e., donate it), he asked me if I wanted to read it first — to which I succumbed. What struck me the most about the book was its illustrations which made all of these teen characters look like they were in the twenties or so. I was also a little surprised by how unabashedly wealthy these young kids were, driving fancy sports cars as one example. It was an easy read; it took me 6 days mostly because it wasn’t riveting or anything, and I’ve been doing a lot of creative work the past week, which engaged me more than reading.

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Book #14	Book: Do You Mind If I Cancel?: Things That Still Annoy Me		Author: Gary Janetti
	Source: Library loan Format: Audiobook	Pages: 159	Duration: 03/01/26 – 03/01/26 (1 day)
	Rating: ★★★★☆	Genres: nonfiction, memoir, humor essays, comedy, LGBT
📕10-word summary: Funny and poignant look at the “indignities of everyday life.” 🖌6-word review: It grew on me. Ultimately amusing.
💭A favorite quote: “For those of you who don’t know, Dynasty was a sensation that took over the fucking country for a few years in the 80s. It was our Game of Thrones, but with shoulder pads.”
Description:* Gary spends his twenties in New York, dreaming of starring on soap operas while in reality working at a hotel where he lusts after an unattainable colleague and battles a bellman who despises it when people actually use a bell to call him. He chronicles the torture of finding a job before the internet when you had to talk on the phone all the time, and fantasizes, as we all do, about who to tell off when he finally wins an Oscar. As Gary himself says, “These are essays from my childhood and young adulthood about things that still annoy me.”*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This book was recommended to me by a friend, and I was a little turned off by it at the beginning, but then I adjusted my attitude and I ended up enjoying it a lot. In the beginning, I thought the humor was a little too “drag-queen-bitchy” for my taste. I’d never heard of this author since I never watched Family Guy, which I only just now realize is not the same show as Modern Family, which I also never watched. (If you think that’s bad, until I one day saw pictures of Kylie Minogue and Nicki Minaj in an article, I thought they were the same person. #BlessMyHeart) I see that Gary was also a writer for Will & Grace, which I did watch but never paid any attention to who the writers were. With it all said and done, I did have a few literal laugh-out-louds in the last half of the book.

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Book #13	Book: Between Two Trailers		Author: J. Dana Trent
	Source: Library loan Format: Kindle	Pages: 256	Duration: 02/28/26 – 02/28/26 (1 day)
	Rating: ★☆☆☆☆	Genres: nonfiction, memoir, religion, mental illness
📕10-word summary: Preschooler drug dealer quits, becomes a professor, then a minister. 🖌6-word review: Not my cup of tea. Abandoned.
Description:* Growing up, Dana tries to be the daughter each of her parents wanted: a drug lord’s heir and a debutante minister. Dana imagines that her hidden Indiana life is finally behind her after she graduates from Duke University and becomes a professor and an ambivalent female Southern Baptist minister. But Dana was a child of the drug trade. Though she escapes flyover country, she realizes that she will never be able to escape her father’s legacy, and that her childhood secrets have kept her from making peace with the people and places that shaped her. Ultimately, Dana finds that no one can really “make it” until they return to where their story began.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I really wanted to like this book, and I read 30% of it before abandoning it. The author is speaking [about this book] nearby in a couple of weeks, and I intended to attend her talk, which is why I decided to read it. I’m going to forgo that, too. I found no redeeming qualities in the characters and escapades related in the first third of the book, and as good as it might “turn,” I just wasn’t willing to slog through more.

