Travel the world in three novels

Reprinted from auburnpub.com

Travel the World in Fiction

One of the more interesting things about reading fiction is that it can take to places all over the world without ever leaving your home. This month’s Book Report shares some novels set in places we may never get to see in person.

We start closer to home on a cruise ship going from Miami to the Bahamas in Emma Straub’s novel American Fantasy. Annie is a 50 years old newly divorced empty nester who agreed to go on a cruise with her sister Katherine. 

Katherine is a super fan of Boy Talk, a popular 90’s boy band who do a fan cruise every year. Annie liked the band but wasn’t really excited about going on a cruise with middle-aged women like herself who are obsessed with a boy band whose members are also fifty years old.

When Katherine breaks her leg and can’t go on the cruise, Annie ends up with a new roommate who shows her ropes. One problem is that everyone on the ship warns her about her roommate.

Slowly, Annie begins to enjoy herself and even makes a connection with one of the members of the band. The story is told through the eyes of Annie, Sarah, one of the cruise employees, and Kevin, one of the band members.

Anyone who was a fan of 90’s groups like New Kids on the Block and NSYNC will enjoy this charming story. Annie is very relatable and the relationship among the members of the band is fascinating. Grab a fruity drink as you read American Fantasy and you’ll feel like you are on the ship.

Andrew Sean Greer’s new novel Villa Coco has an autobiographical tint to it. A young archivist travels to Tuscany in Italy to take on the task of organizing and archiving an elderly woman’s art and home collection.

The job is a little more than archiving- he is expected to be an all-around assistant to the Baronessa, including caring for her garden and dogs, shopping, taking dictation, and chasing away wild animals. 

The Baronessa is an intriguing character who renames everyone in her orbit, including our protagonist whom she calls Giovedi (Thursday) in a nod to ‘Gal Friday’. She is demanding and feisty, and clearly has some sort of agenda for hiring this young American man. She disapproves of his clothes so she takes him to a thrift shop and purchases a friend’s donated  wardrobe.

Giovedi is lonely and gets involved romantically with a married man, which complicates matters for all. He meets many of the Baronessa’s friends and compatriots, and works to try and figure out exactly why he was hired for this job as he is drawn further and further into the Baronessa’s world.

Greer does a marvelous job putting the reader right in the middle of Tuscany at this village and in Venice as he travels with the Baronessa and finally discovers what is going on and where his future lies. Villa Coco is humorous and beautiful, and the writing draws you into this intriguing world.

Jenny Colgan writes a series of novels set in on the island of Mure in Scotland, and her latest is Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages. The novels opens as thirty year old Essie is let go from her job through downsizing. She is devastated because it means that she will have to leave bustling Edinburgh and her boyfriend (who has a great job in finance) and move back home with her mom Janey.

Janey lives in a lovely seaside cottage and loves her job and her daughter, although she and Essie have rarely seen eye to eye. It seems to Janey that in Essie’s eyes, she can’t do anything right.

Like many beautiful areas, older properties are being bought by large companies and turned into Airbnb rentals and vacation homes for wealthy people, changing the fabric of the communities. 

The cottage next Janey’s has been bought by a local man, and Essie sees an opportunity to use her organizational and marketing skills to help him renovate and prepare to flip the cottage and make some needed money for herself.

Recently divorced, Janey has been disappointed with her foray into the online dating scene. When she meets a local architect, her love life just may take a turn for the better. 

Jenny Colgan’s books are always delightful and she excels at creating small communities filled with people you’d want to meet in real life. It’s a joy to get lost in Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages.

American Fantasy by Emma Straub- A-

Published by Riverhead Books

Hardcover, $30, 286 pages

Villa Coco by Andrew Less Greer- A-

Published by Doubleday

Hardcover, $30, 288 pages

Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages by Jenny Colgan- A-

Published by Avon

Trade paperback, $18,99, 352 pages

More Summer Fun Reads

Reprinted from auburnpub.com

More Fun Summer Reads

Summer is a great time to pick up a fun book, and continuing in the vein of last month’s Book Report, I have more summer reads for you.

John Searles usually writes atmospheric psychological thrillers (Her Last Affair and Strange But True), and this summer he switches gears with Single Girls a delightful fictionalized book about Helen Gurley Brown and the origins of Cosmopolitan magazine in the 1960s.

Helen’s book 1965 Sex and the Single Girl encouraging women to hold off on marriage until they were ready and to enjoy a healthy sex life scandalized many people. It also was a clarion call for single women everywhere. 

The success of the book encouraged Helen to start a magazine for women. Most of the male publishers turned her away immediately but one publisher (whose wife encouraged him to give Helen a chance) offered her three issues to prove that she could sell magazines and advertising revenue in the magazine.

