So here we are, halfway through 2026, and I’ve just finished The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans. What a beautiful book. It’s an epistolary novel that builds layer upon layer until you know the character(s) so well that you inhabit her world, past and present. A deeply affecting tour de force.
And what of the other books I’ve read so far this year? They are:
Just After Sunset, Stephen King, (2nd reading)
The Return of Little Big Man, Thomas Berger
The Winter of Our Discontent, John Steinbeck (7th reading)
Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop, Jenny Colgan
The Secret Christmas Library, Jenny Colgan
The Winemaker’s Wife, Kristin Harmel
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
The Winds From Further West, Alexander McCall Smith (2nd reading)
The Lost Vintage, Ann Mah
The Lost Language of Oysters, Alexander McCall Smith
Broken Country, Clare Leslie Hall
The Strangers We Meet on Vacation, Emily Henry
The Lathe of Heaven, Ursula K. Leguin
Firestarter, Stephen King
The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop, Fannie Flagg
Transatlantic, Colum McAnn
Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven, Fannie Flagg
Misery, Stephen King (2nd reading)
The Night the Lights Went Out, Karen White
The Running Grave, Robert Galbraith
How to Solve Your Own Murder, Kristen Perrin
The Hallmarked Man, Robert Galbraith
Cherry Baby, Rainbow Rowell
Whose Body, Dorothy L. Sayers
Slow Dance, Rainbow Rowell
Brenda Barker’s Next Chapter, Wendy Tokunaga
Bertie’s Theory of Ice Cream, Alexander McCall Smith
Of these, which would I recommend? Obviously, those I read for a second or third time. But of those I read for the first time, I was most taken by:
- The Return of Little Big Man, which was as good as its predecessor — wonderful historical characters, great Voice. It’s a big book, but I wished it was even longer.
- The classic Jane Eyre, recommended for its lovely turns of phrase and articulate use of language.
- Cherry Baby, by Rainbow Rowell. Believable thirty-something characters with all their foibles, and expression of complicated emotions.
- Brenda Barker’s Next Chapter, by Wendy Tokunaga. A warm, funny novel of reinvention, introspection, doubt, hope, and resilience, and just plain fun to read, it’s set at a Writers Conference in Dry Creek Valley, and is filled with a disparate array of characters, from Boomers to Gen Z. I spent a weekend chuckling over scene after pithy scene.
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