The Amateur: A Novel
by Chris Bohjalian
You can't go wrong with Bohjalian (5/28/2026)
You can't go wrong with a Chris Bohjalian novel. I have read all but two of them and liked every one, loved most. His latest, THE AMATEUR, is no exception, although it is one of the few that I didn't love.
I have found over the years that better writers do not resort to an abundance of sex or the F word. So at first this novel turned me off. It was full of sex and the F word, so unlike Bohjalian. But I understand now his intention: he was establishing the character of the story's narrator.
THE AMATEUR is written as if this is Mira's memoir. As a teenager she was a golf prodigy and often golfed with a team of grown men (and was the highest scorer). In her memoir, she establishes right away that she was not a good girl; she was attracted to much older men, had sex with them since she was 15 years old, did lots of drugs, and used the F word in many of her sentences.
Mira is now an established and widely read author of novels. (And it sounds like Bohjalian is giving her credit for some of his own novels, although I'd like to know more about a novel he mentions called MORAL COMPASS.) Now that she is in her 60s, she says, she is finally ready to write a memoir and admit to two things she has felt guilty about her whole life: she killed a caddy and she broke up a family (her words).
In 1978 Mira was 18. She was at her family's country club one day putting golf balls into a net. A 17-year-old caddy just happened to be walking in front of the net when one of her golf balls sailed right through it, hitting him in the head and killing him. Although, of course, this was not Mira's fault, she felt like she killed him for the rest of her life. For a while there, so did the police and the DA.
Plus, Mira's attraction to older men got her in some trouble. But it actually wasn't as bad as it might've been if her parents and the law were aware that her current affair had been going on since she was 15 years old. What made her feel bad, though, was that a wife and two children lost a husband and father as a result. Mira continued finding older but unmarried men to sleep with.
Read this for the criminal trial and the surprise ending.
The Calamity Club: A Novel
by Kathryn Stockett
You will wish this long book was longer (5/22/2026)
If you are put off by the length of THE CALAMITY CLUB, just start reading it. You won't be put off for long. You may, as a matter of fact, wish it were longer by the time you get to the end. I am hoping for a sequel. It's that good.
The reviews of THE CALAMITY CLUB that I read before its publication said that it is about a group of women. While that is true and it can explain the title, the book is way more than that. A more accurate description would say that THE CALAMITY CLUB is about an 11-year-old orphan, Meg, a bleeding-heart spinster, Birdie, and Meg's mother, Charlie; and getting the orphan back together with her mother with the help of the Calamity Club.
Characters are so well developed in this book, including every woman in the Calamity Club, with Charlie as their lead. But THE CALAMITY CLUB concentrates mostly on Birdie and Meg. The whole story is told from each of their perspectives in alternate chapters. These are the two characters you will care about most.
Something that not all readers will care about but some, like me, will: Meg's chapters do not use quotation marks. Italics indicate quotations. But why? And why not in Birdie's chapters? I think that must mean something but what?
Thank you, thank you to LibraryThing. I won this great book through their Early Reviewers program.
Buckeye: A Novel
by Patrick Ryan
A Character-Driven Novel With a Story (5/5/2026)
A mostly character-driven novel, BUCKEYE does not suffer from what so many other character-driven novels do: as I call it, the "first-this-happened-then-that-happened-then-this-happened-etc. syndrome." In other words, they're boring. They concentrate on the characters, alone, and there is no story, no plot. But BUCKEYE's characters are more interesting because they have a story.
This story is told from the perspectives of six main characters. Cal grows up under bad circumstances but rises above them. He marries Becky, a kind and thoughtful, some would say wonderful person. Margaret grows up under bad circumstances and stays unhappy and unsatisfied into adulthood. She marries Felix, a kind and successful man with money who is trying to hide and even overcome his homosexuality. Eventually, two more characters come along: Becky has a baby who they call Skip, and Margaret has Thomas.
The circumstances of Thomas's birth become known to Cal and Becky and Margaret and Felix, but the four of them keep the secret from their children for many years. They keep the secret for too long.
BUCKEYE is the best kind of character-driven novel. You'll care about each character. And you'll keep reading because you'll care about their story.
Project Hail Mary
by Andy Weir
Brainy Science Fiction (4/30/2026)
I love Ryland Grace, and you will, too. He's PROJECT HAIL MARY's humble scientist, the guy who never swears, the junior high school teacher who discovers what is covering more and more of the sun. He becomes the lone astronaut who will save the world.
