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Reading Roundup
October 2025 |
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Wreck ; : a novel
by Catherine Newman
In Western Massachusetts, Rocky juggles family life with her husband, adult children and aging father, until her fixation on a local accident and an ominous medical concern stirs up anxieties that threaten to upend her fragile sense of normalcy.
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Sacrament : a novel
by Susan Straight
A group of nurses fights through the first year of a pandemic, risking their lives to protect their beloved California community.
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The Devil Is a Southpaw
by Brandon Hobson
Haunted by jealousy and past trauma, Milton Muleborn recounts his volatile friendship with gifted Cherokee artist Matthew Echota, blending dark humor, unreliable memory, and surreal reflections on their shared time in a brutal juvenile detention center and the enduring scars it left behind.
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The White Octopus Hotel
by Alex Bell
"Journey to a magical hotel in the Swiss Alps, where two lost souls living in different centuries meet and discover if, behind the many doors, a second chance awaits"-- Provided by publisher
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Birdlane Island
by V. C. Andrews
On a remote Maine island, a reclusive novelist forbids his sickly daughter from seeing her true love, leading her to question if the isolated haven is a sanctuary or a prison as a new artist arrives.
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The Land of Sweet Forever : Stories and Essays
by Harper Lee
Spanning her early short stories and later nonfiction, this collection reveals the iconic author's evolving voice and sharp insights into childhood, creativity, justice and Southern identity, offering a fuller portrait beyond her two landmark novels.
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Bad bad girl : a novel
by Gish Jen
Spanning continents and generations, traces the turbulent bond between a brilliant Chinese immigrant mother and her headstrong American daughter, as they navigate a lifetime of love, ambition and aching misunderstanding, in the new novel by the author of The Resisters.
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Soyangri Book Kitchen
by Kim Jee Hye
With good books, good food and companionship, the Book Kitchen fills people's tired souls. Yoojin, who grew up in Seoul, opened the Book Kitchen by chance in Soyangri, a village two hours from Seoul by car. The Book Kitchen functions as a bookshop and cafe. The second function of the Book Kitchen is a Book Stay, where one can stay overnight in one of the building's four complexes.
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The second chance cinema
by Thea Weiss
A magical theater atop a cobblestone path alters what a couple knows about themselves—and each other.
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Christine's Library Journal Reviews
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When the road comes around
by Katie Powner
This review by librarian Christine Barth first appeared in the July 2025 issue of Library Journal.
Having always been told that he would never measure up, Tad doesn't expect his new summer job at the Wilson's Come Around Ranch in Montana to last long. Then an old flame shows up on while Tad is on the clock and deposits a baby in a car seat -- announcing Tad's fatherhood in front of his bosses.
The Wilsons agree to give Tad a second chance; at the same time, they try to give their adult special-needs son Sam more freedom. As a steady stream of tourists visit the ranch, there are signs that something's not quite right in the mountains. Between environmental and estate-planning concerns, local farmers and ranchers are under stress, and it will all come to a head in the heat of a Montana summer.
VERDICT: Powner (The Wind Blows in Sleeping Grass) writes powerful contemporary fiction exploring the love between parents and children and how faith in God can change a life. For readers of T.I. Lowe and Christina Suzann Nelson who also focus on the intersection of faith and mental health.
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The sands of Sea Blue Beach
by Rachel Hauck
This review by librarian Christine Barth first appeared in the July 2025 issue of Library Journal.
Sea Blue Beach, FL, is a familiar venue for Hauck's (Meet Me at the Starlight) fans, but this new set of characters enters a once-quaint town divided by an old football rivalry and economic disparities.
Emery Quinn takes a job at the microlocal Sea Blue Beach Gazette after her old life in Ohio falls apart, but she has unresolved issues with Sea Blue from her sweet-16 summer, the one before her mom died. Meanwhile, Caleb Ransom is trying to get his sustainable-architecture firm off the ground but can't seem to break into the good-old-boys club of West Sea Blue.
Seeing Emery again brings back Caleb's memories of their long-ago romance and the summer when his sister became alienated from the family; now Caleb is unexpectedly parenting his nephew while his sister chases happiness elsewhere.
VERDICT: This then-and-now second-chance romance is perfect summer reading. The family issues are realistic without being overbearing, and the sweet romance unfolds naturally. Recommend to fans of Denise Hunter and Becky Wade.
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Gelato at the villa
by Robin Jones Gunn
This review by librarian Christine Barth first appeared in the July 2025 issue of Library Journal.
Friends for decades, Grace and Claire are almost 40 when they finally make their dream trip to Italy, leaving behind the stress of their daily lives in California.
From foggy Venice canals to gold-plated churches to a private cooking class in a rustic Tuscany villa, the fiends' trip does not always turn out as plan, but in every hiccup the ladies find a chance to stretch their wings and embrace new possibilities.
