Book Review: "Taipei Story" by R.F. Kuang

TFW an author whose previous work you’ve enjoyed comes out with a new book you’re excited about and it disappoints you. I hate it when that happens. I definitely had high hopes for this!

Lily is a Chinese-American student who just finished her freshman year at Yale. She plans to spend the summer at an intensive language program in Taipei, where she hopes she’ll be able to better communicate in the language of her heritage. While she knows some Chinese, she really wants to become fluent.

Students from all over the world attend this and similar programs. But there are several of her fellow students from Yale in attendance as well, and she’s even rooming with someone she knows. They quickly immerse themselves in Chinese culture, food, and tourist attractions, and revel in the idea of speaking only Chinese while on campus for classes.

But Lily quickly realizes the divide between understanding a language and being able to communicate fully in it. It’s so much more than knowing how to order food or learning idioms. The difficulty of her classes, coupled with tensions with her roommate, leave her feeling alone and adrift.

She learns that her maternal grandfather, who lives in mainland China, has died. She remembers seeing her grandparents when she was younger, but their relationship slowly devolved into periodic phone calls where very little of substance was discussed. As she grieves this loss, she wonders about her grandparents’ lives, asking questions that no one can really answer.

The idea of trying to find your cultural identity when you feel alone is a powerful one. Unfortunately, I felt like the book dwelled far too much on facts about Chinese language, culture, and history, and not enough on Lily’s story. And I didn’t feel that she evolved much throughout the book. Bummer.

Book Review: "Love by the Book" by Jessica George

Remy’s debut novel was a huge hit and became a bestseller. It was a fictionalized account of the relationship with her three best friends, and particularly, the fierce bond among them. The pressure is on for Remy to write her second book, but she can’t seem to find any inspiration.

As if writer’s block wasn’t bad enough, her friends have finally decided to follow their own paths. One is moving to a house an hour outside of London and having a baby, one is moving to New York for a new job, and one has reunited with her horrible boyfriend. Remy is devastated, lonely, and adrift. Even trying a dating app disappoints her.

One day, Remy (literally) runs into Simone, who remembers Remy from secondary school. Simone is now a teacher, and she is tremendously devoted to her students. She also has a second job to help make ends meet. But when her family finds out about her side hustle, they cut her off.

Remy wants to become friends with Simone, as they both seem to see each other clearly. But Simone isn’t used to sharing herself with anyone, and she rebuffs Remy’s attempts at friendship. Little by little, however, they start to realize how important they are to one another, a valuable discovery as each comes to a crossroads in their life.

“The way you love has always been an inspiration to me, I guess, and something I’ve maybe never told you is that being loved by you is one of the greatest things in the world…and one of the easiest to take for granted. I know I have, just because I’m so used to it, you know?”

This is a platonic love story, and a beautiful one. It would be interesting to read this and then Andrew McCarthy’s new book on male friendships. Jessica George’s debut novel, Maame, was fantastic, and it’s great to see how her talent has gotten even stronger.

Book Review: "Nothing Serious" by Emily J. Smith

“We like to chalk things up to chance. But most things, if you dig deep enough, aren’t chance. Not really.”

Peter and Edie have been best friends since college, when Peter rescued her from a situation beyond her control. In the years since then, Peter has become an ultra-confident, handsome multimillionaire, while Edie feels like her life is stagnating.

Even though Peter has been dating his girlfriend for a number of years, Edie is still a big part of his life. He spends more time texting with Edie than talking to his girlfriend. Edie hopes that maybe he’ll come to his senses and realize he’s been in love with her all along.

When Peter breaks up with his girlfriend, Edie is ready to swoop in. But instead of wallowing in loneliness like she does, he quickly gets on the apps. He meets Anaya, a feminist professor and writer who definitely can hold her own with Peter. He invites Edie to meet Anaya—on their first date—and she realizes that Anaya is an amazing catch. She feels a connection with Anaya and they start to become friends.

