Reading Lately: September 2026 Book Reviews

During the Great Depression in Oxford, Mississippi, Birdie has come to town to beg her social-climbing sister to help pay her mother’s back taxes. While there, Birdie volunteers at the county orphanage and befriends Meg, a girl unfairly treated horribly by the orphanage president. When Birdie learns her sister’s husband has ruined the family finances, she joins an audacious plan to earn money with the help of a woman determined to overcome her past with fury and grit.

The Calamity Club is the perfect example of great historical fiction that could have been exceptional with better editing. The story was too long and should have been edited down and the overarching message wasn’t concrete enough to pack a powerful punch. Don’t get me wrong, The Calamity Club was still my favorite read of the month. Stockett’s story is an engrossing read with likable characters that took a surprising turn halfway through which I was not expecting but thoroughly enjoyed. 

My Rating:
Publication Date: 5 May 2026
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While you wait for the next book in the bestselling Empyrean series that has taken the book world by storm, Rebecca Yarros presents a collection of thirteen short stories. Starring your favorite characters and their dragons, Threshing Day captures thirteen unforgettable stories that take place on one memorable day – Threshing Day, the day students at Basgiath War College find if they will bond with a dragon.

Threshing Day is a totally unnecessary book that is the perfect example of a cash grab. None of the short stories add anything new to the series and each is very short, only 10-20 pages each. However, fans of the series will enjoy seeing stories in the different perspectives and it did help remind me who all the side characters are. If you are going to purchase this one, I recommend getting it in hardcover. What Yarros’s publisher did well was the gorgeous cover, sprayed edges and beautiful illustrations of the dragons. But if you skip this one, you will not be missing anything.

My Rating:
Publication Date: 29 September 2026
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While visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Daphne Fuller and her husband find themselves followed by an older gentleman. Turns out it’s her former stepfather, Eddie Triplett, who was married to her mother for less than a year when she was nine years old. Reunited, Daphne and Eddie reexamine their relationship and the fateful car accident that changed both of their lives forever.

Ann Patchett makes books so captivating that you can accidentally start in the middle and still be in love. Seriously, it took me days to realize that I had somehow started the audiobook on Chapter 6. Whistler is slowburn literary fiction that examines memories and relationships through gorgeous writing. The ending will make for great book club fodder. Ann Patchett doesn’t usually do ambiguous endings so part of me assumes she was playing it straight and part of me loves the idea that it was all a twist. 

My Rating:
Publication Date: 2 June 2026
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At dinner, Leo asks April for a divorce and she forgets to turn off the stove. When their house burns down in the middle of the night they are forced to retreat to April’s childhood home. In the aftermath of the fire, April and Leo must discover if there is anything worth salvaging in their home and in their marriage. Told in alternating viewpoints, The Burning Side is a story of thorny family issues and the deciding if something so badly damaged can be saved.

Sarah Damoff is really coming along as a writer and I thought The Burning Side was a fascinating character study. In my middle age, I find Leo and April’s story to be very relatable in how a loving marriage can go sideways with lack of communication and failure to process your own trauma. The Burning Side doesn’t present any straight-up villains in the marriage; just two people who were struggling to break their own trauma responses.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Simon & Schuster through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

My Rating:
Publication Date: 19 May 2026
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The bestselling author of Grit, Angela Duckworth returns with a follow-up book. Although grit is one of the most important characteristics a person can develop, sometimes its not enough. How you situate yourself to meet a challenge can be crucial. Instead of just making best of your situation, Duckworth describes how you can situate yourself to better excel in life using real-life examples backed up by studies.

In 2016, Angela Duckworth’s Grit captivated reads with it’s look at how perseverance is one of the biggest determinants of success. In her follow-up book, Duckworth answers valid criticism that sometimes grit is not enough. Situated adds insight into how your environment, culture and peers and mentors can create situations to enable you success that would not be possible with grit alone. Although I appreciated the nuanced look and think there are some great insights, I just didn’t find the writing or the anecdotes in Situated to be very interesting and felt the book fell flat.

My Rating:
Publication Date: 1 September 2026
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In a sequel to The Time Traveler’s Wife, Alba DeTamble has the same Chrono-Displacement Disorder as her father Henry. Living her life out of order, Alba has slipped through the decades and seen a future she cannot change. With her partner Zach, she has built a life among a group of artists and activists in a tale that testifies to the power of art and community in an unstable world.

