Last, Now, Next

 

This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It just helps keep this space going. 

Last: Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus - The audio narration is superb. Thanks to my friends at Simon Audio for the gifted listen,

Now: When They Find Me by Carter Wilson - I'm 18% in and hooked. Out November 10. Than you Poisoned Penn Press for the gifted digital ARC.

Next: If They Knew by A.J. Wooding - @upstatebookbitch and @iheartagoodthriller put this one on my radar and I can't wait to dive in. 

Shop my Bookshop.org for these titles and help an indie bookstore while you're at it.

Off the Reservation

 

This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It just helps keep this space going. 

Thank you Simon Audio for the gifted audiobook.

 

Off the Reservation was my first Stephen Graham Jones book. It's the sequel to Only the Good Indians, but there's enough background woven in that I never felt lost jumping in here.

Nathan Yellow Tail and his best friend Sebby rob an isolated cabin owned by a "weekend Indian" on the reservation. While fleeing, they crash, and Sebby ends up in a coma, kept alive by machines. Nathan barely survives, but his life is out of balance. Nurse Seine offers him a way to set things right and pull Sebby back from the brink. All he has to do is join her on a road trip to return the bones of a young Blackfeet boy who died after being taken to the infamous Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

Along for the ride are Christian, a young man who doesn't speak, and Mooch, a grieving mother who lost her husband and sons. Nurse Seine and Mooch each have their own hidden reasons for going.

This was the weirdest road trip ever, and I had no idea where it was headed. I knew I was getting horror. I didn't expect possession. When they dug up the boy's bones at Carlisle, they dug up something else too.

But the real horror here is the oppression inflicted on tribal peoples, and the racism and injustice Native Americans still face today.

🎧 The full cast narration was exceptional. Every narrator gave a fantastic performance and made it easy to keep the characters straight.

It's atmospheric and character-driven, with dark humor running all the way through. A few spots dragged for me, but overall I really enjoyed it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Grab a copy at Bookshop.org and help out an indie bookstore while you're at it.

About the Author

Stephen Graham Jones is the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians, My Heart Is a Chainsaw, and I Was a Teenage Slasher. He has been an NEA fellowship recipient and a recipient of several awards including the Ray Bradbury Award from the Los Angeles Times, the Bram Stoker Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the Jesse Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Independent Publishers Award for Multicultural Fiction, and the Alex Award from American Library Association. He is the Ivena Baldwin Professor of English at the University of Colorado Boulder. Follow Stephen on Instagram and visit his website for more news and information about his books.

The Last to Drown

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kris | Your Retired Librarian Friend (@theretiredlibrarian)

This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It just helps keep this space going. 

Noelle Ihli knows how to write an edge of your thriller. The Last to Drown is a banger and so bingeable.

Narrator Vivienne Leheny does a fantastic job with the fast paced action and all the emotions. 

Grab this one if you love propulsive action, cat and mouse thrillers, isolated locations, and strong women. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wear your life vest and jump right into it! 

Grab a copy of The Last to Drown at Bookshop.org and help an indie bookstore while you're at it.

About the Author

Noelle W. Ihli is a thriller-suspense author. She lives in Idaho with her husband, two sons, and two cats. When she’s not plotting her next thriller, she’s scaring herself with true-crime documentaries or going for a trail ride in the foothills. Follow Noelle on Instagram and visit her website for more news and information about her books.

IG Live | a Conversation with Elle Marr

This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It just helps keep this space going.

In case you missed it, the replay of my chat with author Elle Marr 🎉

Today is pub day for She Dies in the End, and we had so much fun talking about it. If you haven’t heard about this one yet, Penny Lin is a body broker in Portland, and one day the body that comes through is her murdered ex, with a note warning her not to tell anyone. Then more bodies start showing up.

We talked about how Elle got into the world of body brokers (yes, it’s a real job), why she picked a title that makes you wonder who “she” is, and what her typical writing day looks like. 

Thank you, Elle, for spending your pub day with me! 

She Dies in the End is out now. 📚

Grab a copy at Bookshop.org and help out an indie bookstore while you’re at it.

About the Author

Elle Marr is the #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author of eight thrillers. Originally from Sacramento, Elle graduated from UC San Diego before moving to France, where she earned a master's degree from the Sorbonne University in Paris. She now lives and writes in Oregon with her family. Follow Elle on Instagram and visit her website for more news and information about her books.

The Three Graces of Pearl Street

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kris | Your Retired Librarian Friend (@theretiredlibrarian)

This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It just helps keep this space going.

Thank you Simon Audio for the gifted audiobook! 

The Three Graces of Pearl Street by Elizabeth Wellington Rollins

✅ three generations of women

✅ debut novel

✅ layered and emotionally rich

✅ phenomenal audiobook

✅ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

You can grab a copy at Bookshop.org and help an indie bookstore while you're at it.

About the Author

Elizabeth Wellington Rollins is a writer and award-winning copywriter. She grew up outside New York City and graduated from Davidson College. Her work has appeared in Condé Nast Traveler, The Week, Travel + Leisure, and Vogue. She lives in Vermont with her family. Follow Elizabeth on Instagram and visit her webiste for more news and information. 

She Dies in the End

 

This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It just helps keep this space going.

Thank you to Kathleen Carter Communications and Amazon Publishing for the gifted ARC, and to Brilliance Publishing and NetGalley for the gifted early listen.

In She Dies in the End by Elle Marr, Penny Lin matches donated bodies with the labs that need them, and she treats the dead with respect. When her ex turns a body into a party spectacle, her furious rant goes viral. Then he turns up dead in her morgue, and Penny is suspect number one. A truly original premise, steady tension, and lots of twists. Mirai's audio narration is fantastic. I started out reading the ARC and switched to the audiobook for the majority of the book.

If you love mysteries with a premise you've never seen before, add this one to your list.

Out October 20. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Grab a copy at Bookshop.org and help an indie bookstore while you're at it.

About the Author

Elle Marr is the author of seven thrillers centering AAPI characters. Her debut THE MISSING SISTER was published in April 2020, and her latest release, THE LIE SHE WEARS was published on November 18, 2025. Her work has been featured in PopSugar, Woman’s World Magazine, Goodreads, Audible, and TV affiliates for CBS, ABC, FOX, and NBC. Follow Elle on Instagram and visit her website for more news about her books.

IG Live | a Conversation with Joanne Harris

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kris | Your Retired Librarian Friend (@theretiredlibrarian)

This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It just helps keep this space going.

In case you missed it, here's the replay of my Live with Joanne Harris!

Joanne joined me from the UK to talk about her new novel, Sleepers in the Snow. It’s a winter ghost story about a man who buys an isolated house on the moors after his divorce, only to find the previous owners’ diaries and a pylon that sings in the wind. It’s also a moving book about memory and dementia, and Joanne was so generous talking about how those two things came together.

We also got into coffin routes on the moors, folklore, the idea of how objects hold on to people, and what it was like narrating the audiobook herself (the studio where she recorded the narration is an old jail!), and what she’s working on next.

Thank you, Joanne, for staying up late on a weeknight to chat with a retired librarian in the U.S.!

Sleepers in the Snow is out now.  Grab a copy at Bookshop.org and help an indie bookstore while you're at it.

About the Author

Joanne Harris is an Anglo-French author, whose books include twenty novels, three cookbooks, and many short stories. Her work is extremely diverse, covering aspects of magic realism, suspense, historical fiction, mythology, and fantasy. In 2000, her 1999 novel Chocolat was adapted to the screen, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. She is an honorary Fellow of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, and in 2022 was awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II. Follow Joanne on Instagram and visit her website for more news and information about her books.