And then Anaya is found dead in her apartment, the morning after a date with Peter. It’s all too easy for Edie to get obsessed with things, and she starts becoming more and more suspicious of Peter. She decides to do her own digging to find out whether Anaya’s death really was a suicide or if it was murder.

Edie is a wild character, just a little bit unhinged. But it’s easy to understand one’s obsessions when you feel you don’t have much in your life. I liked the concept of this book more than the execution, and found the pacing uneven.

Book Review: "Bloom" by Robbie Couch

Robbie Couch has been one of my auto-buy authors since I fell in love with his debut, The Sky Blues, several years ago. His previous books have all been YA, so I was excited to read his first adult novel. And it was full of as much heart as his earlier books.

Morris is grieving the sudden death of his husband, Fred. He and his cat mostly stay in the house, as Fred was always the social butterfly of the couple. Morris has lost his passion for everything, and doesn’t want to get together with his former teacher colleagues or anyone.

Fred had had a green thumb, and cares for numerous plants both inside and outside the house. But Morris can’t care for them, and gave most of them away to a science teacher friend. The three remaining plants are dying, much to their chagrin. One plant, Jade, knows her end is nearing but wants to find a way to save herself and her plant friends.

Meanwhile, Morris’ stepdaughter (and former student), Sloan, has been struggling with her father’s death. She’s excited to marry her boyfriend but can’t stand how her mother keeps forcing them to make choices they don’t want. And she’s tired of her mother’s anger toward her father and Morris.

Sloan decides to get to know Morris better, a decision that could rattle her family, as Morris is considered “the enemy.” But Sloan likes seeing her father through Morris’ eyes, and the more she thinks about it, the more she wants him in her life. How will this sit with her mother?

I found this book to be all kinds of adorable and a bit emotional, too. It’s a beautiful reflection on how grief impacts each of us differently, and how harmful it can be not to tell someone when they’re hurting you, or you’re afraid of hurting them. I found myself smiling so many times while reading this!

Book Review: "Wait for Me" by Amy Jo Burns

Amy Jo Burns’ last book, Mercury, was one of my favorite books of 2024. Needless to say, I was looking forward to this and I’m grateful to Celadon Books and NetGalley for the complimentary advance copy.

Unfortunately, this book didn’t work as well for me as Mercury did, but it was an intriguing story. Marijohn is 18 years old in 1991, spending the summer working at her father’s gas station and writing songs she plays on her broken mandolin. Her best friend Lazarus is her cowriter, duet partner, and overall sidekick.

Marijohn’s father swears that he was the last person to see country music phenomenon Elle Harlow before she disappeared in 1973. He’s obsessed with keeping Elle’s legacy alive, and there’s a distinct possibility she could be Marijohn’s mother. She longs to know the truth.

The last night before Lazarus leaves for college, Marijohn is determined to tell him she loves him. But when a meteor strikes their town that night, it changes the course of everything, and brings secrets long hidden to the surface.

The book shifts to Elle’s story for a bit. We see her apprenticing to a healer, craving a musical career, and feeling unloved and unsupported. Her story shows that talent can flourish anywhere.

I felt like a lot of the dialogue in the book, particularly where Marijohn and Elle were concerned, was almost stream of consciousness. There’s a lot of miscommunication here, which is my least favorite trope to read about. But the central themes of loss, longing, and love really resonated with me.

Book Review: "Emma on Fire" by James Patterson and Emily Raymond

“They don’t understand that time equals loss. It’s a freaking law of nature. If Emma lets the years keep on passing, she’s just going to keep on losing. So is everyone else, even if they can’t bear to admit it. They just walk ignorantly through the world, turning away from anything they don’t want to see. But Emma sees all of it. And she needs them to know how bad things really are.”

It seems like a typical day at Ridgemont Academy, a prestigious New England prep school. Emma Blake, once a star student and class leader, has virtually disengaged from her classes. But an assignment in English class—to write a very descriptive essay—inspires her.

But when Emma reads her essay aloud in class, it provokes very strong reactions from her classmates and her teacher. The essay alarms the school’s headmaster, who views it as a cry for help. Emma doesn’t want help, however; she wants her fellow students to realize the tragic state of our world.

