Celestial Lights

 

Celestial Lights by Cecile Pin isn’t the space novel you’re expecting. It’s not about the science. It’s not about the mission. It’s about a man who was always going to choose the stars over the people who needed him to stay.

Ollie is born the same moment the Challenger falls from the sky. Decades later, he’s one of the most respected astronauts of his time. When a billionaire offers him the chance to lead a ten-year mission to Europa, he says yes. Not dramatically. Not after a fight. Just… yes.

His wife Philly knows he’ll go. He knows he’ll go. But they go through the motions of a marriage that softly unravels without ever raising its voice.

This is a short book, under 250 pages, but it carries a lot. Cecile Pin writes with such economy and precision that every sentence does real work. Ollie isn’t particularly warm or likable, but I don’t think he’s meant to be. He’s ambitious, smart, emotionally distant. He’s the kind of person who’s probably great at being an astronaut and complicated at being a husband or father.

Is this sci-fi? Technically, but barely. If you’re looking for elaborate world-building and a deep dive into astrophysics, this isn’t it. If you want a literary character study with beautiful prose and a family drama that unfolds in sighs rather than slammed doors,   then pull up a chair.

I won’t pretend I figured out everything this book is trying to say. But it stayed with me in a low-key, thoughtful way. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

Thank you Henry Holt and Co for the gifted finished copy. Out now. 

If you liked this, you might also enjoy my review of Atmosphere.

About the Author

Cecile Pin is a London-based writer. Wandering Souls, her first novel, was long-listed for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Carnegie Medal, the Prix Femina Étranger, and was short-listed for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize. She has won the Fragonard Prize for Foreign Literature, a Somerset Maugham Award, and a London Writers' Award. In 2025, she was selected as one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Europe.

New Books

 

📚 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐇𝐚𝐮𝐥 📚

Happy Sunday! 

Our beach vacation is over and I’m at my daughter’s house for a few days. But before we left the beach, we had to visit The Island Bookstore in Corolla,  the local indie bookstore. I picked up This Tender Land for my buddy read this month with @thereadingteapot and @rjs.readingnook I also bought Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow because @rjs.readingnook said it was the best book they read this year and I’ve seen tons of other rave reviews. 

QOTD: how often do you wash your car or take it to a car wash? 

I took my car to a car wash this morning to get any salt and sand off of it from being at the beach. I live on a dirt road at home and my car never stays clean there. 

#thistenderlandbook #tomorrowandtomorrowandtomorrow #bookhaul #shopindie #buddyread #beachvacation #obx #corolla #shoplocal #islandbookstore #bookstore #indiebookstore #bookstagram #igreads #booksbooksbooks #alwaysreading #bibliophile #bibliophilelife #readmorebooks

Book Haul

 

📚 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐇𝐚𝐮𝐥 📚 

I stopped at Island Bookstore in Corolla, NC this afternoon and came home with theses lovely books. Northern Heist has been on my TBR for awhile and since tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day, I figured I might as well splurge. The story is based on one of the biggest and still unsolved bank robberies in history. I also bought Saint X. It’s about a girl whose sister was killed while the family was on vacation. 

The bookstore has a box of free ARCs. I was thrilled to see No Second Chances in the box and grabbed it. It was a lucky find because @ohiobookgal posted about No Second Chance just this morning and it sounded so good. Serendipity that I was able to pick up a free copy this afternoon. I’ll chalk it up to a little early luck of the Irish! 

QOTD: do you believe in luck? Are you a lucky person or what is something lucky that happened to you recently? 

#bookhaul #northernheist #saintx #nosecondchances #thrillers #crimefiction #luckyday #bookstagram #igreads #readerlife #indiebookstore #supportsmallbusiness #supportindiebookstores #shoplocal #bibliophile #bibliophilelife 

Anticipation

 

Author: Melodie Winawer

Narrator: Jacques Roy et al. 

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Year: 2021

🎧𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄🎧

Thank you Simon & Schafer Audio for the #giftedbook. 

A grieving mother and her nine-year-old son vacation in Greece where they meet Elias, a mysterious man who keeps many secrets. As Helen, a scientist, and Alexander tour the ancient city of Mystras with Elias as their tour guide, Helen learns of a centuries old family that has been passing Hunting’s, a degenerative neurological disease, through each generation. Helen meets a professor who promises to get funding for her Huntington’s research. But she also learns Elias could hold the key to a cure. 

Elias has been protecting the city of Mystras for 800 years. As a baby, his mother pledged Elias’s eternal service to the Profitis Ilias in exchange for saving Elias from a deadly illness. So Elias has spent centuries in service to the the city and trying to keep out of the hands of the dangerous Lusignan family. A family fated with Huntington’s and who believes Elias’s blood is the cure. 

This is an engaging mix of fantasy, historical fiction, medical thriller, and romance. Told across timelines of present and past, narrator Jacques Roy leads a cast narration that brings brings the ancient city to life. I definitely recommend this to fans of Outlander and other readers who like a mix of genres in one book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

QOTD: what’s your favorite healthy snack? 

I not usually a healthy snacker. My tastes run to chocolate, chips or popcorn. But over the holidays we received a lovely box of dried fruit and nuts. I the dried dates right after I took this pic and they were very good. So expect to see lots of dried fruit and nuts appearing in my posts! 😀 

#anticiaption #melodiewinawer #simonaudio #audiobookstagram #audiobookreview #audiobooksofinstagram #greece #mystras #manoutoftime #historicalfiction #fantasyfiction #romance #bookstagram #bibliophilelife #readerlife #alwaysreading #byzantium #pastandpresent #huntingtonsdisease #audiobooklover 

Shop Local

 

Happy August! 😎

We visited Island Bookstore  in Corolla, NC yesterday. We always stop in this lovely indie bookstore when we’re at the beach. I picked up Hard Cash Valley by Brian Panowich and this cute t-shirt. This book has been on my GoodReads want to read list ever since Crime Reads mentioned it as a best new paperback last April. Happy to finally get my hands on it. 

Synopsis: Dane Kirby is a broken man and no stranger to tragedy. As a life-long resident and ex-arson investigator for McFalls County, Dane has lived his life in one of the most chaotic and crime-ridden regions of the south. When he gets called in to consult on a brutal murder in a Jacksonville, Florida, motel room, he and his FBI counterpart, Special Agent Roselita Velasquez, begin an investigation that leads them back to the criminal circles of his own backyard.

Arnie Blackwell’s murder in Jacksonville is only the beginning – and Dane and Roselita seem to be one step behind. For someone is hacking a bloody trail throughout the Southeast looking for Arnie’s younger brother, a boy with Asperger’s Syndrome who possesses an unusual skill with numbers that could make a lot of money and that has already gotten a lot of people killed—and has even more of the deadliest people alive willing to do anything it takes to exploit him.

As Dane joins in the hunt to find the boy, it swiftly becomes a race against the clock that has Dane entangled in a web of secrets involving everyone from the Filipino Mafia to distrusting federal agents to some of hardest southern outlaws he’s ever known.

What are you reading to kick off the month? I’m still reading The People You Meet on Vacation. 

#hardcashvalley #brianpanowich #minotaurbooks #obx #islandbookstoreobx #indiebookstore #independentbookstore #shoplocal #beachread #bookstagram #booksbooksbooks #alwaysreading #bibliophile #bibliophilelife #readerlife #bookworm #booknerd