Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus (Literary Fiction)

At heart, this is a novel about poetry and how it can change your life — but the poetry theme is tightly inserted into a narrative populated by a madcap scramble of an adventure story replete with good vs evil, multiple layers of deception, the best kind of quirky characters, and lots of personal confusion (and eventual growth :-)) You can read it for the plot, the twisty characters, and / or for the opportunity to do some pretty deep thinking.

Our narrator is Batter — a somewhat timid character who falls hard for Poetry despite experimenting with a wide variety of majors that might have led to more lucrative careers (he does surprisingly well in Accounting). He recognizes that he hasn’t the talent to be a Poet himself, but decides he wants to discover Poets — like Brian Epstein discovered the Beatles. When he heads to the Big Apple after graduation nobody (but himself) is pleased, but through an interesting set of happenstances he lands a (very) low level job at Peck & Peck — the highly illustrious and beyond upscale (also incredibly expensive) Poetry journal. That’s when things start to get interesting.

I’m a character person, and the characters in this book are so very captivating. It took me awhile to warm up to Batter whose timidity and lack of self confidence or direction I found irritating, but I fell in love with his mother immediately. If you’re looking for an Elizabeth Zott type figure, Rainey is it. Rainey is a typeface designer and even if you haven’t a smidgen of interest in the characteristics of typefaces (e.g. common fonts like Arial, Times New Roman, or Palatino or unusual ones such as Impact, Baskerville, Caslon), you might well find her mini contextual lectures on the practical and emotional factors of typeface choice fascinating — I know I did. Dad is the “interesting” kind of historian — one who examines not just what happened in the past, but how the narration shifts with the teller, and how easily we can all be bamboozled. Every one of the editors at Peck & Peck have their own idiosyncratic set of motivations, cringes, hopes, and driving instincts that keep you on your toes if you happen to get bored. And then there is Batter’s “love at first sight” interest… Every character is a real obsessive type — but that’s what makes them interesting (and almost every one of the obsessions is completely obsession-worthy!)

But what about Poetry as a strong theme? I’ve never been a big fan, despite my voracious reading habits. But I perked up when I read one poetry-passionate character toss off the fact that 95% of poetry is boring. Yes! But his thesis is that the very top 1/2% is life changing. This book included excellent pointers to some spectacular poetry and surprisingly I have compiled a set of them and am happily reading, tearing (as in crying, not ripping) up as appropriate.

So — overall fun to read, some very interesting philosophical questions to ponder, a whole lot of tangent topics that were either completely new to me or offered new depths to what I thought I knew already — such as typeface design, slam poetry sessions, and … have you ever heard of heteropaternal superfecundation? Look it up! Reminded me of John Irving books in the way all the weird tangents actually come together in the end to achieve something. A good read.

Quotes:
“Poetry provides answers and despite what my pre-law classes would call an appalling lack of evidence, their answers always seemed right. Or something even more unlikely. Truthful.”

“Awful people succeed because nice people let them. This is the drawback of being nice. Nice people worry that it isn’t nice to take action against awful people because they don’t want to act awful themselves – they don’t want to stoop to that level. But I think nice people have been stooping all along. The worst kind of stooping – because it isn’t stooping, it’s bending over.”

“Poetry is problematic. First, it’s not easy. It forces you to think and sometimes thinking hurts. Also, poetry can make you feel stupid, like you don’t get it. And if you do get it, then it’s only because it just revealed something about yourself that you were hoping to keep hidden.”

“That, in a nutshell, is how the brothers gained new readership: by showing normal, everyday people what poetry was really all about. How it could make them feel; what it could make them think; and why it could change their lives — not just for one night, but for every night thereafter.”

“Dickinson once wrote that hope is a thing with feathers. If that’s true, despair must be a pair of concrete shoes. I know because I wore mine home.”

“The poets I publish have the nerve, the audacity, to face life’s struggles. To wrestle with ugliness, to question prevailing wisdom, to grasp at beauty. And they do it, not by mimicking what’s already been done — not by tilling the same ground, not by planting the same crop, not by sowing the same harvest — but by starting fresh. In a world devoid of poets, do you know what you get? Another knockoff. Another mouthwash.”

“Humans thrive on constant renewal. We require fresh ideas and original thinking to survive, and yet it sometimes feels like the art and necessity of thinking is becoming passe; that the one-size-fits-most, sitcom-rich, knockoff lifestyle is winning. I confess that some days I find the passivity of the human race overwhelming.”

“Since you’re a poetry lover, maybe you’ve heard of this new thing that makes poetry tolerable. It’s called music.”

Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on October 13th, 2027.

