Broken Country

 

Author: Clare Leslie Hall

Narrator: Hattie Morahan

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Year: 2025

“The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.”

This book grabbed me from the first line and pulled me right in. There’s a lot going on in this story and I mean that in the best possible way. Love, heartache, secrets, lies, betrayal, grief, and guilt. 

Author Clare Leslie Hall’s storytelling is masterful. This is a sweeping love story mixed with the twists and turns of a thriller. The setting, a small English village in the 1960s, is atmospheric. The characters are complex, flawed, and so real. Narrator Hattie Morahan is phenomenal. She conveys all the emotions and brings the characters to life. These characters and this story will stay with you long after you finish reading the book. I already know this book is one of my top tens books for this year. My verdict: loved it 😍. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you Simon & Schuster Audio for the gifted copy. Appreciate it!

QOTD: what’s on your playlist? Tell me what songs or artists you’re listening to lately? 

#audiobook #audiobookstagram #audiobookreview #audiobookrec #crimefiction #mysterybooks#bibliofile #reader #readinglife #alwaysreading #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookrecomendation #bookworm #booklover #bookstagram #historicalfiction #brokencountry 

About the Author

Clare Leslie Hall is a novelist and journalist who lives in the wilds of Dorset, England, with her family. She’s the author of Broken Country, Pictures of Him, and Days You Were Mine.

The Story She Left Behind

 

Author: Patti Callahan Henry

Narrators: Julia Whelan and Theo Solomon

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Year: 2025

Thank you Simon audio for the gifted audiobook! The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry is out today and you need to read it. 

Clara’s mother disappeared when Clara was just a little girl. Her mother, Bronwyn, left behind a sequel to the popular children’s book which Bronwyn wrote as a young girl. The sequel was written in a language Bronwyn made up. Decades later, Clara is still searching for clues to her mother’s disappearance and a way to decode her mother’s book. Clara receives a phone call from a man in London claiming he found Bronwyn’s papers among his deceased father’s possessions. This sends Clara and her daughter Wynnie on an emotional journey for answers.

This is such a lovely story with so many layers. It’s a great blend of historical fiction and mystery. It’s atmospheric and populated with rich and well crafted characters. The narration by Julia Whelan and Theo Solomon is superb. My verdict: loved it. 😍 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

QOTD: are you an audiobook reader? Do you have a favorite narrator? 

I’m a huge audiobook fan, but it did take me some time to embrace the format. For me, Julia Whelan is the G.O.A.T of narrators, but there’s many others I also love. 

#audiobook #audiobookstagram #audiobookreview #audiobookrec #mysterybooks #bibliofile #reader #readinglife #alwaysreading #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookrecomendation #bookworm 

#booklover #bookstagram #historicalfiction #motherdaughterrelationships #thestorysheleftbehind #simonaudio 

About the Author

Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Times, Globe and Mail, and USA Today bestselling author of seventeen novels, including her newest, The Story She Left Behind.

Her books have been translated into over 20 languages and have been the Barnes and Noble Book Club Pick, Amazon Editor Pick, Goodreads Book of the Year finalist, People Magazine Choice, Book of the Month Selection, and more. She is the recipient of The Christy Award “Book of the Year”; The Harper Lee Distinguished Writer of the Year and the Alabama Library Association Book of the Year for Becoming Mrs. Lewis. 

 

She is the co-host and co-creator of the popular weekly online Friends and Fiction live web show and podcast. She’s published in numerous anthologies, articles, and short story collections.

 

She attended Auburn University for her undergraduate work and Georgia State University for her graduate degree. Once a Pediatric Clinical Nurse Specialist, she now writes full-time. Married to Pat Henry, the mother of three and grandmother of two. 

What Kind of Paradise

 

Author: Janelle Brown

Publisher: Penguin Random House

Publication date: June 10, 2025

Thank you Random House and NetGalley for the e-arc! 

Jane and her father live in an isolated cabin in the middle of the Montana woods. Jane’s father is always worried that a shady government agency is coming to get them. He considers himself an anti technology truth-teller and “they” don’t want his voice heard. When her father is getting ready to go on one of his mysterious trips, Jane convinces him to take her too. He takes her to Seattle and what happens there turns Jane’s life upside down. She learns her entire existence has been a lie. 

I loved Jane! She smart and vulnerable. She goes from a quiet isolated life centered around her father to getting caught up in his horrific crime. She sets out for San Francisco to find her mother and find answers to who she really is. The story is set the mid 1990s just a the burgeoning internet is taking hold. It was a walk down memory lane with all the references to early internet life. Anyone besides me old enough to remember chat rooms?

It was interesting to watch as is Jane plunged into the world she had little to no experience with and how she grows. She has to learn how to navigate living in a big city, get a job, and make friends. 

