It was after I finished reading My Friends  by Fredrik Backman , which was recommended by a friend, that I discovered it won the 2025 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Fiction. I can understand why. I found this unusual story about friendship memorable and poignant, and as quick to make me laugh as to cry.   The story toggles between what happened twenty-five years ago to four teenagers who found refuge in their bonds of friendship against difficult home situations, to the curr

I’m not much of a memoir reader and it’s unusual for me to read a book twice unless I’m dissecting it as a learning exercise to enhance my own writing skills. Neither was the case this month. For a number of reasons, I was drawn to listen to Year of Yes: How to Dance it Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person , read by its author, Shonda Rhimes.   Years ago, I read the book on the recommendation of my daughter-in-law and loved it at the time. But recently I decided it wa

Coded Justice is the third thriller I’ve read by Stacey Abrams , and like the other two, it doesn’t disappoint. Easily a stand-alone...

Contemporary fiction. Family drama. Mystery. When I finished Apples Never Fall  by Liane Moriarty , my first question was: What genre was...

The first book I read by Sarah Penner was The Lost Apothecary, her debut novel and still my favorite of her books. And while I enjoyed...

Some days I like listening to a book more than reading it. In chilly February, where the temperature here barely reached two digits on...

Having read Richard Osman ’s The Thursday Murder Club  series, I was eager to be entertained by his latest, We Solve Murders . And...

Some books I need to read more than once. Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century is one. I read it when...

While I enjoy reading a plethora of different genres, mystery became my when-in-doubt favorite ever since my aunt gave me my first Nancy...

I’m a quotation lover. I collect them. I read them. I use them to inspire me, to challenge my thinking and to guide my thoughts. This is...

If not for my book club, By Any Other Name would likely have gone unread by me. Not because of the author, Jodi Picoult, whose works I...

Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross was an interesting read because it surprised me in...

We know the big moments or decisions that change our life – marriage, children, illness, loss. But often we don’t consider the power...

I read Nita Prose’s first novel, The Maid , in December 2022 and found its quirky protagonist and story delightful. So, I was eager to...

After being spoiled belonging to a wonderful book club in northwestern Montana, I’ve been wanting to find an equally thoughtful and...

It saddens me to see the increasing divide in our country. One close friend and I are so different in how we orient to the world we...

I like to read multiple books at the same time, typically switching daily between fiction and non-fiction. The latter is anything that...

This was my first Lisa Wingate novel, an author I’ve seen on the New York Times Best Seller list for years. But it certainly won’t be my...

Stories are everywhere. In the information we read, the content we watch, the people we listen to, and the places we work or frequent....

This isn’t a book I’d automatically be drawn to if I hadn’t been following writing insights from Emmy nominated screenwriter, Michael...