What a lovely novel filled with vibrant, well developed characters and a gold mine of historical facts with a true sense of what the times were like. I am completely charmed by this novel and want to give it to every person I know. Go read this. You will be glad you did. Thanks to librarything and the publisher for this early reviewers copy.

The Fourth Princess
Janie Chang

A gothic mystery set in Shanghai in 1911.

Take one haunted manor house on the outskirts of the International Settlement of Shanghai, two young women with secrets in their pasts, and stir. There are many strands to follow in this complex story and while it can get a bit confusing, Chang weaves them together deftly.

I received this book through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program in exchange for my honest review.

Pepper Mills has been forced by her three adult children to give up her drivers license and move to a retirement community. What she didn’t expect at seventy years old? She’s pregnant! Thus begins a remarkably humorous and poignant story of aging and agency. Frankel as always writes sparkling dialogue, believable characters, and topics that are both urgent and timely. Perfect for book groups. (This is on my list of best books of 2026.)

My thanks to LibraryThing and the publisher for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

British family dysfunction as the Fisher family gathers to celebrate their mother’s seventieth birthday. At the start of their holiday week in a glass house on the shore, the family is posing for a photograph when a tree starts to fall on the group and the father reaches past his older two daughters to save the youngest one. Suddenly old insecurities and jealousies are resurrected.

This is a slow-burn novel told from multiple perspectives and moving back and forth in time. It requires a close reading to appreciate all the nuances.

The description of the plot—“a multilayered story of the tragedy, triumph, and peculiarity of New Orleans”—made this book seem as though it would be a meaty and engaging read, but the writing was so wordy it was nearly impossible to wade through.

A sweet and sad novel addressing aging and independence, and overcoming past traumas. Written in the authentic voices of the aging Herb, whose wife Susan now needs constant care, and Renee, one of only caretakers who can handle Susan as her dementia progresses, the story will have you laughing one minute and tearing up the next.

The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylvainen is a beautifully written story about the culture clash between the nomadic Sami reindeer herders and the Lutheran church in northern Scandanavian tundra in the mid-1800s. Heartbreaking and original.

A train derails near a small Oklahoma town in the 1930s. The town is already suffering the privations of the Dust Bowl when this out-sized tragedy occurs just before Christmas, and the local hospital is overflowing with the dead and injured. Sheriff Temple Jennings must investigate the derailment as well as the murder of a local recluse. Is it a coincidence, or are the two crimes related? This is an excellent historical mystery, and the authentic period details transport readers back in time.

In 1920s London, Saffron Everleigh is a young research assistant in the biology department at University College. She is attending a department dinner party when the wife of a professor suddenly collapses and poison is determined to be the cause. Soon her mentor, Professor Maxwell is arrested based on his knowledge of poisons and his quarrel with the victim’s husband. Saffron sets out to investigate and clear Prof. Maxwell of the crime, although her efforts may put her and those around her in jeopardy.

This is a lively debut historical mystery and I look forward to reading more from this author.

Margot Salton is a young barbeque master from Texas who has moved to San Francisco to start over and open her own restaurant. She ends up sharing space with a bakery owned by Ida Barnes and her son Jerome. All three have suffered many challenges in life, but when Margot’s traumatic past catches up with her she could lose everything. Likable characters and mouth-watering food descriptions will keep readers turning the pages.

When I picked up this book, I wasn’t sure I wanted to read about the sole survivor of another plane crash, but once I started reading, it was nearly impossible to put down. In spite of the fact that the book centers on a dramatic event (the plane crash that occurs early in the book), it is in large part a contemplative book: what makes us who we are, what is an individual’s right to privacy compared to the public’s right to know, how do we determine right vs wrong when either way someone will be hurt? This would be an excellent choice for book groups.

Miracle Country is author Kendra Atleework’s meditative memoir about the place she grew up (the Eastern Sierras), her own family and their relationship to the land, as well as the history of the area and the public policies that have affected it. Cassandra Campbell’s narration matches the fluid nature of this material, guiding the reader back and forth through time to understand the connections between past and present. Readers will finish this audiobook with a newfound respect for the people who call the Eastern Sierras home.

A compelling collection of short stories featuring first and second generation immigrants and the struggles they face. Narrators David Shih and Cindy Kay do an excellent job of conveying the poetry of author Vanessa Hua’s gorgeous prose.

A dark, raw story of growing up in a poverty stricken area of the Pacific Northwest where there are few options for escape. Despite the dark subject, Peterson’s writing (and Cassanda Campbell’s narration on the audiobook) is lyrical and absorbing.

My thanks to the publisher and LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program for allowing me to listen to this gorgeous audiobook.

Sam Kelson is a PI with a problem: since he was shot in the head during a drug bust gone wrong in his previous career as a cop, he suffers from disinhibition — blurting out the truth (or whatever is on his mind), often at very inconvenient times.

This is a very violent mystery novel, but Kelson’s personality and the group of friends and family around him make it an enjoyable and quick read. I listened to this on audio, and thought the narrator handled the quirky nature of the characters well. I look forward to reading or listening to the next book in the series.

