title: Pride Comes Before a Fall author: Virginia Heath publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin publication date: January 27, 2026 pages: 336 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: police violence summary: When Portia Kendall takes a job in Bath as the assistant editor writing for her beloved pro-reform newspaper, she is suprised to learn that the position…
“Why”…Wednesdays
NetGalley Review of Fossil Feud
title: Fossil Feud author: Maggie North publisher: Dell publication date: July 28, 2026 pages: 384 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: sexist backstabbing and gaslighting summary: Ripley’s horrible ex-boyfriend not only took credit for her paleontological findings but also bad-mouthed her right out of academia. Now, when another good-looking male paleontologist, James, wants her help…
NetGalley Review of If Books Could Kill
title: If Books Could Kill author: Kate Eberle publisher: Penguin publication date: July 21, 2026 pages: 368 peppers: 2 (on this scale) warnings: death/murder violence explosions vomit summary: When Roxie off-handedly wishes to be the protagonist of the next novel by her favorite romance author who hasn’t published a book in years, she doesn’t yet…
394. Why Pass on the Right
[As soon as this post went live, my observant uncle (Hi, DK!) made me aware that some people might think I’m talking about passing in the breakdown lane of a road that has only one lane in each direction. I would NEVER do that. The essay that follows is about multi-lane roads. Please, be safe…
NetGalley Review of Destination Funeral
title: Destination Funeral author: Paige Harbison publisher: St. Martin’s Press publication date: July 21, 2026 pages: 352 peppers: 2 (on this scale) warnings: death drugs alcohol car accident (in past) violence summary: When Babe dies, she leaves clear instructions that her daughters, Sammie and Didion, and their two childhood friends, Matt and Austin, have to…
393. Why It Tickles
I took the photo above of my own feet at Crescent Beach in Maine last summer. On this particular day, my friend (Hi, MR!) was visiting our place. She and several members of her family had recently completed hiking the Connecticut portion (52 miles!) of the Appalachian Trail. She told me the following story about…
NetGalley Review of Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt
title: Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt author: Ben Reeves publisher: Avid Reader Press/ Simon & Sschuster publication date: July 7, 2026 pages: 240 peppers: 1 (on this scale) warnings: death, lots and lots of death drug use, alcoholism suicide summary: Travis, who is death, lives across the hall from Dalia and her daughters, Layla…
392. Why Pluribus is Huxley’s
Clicking on the photo above will take you to a Google search for Pluribus, which is a show created by and aired on Apple TV. As is often the case, my husband and I were late to the party on this one, so you may have already seen it. If you haven’t, I’d say it (and…
NetGalley Review of Perverts
title: Perverts author: Mac Crane publisher: The Dial Press publication date: July 7, 2026 pages: 256 peppers: 3-4 (on this scale) (lots of interesting things going on here) warnings: violence against queer people other violence drug use boundary crossings vomit death, cremation blood, guts cheating on spouses/significan others more — if you need warnings, this…
NetGalley Review of Rewrite the Stars
title: Rewrite the Stars author: Lindsay Hameroff publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin publication date: July 7, 2026 pages: 320 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: rude ex-husband alcohol use summary: When former child star Marissa inherits her grandmother’s lake house, she decides that getting away from the media chaos surrounding her ex-husband will be a great…