Tag: fiction

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Tell Me Everything

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout is book 5 in the Amgash series.

Summary

It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer, Lucy Barton, who lives nearby in a house next to the sea. Together, Lucy and Bob talk about their lives, their hopes and regrets, and what might have been.

Lucy, meanwhile, befriends one of Crosby’s longest inhabitants, Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons together in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known – “unrecorded lives,” Olive calls them – reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.

My Thoughts

Simple yet profound – that is the best way I can describe Elizabeth Strout’s writing. On the surface, this book follows the lives of Bob Burgess and Lucy Barton as they experience their friendship and deal with the everyday situations in their lives. Ultimately, however, it explores the meaning of life, especially that of the “unrecorded life.”

If you are interested in reading Elizabeth Strout, I would recommend starting with Olive Kitteredge and the first book in the Amgash series, My Name is Lucy Barton.

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The Paris Cooking School

The Paris Cooking School by Sophie Beaumont

Summary

There’s nothing quite so beautiful as Paris in the spring; and when you add in the chance to learn the French way of food, in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, who can resist? Not Gabi Picabea or Kate Evans who have come from Australia to Sylvie Morel’s Paris Cooking School.

Both are at a crossroads, and learning to cook the French way in Paris, far away from all their troubles, seems like the perfect escape. Meanwhile, Sylvie herself is facing challenges of her own – a mysterious harassment campaign against the School and a reassessment of her relationship with her commitment-shy lover Claude. 

For each of the women, that extraordinary April in Paris will bring unexpected twists and transformations that will change the course of their lives.

My Thoughts

This is a lovely book. Gabi and Kate are likeable characters who are trying to find their way despite various difficulties in their lives. I enjoyed their interaction with the rest of the class as well as with the people they meet in Paris. I also liked the storyline with Sylvie, who runs the school, as she deals with her own challenges.

My favorite part was how descriptive Beaumont is, showing us an intimate view of Paris and tantalizing us with mouthwatering descriptions of food, both around the city and in the cooking school. I am such a picky eater, but it made me want to try all of the dishes they encountered.

I am definitely putting her second book, A Secret Garden in Paris, on my list!

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How to Stop Time

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

📚Summary

Tom Hazard has just moved back to London, his old home, to settle down and become a high school history teacher. And on his first day at school, he meets a captivating French teacher at his school who seems fascinated by him. 

But Tom has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he’s been alive for centuries. Tom has lived history–performing with Shakespeare, exploring the high seas with Captain Cook, and sharing cocktails with Fitzgerald. Now, he just wants an ordinary life.

📃My Thoughts

Simply put, I loved this book! I love the idea of someone living for so long and all the challenges it would bring. Having to move around so people don’t get suspicious, falling in love knowing your loved one will age much more quickly than you, not being able to share your life story with people. 

Add to that a society of people like you with their own rules and motivations and you get a gripping story with exciting twists and turns. Highly recommend!

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Ten Before the End

Ten Before the End

An account I follow on Instagram shared a list of ten books they want to read by the end of the year and my first thought was that’s what I need to get my reading mojo back. I have only read two books so far this month, which is pretty low for me.

Here are the ten books I want to read before the end of this year:

  • Funny Story by Emily Henry
  • Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
  • The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
  • What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama
  • Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
  • The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
  • A December to Remember by Jenny Bayliss
  • The Paris Cooking School by Sophie Beaumont
  • Modern Persuasion by Sara Marks
  • Loveless by Alice Oseman

Have you read any of these? Do you have books you want to get in before the end of 2025?

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Smells Like Tween Spirit

I have thoroughly enjoyed the entire Class Mom series by Laurie Gelman, and this one was no exception.This first three books were about Jen Dixon’s adventures as class mom for her son Max during his elementary school years, and this one covers her involvement as he moves into middle school and gets into wrestling.

She is also juggling helping her parents as they get older and her adult daughters as they are finding their way in the world, in addition to teaching spin classes and spending time with her adorable granddaughter, all while facing symptoms of perimenopause.

