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She Didn't See It Coming by Shari Lapena

August 2025

Bookreporter readers are well aware of how much I love Shari Lapena’s books. She knows how to keep me turning the pages. In fact, I had just a few chapters of SHE DIDN’T SEE IT COMING left to read one morning, so I downloaded the audiobook and finished with a listen on the way to the health club. She is that good; I just did not want to wait to see how the book wrapped up.

Let’s look at the setup. Bryden is working at home in her luxury apartment. She fails to pick up her daughter at daycare, which is most unlike her. Her husband, Sam, arrives home to find her laptop on, her car keys still there, her vehicle still in the underground garage, and her cell phone still in the apartment. It’s as if she vanished.

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This Happened to Me: A Reckoning by Kate Price

August 2025

At the beginning of the year, I decided that I wanted to spotlight some titles that I would call “issue books” --- nonfiction that looked at topics that I think are worth exploring. THIS HAPPENED TO ME by Kate Price is one of those books.

At a young age, Kate, who grew up in Appalachia, spent lots of time reading books and finding refuge in the children’s department of her local library. There she could “visit” various places and find adventure and warm family stories, which were very different from what she saw at home. Her father was violent, her mother lived in fear of him, and she frequently was pitted against her older sister in abusive ways.

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When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzén

August 2025

I am always skeptical when books arrive with tissues and a note that I am going to need them. I wonder when I will have to use them --- the beginning, the middle or the end. Or not at all.

I grabbed WHEN THE CRANES FLY SOUTH by Lisa Ridzén last Sunday and took my usual spot to stand at the side of the pool and read. I know, it’s not your typical way to read a book, but it’s how I’ve been reading these past couple of summers.

Bo is a man who has seen a lot of good years. He’s now living at home with caregivers stopping in around the clock to see to his needs. They write notes about what he has been eating, his mood, and what else they observe as they visit. Bo’s world has become pretty small. His wife is suffering from dementia and is living in a care home. His best friend (being realistic here, the last friend his age who’s alive) lives too far to visit often, though they commiserate on the phone. Bo conjures up memories of their very different worlds, but also the closeness of their lives. When you read it, you will see what I mean.

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Culpability by Bruce Holsinger

July 2025

CULPABILITY by Bruce Holsinger is a brilliant look at a family that is involved in an accident in their autonomously driven minivan. The collision kills an elderly couple and sends their car down a cliff. It seems that it’s not just the vehicle that behaved badly here, as each person in the family has his or her own reason for feeling guilty about what happened. Charlie was behind the wheel, and his father, Noah, was writing an email beside him. In the back seat were Noah’s wife, Lorelei, who was working on a project, and their two daughters, Alice and Izzy, who were on their phones.

To recover from the accident, both emotionally and physically, the family rents a home for a week on the Chesapeake Bay. It is right across the bay from a compound-size property (with its own heliport) that is owned by tech pioneer Daniel Monet, who is very passionate about AI. Charlie meets Daniel’s daughter, Eurydice, and they go off on adventures on the water, including one that will put them in jeopardy.

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The Unraveling of Julia by Lisa Scottoline

July 2025

I love how Lisa Scottoline changes things up, especially with her last few books. We went with her to Italy for ETERNAL, the story of three childhood friends who come of age during World War II. LOYALTY brought us through the beginning days of the Mafia. While she kept us stateside with WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BENNETTS and THE TRUTH ABOUT THE DEVLINS, she continued to examine justice and family.

Now, in THE UNRAVELING OF JULIA, Julia’s husband tragically dies at the hands of an unknown assailant in Philadelphia while protecting her. She lost her adoptive parents at a young age, and it feels like she is not destined to be forever happy. After her husband’s death, Julia is barely going through the motions of her life when she receives a letter that she has inherited an Italian villa and a vineyard. Cautious but also ready to try something new, she heads to the Italian countryside to learn more about this piece of property. A surprise awaits her there.

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The River Is Waiting by Wally Lamb

June 2025

Wow is the first word that I use to describe this powerful and moving work from Wally Lamb. I finished THE RIVER IS WAITING last Saturday morning and went through most of the rest of the weekend ruminating about it.

I will say that this is not a happy book. In fact, there is a lot of sadness woven between its pages. There are moments when you will want to knock characters’ heads together. There are other times when you will have so much sympathy and know that this novel will have you seeing incarceration up close in a raw way.

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Atmosphere: A Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid

June 2025

From the time I was a young girl, I loved the space program. It was not just what happened in the skies that intrigued me, but also what transpired at Mission Control. Taylor Jenkins Reid’s ATMOSPHERE gave me a big dose of both.

Joan Goodwin has been looking at the stars since she was a child. She is working as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University when she finds out that they are accepting female scientists at NASA’s space shuttle program. She applies and is part of the team that begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center during the summer of 1980. In these early days, the trainees are learning each other’s strong points and what they need to think about as space travelers.

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The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark

June 2025

I remember meeting Julie Clark before THE LAST FLIGHT came out in 2020, and I have been a committed reader of her books since then. In her third thriller, THE GHOSTWRITER, she has written another propulsive story.

Olivia has grown up being told that her father, Vincent, killed his brother, Danny, and his sister, Poppy, when he was a teenager. He was never charged or convicted, but the idea of him as a murderer has tracked him his whole life. He married his high school girlfriend and went on to become a bestselling horror writer. Olivia has been estranged from him for decades, ever since he sent her to boarding school in Europe.

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What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown

June 2025

WHAT KIND OF PARADISE by Janelle Brown captured my attention on so many levels. First, I was intrigued by Jane’s story of being raised off the grid in the woods of Montana from the time she was a toddler. Second, since Bookreporter started in 1996 and we were in the planning stages in 1995, it was a reminder of the primitive days of the internet, as opposed to what it has become now. Third, it made me think about the instant connectivity that we have today --- and what that means for good and bad.

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The Doorman by Chris Pavone

June 2025

With THE DOORMAN, Chris Pavone has written both a taut thriller and a brilliant social commentary on present-day New York, similar to what we saw in THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES.

Set over just one day, with generous backstory to give deeper meaning to his characters, Chris has portrayed different layers of New Yorkers. The first, as noted in the title, is the doorman, who opens doors, collects packages, and is acknowledged (or not) according to how you see him in his role. The others include the occupants of one of the biggest apartments in the building on one of the higher floors --- one that actually combined two spaces --- and the people who live in a more modest space on a lower floor.

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