Rules for Aging and Larceny

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by Julia London
First sentence: “Frances Deluca was kicked out of the Pecan Springs Pickleball Club leage the week before the championships, which she considered a direct assault on her unbeaten record.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: June 30, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and talk of sex, but none actual. It will be in the Mystery section of the bookstore.

What Fran wants, three years after the death of her husband, is to go back to her glory days in the 1970s when she and her three best friends – whom she hasn’t talked to in decades – were a girl gang doing heists. They always targeted men who thought they were All That, and they got away with it. That is, until Edie betrayed them. But now, especially when Fran learns she has inoperable brain cancer (I know, it’s a bit much), all she wants is to do one last heist. So she rounds up Irene and Joan and convinces Edie to come along. They have the perfect mark, too: Edie’s granddaughter just lost a LOT of money in a Ponzi scheme run by an old college friend who just inherited a casino in Vegas. Sounds like a dream.

This was the perfect fluff book. Sure, there are themes of agism (they get away with a lot because no one thinks about older women) and dying and reconciliation and trust, but mostly it’s just a fun romp while these women get back at a man who took advantage of one of their own. And I adored it.

It was just a lot of fun to read; the writing is solid, there are some laugh-out-loud moments, and the characters were all interesting (love the guys they find to help in Vegas). It was a perfect summer read, and I can’t ask for more than that.

An Octopus Named Houdini

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by Zana Fraillon
First sentence: “Our nine octopus brains have a lot we’d like to say to the Waves of people who come every day to stare, to gawk to squeak to squak to squeal and to bang on our glass — “
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: October 20, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher
Content: There really isn’t anything. It will be in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section fo the bookstore.

Houdini is an octopus in an aquarium. They’ve been there since childhood, and while it’s been a safe life, it’s been a boring one. Houdini longs for the sea, even though her keepers don’t know that they remember the sea, as they were very young when they were caught by a fisherman and donated to the aquarium. The plot is simple: Houdini wants to find a way to escape to the sea, the humans don’t want that – well, the director doesn’t want that – and some humans Understand and want to help.

The real charm of this book is the words. Fraillon writes from the octopus’s perspective, which was absolutely wonderfu. There’s a lyricism to this book, one that pulled me in and kept me reading. It’s going to be a good book for kids who love animals, and for people who enjoy a good novel in verse, becuase this is definitely that.

Christmas in Austenland

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by Shannon Hale
First sentence: “
Release date: September 22, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher
Others in the series: Austenland, Midnight in Austenland
Content: There is some mild swearing, and talk of abuse in a cult setting. It will be in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Perhaps I should start with this: when I learned that Hale had written another book set in Austenland, I was super excited. I love these books, I love the movie; it’s very much a comfort read/watch for me. What could be better, in this crap timeline we find ourselves in, than another silly romance set in a world where everything is mostly good and works out?

Reader, that is not what I got.

Kestrel is at Austenland because she won a dance contest (she danced the longest). She’s mostly trying to move beyond a 2-year-old breakup when her boyfriend left her high and dry. She wants to immerse herself in this world. Except, she can’t because of two reasons: Miss Charming’s ex-husband shows up and inserts himself into things (and he’s emotionally abusive), and Kestrel’s ex-boyfriend shows up, which throws Kestrel’s life into chaos.

Sounds delightful, yes? Except that it wasn’t. Partially because in alternating chapters, Hale gives Kestrel a tragic cult background that she has to escape from. It’s a completely different book, those chapters. And then, even worse, Hale spends too much time telling us how Kestrel feels. It was super annoying and just made for a boring book. I was so annoyed, I bailed halfway and then read the ending just to see. I am so disappointed. Maybe it’s because I expected too much from the book, built it up too much in my head.

But it’s not good. And that made me sad.

Audiobook: Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It

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by Brooke Averick
Read by the author
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is a lot of swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and fade-to-black sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Phoebe Berman is coming up on her 30th birthday, and she’s feeling anxious about it. Mostly because she’s never been in a relationship or on a date or kissed anyone or (gasp) had sex. And this is a Problem To Be Solved. So, against the advice of her therapist and friends, she makes a How to Lose Your Virginity in Thirty Days list.

It’s as embarrassing as it sounds. (There were multiple times that I was driving and I had to resist the urge to cover my eyes while I was listening.) See, Phoebe has crippling anxiety (and she’s unmedicated! Someone in the group thread for our Romance book club said the title should be “Phoebe Berman Needs Lexapro”), especially around relationships. And that doesn’t bode well for her status as a virgin.

