⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Three Five-Star Books in One Week. A Great Start 2026!

 

   The first book club for 2026 is Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neal Hurston. I've read this book before because it is a classic, and I want to be well-read. What benefits me about book club is I dig deeper into a book and find so much more than I realized as I zoomed by. Set before World War 1 in Florida, Janie Crawford carries the weight of being the granddaughter of an enslaved woman. Raised by her nurturing grandmother, she is married at 16 to a potato farmer. Her grandmother is seeking to break the cycle of abuse, but in reality, perpetuates it. Janie is loved, but valued for work. Mules are a symbol of beast of burdens that depict Janie's life of having to carry both race and gender.

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    The Correspondent by Virginia Evans is my first five-star book of 2026. I felt a strong connection to this book for many reasons. It is set in Annapolis, Maryland, and many of the landmarks mentioned were familiar. Sybil Van Antwerp is a retired lawyer living alone. She reads voraciously, and her days are spent between her garden and her correspondence. She writes everyone--authors she's read, her childhood pen pal, her neighbors, the dean of English at the University of Maryland, her brother in France, everyone. Grumpy, stodgy, set in her ways, with deep hurts, and yet caring deeply for those around her, Sybil is my favorite type of character, a ball of conflicting emotions and actions. 

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I have a love loathe relationship with with Lily King's novels. She writes about women who are intelligent and aware, but also conflicted and fragile. They have experienced things that give them grit, and make them mistrustful others. These women are frequently caught between two men. Heart the Lover follows this same pattern, exploiting the tension of this triangle. Jordan life trajectory changes when she meets Sam and Yash in her English Literature class. They are honors students that operate on a different level of thinking, writing, and conversing. She is drawn in and becomes enthralled with writing. Twnety years later, her current cozy life is interrupted by a visit from her former lover. King writes kind wisdom capturing first love, the anything can happen early life, and the costliness of forgiveness.

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🛸🎄👽🎄🛸 Christmas is OVER!

I love rereading this every Christmas. A Lot Like Christmas by Connie Willis is a compilation of 12 short stories with a Christmas theme. Many have aliens. Beings not from Earth come to visit us, not all with benign intentions. Willis celebrates carols, Christmas letters, holiday movies, and family dinners. So good. It's a mini break to read or listen to the story, performing the many Christmas tasks that are a joy and a burden.

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    Connie Willis is one of my top authors. She excels at what appeals to me: quirky characters, humor, and well-researched. In The Road to Roswell, it is obvious that she has been to the locations she describes, in Roswell and Las Vegas. The voices of the UFO enthusiasts are earnest, knowledgeable, and slightly unhinged. She pokes fun at them, while at the same time, she has an entire book exploring the fun of aliens among us. Because it is set in the southwest, she also celebrates the heyday of Western movies. A common thread in her novels is misinformation and assumption, and she uses that deftly here. Her writing is intriguing and complex enough to enjoy rereading it. 

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   It's a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan was a well-crafted romance novel. I wanted something very not Christmas, but not too intense.  Its enemy-to-friend plot, set mostly in LA in August, was spot-on. Jane is a former child TV star who now works for a production company that has discovered a script she loves. She works to get it greenlit, but it's not commercial enough--no big names, no explosions. The smoldering, cinematographer who only lacks a man-bun to complete his aesthetic thwarts her efforts. Sparks fly.

I have read another book by Monaghan, Nora Goes Off Script, and liked it. Here is my review:

https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Nora+goes+off+script

🎞️☀️❤️

🧑‍🚀🚀🔭🏨🛳️☀️A Travel Book, Fantasy Series, and A Hot Read of 2025

 

We Are Experiencing a Slight Delay by Gary Janetti was on a list of the best books of the year. I listen to the audiobook read by the author. He is funny and sarcastic about the downs and ups of traveling. His father worked for a cruise line for most of his adult life, giving his family the opportunity to travel frequently on the Queen Elizabeth. Janetti has high standards and rigorous ideas of travel and dining. His writing reminds me of David Sedaris's essays with keen insight, biting humor, and underpinned by love for those close to him. 

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    I read the final two books of The Great Library series by Rachel Caine: Smoke and Iron and Sword and Pen. Caine tells the story from several different perspectives quite well. She takes a group of six students at the start of their training and grows them into mature characters who suffer, grow, and change the world. 