Buckeye By Patrick Ryan (Literary Fiction)

A sweeping, historical, novel that delves into the intimate lives of two couples in the post WWII midwest: Cal Jenkins, prevented from doing his patriotic duty due to a birth defect; his wife Becky, a spiritualist whose life work is helping the living connect to their dearly departed (and never for a fee); Felix Salt, a true gentleman with a deep secret he keeps even from himself; and his wife Margaret, abandoned at birth and deeply craving family.

The Amazon description summarizes with: “Sweeping yet intimate, resplendent with moments of deep emotion and unforgettable characters, Buckeye is a transportive story of love, loyalty, sacrifice, and forgiveness.” That isn’t the way I would have described it — I’ve spent quite a bit of time trying to understand why I didn’t like it, because I really did not!

I can see why I should have liked it: it was written well, contained deep dives on various topics in human interaction such as the “love, loyalty, sacrifice, and forgiveness” mentioned above. And it did utilize meticulously drawn characters to drive the plot. But in truth I often found it a slog to read — and I did not find the characters memorable (or engaging) at all. I particularly had an issue with the way the women were drawn. The two men made sense — I could see how their life experiences made them who they were, and I was attracted to their personal growth throughout the book. But the women did not work for me — especially Margaret whose behavior appeared to be explained away as an oversimplified result of her childhood. I’m trying not to include any spoilers here, but suffice it to say that I do not believe her story would have ended up the way it did, and I was pretty unhappy with the distribution of guilt (i.e. some characters should have felt more guilt than they did, while others felt more than they should have). My gut feeling is that while the book is marketed as an ensemble piece, Felix is the central character — the only one imbued with a “real person” vibe and the only one who gets a “happy ending,” somewhat at the expense of everyone else IMHO. But to each his or her own! You may identify with and applaud the narrative around what may be for you a compelling character. Would love to discuss this more with anyone who has already read it so I don’t have to keep quiet about what bugged me!

Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggars (Narrative Non-fiction)

An entertaining and educational book about one man’s successful effort to revitalize Yemen’s quality coffee production. It stars a somewhat unlikely hero — Mokhtar Alkhanshali — an American of Yemeni descent growing up in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district who is initially depicted as a bit of a screw up but manages to accomplish what would be impossible for most.

This is a work of “narrative non-fiction” — it reads like a novel but is a “true story” (not based on a true story). It’s part education and part high adventure, giving every type of brain something to hook into. I learned an astonishing amount about the history of coffee production, the means of assessing “quality” coffee, the convoluted “seed to Starbucks” process, and a great deal about starting and funding a complex business. I also learned more than I ever knew existed about Yemen — its history, current political climate, and US immigrant community. All of this learning was encapsulated in an intriguing (i.e. not at all dry) narrative that was full of compelling characters, the ideal level of concept-supporting detail, and literal high adventure (Try to escape the country during a civil war! Crossing the Red Sea on a tiny boat! Getting out of Dodge while drowning in an ocean of bureaucracy!).

I particularly found the way he did business to be interesting — while not an admirable student, Mokhtar thrived in an entrepreneurial setting, supported by his social abilities and connections. He was fast thinking, able to engage with a wide variety of people, and had a ready made set of connections in Yemen without which I don’t think he could have gotten very far — they certainly had to bail him out many times. Plenty of implicit commentary on what life is like in a low trust society. Also plenty of implicit commentary on the role of women in Mokhtar’s community both within the U.S. and Yemen — there were no women in the story! The exceptions were those in supporting roles (someone’s wife, someone’s admin, and one group of stellar coffee workers located by a business partner’s mother — they were the only workers who didn’t steal!). I did appreciate that the political commentary (which I will not comment on) appeared to be impartial and not agenda based.

A note on process the author used to write this book (according to an SF Gate article). Apparently the work is based on extensive (hundreds of hours) interviews with Mokhtar, but additionally Eggars traveled to the various regions personally to retrace the route, went through his own Q-grading coffee course, and verified events through interviews with several of the key players.

Not my usual reading material — I had a lot of questions, particularly about people, and nobody to ask — but lots of well-documented information that I’m glad to now know.

Numb Were the Beadsman’s Fingers by Alan Bradley (Historical Mystery)

This is the 12th, and probably last, delightful mystery in the Flavia de Luce series. If you’re new to the series, it follows an 11-year old irreverent chemist and amateur detective pottering about with her poisons in her family’s decaying estate in 1950s rural England. If you are newbie, I recommend going back and starting at the beginning — it isn’t necessary, but it’s much more fun.

