I loved it! A perfect listen: lots of tension in the plot that pulls you back over and over, but it doesn’t create existential panic. Excellent sound design in the audio version. Great characters. Burritos in space!

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Read it if: You need something distracting. You have a soft spot for sci-fi that’s character driven. You think aliens are cool.

Steer clear if: You hate sci-fi. You hate apocalyptic fiction, even if it’s funny. You are too cool to read things that are going to be made into major motion pictures.

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Why?

Not sure. Probably because I want to have my own experience with the book before being overloaded with someone else’s experience.

But, I still love book recommendations.

So, that’s what we have here: Book reviews without too much plot info or formal review, but just enough so you can decide whether you want to read it or steer clear.

It’s strange and clever and mysterious. Quirky, delightful, a little sad, a little hilarious.

It weaves between the story of one woman and the lives of a few other people, and you know their fates are all vaguely connected—although you’re never sure how. The pacing is perfect. They mystery tantalizing. I loved it.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Read It If: You’re looking for something to binge in the hammock or to keep you going through your fall yard cleanup. And you like things that are delightfully quirky.

Steer Clear If: You’re not that into multiple narrators. I guess that could be annoying for some people. The audio version I listened to actually had two separate narrators to read the different voices and I loved it.

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How can I even describe this to you?

Her poetry is spare, but not terse.

Her images are so clear without being commonplace.

She writes strong narrative arcs that still manage to turn in unexpected ways.

Her style is incredibly accessible, even for those who don’t usually turn to poetry.

The opening poem, Prologue, ends with these lines, “I came to the edge / and I did not know the way.”

Exactly.

MY RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

READ IT IF: You want to read some deeply spiritual, real, raw, narrative poetry.

STEER CLEAR IF: Your brain is already spinning like a herd of wildebeests and visionary poetry would just complicate things.

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You can see why I was drawn to this one.

Here’s the thing I should say first: when I listen to book, I’m looking for something different than when I read the words. I usually listen while I’m washing dishes, vacuuming, weeding, or sewing, so it needs to be a relatively simple book so I can drop it and pick it back up a few hundred times. If it’s overly complicated, I’ll miss details and get frustrated.

This book is an easy, gentle listen. And has lovely characters.

But, I really wanted it to dig hard into magical realism, or just magic in general. And it didn’t.

My Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

READ IT IF: You want a cozy, yet weirdly complicated, love story with a moderate dash of witchery.

STEER CLEAR IF: You are desperate to know about the Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches—despite the title, it doesn’t figure prominently in the book. (Major bummer.)

Pro tip: this isn’t one you should listen to around your kids without headphones.

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“The magic of a novel like Tiger Castle lies in the cozy afterglow – this feel-good fairytale is packed with whimsy and humor that reads like the grown-up version of Holes or the Wayside School series.” — USA Today

I do agree that it is a novel with magic.

I’m not sure about the cozy afterglow. I finished and I thought, “Huh?” Is that the same as a cozy afterglow?

Did it make me feel good? Again, not sure. But, to be fair, it didn’t make me feel bad.

Is it a fairytale? Maybe? Kind of?

Whimsy? Yes. And I love whimsy.

Humor? Also yes.

Grown-up? Maybe? But only because it talks about sex.

Its similarity to Holes or Wayside School stops at the author. Sachar has such a unique sentence pattern which works wondrously for kids and middle-grade. I’m not sure how it panned out in this “adult” novel. It didn’t seem to have the delightful complexity of his work for kids.

Sachar’s earlier books are genius. Tiger Castle is a head-scratcher.

My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

READ IT IF: You want to debate me and my lackluster response. Or if you like really weird stories.

STEER CLEAR IF: You haven’t read anything by Louis Sachar. Start with one of his other books instead. And then read all the rest of his books before you read this one.

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When I started The God of the Woods by Liz Moore, I had no idea that a good deal of people are raving about this book (including Oprah!) and a good deal of people really hate it.

I thought it was a really good read — Moore has beautiful control of her sentences and her characters were fascinating and multi-dimensional. Once I got to the last 200 pages or so, I could not put this down. I even went past my religiously kept bedtime to read to the end. It’s a thriller, but a character thriller. The tension comes because of the people and not necessarily the events, although there are plenty of events.

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

READ IT IF: You’re looking for the Halloween equivalent of a beach read and you love beautiful sentences and people.

STEER CLEAR IF: You’re triggered by stories of summer camp or missing children.

PS: My friend has started this delightful podcast called Proofread. It is so much fun, especially if you like to get hot takes before you read a book. (I know I don’t, but you might. I just listen to their episodes after I’ve read the book.)

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This book is a stunner from Leif Enger—it rattled my bones, in a good way. Published in 2024, I’m not one of the first readers, but it came to me in a way that felt fresh to the world. It was in my Amazon cart, and, like many things in that cart, I no longer knew why it was there. I am known to buy a book on occasion, and I decided to buy it because I honestly thought it was the newest book by Frederik Backman, My Friends. This is also something I can’t explain since none of the words match, but let’s just let that go, shall we?

I cracked the book and the first page was so beguiling that it had me. I can see how this book would turn some readers off. It’s a little bit magic, a little bit apocalyptic, and a little bit literary fantasty. But, if you know me, you know that combination is going to grab me and not let go. The thing is that the book is not about the plot—it’s about the characters and their relationships. If you need the plot to be tidy, you will be disappointed. Nothing is resolved, exactly.

But against the horrors of a broken-down society, you see countless glimmers of hope, beautifully crafted. Enger’s sentences are like elixir. And his characters are timeless and endless and perfectly now all at the same time. I loved it.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

READ IT IF: You’re in the mood for something fanciful and gorgeously written that moves at a strange pace and pushes you to confront your perceptions of reality.

STEER CLEAR IF: You have no patience right now for a story that meanders and leaves you to imagine the context. Or if you hate sailing. There’s a lot of sailing.

Photo by leah hetteberg on Unsplash