July 31, 2026
Well, this month flew by. January always feels like a year, and July feels like a long weekend. We know that many book groups skip a month or two over the summer, but that just means you have plenty of time to read books to suggest at your next book group meeting. I have been on a total reading tear, which has been fun.
Somehow, I allow myself more pleasure reading time during the summer than at any other time of the year. I can stand in the pool and read for hours. I have read so many books that I have enjoyed. It has been one really wonderful summer for reading! Read on to see what I mean.
July 31, 2026
In the olden days (which is sometime before, let's say, 2010), there were lots of really fun book parties. Now they are few and far between. So when there is a big-themed book event like the one that Tom, Francesca and I went to on Wednesday night to celebrate the August 18th US publication of Raphael Montes' novel, THE SECRET DINNER, it's special. The party was hosted by Celadon Books and the author.
Editorial Content for Country People
Book
Teaser
Joyous, absurd and life-affirming, COUNTRY PEOPLE is a luminous exploration of marriage and parenthood, the nature of belief and the power of stories, and the ways in which we find connection in an increasingly fragmented world.
Promo
Joyous, absurd and life-affirming, COUNTRY PEOPLE is a luminous exploration of marriage and parenthood, the nature of belief and the power of stories, and the ways in which we find connection in an increasingly fragmented world.
About the Book
A year in the life of a family as they strike out into the unknown (aka Vermont) --- a “witty and gorgeous” (The Guardian) novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist Daniel Mason, the bestselling author of NORTH WOODS.
Miles Krzelewski is a devoted husband, a doting father beloved for his outlandish bedtime stories, and the proud owner of a truffle-hunting dog in a land with no truffles. He is also a bit lost, 12 years late with his PhD on Russian folktales and increasingly haunted by a sense that he’s become a disappointment to his family. So when his wife, Kate, accepts a visiting professorship at a prestigious college in the faraway forests of Vermont, he decides that this will be the year to finally move forward with his life.
But Miles is a man of many enthusiasms, one who possesses, in Kate’s words, a great capacity “to fall in with anyone, anywhere.” And no sooner does he arrive than he finds himself entangled with a cast of characters as colorful as those of any of his folktales --- from a ghostly tree surgeon to a scythe-mad biochemist, from a Shakespearean temptress to a photographer of snowflakes obsessed with chronicling, on thousands of index cards, the world’s delusions in an Inventory of Wrong Ideas.
The new friends, the enchanted woods, the histories: sure, no PhD, but all good fun. Until Miles stumbles upon a bizarre --- perhaps ridiculous --- local legend, which, he soon suspects, might not be just a legend after all.
Joyous, absurd and life-affirming, COUNTRY PEOPLE is a luminous exploration of marriage and parenthood, the nature of belief and the power of stories, and the ways in which we find connection in an increasingly fragmented world.
Editorial Content for Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt
Teaser
For fans of Fredrik Backman and Virginia Evans, this unforgettable and exquisitely moving novel is about finding beauty, hope and meaning in the brevity of life, as narrated by the one who knows it best: Death.
Promo
For fans of Fredrik Backman and Virginia Evans, this unforgettable and exquisitely moving novel is about finding beauty, hope and meaning in the brevity of life, as narrated by the one who knows it best: Death.
About the Book
For fans of Fredrik Backman and Virginia Evans, an unforgettable and exquisitely moving novel about finding beauty, hope and meaning in the brevity of life, as narrated by the one who knows it best: Death.
Travis is Death in the modern world. He wears jeans and a T-shirt and lives in a small, gray town. His job is to offer people comfort in their final hours of life. He’s stoic, gentle and a little naive, despite everything he knows. He’s young and handsome, despite who he is. Each death he witnesses is meaningful to him. He listens, never judges and, most importantly, never tries to change anyone’s fate. He knows that every life must eventually end to maintain the balance of the universe, and he respects the cycle.
Then he meets Dalia, a midwife, and her boisterous eight-year-old daughter, Layla, who live across the hall. Despite his best attempts to keep his distance, he finds himself wholeheartedly embraced by other people for the first time. So it is with this seemingly unremarkable family that Travis begins to understand what it means to be truly alive --- and what might be irrevocably lost in death.
Written with radiant warmth, wisdom and compassion, EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL AND NOTHING HURT is a timeless story about appreciating life, accepting its end, and finding our place in the universe --- especially when it feels most impossible --- that will resonate with anyone who has ever loved and lost or worried at time’s passing.