There’s much more that is motivating Emma, however. No one knows whether she’ll carry through with what she’s promising to do, and no one knows exactly why she’s been driven to this.

I’m being vague in my summary because there’s power in going in blind. This is an emotional book and many of the characters’ reactions felt very real. The book is marketed as a thriller but I don’t think that’s accurate. It skewed more YA but I still found it really compelling.

Book Review: "Songs for Other People's Weddings" by David Levithan and Jens Lekman

David Levithan is one of my all-time favorite authors. I’ve had so many of his books, both YA and adult, on my year-end best lists, and this new one will join this year’s list for sure. The concept of this book is fantastic as well.

“There are hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of songs about falling in love, being in love. There are more about having your heart broken. But how many songs are there about loving someone and having the nature of that love change? How many songs are there about going from lover to friend, from sex to affection? How many songs are there about being happy alone?”

J is a Swedish singer of some renown. Because one of his songs essentially offered his services as a wedding singer, that’s become his gig. He interviews the couple to get a feel for their relationship and then writes an original song that he performs at their wedding. This job has taken him to weddings big and small, all over the world.

While he is writing about other people’s love stories, his own romance is on the rocks. His girlfriend has moved to NYC for work and the more time she spends there, the more she seems to be pulling away from J. She seems to resent any questions he has about whether their relationship has a future, and whether she’s planning to return to Sweden when her work is done.

As J gets invited to be part of couples’ special day—young and old, rich and poor, queer and straight—he starts wondering how to capture the essence of love for others when he can’t do so on his own. It requires both creativity and strength, and emotional maturity he’s not sure he wants to have.

This book was a collaboration between Levithan and Jens Lekman, a Swedish singer who actually has become a wedding singer. Lekman writes songs for each of the weddings, and you can actually listen to them by scanning a QR code in the book. This was such an enjoyable, romantic, thought-provoking, and emotional book, and the songs really deepened the feels.

Book Review: "My Friends" by Fredrik Backman

This book has been all over Bookstagram, and deservedly so. I’m a huge fan of Fredrik Backman’s, but I tend to love those of his books that are more serious and emotional. And he sure knows how to make me cry!

“Adults always think they can protect children by stopping them from going to dangerous places, but every teenager knows that’s pointless, because the most dangerous place on earth is inside us. Fragile hearts break in palaces and in dark alleys alike.”

You can obviously tell from the title that this is a book about friendship, but it is so much more than that. This is a story about loss, loneliness, the love we feel in our souls and the joy when that love is reciprocated. It’s also a story about rescuing those in need, even when you’re in need of rescue yourself.

In this book, as in his Beartown trilogy, some of Backman’s characters have known great pain, sadness, even hopelessness. Yet quite often, they still find the strength to endure, to experience joy, to love, even as their hearts are broken. That is one aspect that makes his books so meaningful and moving to me.

“He would often try to think that perhaps that has to be the case: that our teenage years have to simultaneously be the brightest light and the darkest depths, because that’s how we learn to figure out our horizons.” (I felt this quote in my soul.)

From the very first words in this book, I was reminded of a line from one of my favorite movies, Stand By Me. It goes, “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?” (Substitute 14 for 12, and that summed up so much of what made this book special.) I have no doubt this will be one of my favorite books of the year.

Book Review: "Say You'll Remember Me" by Abby Jimenez

I would give this book 10 stars if I could! Thanks so much to Abby Jimenez and Forever for the advance copy!

Xavier is a veterinarian with an enormous heart. Plus, he’s gorgeous, tall, and brooding. But he rarely smiles and maybe he’s a bit intense?

When Samantha first sees Xavier, he looks like a god in a lab coat. And then he opens his mouth and tells her the complete opposite of what she wanted to hear. In short, he’s a total jerk to her. She can’t wait to prove him wrong.

