Better Late Than Never

An introduction, fascinating links, and some great books to recommend.

Hello Readers -
I have some new subscribers so I am starting with a short intro today. I have been writing this monthly newsletter since December 2019. I started after a cross country move (Southern California to North Virginia) to share things I found fun or interesting regarding books and reading. My newsletter usually consists of a brief essay on a bookish topic, links to bookish things, and three to five short reviews of books I have recently read. I read an average of between 10-12 books a month but usually only write about the books I enjoyed the most, or want to recommend to others. I am skipping a deep dive this month and just sharing some links and reviews.

I am a mom of three grown daughters and live with my husband, who encourages both my reading and travel obsessions. I work part-time as a bookseller at a fabulous independent bookstore, Middleburg Books, curate a Little Free Library in front of my house, and I have a seasonal part time job in food hospitality. 

I usually publish this newsletter around the middle of each month. This is the most behind I have ever been, but I just returned from an amazing trip to Croatia. Travel is also one of my joys in life!

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Bookish Links

• So Inspirational: A professor found a list of books his grandmother read. She kept the list for 80 years, from age 14 till her death at 94. She left school as a child to flee war, but read over 1600 books in four languages during her lifetime. You can read more here.

  

• There is a new season of Bridgerton out and if you are wondering how the books relate to the TV show, Elle Magazine can help. They summarize each book and connect it to the season of the TV show it depicts.

• I was recently talking to my older sister and asked her, if you could go back in time, what would you tell yourself ten years ago. She instantly replied “Don’t wear flip flops!” We are California girls who have spent a lot of our lives in flip-flops, and she now has some painful foot issues. So for any of you with foot issues, I stumbled across a well reviewed book, Simple Steps to Foot Pain Relief: The New Science of Healthy Feet¹ about taking better care of our feet. And yes, I sent her a copy.

• One of my favorite daily reads is The Morning Brew. They are brief, clever, and cover a range of topics from an economic perspective. They also have fabulous links. This is not bookish but I absolutely love a site they recently shared called City Walks. You can pick from over 90 cities and it takes you there at street eye level. This is so cool, I can’t stop visiting cities!!

• Apparently British Phone Box Little Free Libraries are a whole thing!

  

Recent Reads

This is Amor Towles’ first book in a few years. I am not going to lie, I was worried when I first heard that this upcoming release was a book of short stories and a novella. I am not great with short stories and usually struggle to get through an entire collection. But I wanted to give it a shot as A Gentleman in Moscow is one of my all time favorite books. I am happy to report I loved Table for Two. Towles is a master storyteller and it doesn’t matter if it is 30 pages or 300 pages. I devoured this book and in fact, I enjoyed the short stories more than the novella that is also part of the collection. In each of the stories, Towles introduces us to a variety of characters at a bit of a crossroads in life. Not big crossroads but small events that have the chance to shift a person’s life. Note: If you haven’t heard, Towles uses a character from Rules of Civility in his novella but he moves the setting to LA rather than NYC.  I won’t get into the specifics of the stories but trust me, they are enjoyable, well written, and definitely provide food for thought. I can’t wait to discuss this in my upcoming book club. [Published: April 2024, Pages: 458]

Sipsworth, Simon Van Booy’s latest novel is a study in how to turn a slice of life into a charming novel. This is a short but charming book that is gaining rave reviews. Helen moves back to her hometown after being gone for 60 years. She is living a small isolated life when she happens across a mouse. Embarking on a mission to get rid of the mouse, and planning how to do this, she becomes more and more enamored with the creature. When I started this novel, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it or where it was taking me — but Van Booy carefully knits a story together where I was both surprised and entertained. Helen starts the novel alone and bereft, but ends the story in a much different place. This is a sweet, thoughtful novel that is definitely worth picking up. For fans of Remarkably Bright Creatures. [Published: May 2024, Pages 240]

The Berlin Letters arrived in March as a paperback original (no hardcover edition). Set in Cold War Berlin, a family is torn apart when a fence (later a wall) goes up through the middle of the city without warning. A mother tosses her young daughter to her parents who are on the western side, while she stays behind with her husband on the eastern side of the city. The husband is a reporter, loyal to the government. The grandparents move to the United States and the little girl remembers nothing of her parents. When her grandfather dies, she comes across letters that reveal what actually happened and she discovers her father is alive and in prison. The book goes back-and-forth between the daughter (now a CIA code breaker) and her father, and culminates in a daring rescue. I enjoyed this historical fiction novel and appreciate the perspective of what life was like under Communist rule during the cold war. [Published: March 2024, Pages 364]

What happened to Nina? is a propulsive mystery that I could not put down on my recent plane ride. Nina, a college student, fails to arrive home after a trip with her boyfriend, and her parents are beside themselves. The evidence points directly to the boyfriend, but he is very rich and well protected. The story follows the case from multiple perspectives including that of the boyfriend, his family, Nina’s family and the police. McTiernan takes a unique approach structuring this book: she starts by introducing the reader to Nina, so you have an understanding of who she was and what has happened to her. The rest of the book shows events unfolding from different perspectives. She also explores how social media is manipulated and used to help and hinder investigations. This book was unputdownable for me, tense and fast paced, in the best way. I gasped at one point late in the novel. I cannot recommend it enough for a beach or airplane read. [Published: March 2024, Pages 328]

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Thank you as always for reading along to the end. I will be back in mid-June with a deep dive on Summer reading.

1. I usually link to Bookshop.org but this book was only available from Amazon.