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    Atmosphere is the latest book by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I have read several books by Reid. She has a knack for tapping into the cultural zeitgeist and exploring modern issues through historical fiction. A theme in her work is women trying to flourish against discrimination. In this book set in the early 1980s, Joan Goodwin is among some of the first women to be accepted into the astronaut corps. Joan is intellectually formidable and determined to bring excellence to her efforts to achieve her dream without losing her innate kindness. The challenge of succeeding as an astronaut makes a meek former college professor into someone who knows what she wants and dares to go after it. 

https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Taylor+Jenkins+Reid

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🌪️🏟️🔨 Dystopian Fiction: Brutal and Fanciful

 

    Now is the time when the lists of 2025's best books are being revealed. It is a tough time of year for me because my Hold list fills up faster than I can read. This one was available immediately.     

What a fierce book! Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is filed in the science fiction category in the dystopian bin. I've seen it compared to The Handmaid's Tale. It has the same feel of oppression, hopelessness, and defiance. The scenario proposed isn't far off from where our society is now. Prisoners have the "option" to become modern-day gladiators in commodified, televised battles. The life depicted is brutal, but amidst the harshness, there is a seedling of rebellion. It comes from within the circuit, and from those outside who protest. There are many story threads involving many layers of voices and how their viewing and participation in entertaining violence are impacted by it. 

    This is a brutal, devastating story, more so because, even though it is fiction, it is built on factual research.

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    Ash and Quill is the third in The Great Library series by Rachel Caine. It is solid science fiction and also dystopian, or better described as an alternate history. Caine's plot continues to unfold, and the core group of characters matures and changes. I am taking a hiatus to read some of the year's highly rated books, but I want to come back and read the final two.

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📃🖋️🩸🦴🔥Spy Thriller, Alternate History and Theology!

 

    I watched the Apple TV series, Slow Horses, based on the book by Mick Herron. It is a spy thriller and a darkly comedic work. I have enjoyed John L'Carree's books with their depressingly cynical take on the British Intelligence service during the Cold War. Herron's books are similar. Jackson Lamb is the head of Slough House, the place where those whose mistakes were too colossal to continue on the upward track, but they can't be fired. They are not the Thoroughbreds in charge, but the slow horses. It is gritty and warmhearted. The action is fast-paced and twisty.  

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    A YA book about a dangerous school for exceptional scholars with dark secrets? Yes please! Ink and Bone (The Great Library, #1) by Rachel Caine is a new-to-me fantasy series. It is diverting in a good way. The main character, Jess Brightwell, lives in an alternate history where the Library of Alexandria rules the world. No one is allowed to privately own books, which creates demand for them. Jess's family is an illegal book-smuggling ring. He is sent to train in the Great Library and become a conduit for smuggling originals, loves the power of books, and has divided loyalties between his newfound friends and his ruthless family. He loves the wrong girl and befriends dangerous people. Good stuff! This series of five books has been out for a while, so they are readily available. Hurrah!

"You have ink in your blood, boy, and no help for it. Books will never be just a business to you."

― Rachel Caine, Ink and Bone

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    A good friend gifted me Daily Doctrine by Kevin DeYoung last Christmas. I like Systematic Theology and have read several. This one was the most bite-sized and accessible. That is a strength and a weakness. It covers the basics: Faith, Inspiration of Scripture, Attributes of God, etc., and gives sources for further study. The topics sparked conversation with others about Predistination and Theories of the Atonement. DeYoung is a senior pastor and also teaches Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, NC. The topics he covers and the language he uses can be most suited to those with a Master's Degree, which I don't have. My degree is in Biblical Studies. I appreciated the stretching of vocabulary and ideas. I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand theology more deeply. You might need to look up some words.

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🐁⛪️🇦🇺🥃🐴🍸Thinky Books

 

    Tell me a book is an award winner and I'm in! The Booker Prize is, according to their website, the leading literary award in the English-speaking world, and has brought recognition, reward, and readership to outstanding fiction for over five decades (https://thebookerprizes.com/booker-prize/about-the-booker-prize) 

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood caught my attention because it was compared to Marilynne Robinson's writing, which includes The Gilead Series. I see similarities because both writers examine faith and inner life in the context of lived experience. The book is quiet, but compelling. I learned things about Australia's mice population, I can't unlearn.   

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    Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote is the December book for my book club. I picked it thinking it was a fun, breezy book, much like the movie. 

Nope.

It is a worthwhile book, but much sadder and grittier than I anticipated. I wonder if Holly Golightly is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl — a quirky young woman who enters the male protagonist's life and propels him forward, whether in his career, relationships, or emotional intelligence. 