Prove him wrong she does. But he’s more than willing to fall on his sword—and then he asks her on a date. It’s the longest date ever and, quite possibly, the best either has been on. They both feel an intense connection to one another. Then Samantha drops a bombshell—in a few hours she’s moving to California to help her family care for her mother, who has early-onset dementia.

Samantha tells Xavier he should forget about her, but of course, that’s utterly impossible. They spend a few days together here and there, and fall deeper for each other every time. But since neither is in the position to move to where the other is, is this relationship doomed to fail? Wouldn’t it be better just to throw in the towel now?

Abby Jimenez knows how to work my emotions better than almost any author. This is a funny, steamy, and gorgeous book, and as always, it’s full of moments that make me laugh and tear up, as well as sentences I marvel at over and over. There could be triggers for some, so definitely read the author’s note. And then pick this one up!

Book Review: "First-Time Caller" by B.K. Borison

I’m so grateful to Berkley and NetGalley for providing access to an advance copy of this amazing book!

Aiden is the host of “Heartstrings,” a Baltimore radio show that provides romantic advice for the lovelorn and those struggling to find or keep love. But lately, he’s not been enjoying his job, and that’s been reflected in the ratings. He’s just over the whole concept of love.

One night during his show he gets a call from a 12-year-old girl named Maya. She tells Aiden that her mother never goes on dates and that she is lonely, and asks Aiden to help her. When Lucie, Maya’s mom, discovers who her daughter has been talking with, she unexpectedly bears her soul on the radio. And of course, the show goes viral, so people all over the world are rooting for Lucie to find love.

“When the whole world tells you you’re silly for wanting the things you want, you start to believe them. You start to think you’re not worth it. That if the things you’re waiting for do exist, they’re not for someone like you.”

The radio station’s general manager invites Lucie to join Aiden’s show in the hopes that he can help her find her happily ever after. As listeners follow along, Lucie starts dating again. But will she find her soulmate this way, or are the feelings sparked behind the microphone the ones she wants to pursue?

I absolutely fell in love with B.K. Borison’s Lovelight Farms series, and while I’m sad that she didn’t continue with that, this is the start of a new one I love already. She is such a fantastic storyteller, and the characters she creates are tremendously memorable. They’re the kind of people you want in your life.

Book Review: "One Night, Two Holidays" by Ali Brady

While Christmas is held on the same day every year, Hanukkah moves around based on the Hebrew calendar. Some years it happens in late November or early December, some years it’s much later. But this year both Christmas and the first night of Hanukkah were celebrated on the same day.

Given the “Chrismukkah” celebrations, discovering Ali Brady’s novella was perfect timing.

It’s Christmas Eve. Jack is a medical resident, ready to release some of his stress by spending a few days with his family in Denver. The last thing he was counting on was an epic snowstorm that cancels all flights out of Chicago. He is sad, frustrated, and lonely.

Nessa is alone for Hanukkah, since her roommates both had other plans and her parents are traveling. When she witnesses Jack’s frustration, she tries to coax a smile out of him. After all, she and her roommates have been intrigued by him for a while.

When the power goes out in their building, Jack is caught completely unaware. He finds Nessa’s apartment and the two plan to wait the storm out together. They talk about each other’s holiday traditions, their hopes and fears, and of course, start to draw closer. (The game of strip dreidel didn’t hurt.)

I love how Ali Brady gave equal weight to both holidays and both characters. They had terrific banter and sizzling chemistry, but I loved how they took their time before anything heated up physically. This was really a sweet story.

Book Review: "The Answer is No" by Fredrik Backman

Fredrik Backman is one of my favorite authors. The Beartown series just blew me away and I’ve loved so many of his books where the curmudgeon just needs to be loved and appreciated.

That being said, I tend to like Backman’s books when they’re more emotional and dramatic. The one book of his I struggled with was Normal People, because it felt very silly to me, almost farcical.

I had the same challenges with The Answer is No, Backman’s upcoming story. I appreciate the message he was trying to convey, but it just got too wacky for me.

Lucas is one of those people who keeps to himself. He would much rather spend time alone than have to deal with others. He doesn’t seek out relationships because they would force him to compromise or not get what he wants.