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Book #12	Book: The House of Mirth		Author: Edith Wharton
	Source: Library loan Format: E-book	Pages: 406	Duration: 02/22/26 – 02/28/26 (7 days)
	Rating: ★★★☆☆	Genres: historical fiction, classics, literature, class, New York
📕10-word summary: New York socialite’s serial inconsequential decisions about love compound tragically. 🖌6-word review: Heavy. Beautifully — if not challengingly — written.
💭A favorite quote: “But we’re so different, you know: she likes being good, and I like being happy.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: crepe-de-chine, empyrean, chary, desultory, bezique, sylvan, odious, oubliettes, dissembling, Quirinal, adjuration, mauvaise honte, parterres, marquetry, puerile, propinquity, infelicity, lustral, cuirassed, ormolu, effulgence, proscenium, sward, stereopticon, phaetons, stertorous, impenitent, adumbrations, excrescences, aigrettes, orangeine, c-spring barouche, victoria, antimacassar
Description:* Edith Wharton’s dark view of society, the somber economics of marriage, and the powerlessness of the unwedded woman in the 1870s emerge dramatically in the tragic novel The House of Mirth. Faced with an array of wealthy suitors, New York socialite Lily Bart falls in love with lawyer Lawrence Selden, whose lack of money spoils their chances for happiness together. Dubious business deals and accusations of liaisons with a married man diminish Lily’s social status, and as she makes one bad choice after another, she learns how venal and brutally unforgiving the upper crust of New York can be.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This is my third Edith Wharton book in as many years, two of them as Mostly Social Book Club books (including this one), and my order of preference is: 1) Ethan Frome, 2) The Age of Innocence, and now this one 3) The House of Mirth. One of the things I like about these classics is the way things are said, but only up to the point at which they become hard to parse. Jane Eyre and The Age of Innocence were easy, but this one was on the verge of being slightly esoteric. Example: “She had even risen earlier than usual in the execution of her purpose.” (Translation: She got up early to get shit done.) I absolutely loved the ending of this book, which is all you really need to know about the kind of endings to books that I like. 😂

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Book #11	Book: Pocketbook of Quotes from Socrates to Lebowski		Author: Sean Thompson
	Source: Free BookBub download Format: Kindle	Pages: 385	Duration: 02/10/26 – 02/21/26 (12 days)
	Rating: ★★★☆☆	Genres: nonfiction, quotations, philosophy
📕10-word summary: Quotes by a diverse set of people: inspiration, motivation, entertainment. 🖌6-word review: Incredibly sloppy editing detracted from enjoyment.
💭A favorite quote: “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” ~Albert Einstein
🎓Some new-to-me words: inclemency, fand, Feldwebel, obsoledge
Description:* Are you interested in learning from the greatest philosophers, artists, writers and minds of all time? Do you want to have a handy collection of quotes that you can read anytime, anywhere? Do you want to fill your mind with wisdom, inspiration, and insight? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this book is for you. This is a compact and convenient book that contains hundreds [of] quotes for all occasions. You’ll find quotes on topics such as life, knowledge, virtue, happiness, friendship, and more. This book is perfect for anyone who wants to enrich their mind and soul through the timeless teachings of the greats.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: One of the things that stood out to me after reading so many quotes is that there are probably quotes to support whatever you believe, as many of them contradict each other. For example, there are many quotes that contend that solitude is necessary to your being, while another whole slew contend that we cannot exist in solitude as we’re all intertwined. The editing of this book (at least the kindle version I read) was just bad, bad, bad. This included many missed terminal punctuation marks (mostly periods), capitalizing the word after a semicolon in a sentence, completely wrong words (e.g., throng instead of through, near instead of never), different fonts and line spacing on the same page, and some paragraphs in black and some in a lighter (almost) gray colored font, errant spaces mid-word (e.g., “you’ re” and “you ‘ re”), and paragraph breaks (i.e., hard to tell sometimes if a paragraph break was a new paragraph in the same quote or a new quote starting). Even the blurb on Goodreads had an editing error in it — see the word “of” I have highlighted in the description above — I added it because it was missing. For posterity, of the 12-day duration reading this book, I was on a cruise for 8 days of it and didn’t read.

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Book #10	Book: Hello Beautiful		Author: Ann Napolitano
	Source: Library loan Format: Kindle	Pages: 387	Duration: 02/06/26 – 02/07/26 (2 days)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: historical fiction, romance, family, mental health
📕10-word summary: A modern, darker re-imagining of Louisa May Alcott‘s Little Women. 🖌6-word review: Great pacing — it moved right along.
💭A favorite quote: “He was encouraging by nature; he attended college track events just to cheer on the slowest runners.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: caterwauled, physio
Description:* William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him—so when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman year of college, it’s as if the world has lit up around him. With Julia comes her family, as she and her three sisters are inseparable: Sylvie, the family’s dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all. With the Padavanos, William experiences a newfound contentment; every moment in their house is filled with loving chaos. But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters’ unshakeable devotion to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I thoroughly enjoyed this book, especially reading it right after reading Little Women, regarding which the author says, “If this [story] sounds slightly ‘Little Women-esque’ to you, then that’s the point. The book is a subtle, modern-day homage to Little Women. When the four Padavano sisters stepped into the story — each of them strong-willed and loving but so different from one another — I realized they were the heartbeat that would shape the rest of the novel. They became my homage to the fictional sisters I loved so much growing up: the four March girls in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.” There certainly are “nods” to the 4 Little Women sisters in this story, but the parents are completely different from those in Little Women, especially the mother. And there wasn’t a “one-to-one correspondence” between the 4 (Hello Beautiful) Padavano sisters and the 4 (Little Women) March sisters. I also felt that this “re-imagining” was much darker than Little Woman, which actually appealed to me. This was a Mostly Social Book Club book, and the best thing about it was that, while I was on the library waitlist for it, I was inspired to read Little Women while I waited.

