Buckeye

 

Buckeye by Patrick Ryan

Fiction

2025

Finished on October 26, 2026

Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

That, as he saw it now, was his life’s work: trying to make right what he’d gotten wrong. Wasn’t that a fair measure of a person, what they did with their mistakes?

In the jubilant aftermath of the Allied victory in Europe, Cal Jenkins, a man wounded not in war but by his inability to serve in it, shares a single, life-altering moment with Margaret Salt, a woman determined to outrun her past. Cal is married to Becky, whose spiritual gifts help the living speak to the dead, while Margaret’s husband, Felix, is serving at sea, believed to be safe—until a telegram suggests otherwise.

What begins as a fleeting transgression becomes a complex secret that irrevocably binds all four of them in unexpected ways. As their small Ohio town remakes itself in the postwar boom, the Salt and Jenkins families remain in each other’s orbit, and the consequences of choices made long ago begin to emerge, reshaping their lives in ways that will forever impact the next generation.

Sweeping yet intimate, resplendent with moments of deep emotion and unforgettable characters, Buckeye is a transportive story of love, loyalty, sacrifice, and forgiveness.

Buckeye is the type of novel that I love to sink into. It's a big, immersive story about two families spanning four decades, with World War II and Vietnam playing key roles.  I was drawn in from the first chapter, and although the story gets a little bogged down with Becky's narrative, that's my only quibble. I'm looking forward to discussing this debut novel with my book group, and can see reading it a second time in the coming years.

For those who have read the book, did you happen to notice the dedication? It took me a moment to realize who Ann and Karl VanDevender are, but then it dawned on me.

Highly recommend!

“Omniscient, sweeping, almost defiantly sentimental, Buckeye is a reminder of the deep pleasure of following a cast of characters over their entire lives, through births, deaths, marriages, tragedies and, in this case, hard-won reconciliations…. Ryan’s wide-angle approach complements his evocative yet tranquil style. He rolls out braided stories with uncommon patience while creating instantly vivid characters… The author clearly loves these people, and he makes the safe bet that you will, too.” — The New York Times Book Review

Looking Back - How to Be Good

 Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

How to be Good by Nick Hornby

Fiction

2001

Finished on July 24, 2002

Rating: 2/5 (OK)

Publisher's Blurb:

In Nick Hornby's How to Be Good, Katie Carr is certainly trying to be. That's why she became a GP. That's why she cares about Third World debt and homelessness, and struggles to raise her children with a conscience. It's also why she puts up with her husband David, the self-styled Angriest Man in Holloway.

But one fateful day, she finds herself in a Leeds parking lot, having just slept with another man. What Katie doesn't yet realize is that her fall from grace is just the first step on a spiritual journey more torturous than the interstate at rush hour. Because, prompted by his wife's actions, David is about to stop being angry. He's about to become good--not politically correct, organic-food-eating good, but good in the fashion of the Gospels. And that's no easier in modern-day Holloway than it was in ancient Israel.

Hornby means us to take his title literally: How can we be good, and what does that mean? However, quite apart from demanding that his readers scrub their souls with the nearest available Brillo pad, he also mesmerizes us with that cocktail of wit and compassion that has become his trademark. The result is a multifaceted jewel of a book: a hilarious romp, a painstaking dissection of middle-class mores, and a powerfully sympathetic portrait of a marriage in its death throes.

My Original Thoughts (2002):

I enjoyed the British side to this novel, but didn't really like the characters. Katie & David have a horrid relationship and speak to each other, in front of their two children, with such lack of respect that I was turned off immediately. I think the premise of the novel is good, but I didn't see the humor. Really doubt I'll read more by Hornby.

My Current Thoughts:

I have yet to read another book by Nick Hornby. Was it a matter of poor timing? Am I missing something?

Looking Back - The Lovely Bones

 Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Fiction

2002

Finished July 16, 2002

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973."

So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her -- her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling. Out of unspeakable tragedy and loss, The Lovely Bones succeeds, miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, even joy.

