Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block

Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block by Jesse Q. Sutanto, 304 pages

At 63, Mebel has been a trophy wife to a successful Singaporean businessman her whole life. So when he leaves her for their much-younger private chef, Mebel's despondent and desperate to get him back so that she can continue living the life to which she's become accustomed. Best way to do that? Enroll in culinary school (the one closest to the Hermes store in Paris, of course) and learn to cook, which can't be that hard, right? Armed with Louis Vuitton trunks full of designer clothes and a bit of chutzpah, Mebel heads to Paris... only to learn that she's accidentally enrolled in the school's British campus, which is in a tiny village near Oxford.

This was a charming book full of humor, nuance, and great character development for Mebel. I loved her relationship with her fellow culinary students and the way she connected with them, despite differences in age, race, and skill. I also really appreciated the way Sutanto showed the relationship with Mebel's son and his family, and the way that gender roles expectations can be passed down generationally, just through observation. For such a funny book, this took on some fairly serious topics quite well. Highly recommended!

*This book will be published April 28, 2026.

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix, 404 pages

Patricia Campbell seems like your average suburban housewife: she lives on a cul-de-sac with her husband, two kids, and a dog. She enjoys a glass of white wine at her monthly book club. But the book club doesn't get their reading selections from Oprah — instead, they're reading true crime books, from Helter Skelter to In Cold Blood to Ann Rule. So when a new neighbor strikes Patricia as a bit odd, her husband blames the gruesome books for planting ideas in her head. But Patricia can't shake the idea that something about the neighbor's avoidance of daylight and the disappearance of kids from a poor neighborhood are more than just an ominous coincidence and she enlists her book club to help her solve the mystery.

I have loved every one of Grady Hendrix's novels, and this is definitely no exception. It's clever, creepy, funny, and such a wonderful love letter to the unsung heroes that are stay at home moms. I can see why this appeared on so many Best of 2020 lists. Recommended for fans of horror and humor.

Recipe for a Perfect Wife

Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown, 322 pages

It's 1955, and Nellie Murdoch is a young housewife in the suburbs. Her husband, however, is not exactly the easiest to live with. He expects perfection (and a perfect baby) from Nellie, and gets jealous and abusive if his demands are not met. But Nellie has her lovely garden and her mother's old cookbook to keep her company.

Sixty-three years later, former publicist Alice Hale has moved into Nellie's old house with her new husband, who is ready to fill up the large mid-century home with children and home-cooked meals, neither of which Alice is too excited about. Struggling with both her husband's expectations and her newly empty schedule, Alice discovers Nellie's old cookbook in the basement, and starts channeling the 1950s housewife in ways even she's not aware of.

Told in alternating chapters, these two stories illuminate the parallels between the two women's lives, including the pressures put upon them by both their spouses and society. It's a captivating, and fascinating book, and Brown is very sly in her storytelling, particularly in Nellie's tale. I got sucked in and couldn't put it down. Highly recommended.

Today Will Be Different

Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple, 259 pages

Eleanor Flood was once the Emmy-nominated animation director of a hit TV show. These days, the only thing she's working on is memorizing a poem a week, shuttling her son back and forth to his private school, walking her lazy dog, and wondering what in the world her surgeon husband is up to when he says he's at work. And she's not exactly thrilled with her new lot in life; I believe the word "ennui" was created with Eleanor Flood in mind.

Much like Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette, Today Will Be Different is riotously funny, with plenty of jabs at the upper crust. While it's not quite as tight plot-wise, it's still an excellent book, one worth picking up when you need a good laugh. Also, a shout out to the illustrator of Eleanor's 12-page mini-memoir, which is included in the book. The art is awesome!