Enormous Wings: A Novel
by Laurie Frankel
Profound yet very funny (5/22/2026)
I have to confess I was skeptical of the plot - a 77 year old pregnant woman living in an assisted living facility in Texas? But if anyone can pull off this premise with intelligence, profundity and humour it is Laurie Frankel. And after tearing through Enormous Wings, I think this has actually become among my favourite Frankel books. Frankel has a much bigger message to tell - about a woman's bodily agency, about society's treatment of the aging and aged, about performative and harmful legislation, about the multi-generational relationships that sustain us, and about how to understand the things we cannot understand. In a tight 300 pages, with crisp and funny dialogue, Frankel picks apart these big themes with her trademark grace and wit. Highly recommend.
The One Day You Were My Husband: A Novel
by Rosie Walsh
Superb immersive mystery (5/20/2026)
Rosie Walsh writes superb immersive suspenseful mysteries - and this new offering leaves no doubt as to her skill in this area. But The One Day You Were My Husband also reflects Walsh's other superpower as an author. She imbues her mysteries with deeply felt, finely drawn love stories that both propel and explain much of the main action. And just when you think you have figured out where Walsh is going in this newest offering - bam! She takes you on an unexpected and wild ride. And then, when you are sure you have that all sorted - boom! We are flying off into another wholly unexpected direction. But Walsh makes it all make sense and this was a wonderful read.
The Calamity Club: A Novel
by Kathryn Stockett
Extraordinary (5/6/2026)
It has been decades since I had such an enjoyable and immersive reading experience, which tracks, given that it has been almost that long since Kathryn Stockett dazzled us with her debut novel The Help. What can I say except Calamity Club was well worth the wait. I already miss Birdie, Mrs Tartt, Francine, Charlie and Meg. Stockett has a knack for telling important stories about misogyny and racism couched in the lives of every day unassuming and underappreciated women. I accept that a 600 novel set over one summer in 1933 in Mississippi may not be for everyone, but I also urge all lovers of exceptional historical fiction to dig in and enjoy this one because it is very special. Highly highly recommend.
Liar's Dice: A Novel
by Juliet Faithfull
Searing coming of age story (4/28/2026)
Liar's Dice is a searing coming of age story set in 1970s Brazil. The story's narrative thrust comes from the separation of twins before their 12th birthday - one twin is whole and healthy, the other physically disabled due to a progressive and relentless neurological disease. Options for treatment are limited, even when the family moves out and up from their rural village to the big city of Rio. Dolores is never really asked about or told that her parents have decided to send her twin Mita to a facility in London. She slowly learns about this betrayal, the reasons that led to it, and whether there is any chance for a reunion or cure. Against this background, Dolores is coming of age in a city that abuses its girls and queers. As she drifts through this nefarious world she makes some difficult and dangerous decisions. But Faithfull's rendering of Dolores is so sympathetic and real that we come to understand her choices, her rebellions, her fears and her tears.
Caller Unknown: A Novel
by Gillian McAllister
Another winner from McAllister (4/22/2026)
Gillian McAllister is an auto-buy for me and seeing a new thriller always sparks joy. Caller Unknown offers the two characteristics I have come to think of as "McAllisterian" - one, a story that heads in directions you cannot possibly predict, and two, despite a pulse-pounding thrilling narrative, the focus is on relationships. In this case, the relationship that McAllister is exploring is that of a mother daughter, when the daughter is on the cusp of leaving the nest. Using the metaphors of a mother about to "lose" her daughter, McAllister sets up a scenario when said mother is really about to lose her daughter unless she gives in to a kidnapper's demands. Highly recommend.
Dissection of a Murder: A Novel
by Jo Murray
Skillful and surprising legal thriller (4/22/2026)
It takes skill to concoct a good legal thriller and Murray has that skill in abundance. I can see why Dissection of a Murder is being well received and why it is being turned into the second season of the streaming anthology series Presumed Innocent. The twists are many and the deep dive into the British criminal law system is expertly rendered. The bones of the story Murray is telling are so solid that the additional narrative sleights of hand did not augment my reading experience but detracted from it. Murray is such a good storyteller that the novel stands on its own without all the flash. But it is the flash that sets it apart from others in the genre and which will make a great visual story.
The Radiant Dark: A Novel
by Alexandra Oliva
Expansive and Intimate Novel (4/22/2026)
Alexandra Oliva is an excellent world builder - in this novel, she deftly explores decades in the life of a complicated family, beginning in 1980. Unhappy mom Carol who is seeking a way out of her difficult existence in a small mountain town in the Adirondacks, her precocious daughter Ro, destined for great things, and her introspective son Mikey, who is both an adventurer and helper. The family's fortunes, fate and beliefs are deeply entwined with a scientific discovery called the Beacon, a pulsing light that is interpreted by experts to prove the existence of life on another planet. This is a surprising novel, at once both intimate and expansive. Highly recommend.