What did I just read? Life Out of Order is a complete mess with no cohesive theme, no overall messaging, boring characters, and a plot that completely drags. For starters, Niffenegger decides she doesn’t want to explain anything. Not the weird dsytopian version of modern society. Not Clare’s remarriage and daughter. Then just when you think the story will settle into a time travel love triangle for Alba, Life Out of Order decides to abandon that storyline for the next half of the book. Instead you get dragged back into Clare’s history after Henry’s death and then the backstory of Alba’s second husband. Neither of which are actually interesting. Finally in the last bit we come back around to that love triangle which is now settled into a threesome. And did I mention the weird AI sister who merges with someone else. The whole book is a nightmare and I only suffered through the entire thing so you don’t have to.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Harlequin Trade Publishing through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

My Rating:
Publication Date: 6 October 2026
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In a sequel to The Games Gods Play, Lyra has won the game of the gods but still finds herself in danger. The Titans are sealed behind seven ancient locks in Tartarus and Lyra is the key to open them. Now Lyra must survive every challenge the gods through at her in a race against time as Hades will do anything to set her free.

At first, The Things Gods Break seemed like a retread of the first book; Lyra has to go through a whole new series of impossible challenges by the gods. At least this time she’s immortal. However, Abigail Owens introduced a time travel twist that really elevated this sequel but making you examine the interactions in the first book in a whole new light. I’m intrigued enough that I plan to read the third book of the trilogy when it releases this fall. I just wished she would expand her vocabulary instead of dropping f-bombs every other page.

My Rating:
Publication Date: 21 October 2025
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On a hot London day, Grace Adams finds herself stuck in traffic. Desperate to deliver a birthday cake to her estranged teenage daughter, Grace ditches her car and sets out on foot. As Grace continually runs into various obstacles, you learn more about her journey from an amazingly successful woman to a nearly invisible 45-year-old on the brink of divorce.

Amazing Grace Adams was a struggle for me to read. I couldn’t relate to Grace at all as she seemed incapable of making decisions. Honestly, her thoughts were so incoherent in the present as to make it extremely hard to sympathize with her. At first you assume the author is blaming it all on menopause but Grace’s behavior was so extreme that I’m glad they added a layer of trauma to explain it and give you some actual food for thought. 

My Rating:
Publication Date: 5 September 2023
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When NASA offers Bee Königswasser the lead on a neuroengineering project, she is thrilled until she learns she must work with her grad school archnemesis, the handsome Levi Ward. When her equipment goes missing and the staff begins ignoring her, Bee realizes that Levi is starting to support her at work, and must decide if she has the guts to lay her heart on the line.

Love on the Brain is my first Ali Hazelwood book and I found it to be a standard cheesy romance book with some science thrown into the mix. The book was a quick read but don’t expect much depth or nuanced characters. If want a cute STEM romance with the enemies to lovers where you find out he was never actually an enemy, Love on the Brain will be a perfect read. If you prefer something with a little more character development, I’d pass on this one.

My Rating:
Publication Date: 23 August 2022
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Poppy and Alex have been best friends forever even though she’s a wild child full of wanderlust and he’s an introverted bookworm. Although she lives in New York City and he still lives in their hometown, every year they take a week-long vacation together. Until two years ago, when their trip ended in a falling out. Now Poppy convinces Alex to take one final vacation with her in an attempt to fix their relationship … and maybe even fall in love.

The fist time I read People We Meet on Vacation, I wasn’t very impressed. Despite liking the push and pull of Poppy and Alex’s relationship, I found the lack of communication grating. However, after loving the recent movie adaptation, I decided it was time for a reread. After watching the movie, I feel like I understood Poppy and Alex better and I really can see how they felt torn between wanting more but not feeling good enough. With a heavier focus on character development, Emily Henry always writes the kind of romances I enjoy reading. 

My Rating:
Publication Date: 11 May 2021
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CNN host Anderson Cooper teams up with historian Katherine Howe to recount the rise and fall of a great American dynasty, his mother’s family, the Vanderbilts. Told in vignettes of the various family members, Cooper shows how Cornelius Vanderbilt built his shipping and railroad empires in the 1800s, and how his descendants fought over his staggering fortune, forever fracturing the family.

Although Vanderbilt wasn’t the best written biography I’ve read, having it written by Anderson Cooper has a nice layer of interest for me. Vanderbilt depicts how money does not buy you happiness as he details how each generation of the Vanderbilt dynasty managed to completely spend away an extravagant fortune. For me, the most fascinating character was Alva Vanderbilt Belmont and all her contradictions. Cooper also gave a very insightful look into his mother’s high profile life.

My Rating:
Publication Date: 21 September 2021
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In this classic love story, art student Clare and librarian Henry try for a sense of normalcy as Henry time shifts through their life. Henry has Chrono-Displacement Disorder; he unexpectedly gets pulled to important emotional moments in his past and future life. A mind-bending romance that is a must-read for any fan of time travel books.

I remember being indifferent about The Time Traveler’s Wife when I read it a decade ago but enjoying the movie more. With a sequel coming out, I thought I’d pick this one back up. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed the book but I didn’t love the movie as much. Niffenegger’s debut is a standout novel. While some parts of the book are a bit rough, overall this time travel romance is fun and easy to read while sparking you to consider determinism and the downsides of such a love story. 

My Rating:
Publication Date: 1 September 2003
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