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Book #9	Book: Little Women		Author: Louisa May Alcott
	Source: Library loan Format: Audiobook	Pages: 504	Duration: 02/01/26 – 02/05/26 (5 days)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: historical fiction, classics, romance, literature, young adult
📕10-word summary: 4 sisters endure hardships and enjoy adventures in this classic. 🖌6-word review: There’s a reason it’s a classic.
💭A memorable quote: “Mothers have needs of sharp eyes and discreet tongues when they have girls to manage.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: deportment, derogation, redoubtable, saleratus, assiduity, loquacity, wheedlesome, superannuated, propitious, salubrious
Description:* The charming story of the March sisters, Little Women has been adored for generations. Readers have rooted for Laurie in his pursuit of Jo’s hand, cried over little Beth’s untimely death, and dreamed of traveling through Europe with old Aunt March and Amy. Aspiring writers have found inspiration in Jo’s devotion to her writing. In this simple, enthralling tale, Louisa May Alcott has created four of American literature’s most beloved women.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I loved the writing in this book. It reminded me of Jane Eyre in that it’s “older” English, but not that Old English that’s unintelligible. And I thoroughly enjoyed the turns of phrases. My impetus for reading this classic now is because our next Mostly Social Book Club book is Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano, and its story has parallels with Little Woman. And since I’m still waiting for the book from the library, and I’d never read Little Women, which was available immediately, I went ahead and slipped it in. ChatGPT has graciously summarized the parallels between the two stories, and now that Little Women is fresh in my mind, I look extra forward to reading Hello Beautiful as soon as it’s available.

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Book #8	Book: The Celebrants		Author: Steven Rowley
	Source: Library loan Format: Large print	Pages: 320	Duration: 01/27/26 – 01/29/26 (3 days)
	Rating: ★★★☆☆	Genres: fiction, LGBT, queer, friendship, chosen family
📕10-word summary: Non-binary version of The Big Chill augmented by pre-deceased funerals. 🖌6-word review: An interesting, unique concept goes awry.
💭A memorable quote: “We weren’t meant to see everything, we weren’t built to do everything, we aren’t capable of knowing everything. At a certain point, peace has to be found with the choices we’ve made.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: Malinois, paean, trine, planchette, huipil
Description:* A Big Chill for our times, celebrating decades-long friendships and promises — especially to ourselves — by the bestselling and beloved author of The Guncle. It’s been a minute — or five years — since Jordan Vargas last saw his college friends, and 28 years since their graduation when their adult lives officially began. Now Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle find themselves at the brink of a new decade, with all the responsibilities of adulthood, yet no closer to having their lives figured out. Though not for a lack of trying. Over the years they’ve reunited in Big Sur to honor a decades-old pact to throw each other living “funerals,” celebrations to remind themselves that life is worth living — that their lives mean something, to one another if not to themselves. But this reunion is different. They’re not gathered as they were to bolster Marielle as her marriage crumbled, to lift Naomi after her parents died, or to intervene when Craig pleaded guilty to art fraud. This time, Jordan is sitting on a secret that will upend their pact.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I wanted to like this book more. I really did. But I didn’t. This is my third Steven Rowley book, and I probably won’t read any more by him. I also wanted to love The Guncle more than I did, but I absolutely loved The Editor. (Full disclosure: Having been an editor for a living and loving Jackie Kennedy Onassis may have influenced that.) I guess we can call it progress that there was a time when I thought anything by a gay author or about gay people was fantastic but am now more discerning. There were 2 “scenes” in this book that really didn’t work for me, and they were long scenes — one about a skydiving outing the 5-person group did together, and the other was near the end that went on and on about kittens. Blech.

