The Burn Line

 

The Burn Line by Jonathan Sims, 384 pages.

Five passengers on the London underground share what seems to be a normal journey on the tube, rendered especially unpleasant by a historic heat wave. But if the trip was normal, why can none of them shake the feeling that something terrible and unnatural happened? The feeling is impossible to shake, and only grows stronger as they feel themselves being stalked, and as strange and not-quite explicable events keep happening around them. The five individuals have nothing in common but their commute, but they will have to come together if they want any chance of survival.

This book had a bit of a slow start. There was a lot of characters telling us they felt uneasy, with very little actually happening on page. However, Jonathan Sims excels at character writing, and I think the split perspective style, cycling through the whole cast, definitely added to the book. Once it hit its stride it was engrossing, and I really enjoyed how it all came together. I don't know if I would call this Sims' strongest work, but I did enjoy it, and would recommend it as a fun bit of summer horror.

This book is scheduled to be released on 8/25/2026. 

June Totals

 A special welcome to new blogger Sarah!

My TBR is getting truly out-of-hand friends

Annie: 2 books, 648 pages

Byron: 4 books, 1029 pages

Jan: 6 books, 1931 pages

John: 2 books, 1529 pages

Kara: 4 books, 1328 pages

Kevin: 3 books, 1472 pages

Regan: 12 books, 3551 pages

Sarah: 3 books, 685 pages

Tracey: 8 books, 3071 pages 

Totals: 44 books and 15,244 pages

Beyond Magenta

Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin (2014) 182 pages

This book was published over 12 years ago, but the information still seems fresh. The author interviews six teens, going into their lives and when they became aware that they didn't match up with their assigned-at-birth gender, and how they and their families navigated after that. Some of the young people are male-to-female, some are female-to-male, one was determined to be intersex. Some have families that accept them, some do not. The soul-searching that these young people go through to try to figure out who they are is difficult.

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 [graphic novel]

 

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 The Authorized Adaptation by Tim Hamilton (2009) 149 pages

Somehow I'd missed reading Ray Bradbury's dystopian novel from 1953. This graphic novel version caught me up in no time. It's a timely subject for those reeling from book bans. Guy Montag is a fireman, but fireman means something quite different in his time: he helps burn books of those who are found to have them. He meets a young woman in his neighborhood while walking home one night, and his conversations with her make him start questioning everything he sees and knows. Good book, which makes me want to read the original. 

Go Gentle

Go Gentle by Maria Semple (2026) 365 pages

Adora Hazzard has gone through a lot to get where she is, but feels she has been saved by philosophy ‒ in particular, Stoicism. Now she has a job with benefits, unusual for a philosopher. She works at the Lockwood Library in NYC where she researches and writes, and also provides moral training for the 11-year old twin sons of Lionel and Layla Lockwood. She and her 15-year-old daughter live nearby in an old building, where the 7th floor is increasingly inhabited by "The Coven," women who share food, transportation, and most of all, moral and physical support for each other as they grow older. What more could Adora want?

Throw in a few monkey wrenches: a strange delivery coming to the library, a man who contacts Adora for help getting a message to Layla Lockwood without being observed, and the destruction of some famous art pieces around the world, along with the reawakening of Adora's wish for sexual intimacy, and who knows what will happen!

The surprising plot, the good dialogue, and the delightful characters make this a fine read. Some of my favorite characters turned out to be Adora's daughter, Viv, and the Lockwood twin sons. Plus I learned/relearned a bit of philosophy in the most palatable way.

The Last Hour Between Worlds

The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso, 432 pages

I first read and blogged about this book just about a year ago, and I'm still wild about this wackadoodle slipstream/multiverse magical mystery. I love the characters, the complex world that the author created, and I'm very interested in where this story goes next. Super good, though it's nearly impossible to describe. Read it, and then come talk to me.

The Girls Before

The Girls Before by Kate Alice Marshall, 320 pages

When Audrey was a teenager, her ex-best friend Janie went missing, and nobody looked for her. Janie was almost 17 and it wasn't unheard of for her to disappear for a few weeks without anyone noticing or caring when she returned, but this time, she completely vanished. Close to 20 years later, Audrey still can't forgive herself for not seeking out her ex-friend, and now volunteers for search and rescue missions any time she can. When the latest disappearance occurs, Audrey sees some disturbing similarities to Janie, from the age and description to the girls' obsession with a local witch of legend.