My Original Thoughts (2002):

An interesting perspective on the afterlife of a murdered teen. Susie Salmon is raped and murdered in the first few pages of Sebold's remarkable novel. Susie narrates the story, allowing the reader to see through her eyes how family and friends deal with their loss while they attempt to discover who killed her in such a violent manner. Extremely well-written, yet disturbing to this mother of a teenage daughter. I did enjoy the little glimpses of "heaven" through Susie's eyes. It was easy to care about the characters. Great storytelling!

My Current Thoughts:

I think I watched the movie version of this, which came out in 2009. Despite the great storytelling, this is not one that I'd like to read a second time.

Life, Death, & Giants

 

Life, Death, & Giants by Ron Rindo

Fiction

2025

Finished on October 6, 2026

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Gabriel Fisher was born an orphan, weighing eighteen pounds and measuring twenty-seven inches long. No one in Lakota, Wisconsin, knows what to make of him. He walks at eight months, communicates with animals, and seems to possess extraordinary athletic talent. But when the older brother who has been caring for him dies, Gabriel is taken in by his devout Amish grandparents who disapprove of all the attention and hide him away from the English world.

But it’s hard to hide forever when you’re nearly eight feet tall. At seventeen, Gabriel is spotted working in a hay field by the local football coach. What happens next transforms not only Gabriel’s life but the lives of everyone he meets.

Life, and Death, and Giants is a moving story of faith, family, buried secrets, and everyday miracles.

Life, & Death, & Giants hasn't shown up on a lot of the blogs that I follow, and I think I first heard about it on a friend of my daughter's Substack page. She raved about it, so I decided to give it a try. I went into the book cold, curious to see where it would take me. Reminiscent of John Irving's magnificent best-selling novel, A Prayer for Owen Meany, I was quickly engrossed, enjoying the prose as well as the story. Told from four points of view, we observe Gabriel's unusual life through the eyes of his grandmother and three other adults who are involved in his young life. Baseball, football, and wrestling play major roles in Gabriel's youth and early adulthood, and I didn't mind the lengthy details about those sports, although the wrestling matches weren't as interesting as the other two. Despite a couple of surprises toward the end of the novel, I felt the book began to drag in the last third of the story. What started out as a 5-star read, fizzled out with a quiet whimper. I have a feeling this book will stay with me, and I enjoyed it a lot, but I wish I could say that I loved it.

Looking Back - True to Form

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

True to Form by Elizabeth Berg

Katie Nash #3

Fiction

2002

Finished on June 30, 2002

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

In this warm and engaging novel, New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Berg revisits the heroine she so lovingly brought to life in Durable Goods and Joy School.

It is 1961, and thirteen-year-old Katie is facing a summer full of conflict. First, instead of letting her find her own work for the season, Katie's father has arranged for two less-than-ideal baby-sitting jobs. Worse, Katie has been forcibly inducted into the "loser" Girl Scout troop organized by her only friend Cynthia's controlling and clueless mother. A much-anticipated visit to her former home in Texas and ex-best friend Cherylanne proves disappointing. And then comes an act of betrayal that leaves Katie questioning her views on friendship, on her ability not to take those she loves for granted, and most important, on herself.

Full of the anguish and the joys of adolescence in a much more innocent time, True to Form is sure to make readers remember and reflect upon their own moments of discovery and self-definition.

My Original Thoughts (2002):

Touching. Took me a few chapters to get interested.

My Current Thoughts:

I still have the ARC of this novel. I re-read the first in the Katie Nash trilogy this past January, and plan to give both Joy School and True to Form a second reading, as well.

Enormous Wings

 

Enormous Wings by Laurie Frankel

Fiction

Narrated by Becky Ann Baker

Finished on September 24, 2026

Rating: 3.5/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

At seventy-seven, Pepper Mills is too old to be a stranger in a strange land. She didn’t choose the Vista View Retirement Community of Austin, Texas—that would be her three grown children—but when she grudgingly moves in, she not only makes new friends, she falls in love. Then the exhaustion, vomiting, and confusion start. Her children and grandchildren worry it’s cancer, dementia, a stroke. But a raft of tests later, the news is even more shocking: she’s pregnant.