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Book #7	Book: The Queens of Crime		Author: Marie Benedict
	Source: Library loan Format: Audiobook	Pages: 310	Duration: 01/23/26 – 01/25/26 (3 days)
	Rating: ★★★★☆	Genres: historical fiction, mystery, crime, women, writers
📕10-word summary: 5 famous female crime writers collaborate to solve a murder. 🖌6-word review: 5 powerful protagonists. Creative, fun story.
💭A memorable quote: “Very few of us are what we seem.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: pantheon, ignominy, skullduggery, morass
Description:* London, 1930. The 5 greatest women crime writers have banded together to form a secret society with a single goal: to show they are no longer willing to be treated as second-class citizens by their male counterparts in the legendary Detection Club. Led by the formidable Dorothy L. Sayers, the group includes Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Baroness Emma Orczy. They call themselves the Queens of Crime. Their plan? Solve an actual murder, that of a young woman found strangled in a park in France who may have connections leading to the highest levels of the British establishment.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This is my third book by this author, having read in 2022 The Only Woman in the Room (about Hedy Lamarr) and The Personal Librarian (about Belle da Costa Greene — personal librarian to famous financier and investment banker J.P. Morgan), and it’s a departure from her regular kind of storytelling, which is typically a fictionalized version of a woman in history who’s been overlooked or under-appreciated. In this story, instead of 1 woman, she writes about 5 women — who are actual, famous crime writers: Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Baroness Emma Orczy — and she has them all collaborating to solve one unsolved, real-life murder. Benedict incorporates each writer’s strengths, both as writers and of their main characters, such as Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey who stars in 11 of her novels, and Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, appearing in 33 of her novels and Miss Marple, who appears in 12. I found it to be an interesting, creative, and fun premise and would definitely recommend it, especially if you’re a fan of the mystery genre. Oh, bonus! There were at least 3 uses of one of Moira Rose’s vocabulary words: chin-wag.

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Book #6	Book: Killing Floor		Author: Lee Child
	Source: Library loan Format: Kindle	Pages: 532	Duration: 01/19/26 – 01/22/26 (4 days)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: fiction, thriller, mystery, crime, suspense, detective, action, adventure
📕10-word summary: Ex-military policeman stumbles into corrupt town. Kicks ass. Takes names. 🖌6-word review: Excellent storytelling. On the violent side.
💭A memorable quote: “I had to decide how to use that pressure. I had to decide whether it was going to crush me or turn me into a diamond.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: flight case, interdiction, shunted, jinked, Perspex, intaglio, lithography, letterpress, sap, camber
Description:* The first Jack Reacher novel. Ex-military policeman Jack Reacher is a drifter. He’s just passing through Margrave, Georgia, and in less than an hour, he’s arrested for murder. Not much of a welcome. All Reacher knows is that he didn’t kill anybody. At least not here. Not lately. But he doesn’t stand a chance of convincing anyone. Not in Margrave, Georgia. Not a chance in hell.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I’ve only read short-story books by Lee Child — Eleven Numbers and Safe Enough and Other Stories. I wanted to get a feel for his writing before diving into the Jack Reacher series. I was impressed with his writing, giving both those books 5 stars. I had no idea there were thirty Jack Reacher novels, and this is my first one. I’d originally planned to run through a couple (in order of publication, of course; because, that’s how I roll), but I’m rethinking that now. I’m torn, because I loved the writing and the plot, but I really abhor violence, and the worst (meaning most brutal) kind of violence takes place in this story. And I have no reason to think that’s going to abate in any way in future books. I’ll probably try at least the second book, Die Trying, which I’m in the queue for at my library. I hear there is a Reacher TV series, starring Alan Ritchson (a hunk!), and there are two Reacher movies, starring Tom Cruise. Bob’s the movie-watcher in our family, and he said, “Tom Cruise is too wimpy to play Reacher.” I’ve seen neither, as I don’t watch TV or movies, and with the violence in this book, I don’t have any desire to watch either.