And then one day, his peace is shattered when three board members come to his door. Apparently someone in his building has left a frying pan next to the recycling room. That’s against the rules. But Lucas innocuously suggests how to solve the problem—and he doesn’t realize the wheels he has set in motion.

The story quickly slides into satire. It’s cute and I’m sure it may be a home run for others, but it wasn’t my thing. It will publish 12/1.

Book Review: "Grave Talk" by Nick Spalding

Since her husband Joe died suddenly six months ago, Alice isn’t having an easy time coping. She still reaches for him in bed every morning, and talks to him quite a bit. She wonders if the loss will ever get easier to bear.

On Joe’s birthday, she decides to visit his grave by herself for the first time, but it’s far too much for her emotionally, and she briefly falls apart. When she pulls herself together, she’s stunned to see a man dressed like Kermit the Frog standing by the grave next to Joe’s.

Ben is mourning the death of his older brother Harry. Harry was quite the prankster, and in his will he stipulated that once a year Ben must visit his grave and stand there for three minutes. And Ben must wear an embarrassing costume that Harry picked out for each year.

The intensity of grief that both feel creates the spark of a friendship. The time they spend talking to one another feels cathartic, because both know what this grief feels like. They make a promise to meet at the gravesites the following year on the same date.

Each year, they both arrive at the cemetery. Alice usually laughs when she sees what costume Ben is wearing. And as they talk and share the emotional crises and challenges each has faced through the year, both begin challenging one another to make a change here or there, in the hopes the changes will help. Does grief get easier over time? Can you move on to a new phase without forgetting the person you’ve lost?

I loved the concept here, but felt it fell short in execution. Both Alice and Ben are understandably miserable, but it often seemed as if they were willing to remain in this state forever rather than confront the issues and people that were holding them back. While there certainly are emotional moments, I found myself more frustrated than sad.

The book will publish 11/1.

Book Review: "When We Were Friends" by Jane Green

“To think I may have found a best friend after a five-minute chat, an unlikely meeting in the bathroom of a bar.”

It’s funny how some friendships feel just like dating at the start. You meet someone, you like them, you hope they like you back. Quite often there’s that delicate dance at first, you don’t want to seem too eager.

Lucy is newly divorced, trying to reinvent herself, when she goes to a bar one night with a group of women with whom she has very little in common. She immediately feels out of place and wonders how soon she can go home.

A quick trip to the restroom brings her face to face with Elle. She’s younger and more vibrant, but Lucy recognizes a kindred spirit. After some conversation, they realize they have more in common than Lucy would have imagined, and they make plans for later in the week.

It’s not long before the two become inseparable. For Lucy, Elle fills a void that had existed for some time. She makes Lucy feel like she can conquer anything, and they’re even planning to work together. But after Lucy brings Elle to a party, things veer off-course, and Elle disappears. Lucy mourns the loss of this friend, until she runs into her again and realizes that as close as they were, she doesn’t know Elle at all.

I enjoy Jane Green’s writing, but this felt very incomplete for me. Having Elle’s perspective—although her motivations were quite clear—would have made this more interesting. But it definitely reinforced my belief that you can never truly know someone.

Book Review: "Business Casual" by B.K. Borison

I’ve not really been wild about the last few books I’ve read, but luckily the slump didn’t last too long. All I needed was a return trip to Inglewild, and some time with the folks at Lovelight Farms.

Nova has always been fiercely independent and is used to getting things her way. But as she plans to open her own tattoo studio in Inglewild, she’s feeling the pressure to have everything perfect.

Charlie, whose half-sister Stella runs Lovelight Farms, is a hard-working businessman in NYC dealing with his pompous, power-hungry father, but he’s a frequent visitor in Inglewild. He loves joking around and flirting with Nova, although she mostly doesn’t take him seriously. He likes his job and likes living in NYC, but he's also really lonely.

Charlie is shocked when Nova flirts back with him, and she proposes they sleep together just once, to get it out of their systems. (Does that ever work?) With Charlie spending a month running the farm, it’s much harder for both of them to ignore the chemistry and the growing feelings between them. In the end, though, Charlie will head back to NYC, and everything can go back to normal.