I liked that this book was largely from the point of view of someone on the search and rescue team, and I REALLY liked that the dog survived (phew!), but some of the twists played out a bit oddly, and I'm honestly having trouble remembering the details of this one. So it's good for a quick thrilling read, but don't expect it to stay with you.

The One Hundred Nights of Hero

 The One Hundred Nights of Hero by Isabel Greenberg (2016) 224 pages 

I read this on Libby. I like the color scheme of the art and the fantasy of this setting, an alternate land called Early Earth. "In the tradition of the Arabian Nights" is the perfect way to summarize this book. The author is British so cheeky describes the sense of humor in these feminist folk tales. Cherry and Hero outsmart the wicked suitor, Manfred, like Shahrazad delayed the vengeful Sultan, with stories. Hero wins over the guards and others with her stories in a world where women are supposed to be illiterate and powerless. She subverts all expectations.                        

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and B. Traven

 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre by B. Traven (1935) 313 pages

I listened to the audiobook on Hoopla narrated by three voices. I love the movie version from 1948 and have been curious to check out the source material. The book has a lot more background information, but not about the three main gold prospector characters. Instead, the author paints a picture of Mexico, its bandits, its socio-religious conditions, and other backstories about people craving gold. The plot with Dobbs, Curtin, and Howard is nearly identical to the movie. Howard is the knowledgeable old-timer. Dobbs and Curtin first meet on an oil drilling contract and then go searching for gold in the mountains. Trust and saving each others' lives eventually devolves into paranoid distrust and murderous intentions. Dobbs, in particular, has an epic descent into madness over his greed for gold.

B. Traven: Portrait of a Famous Unknown by Golo (2024) 144 pages

This graphic nonfiction is translated from French. I was curious to learn more about the author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. The enigma, B. Traven, remains an enigma. He used many pseudonyms through the years. Golo uses Traven's novels to piece together what his life experiences might have been. It gets into the weeds of German politics between WWI and WWII. One of his novels is about the terrible conditions working shoveling coal on a steam ship, and so, it is thought it is based on his lived experience, a job that allowed him to escape Germany and the rise of Naziism. When he begins living in Mexico I was much more engaged in the life story. He wrote many novels set in Mexico. The art of the graphic novel is fairly busy (especially on the color montage pages), so I didn't find much clarity about the man.

The Incredible Kindness of Paper

The Incredible Kindness of Paper by Evelyn Sky (2025), 256 pages 

If you enjoy Hallmark movies, but want them to be even more saccharine sweet, this is the book for you. No judgement if you just want a nice story that ends in happiness (we could all use a bit of that), but this was just a little bit too over the top for me. Although - it has renewed my interest in origami.

The Marlow Murder Club

The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood (2021), 384 pages

Murder is afoot in the sleepy town of Marlow. Never fear as septuagenarian Judith Potts is on the case. If you love cozy British mysteries, this is right up your alley. Overall, I did enjoy it, but it isn't a favorite. I have also already read The Thursday Murder Club and it is almost impossible to not compare the two. The MMC feels a bit heavier and less fun the then The TMC. The characters didn't feel as original and I enjoyed the relationship between the characters more in The TMC. But, if you love The TMC and have zoomed through the series and looking for something similar, definitely check out The MMC. 

That's What Friends Are For

That's What Friends Are For by Wade Rouse (2026) 344 pages

Four gay men, ranging in age from their sixties to early eighties, are living together in Palm Springs, in a pink house once owned by Zsa Zsa Gabor. They came out as gay in times when people were even less tolerant than they are today, and each of the men has been wounded along the way. They call themselves the Golden Gays, and they even put on shows regularly, modeling them after the Golden Girls TV show that aired from the late 80s to the early 90s. Teddy, who runs a vintage clothing shop, plays the role of Dorothy. Barry, who is an actor who never made it big, writes the shows for the Golden Gays and plays the role of Blanche. Sid, the oldest at eighty-one, is still working ten hours a week as an attorney. He was once married to a woman and has adult children and now grandchildren. He plays the role of Sophia. Ron keeps the house running and the others fed, as well as tends to various civic boards in the city. He plays the role of Rose.

Even now, as best friends and housemates, they have secrets from each other. The novel sets them in motion, and as we see their lives unspool, it's hard not to care about them a whole lot. I highly recommend this book.

This Inevitable Ruin

 

This Inevitable Ruin by Matt Dinniman, 870 pages.