It’s super hard to read about a person who is struggling with crippling anxiety (though John Green does it in his books), especially when they’re super unlikable. And I did want to smack Phoebe over the head a lot. She’s the same age as my oldest, and my 20-year-old is less annoying/obsessive/whatever than Phoebe is. Granted, I do have a daughter who struggles with this same thing, and maybe it would be annoying to be in her head all the time, so I tried to have patience and compassion around Phoebe. But it was hard, especially since I could see what the solution was early on. It’s good to have representation, especially in the romance genre, but it was a hard one to get through it (this was my second attempt, after all – I bailed on reading the book).

Averick’s narration was good, but I’d have liked to hear this book read by an experienced narrator; it may have smoothed out a few of the rougher edges on the book.

It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t my favorite, either.

Licorice

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by Kara LaReau
First sentence: “Sometimes I dream about the house at 5 Manderley Lane, dreams that make my legs kick and my whiskers twitch.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: Oct 20, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There are some unsettling moments and talk of a pet’s death. It will be in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Kitty is a feral cat that lost her family and has been rescued and placed at a shelter. It’s there that Max finds her and decides to adopt her, even though his previous cat, Licorice, just tragically died months before. Kitty – because she’s anxious and shy and getting used to being inside — has a hard time adjusting, something which is made exponentially more difficult by the bird in the house, Duchess. Duchess, who says that Licorice was perfect. That Max loved Licorice best. That Kitty could never replace Licorice.

I didn’t do a fantastic job explaining it, but this is Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca, but with pets and for middle graders.

Which is kind of weird, if you think about it. How many kids are going to know the source material? Or even seek it out afterward? LaReau did a great job – all the beats of the book/movie are there, and it’s clever in the way she made the story work. It was slow to start – which is its own problem – but I found that it was quite compelling as it went along. I just wonder how many kids are going to want to read this. Or, to be fair, how to handsell it. Because “Rebecca but with pets” isn’t going to cut it.

I need an actual kid who knows nothing about Rebecca to read this and see if it works, because I think it’s clever.

Jesus for Everyone

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by Amy-Jill Levine
First sentence: “Jesus is fascinating.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: It’s a bit scholarly at times, which I found a little dense to wade through, which is partly why it took me so long to get through this one. It’s in the Religion/Philosophy section of the bookstore.

One of the most important things to know about this book is that Levine is a professor of New Testament and Jewish studies at Vanderbilt and a practicing Jew. That’s important, because she’s coming at the life and teachings of Jesus from a scholarly rather than a faithful perspective, and from someone who knows the Jewish traditions not only from a scholarly perspective but from a faith one as well. Additionally, she’s not trying to increase the faith of the believer in Jesus. Rather, she’s laying out a case that Jesus’ teachings are for everyone, not just believers. It’s a fascinating approach.

Levine looks at the synoptic gospels – Matthew, Mark, and Luke – and tackles Jesus’ teachings on a variety of topics from Economics to Health Care and Family Values. She knows the scriptures intimately, from a historical perspective, and is asking some interesting questions about the implications of Jesus’ teachings to us today. (If I were a dog-earing/underlining sort of person, I would have underlined a lot.) It’s challenging without being confrontational, and it led to many good discussions with my husband.

It’s definitely worth a read.

Vengeful

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by V. E. Schwab
First sentence: “The night Marcella died, she made her husband’s favorite dinner.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Vicious
Content: It is very violent, with a super high body count, and some of the deaths are quite violent. It’s also swearing, with multiple f-bombs. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Spoilers for Vicious, obviously.

Marcella Riggs is a powerful woman, married to a rising mob man. But when she discovers that he’s been cheating on her, she loses her temper. And then he kills her. She doesn’t die, though, but is turned into an EO – an ExtraOrdinary – with an unusually dangerous power. Eli Ever is still in custody at EON – the organization that was created to track and capture/neutralize EOs – but has become useful (by force? by choice?) to helping them track EOs (since that’s what he was doing before he was captured). Victor Vale has evaded death again, with the help of his sidekick/ward, Syd, who can raise things from the dead. The problem is that she didn’t do it quite right, and Victor’s power overwhelms his system and kills him for an increasingly larger length of time.

And then there’s June.

I found June to be the most interesting of the characters that Schwab introduces. We don’t know much about her: she’s a shapeshifter, she’s a hitwoman, and she takes a fascination/liking to Syd.

A lot happens, plot-wise: Marcella gets revenge and then collects June and another EO and decides to take over the mob and then the city. Eli’s dealing with EON and trying to get his freedom again. Victor spends most of the book trying (and failing) to find a cure. But in Schwab’s deft hands, all these moving parts coalesce into a grand finale that not only wraps this book up but also sets up a third (out this fall! Reading soon!) quite nicely.

