The Birthing Tree by Amanda Peters

September 2026

I had enjoyed THE BERRY PICKERS, so I was looking forward to THE BIRTHING TREE. Once again, Amanda Peters brings us to the Mi’kmaq community in Nova Scotia. 

Aliet Paul was born under a tree in a small Nova Scotia town, delivered by her grandmother, Kiju. Her mother died during childbirth, and her father remains unknown except to a select few. She was raised by Kiju, who, in addition to being a midwife, knew of the use of herbs to heal various ailments. One family that came each year had a boy named John, who was a friend to Aliet and then much more. She wrote him letters when he returned home, and there was a real bond between them. Reading about young love can be such fun as we remember waiting for the mail when life was a lot less immediate than it is today.

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The Booker Prize 2026

The shortlist for the Booker Prize 2026 has been announced. It features two previous winners, a previous shortlistee, and three authors new to the prize. The winner will be revealed on November 9th at a ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London.

The prize has rewarded and celebrated world-class talent for over 55 years, shaping the canon of 20th and 21st century literature. This year’s selection celebrates the best works of long-form fiction by writers of any nationality, written in English and published in the UK and/or Ireland between October 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026.

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James Patterson and David Ellis, author of The Munich Affair

Spanning a century, this suspenseful thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling authors James Patterson and David Ellis is set in motion by the murder of Adolf Hitler's young lover by his own hand.

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Kate Atkinson, author of Our Noble Selves

When crime correspondent turned war reporter Harry Flynn returns to Britain from Singapore in 1945, he takes a quiet job with the Festival of Britain, a government-funded endeavor aimed at celebrating the nation’s creativity, grit and ingenuity. There, he joins a team of misfits and eccentrics as they help to ready the Festival for launch. When a Frenchwoman goes missing, Flynn becomes the central suspect in her disappearance --- and possible murder. He was the last person to see her alive, yet he has no memory of the evening they spent together. As evidence against him mounts, Flynn begins to wonder if he actually might be to blame. To make matters worse, he is surrounded by people who have their own secret agenda.

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