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Book #5	Book: Tell Me Everything		Author: Elizabeth Strout
	Source: Library loan Format: Large print	Pages: 326	Duration: 01/16/26 – 01/18/26 (3 days)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: fiction, friendship, family, love
📕10-word summary: Lucy and Bob share an incredibly intimate, but nonsexual, relationship. 🖌6-word review: Elizabeth Strout at her absolute best.
💭A memorable quote: “She had apparently not remembered the time — weeks ago — that she had asked him to write the letter B on the back of her underpants, and he did not remind her that she had one more pair — the pair she had been wearing — which needed a B; he did not want to embarrass her.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: schlumpy, snot-wot
Description:* It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer, Lucy Barton, who lives nearby in a house next to the sea. Together, Lucy and Bob talk about their lives, their hopes and regrets, and what might have been. Lucy, meanwhile, befriends one of Crosby’s longest inhabitants, Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons together in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known – “unrecorded lives,” Olive calls them – reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This is book #5 in a 5-book series, of which I first read book #4, Lucy by the Sea, then book #3, Oh William!, both of which I loved. Having enjoyed both of those so much, I decided to read the other 3 books in the series. So, next I read book #1, My Name is Lucy Barton, which I didn’t love at all, and which unfortunately, was the case with book #2, Anything is Possible! I know if I’d’ve read them in order, I would have stopped after books #1 & #2. I’m happy to say that this final book was on par, if not the best, of the 5-book series! I just love this author’s voice, and I loved the appearance in this book of Olive Kitteridge, who is the titular character in another of this author’s book, which I loved. So to recap about the series: I recommend skipping books #1 and #2 and reading books #3, #4, & #5.

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Book #4	Book: The Nickel Loop		Author: Nancy Houser-Bluhm
	Source: Friend loan Format: Print	Pages: 340	Duration: 01/12/26 – 01/15/26 (4 days)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: historical fiction, time travel, romance, LGBT, women’s rights, food safety
📕10-word summary: Time travelers meet “part way” — help each other through it. 🖌6-word review: Different, interesting experience of time travel.
💭A memorable quote: “There’s a bond that forms when people go through traumatic events together.”
Description:* Emmeline, a driven young woman, has withdrawn from friends and family since her adored father died suddenly. Traveling by train to visit her sister in a small Colorado town, she steps from 2022 into 1938. When she meets kind, well-educated Nicholas, she recognizes his panic and disbelief. He just arrived from 1898. The two struggle to grasp their shattered reality but blending into 1938 draws them close and love sparks. When a psychic offers hope for returning to their own times, will they forfeit what could be? Nicholas is astonished by the advances 1938 offers but Emmeline knows the 1930s hold little opportunity for her as a woman. A discovery intensifies the pull back to her own time. Can her heart exist on two timelines?*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: In spite of not being a sci-fi, magical realism, or fantasy fan, I do like time-travel stories. Other time-travel books I’ve enjoyed include The memory Collectors, Remember Me Tomorrow, Oona Out of Order, The Midnight Library, Mrs. Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, The Time Traveler’s Wife, In Five Years, and A Wrinkle in Time. The refreshing part of this time-travel plot was: of the two people traveling, one lands in 1938 from the future (2022) and the other from the past (1898). One thing I especially liked about the way the story unraveled was that it was like it anticipated my questions and then answered them. Some examples: I was wondering how Nicholas’ cabin became a museum. And in the very next chapter, that was answered. I was wondering which family members were currently (in 1938) living in what was Emmeline’s sister’s home in 2022 (because it was a “family home” handed down over the years), and then Nicholas & Emmeline went there to see who was living there now. I began wondering how Emmeline’s family (specifically her mother and sister) were reacting to her having gone missing in the future, and that eventually happened in chapter 18 with a jump back to 2022. I wondered why Emmeline didn’t take a photo of Nicholas on the cell phone she had with her in 1938, which couldn’t be used as a phone at all, but whose camera would have been functional, and later on, when it was too late, Emmeline wondered herself why she hadn’t done that. And of course, I liked that there was a gay character in the book. A final comment about this book is that the author went to high school with Bob (my husband), and she’s my friend on Facebook, which fortunately didn’t influence my review of the book — thank goodness, as that could have been awkward. (Thanks for a great story, Nancy, and for anticipating my questions as a reader — and more importantly — answering them! 😍)