Once word gets out, everyone wants a piece of her: the press and the paparazzi, activists and medical researchers, all descending on Vista View as Pepper tries to determine her next move. Soon Pepper has some hard decisions to make—and some she’s not allowed to make.

Enormous Wings is an urgent novel about female agency and bodily autonomy, morality and mortality. It’s about what happens when you don’t get to choose. It’s about motherhood and family, sex and love and friendship, and how those bedrocks—even so late in the day—can still change, and then change everything.

Enormous Wings is the fourth novel of Laurie Frankel's that I've read. Other than This Is How It Always Is, which was a 5-star read for me, her novels tend to be just okay. They keep me entertained, but they aren't keepers, nor do I feel compelled to recommend them to my book group. Enormous Wings is an unbelievable, yet timely story. One must suspend disbelief that a seventy-seven-year-old can get pregnant, but the challenges she encounters in Texas (Pro-Choice vs Pro-Life) are sadly believable under the current administration. Frankel also touches on themes such as retirement communities, aging, and death. Maybe there are enough topics here to discuss with others.

I believe every woman has the right to choose, but I felt Enormous Wings went on too long, bordering on didactic or preachy. It did have moments of hilarity, as well as a few tender moments between characters, but I didn't love the book. However, the audio, which is narrated by Becky Ann Baker, is well done. I had no trouble distinguishing between characters, male or female, and especially loved Moth's British accent.

Click on links for reviews of previously read novels by Frankel:

This Is How It Always Is (5/5)

One Two Three (3/5)

Family Family (3/5)

Other than This Is How It Always Is, I have absolutely no recollection of the details for these books.  Completely forgettable.

Then She Was Gone

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

Mystery

2018

Finished on September 23, 2026

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher’s Blurb:

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Family Upstairs and None of This Is True comes an “acutely observed family drama” (People) about the lingering aftermath of a young girl’s disappearance.

Ellie Mack was the perfect daughter. She was fifteen, beloved by her parents, friends, and teachers. She and her boyfriend made a teenaged golden couple. She was days away from an idyllic summer vacation, with her whole life ahead of her.

And then she was gone.

Now, her mother, Laurel Mack, is trying to put her life back together. It’s been ten years since her youngest child disappeared, seven years since her marriage ended, and only months since the last clue in Ellie’s case was unearthed. So when she meets an unexpectedly charming man in a café, no one is more surprised than Laurel at how quickly their flirtation develops into something deeper. Before she knows it, she’s meeting Floyd’s daughters—and his youngest, Poppy, takes Laurel’s breath away.

Because looking at Poppy is like looking at Ellie.

Laurel is haunted by her long unanswered questions. What happened to Ellie? Did she run away from home, as the police have long suspected? Who is Floyd, really? And why does his daughter remind Laurel so viscerally of her own missing girl?

Then She Was Gone is my first encounter with Lisa Jewell’s mysteries. Divided into five parts, and told from four perspectives, this sinister tale kept me guessing. I truly thought I knew what was going on, but was surprised by some of the revelations at the end of the book. I have to admit that this story made me feel anxious as I read late at night, not really sure I wanted to continue. It’s a story of obsession and deceit. The conclusion was satisfying, so I may give this new-to-me author another read.

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion (Volume 2)

 

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion (Volume 2) by Beth Brower

Fiction

2019

Finished on September 3, 2026

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

“I was sitting at my desk reading, with a cup of tea, my windows flung open, when I heard The Tenant enter his garret, just on the other side of the wall from myself.”

The Year is 1883 and Emma M. Lion has returned to her London neighborhood of St. Crispian’s. But Emma’s plans for a charmed and studious life are sabotaged by her eccentric Cousin Archibald, her formidable Aunt Eugenia, and the slightly odd denizens of St. Crispian’s.

Emma M. Lion offers up her Unselected Journals, however self-incriminating they may be, which comprise a series of novella-length volumes. Armed with wit and a sideways amusement, Emma documents the curious realities of her life at Lapis Lazuli House.