I really love this series and the community B.K. Borison has created here. This is a fantastic story, romantic and seriously steamy, but full of complex emotions and the ways we make ourselves small because we don’t think we’re worthy of happiness. While this is the fourth (and apparently final) book in the series, each can be read as a standalone, but hopefully you'll fall in love with these characters, too. (B.K., please do a book with Dane and Matty at some point!)

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for the advance copy! The book will publish 7/16.

Book Review: "When the World Tips Over" by Jandy Nelson

Ten years ago, I read Jandy Nelson’s I’ll Give You the Sun. It was easily one of the most incredible books I’ve ever read. Four years later, I went back to read her debut, The Sky is Everywhere, and I loved that, too. But for a number of years, there’s been no concrete sign that a third Nelson book would be published.

Color me shocked when last week, I received an email from NetGalley with a “Read Now” opportunity—for Nelson’s new book! I couldn’t get to it fast enough.

Jandy Nelson doesn’t just write books. She creates dazzlingly beautiful, poetic masterpieces of words and images, with sparks of magical realism, which leave you breathless and shaken to your core, your mind spinning. That artistry is once again on display in When the World Tips Over.

This is the story of the Fall family, who live in Northern California wine country. The kids’ father was a winemaker who disappeared one day, leaving his family in disarray. Bernadette, his wife, is a celebrated chef. Their oldest son, Wynton, is a violin virtuoso with a talent for self-destruction. The middle child, Miles, is handsome, kind, smart, athletic, and lonely—and wants to find the perfect guy. And their youngest, Dizzy, thinks she’s ugly but dreams of being a heroine in a romance novel.

The appearance of a beautiful, tattooed young woman with rainbow-colored hair turns the Falls upside down. She changes the lives of all three children, but carries her own pain and sorrows. Is she an angel? A saint? A mirage? Simply ordinary?

This is one of those books where there are a lot of disparate threads that ultimately weave together. It’s a beautiful, emotional read about families, friends, love, hope, and a little bit of magic.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dial Books for the advance copy; the book will publish 9/24.

Book Review: "In Tongues" by Thomas Grattan

I saw a friend post about this book on Bookstagram and the description intrigued me. After reading it, I was blown away by how it pulled me in. This is a character-driven, coming-of-age story that made me recall similar feelings (although in very different situations).

Early in 2001, following the end of his relationship with his boyfriend, Gordon decides to take a bus from his home in Minnesota to New York City, because it’s the only place he can think of. He knows no one and is lonely, hungry for companionship and for someone to give him direction.

He gets a job walking dogs for rich people in the city, and he builds a friendship with a bartender and her girlfriend. And then one day he meets two of his clients, Phillip and Nicola, a wealthy, gay couple who own a prestigious art gallery. Gordon isn’t sure how to act around them, but the men treat him well—and occasionally like a servant. It’s not long before Gordon becomes their personal assistant, part chauffeur, part errand boy, part object of admiration and flirtation.

At only 24, Gordon has no real ambition, except to feel like he belongs, like he is cared for, like he has purpose. But he remains unsure of what his role in the men’s lives really is, and what they expect of him. And when troubles arise in Phillip and Nicola’s relationship, Gordon becomes further enmeshed, especially in Phillip’s life.

With no real adult role models (his relationships with both of his parents are strained and odd), Gordon looks to Phillip for some direction. But Phillip is unsure of his own life and what he wants from Gordon and Nicola, so it’s not long before Gordon becomes collateral damage, and finds himself drifting from place to place, looking for love (or at least desire) and a path to follow.

In Tongues was so compelling and so beautifully written. There are dramatic moments but for the most part it’s a quiet book, but a powerful, emotional, and thought-provoking one.

Book Review: "Providence" by Craig Willse

“Before I completely destroyed my life, I taught English at Sawyer College in Ohio. I wasn’t the world’s greatest professor, but I also wasn’t the worst—although it’s possible I would become that.”

