Does listening to audiobooks count as reading? Here it does. Let’s discuss your favorite reads — or listens.
A queer basketball novel set in the early 2000s should've been a slam dunk. Instead, "A Sharp Endless Need" squanders a brilliant first chapter and a timely premise on repetitive teen self-destruction tropes that clash with everything we're told about these characters.
Edward Cahill's debut novel follows three very different men caught in the same pre-Stonewall police raid — a Wall Street banker, a Columbia professor and an Irish kid from the Bronx with nothing left to lose. A character study disguised as a mystery, with strong writing but some issues with pacing and repetition.
Douglas Stuart's third novel returns to familiar Scottish working-class terrain — religion, repression, queer identity and small-town suffocation — but with a maturity and balance that makes it his most nuanced work yet. A slow-burning character study built around sacrifice, self-destruction and a confrontation between two people who know exactly where to cut.
Patricia Highsmith's landmark 1952 lesbian novel is radical in its courage but punishing in its pacing. Carol's opacity is the central problem and a single letter shows what the novel could've been.
Here's my annual reading list — eight books I'm attempting this June, plus recommendations from years past.
Grant Ginder's multi-decade friendship novel is funny, honest and quietly devastating — a sharper, more literary take on the terrain Steven Rowley covers.
Kathryn Stockett spent a decade in literary exile. "The Calamity Club" is her case for a second act — and it delivers. A feminist Depression-era novel about eugenics, found family and three women who need each other to survive. Better written than "The Help," anchored by two exceptional narrators and one of the year's most resilient protagonists.
"Kin" follows two motherless women raised side-by-side in Jim Crow Louisiana whose lives diverge sharply but whose bond never does. Tayari Jones at her most immersive — a story about platonic love, chosen family and the friendships that shape us longest.
Maria Semple's "Go Gentle" arrives disguised as a madcap Upper West Side comedy and pivots into something far darker and more resonant. A Stoic philosopher, a stolen Greek statue and a third act that retroactively reframes everything — including what it cost one woman to rebuild her life after losing it completely.
It’s an intergenerational family saga, yes — and that structure is familiar — but Hakes integrates real historical and political texture more convincingly than many sprawling historical fiction attempts. It left me more emotional than I expected, and I would absolutely read Hakes again.
One of the more interesting side effects of reading the entire “Game Changers” series straight through is that you stop thinking about the books individually and start thinking about the relationships as if they exist in the same ongoing world. Here’s my take on the best couples in the series and if they’ll make it to their tenth anniversary.
This is not my genre. I don’t read a lot of MM romance, and I definitely don’t seek out books where I know there are going to be extended, explicit sex scenes. I usually find them awkward at best and unintentionally funny at worst. And yet, after finishing the show a second time and immediately diving into Rachel Reid’s “Game Changers” series, devouring the books —plus the bonus content on her blog – in about two weeks.
I came to Rachel Reid’s “Game Changers” series backwards – starting with the TV adaptation of “Heated Rivalry” and then working my way through the books and every piece of bonus content I could find. What started as curiosity quickly turned into a full two-week binge. Here’s my take on the world Rachel Reid created and Jacob Tierney perfected.
Chris Jones, a scientist and blogger turned reluctant activist, connects those dots. “The Swine Republic” examines how agricultural runoff – largely from excess fertilizer and animal waste – has poisoned Iowa’s rivers, lakes and drinking water for decades and why that should concern us all.
Leigh Stein's influencer-age Gothic has sharp ideas about technology and self-image — but ambition outpaces execution.
Audiobooks are a form of translation – one that converts the written word into a lived performance. Like all translated text, there’s an art to getting it just right. When it works, it feels like the story was meant to be heard all along.
Overall, this was a quick, thoughtful crowd-pleaser with enough emotional depth (keep the tissues nearby in the final pages) to feel earned rather than gimmicky. Book clubs will eat it up.
“A History of Loneliness” is a powerful literary novel exploring the Irish Catholic Church abuse scandal through the eyes of a well-meaning but complicit priest. Set across several decades, this character-driven story examines faith, silence, and moral responsibility with John Boyne’s signature emotional restraint and sharp prose. Ideal for fans of historical fiction, complex character studies, and books like John Williams’ “Stoner” or the author’s own “The Heart’s Invisible Furies.”
The drama escalates to a level that strains credibility, particularly around the Olympic fallout and the Sochi scheming. At a certain point, the twists feel less sharp and instead repetitive bloat. I kept thinking this could have been 100-pages shorter. It’s not high art, but it’s also not trying to be.
The first half may test some readers’ patience. The characters can be a little grating and the story wanders. But if you stick with it, the back half becomes something much more endearing and honest.