I was pleased to see a list of characters at the beginning of this second installment of Emma Lion's journals. The first volume introduces an extensive cast of characters which made it somewhat challenging for this reader to keep track of all the relationships. I enjoyed volume two quite a bit better than the first, and I'm eager to reader more of this charming series. 

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion (Vol. 1)

 

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion (Vol. 1) by Beth Brower

Fiction

2019

Finished on August 27, 2026

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

“I’ve arrived in London without incident. There are few triumphs in my recent life, but I count this as one. My existence of the last three years has been nothing but incident.”

The Year is 1883 and Emma M. Lion has returned to her London neighborhood of St. Crispian's. But Emma's plans for a charmed and studious life are sabotaged by her eccentric Cousin Archibald, her formidable Aunt Eugenia, and the slightly odd denizens of St. Crispian's. Emma M. Lion offers up her Unselected Journals, however self-incriminating they may be. Armed with wit and a sideways amusement, Emma documents the curious realities of her life at Lapis Lazuli House.

All my blogging friends have been raving about this series, so I purchased the first volume for my mom last Christmas. She loved it (no surprise there!) and went on to buy the next seven volumes in the collection. She's very impatient, as I'm sure many readers are, to read the ninth volume, which is due out before the end of the year. 

I had extremely high hopes for this epistolary work, but it wasn't until the final entries that I felt compelled to move on to the second volume. What should have taken me no more than a day or two to complete took well over a week! I checked in with a couple of friends who echoed my frustration with this book, but assured me that the series does get better. Much better. I hope so, as I have all the remaining volumes stacked and ready to go!

It wasn't until I finished the book that I discovered that the author also wrote The Queen's Gambit. We loved the miniseries and look forward to watching it a second time later this fall. 

The Shampoo Effect

 

The Shampoo Effect by Jenny Jackson

Fiction

2026

Narrated by Marin Ireland

Finished on August 27, 2026

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

An ambitious young woman insinuates herself into a tight-knit social set, shaking up friendships and marriages in a small seaside town. A frothy novel of love, money, sex, and friendship.

​​When Caroline Lash arrives in Greenhead, Massachusetts, she falls head-over-heels for Van Whittaker, a fleece-wearing, litter-collecting, kayak enthusiast with long, floppy hair and the personality of a Border collie. Born and raised in this picturesque coastal village, Van runs with the same crowd he did as a kid: His ex-girlfriend, Bailey, a beautiful girl who attracts men like moths to a flame; Augusta, old money, horsey, and snobbish; and Fran, surrounded by brothers and sons, too fed up with boys to ever consider marrying one.

Together, the group runs wild through the marshes, beaches, and bars of Greenhead, drinking on houseboats, spending long afternoons sunbathing with their children, and playing games the way they always have. But when Bailey discovers that she is pregnant with Van’s baby, the delicate balance of the group’s friendship is thrown off. Soon Caroline is cast out of the circle and what she does next—in a potent mix of fury and heartbreak—exposes long-held secrets and works the entire town of Greenhead into a lather. Dazzlingly funny, sexy, and as juicy as it is astute, The Shampoo Effect is a story of late-night parties, early mornings with small children, the dawn of midlife, and a group of old friends finally growing up despite all their best efforts to the contrary.

I seem to be reading a few "beach reads" this summer. Like Dolly All the Time, The Shampoo Effect was entertaining and very good on audio. Marin Ireland is a favorite narrator, so I was pretty sure I'd enjoy this audiobook. I wasn't disappointed! Told from four perspectives, it wasn't difficult to keep track of the main characters and their significant others. This is certainly not great literature, and most of the characters behave as if they're still partying in college (and are very cliquish), so I'm not sure why I enjoyed the book so much. I probably wouldn't have gotten very far had I read the print edition. I'd like to give Jackson's debut novel (Pineapple Street) a read and see how it compares.

More Than Enough

 

More Than Enough by Anna Quindlen

Fiction

2026

Finished on August 21, 2026

Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

A woman finds herself asking surprising questions about her family and friends in this wise, wonderful novel of life, loss, and moving on—from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of After Annie.