Grace comes out of a coma on a spaceship. He remembers nothing and has no idea why he's there. Little by little his past comes back to him. Now he realizes he is on a suicide mission to a planet that is immune to whatever the earth and its sun are suffering from. How can the earth get that immunity?
And there's Rocky, the alien who is on a similar mission to save his planet. He and Grace work together and become best friends.
I haven't been a science fiction fan since I watched "Lost in Space" back in the 60s. But I became a fan of Andy Weir when my husband bought me Weir's book THE MARTIAN because he wanted me to want to see "The Martian" movie. Now I'm ready to see the "Project Hail Mary" movie, which I'm sure won't measure up to this excellent book. This is brainy, not silly, science fiction that is easy to follow.
All the Dangerous Things: A Novel
by Stacy Willingham
I struggled to read most of this (4/30/2026)
Although ALL THE DANGEROUS THINGS has the makings of a great mystery, I struggled to finish reading it after page 50, then again after page 100. It wasn't until somewhere around page 260 that I became anxious to finish it and not just out of obligation to my book club.
The best mysteries have more than one mystery going on. ALL THE DANGEROUS THINGS has that going for it.
The main mystery: who abducted Isabelle's and Ben's baby boy, Mason? And is he dead or alive?
Could Isabelle, herself, have done it? That's another mystery as evidence of Isabelle's guilt piles up. Is it possible that she drowned her little sister when they were children?
Is Isabelle's sleep deprivation since Mason was taken making her see things that aren't really there? (And about that: I wonder how that's possible for someone to get no sleep for a year. I don't function well if I go without a single night of sleep.)
Or what about Ben? What is he guilty of besides cheating on two wives?
I read that this book has a surprise ending, and I guess you could say that. After all, I didn't predict it. But it seemed to me that the end was too good, with every little mystery tied up too neatly and no mention of any difficulty, which I'm sure there would have to be.
I will not be surprised if I see this story in a movie on the Lifetime channel.
Nightwatching: A Novel
by Tracy Sierra
Last part gets the praise (2/22/2026)
Many readers rate a book highly as long as the last part of it is good, even if the first part is mostly tedious and the middle is frustrating and annoying. I don't.
No one in NIGHTWATCHING has a name. Even the setting is unnamed; we know only that it is someplace in New England.
A small shy widow lives in a big old house with her young son and daughter. She wakes one night to hear an intruder in her home. Sounds like a good beginning. But the nail-biting minute-by-minute description of what the widow hears and how she decides to best protect her children gets tedious with the frequent interruptions of her remembrances of the past. Yes, we need to know this background to understand her present. But its presentation nearly spoils an otherwise pulse-pounding situation.
We get to the point where the widow is being questioned by the police. They have taken her children to live with her father-in-law while she is recuperating. He is a bad man and has already given to the police his unreasonably bad opinion of her. As a result, they do not believe much of what she tells them. One of the policemen even reports the widow to Child Protective Services because he doesn't feel they are safe with her. So now she can't get her kids back. No matter that she is the victim here. The story gets so frustrating I wanted to throw the book against the wall.
After this, though, NIGHTWATCHING gets thrilling again but with no interruptions. I'm convinced this is how Tracy Sierra has received so much praise for this book.
The Friend
by Sigrid Nunez
Not really about a dog (2/17/2026)
The first thing you should know about THE FRIEND is that it is not a book about a dog, at least not to the extent as described on its book flap. Instead, Sigrid Nunez has written a book of ruminations around some mentions about the great big dog she acquired upon the suicide of her friend.
The narrator of THE FRIEND ruminates almost entirely on writers and their writing and their books. Between ruminations, we learn that she lives in a small apartment in New York where dogs are not allowed. Then more ruminating. Then the solution she and her therapist come up with. Then more ruminating.Then she talks about taking the dog for a walk. Then more ruminating.Then the dog gets old and slow. Then more ruminating.
THE FRIEND has won lots of awards, and I think I know why. Partly, maybe mostly, it's because these ruminations are what the judges cared about. That is, the judges, literary people, liked all the writing about writing and literature. The dog story made all this wisdom flow.
Of course, THE FRIEND has won awards because Nunez really does write well. She has such a good way of imparting wisdom yet keeping it light with her dog story. It will even make you laugh. I don't think it will make you cry, though, as at least one author blurb warns.