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Book #3	Book: Anything is Possible		Author: Elizabeth Strout
	Source: Library loan Format: Large print	Pages: 254	Duration: 01/08/26 – 01/11/26 (4 days)
	Rating: ★★★☆☆	Genres: fiction, family, dysfunction, class
📕10-word summary: Woman returns to visit her siblings after 17 years away. 🖌6-word review: Had trouble keeping track of characters.
💭A memorable quote: “Unease came into the room with the girl.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: lambert, kohl, cornetto, caseggiato, dappled
Description:* Here are two sisters: One trades self-respect for a wealthy husband while the other finds in the pages of a book a kindred spirit who changes her life. The janitor at the local school has his faith tested in an encounter with an isolated man he has come to help; a grown daughter longs for a mother’s love even as she comes to accept her own mother’s happiness in a foreign country; and the adult Lucy Barton (the heroine of My Name Is Lucy Barton, the author’s celebrated New York Times bestseller) returns to visit her siblings after 17 years of absence.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This is book #2 in a 5-book series, of which I first read book #4, Lucy by the Sea, then book #3, Oh William!, both of which I loved. Having enjoyed both of those so much, I decided to read the other 3 books in the series. So, next I read book #1, My Name is Lucy Barton, which I didn’t love at all, and which unfortunately, was the case with this book #2! I know if I’d’ve read them in order, I would have stopped after this book (#2). Now I’m hesitant to read book #5, Tell Me Everything, but I’m hoping that they got better as they went along and that I will enjoy book #5 as much as I did numbers 3 & 4. I’m at least going to start it, and if it’s more like books 1 & 2 than books 3 & 4, then I’ll abandon it.

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Book #2	Book: The Correspondent		Author: Virginia Evans
	Source: Library loan Format: Kindle	Pages: 291	Duration: 01/06/26 – 01/07/26 (2 days)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: fiction, family, books about books, grief
📕10-word summary: Woman finds solace in literature, connecting with people by letter. 🖌6-word review: Nonpareil narrator. Commendable characters. Laudable letters.
💭A memorable quote: “I’ve now stood before my closet on three occasions and leafed through what I own, and the only black anything I have anymore is a dress I was probably wearing in the 1990s, which dips down to the uppermost part of what used to be my cleavage, but which now resembles the skin of a raw plucked chicken.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: dryads, lichen
Description:* Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter. Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has — a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This book is all the rage right now, and I waited several months for it on my library‘s waiting list. It was at — or near — the top of many “2025 best book of the year” lists. I certainly agree with its high ratings, as I enjoyed it tremendously. I love a good epistolary novel, probably because the idea of reading other people’s mail greatly appeals to me. I loved the variety of people she wrote to, including a couple of authors (Ann Patchett to name one that I love). I also love books about books, to which I recently devoted an entire blog entry, and there were several books mentioned in this book that I’ve read including, Hamnet, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Bel Canto, The Dutch House, 84 Charing Cross Road, The Uncommon Reader, Cutting for Stone, Rebecca, The Remains of the Day, Demon Copperhead, Crossing to Safety, and Wuthering Heights. Also book/author-related, there were a couple of Joan Didion books mentioned, whose Notes To John I recently read. And a final relevant-to-me thing in this book was a plotline in it about DNA testing, which reminded me of my recently read book: The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Uncovering Secrets, Reuniting Relatives, and Upending Who We Are.

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Book #1	Book: What Happened to the McCrays?		Author: Tracey Lange
	Source: Amazon Unlimited loan Format: Kindle	Pages: 352	Duration: 01/01/26 – 01/05/26 (5 days)
	Rating: ★★★★☆	Genres: fiction, family, romance, grief
📕10-word summary: Couple destroyed by loss of their son tries to recover. 🖌6-word review: Angst and sadness dominate the narrative.
💭A memorable quote: “It was a curious thing being in that room again. He felt a little lost in time, like he was visiting the boy who used to inhabit this space and dream about his future.”
🎓A new-to-me word: puffy
Description:* When Kyle McCray gets word his father has suffered a debilitating stroke, he returns to his hometown of Potsdam, New York, where he doesn’t expect a warm welcome. Kyle left suddenly two and a half years ago, abandoning people who depended on him: his father, his employees, his friends—not to mention Casey, his wife of sixteen years and a beloved teacher in town. He plans to lie low and help his dad recuperate until he can leave again, especially after Casey makes it clear she wants him gone. The longer he’s home, the more Kyle understands the impact his departure has had on the people he left behind. When he’s presented with an opportunity for redemption as the coach of the floundering middle school hockey team, he begins to find compassion in unexpected places. Kyle even considers staying in Potsdam, but that’s only possible if he and Casey can come to some kind of peace with each other.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: A friend of mine recommended this book, which she loved. It was a good story, which I enjoyed, but for me, it took a little too long to get to the crux of what really happened the day the couple’s son died and why it was so hard for them to forgive themselves and each other.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2026 and previous years: 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.