Mark is growing weary of teaching, of the pressure to publish and schmooze. He’s definitely one of those people who is happiest alone, which isn’t particularly satisfying for his boyfriend, a mathematics professor at Sawyer, or his fellow professors he considers his friends. He knows there’s got to be something better out there.

Two weeks into the semester, Tyler comes into his class. He’s a sophomore, a scholarship student among an immensely wealthy student body, yet he’s highly intelligent, as Mark witnesses when Tyler participates in a class lecture.

Little by little, Mark finds himself growing obsessed with Tyler, even though he knows pursuing a student is the last thing he should be doing. But one night, Tyler makes the first move, and they wind up having sex. It becomes a strange relationship, alternately attracting and repelling Mark, yet he starts losing sight of everything but Tyler.

Mark starts to realize Tyler hasn’t been entirely truthful with him. But while the red flags should be a sign to stay away, Mark winds up getting manipulated by Tyler into helping with something unspeakable. Can Mark take control of his life before it goes fully off the rails? Does he even care?

I loved the concept of Providence, and the idea of a teacher obsessed with a student. But while this book is marketed as a thriller, I didn’t find it particularly thrilling; while there is a bit of mystery, the pacing of the plot drags for three-quarters of the book and then leaves you hanging a bit at the end. While these issues dampened my enjoyment, I did like the intense mood of the book.

Book Review: "Sipsworth" by Simon Van Booy

We’ve previously established that I am a complete and utter sap. But this beautiful little book got me all choked up while on a plane, and the woman sitting next to me asked if I was okay. (That’s always an embarrassing conversation.)

After 60 years living abroad, Helen returns to the English village where she grew up. She’s at a point in her life where she “was old with her life broken in ways she could not have foreseen.” She’s just ready to die, and hopes to do so quickly.

Each day of her life is much like the one before. She enjoys watching old movies and listening to opera, but more often than not she finds herself sleeping longer and longer during the day. But then one night, her quiet existence is disrupted when she discovers a mouse has gotten into her cottage.

At first, all she wants to do is get the mouse out. But then she starts to worry that it might get eaten by the neighbor’s cat, or even freeze to death, so she decides to bring it back into the house. Little by little she finds herself caring for the mouse, feeding it treats and even talking to it as if it were a companion. She even gives him a name, Sipsworth, and he proves to be much more personable and smarter than your average mouse.

For the first time in years, Helen doesn’t feel entirely alone. And when a crisis occurs she realizes that there are people to whom she matters, people who notice her and want to help her. This woman who was prepared to live her final days alone has found her with numerous companions, especially Sipsworth.

This was such a beautiful, sweet story of second chances, realizing you’re more important than you think, and, of course, the power of hope. It definitely requires a little suspension of disbelief, but this felt like a gigantic hug.

Book Review: "Old Crimes: and Other Stories" by Jill McCorkle

This is my first story collection of 2024. I love reading short stories but I’ve become very particular about them. The ones that work best for me feel more like mini-novels, in the sense that they have well-developed characters and a plot that doesn’t leave me hanging.

With Jill McCorkle’s newest story collection, Old Crimes,” I needed a few stories before it hooked me. But once it did, I could see a number of the stories which would make great novels on their own.

Some of the stories in this collection deal with familiar, everyday situations—a woman and her mother fighting over differing points of view about religion and other hot-button issues; a group of women who meet regularly to lament about the man they all have in common; a woman dealing with growing older and reflecting on her difficult husband. But other stories are built on interesting concepts—a couple buys an antique confessional and it becomes much more than a piece of furniture; a man rents a small apartment above a gas station built in what used to be his grandparents’ house; a couple vacations with their adult children and deals with all of the drama accumulated through the years.

Not all of the characters in McCorkle’s stories are likable or even sympathetic, but many of the stories really resonated emotionally for me. There were familiar themes—growing older, feeling dissatisfied with your life, feeling alone, dealing with the decline or death of loved ones. It’s not a perfect collection, but it moved me.