High school English teacher Polly Goodman can talk about everything and anything with the women in her book club, which is why they’ve become her closest friends and, along with the support of her veterinarian husband, the bedrock of her life. Her private school students, her fraught relationship with mother, her struggles with IVF—Polly’s book club friends have heard it all.

But when they give Polly an ancestry test kit as a joke, the results match her with a stranger. Despite it seeming clear that this match is a mistake, Polly cannot help combing through her own family history for answers. Then, when it seems that the book club circle of four will become three, Polly learns how friendships can change your life in the most profound ways.

Written with Quindlen’s trademark warmth, humor, and insight into the power of love and hope, More Than Enough explores how we find ourselves again and again through the relationships that define us.

Another winner by Anna Quindlen! I very much enjoyed this novel, which feels like an old, favorite sweater, wrapping me up in tender moments between friends and family. Quindlen addresses difficult life situations such as infertility, dementia, and cancer with great sensitivity. While some of the secondary characters aren't fully realized, Polly, Sarah, Garrison, and Mark are as familiar to me as friends in my own social circle. I remember reading a lot of books about women's friendships back in the 1990s, but Quindlen refrains from cliches and overly saccharine scenes between her characters. This one's a keeper to read again at a later date.

Highly recommend!

The Things We Never Say

 

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout

Fiction

2026

Finished on August 14, 2026

Rating: 4/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Artie Dam is living a double life. He spends his days teaching history to eleventh graders, expanding their young minds, correcting their casual cruelties, and lending a kind word to those who need it most. He goes to holiday parties with his wife of three decades, makes small talk with neighbors, and, on weekends, takes his sailboat out on the beautiful Massachusetts Bay. He is, by all appearances, present and alive. But inside, Artie is plagued by feelings of isolation. He looks out at a world gone mad—at himself and the people around him—and turns a question over and over in his mind: How is it that we know so little about one another, even those closest to us?

And then, one day, Artie learns that life has been keeping a secret from him, one that threatens to upend his entire world. Once he learns it, he is forced to chart a new course, to reconsider the relationships he holds most dear—and to make peace with the mysteries at the heart of our existence.

Elizabeth Strout, as we have come to expect, delivers a moving exploration of the human condition—one that brims with compassion for each and every one of her indelible characters. With exquisite prose and profound insight, The Things We Never Say takes one man’s fears and loneliness and makes them universal. And in the same breath, captures the abiding love that sustains and holds us all.

I remember the first time I read Elizabeth Strout's novel, Olive Kitteridge. I tried to listen to the audiobook, but didn't care for it at all. Olive was so unlikeable, and the story was quite sad and depressing. I went back later and read the print edition and really enjoyed it. I've gone on to read the book a second time, and I read all Strout's books in 2025. Needless to say, I was very excited to read her latest novel, The Things We Never Say, which moves away from Maine and the familiar faces from her previous works, and takes her readers to Massachusetts with a new set of characters.

One thing is certain--Elizabeth Strout's novels lean toward the bleak and melancholic themes of the human condition. In The Things We Never Say, Artie may be less unfiltered and caustic than Olive, but his temperament felt familiar to many of the characters from Strout's earlier works. He loves his wife and son, and is a wonderful teacher, but there's an underlying discontent in his life. Secrets are revealed, which up-end his steady world, while the upcoming and ensuing results of the 2024 presidential election add anxiety and fear to Artie and those he loves.

I can't say that I loved this book, but I have a feeling that it's one that I'll read again. I do wish there weren't quite so many parenthetical asides, as they interrupt the flow of the story. A few of these include revelations to key events several years before they take place. These glimpses into the future bothered me for some reason.

This passage, however, made me smile, not because of the subject, but because of the nod to one of Strout's books:

He remembered that his wife had loved some book--oh, years ago now--about a crotchety old woman from Maine, and he had read the book reluctantly only because his wife had liked it. He'd forgotten about it until now. In the book the awful woman's father had killed himself when the woman was younger, and now that she was older, the woman thought: People die of loneliness. It happens all the time.

