If you are a fan of Ryan Coogler's 2025 movie Sinners, these two graphic novels have elements that you might enjoy.
The Smell of Starving Boys by Loo Hui Phang with art by Frederik Peeters (2017) 112 pages
Bluesman by Rob Vollmar with art by Pablo Callejo (2008) 208 pages
After a VERY public breakup with her longtime boyfriend, Willow just wants to hide away. Thankfully, she gets the opportunity when her brother Cruz asks her to dog-sit while he's deployed overseas. To make sure his sister's doing OK, Cruz asks his best friend Deacon to routinely check in on her. As Deacon and Willow talk through her recent breakup, she decides to make a "re-do" list for all of the things that she only ever experienced with her ex. Some are pretty innocuous, some are a bit spicier, and when Deacon volunteers to help Willow check some items off her list, he doesn't realize that he's soon going to be tempted to break the promise he made to Cruz to keep his hands off Willow.
There's usually something questionable about a happily-ever-after happening in a rebound situation, and on paper, that's what this looks like. However, Williams deftly avoids the trap of centering Willow's personal growth around yet another man — that's specifically addressed in a conversation between Willow and Deacon, with Willow stating that she's doing these things for herself and Deacon is simply supporting her. Similarly, Deacon's personal growth as someone medically discharged from the military coming to grips with his new (and unwilling) veteran status is his growth, and just happens to work well with his future with Willow. All in all, this was an excellently done romance, with complex characters and ridiculously loveable dogs. Two thumbs enthusiastically up!
The Secret of Secrets (Robert Langdon #6) by Dan Brown, 677 pages
I wanted to like this book, I
really did. I love codes, intricate details and mysterious settings. I love
learning interesting historical details. But I found this one to be TOO MUCH.
Can we not have a conversation that doesn't include an esoteric detail in
almost every sentence? The concept of the book was interesting and Brown has a
way of convincing you of the believability of the far-out idea. Unfortunately,
I feel he has fallen into the movie trap and has written for the screen and not
the reader. To me, his Langdon novels have become formulaic and I am not sure I
will read any more of them if they continue on in this vein. They have run
their course.
Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara, 347 pages.
Anappara is an Indian journalist, and this novel is inspired by events that she covered professionally. This expertise helps her to build an immersive community that makes the horrors of the book resonate harder. Jai is also a masterful perspective character. Jai is nine years old, and Anappara does a really great job capturing his voice in a way that felt very believable and enriched the book. This is not a happy novel, but it is deeply compelling, and I would recommend it.
"The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is the
sweeping tale of two young people navigating the many forces that shape their
country, class, race, history, and the complicated bonds that link one
generation to the next."
First,
this book is beautifully written. Desai has a writing style that perfectly
captures the little thoughts and judgements we all have but don't say out loud.
Through her characters she captures all the complexities each generation faces
and how they are challenged in subsequent ones. I feel all of us can relate in some
way to the pressures and expectations our parents (inadvertently or not) put
on us while also subconsciously (or not) doing the same thing to our
own children.
The
downside to the book is that the characters are not particularly likeable. Many
times, I just wanted to shout "get over yourself and move on". But
they didn't and for over 600 pages we delve into their every thought. Weirdly,
though, there are some blaring holes that I actually wished the author would
have dug more into. The book is a paradox.
Violet Thistlewaite was once the Thornwitch, a powerful henchwoman to a now-defeated mega-villain, and now that she's released from his influence, she's determined to put the Thornwitch behind her and live a quiet and peaceful life as a florist. She soon settles in the small village of Dragon's Rest, renting a shop, a room, and half a greenhouse from alchemist-turned-apothecary Nathaniel Marsh and his musician sister. Nathaniel doesn't understand why anyone in town would want a florist around, and doesn't hide his disdain at her "silly" business. But as the rest of the town comes to love Violet, Nathaniel can't help but be charmed by her too. Violet's main goal is making sure she doesn't reach for the dark magic she once used, lest she reveal her former life.
This was an adorable cozy fantasy with lovely characters, strong magic, great character arcs, and a wonderfully homicidal houseplant. I loved it, I'll recommend it widely, and I'll happily read more books in Dragon's Rest.