This book starts with an immediate hook — Flavia and Dogger (the family manservant with a complex past and a “black belt in noncommittal”) are called in to the (silent) Sisters of Clemency convent to help identify a recently deceased nun who — wait for it — turned out to be a man. The (quite satisfying) unraveling of this mystery takes us to the Klondike, the shell-shock victims of WWI, and an intriguing Rosary Code. The writing is humorous and full of the creative and surprising asides that constantly stream out of Flavia’s fertile mind. The characters are highly competent (each in their own way) and likably quirky. The story is fun to follow with the kind of relevant (and sometimes utterly irrelevant) tangents that will attract the intellectually curious reader.

Alan Bradley wrote the first book in the series when he was 70 based on his winning entry for the Debut Dagger fiction competition. He passed away at the age of 87 just this last May.

Thank you to Bantam Sons and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on November 3rd, 2027.

Malice by Jonathan Kellerman (Mystery)

Number 42 in what has quickly become my favorite police procedural series, starring a gruff, inexorable, gay LA homicide detective and his best friend Alex Delaware, a psychologist who has a real talent for consulting on extra twisted murder cases. In this case, they track down the psychopath who has attached his own particular twist to the killing of three apparently unrelated victims.

AI suggests that this series is also a psychological thriller series — I agree with the psychological part, but I’m happy to say that while I’m on the edge of my seat during the entire trip, I’m never anxious (which is what often happens in books I label thrillers). Perfect for me.

I started reading this series a couple of years ago and have read them completely out of order with no problems. Kellerman is quite good at recapping any bit of history necessary to understand the narrative in a short set of aptly placed sentences. And while I usually read (as opposed to listen to) books, this is one series that I prefer opting for audio — John Rubinstein — the reader for most of the series — is fantastic and I’ve become accustomed to the personalities he imbues in the characters via their voices.

Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on February 2nd, 2026.

Otter Music by Karen Joy Fowler (Fiction)

I’ve read (and loved) every single book Karen Joy Fowler has ever written, spanning a wildly different set of genres and topics. Unfortunately, I found this book very disappointing.

Our protagonist and narrator — Lainey Miller — is a marine researcher with a penchant for otters. Told in a series of vignettes, we watch her search for hope and maybe some fun in what feels like a devastatingly, collapsing world. The tiny bit of narrative (about 30% of the book) combines recalled childhood memories (random obsessions and a strange but interesting thread about Lizard People — an odd, but apparently documented mashup of ancient gnosticism and current conspiracy theories) and some funny and heartwarming scenes with her family members.

Excellent writing as always, but I missed having a real narrative arc, and wished for a little more story in the midst of the hand wringing. To be fair, she did include some positive scientific discoveries and policy successes, but they felt trivial in the face of the utter dread Lainey feels about the state of the world. In the last few pages — I don’t think this is really a spoiler as there is very little story here — Lainey does come to a decision about a personal attitude adjustment — finding a way to be more positive in her life — but unfortunately I found her insights to be more of the “shlocky” variety than anything I could find meaningful or inspiring. Perhaps readers who are also in a state of constant dread and anxiety about the state of the world will feel better hearing someone else expressing their fears, and will enjoy this book more than I did.

Thank you to G. P. Putnam’s Sons and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on February 23rd, 2027.

American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee (Literary Fiction)

Writing: 5/5 Characters: 5/5 Storytelling: 5+++/5

The book will be published on September 29th, 2026.A sweeping family saga ranging from 1992 to 2007 from the author of Pachinko. The Kohs — John, his wife Helen, and their three children Bo, DH, and Mido — are heading back to their native Korea after spending seven years in Paramus, New Jersey (where all three children were born), three years in Korea, and six years in Australia — all following the demands of John’s career. The plunge into the ultra rigorous and punishing education system is brutal for all — in Korea your educational achievements can determine the path of your entire life; the competition is fierce, and the Koh children are behind. Enter the Hagwon — a private, for-profit, after-school and weekend academy in South Korea to supplement public education — difficult to get into, but can make all the difference.

I loved every bit of this book and the 752 pages (daunting at first glance) flew by easily. The multi-dimensional and ever expanding story follows the Koh family’s struggle to at least survive, and hopefully thrive, as the vicissitudes of fate toss them about geographically, financially, and emotionally. For the Kohs, the American Hagwon they become part of greatly expands their network of friends, family, and connections — both the ones they needed to get in, and those resulting from the experience within. But the place of the Hagwon in the story is not just about its role in ensuring the children’s future; it’s also a deep dive on educational pedagogy and a genuine striving to understand what really educates a child, versus simply earning a desired status.