The Insomniacs
by Allison Winn Scotch
Clever well paced mystery (4/14/2026)
Avid readers are always looking for something different - The Insomniacs offers an atypical well-paced story involving a disparate group of adults in the NYC area who meet on line as a result of their shared insomnia. The group moves into real life where they meet another fellow insomniac, a young woman working at the neighbourhood diner. Two of the four are hiding something or from someone, and two of the four are committed to figuring out what those secrets are. Allison Winn Scotch offers a little bit of humour, a little bit of romance and a whole lot of amateur sleuthing as the mystery builds to its satisfying conclusion.
City of the Muse: A Novel
by Kate Hilton
Sophisticated dual timeline mystery (4/14/2026)
I have been a fan of Kate Hilton's work for over a dozen years. What is most remarkable about Hilton as an author is that she offers fantastic reads across so many genres. She has written 3 clever and funny novels, and co-authors a gripping and witty cottage country cozy mystery series. And now, Kate has offered what could be her most sophisticated and interesting novel in the form of City of the Muse, a dual timeline historical mystery. City of Muse explores a little known area of archaeology - papyrology. Intrepid but stifled expert Maddie is brought into a mystery involving her own forebears who were involved in a dig in Egypt just after the dawn of the 20th century. Concurrently, we are taken back to 1903 when Helen Gardiner is brought to an excavation site to unlock the mysteries of the script scraps that are found. Using letters, news articles, a cast of well-drawn secondary characters, and lots of surprises, Kate unspools a wonderful story that kept me guessing until the very end. Highly recommend to historical fiction fans.
The Insomniacs
by Allison Winn Scotch
More satisfying fiction from a reliable author (4/8/2026)
Avid readers are always looking for something different - The Insomniacs offers an atypical well-paced story involving a disparate group of adults in the NYC area who meet online as a result of their shared insomnia. The group moves into real life where they meet another fellow insomniac, a young woman working at the neighbourhood diner. Two of the four are hiding something or from someone, and two of the four are committed to figuring out what those secrets are. Allison Winn Scotch offers a little bit of humour, a little bit of romance and a whole lot of amateur sleuthing as the mystery builds to its satisfying conclusion.
Kutchinsky's Egg: A Family's Story of Obsession, Love, and Loss
by Serena Kutchinsky
An unusual and compelling family history (3/25/2026)
Lots of storytellers share their family stories of rags to riches (and sometimes back to rags). Many Jews have gripping stories to share about their family's flight from East to West over the 19th and 20th century and the success (or failure) they find in a new, often hostile country. But it is likely (actually almost certain) that no one has a story to tell like Serena Kutchinsky. In a transfixing narrative, Kutchinsky offers a rags to riches to rags story, a family tale of flight from Eastern Europe to the slums of London to financial success with the House of Kutchinsky, but also along the way, at the center of it all, the remarkable story of a toddler sized, bejewelled mechanical diamond encrusted egg (think Faberge but larger and gaudier) on which her father staked his career, his family's fortune, and the reputation of the storied family jewelry business. Kutchinsky sets out to unravel this complicated, ultimately tragic, part of her history, while also trying to locate the ultimate location of the "Argyle Library Egg" as the egg became known. Highly recommend for family memoirs and historical memoirs.
Yesteryear: A Novel
by Caro Claire Burke
Wow - unlike anything you've read or will read (3/25/2026)
Wow. What did I just read? At the risk of not letting that banger of an ending percolate more before I review this book, I will say this is a 5 star read wrapped in a four star package rounding out at 4.5. Caro Claire Burke is going to generate a lot of conversations, debate and excellent book club discussions with this outrageous, surprising and wild debut. Is Natalie the devout Christian tradwife she wants the world to believe? Decidedly not. But who is she really and why is suddenly living in an "authentic" (as opposed to social media curated) 19th century farm house with a family who is but aren't her family from the modern era? Strap in, enjoy the ride and the smart social commentary, and then prepare yourself for a doozy of an ending. Highly recommend.
Lake Effect: A Novel
by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
Intimate and Expansive (3/5/2026)
A new Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney novel is a cause for celebration. You tuck in, start reading, and by the time you look up, you are halfway through the book and have come to care deeply about what is happening on a small street in Rochester NY in the late 1970s. When a multi-POV novel is done well, it can feel intimate. This one is done very well. D'Aprix Sweeney rotates the perspective among all the main players - parents Nina and Sam and their daughters Clara and Bridie, and parents Honey and Finn, and their children Dune and Fern, as well as few peripheral characters too. The primary narrative thrust comes from the unexpected choices made by Nina and Finn that will implode all their lives, and will continue to haunt the the children well into their adult lives. Highly recommend.
More Than Enough: A Novel
by Anna Quindlen
Quindlen at her best (2/25/2026)
When you start an Anna Quindlen novel, you know you will be getting a well-written, literate, moving story about families in all their forms. More than Enough is no exception. Reading it is like receiving a warm hug. Polly Goodman is our narrator - a forty-ish English teacher, struggling with crushing infertility, and feeling the weight of a rapidly declining father who is now in a care home. But it is really mothers and daughters who are at the heart of the book. As a character muses aptly - "Maybe everyone's mother was a kind of mystery to her daughter. Maybe everyone's daughter was a mystery to her mother."