Side note: I'm going to sound so smart at book club.

The book is about loneliness and glamour, about wanting to belong and wanting to be free. The conflicting desires of the main characters make the story hum with tension. It was a compelling read, and even though the book is fairly short, I finished it in an afternoon. 

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    A favorite podcast of mine is Hidden Brain. The format interviews people in the field of social sciences. The interview with J. Stuart Ablon. His research and conclusion were so compelling that I wanted to read his book, Changeable: How Collaborative Problem Solving Changes Lives at Home, at School, and at Work. One of his basic ideas is that people are disruptive and difficult not because of will, but because of skill. These skills revolve around communication, processing, and opportunities. When people are heard and understood, problems can be solved collaboratively. He has some great case studies. 

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🦃📚🦃📚🦃 Happy Thanksgiving!

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    I have been reading Roselle Lim a great deal, and this week it was Natalie Tan's Book of Luck & Fortune. The magical realism that pervades her books seemed especially strong. Her novels follow a pattern: a misunderstood woman with an underutilized ability finds her way to her strengths and a romantic interest, aided by magic. It's a formula that works. Lim is terrific at describing food and clothing. 

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    The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan reminded me of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reed, not just in its subject matter, being gay and hiding it, but also in the tone of the book. The book features several voices, but they all talk about Annie/Cass/Cate — how they know her and what she means to them. It is a coming-of-age story about a small-town girl with big ambitions who struggles against loving someone. What path do you choose? What do you leave behind? What do you move toward? The characters are serpentine in their "villains" and "heroes." The book is about a writer whose writing serves as a means of sorting out her motives and feelings. I see a touch of magical realism in the book in how things work out. 

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💔👩‍❤️‍👨💖 🐋🐻‍❄️🦊 Fun, Serious, Weak Sauce

 

    Roselle Lim writes about food and locations so well that I get hungry and want to book tickets immediately. In Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea Shop, Vanessa has had the ability to tell fortunes and prophecies since she was a small child, but she hates it and refuses to be trained to develop it. That's not working well for her or her love life, plus it may be making her ill. Her clairvoyant Aunt Evelyn offers to once again take up her training, and she reluctantly agrees. Her aunt is opening a tea shop in Paris, and that's where they head for three weeks of intensive instruction. She meets an attractive stranger and wishes she could be "normal," but her gift demands her attention. Vanessa is at war with herself.

Here is a link to a previous Roselle Lim book I reviewed: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Roselle+Lim

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    Isola has been on my holds list for months because it was recommended on the podcast What Should I Read Next. It is a historical fiction book by Allegra Goodman. There was a woman named Marguerite de La Rocque, a sixteenth-century French noblewoman who was marooned on an island off the coast of Canada, then called New France. From the scant records of her life, Goodman creates a fierce survivor who endures cruelty at the hands of her guardian, perhaps because he wants her fortune. She is a wealthy orphan under his protection. Faith is part of everyday life, with daily prayers and exhortations to trust in the providence of God. I appreciate that Goodman doesn't dismiss faith, yet shows how being marooned on an island brings changes in Marguerite's understanding and trust. The novel is complex, and its central character grows from a helpless, naive orphan into a wise, brave defender of women. 

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    I read Ali Novak's My Return to the Walter Boys, and I found it weak. It is hard to reanimate the angst of will-they-get-together-or-won't-they a second time. They are teenagers, though, so anything is possible. 

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✍️🦁📚🏠🐈‍⬛🏚️❤️🐴🤠A Strange Blend of Historical Fiction, Horror, and YA Romance

 

    This book was shared with me by my friend Laurie. I have read several biographies of C. S. Lewis, but never anything about his wife, Joy Davidman. Even though Becoming Mrs. Lewis, by Patti Callahan, isn't strictly a biography, it is a well-researched and thoughtful piece of historical fiction. Joy Davidman is a controversial figure in Lewis's life. Some critics think she pushed herself into Lewis's life in a stalker fashion; others see her as a brilliant mind in need of another brilliant mind to help her grow in faith. My favorite Lewis book is Till We Have Faces, which draws on the myth of Cupid and Psyche. At its core, it explores toxic love, one that seeks to possess and control. That's not the love that existed between Lewis and Davidman, and there is good evidence for that in his writing. I recommend this book to anyone interested in C.S. Lewis. 