In the novel we meet the women Helen hired as writers and editors, and they are each unique and interesting. I was particularly drawn to Helen’s friendship with Liz Smith, who went on to become a mainstay of New York City tabloids writing columns about the rich, famous, and infamous. The larger-than-life Liz and the self-professed “mouseburger” Helen had a wonderful work relationship.

I so enjoyed reading about all the hard work that went into making Cosmopolitan one of the most successful magazines in the country.  Cosmopolitan’s ad revenue was always among the highest grossing in the publisher’s portfolio. Anyone who was around in the 1970s-1990s will remember the ubiquitous “Cosmo” covers and enjoy reading how it all started. 

John Searles was the editor of Cosmopolitan’s book review page for some years and his love for the magazine business, and Helen Gurley Brown and Cosmopolitan in particular, adds such joy and insight.

You know it’s summer when a Mary Kay Andrews book has arrived. This year it’s Road Trip about two sisters- Maeve, a school administrator who spent the past months caring for their dying mother, and Therese, a struggling actress who left home years ago and hasn’t been successful. 

When their mother passes away they discover that she mortgaged her home to give her money to a shady televangelist. The only thing she left them was a painting of a supposed wealthy Irish ancestor and money to travel to Ireland together.

Therese does some digging and discovers that their exact same painting had recently sold for millions, and so she convinces Maeve to travel with her to Ireland to see if their painting is also worth money.

The two sisters are different as night and day but they manage to work together as they discover the true story behind their painting, although there are people in the little town who would prefer they go home rather than uncover long hidden secrets.

The mystery, a blossoming romance, and the Ireland setting all combine to make for a charming story. It just may be Mary Kay Andrews’ best book yet.

Annabel Monaghan is another author who writes novels perfect for summer reading (It’s a Love Story, Nora Goes Off Script). This summer it’s Dolly All The Time about a single mom of teenage son who makes her annual summer return to her hometown near Newport, Rhode Island to help her father in his seafood store.

Times are stressed for Dolly and when she learns that her father’s home needs a new roof, she doesn’t know how they will pay for it. Enter the town’s wealthiest resident’s scion son, Stewart Whitfield, whose fiancee was just caught canoodling with a New York Yankee player.

Stewart believes his broken engagement takes him out of the running for the CEO position at his family’s company, something he earnestly desires. When he gets a flat tire and Dolly helps him change it, a photo of them ends up in the tabloids. 

Stewart asks Dolly to go along with the dating charade and offers to pay her. Dolly reluctantly agrees, knowing that the money will pay for a new roof. Dolly accompanies Stewart to family and business functions, and soon the fake dating scenario becomes real.

As with any romance novel, there comes a time when things go off course, but there is always a happily ever after. The joy is seeing how the author gets there, and Annabel Monaghan writes with humor and heart, and her characters are always people with whom you want to spend time.

Single Girls by John Searles- A

Published by Mariner Books

Hardcover, $30, 384 pages

Road Trip by Mary Kay Andrews- A

Published by St. Martin’s Press

Hardcover, $30, 448 pages

Dolly All The Time by Annabel Monaghan- A

Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Trade paperback, $20, 400 pages

Great Reads to Kick Off Summer

It's summer and it’s time to check out what books you’ll be putting in your beach bag or reading on your front porch.

Ann Patchett is an author whose works I always read, and her latest Whistler continues her streak of excellent novels. Daphne and her husband are in the Met Museum when they notice an older man following them. He turns out to be Daphne’s former stepfather, who was married to her mother for only a year when Daphne was nine. 

Daphne reconnects with him, which brings forth a memory of why he left her family all those years ago. It’s a wonderful story filled with characters whom you root for, and Patchett writes beautifully. I finished it in one day and loved it so. 

Elizabeth Strout’s latest novel, The Things We Never Say is also a story about family. Artie is a beloved 11th grade history teacher whose best friend is a boisterous older widow who is moving away. He finds solace in his taking his boat out on Massachusetts Bay, but increasingly feels isolated and lonely.

When he learns that his wife has been keeping a huge secret from him, it upends everything and he has to decide how he will move forward. Like Ann Patchett, Elizabeth Strout (Olive Kitteridge) is a tremendous writer who encourages empathy in the reader for her characters. 

Evelyn Clarke is the pen name of two authors (V.E. Schwab and Cat Clarke) who wrote a propulsive locked room mystery The Ending Writes Itself. Six authors are brought to a remote Scottish island to compete to finish a book written by a popular mystery series writer who drowned.

With two million dollars and a publishing contract at stake, each author is desperate to win, and soon one by one the authors meet a diabolical end. Who will be left standing and win the money? This is a book you will race through, and I was impressed that each character is distinct and memorable. 