This is an all round great mash up of mystery/thriller and historical fiction. The plot, pace, the characters, the settings are all top notch. Janelle Brown really knocked it out of the park with this book. What Kind of Paradise comes out June 10. Just go ahead and preorder it now because it’s a perfect beach read. My verdict: loved it 😍 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#crimefiction #mysterybooks #thrillerbooks #bibliofile #reader #readinglife #alwaysreading #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookrecomendation #bookworm 

#booklover #bookstagram #whatkindofparadise #janellebrown #penguinrandomhouse #historicalfiction 

About the Author 

Janelle Brown is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels I’ll Be You, Pretty Things, Watch Me Disappear, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, and This Is Where We Live, with What Kind of Paradise coming in June 2025. Her books have been sold in two dozen countries around the world. Pretty Things - named a Best Book of 2020 by Amazon - is currently being adapted for television by Peacock and Fifth Season.

Her journalism and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Vogue, Elle, Wired, Self, RealSimple, The Los Angeles Times, and numerous other publications. Previously, she worked as a senior writer at Salon, and began her career as a staff writer at Wired during the dotcom boom years, working on seminal Web sites like HotWired and Wired News. In the 1990s, she was also the editor and co-founder of Maxi, an irreverent (and now, long-gone) women’s pop culture Webzine.

A native of San Francisco and graduate of UC Berkeley, she has since defected to Los Angeles, where she lives with her husband Greg and their two children.

The Talent

 

Author: Daniel D’Addario

Narrator: full cast

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Year: 2025

Thank you @simon.audio for the gifted audiobook. Appreciate it! 

The Talent follows a group of actresses through Hollywood’s awards season. They reflect on their careers. They gossip. They have secrets. They have imagined slights and conflicts with each other. They all want to win the golden statute.

The main characters are pretty much cliches. One is a grand dame of the industry. Another is an anxiety filled alcoholic. There’s a former child tv star breaking into movies and wanting to be taken seriously. There’s a British actress trying figure out life in L.A. Finally, there’s another older actress who has a reputation for being a little unconventional, especially with her choices of roles. 

I had high hopes for this debut novel. I think I expected too much. I thought this was going to be a juicy and gossipy behind-the-scenes beach read. It wasn’t. I found the main characters to be so bland and uninteresting that I really didn’t care about any of them. I had a hard time keeping track of who was who. The audiobook had a full cast narration which helped, but none of the characters really stood out. The ending of the book was abrupt. I should have been on the edge on my seat to see which actress would win. The ending just kind of fizzled out. I’m sure readers who love the red carpet and award shows will enjoy this one, but it just wasn’t for me. My verdict: 😐just ok. 

QOTD: What’s your favorite movie? 

I have a lot of favorites including Star Wars, The Martian, Saving Private Ryan, and Rear Window. 

#bibliofile #reader #readinglife #alwaysreading #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookrecomendation #bookworm 

#booklover #bookstagram #audiobook #audiobookstagram #audiobookreview #audiobookrec 

About the Author

Daniel D’Addario is chief correspondent at Variety. He has won awards from the Los Angeles Press Club for profile writing and for political commentary and is among the moderators of Variety’s Actors on Actors video series. He was previously the television critic for Variety and for Time. A graduate of Columbia University, he lives with his husband and two daughters in Brooklyn.

I Might Be in Trouble

 

Author: Daniel Aleman

Narrator: Vikas Adam

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing 

Year: 2024

What would you do if you woke up one morning with a dead guy in bed next to you? 

David is a down on his luck author. His debut novel was a hit, but his second book was panned. He’s single, lonely, broke, and desperate. He needs a brilliant idea for his next book and he needs it fast. David hooks up with a sexy stranger he meets on a dating app. They hit it off and party the night away. David wakes up the next morning to find the guy dead next to him in bed. And David’s recollection of the night is fuzzy because he drank a lot. Instead of calling 911, he calls his agent Stacey. Her solution sounds easy- they’ll just put the dead guy back in his hotel room. It’ll look like the man passed in his sleep and no one will be the wiser. What could go wrong?

This is a dark and funny novel. Don’t except slapstick comedy like Weekend at Bernie’s. This is more satirical. But it also tackles loneliness, grief, the feeling of being an outsider within your own family, and the crushing weight of your dreams possible slipping away. David is a complex and interesting main character, but for me the star of the novel is his agent Stacey. Her quips had me laughing out loud and a lot of credit goes to narrator Vikas Adam for that. His performance is top notch. I really want a prequel about Stacey’s adventures in publishing. This book is going to end up on my top books of the year list. My verdict: loved it! 😍

Let’s play predictive text: If I found a dead body in my bed I’d____. 