Lee writes in a clean, clear style — low on emotional melodrama or manipulation, high in character and relationship depth and growth, and extra high in pure unadulterated storytelling. The book shifts between vignette-style sections, each highlighting a character or set of characters — opening us up to their individual personal development: principles, motivations, realizations, troubles and triumphs. In this book, everyone is constantly evolving, using experiences and contemplation to course correct as necessary. I like that the adversities faced were realistic and neither heavy handed nor dependent on some overall “evil power wielder.” While some characters are definitely not “good guys,” they are presented as full beings with their own motivations and (different, and not great IMHO) principles and goals. Most importantly, I love the way the characters handle their problems without whining, without assuming victimhood, and without neurosis (they couldn’t afford therapy anyway!). Family is (obviously) a big theme in a book like this, but I also liked the fact that the loyalty they showed one another was mutual — everyone supported the others in whatever way they could. Not a blind and determined loyalty that rewarded selfish and misguided behaviors that impacted others.

The book kept me entertained, made me think, and left me in a positive mood reflecting on what is important in life. And — my ultimate test — I would be very happy to befriend just about every character within the pages. These are people who live by their principles, and they are principles I share!

Thank you to Cardinal and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on September 29th, 2026.

The Slantwise Histories by Alix E Harrow (Speculative Short Stories)

This is a collection of previously published stories that the author describes as the “pleasures I have devised over the last decade.” Her “preoccupations and grudges, infatuations and nightmares.” This goes a long way to explaining the diverse set of stories included in the book. Before I tell you how and what I thought about the stories, let me first state categorically that in terms of pure writing, Harrow is one of the best. Her language, humor, compassion, insight and the insistent way she wrenches reactions from the reader are unsurpassed by other writers in my experience. I don’t always care for the subjects of her writing (or the feelings they wrench out of me!) but the quality of her writing is never challenged.

I think about the stories in this collection in three categories (and they aren’t the “Almost, Always, and Again” divisions they are separated into in the TOC — I still don’t get that). My favorites are the humorous stories with the utterly unexpected but totally integrated twists. Most feature a wry wit that recognizes and pokes fun at the very essence of our fears and aspirations. These contain plenty of quality banter (which I love) and often lovely inserts of modernity into canonical tales. The stories in this category are: The Knight and the Butcher Bird, The Ransom of Miss Coraline Connelly, The Long Way Up, and A Witches Guide to Escape: a Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies. The next category clearly aligns with Harrow’s “grudges and nightmares.” They are dark, often depressing (for the emotional sponge that I am), and have a tendency to feature stereotype “Bad Guy” groups. For example, in these stories, all the men are misogynistic a**holes, and all corporations are greedy, abusive, and evil. Great stories, but I don’t like perpetuating these polarizing descriptions. Lastly, quite a few “queer” stories — tales of discovering and exploring someone’s sexuality, often in a speculative fiction setting. These were well done, but not something that I search for.

I’m not usually a short fiction reader — I love to get deep into a novel and stay with it for a while, but it is hard for me to pass up anything that Harrow writes. I had no problem simply skipping a story or two that didn’t work for me and focus on enjoying the rest.

Thank you to Tordotcom and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on October 20th, 2026.

Line of Descent by Adam Oyebanji (Science Fiction)

An engaging space opera serving as a prequel to Oyebanji’s last book — Breaking Day. The action opens in the ~100th year of a 130 year voyage — humanity’s first bid for the stars. The inhabitants are Generation 5 of a carefully controlled population program, and tensions around whose “lines of descent” will be propagated are high. Reproductive rights, privacy, surveillance, and secrecy are some of the issues that have caused serious rifts in the population, leading to strong feelings and increasingly dangerous actions. And now the Captain is nearing his termination date and a vicious battle between the two candidates for the position will remind most of us of our own recent electoral “conflict.”

I like Oyebanji’s writing — it is clean and accessible, and encompasses technical detail, action, and cultural norms with equal fluidity (and equal time). The idea of a “generation” ship evolving different customs, conventions, and beliefs is not a new one, but I enjoyed his take on where the fracture points might occur and what issues could lead to polarization and rupture … and how the “government” might tackle an attempt at reconciliation given the limitations of a truly isolated environment. Plenty of obvious parallels to issues today.

Interesting and relatable characters and faction / hierarchical relationships; good world-building including mechanisms of recycling, decay, and the impact of unavoidable accidents in such a removed environment; and a plot equally comfortable with action and personality. This is Oyebanji’s 5th book in as many years, and I have enjoyed all but one of them (not sure what happened with that one!).

I appreciated Oyebanji’s bio, which you can find on his webpage — adamoyebanji.com — shows his humor and his interesting background!

