The Summer Share

The Summer Share by Jenn McKinlay, 368 pages

When travel influencer Hannah stops at her late grandfather's vacation home on the Outer Banks, she assumes her inheritance will be a bit of a fixer upper, but home nonetheless. However, when she arrives, she learns that her grandpa only owned half the house, and the other half has been willed to Simon O'Malley, the grandson of her grandfather's co-owner. The pair of them must live there for two months, and then decide jointly to keep or sell the house, which seems to be a big problem as Hannah's determined to keep the house while Simon is dead set on selling it.

This was an OK romance novel, with a pretty standard setup for an uncomfortable shared space forcing the romance to the surface, and a ridiculously fantastic dog. My main quibbles are that the two main characters' voices don't change much chapter to chapter, which makes it hard to tell whose chapter I was reading at a given time (this is not helped by the characters' tendency to refer to each other by surnames). Also, there's a brief conversation about the viral "man vs. bear" question, which felt really out of place and came to some disturbingly bad conclusions (They agree that only women who have been traumatized by men would choose the bear? Seriously?? I'll happily rant about this to you IRL, if you want.) It was a small bit, but it distracted me SO MUCH from the rest of the book, that it's the main thing I'll remember. Well, that and the dog.

The Hospital at the End of the World

The Hospital at the End of the World by Justin C. Key, 400 pages

Pok is at the head of his class, with a bright future in medical school ahead of him. Or so he thinks, until he learns that none of the 12 biggest medical schools — all affiliated with the global AI-based corporation Shepherd Organization — have accepted him, and the only one that has is the AI-averse Hippocrates. A deft coder, Pok pokes around in the Shepherd application files to discover that his files have been tampered with and tries to fix the issues. His anti-AI dad and fellow doctor is convinced that Hippocrates is the right move for Pok, but after Pok's dad dies under mysterious circumstances, Pok realizes that he must flee to Hippocrates. And somehow he must avoid all technological tracking until he gets there if he wants to survive.

With so many technological advancements happening in medicine today, including the integration of some AI elements, this near-future tale functions as a giant flashing, honking warning of the problems that may be on our horizon. It's an interesting, though also terrifying, idea to ponder in this book, especially as Pok begins his classes at Hippocrates and learns how far behind he is by relying on technology to do the heavy lifting of medical care. I'd recommend this for fans of Cory Doctorow and others who amplify the technological issues of today in fiction.

The Sea Child

The Sea Child by Linda Wilgus, 304 pages

When Isabel was a young girl, she washed ashore in a small Cornish town, apparently orphaned by a shipwreck. A naval officer and his wife soon adopted her and raised her to become the wife of another wealthy up-and-coming officer. But after the Napoleonic wars soon made her a widow, and her discovery of her husband's poor financial choices left her penniless, Isabel moved back to that Cornish town to make a home for herself and possibly learn a bit more about where she came from. What she didn't expect was to get involved in piracy and be the source of local superstition that she's the child of a sea god.

What a captivating historical adventure! Filled with smuggling, espionage, and piracy, this novel encapsulates the word "swashbuckling" to a T. I enjoyed seeing Isabel's transformation from coddled to scrappy, and the antics at sea kept the plot moving. A good summer read for someone who always wanted to be Keira Knightley's character in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

The Monsters We Defy

 The Monsters We Defy by Leslye Penelope (2022) 349 pages

I listened to the audiobook on Libby narrated by Shayna Small. This is historical fiction with fantasy mixed in. The setting is 1925 in Washington D.C.'s "Black Broadway" neighborhood, a place and time where Langston Hughes and W. E. B. Du Bois make cameos. Even the main character Clara Johnson is based on a real person. She can see through the veil that separates our world from the spirit world. Her grandmother's ghost stays nearby to give her advice. Clara knows the rules surrounding different types of spirits making deals with humans. Like jinn, Enigmas can grant wishes or special abilities, but there is always a trick, a cost that most would see as a curse. Poor African Americans around D.C. are going missing. With information from contacts in the spirit world Clara learns she needs to recover a magic ring from an opera diva with bootleg liquor gang ties in Black Broadway. Clara will need a team to pull off this heist and stop the nefarious plot. Her ragtag crew are all very interesting characters. Most have skills from deals they've made with Enigmas. Her roommate Zelda grew up in the circus and picked up many random skills that are not magical, but very helpful. Clara also falls in love with the jazz musician, Israel Lee, on her team. It was an enjoyable adventure.

Think Twice (Myron Bolitar #12)

Think Twice by Harlan Coben (2024), 368 pages 

Again, I have fallen into a book that I did not realize was a whole series. My father often gives me boxes of books when he is finished with them and this was included. I think if I had read the previous novels, this one would have been more impactful. It was a fine read. Coben is always a master of a twisty tale and this is no exception. Was it believable - no. Was the ending a bit of a stretch - yes. So, if you are a fan of the Bolitar series, give it a go. I think you will find it entertaining. If you are jumping into it like me, you might want to reconsider and start with book one. 