Eight random strangers have been sequestered in a generic office building, and forced to share a break room for a reality TV competition show. Why? All eight were nominated by their real-life coworkers because of some annoying thing they do in their company break rooms, whether it's leaving dirty dishes all over the place, using the ice cube trays to make soda ice cubes, stinking the place up with odorous food, or something else. The eight must figure out which of them is the mole, planted by the production company, but as they try to investigate their colleagues, they each discover unsettling things about each other, and themselves.
This was a quick and quirky book, and I'm honestly not sure what I thought of it. I wasn't sure what to expect though, so I guess it met those nonexistent expectations? I was horrified by some of the things they found themselves doing, almost as much as I was by the things that got them sent to the show in the first place. Give it a read if you find yourself with a couple hours to spare — that's all the time it will take.
Hope, Ash, and Caro met in a Zoom book club, but soon branched out into their own Zoom meetings to chat and connect with other women going through difficulties in life. Hope is an actress who is losing herself in the glare of the spotlight; Ash has a successful business as a florist, though her success has put a strain on her marriage; and Caro's an anesthesiologist who recently lost a patient and is struggling to find her way back to work. So when Hope suggests meeting in-person for a glamping and hiking trip off the grid, Ash and Caro jump at the chance to connect in real life, and leave their worries behind. However, things don't go as planned, and soon, one of them is missing, leaving the other two second-guessing everything they thought they knew about each other.
For the first 75% of this book, it was compelling, with distinct main characters and a ratcheting sense of tension and distrust. However, the last quarter of the book went a bit off the rails, and the bad guy seems to come out of nowhere, almost like the author picked the character out of a hat. It was particularly disappointing, given how invested I was the rest of the book. I just really wish it had stuck the landing.
A stray cat without a name is befriended and later rescued by a man after being hit by a car. The story is told by the cat, whom the man dubs Nana because the cat's tail hooks like the number seven, which in Japan, is nana. Once the cat recovers, he stays with the man, Satoru, in his apartment. He learns that Satoru had been orphaned when his parents were in an accident when he was a young boy, and that he had to give up his cat to go live with his aunt. That other cat was much beloved, and looked much like Nana looks.
The story moves forward when the cat and the man go on the road in Japan, visiting friends that Satoru had made throughout his youth, looking for someone to care for Nana. None of the friends' situations seems right for Nana. Satoru avoids telling people why he's looking for someone else to care for Nana, part of the mystery.
This is a sweet story, not only showing the bond between Nana and Satoru, but between Satoru and his friends, and sometimes between Nana and other animals.
Regan recently wrote an excellent blog post that really encapsulates this cozy and wonderful fantasy novel, so I won't rehash what she's already done. I will say that this was comfy, cozy, and just overall wonderful, and I really loved the way things shook out for Tandy. Highly recommended for fans of Travis Baldree, Rebecca Thorne, and anyone who's ever dreamed of living in a bookstore or library. I can't wait to see what Coombe writes next!
The Giant: Orson Welles, the Artist and the Shadow by Youssef Daoudi (2025) 272 pages
Yes, Orson Welles was a voice actor on "The Shadow" radio program, and that is touched on in this book, but it is more his looming figure with drifting smoke from an ever-present cigar that is the shadow of the title. A thread that carries through this biography is Welles working to finish the film The Other Side of the Wind, a film that was only completed posthumously in 2018. The author/artist hits all the major events of his life and career, but the visual invention allowed by the graphic medium is the real strength of this book. I loved the alien ships of The War of the Worlds, which Welles adapted for radio, being depicted as massive '30s radio microphones. Welles was evidently a fan of bullfighting, so another clever visual is having his shadow play matador to a charging bull with a movie camera head. Behind the scenes anecdotes and Welles' appetite and his wicked humor fill the pages to bursting. Welles appeared in many TV commercials and recognized he acted in many bad movies. "The only thing I want written on my tombstone: 'He never did Love Boat.'" "[His career has] been two percent moviemaking and ninety-eight percent HUSTLING." So much care has been put into the black and white art with yellow highlights.
A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy by Nathan Thrall, 272 pages.
This book does an excellent job making the political personal. The people's whose lives who are described are rendered in such vivid detail that it is sometimes hard to remember that this book is not fiction, and that these are real events. Thrall is a talented journalist, and does a good job connecting a large history into a fairly short book. It is also a hard book to read, heartbreaking and infuriating. I had only general knowledge of the history of Palestine, and was completely ignorant of many of things in the mountain of injustices that a people living under occupation were subject to. It also seems important to note that this book was published in October 3rd, 2023, a few days before the region was brought to the forefront of global consciousness, and so does not include any of the devastation of the last few years. I am definitely interested in reading more by this author, and more on Palestine.