If I found a dead body in my bed I’d hide it in the fridge. 🥶

#crimefiction #mysterybooks #thrillerbooks #bibliofile #reader #readinglife #alwaysreading #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookrecomendation #bookworm 

#booklover #bookstagram #librarybook #lovemylibrary

#audiobook #audiobookstagram #audiobookreview #audiobookrec 

#danielaleman #vikasadam #grandcentralpublishing 

About the Author

Daniel Aleman was born and raised in Mexico City. A graduate of McGill University, he is passionate about books, coffee, and Mexican food. After spending time in Montreal and the New York City area, he now lives in Toronto, where he is on a never-ending search for the best tacos in the city.

Florida Palms

 

Author: Joe Pan

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publication date: July 22, 2025

Thank you Simon & Schuster and Netgally for the e-arc. 

Set during the 2009 recession, Florida Palms is the story of three friends who get pulled into a drug running operation. 

Recent high school grads Eddy, Cueball, and Jesse are restless and directionless. Good jobs are scarce. Cueball’s dad is an ex-con biker who teams up with his former boss to put together an organization to manufacture & ship a new designer drug. Cueball and Eddy are recruited to deliver the drugs, while Jesse works on the manufacturing side. The drug operation is supposed to be a brotherhood, but the boys quickly find themselves surrounded by danger and violence. 

I liked the premise of this book, but the execution wasn’t for me. I thought it would be a lot grittier and more southern noir. Instead I found it too verbose with many of the characters pontificating for far too long. Every time that happened, it brought the story to a screeching halt for me. There were things about the book I did like especially Eddy and Cueball. There was action and intrigue as the bosses fought for control of the organization. But ultimately, this wasn’t a favorite. My verdict: just ok 😐

Florida Palms is out July 22. 

QOTD: what’s your go to reading spot? Mine is usually a recliner on the living room but when the weather’s warm, I like to read out on our deck. 

#crimefiction #mysterybooks #thrillerbooks #bibliofile #reader #readinglife #alwaysreading #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookrecomendation #bookworm 

#booklover #bookstagram #netgalley 

About the Author

Joe Pan is the author of five poetry collections, his work has appeared in such publications as the Boston Review, Hyperallergic, the New York Times, the Philadelphia Review of Books, and Poets & Writers, and has been profiled in the New York Post, Publishers Weekly, the Rumpus, and the Wall Street Journal. Joe is the founding publisher and editor-in-chief of Brooklyn Arts Press, a small press honored with a National Book Award in Poetry, and is publisher of Augury Books, honored with a Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry. With his wife he co-founded Brooklyn Artists Helping (BAH), which serves unhoused populations with sleeping bags, backpacks, and goods. Florida Palms is his first novel. 

The Year of Living Constitutionally

 

Author: A.J. Jacobs

Narrator: A.J. Jacobs

Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio

Year: 2024

My book club’s choice this month is A.J. Jabcobs’ The Year of Living Constitutionally. He writes about his year long quest to follow the Constitution‘s original meaning. This is a fascinating, educational, and often humorous dive into one guy’s attempt to get into the mindset of the 18th century foundering fathers and how the document should be interpreted today. 

Some of his attempts to live as closely to the original meaning of the Constitution included asserting his right to free speech by writing his opinions on parchment paper with a quill & ink and then handing out them out to strangers on the street. He used beeswax candles at home in place of lights. He exercised his Article I right by writing to Congress to request a letter of marque to become a privateer (which is kind of a government sanctioned pirate). He bought a tricorn hat & joined a Revolutionary War reenactment group. He also consulted with scholars, lawyers, and historians about the Constitution and read a mountain of books and documents about the Constitution. He discusses the disagreements the founders had when writing it and their compromises. He looks at the question of how the Constitution should be interpreted today-as it was originally written or as a living document whose interpretation should change with the times. Thomas Jefferson thought the Constitution should be rewritten every few years. Jacobs also notes how difficult it is to change the Constitution. Jacobs breaks down the heady thoughts and 18th century language and makes it more accessible for today’s readers. Jacobs narrates the audiobook himself and he’s very funny. 

I think I learned more about the Constitution from this book than I learned in school. No matter what side of the aisle you sit on or if you’re just trying to make sense of current events in America, I highly recommend this book. It’s definitely thought provoking, fascinating, informative, and inspiring. 

#librarybook #lovemylibrary#audiobook #audiobookstagram #audiobookreview #audiobookrec #livingconstitionally #nonfiction  #theconstitution #yearoflivingconstitutionally #penguinrandomhouseaudio 

About the Author 

A.J. Jacobs is an author, journalist, lecturer and human guinea pig. He has written four New York Times bestsellers that combine memoir, science, humor and a dash of self-help. Among his books are The Know-It-All, The Year of Living Biblically, and Thanks a Thousand, in which he travels the globe to thank everyone who had even the slightest role in making his morning cup of coffee. He is a contributor to NPR, The New York Times, and Esquire, among others. He has given several TED talks, including ones about living biblically, creating a one-world family, and living healthily that have amassed over 10 million views.