Bloomland is a thoughtful examination of the genesis and aftermath of a mass shooting on a college campus, focusing on two characters impacted by the shooting as well as the shooter himself. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Charlie Thurston. Thurston’s narration is very calm and matter-of-fact, which helps mitigate the horror of the shooting and allows readers to go beyond the headlines and see the long-term impacts on the individuals. My thanks to LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer program and the publisher for providing me with this powerful audiobook.

Interesting medical scenarios are laid out along with a discussion of the ethical issues involved in each one. If you watch many medical or legal TV shows, you have probably seen some of these situations presented. While no answers are provided, the book would make for a lively book discussion or a useful tool for training doctors and lawyers in the field of bioethics.

Thanks to the publisher for providing this advance reading copy.

Anna of Kleve is the least well-known of Henry VIII’s six wives, but Weir is able to create a compelling portrait here, based on her deep knowledge of Tudor history and some tantalizing hints found in historical records. While many reviewers are critical of Weir’s decisions in this book, it is a work of fiction and should be read as such.

This was a fascinating audiobook -- much more than I would have expected. It's easy to dismiss survivalists/doomsday preppers as crazy extremists, but Krulos does an excellent job of making the people he interviewed relatable. And after recent events such as Hurricane Katrina, Superstorm Sandy, etc., maybe more of us should be preppers.

A well-researched and insightful portrait of Jennie Churchill. Raised to be independent, Jennie struggled against British society's rules while at the same time working behind the scenes to orchestrate her husband's rise in Parliament. I found Jennie to be a fascinating person and think other readers will too.

I knew almost nothing before starting this (including the fact that it was a memoir), but found the audiobook completely captivating. The author moves backward and forward in time from the age of five when she first decided she wanted to play the violin, through her year abroad when she thought she would become a war correspondent, and central to the story, her years pretending to play classical music on stage for “the composer.” There are many laugh-out-loud moments throughout, but even more important are the things she learns about herself and our country in a post 9-11 world. Well worth a listen.

As two college girls, Audrey and Caroline drive North from Tennessee to Minnesota to visit Audrey’s dying father, they hit a patch of ice and spin out on a lonely Iowa bridge. Then another vehicle comes along and pushes them into the icy river below where one girl survives and one does not.

To label this gorgeous work a thriller is to do it a great injustice. Johnston has crafted a literary mystery of the highest order, while audiobook narrator Sarah Mollo-Christensen imbues each sentence with the unspoken emotions of the characters who are grappling not only with the current incident but also a similar unsolved death from ten years ago. Many times I found myself tearing up, not because of the words themselves but because of the feelings bubbling just beneath the surface, which were so eloquently conveyed by the narrator. Perfect for fans of Louise Penny’s mysteries and Leif Enger’s Peace Like a River.

I'll give the narrator of this audiobook 4 stars for his efforts to make the material tolerable. The author gets 1 star. This would not be a bad short story if the author hadn't felt compelled to overanalyze the main character's every move, stretching the length to 6 discs. If you like navel-gazing, self-absorbed journalist-spies in historical fiction, this may be the novel for you. It just didn't work for me.

Fly Girls is a thoroughly absorbing account of early female aviators in the 1920s and 30s including Ruth Elder, Amelia Earhart, Ruth Nichols, Florence Klingensmith, and Louise Thaden.

Well narrated by Erin Bennett, the story focuses on the women's battle to be able to fly in air races against men, and highlights their struggles against popular perceptions of what women could and couldn't do. This is nonfiction as compelling as fiction. Highly recommended.

A Korean-American woman, adopted as a baby by a white family and raised in a predominantly white community, examines issues of cultural identity, loss, and family in this thoughtful and moving memoir.

In Nov. 1963, Frank Guidry is a key member of Carlos Marcello’s New Orleans mafia who believes he has one tiny piece of information about the Kennedy assassination that could get him killed. Charlotte is a woman who makes a sudden decision to escape her small town life. From the first page of Berney’s propulsive novel reader's will be pulled along like flotsam on the Mississippi when the river is running high and fast, and tossed up on the shore, gasping, on the final page.

Fly Girls is a thoroughly absorbing account of early female aviators in the 1920s and 30s including Ruth Elder, Amelia Earhart, Ruth Nichols, Florence Klingensmith, and Louise Thaden.

Well narrated by Erin Bennett, the story focuses on the women's battle to be able to fly in air races against men, and highlights their struggles against popular perceptions of what women could and couldn't do. This is nonfiction as compelling as fiction. Highly recommended.

This is an odd little book. If you pick it up expecting a serious medical book, you will be disappointed. There are some medical facts here and there, but they are not presented in any organized manner. It is primarily a book of bathroom humor, with a side of useful or interesting facts. I really don't know who I would recommend this book to.

Katie makes a trip to Texas to collect her inheritance from the grandmother she barely knew, meets her cousin Scarlett with whom she will share the inheritance, and together they discover long-held family secrets. Stir in a little romance and voila! An enjoyable summer read.

In this third book of her "Six Tudor Queens" series, historian Weir explores the life of Jane Seymour, possibly the least known wife of Henry VIII. Although little is known about Jane, Weir's wealth of knowledge about the time period make it possible for her to bring both Jane and the Tudor court to life. This is an enjoyable read for fans of the historical fiction.