Did I love it? No. But then, this series isn’t my favorite of Schwab’s. That said, it is compelling to read about people who are so morally questionable, and explore the idea of what if EO’s really existed and the consequences of their actions (which superhero movies never seem to do). It’s very Watchmen-like in its DNA, which, if you like that, then this is a solid read.

That said, I am curious to see how Schwab wraps this up, and I have the ARC of the third book, so I’ll be reading it.

Audiobook: The Girl with a Thousand Faces

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by Sunyi Dean
Read by Natalie Naudus
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is a lot of violence, including some gruesome killings, as well as swearing, including multiple f-bombs. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Mercy Chan has spent the past 30 years since she washed up on the shores of Hong Kong being a ghost talker in the walled Kowloon neighborhood of Hong Kong. She’s made a bit of a reputation for herself and works for the largest gang in town, helping them keep the streets of Kowloon safe (ish). But a new demon has infiltrated the walls of the neighborhood, one that can’t be talked down to and one that is killing indiscriminately. As Mercy finds out more about the demon, she slowly comes to realize that maybe this one has more to do with her than she thought.

I was told by my SFF reading buddies at work (whom I trust to send good books my way) that this was excellent. And when I saw it on audio, I picked it up. First, that was an excellent choice. Nadus is a FANTASTIC reader, one of those that I will actively seek out books she reads. She added a level of atmosphere to this one that added to the creepiness and to the story, which really made it engrossing.

Second, I might have given up on this one if it weren’t for Nadus. It’s interesting but not really compelling until nearly through the second part, when it just hits a different level. The problem for me, though, was that the second part was written in the second person. Which I loathe. I really hate feeling like a book is talking to me rather than just reading a story, but listening to it on audio softened this annoyance. I get why Dean made that choice, but it still was mildly annoying. Even so, this was a fantastic ghost story – horror lite, which I’ve discovered I don’t hate – and one definitely worth listening to.

Monthly Round-up: May 2026

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We are looking for a new bookseller at the store, and the floor manager (who has been there as long as I have) was talking about some of the people she interviewed. One of the things: a lot of the people applying don’t read more than 4-5 books a year. We were all baffled: even the slowest reader on staff reads about a book a week. What would compel you to apply as a bookseller at an independent bookstore if you don’t actually read? Maybe I’m being snobby, but it did make us wonder.

Choosing my favorite this month was kind of challenging. There were several that I really loved, but in the end I chose this one:

The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest (audiobook)

I think it was because the audiobook was just so perfect for this story. I would happily listen to this story again, thinking about the themes of family and death and choice that it brings up. It’s truly a gem.

As for the rest:

Graphic Novels:

Encore
The Lost Daughter of Sparta

Middle Grade:

Building 903

Adult Fiction:

Sunlight Finds You
Star Shipped (audiobook)
Dolly All the Time
Sea of Charms
Piranesi (reread) (audiobook)
Love Song
Wild Goose Chase

Young Adult:

Young World

Non-Fiction

The Future is Peace

It’s summertime, so it’ll be interesting to see what my reading looks like next month!

The Lost Daughter of Sparta

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by Felicia Day, illustrations by Rowan MacColl
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: It’s based in the Greek myths, so the general Greek myth stuff – violence, talk of abuse and rape, and parental neglect. It’s in the Graphic Novel section of the bookstore.

Philonoe is the fourth sister whose famous older sisters – Helen of Troy, Clytemnestra, Timandra – all betrayed their husbands and families. Philonoe was born with a “curse” – a facial birthmark – and was sent away, but when she was old enough, she was brought back for one purpose: to marry and to bring honor to her family. She decided, though, that she didn’t trust that the curse Aphrodite put on her family wouldn’t work on her, so she went to the goddess, begging for her to release the curse. Of course, gods can’t just do things, so Philonoe was sent on a quest to get Aphrodite three items in exchange. Artemis – who, for reasons of her own, was intrigued by Philonoe – went along to help.

It sounds simple, but in Day’s and MacColl’s hands, this graphic novel comes alive. It’s based on a throwaway line in an early work that mentions that Artemis gives Philonoe immortality and Day began imagining why. And what we get is a hero’s quest, with a girl at the center, a sapphic love story, and a character who learns to stand up for herself and her desires and not live for the approval of others.

It’s fantastic. The art is perfect for the story, and I was thoroughly engrossed by Philonoe’s quest and growth. I haven’t read a graphic novel this compelling in a long time.

Highly recommended, especially if you like Greek mythology.