The Left and the Lucky

The Left and the Lucky by Willy Vlautin, 256 pages

Housepainter Eddie has a solid business as a subcontractor for bigger construction and remodeling projects. Mostly, though, he's trying to keep his primary employee, Houston, on the straight and narrow, away from his many addictions. Then his 8-year-old neighbor Russell starts hanging around Eddie's place, attempting to escape from his abusive older brother and neglectful mother. Soon, Russell is spending more time helping Eddie clean paint brushes and take care of the dog than he ever spends in his own home.

This book doesn't necessarily have a strong plot, but it does have strong characters and a profound sense of the way friendship, even between an unlikely pair, can help people in the most downtrodden of situations. The story is told with care for all of the characters (even Russell's horrible brother), and a sense of realism that makes the reader feel like we can just look out the window and see Eddie and Russell hanging out with the dog. It's hopeful, but only in the most realistic and slightest sense of the word. A quiet story with a strong impact.

May Totals

 

Annie: 4 books, 1059 pages

Byron: 10 books, 2486 pages

Jan: 3 books, 1030 pages

Kara: 8 books, 2494 pages

Kevin: 5 books, 1360 pages

Regan: 9 books, 3003 pages

Tracey: 8 books, 2804 pages 

Totals:  47 books and 14,236 pages

Lucky Day

Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle (2025) 228 pages

Vera just received her advanced degree in statistics and probability, and has gathered with her mother and her friends to celebrate at a restaurant when a low-probability event occurs. This may sound innocuous, but what occurred in Chicago, where they were, was a horrible series of disasters, which ended up killing and horribly injuring scads of people. Vera's mother and a good friend died. World-wide, almost 8 million people died on this one day.

Vera flees to her mother's home in Wisconsin and does very little besides lie on the couch for four years. One day a man knocks at her door, whom she ignores, but he walks in anyway, trying to get her, with her statistical knowledge, to help solve the problem with these low-probablity events, which are apparently ongoing, although not at the scale as that one day. The man, Special Agent Layne, indicates that a casino in Nevada, might be involved somehow. Vera is well aware of the casino's reputation and knew their stats.

What follows is their trip to Nevada to the casino and their quest to put an end to what is making these low-probability events continue. The story reminds me a bit of Grady Henderson's works, quick and action packed, with a bit of mental chess going on.

Boys in the Trees

 

Boys in the Trees by Carly Simon (2015) 376 pages

A deep dive into the life of Carly Simon reveals a non-idyllic life for a girl who felt that something was wrong with her because her father didn't like her, a girl who constantly compared herself to her beautiful older sisters. She indicates that she was sexually abused by a neighbor during the summers when her family would stay at their second home in Connecticut. She began to stutter, and felt ridiculed at school, but her mother suggested that she try to sing rather than say what she wanted to convey.

The Simon family also spent a few weeks per year on Martha's Vinyard, which is where Simon first met James Taylor when they were still young

The Simon family dynamics became quite strange when their mother moved a young man into their home, a college football player half her age who was intended to be a role model for Simon's younger brother Peter, but who apparently became their mother's lover. Simon wonders why her father didn't send the guy packing, comparing this issue to her own, when she and James Taylor were married and their relationship was stalled (or worse).

This memoir is filled with names; so many famous people get to know each other when recording with each other or opening shows for each other. It's a compelling read, and shows that in spite of Simon's early advantages regarding her family's resources, that doesn't mean that she was always in a place where she could enjoy storybook outcomes.

Our Cut of Salt

Our Cut of Salt by Deena Helm, 288 pages.

When Nuhad was a girl, she was forced out of her ancestral home by massacre. She named her daughter Haifa, to never forget the home she would never see again. But her home remembers her too, and it's grief and rage has twisted it into something dangerous, the kind of house that people cross the street to avoid and the unwary disappear from. After her grandmother's death, Marina visits Palestine to try to connect with the family history that has been kept from, but Haifa has enough secrets and tragedies to drown in. 

This was a powerful book that wasn't at all what I expected it to be. Although marketed as a haunted house book, the murderous house is realistically one of the less disturbing things in this book. This book is not remotely subtle. Colonialism is frequently the true horror, but that is usually more subtext than laid out directly on the page. That being said, I don't know that this book needs to be subtle. Helm lays out the horrors of living under occupation unflinchingly, and while the unrelenting tragedy is sometimes hard to read, it is also emotionally effective. I would have liked to see the house used a little more effectively, and it wouldn't have hurt her to let at least a few metaphors go unexplained, but this is still definitely a very strong debut from an under-represented population. 

This book will be published September 22, 2026