The central tension in Polly's life is her fraught relationship with her formidable mother, and the unexpected results of a genealogy test that may or not be pointing her in a direction she does not want to go. But this is a Quindlen novel - there are reconciliations and revelations and most of the people in Polly's life are well-meaning and wise - this novel in particular is replete with grandmothers who are there to nurture you and tell you the things you don't want to really know. Highly recommend.
Saoirse: A Novel
by Charleen Hurtubise
A stunner! (2/24/2026)
Charleen Hurtubise is a novelist and artist of some renown in the UK and Ireland. Saoirse is her North American debut and it is a stunner. Told in alternating timelines and clever narrative shifts, the novel moves among Sarah/Saoirse's harrowing childhood in Michigan, her escape to Ireland with a new identity after devastating traumatic events, and the "present day" (1999), when she is living as an artist in Ireland with her partner and children. The success of her artistic career brings out the media and unwanted attention to the careful and quiet life that Saoirse has carved out, and she must fight to clear her name and protect her family. This novel is suspenseful, beautifully written, and deeply moving. Highly recommend. I will be eagerly watching for Hurtubise's next novel.
Good People: A Novel
by Patmeena Sabit
Outstanding and thought-provoking (2/3/2026)
2026 has its first "best of" book in Patmeena Sabit's Good People - this hard to characterize book may just be one of 2026's best debut, or a best mystery, or a best crime novel, or a best literary drama. Using the voices of community members, journalists, lawyers, teenagers, neighbors, and strangers, Sabit tells the story of the Sharaf family.
We come to believe that we intimately know the Sharaf family, despite Sabit never letting us hear directly from the Sharafs - not mom, not dad, nor their teenage children at the heart of the narrative. Rather, the chorus of voices tells us about their emigration to Virginia from Afghanistan twenty years ago, their struggle to make a living in a country so completely foreign to their ways of being, their ultimate financial success and move into the upper middle class, and the accompanying trajectory of their two oldest children. When tragedy strikes, the many distinct voices compete with one another to share their judgments, opinions, theories, criticisms, self-interested views.
Sabit forces the reader to grapple with difficult questions about what it means to belong, what it mean to assimilate, what does justice look like, and how do we know whom to protect. The less you know about this book the better (that is a book review cliche, but in this case it is really true), although Canadian readers will recognize some similarities to a tragedy that occurred nearly two decades ago in Kingston Ontario. Highly recommend to all book lovers.
This Is Not About Us: Fiction
by Allegra Goodman
Stellar family story telling (1/28/2026)
Allegra Goodman consistently offers literate well written and compelling family stories. This is Not About Us is no exception. This is a sprawling tale about the Rubinstein family - three sisters, their offspring, spouses, in-laws and grandchildren. While chapters are told from a different perspective of a family member or someone adjacent to the family, the novel feels extremely cohesive and each chapter moves the various plots and subplots along at a compelling clip. Goodman absolutely nails the life of an east Coast Jewish American family - the guilt, the wry and sarcastic humour, the generational divides, the recriminations and the feuds - oy! the feuds! Indeed a feud about an apple cake brought to a shiva sets off an epic battle. My only complaint is that this book ended - I fervently hope Goodman will bring back the Rubinsteins in another novel.
Family Drama: A Novel
by Rebecca Fallon
Evocative literary fiction (1/28/2026)
Family Drama is evocative and epic - spanning several decades in the life of the Bliss family - dad Al, twins Viola and Sebastian and mom Susan, aka Susan Byrne, aka the beloved soap opera actress whose untimely death leaves the twins and Al bereft and adrift. Fallon's writing is atmospheric and she expertly weaves in and out of the characters' lives and back and forth in time . The result is an immersive well told story of two motherless children finding their way in a world that believes it knows their mother in ways they never will or could.
Listen: A Novel
by Sacha Bronwasser
Stellar under the radar literary novel (1/22/2026)
Listen by Sacha Bronwasser is a tightly plotted excellent literary novel. To read it as the mystery or thriller that it is marked as, is, I think, to miss the greater genius of Bronwasser's work. The story - which appears in perhaps somewhat contradictory and seemingly unconnected parts - weaves together bigger themes of art (photography specifically), terrorism, and coming of age. All of this is set against the stage of a changing (and also never changing) Paris. That Bronwasser takes these disparate elements and crafts a compelling, literate and surprising story is a testimony to her skill (and her English language translator). I highly recommend this book for those curious about some of the bigger global crises of this century and the last half of last century, for those who revel in a literate well-told stories.
The Future Saints: A Novel
by Ashley Winstead
Fun and heartfelt deep dive into the music industry (1/20/2026)
This one started slow. And then ... Winstead's story coalesces around Hannah the troubled singer and Theo her band's new manager, alongside all the breadcrumbs laid in the opening chapters. The story telling picks up steam and I was swept up into the narrative. Against the backdrop of a falling apart pop star and a will they or won’t they romance, Winstead spices up the story with media clips, articles and social media commentary. Winstead asks the larger question of what happens when your greatest success hinges on your greatest tragedy.
Power Reviewer