My recent reads and listens over the past several months….
I am an old fashioned reader, meaning I prefer the book to a kindle or e-reader and I have a hard time with audio books; I like to go back and forth, rereading at times. This year I have made the effort to listen to books that I am also reading, to get into the practice and ensure I don’t miss anything! Below are the books I tackled either by reading or listening or both over the past several months.
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry (audio and print)
A REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK ∙ AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMESBESTSELLER ∙ Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping novel from Emily Henry.
As featured in The New York Times ∙ Rolling Stone ∙ People ∙ Good Morning America ∙ NPR ∙ Vogue ∙ The Los Angeles Times ∙ The Cut ∙ USA Today ∙ Cosmopolitan ∙ Harper’s Bazaar ∙ Marie Claire ∙ Glamour ∙ ELLE ∙ E! Online ∙ The New York Post ∙ Bustle ∙ Reader’s Digest ∙ BBC ∙ PopSugar ∙ SheReads ∙ Paste ∙ and more!
Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: to write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years—or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the twentieth century.
When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.
One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over.
Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication.
Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition.
But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room.
And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad . . . depending on who’s telling it.
I ENJOYED THIS ONE – ROMANTIC AND EASY TO READ
Next to Heaven by James Fry (print)
“A satirical look at the “beautiful, wealthy and unsatisfied.’” —People
“Gleefully trashy page-turner set among the one percent . . .Frey is in his element here. Let the revels begin!” —Kirkus Reviews
America’s most perfect town hides its darkest secrets in this “lurid” and “propulsive” novel from #1New York Times bestselling author James Frey (New York Times Book Review Podcast)–and discover a world where privilege, sex, scandal, and murder lurk beneath a flawless veneer.
New Bethlehem, Connecticut. Picture-perfect lawns, manicured hedges, and multi-million dollar homes present a carefully curated facade. But beneath the designer yoga gear and country club memberships lies a darker reality.
In this world of excess, best friends Devon and Belle have it all—beauty, money, status. But they want something more. Something dangerous. Something that makes them feel alive. Their solution? A party—a meticulously curated gathering of New Bethlehem’s elite, from a desperate ex-NFL quarterback to a hockey coach with a penchant for married women, and a ruthless Wall Street “closer” who wields his wealth like a weapon.
One night. An ultra-elite swingers party. Multiple betrayals. And a murder that will shatter New Bethlehem’s carefully constructed facade.
Enter a world of troubled opulence and sharp betrayal that’s reminiscent of “The White Lotus,” “Your Friends and Neighbors,” and “Big Little Lies”—a world of spectacularly badly-behaved rich people where money can buy anything. . .until it ruins everything.
An addictive page-turner where rich people behaving badly has never been so entertaining.
SAW AUTHOR SPEAK AND CHOSE THIS FOR ONE OF MY BOOK CLUBS -FUN AND FAST
Greenlights by Matthew McConahay (audio)
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • 6 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE • Now in paperback with exclusive new content!
The life-changing memoir that has inspired millions of readers through the Academy Award–winning actor’s unflinching honesty, unconventional wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction.
“The No. 1 celebrity memoir of the past 10 years.”—USA Today
“McConaughey’s book invites us to grapple with the lessons of his life as he did—and to see that the point was never to win, but to understand.”—Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
I’ve been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.
Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life’s challenges—how to get relative with the inevitable—you can enjoy a state of success I call “catching greenlights.”
So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops.
Hopefully, it’s medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot’s license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears.
It’s a love letter. To life.
It’s also a guide to catching more greenlights—and to realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too.
Good luck.
I LISTENED TO THIS – ENJOY MCCONAHAY’S VOICE – INSPIRING AND ENTERTAINING
Always Hope by Heather Frimmer (print)
Obstetrician Jessica Schorr will never forget the worst day of her life and the way it ended, with the traumatic delivery of a baby with cerebral palsy. Plagued with debilitating panic attacks since that day, she can’t stop blaming herself for what happened.
Kendall Carlson can’t forget that day either and the distressing memory of her newborn daughter, Hope, being taken away to intensive care. Is Hope’s diagnosis because of mistakes the doctor made during the delivery, or is Kendall partially responsible too? With only weeks until the state deadline, Kendall needs to decide soon whether to file a malpractice suit against Dr. Schorr.
Following the retirement of his partner, Attorney Abe Silverberg is having trouble getting his law practice back on track. Every malpractice case that comes his way seems like a scam. What he needs is a case with real merit, a chance to prove to himself, and to everyone else, that he’s not just some lowly ambulance chaser.
Always Hope combines a fast-paced story with deep emotional resonance, ultimately exploring the imperfection of being human, the importance of forgiveness, and the power of transformation.
LOVED THIS – INTERVIEWED/DISCUSSED WITH THE AUTHOR FOR HADASSAH BOOK CLUB – HEARTFELT AND EMOTIONAL
A Complete Fiction by RL Maizes (print)
With little evidence, would-be author P.J. Larkin serves a “nibble” on the trendy new social-media app Crave, accusing editor George Dunn of stealing the novel she submitted to him for publication.
The nibble shoots to the top of the site’s Popular Menu Items and before you can say “unpaid literary labor,” George is embroiled in a scandal, his job and book deal in jeopardy. P.J.’s novel is snapped up amid the publicity, but has she revealed her sister Mia’s secrets in the book? Some diners on Crave think so, and now it’s P.J.’s turn to feel the public’s scorn.
Told in the humorous vein of Where’d You Go Bernadette?, A Complete Fiction examines the very serious questions of who has a right to tell a story, and has cancel culture gone too far in our social media-drenched world?