Floor nine of the dungeon means Faction Wars! And, for the first time in history, the rich and powerful aliens who come to the dungeon to play games with their lives can die too. In this seventh book of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, the chaos is escalating as the system AI goes of the rails and pandemonium spreads outside the dungeon. 

I was really looking forward to this floor, and in some ways it met my expectations, and in some it didn't. On one hand, the out-of-dungeon politics are really interesting, and this book does a great job crystalizing a lot of details of the larger scale plot. On the other, I do feel like this book got a little bogged down in the logistics of a many factioned war, and it often felt less fun and breakneck than many of the other books because of it. I did still enjoy this book, and I will be reading more of the series. I'm excited to be almost caught up!

 

The Secret Public

 

The Secret Public: How Music Moved Queer Culture From the Margins to the Mainstream by Jon Savage, 784 pages.

This hefty book does pretty much what it says on the cover, tracing the intersection of queer history with music and pop culture. More specifically, from 1955 to 1979. I found this book a little lacking in focus, although supposedly about music, it also spent quite a bit of time on Hollywood and Andy Warhol. I'm also not entirely sure why the author decided to stop in 1979 after the fall of disco, when I think the 1980s might be one of the more interesting decades for this topic. 

That being said, it was still very informative, and I do feel like I learned a lot. This is indisputably a slow book, but everything in it is also thoroughly researched. I think I would recommend this more to people interested in the pop culture of the 1950s-1970s than anyone else. 

The Edge

The Edge (The 6:20 Man #2) by David Baldacci, 417 pages

While Baldacci does tend to be a bit formulaic and his character writing, to me, a little stilted, I did enjoy this follow-up to the 6:20 Man. I actually think it is better than the first book. It was a good twisty mystery with some heft. Baldacci even gives a shout out to his second cousin (former Governor of Maine). I do wish he would lay-off the ex-military, but super nice guy tropes. If you enjoy this genre of books, I think you will enjoy The Edge.

Transported

 Transported: The Everyday Magic of Musical Daydreams by Elizabeth Margulis, 240 pgs. © 2026

I saw the author speak at Left Bank two months ago and was really interested to read this. I've enjoyed reading other works about the latest scientific discoveries of music research. This one didn't quite hit the mark for me. Margulis is the director of the Music Cognition lab at Princeton so she's definitely in her wheelhouse, but a lot of this book reads like an extended version of a grad student's final paper. She relies on a lot of pop culture reference to illustrate her points about some of the latest research, probably to make it easier to understand for the layperson. And while connecting and quantifying imagination with music and daydreams is really interesting, it seems like a field that's still in it's infancy. That is to say maybe this book should've been written when there were more conclusive findings that actually pointed to answers. Still, there are some interesting takeaways, like how people in a group can hear a new piece of music and imagines similar themes and images--or how music can call forth autobiographical memories more readily in dementia patients. It's an interesting field, I'm sure there will be more to learn as research continues. 

The Unteachables

 The Unteachables, by Gordon Korman, 288 pgs. © 2019

Another night time read with my kiddo. Korman's definitely got a style and he knows how to cater to this age group but also make it fun for adults. Each chapter switches to a different character so that helps make the narrative interesting while also developing the plot. This particular story focuses on a band of misfit school kids who get a new teacher at the end of his rope--it's a fun premise that really gave me some Bad New Bears vibes, if anyone remembers that movie 😂 

The Eyre Affair

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (2001), 374 pages

In this very clever book, we follow Special Operative Thursday Next as she tracks down Acheron Hades before he can snatch Jane Eyre out of the novel Jane Eyre. It is a fun fantasy/sci-fi novel that imagines 1985 England as a place where people can travel in and out of time and in and out of literature. It is creative (real life bookworms!), silly, and fun for folks who love to pick up on classic literature references. My only real criticism is that the actual Jane Eyre plot line doesn't pick up until the second half of the book. I kept thinking I had missed it somewhere. Also - I listened to the audio book version. The narrator, Susan Duerden did a wonderful job. Her voice, though, has such a soothing, classic British sound to it that I sometimes felt like the characters were woodland creatures a la Peter Rabbit. 

Wreck

 

Wreck by Catherine Newman (2025) 215 pages

Wreck is the perfect title for this short novel, which follows Rocky's family, the same family that was highlighted in Sandwich. Wreck empasses the emotional aftermath of a train wreck, but also the deep concern with a health blip that turns into a full-fledged health scare. Rocky's widowed father is living in a separate building on Rocky and her husband Nick's property in Western Massachusetts. Their daughter Willa is with them as well, not having moved out post college yet. Their son Jamie is married and living in New York City, but in spite of his distance, he is a key player in this story, as well.