The Jackal's Mistress: A Novel
by Chris Bohjalian
Civil-war-era story inspired by actual (2/6/2026)
THE JACKAL'S MISTRESS proves again why Chris Bohjalian is one of my favorite authors. Although I usually prefer thrillers, and this is not that, THE JACKAL'S MISTRESS is not only character driven; this fictionalized version of a true story has a wonderful plot as well.
Back in 2003, Bohjalian was assigned by READER'S DIGEST to write a Civil-War-era account of two people, one on the Union side of the war, the other a Confederate, who few people had heard of. This true story led to THE JACKAL'S MISTRESS. It is fiction, but a story like this one really did happen.
A young woman like Libby really did help a Union soldier like Captain Weybridge after her servant, a freed slave who was also based on a real person, found this injured officer who had been left for dead. Libby took him in, hid him, and nursed him back to health. THE JACKAL'S MISTRESS contains other similarities to the true details, but mostly this is Bohjalian's story.
It kept me as riveted as any thriller. The confederates came so close, day after day, to discovering the captain.
As for the title, it isn't what it sounds like. Read this excellent book and discover what "the jackal's mistress" really refers to.
The Frozen River: A Novel
by Ariel Lawhon
Historical Fiction Inspired by Fact (1/24/2026)
Ariel Lawhon is known for her "biographical fiction," i.e., historical fiction that is closely based on fact. THE FROZEN RIVER, however, is historical fiction INSPIRED by fact. Although most of the characters really did exist, more of the facts about them and around them have been altered or made up.
The main character of THE FROZEN RIVER is a midwife who lives on a farm in Maine with her husband and six children. (Her name was Martha Ballard, and she was an actual person.) She is resourceful and smart and kind, and you'll be happy to know that she is outspoken. Unlike so many of the characters we read about in other books who don't say what we wish they would say, this midwife does. (We can thank Lawhon for the dialogue.) Ballard investigates and testifies in court about a murder and later tends to a woman who was raped and testifies about that, too.
What I liked best about THE FROZEN RIVER is that Lawhon keeps to the truth not only about small-town life in Maine after the Revolutionary War but also about the American legal system at that time, especially as it pertained to women.
When you reach the end of this story, please continue reading the "Authors Note." Here Lawhon answers a lot of the questions you probably had when you were reading.
The Last Thing He Told Me: A Novel
by Laura Dave
A great mystery with a perplexing end (1/17/2026)
What a terrific mystery THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME is. I am so pleased to recommend it.
Hannah is married to a man, Owen, who has a teenage daughter, Bailey, from a previous marriage. We learn in Hanna's flashbacks about Owen, especially that he would do anything for his daughter. In Hanna's flashbacks we also see what she now understands were hints of what was to come.
Now Owen is gone, and Hannah needs to know why. One thing she does know is that Owen would never leave Bailey unless he thought he had no other choice. So the two of them, Hannah and Bailey, try to unravel this mystery.
Hannah realizes that Owen has left his daughter in her care and she must protect Bailey above all else. So here's what I don't get: why does Hannah want Bailey to have contact with the people they discover in Texas? How is this protection?
THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME is a great mystery that has a perplexing end.
The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald
by John U. Bacon
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (1/9/2026)
2025, the year THE GALES OF NOVEMBER was published, in particular November 10, 2025, marked 50 years since the Great Lakes ship EDMUND FITZGERALD, along with her entire crew of 29 men, went missing, to be found later at the bottom of Lake Superior. This book is John U Bacon's most excellent retelling of the wreck of the EDMUND FITZGERALD, including some history of Great Lakes shipping and ship wrecks, the sailors lives onboard and off the ship, possible reasons for the wreck, the search for the ship, and the aftermath.
Many facts here may surprise you, especially if you aren't familiar with the Great Lakes (such as with their size) but even if you are. Even someone who, for instance, grew up around Lake Huron, another of the Great Lakes, may not be familiar with the extent of Great Lakes shipping.
Interesting facts such as these could be like a textbook, though, i.e., monotonous, but THE GALES OF NOVEMBER never lets this go on too long without humanizing with stories of the crew, their plans, and what might have happened to them. For sure, a lot of people are involved, and that means lots of names. But Bacon reminds his readers who everyone is whenever he mentions them.
I hope that Bacon wins awards for this book. He certainly deserves to.
A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them
by Timothy Egan
A Masterpiece of nonfiction (12/18/2025)
This is a tough one to review because A FEVER IN THE HEARTLAND is a masterpiece of nonfiction about the Ku Klux Klan during the 1920s. But it contains some implications, which the author, Timothy Egan, has discussed a bit during author appearances I have listened to online, that are a stretch.