The characters in Elizabeth Strout's novels are often reflective and prone to loneliness or isolation. The Things We Never Say touches on this, as well as politics, suicide, bullying, and infidelity. The author examines the quiet, private lives (often those of introverts or sensitive individuals) found in small towns. I cared about her characters, and I think it would be interesting to read the same story but told from Artie's wife's point of view. Or perhaps their son's. I have a feeling this isn't the last we'll hear from this coastal community.

The Winds of War

 

The Winds of War by Herman Wouk

The Henry Family #1

Fiction

1971

Finished on August 9, 2026

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Peace, if it ever exists, will not be based on the fear of war, but on the love of peace. It will not be the abstaining from an act, but the coming of a state of mind. In this sense the most insignificant writer can serve peace, where the most powerful tribunals can do nothing. ~Herman Wouk

Publisher's Blurb:

Europe, 1939: the rumblings of war grow to a terrible roar. In America the Henry clan--Navy to the bone--finds itself drawn into the very center of the maelstrom: the father at the right hand of Roosevelt, his oldest son flying over the Pacific, his youngest falling in love in Europe. From the conference table to the battlefield, from the rise of the Reich to the horror of Pearl Harbor, this is America's great World War II novel, Pulitzer Prize-winner Herman Wouk's classic epic of monumental events--and human courage and passions.

I have no idea how long I've owned a copy of The Winds of War, but it's easily been sitting on my shelf for over a decade. Maybe two. I've come to enjoy reading about World War II and have always wanted to read Herman Wouk's classic novel. The length (1000+ pages in mass market!) was enough to keep me from picking it up, but last winter I decided to make it a year-long read in 2026. Well, it didn't take me a full year, but I did read it here and there between other books in my stacks. Fortunately, the storyline was straightforward in such a way that it didn't lose momentum with each pause I took over the course of eight months of reading. It's essentially a family saga with the backdrop of the war, culminating with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The Henrys are a Navy family, and readers are given detailed accounts of that life. The book is not one of my favorites of the genre, and I never came to care about any of the main characters. As one might expect, the passages about Hitler felt all too familiar in these current times:

When Victor Henry first came into Hitler's new chancellery, he was incongruously reminded of Radio City Music Hall in New York. The opulent stretch of carpet, the long line of waiting people, the high ceiling, the great expanses of shiny marble, the inordinate length and height of the huge space, the gaudily uniformed men ushering the guests along, all added up to much the same theatrical, vulgar, strained effort to be grand; but this was the seat of a major government, not a movie house. It seemed peculiar.

and

Hitler from moment to moment looked restless, tired, or bored, or else he flashed into winning charm. He was seldom still. He shifted his feet, turned his head here and there, clasped his hands before him, folded them, gestured with them, spoke absently to most people and intensely to a few, and every so often did the little knee kick. Once Pug saw him eating small iced cakes from a plate, shoving them toward his mouth with snatching greedy fingers while he talked to a bemedalled visitor.

and

The speech was a lot of the same old stuff, with some remarkable whoppers, even for the Fuhrer, about who started the Polish war and about the sterling conduct of the Germans toward civilians. This tommyrot was certainly for internal consumption. His German listeners appeared to be swallowing it, though it's very hard to discern what Germans really think.

I've never watched the popular miniseries based on The Winds of War, which aired in 1983 starring Robert Mitchum, Ali McGraw, Polly Bergen, Jan-Michael Vincent, Victoria Tennant, Peter Graves, and John Houseman, but I'm tempted. I also plan to read War and Remembrance in 2027 for another year-long read. 

The Correspondent

 

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

Fiction

2025

Narrated by Maggi-Meg Reed, Jane Oppenheimer, Carly Robins, Jeff Ebner, David Pittu, Chris Andrew Ciulla, Mark Bramhall, Petrea Burchard, Robert Petkoff, Kimberly Farr, Cerris Morgan-Moyer, Peter Ganim, and Jade Wheeler

Finished on October 4, 2025 and August 5, 2026

Rating: 5/5 (Outstanding!)

