It’s time for another monthly reading wrap-up. And the impending end to summer. The good news is that there are SO MANY authors coming out with new books this fall that the reading should be stellar. Stay tuned!
Sisters of a Halved Heart by Nayantara Roy
Published by Algonquin Books
Publication date: June 2, 2026
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There needs to be a better word than messy to describe Sisters of a Halved Heart and I don’t mean that in a pejorative way, but almost as a compliment. This is the story of half-sisters, Joy and Mira, who are completely estranged after one of them betrays the other in a way they can’t forgive. All over a man. Or rather, a cardboard cut-out of a villain – good looking, charming, everyone’s friend, weak, man baby. He is such a shallow pond that it drains the depth from the rest of the novel.
Country People by Daniel Mason
Published by Random House
Publication date: July 7, 2026
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Miles has been working on his PhD for over a decade, mostly because he keeps changing his thesis. His wife is a highly sought after professor so when she’s offered an adjunct position at a prestigious school in Vermont, he decides that moving from the city to country will be the push he needs to finish his dissertation. Which is not how it goes in Country People. Instead, Miles finds the temptations of rural Vermont too irresistible to ignore and instead of working on his dissertation takes up new hobbies like scything and cross-country skiing. All while meeting people who have an array of interesting and sometimes alarming beliefs about the world—science and medicine in particular. The end result is reading that is at times unsettling and absurdist, but Mason writes with the kind of wry humor that feels natural not forced. Yes, there’s a lot of plot and it’s a bit wacky, but this is actually about the people and especially Miles who’s forced to come to conclusions rather than continue producing theories.
Keep Them Close by David Ellis
Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication date: June 30, 2026
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Allison’s husband is having an affair and she knows it, but before she can come up with a plan to make him pay he and his mistress are found dead. She’s innocent, but needs an alibi so she turns to her brother Luke to help her out because they’ve always protected each other even during the worst of times. This is the beginning of Keep Them Close a mystery thriller for anyone who loves the “everyone is unreliable, holy-hell-drama” thrillers.
Dual narrators and a timeline that shifts and slips could add to the confusion, but everything is actually calibrated down to the tiniest detail so all that’s left is to relax and enjoy the ride. While I did for the most part, I had a few quibbles with the plot and characters. Those aside, Ellis does such a good job at creating tension, I had to know how it all ended. This is fast, light reading of the kind you tear through and forget.
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*I received a free copy of these books from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.*
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