No one can doubt the facts Egan writes about. Everything really did happen; it is well documented.
D.C. Stephenson rose to power in the Ku Klux Klan during the 1920s in Indiana, where most of the population was white and protestant, the Ku Klux Klan ideal. He was a smooth talker, but he was also a monster.
A FEVER IN THE HEARTLAND notes several stories of people who tried to take down the Ku Klux Klan. But no one did. Than Madge Oberholtzer finally got them with her deathbed testimony of her nightmare experience with Stevenson and his thugs. After that, the Ku Klux Klan, most notably in Indiana, all but disappeared.
Egan's writing is superb, and the story is unputdownable. But, although it is true that history repeats itself and that we should learn from history, Egan implies that some of the history of the Ku Klux Klan, such as hatred of immigrants, is happening again today. I take issue with that. What Is happening today is resentment, not hatred, of people who illegally rush into this country. That is not hatred of immigrants.
So much of this history I didn't know, and maybe you didn't know either. I urge you to pick it up. It might make you feel smarter.
Songs for the Missing: A Novel
by Stewart O'Nan
Sad and depressing (12/9/2025)
Stewart O'Nan is one of my favorite authors. So, although SONGS FOR THE MISSING does feature that same great O'Nan writing, I was disappointed.
Here is the story of a missing teenage girl and the thoughts and feelings of her friends and family. The first year is excruciatingly detailed. It was all very sad and depressing, even after a year.
SONGS FOR THE MISSING sounds authentic. But I didn't enjoy reading it. Even so, the book deserves a four-star rating because it is so well written.
The Secret History
by Donna Tartt
You may want to reread this book (11/27/2025)
THE SECRET HISTORY is Donna Tartt's first book, apparently written while she was still in school. If you read it, you'll see why this is so hard to believe. The writer seems to be a master, an old pro. Some readers have even said it is or will be a classic.
Richard is a Californian who has come to a small college in Vermont, where he studies Greek in a class with five other students, Harry, Francis, twins Charles and Camilla (I still don't know what to think of those two name choices), and Bunny (a male nickname). Richard becomes close with them, so close it is to the exclusion of all others, too close. Their story involves a murder, which leads to another murder, which leads to a suicide.
This is a book you might want to reread. You might wonder if you caught every detail or missed an allusion. I never reread books, but this one I might.
Boy from the North Country: A Novel
by Sam Sussman
This is a story about love (11/12/2025)
Normally, a book has to grab me. Otherwise, I don't care for it and don't want to finish it. BOY FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY didn't grab me, but it did intrigue me, so I kept reading it. If it does grab you, it will probably be because of Sam Sussman's story about his mother and Bob Dylan.
Although BOY FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY is called a novel, it is, Sussman says, also autobiographical. (I'm not sure what that means, how it can be both.) In the book, he tells two stories.
It begins when Evan (the name Sussman uses in the book, really his middle name) was told, too late, that his mother was dying of cancer. This is the story of the time they spent together and how they dealt with it. This part of the book is touching but not extraordinary; most people would do the same for their dying mother.
The other story is within that story. It is while Evan was taking his mother for chemotherapy treatments and sat with her for hours that she told him of the affair she had with Bob Dylan when she was only 20 years old and he was 33 and married.
BOY FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY has been reviewed by so many newspapers and magazines, and this is probably why. It's interesting, and there's lots of conjecture. Is it true? And is Bob Dylan Sussman's father? As far as I can tell, Dylan has not commented on this book or the affair with Sussman's mother.
But most of BOY FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY isn't about that even if most of the reviews are. Actually, this is a story about love, both the love between a mother and son and the love she had been searching for her whole life.
Thank you to firstlookbookclub.com for this hardcover copy of BOY FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY
Wild Dark Shore: A Novel
by Charlotte McConaghy
I can't praise this highly enough (11/5/2025)
If I could, I would rate WILD DARK SHORE with more than five stars. I cannot praise it highly enough!
Mysteries abound in this book, one right after another. You won't want to put it down and, yet, you'll hate to see it end. The last few short chapters might make you cry.
Simply put, living on Shearwater Island are a group of scientists/researchers and a father and his three children. One day a near-dead woman washes ashore during a storm, and the family nurse her back to health. The four of them--yes, even the children--all have secrets.