This story has it all - realistic, close famiy relationships, frustration that sometimes comes with such close relationships, health concerns, as well as moral concerns: do we really know the people we think we know. One does not have to have read Sandwich to enjoy this book, but having read Sandwich gave me the chance to feel that I was coming home to a family that I hadn't seen for a bit, and didn't realize how much I missed them.

The New People

 

The New People by Andrea Uptmor, 320 pages.

Newly married, Emma and Rachel have just moved from Chicago to a college town in rural Indiana, into a shoddily flipped house that was foreclosed when the housing bubble burst. Emma is uneasy in the new house, overshadowed by her wife's success and surrounded by the type of community that was not easy to grow up in for a queer girl and isn't any better in 2008. But soon the house itself starts making her uneasy, things go missing, damage and mess come from nowhere, and something always seems to be going wrong. It turns out that this is because the previous owners never left. Charlotte and Dirk have been secretly staying in a hidden attic apartment, building resentment against the women who took their house and desperately waiting for what comes next for two retirees with nothing to their names. 

This was masterfully crafted in a way that I found surprising for a debut novel. I was impressed how our two protagonist's perspectives wound together, often mirroring each other in ways that the characters themselves would be surprised by. There is a real sense of uneasiness to this book that makes it hard to tell what genre direction it was going to go in, which I think fed back into the sense of uneasiness again. There is of course something very disturbing about the idea of someone secretly living in your home who means you harm. But rather than what could have been a fairly solid suspense premise, Uptmor instead focuses on a very human element, which makes the novel shine in a way that is both more complex and interesting. Definitely a recommendation from me. 

This book will be published on 21 July 2026 

Daydream Hour

 

Daydream Hour: Doodles by Ryoko Kui, 232 pages

This is a collection of doodles, art studies, and short comics from Ryoko Kui, the creator of Delicious in Dungeon. Kui appologizes in the introduction of the book for how ridiculously self-indulgent it is, but I do think that its self-indulgence is the real strength of this collection. It is a very cozy collection of low-stakes art that is very relaxing to read. However, it is also an interesting peak behind the curtain at the process of making a manga, and of a professional artist's process. A fun little expansion that is great fun for fans of the series. 

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

 

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan, 112 pages  

Is there anything so delightful as revisiting a book you loved as a child?! The surprising details that have stayed in the back of your memory somewhere, the charming little things you didn’t notice at a different point in your life, the surprise when you find yourself identifying with the adults in the story...what’s not to love? I had read this one several times, and certainly long after it was an academic challenge, just because it was so darn good.

This is the story of a father and two children in a setting that I took to be 1880’s Kansas, but was surprised on this read to find it is actually a little more vague. A widower places a personal ad in the newspaper, and his two children eagerly await an answer. A response comes from the titular Sarah from the exotic land of Maine. Sarah arrives to spend a month the family before deciding if she’ll marry the widower and stay forever. Behaving as no actual children ever have, the kiddos strive to impress Sarah both because they want so much to have a stepmother and because they come to love her as an individual. They enjoy a sampling of prairie-life experiences, and hear how different things are in Maine. It’s difficult to call this a spoiler because the book is 45 years old, and because it’s a predictable book: Sarah decides to join the family!  

Of course this is one of many White People on the Great Plains type of books, that don’t offer a variety of experiences, but did lack the more overt insensitivity of the Little House books (which you’d expect from 1980s and 1930s books, respectively). It did get a little monotonous that Sarah responds to everything with “in Maine, we do xyz instead!” Girl, we get it, you’re from Maine! Otherwise, a fun little one-sitting read. 

We Came, We Saw, We Left: A Family Gap Year by Charles Wheelan

 

We Came, We Saw, We Left: A Family Gap Year by Charles Wheelan, 269 pages

 

This is a memoir of two parents and their three teenagers that take a gap year and travel together around South America, New Zealand and Australia, Asia and Africa. This was among the best lighthearted travel writing that I’ve encountered!   I have my own theories on why most travel writing is mediocre at best, and why there is so much of it, which I will spare you here.  WCWSWL is the exception! This book is a fun escape not only in that you get to go along on the travel adventure but also feel a part of a fun- but not too perfect- family. I laughed out loud many times (especially at the antics of the teens) and actively looked forward to my bedtime reading throughout the day.   While I got the impressions that the Wheelan’s are thoughtful people that sought to understand the social issues that the inhabitants of their destinations were facing, it wasn’t a particularly informative book that sought to be life-changing at its heart. There’s plenty of profound travel writing out there, but this one was delightful just telling a fun story that took me on the cheapest kind of vacation.