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    We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson is my book club book for November. As I have reached Shirley Jackson, I have learned that she is considered the Queen of Horror and has influenced Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, and others. Her book is like a screwworm that slowly burrows into your brain. I spent the first part of the book thinking: what is happening, and the second part thinking: this can't be happening. The novel has an unreliable narrator who "ain't right in the head," but how and to what degree gradually dawns. There is a fragile balance between the isolated family of three and the local townspeople, who distrust and despise them. That the balance will be upended is plain, but the ticking down and the dénouement are exquisitely painful. 

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    Looking for something less creepy, I read My Life with the Walter Boys by Ali Novak. The inciting incident for this rich, New York teenager to leave her cultured life and all-girls boarding school to go live with a family of eleven boys on a ranch in Colorado is the death of her parents and sister in a car wreck. Novak does give her character angst and resulting trauma from her loss, but this is a teen romance novel with a love triangle driving the plot. There are many fish-out-of-water scenes, country-versus-city struggles, mean-girl jealousy, and romantic moments with hot guys. It was fun, and the ending surprised me. My age showed because I struggled with dating a sixteen-year-old who lived in the same house. The adults didn't seem to be aware of what went on. If you can suspend that it was a lighthearted, fun book.

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🐈📝🐈‍⬛🥀🕊️🌹Sequels!

 

Mockingjay is the conclusion to The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. I like how it made me think about war, children, and moral responsibility. I appreciate Collins' parallel structure in the three books: picture of life, reaping, training, games, and return. It was a worthy conclusion of an action series, though it could have used a Boss Battle. It ties up plot ends well and, at the same time, doesn't sugarcoat the fact that the trauma of living under an oppressive regime doesn't evaporate. What prompted me to reread the series is the release of the prequels. I reviewed Sunrise on the Reaping here: get-ready-for-jane-austen-plus-latest.html

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    We'll Prescribe You Another Cat is a sequel by Syou Ishida, translated by E. Madison Shimoda, to We Prescribe You a Cat. There is a clinic for the soul somewhere in Toyoko that you can only find if you need it. Delightful chapters show how a cat can change lives for the better — helping those stuck and unable to speak. There is also more background on how the clinic "works." It is a quirky, fun premise.

https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Ishida

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🐈🚗💀🪄🧙‍♀️🐺 Three Books from 2025 and a Reread

The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett depicts how people are a mix of good intentions, bad decisions, not what they seem, and more than one can imagine. I was listened to this through the Libby app and I sped it up to 2x because the tension of what was going to happen was unbearable. The main character, PJ, is on a voyage of the damned road trip with two orphans, his estranged daughter, and cat named Pancake. Pancake has the special abiltiy to be able to predict when someone is going to die. So that's unexpected. There is so much dying, but in ridiculous and funny ways. I found this book darkly, macabre, and humurous as it explores what do we need: Something to love, something to do, and something to look forward to. Annie Hartnett has a special gift for writing about kids, pets, and death. 

https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/2025/06/contemperary-dark-humor-not-single.html

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    The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association, by Caitlin Rozakis, is about a parent dealt an unexpected hand concerning their child. Vivian, a recovering people-pleaser, has a young daughter, Aria, who has been attacked by a werewolf, changing her into one. This sends the family in a really unanticipated direction. Vivian and her husband move to a snobby small town in Connecticut to place their daughter in The Grimoire Grammar School, a magical school. This book could be an interesting study on the pressure on couples who have a child with a chronic problems that require lifestyle changes. They find themselves ushered into a community they didn't want to join, but they do so for their daughter. 

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THERE WILL BE SPOILERS

    Catching Fire is the second book in The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. Should I enjoy a story that features children murdering each other? Collins took some of her inspiration for the story from Greek Mythology. The Athenians had to send fourteen adolescents, seven female and seven male, every nine years as tribute. They were put into a labyrinth to be hunted down by the Minotaur. This theme and the fascination with reality television fused to create her story. It feels plausible. Her plot and characters are strong.  Katness is conflicted about killing others, but also wants to survive. It's hard to look away. As the middle book of a trilogy, Catching Fire keeps the reader engaged, moves the novel and the series forward, while at the same time building excitement for the finale.

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I have enjoyed many T. Kingfisher books. What Stalks the Deep is the third novella chronicling the adventures of a sworn soldier of Alex Easton. The books are shelved in horror/fantasy. I say this every time, but I'm not the biggest fan of horror, but to read Kingfisher, I'll endure it. She is an evocative writer and does twisty plots with twisted characters excellently. This isn't the strongest of the series, but it is still memorable and worth the time.     

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