ALWAYS ENJOY EVERYTHING THIS AUTHOR WRITES – TIMELY AND CLEVER
How many times have you decided to change something in your life, eventually finding yourself in the same place? No matter the level of frustration and how many lessons you’ve learned, somehow, you return to the situation time and again. You need answers, real answers that have been provided by science. In 180: A Counterintuitive Method for Long-Lasting Personal and Professional Change, author Allyson Maida, Ed.D., LCSW, introduces practical steps to overcome stubborn habits and unwanted experiences. In a manner that is easy to understand, she outlines, describes, and provides real-life examples that demonstrate how the 180 method disrupts deep-seated thoughts and behavioral patterns, giving you control to transform your life. The 180 method is a powerful, straightforward five-step technique that adjusts your brain’s neural connections. This process allows you to actualize your desires as you shift the direction of your life with clarity and purpose. Rooted in neuroscience, 180 offers a simple, actionable solution to step into the future that you have often thought about.
HEARD THIS AUTHOR SPEAK – THOUGHT PROVOKING AND POTENTIALLY LIFE CHANGING
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (audio and print)
REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • #1 AMAZON BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR SO FAR 2025
“A breathtaking novel of ROMANCE, MYSTERY, AND TWISTS that will shock you…I love this book so much.” ―Reese Witherspoon
“A WILDLY TALENTED writer.” ―Emily St. John Mandel
“SPELLBINDING…Exceptionally imagined, thoroughly humane.” ―Washington Post
“Abounds with EVOCATIVE nature writing.” ―The New York Times Book Review
An ENTHRALLING new novel from the NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING author of Migrations and Once There Were Wolves
A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers, but with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore.
Isolation has taken its toll on the Salts, but as they nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, it begins to feel like she might just be what they need. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting herself, starts imagining a future where she could belong to someone again.
But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, they all must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late―and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.
A novel of breathtaking twists, dizzying beauty, and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us disappears.
LOVE EVERYTHING FROM THIS AUTHOR – SETTING IS ALWAYS A CHARACTER AND STORY IS HEART BREAKING AND HOPEFUL
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (print)
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Discover the word-of-mouth hit hailed by Ann Patchett as “A cause for celebration”—an intimate novel about the transformative power of the written word and the beauty of slowing down to reconnect with the people we love.
“The Correspondent is this year’s breakout novel no one saw coming.”—The Wall Street Journal
“I cried more than once as I witnessed this brilliant woman come to understand herself more deeply.”—Florence Knapp, author of The Names
LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE AND THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, The Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, She Reads
“Imagine, the letters one has sent out into the world, the letters received back in turn, are like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle. . . . Isn’t there something wonderful in that, to think that a story of one’s life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something, even if it is a very small thing, to someone?”
Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime.
Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.
Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.
Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be “a very small thing,” but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read.
SO MANY FREADER FRIENDS AND THEIR BOOK CLUBS HAVE READ AND LOVED – COULD BE MY FAVORITE OF THE YEAR
And A Book With Special Meaning For Me…
I am thrilled to share with you my Uncle Warren’s book, In and Out of Key. He has been writing music and collecting stories over a lifetime. I recall sitting at my grandmother’s kitchen table as a little girl with looseleaf paper and a pencil, assisting Uncle Warren with lyrics to one of his songs back in the 1970s. In the 1990’s I went to see him perform at the Plaza Hotel in NYC and he has been breaking out his guitar and singing at family gatherings for as long as I can remember.
For the past couple of years I have grown my involvement in the book world, from writing reviews, interviewing authors, and doing book marketing and publicity to offering publishing services… so it has been a joy to work with Uncle Warren to help share the stories of his life in this book! In addition, we included QR codes along the way so you can hear his music as well! We hope you will buy, read and review In and Out of Key on Amazon (reviews help immensely). Enjoy!
In And Out of Key by Warren Bloom
From soft ballads to hard rock, Warren Bloom’s range as a musician is expansive. As a writer, he brings the lyricism and authenticity of his voice to the page. His vignettes range from hilarious comedy to tender and moving depictions of everyday life. Always insightful, yet easy to read, Warren narrates his off beat encounters with many celebrity icons, as well as his behind the scene experiences with the people you interact with every day. More than anything else, this book is entertaining.
Bloom’s odyssey takes us from his boyhood in Fairfield,Connecticut, to his first gigs as a bar band singer at the University of North Carolina in the 60’s…to his emerging musical career in the heyday of Philadelphia in the 70’s , where his comedy rock band Lobotomy was a staple at the legendary club The Second Fret. Lobotomy, renamed The Facedancers, recorded one of the first jazz-rock albums. On Paramount, it has become a collectors’ item!
Bloom then moved to New York City and became a house singer at the famed Catch a Rising Star. His keen eye and ready wit takes us on a rollicking tour of the comedy and music scene in the big city and captures the highs and lows of a rock musician. The cast of characters range from Rodney Dangerfield and Dolly Parton, to Billy Joel, from Leonard Cohen (who suggested that Bloom rename their band “Jealous Clown”) to Miles Davis (who asked to see the sides of his fingers to determine if he was a real guitar player). Lou Reed, recognizing Bloom’s mastery, once remarked, “You really know how to sing the ballads,” while Daryl Hall paid him the ultimate compliment, stating, “You sing better than me!”
With a career spanning decades, Bloom has earned the ASCAP Performer of The Year award not once but twice. A multifaceted artist, Bloom excels as a singer, songwriter, rhythm guitarist, and harmonica player, with more than 200 recorded songs to his credit. While his musical palette is rooted in rock ’n’ roll, it weaves in elements of doo-wop, rhythm and blues, country, jazz, and The Great American Songbook.
Warren Bloom continues to captivate audiences with his timeless sound. In and Out of Key is his story.
HUMOROUS, GREAT STORIES ABOUT BRUSHES WITH FAME, AND STRUGGLES OF A MUSICIAN – LOVED IT