Americus

 Americus by M.K. Reed with art by Jonathan Hill (2011) 216 pages

Americus is small town America. Published by First Second back in 2011. That year the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom recorded 326 book ban challenges. In 2025 there were over 4,000 titles challenged. I found this book on BookRiot's recent list "Fighting Oppression: 5 Graphic Novels About Book Banning." The main character, Neil, is starting high school in Americus. Following a somewhat sheltered youth with his divorced mom, he is a budding punk music fan who thinks a lot of his small town and high school is stupid. He is a big fan of a popular fantasy book series and becomes a page at the local public library. His best friend's mom launches a Christian crusade against these fantasy books. The book ban is the main crisis of the plot, but I really enjoyed this book because of the people surrounding Neil. His mom as compared to the other moms, their neighbor, his friendship with the teen librarian, his best friend (sent to a military school), and other outcast kids at school, build a recognizable world.

Margo's Got Money Problems

Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe (2024), 294 pgs. 

Margo was a student, living in an apartment with three roommates and working as a server to make ends meet. She was nowhere near rich, but she was comfortable. Then, Margo got pregnant, and her whole life flipped upside down. Now, Margo's got money troubles. Diapers, doctors appointments, baby food, rent--all these costs certainly add up quickly, and after losing her job and her roommates, they are getting harder and harder to keep up with. Perhaps Margo didn't fully comprehend what she was getting herself into, starting this whole motherhood thing. After trying a few different plans and realizing that the system is not set up to support young single parents, Margo starts an experimental account on OnlyFans. Seeing how her father has made money by building a fanbase as his wrestling persona, she wonders if she can create an online character for herself to make enough money to support her son. 

This is a complicated, interesting book. It leaves you with a lot to think about in terms of the broken system of childcare in this country; sex work vs. other jobs in entertainment and the sticky morality of it all; and what it means to be a "good" mother. Margo is as real of a character as one can write. She is deeply flawed, naive at times, and lonely as well. She fights with her mom and seeks approval from her dad and wonders if she is doing enough for her son. Rufi Thorpe did a wonderful job writing this story and keeping me hooked, then leaving me with so much to consider. Highly recommend with a slight warning for motifs of sex work and addiction

A Chance to Harmonize

A Chance to Harmonize: How FDR's Hidden Music Unit South to Save America from the Great Depression--One Song at a Time, by Sheryl Kaskowitz, 272 pgs. © 2024

This was an fascinating read. As part of FDR's New Deal, a special agency is created to help bring the arts to resettlement towns, which are towns and encampments meant to transition destitute farmers and migrants during the great depression into planned communities. This was a huge agency that's main goal was to boost morale of Americans through the arts, specifically music--the music unit within the Resettlement Agency was even led by Charles Seeger, father of banjo folk-hero Pete Seeger. The book focuses on two women who were a boon to the success of the program, doing the most work and receiving the least amount of credit. The women learn to use the latest in recording technology and travel to the different resettlement towns, recording the folk songs and music of the community, bringing joy and optimism during a very bleak period in American history--the 1930s music program  is credited with the renewed interest in folk music that took place in the 1950s.

The Bodyguard

 

The Bodyguard by Katherine Center (2022) 302 pages

When you think of a bodyguard, you may not visualize a five foot five inch woman, but that's what Hannah is. Her company has been hired to protect an especially popular and good-looking actor, Jack Stapleton, who has a stalker. When Jack needs to temporarily relocate to Texas to be near his mother, who has been diagnosed with cancer, Hannah is the primary bodyguard for Jack. Because Jack doesn't want his family to worry about his stalker, he insists that Hannah pose as his girlfriend, rather than as a more traditional type of bodyguard.

A few complications are that Hannah had been dating another bodyguard in her company, who has broken up with her (and right after her mother has died), but she still needs to work with him. Jack's complication is that one of his brothers - Drew - died in a car accident two years ago, and Jack's older brother Hank still blames Jack, because Jack was in the car with Drew. Jack survived, but Drew did not.

Hanging out with Jack and his family - not the standard operation for a bodyguard - is making Hannah appreciate the relationships within Jack's family (with the exception of Hank) even as she works to convince herself that Jack is acting, not really interested in her. I really enjoyed this page turner.