Do yourself a favor and read this. You'll want to thank me.
The God of the Woods: A Novel
by Liz Moore
Another five–star read from Liz Moore (10/21/2025)
THE GOD OF THE WOODS is the best kind of mystery, one that is complex. It has lots of mysteries going on.
There are two main mysteries: what happened to Barbara, who has disappeared during a party held by her well-to-do parents every year, and what happened to her brother Bear, who also disappeared during a party held more than 10 years ago. Bear was never found and is now assumed dead by all but his mother. But there are so many more mysteries in addition to these two.
Each chapter is devoted to one of several different characters involved with these cases. Also, each chapter occurs during one of seven different times, from the 1950s through September 1975. But I wasn't confused at all, only riveted to the story.
This is another five-star read from Liz Moore.
Fox: A Novel
by Joyce Carol Oates
Great concentration on characters but too wordy (10/11/2025)
FOX is about a pedophile. It is also about the 12- and 13-year-old girls, their parents, and, in one case, extended family whose lives are affected by the pedophile. It is not a spoiler to tell you that he dies in an apparent car accident.
Francis Fox has changed his name and come to another school to teach junior-high English. Descriptions of his secret life are accurate descriptions of a pedophile. He's such a nice, handsome fellow. Everyone loves him, especially his students, especially 12-year-old girls. His death devastates everyone, especially those 12-year-olds.
Then comes Part 2 and the police investigation.
Joyce Carol Oates gets five stars for her concentration on characters, their thoughts, especially as they are affected by Fox. Of course, one of her characters is Fox, himself. His secret thoughts, those that are so often the opposite of what he portrays, are not only hateful; they are also what he WANTS to think rather than what is real (which is also an accurate description of how a pedophile thinks).
But Oates is too wordy. This is her writing style. It was the same in another book of hers I read. This is a tiresome writing style, and for this I downgrade those five stars.
I was also unhappy with the inaccurate maturity levels of 12- and 13-year-old girls. They seemed more like 7-year-olds. I remember being 12 very well, and I remember my friends at that age. I know that, if a man I had trusted tried anything like Fox did, I would have known it was wrong, and I would have told my parents. And those girls' parents: most treat their 12- and 13-year-old daughters as if they are 7.
Another thing maybe someone can explain: Oates interjects her name into the Epilogue. Why? Just for the heck of it is the only reason I can come up with.
This book is saved from a three-star rating by its exceptionally good mystery: so many people had reason to want to murder Fox; but who did it?
I won this book through firstlookbookclub.com.
The Cold Millions
by Jess Walter
I appreciated and was glad to read this historical fiction (10/1/2025)
While I disliked THE COLD MILLIONS before I liked it, simply because I was bored by the first part of it, all in all, I appreciate it and am glad I read it. It is historical fiction about characters fighting for and against unionization, mostly in Washington state, during the early 20th century and the coming awareness of a 17-year-old boy who becomes involved.
Rye and his older brother, Gig, are hobos in 1909, tramping around the country looking for work. When they are in Spokane, Gig sides himself with the unionists while Rye couldn't care less. But when Gig gets in trouble, Rye does care. He thinks help will come from a very rich non-union man. In spite of myself, I enjoyed seeing how and why Rye becomes a union man.
Even though you may not agree that Jess Walter should call many of these characters progressives, you will sympathize with Rye and should even appreciate the necessity of what the unions were trying to do.
Verity
by Colleen Hoover
Not for Me (8/30/2025)
Colleen Hoover books were recommended to me by a friend whose taste in books is clearly not like my own. She suggested I start with VERITY because this is a mystery/thriller, which she knows I like, in addition to romance, which she knows I dislike. But I've heard from more than one person that Hoover's romances are unlike other romances. So I gave it a try even if only to satisfy my curiosity.
A man is married to a successful writer who is now unable to finish a series of books because she is in a coma. So her publisher finds another writer to finish the series. The rest of the book involves this other writer (female, of course) who comes to live in the man's home (thus the sex/romance) and becomes suspicious of Verity (thus the mystery/thriller).
I don't think I'm a prude, but the sex portions are explicit. If you enjoy this sort of thing, go for it. You'll be glad to know, the sex scenes are also numerous.
The mystery/thriller portions are good but get predictable near the end. I found it best to skim the sex and read only the mystery/thriller parts.
Hoover is not for me. This particular book is, I hear, her best. So I generously give VERITY three stars for its mystery/thriller portions and stop here.
Power Reviewer