Through Italy's many and varied art forms, the two women discover the age-old story of a God who wants pilgrims to let go of fear and find their way back home. At each stop, they also meet members of the global church and experience new levels of hospitality.
VERDICT: Featuring droolworthy food descriptions, the sequel to Tea with Elephants weaves small life lessons with eternal consequences. Readers will want to grab some gelato and sprawl out with Gunn's novel and books of a similar feel, including Melody Carlson's Looking for Leroy and Denise Hunter's The Bookshop by the Sea.
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Some kind of famous : a novel
by Ava Wilder
In a steamy and emotional small-town romance, Merritt Valentine, a disgraced ex-musician, and Nikolaos Petrakis, a local handyman, try to resist their growing attraction for each other -- until a house renovation forces them together.
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Sense and suitability : a novel
by Pepper Basham
"In this clean Regency rom-com, a woman with a scandalous past (and an even more scandalous secret) swears off love--until the man who broke her heart needs her help. What could possibly go wrong?"
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Mystery, Adventure, Thriller
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The bone thief
by Vanessa Lillie
When a Native teenager vanishes from her small town—a place with dark ties to an elite historical society—archaeologist Syd Walker is called to investigate.
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6:40 to Montreal : a novel
by Eva Jurczyk
When Agatha's peaceful train ride to Montreal turns deadly after a passenger mysteriously dies during an unexpected stop in the remote woods, her writing retreat spirals into a tense battle for survival among a dwindling group of trapped travelers.
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King Sorrow
by Joe Hill
Blackmailed into stealing rare books, Arthur's friends summon a dragon to save him, only to strike a deadly bargain that binds them to a terrifying choice: offer a yearly sacrifice or face King Sorrow's wrath themselves.
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Girl Dinner
by Olivie Blake
Every member of The House, the most exclusive sorority on campus, and all its alumni, are beautiful, high-achieving, and universally respected. After a freshman year she would rather forget, sophomore Nina Kaur knows being one of the chosen few accepted into The House is the first step in her path to the brightest possible future. Once she's taken into their fold, the House will surely ease her fears of failure and protect her from those who see a young woman on her own as easy prey.
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Our Vicious Oaths
by N. E. Davenport
Princess of the Aether Dominion, Kadeesha wants nothing to do with fae politics. She is a warrior, first and foremost, and believes her greatest strength is leading her squadron of elite winged serpent flyers to protect her homeland. But bound since infancy to be betrothed to the Hyperion High King, ruler of all Dominions, she has no choice but to do what men have chosen for her. Repulsed by the idea, she decides to spend one last night of freedom--in the arms of a dangerous stranger who takes her to sexual heights she's never experienced before...but who is only using Kadeesha to set a trap for the High King.
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The Ordeals
by Rachel Greenlaw
Trapped by a blood bond to her cruel uncle, Sophia DeWinter risks everything to enter Killmarth College, where alongside botanist Alden Locke she must survive deadly magical trials and uncover the killer preying on her competitors before she becomes the next victim.
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Bog Queen
by Anna North
When a body is found in a bog in northwest England, Agnes, an American forensic anthropologist, is called to investigate. But this body is not like any she's ever seen. Though its bones prove it was buried more than two thousand years ago, it is almost completely preserved. As Agnes faces the deep history of what she has unearthed, she's also forced to question what she thought she knew about her talent, her self-reliance, and her place in the world. Flashing between the uncertainty of post-Brexit England and the druidic order of Celtic Europe at the dawn of the Roman era, Bog Queen brims with contemporary urgency and ancient wisdom as it connects across time two gifted, farsighted young women learning to harness their strange strengths in a landscape more mysterious and complex than either can imagine.
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Boleyn Traitor
by Philippa Gregory
The author of The Other Boleyn Girl returns to the court of Henry VIII with a novel about the high cost of loyalty, love and betrayal.
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Fake skating
by Lynn Painter
In this heartfelt rom com, childhood best friends Dani and Alec reunite in their hockey-obsessed hometown, and as they fake a relationship for convenience, old wounds, family secrets and lingering feelings surface -- threatening to turn their pretend romance into something real.
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Sisters in the wind / : A Good Morning America Book Club Pick
by Angeline Boulley
"Ever since Lucy Smith's father died five years ago, 'home' has been more of an idea than a place. She knows being on the run is better than anything waiting for her as a '"ward of the state'. But when the sharp-eyed and kind Mr. Jameson with an interestin her case comes looking for her, Lucy wonders if hiding from her past will ever truly keep her safe. Five years in the foster system has taught her to be cautious and smart. But she wants to believe Mr. Jameson and his 'friend-not-friend', a tall and fierce-looking woman who say they want to look after her. They also tell Lucy the truth her father hid from her: She is Ojibwe; she has--had--a sister, and more siblings, a grandmother who'd look after her and a home where she would be loved"
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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