I confess I haven't done much sewing or quilting since I last posted here last spring, but I have still been reading. My back (spinal) problem and the neuropathy have done nothing but get worse until all I really want to do these days is sit still. Every now and then a not good really, but a tolerable day (at least it starts that way) comes along. So I hurry to the sewing room to get some work done, but before I can hardly get things ready to sew, the pain, fatigue, stiffness, and clumsiness return; and I take their example and return to the sofa, or sometimes to the bed.
Below are the books I've read since last spring. I thought I'd start with Coat of Many Colors by our dear Dolly Parton. I'm sure you know by now that the world lost Dolly last week when she passed away. So this book, which daughter Andy gave me last Christmas, is even more dear to me.
💜💛💚
Although we had no money,
I was rich as I could be,
in my coat of many colors
my mama made for me.
I was rich as I could be,
in my coat of many colors
my mama made for me.
💜💛💚
Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden - Debbie Mullen has, for years, compiled all of her best advice into her column, "Dear Debbie," where the wives of New England come for sympathy and neighborly advice. Through her work, Debbie has heard from countless women who are ignored, belittled, or even abused by their husbands. And Debbie does her best to guide them in the right direction. Or at least, she did. These days, Debbie’s life seems to be spiraling out of control. She just lost her job. Something strange is happening with her teenage daughters. And her husband is keeping secrets. Now, Debbie’s done being the bigger person. It’s time for payback against all the people in her life who deserve it the most.
Youngblood Hawke by Herman Wouk - A real blast from the past. I read this book first when I was a teenager. Back then, in the 60s, reading novels, especially "adult novels," was a big thing. This one is about a young man from rural Kentucky who writes a book, moves to New York, writes another book, makes some money, makes bad investments, has an affair with an older woman, and puts more time into writing and having an affair than in sleep and caring for his health. It ends pretty much as you'd expect. Near the end is one of the most tear-jerking scenes I've ever read. It's a good long book, 800 pages, and entertaining. But I think I really was much more enthralled with it when I was a teen.
Welcome to the Family by A.J. Carter - When Anna arrives at her future mother-in-law's isolated estate, she finds a freezing cold house, a brother in the wheelchair who watches her intently, and a teenage daughter who hasn't spoken in years. Eddie, the man she's about to marry, flinches every time his mother walks into the room. The longer Anna stays, the more she sees. And by the time she realizes what this family is hiding, the snow has sealed her in, and it's already too late to leave. A good page turner.
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver - A charming tale of rural Kentucky native Taylor Greer who only wants to get away from her roots and avoid getting pregnant. She succeeds, but inherits a three-year-old Native American girl named Turtle along the way, and together, from Oklahoma to Arizona, half-Cherokee Taylor and her charge search for a new life in the West.
The Car in White by Nikolas Pleiadi - A prequel. Pleiadi gives us the background for the situations and Long Island, NY mob-related characters to whom he introduced us in his first novel, In Powder Blue. I am even more impressed with this young man's writing than I was after finishing In Powder Blue. He puts the reader in the scene. You hear the noise, smell the booze and the pervasive marijuana smoke. You feel the danger. I predict there's good things in the future for Mr. Pleiadi.
Displacement by Justin Pick - Eighteen-year-old Liam Donohue's harrowing journey begins on a cool summer night in 1998, when he walks into a record store with his friends Jason, Madelyn, and Ashley. As he browses for his collection, something unexpected stops him dead in his tracks: an album featuring a menacing photo of him as a child on its cover. Horrified and confused, Liam becomes compelled to uncover how this photo ended up there—and why the sight of it fills him with an unshakable sense of dread that he cannot explain. As Liam digs deeper, he unravels a web of disturbing truths in his pursuit to learn about his past that will not only shatter his own understanding of who he is, but also the public’s.
The Midnight Train by Matt Haig - Wilbur has lived a full life, to the age of 81. When he passes, the Midnight Train arrives to take him to re-live the moments that meant the most in his life. Along the way he is joined by the version of himself as a young married man, experiencing a dream on his honeymoon many years before. Both the dead Wilbur and the dreaming Wilbur experience scenes from Wilbur's life. and then must return to the train to travel to the next scene. Wilbur's guide on his (their) journey is Agnes, the owner of the bookshop where Wilbur had his first job. She tells Wilbur that he must always return to the train when the whistle blows. If he doesn't, he risks losing eternity, and he must not try to communicate with his other self. Would the risk be worth it, he wonders. A delightful and thought provoking book.
The Storm by Rachel Hawkins - St. Medard’s Bay, Alabama is famous for three things: deadly hurricanes, the Rosalie Inn, a century-old hotel that’s survived every one of those storms, and Lo Bailey, the local girl accused of the murder of her lover, political scion Landon Fitzroy, during Hurricane Marie in 1984. When the current owner of the Rosalie Inn hears a writer is coming to town to research the decades-old crime, she is hopeful that a successful true crime book might help the struggling inn. But to her surprise, the writer doesn’t come to St. Medard’s Bay alone. With him is none other than Lo Bailey herself. Lo says she’s returned to her hometown to clear her name. Or, some wonder, is she there to settle old score?
The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett - I have declared this the best book I've read, so far, in 2026. I can't imagine one good enough to take its place.
With a Vengeance by Riley Sager - In 1954, Anna Matheson boards a luxury overnight train bound for Chicago that she’s commissioned, along with a list of names and a heart hardened by loss. Twelve years earlier, during the height of World War II, six people shattered her family’s life. Now, under a false guise, Anna has orchestrated a chilling reunion—trapping each of them aboard. Reminiscent of an Agatha Christy mystery.
Bug Hollow by Michelle Huneven - When Sally Samuelson was eight years old, her golden boy brother, Ellis, went missing the summer he graduated from high school. Ellis finally turned up at the bucolic Bug Hollow, a last gasp of the beautiful Northern California counterculture of the seventies. He had found joy in the communal life there, but died in a freak accident weeks later. From that point, the world of the Samuelsons never spins on the same axis, especially after Julia, Ellis’s girlfriend from Bug Hollow, shows up pregnant on their doorstep.
The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig - Five high school friends are bonded by an oath to protect one another no matter what. Then, on a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something extraordinary: a mysterious staircase to nowhere. One friend walks up—and never comes back down. Then the staircase disappears.Twenty years later, the staircase has reappeared. Now the group returns to find the lost boy—and what lies beyond the staircase in the woods.
Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates - Protagonist Christa joins a tour group heading into the snowy Rocky Mountains, traveling with her boyfriend, Kiernan. A brutal blizzard traps the group, forcing them to take shelter in a remote, abandoned hunting cabin. Their tour guide goes missing and is found dead with his severed head impaled on a tree. The keys to their transport vanish, and the group is completely isolated. As the temperature plummets, the stranded strangers are picked off one by one, forcing Christa to figure out who she can trust in a claustrophobic fight for survival.
It's an historical fiction novel set in 1933 Oxford, Mississippi, during the Great Depression, focusing on the intertwined lives of three women: an orphan named Meg, an unmarried bookkeeper named Birdie, and a resourceful woman named Charlie. The story explores themes of economic hardship, gender struggles, and the quest for stability amid societal constraints.
That's it for now. September is here, the beginning of the Ber Months, my favorite time of year. I hope the cooler temperatures are not far behind. I'll try to post more when I read a few more books or get a little sewing done--or something happens in my that that is worthy of writing about.