Other big books this summer include Douglas Stuart’s new novel John of John, also set on a remote Scottish island. This one revolves around a young gay man who is summoned back home from Edinburgh by his religious father to come help care for the young man’s ailing grandmother. He struggles with his family’s expectations and life in a small town.

Stuart’s previous novel Shuggie Bain won many accolades, and John of John”is said to be his best book yet. 

Christina Baker Kline’s new historical novel The Foursome fictionalizes the story of famous conjoined twins Eng and Chang Bunker, who leave Siam to move to the United States in 1839. They marry two sisters (who are distant relatives of the author), and the story takes place over a fifty-year period as we see how the sisters deal with life married to conjoined twins. This one sounds intriguing. 

Kathryn Stockett’s last book, The Help was published seventeen years ago and became an instant bestseller. Her latest historical novel is The Calamity Club, set in Depression-era 1933 Mississippi. Meg is eleven years old and lives in an orphanage. She is deemed too old to adopt and so is stuck there.

Birdie is a unmarried woman, “a spinster” who befriends Meg as she works at the orphanage. When they meet Charlie, who is on the run from something, the three become friends. They come up with an idea to open a boarding house that caters to a certain clientele.

This is big book, over 600 pages, and the themes of found family and the limited choices of women during the Depression are dealt with humor and heartache. 

You need a little romance for summer, and popular sensation B.K. Borison’s second in her Heartstrings series will steam up your glasses, even though her new novel And Now, Back to You is set during winter.

Jackson is a buttoned-up meteorologist at a local Baltimore radio station who is raising his twin fifteen year-old sisters. Delilah is a delightful, friendly meteorologist on a local Baltimore TV station whose jealous boss is using every humiliating way to get her to quit.

The pair, who have a contentious relationship, are teamed up to travel to the mountains of Deep Creek, Maryland to cover a massive snowstorm headed their way. Of course they are forced to share a room with only bed, and well, you can guess what happens. 

If Nonfiction is your genre of choice, Patrick Radden Keefe’s new book London Falling tells the story of a young man who dies jumping off a balcony in London. While looking for answers as to what happened to their son, his parents discover that he was impersonating the son of Russian oligarch. Radden Keefe looks for answers in this true story. If you liked Keefe's book about the Troubles in Northern Ireland titled Say Nothing, you'll want to read London Falling.

Happy summer reading!

Some Terrific Books That Kicked Off 2026

Reprinted from auburnpub.com

Some Terrific Books To Kickoff 2026

Although spring and fall are traditionally when publishers release the books they feel will be the biggest hits, this January has some terrific books to kickoff 2026.

Publishing at the end of December is Ain’t Nobody’s Fool- the Life and Times of Dolly Parton, Martha Ackermann's biography of one of our most talented and beloved people. 

Ackermann takes Dolly from her beginnings growing up in a large, loving, and impoverished family in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Music has always been a part of her life, and her talent and determination helped her climb the ladder to become the star we all know and love.

But it wasn’t always easy. Nashville did not welcome someone they saw as too ambitious. She was the subject of lawsuits and death threats at one point, and she suffered from a deep depression.

Parton came back, and in addition to her huge accomplishments in music, she developed Dollywood, a successful amusement park near her hometown. She gave back to her community and others worldwide with her Imagination Library, which has donated hundreds of millions of books to young children to encourage reading in the home. And she donated one million dollars to help create the COVID vaccine that has saved countless lives. Dolly is a national treasure.

If you like family stories, there are two good interesting ones this month. Angela Tomaski’s novel The Infamous Gilberts begins with the Gilbert family mansion about to be sold and turned into a luxury hotel while we learn of the lives of the five fatherless children who grew up there. 

The book takes the family from WWII through the beginning of the 21st century, as these eccentric children must learn to deal with all the changes in the world that baffle and confuse them. It’s billed as a blend of comedy, tragedy, and intrigue, and fans of the film “The Royal Tennenbaums” will enjoy this one.

Jennifer Niven’s Meet the Newmans also deals with a family. The Newmans- Del, his wife Dinah, and two sons Guy and Shep- have been staples of network television for two decades. (Think Ozzie and Harriet).  

They have basically been playing themselves in a sitcom, but recently ratings have been falling and the family is following suit. Del is hiding a secret from Dinah, Dinah is going numb, Guy is hiding the truth about his love life, and rock’n’roller Shep seems headed for real trouble.

When Del has a bad car accident, Dinah hires a young female reporter to write their last episode, but she clashes with Dinah as she tries to bring the show into the ‘60s. It’s a nostalgic trip about changing times changing families.

If you loved Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Daisy Jones and the Six, Ashley Winstead’s The Future Saints is a good next read. Record executive Theo has been tasked with trying to get a new album from the Future Saints, a group featuring sisters who are spiraling after a tragedy. If he can’t, the label will drop them. 