Update: I read this a second time, listening to the audio edition, which is outstanding. I loved the full-cast ensemble of 13 narrators, especially Maggi-Meg Reed, who brings Sybil to life with a wide variety of emotions. What a remarkable debut novel. I couldn't love it more!

Publisher's Blurb:

A woman tries to heal old wounds and make sense of the world the only way she knows how—through letters—in this charming, laugh out loud debut novel about a life fully lived.

“Dear Ms. Van Antwerp,

There is a movie coming out this month and I saw the trailer and it made me think of you. It’s about an old woman who lives alone like a hermit.  She is eccentric and rude….”

Sybil Van Antwerp is a mother and grandmother, divorced, retired from a distinguished career in law, an avid gardener, and a writer of letters. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books. 

Because at seventy-three, Sybil has used her letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. But as Sybil expects her life to go on as it always has, letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life.

Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel that is a testament to the power of the written word.

What a delightful book! Several blogging friends have raved about The Correspondent, so when I saw a copy on the shelf at Imprint Bookshop (in Port Townsend, WA), I couldn't resist. One of my favorite subgenres is epistolary fiction, and as I sat down to start this post, I did a quick search to see just how many I've read/reviewed. Wow. I had no idea I'd read so many.* When I was a bookseller at Barnes & Noble, I created an endcap with some of my favorite epistolaries. Today, I'd need two endcaps! 

I wonder what it is about a book centered around a collection of letters that is so satisfying. Until the advent of email (I think we started with Prodigy and then moved on to AOL), I used to write to a few of my childhood friends, a good friend who moved to the East Coast, and to a few relatives (my grandmother, my godmother, and my mom, all after I moved from California to Nebraska). I loved finding pretty stationery to use for my letters, and had a couple of fountain pens that were fun to write with. I miss sitting down with pen in hand to write long, chatty letters, but typing is so much easier. Once we had a computer, I began to type letters, printing them out to send in the mail. Even that method has gone by the wayside. I try to send birthday cards through the mail, but texting & Facebook seem to be the favored mode for that communication. After reading The Correspondent, I'm inspired to start writing again. 

But back to the novel. What a wonderful achievement for Virginia Evans. I never would have guessed this was her debut! I enjoyed the book from the first page, and wound up starting over after I reached the 60th page. I knew it was going to be a winning read and I didn't want to read it too quickly. 

Sybil reminded me of Olive Kitteridge with her unfiltered, opinionated comments, saying exactly what she felt, not mincing words. And yet, I loved the spunk and kindness that came through in her letters. I also like that she received replies from the various authors to whom she wrote. (Yes, I know she's not a real person, but I was still happy for her.) I was especially thrilled to read the details of Ann Patchett's reply on a postcard with an image of her dog... I, too, have received the same postcard from Patchett in response to a letter I sent to her a few years ago! I also found myself nodding my head as I read the exchanges between Sybil and Joan Didion. I read The Year of Magical Thinking after our daughter died. "The club of parents who have buried children is a membership I wish I did not own, but the sense of being seen is comforting."

In addition to my love of epistolary works, I enjoy books that reference other books, and The Correspondent is chockful of titles, many of which I've read (denoted with the check mark):

• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
• The Chateau by Jaclyn Goldis
• Round House by Louise Erdrich
• Inferno by Dan Brown
• Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier ✅
• The World Below by Sue Miller ✅
• To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf ✅
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen ✅
• State of Wonder by Ann Pachett ✅
• Bel Canto by Ann Patchett ✅
• Run by Ann Patchett
• Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese ✅
• Blue Nights by Joan Didion
• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion ✅
• The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Never Let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie ✅
• Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
• The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson
• Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
• Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
• Ulysses by James Joyce
• 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff ✅
• Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck ✅
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte ✅
• Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry ✅
• The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis
• The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
• Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
• The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
• Stoner by John Williams ✅
• The White Album by Joan Didion
• Amongst Women by John McGahern
• That They May Face the Rising Sun by John McGahern
• The Stories of William Trevor by William Trevor
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series by Stieg Larsson ✅

Dear Virginia,

Thank you for creating such a wonderful character in Sybil. I loved each and every letter, and will recommend your novel to all of my book-loving (and letter-loving) friends. Please write back! Actually, I would prefer you skip a reply and get to work on another book. Meanwhile, I plan to re-read your excellent book in the coming months.