I love Jen’s character so much; she is snarky and fun and truly cares about the people in her life. The situations she finds herself in vary from serious to comical, but she always comes through. I devoured this book in one sitting and found it just as good as the first one.

I would recommend starting with the first book in the series so that you get to know the characters and their stories before getting to this one.

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Wedding at Bella Beach

Wedding at Bella Beach by Kate Wentworth – Bella Beach #7

This is the final full-length book in the Bella Beach series and covers the wedding of Emma Sinclair, who was the main character of the first book. There is a novella about Emma’s daughter Alexis coming out this December called Christmas Wedding at Bella Beach.

This was a fast, feel-good read. It’s probably good that the series is ending because the author spent quite a bit of time making sure we remembered what had happened with each of the characters in the previous books. It did still have some new developments and, of course, there were all the fun things leading up to the wedding.

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The Lonely Hearts Book Club

The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore

In small-town Washington, an eclectic group of misfits–spearheaded by young librarian Sloane and curmudgeonly reader Arthur–forms a unique book club that leads to unexpected bonds.

I had enjoyed Gilmore’s more recent book, The Library of Borrowed Hearts, so I decided to go back and read this one. It was a fun read, and I liked the characters and how their relationships develop over the course of the book.

I did have trouble following some of the characters’ feelings and motivations, but I can’t say whether that is because of the writing or because of the way my autistic brain works. The story got easier to follow during the later chapters.

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Every Time You Go Away

Every Time You Go Away by Beth Harbison

Willa Bennett’s husband Ben passed away three years ago while he was up at their beach house to do some work on it. She has not really been living her life since, including not being very present for her teenage son, Jamie. Now she is heading to the beach house to get it ready to sell, hoping it will help her to move on. Once she arrives, she is surprised to encounter her husband’s ghost.

When it turns out there is a lot of work to do before she can sell, she summons her son Jamie, her best friend Kristin, and Kristin’s daughter Kelsey to come for the summer. Even with their company, she continues to see Ben and is even able to talk with him, reminiscing about their life together and how she is dealing with being on her own.

I enjoyed this book so much. The writing was engaging and emotional, with well-developed, relatable characters. The touch of the supernatural was handled very well–I loved the interactions between Willa and Ben. For me, it was a satisfying story about moving through grief and finding healing.

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The Sandy Page Bookshop

The Sandy Page Bookshop by Hannah McKinnon

Leah is fresh out of a job and an engagement, so she moves back to her Cape Cod hometown. Once there, she impulsively decides to rent and renovate a historic home so that she can open a bookshop. A cast of characters forms around her, some of whom we get to know quite well as there are chapters told from their point of view. 

There’s Lucy, a teenager whose older sister has been severely injured in a car accident; Eudora, a widow who has become afraid to leave her home; and Luke, a local woodworker who knew Leah in high school. 

I enjoyed this book very much. The characters are likable and the bookstore is a charming setting. I would definitely recommend this when you are looking for a lighthearted, feel-good read.

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Top Books from the First Half of 2025

I thought it would be fun to look back over the first six months of the year and see what books rose to the top for me.  

Here are my top ten fiction books for the first half of 2025:

  • Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
  • Ordinary Life: Stories by Elizabeth Berg
  • Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
  • Found in a Bookshop by Stephanie Butland
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
  • More or Less Maddy by Lisa Genova
  • Forever, Interrupted by Taylor Jenkins Reid
  • Bonded in Death by J.D. Robb
  • Lethal Prey by John Sandford
  • The Taste of Ginger by Mansi Shaw

And here are my top 5 nonfiction books:

  • Followers Under 40 by Rachel Gilmore and Kris Sledge
  • Baby Dinosaurs on the Ark? by Janet Kellogg Ray
  • The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby
  • How to Fight Racism by Jemar Tisby
  • God and the Gay Christian by Matthew Vines

Have you read any of these, and what did you think of them?