Lead singer Hannah changes their style from pop-rock to a harder rock, and Hannah and her sister Ginny refuse to listen to Theo. When the new sound goes viral, and the Saints become poised on the dusk of stardom, is it everything they dreamed or will it destroy them?

There are several good mysteries out this month. Laura Dave continues the story she told in The Last Thing He Told Me with her sequel The First Time I Saw Him. Hannah’s husband mysteriously disappeared five years ago and left her to raise and protect his teenage daughter Bailey. 

When she sees her husband at her art exhibition, she realizes that she and Bailey are once again in danger. Hannah and Bailey have to go on the run and hope that the family can reconnect safely.

Alice Feeney’s newest thriller My Husband’s Wife also features an artist. Eden is returning home after her exhibition but when she puts her key in the lock, it doesn’t work. A woman who looks like Eden answers the door, and Eden’s husband tells her that the woman who answered the door is his wife. It’s another propulsive stunner from Feeney. 

Karen Parkman’s debut novel is The Jills, and it revolves around the world of the Jills, the cheerleaders for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills. Virginia is a Jill, and when her best friend on the squad disappears, Virginia puts everything on the line, including getting involved with some dangerous men, to find her friend. It’s an intriguing look at life as an NFL cheerleader.  

I hope you can find something here to warm up your cold January nights.

Catching Up On 2025 Books I Missed

Reprinted from auburnpub.com

With the cold snowy weather taking hold this past month, it’s been a good time to stay inside under a blanket with a hot beverage reading good books. I read several of them, including the ones I’m writing about today.

Catching up on some great books published in 2025, Lily King’s gorgeous Heart the Lover tells the story of Jordan, a college student who begins dating Sam, a brilliant student who, along with his best friend Yash, is staying at the home of a professor on sabbatical. 

Jordan finds that she has more in common with Yash, and things become complicated. This is a short novel- only 250 pages- but King packs a lot into story that recalls first loves and what it feels like to be caught up in it.

Megha Majumdar’s A Guardian and a Thief brings the reader to a time in not-too-distant future in India when climate change has brought unbearable heat, droughts, food shortages and more. Ma is preparing to take her young daughter and elderly father to Michigan where her husband has a job. 

When a young thief steals her purse with their passports in it, Ma must track him down and get the passports back before their flight leaves in two days. It’s a harrowing tale and you can feel Ma’s desperation growing as time ticks by as she must decide what lines she will cross to get her family to safety.

For something lighter, B.K. Borison’s First-Time Caller takes inspiration from “Sleepless in Seattle”. Single mom Lucie’s twelve year-old daughter Maya calls into a local radio romance show to try to get her mom a date. 

The show’s host Aiden is getting discouraged about true love but when Lucie agrees to come on the show to try to find true love, sparks obviously fly between Aiden and Lucie. The writing here shines, and when the dates that Lucie goes on turn into disasters, will Aiden change his mind about true love? It’s charming, funny, and has a few very spicy scenes.

Madeline Cash’s debut novel Lost Lambs also had me laughing out loud, even though the premise is not so humorous. Bud Flynn is devastated when his wife Catherine declares she wants an open marriage. 

He becomes depressed, and their daughters are having issues of their own. Beautiful high schooler Abigail begins dating a man called War Crimes Wes, a security officer at the compound of a creepy billionaire shipping magnate.

Middle daughter Louise has an online relationship with a possible terrorist, and youngest daughter Harper is insistent that the citizens of the town are being monitored by someone dangerous and will get to the bottom of it.

It all ties together in the end, and the Flynn family are truly unforgettable characters in this comedic novel.

On the Nonfiction side, there are two books I would recommend. Beth Macy returns to her hometown of Urbana, Ohio to discover why her friends and family have become so hardened and unhappy in Paper Girl. They no longer seem to have the same views on life as she does. 

Opioid abuse is rampant, school absenteeism is high, jobs and the middle class have all but disappeared. Macy interviews students struggling to deal with drug addicted parents, juggling multiple low-paying part-time jobs and school and trying to get into college to make a better life for themselves.

She also interviews counselors and people doing their best to get children to go to school, and community members who run programs to help them with schoolwork, teach life skills, and keep them off the streets.

She finds plenty of blame to go around from politicians on both sides over the past forty years as to how this country has gotten to the point we are at now. It’s an insightful and important read for everyone.

Belle Burden’s memoir Strangers recounts how her life dramatically changed the day a man called to tell her that her husband was having an affair with his wife. When she confronted her husband, he told her he was leaving and she could have the house and their three children, he wanted a different life. 

All this occured during the pandemic as Belle struggles to understand how this could be happening to her. Her husband was a good man and father, and now he rarely saw their children, and the prenup that she signed allows her husband to keep everything he earned during the marriage and he got half of the expensive homes they owned. It’s an eye-opener.