With great admiration,

A fellow lover of snail-mail.

*Below is my list (with links) of the epistolary books that I've read:

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (5/5)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (4.75/5)

These is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 by Nancy Turner (5/5)

Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man by Fannie Flagg

Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding (3/5)

The Color Purple by Alice Walker (5/5)

Address Unknown by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor (3.5/5)

Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger (4.75/5)

Love & Saffron by Kim Fay (5/5)

The Pull of the Moon by Elizabeth Berg (4/5)

Paris Letters by Janice MacLeod (4/5)

Letters From Skye by Jessica Brockmole (3.5/5)

Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson (4/5)

Dear Stranger, Dearest Friend by Laney Katz Becker (5/5)

Dear Exile: The True Story of Two Friends Separated (for a Year) by an Ocean by Hilary Liftin (3/5)

The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss by Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt (4/5)

A Celibate Season by Carol Shields and Blanche Howard (4.5/5)

My Dear Cassandra: Selections from the Letters of Jane Austen (Penelope Hughs-Hallett, editor) (3/5)

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed (4.5/5)

Delicious by Ruth Reichl (3.5/5)

That Part Was True by Deborah McKinlay (4.5/5)

Impatient with Desire by Gabrielle Burton (4/5)

Holly's Inbox by Holly Denham (2.5/5)

The Recipe Club by Andrea Israel and Nancy Garfinkel (3/5)

'Tis the Season! by Lorna Landvik (4/5)

Between Friends by Debbie Macomber

The Boy Next Door by Meggin Cabot

The Gulf of Lions

 

The Gulf of Lions by Caitlin Shetterly

Fiction

2026

Finished on August 1, 2026

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

From the acclaimed author of Pete and Alice in Maine, comes a standalone and evocative sequel about a mother who, recovering from the trauma of breast cancer and a mastectomy, takes a once-in-a-lifetime trip across France with her two daughters, determined to fully live. There, she finds herself newly awakened by beauty and desire but when the trip takes a turn for the worst, she must decide between a life of pleasure or the deep tethering of family.

Reconciling with her husband after a betrayal and recovering from a yearlong battle with breast cancer, Alice longs for an escape from the trials of everyday life. When the opportunity arises for a once-in-a-lifetime camping trip across France, she packs up her daughters, hoping it’s the new start she so desperately needs.

Alice, teenage Sophie, and young Iris begin their odyssey in the French Alps, entering a foreign world they did not know existed: beautiful people, luscious food, and sensual temptations. It’s a freeing experience—exploring the countryside, sleeping beneath the stars, reveling in the sights and scents of nature. For the first time since her diagnosis, Alice starts to feel alive, less afraid of dying, and less angry about her husband's affair.

But as the family continues south, traveling through Provence, where they camp on the Gulf of Lions, an area of the Mediterranean known for wild, roaring winds and purple fields of lavender, they start to unravel the yarn that binds them together. By the time they head to the charred Pyrenees, and then back across France to stay in a castle that sits on the confluence of two rivers, Alice worries that the trip might have been a disastrous and reckless mistake.

A beautiful meditation on womanhood, personhood, exploration, survival and sexual awakenings, The Gulf of Lions is a breathtaking and emotionally resonant story that plumbs the eternal question: What, in the end, will keep a family from falling apart?

I read Caitlin Shetterly's debut novel, Pete and Alice in Maine, earlier this year. I loved it, and couldn't wait to get my hands on The Gulf of Lions when I heard it was due out in May. I bought my copy and added it to my summer reading list, eager to see what was in store for Alice and her daughters as they made their way across France. 

I'm sad to say that this was a disappointing read. I didn't like any of the characters, especially Alice's two bratty daughters (who hadn't matured at all since the previous novel). I didn't care for Alice's poor choices while in France, either. The only redeeming quality of the book was the lush descriptions of setting and the food. Otherwise, I might not have finished reading the novel.