Annie Adams has a great aunt Frances whom she has never met, but the aunt is helping support her and her mother in a house in Chelsea that she owns, while the aunt lives on her large estate in the English village of Castle Knoll. When Annie is summoned to Frances' home for a meeting, along with Frances' attorney and her late husband's nephew Saxon, no one expects to find Frances dead. She has a sizable estate and her will stipulates that it will all go to either Annie or Saxon if either of them can solves Frances' murder within a week. If that does not happen, the estate will be sold off and the proceeds given to the government. The job of selling the property goes to the attorney's grandson Oliver, who will presumably reap commissions from the sales. If the village detective solves the murder first, the estate still goes to the government.
Yes, Frances was so sure that she would be murdered that this information was in her will. And the evidence shows that she was indeed murdered—by an megadose injection of iron. When she was a teen, Frances had been told by a fortune teller that she would be murdered, and Frances was a believer. She kept a room in her house filled with information about everyone she came into contact with who might possibly become her murderer. There was even one of those murder boards that are seen in police shows, with photos and strings.
The race is on, to see if one of the possible heirs can solve the murder in time. The story dips back into Frances' younger life, via her diary, which Annie found. The diary was immensely helpful in following Frances' thoughts. There are lots of characters to consider, and some surprises, as well as danger. Recommended.
For seven years, straitlaced Simon has been one of the leads on a popular science fiction TV show, opposite Charlie, a handsome and chaotic former reality star. After the season ends, Simon's planning on leaving for a serious acting job on Broadway, though he hasn't shared that info with anyone. However, given his standoffishness, Simon's concerned that it will look like he's leaving because he was difficult to work with, so when Charlie offers to help his image with some chummy social media posts, Simon reluctantly says yes. Despite Charlie being everything Simon detests.
This enemies-to-lovers, grumpy/sunshine romance is classic Cat Sebastian, in that it's fantastic, with fully realized characters and a thoughtful consideration of emotional and psychological baggage. Really, my only complaints with this book are that the excuse for the road trip seems a bit flimsy, and the cover makes this look like it takes place in the 1960s (which it most certainly does not). Otherwise, it's fantastic, and I highly recommend it.
Author-who-unexpectedly-solves-murders Ernest Cunningham has traveled to a tiny Australian town with his fiancée in a last-ditch effort to get a loan to kickstart his private detective business. But while they're there, a bank robbery ensues, and Ernest soon discovers that all ten hostages (himself included) are guilty of some sort of theft, whether it's gold or simply a pen, though he can't quite figure out why or how they've all come together. As Ernest recounts the tale from the small safe in which he's trapped, he lays out all the elements as a way of getting the reader to solve the mystery.
I've read a previous Ernest Cunningham book in the past, and found it incredibly annoying, in large part because of the footnotes scattered through that one (with very few exceptions, footnotes in fiction are the WORST). I picked this one up because I hoped that the heist of it would make it better. This one thankfully doesn't have the footnotes, but Ernest's "I'm smarter than you" vibes are still in full force. I stuck with it until the end because I really did want to know what the deal was, but that was in spite of, and not because of, the first-person narration. Don't think I'll be trying another one of these.
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton (2018, 432 pages)
⭐⭐⭐
Sorcery and Small Magics (The Wildersongs Trilogy, #1) by Maiga Doocy (2024, 416 pages)
⭐⭐⭐⭐
All You Knead Is Love by Tanya Guerrero, 384 pages.
This was a pretty solid middle grade coming-of-age novel. I'm not sure there's a lot here to recommend it to adults, but I do think I would definitely recommend it to middle schoolers. I really liked Alba, and I thought all of the characters were really interesting, even if this may not be the most nuanced book.
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, 343 pages.
This book was very interesting, and I can see why it got so much attention when it came out a few years ago. The four perspectives across 40 years allows for a very nuanced examination of race in America. That being said, I do think the first half of this book is stronger than the second. It starts very strong, but then feels as if it just sort of fades out until the book ends. Still, I do think this is worth reading.
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui (2017) 329 pages
Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higgenbotham (2024) 563 pages
Serial Killer Games by Kate Posey (2025), 384 pages
Delicious in Dungeon vols 9-14 by Ryoko Kui (trans. Taylor Engel), 1256 pages.
Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy, 416 pages.
The Fallen: The Lost Girls of Ireland's Magdalene Laundries and a Legacy of Silence by Louise Brangan, 368 pages.
After independence, Ireland started on the endeavor of nation building, and hung much of its modern national identity on the purity of its people, and especially its women and girls. This fear that girls could cause the corruption of the nation led to a culture of shame and silence, and droves of young women immigrating or being institutionalized. Brangan does and excellent job tracing not only the full history of the laundries, but also their context in both the past and present. She delves into a history of injustice that had been intentionally repressed, and attempts to create a more complete record of the truth.
This is, overall, a very approachable work of nonfiction. It highlights several girls who spent time in the laundries through the decades, and uses this human element for both primary source material and a narrative that is easy to digest. Her dedication to context also means that the reader does not need much knowledge of Irish history at all to understand the information being presented. My only major complaint is that Brangan is often not very clear about when events are happening. She will transpose the stories of girls who were in the laundries decades apart on the same page, sometimes making it difficult to trace the evolution of the institution. That being said, I do consider this a very solid history of the Magdalene Laundries, and would recommend it for people interested in Irish history, or women's history.
This book will be published 5/5/2026.
Stay for a Spell by Amy Coombe, 384 pages.
In a purely complimentary way, I don't know if I've ever read a book that was more purely wish fulfillment. What if instead of doing your boring duties you literally can't leave a bookstore? One complete with beautiful old books, comfy but pretty clothes, a magical cat, a lovely garden, and an extremely handsome pirate who won't stop bothering you? In addition to the general coziness of this premise, I thought this book was more generally very well done. Tandy's arc felt emotionally compelling, and I really liked how the princes gave a sense of external progression, in addition to allowing characters to be added slowly and in an easy to process way. Coombe also consistently chose narrative options that I found the most satisfying, which is perhaps praise specific to me, but did help push this book over to 5 stars for me. I highly recommend this as the new ultimate in cozy fantasy.
This book will be published 04/14/2026.
There have been some mixed
reviews of this book, but I enjoyed it. I was looking for a suspenseful, twisty
thriller and this is it. Yes, there are some predictable parts. But, honestly,
if you read enough thrillers, there are always some predictable parts. I
am not sure that last time I read a completely out of the blue surprise ending.
So I am going to give this one some grace.
The book follows two friends as
they embark on a caving adventure. A stranger follows them down and things get
intense and dangerous. Secrets come out. I listened to the audiobook (the
narrator does a fantastic job) and spent most of the time trying not to hyperventilate
from claustrophobia. Obviously, I wasn't there, but the author does such a
great job describing the cave, you can feel the walls closing in. I 100% do not
want to go caving after reading this book.
History Lessons by Zoe B. Wallbrook (2025), 373 pages.
After
reading Annie's review, I thought I would check
this out. Overall, I really enjoyed the cozy mystery and insight into higher academia.
My only (very slight) gripe is that Daphne is almost too worldly with too much
of an interesting family background to be relatable. Although - it does serve
her well in detecting.
Lorna is in her early forties, practically alone in the world since her mother and grandmother died and her father and her sister live in Florida. Her sister Kristen has been an addict since a very young age, and her addiction has cost the family in many ways: their parents' marriage, their home, their finances, their friends, their peace.
Lorna is an excellent saleperson in a software company, but the team she leads does not like her because she drives them too hard and is unkind. Her only advocate in the company is Deb, who says that Lorna must take an immediate leave of absence to attend a wellness program over the course of the next thirty days, in order to deal with her anger and her life in general. Lorna resists, but it's the only way to keep her job.
The novel follows Lorna's path, including lookbacks on her life and her sister's addiction. The issues are presented realistically, along with the fits and starts by which Lorna works on her life, including an apology tour, as well as her attempt to add people to her life.
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin (1956) 192 pages
Wow! A fabulous reading month for UCPL, as we blow last years best month out of the water by a whole 10 books! Without further ado: the March totals.
Byron: 4 books, 1332 pages
Chani: 3 books, 967 pages
Jan: 5 books, 1731 pages
John: 2 books, 740 pages
Kara: 29 books, 10207 pages
Kevin: 2 books, 656 pages
Regan: 10 books, 3343 pages
Tracey: 10 pages, 3174 pages
Totals: 69 books and 23,161 pages