Thank you to DAW and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on November 17th, 2026.

Fair Ones by Lydia Millet (Literary Fiction)

A slow paced (but exquisitely written and perversely engaging) novel rich in insightful discourse and doubly rich in character depth. At the core is a trio of best friends: Mara, Jen, and Claire — single New Yorkers operating at various edges of the wealthy. Claire — a high school guidance counselor and beauty queen; Mara a tutor for prep school students; and Jen the brainy former journalist and culture editor. It’s billed as a double novel — part one is Mara’s story, launched immediately after Claire’s sudden and violent death; part two is Jen’s story, taken up a year later and continuing with the evolving relationships, secrets, and healing.

I loved this book for the very real and thoroughly explored lives in relation to the catastrophic experience and the mad swirl of collateral damage resulting. New friendships, new discoveries, new reactions, new regrets, new hopes. The plot progresses, sometimes in very surprising (but utterly believable) ways. Social commentary throughout in characters’ thoughts, reactions, and evolving sense of self. Plenty of existential considerations as well as political discussions and a sense of societal duty (rather than entitlement). I found so many great quotes. I liked the fact that each character worked hard at understanding what made a “good person” and how they could best achieve that label, while also having the awareness of the layers of hypocrisy that lurk just below the surface. I also liked how well the author painted people from the different perspectives of the other characters through the kind of dialog / discussions we all have.

Quintessentially a New York story, and yet, typical for stories about New Yorkers, the characters are all NY transplants and so we travel from a Jain community in California, to the woods in Maine, to elite boarding schools, to high priced, drug infused Wall Street lofts in discovery of backstories. We consider white collar crime, dementia without financial resources, and the search for meaningful occupation. And we are surprised with a creeping, surreptitious solution to a mystery we didn’t know existed. We “join” in the discussion of a wide variety of topics from multiple perspectives on everything from climate change to the pros and cons of capitalism, to the real meaning of Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree (that was a hoot). Millet’s books have a kind of dream like quality for me because I feel like I am occupying so many different heads at once. I loved this book.

Quotes:
“We had our daily routines, inside millions of others, and along the edges of those routines there was always the prospect of the story taking new turns. Because the city contained multitudes. So if the story changed, we’d figured, maybe we’d be excited all over again. Even the pandemic hadn’t driven us away. We’d survived.”

“In more neutral terms, she explained, they were both aware that pleasure and so-called ‘being in love’ are based on neurological novelty. And that the brain can’t be trusted not to take a relationship for granted. If they hung out together for too long a stretch, the dopamine surges would flare out.”

“If I tried to join in, throwing out a quick word of agreement or question, they’d gaze at me anthropologically. Like they were tolerating my naive opinion the way you’d tolerate a well-meaning foreigner who doesn’t speak the language.”

“Still, if you took away words, music lasted for centuries, I thought. A distillation of sadness that never aged. Unlike the person who’d felt it.”

“‘Economically underprivileged,’ was what the school called them, but Claire said poor kids; economically underprivileged was a privileged euphemism.”

“Although, she’d added, they outsourced their misery. Norway, for instance, claimed to be leading on carbon-neutrality but got most of its money from exporting a s***load of fossil fuels. Plus they went around slaughtering whales. Like the Japanese.”

“I never wanted kids. Even back when being gay meant you probably couldn’t have them. For the middle and upper classes, it’s a way of replacing anxiety about society with a fixation on the domestic. So you don’t have to strain your compassion by worrying about anything beyond the home front. Because you’ve already met your daily quota struggling to raise your young You can give up your ideals and your unresolved tension over the existential crisis of the ongoing death of the planet. And be praised for it. Since breeding’s sanctioned as the highest form of love.”

“There’s no such thing as a gift horse, Mara. Richard’s a regular horse. And the deal with horses is, you have to take care of them. You have to feed them. Muck out their stalls, Clean the first and shit from their hooves with a rasp. And ride them on a regular basis.”

“I don’t have a heart at peace, with my ex-wife. With that woman, I have a heart at war.”

“Plus Richard bloviated more if another professional was present. Especially Eli, who he saw as highly intelligent and yet, as a forensic pathologist, not fully conversant with current readings of late-stage capitalism. Richard would shift into enthusiastic lecture mode while Eli, likely exhausted from eight hours poking around in gnarly corpses, nodded politely and endured. I had to break into the lectures to save him.”

“So what did I do, again? With all that was given to me? And the answer would be, I ate. Mara claims social boredom makes me act out. But I don’t act out enough. If I did, I wouldn’t get so bored.”

Thank you to W. W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on October 6th, 2026.