VILLA COCO rating: four stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐. The novel VILLA COCO (Doubleday/Penguin Random House, June 9, 2026) by Andrew Sean Greer, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his 2017 novel LESS (Back Bay/Hachette), is a raucous feast of all things Italian. A young gay American archivist falls under the spell of the 92-year-old Baronessa Coco when […]
HONEYSUCKLE rating: five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. In this retelling of an old Welsh tale, HONEYSUCKLE by Bar Fridman-Tell (Bloomsbury/Macmillan, March 24, 2026), a small boy named Rory annoys his older sister Wynne until she weaves him a small playmate out of flora and brings her to life. This magical playmate, whom Rory names Daye, must play
Hello, My precious husband died of a heart attack in July. I absolutely adored him. It’s December and my brain still is not back to full functionality. I hope to blog again soon. Jill
SO FAR GONE rating: four stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐. I love the concept of SO FAR GONE by Jess Walter (HarperCollins, June 10, 2025). In 2016, former writer and journalist Rhys Kinnick pitches his smartphone out of his car window, drives to 40 acres in Northwest Washington State (where his grandfather left a cinderblock dwelling now inhabited
GREENTEETH rating: four stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐. What a debut! After yesterday–because I read the cozy fantasy GREENTEETH (Orbit/Hachette, February 25, 2025) in a single day–I’m a new fan of author Molly O’Neill. She knows her myths. A goblin, a river spirit, and a witch walk into a bar. . .no, actually, they walk into the court
THE TAINTED CUP and A DROP OF CORRUPTION ratings: five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. Robert Jackson Bennett’s world-building is rock solid in THE TAINTED CUP (Penguin Random House, 2024) and A DROP OF CORRUPTION (Penguin Random House, April 1, 2025). The Empire in his fantasy/mystery Shadow of the Leviathan series, with its three rings, grabs the imagination
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No, I’m not talking about Dave Grohl; he went down awhile ago. I’m talking about Neil Gaiman. I didn’t know him, but I loved his stories. So much. Dearly. An article about Neil Gaiman by Lila Shapiro hit the literary world like a bomb yesterday. It’s been published in Vulture and in New York Magazine.
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JULIE CHAN IS DEAD rating: four stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐. The grass is always greener on the richer side–or so retail worker Julie Chan supposes in the psychological thriller JULIE CHAN IS DEAD by Liann Zhang (Simon & Schuster, April 29, 2025). Identical twins Julie and Chloe were orphaned and adopted by different families and separated at
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My favorite books published in 2024:
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JAMES rating: five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. My favorite book of 2024 so far is JAMES by Percival Everett (Doubleday/Penguin Random House, March 19, 2024), a retelling of Mark Twain‘s classic THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN from the point of view of Jim, Huckleberry Finn’s companion on that legendary raft trip down the Mississippi River. I can’t
