dear reader April 2026 I've been reading voraciously, and editing a bit more slowly (but making progress!). This past month, Philip Pullman's The Book of Dust trilogy kept me busy for hundreds of pages, and, honestly, hit a little too close to reality to be the escapist retreat I needed. I did find distraction in Alison Espach's The Wedding People and Da Ngan's An Insignificant Family. But I want to talk some books I'm going to read next, because I'm that shameful author friend who is just...

dear reader March 2026 Last month, I found myself traveling. The grass across four states was still yellow and crumbly. I drove through the aftermath of the large winter storm and saw the carnage of tree limbs snapped by the cold. I can remember the sound of the cracking from a different storm in 2022 and still hear the booms in the gloom. Yet there were early spring blossoms even though another front bringing freezing temperatures was on the way. I read all three books that make up Phillip...

Doing Just Fine February 2026 Dear Reader, To start off this year, I read two big books: The Politics of Heroin by Alfred W. McCoy and The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (thanks to JM for the assignment!). I would suggest not reading these two back to back, as they're heavy and you might hurt your neck like I did. (No pun intended! Vampires are not real!) I followed these two with The Crop Cycle by Shane Mitchell. It was published by the wonderful Bitter Southerner who I recommend checking...