The Girl in White Gloves:  A Novel of Grace Kelly  by Kerri Maher (2020)

28 Wednesday Oct 2026

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Even though her real life wasn’t always a fairy tale, I loved listening to this romantic story about the life of American icon Grace Kelly . 

“A captivating look behind the scenes at the life of the iconic Grace Kelly…as she searches for authenticity in a world clamoring instead for a picture-perfect princess.”—Marie Benedict, New York Times bestselling author of The Only Woman in the Room

“Daring and deep. Maher successfully lifts the curtain of mystery that surrounded a princess and a movie star, revealing a headstrong, complex woman with a riveting story to tell.”—Fiona Davis, National bestselling author of The Chelsea Girls 

“A story about the actual Grace Kelly…Maher humanizes her and provides a glimpse into a world that looks far different from what the media portrayed it to be when she was alive.”—Bookreporter

“There is much to relish about this well-researched, riveting tale.”—Booklist

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Etna by Paul Yoon

20 Tuesday Oct 2026

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The narrator of this short but meaningful novel is a dog named Etna, taken from his farm as a puppy to become a trained war dog. After years on the battlefields of an unknown country, he is determined to make his way home. His encounters with animals and humans on his journey back emphasize the heavy impact of war on all living things. I loved how the author captures a dog’s voice in this beautifully written, powerful story.

“Devastating and gorgeous.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Keenly wrought… Etna stands out among Yoon’s work… For all its compactness, Etna has the shape of an epic…tied deeply into both ancient literary tradition and tragically perennial concerns…In Yoon’s hands, a character’s suffering never overwhelms their capacity for tenderness. The author always insists on the enduring humanity of his displaced subject—even when they aren’t human.”—Rachel Vorona Cote, The Atlantic 

“An engrossing, often deeply moving parable about the evils of war, the instinct for survival and the irresistible pull of home… This normally mild-mannered animal has seen humanity at its worst, and yet somehow embodies the qualities—loyalty, empathy, resilience—of humanity at its best. His persistence in attempting to find peace and sanity in an insane world is nothing short of inspirational.” —BookPage

“Magnificent… an epic journey of hope… Yoon crafts yet another literary miracle, gorgeous in spare prose and dense with wrenching empathy on pages that may become saturated with tears. Amid today’s exhausted desensitization, Yoon gives readers an antidote of pure emotion.”—Booklist, Starred Review 

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Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (2025)

14 Wednesday Oct 2026

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A single father and his children are living on an isolated island as part of a research expedition when they discover a strange woman washed ashore. She does not fully reveal why she is there while the family keeps secrets from her as well. I loved Charlotte McConaghy’s first two books and her third did not disappoint. Like her other novels, “Wild Dark Shore” follows a complicated heroine, her relationships, and her strong connection to nature.

“Wild Dark Shore is a thrilling page-turner, but all the action and suspense disguise something deeper: a beautiful meditation on love, loss and resilience in the face of climate change.”―NPR 

“McConaghy writes beautifully about the natural world and expertly ratchets up the tension, as mutual suspicion increases and secrets are gradually revealed. This is a powerful read that encompasses not only grief, sacrifice and perseverance in the face of disaster, but also survival strategies and their concomitant moral dilemmas.”―The Guardian

“[A] terrific thriller…McConaghy keeps readers guessing…McConaghy writes about both nature and human frailty with eloquent generosity. Readers won’t want to leave behind the imagined world of pain and beauty that McConaghy has conjured.”―Kirkus (starred review) 

“A riveting drama set on a remote island near Antarctica, where a man and his three children are caretakers for an underground vault protecting vital samples of the world’s plant seeds. Personal mysteries and dangerous climate-change-induced weather make this a suspenseful page-turner.”―Scientific American

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Famesick: a Memoir by Lena Dunham (2026)

07 Wednesday Oct 2026

Posted by in Biography, memoir, Non-fiction, United States

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You don’t need to be familiar with Lena Dunham’s work in movies and television to read her new memoir. While she shares details and stories about show business, “Famesick” primarily centers around her mental and physical health struggles and how fame made them worse. Her story is sad, funny, self-deprecating, upsetting, and ultimately hopeful. I recommend the audiobook read by Dunham herself.

“As someone who has read a truly absurd amount of celebrity memoirs, I can tell you that in rare fashion Dunham goes deep.”—The New York Times Magazine 

“Famesick is a pleasure to consume, its sentences seductive, its rhythms soothing. It leads to a fast read, but the sentences never feel empty. It is the pleasure of reading someone who also actually reads books, not someone who only reads posts or captions, which, in our newly crowned post-literate cultural landscape, feels like a blessing.”—Harper’s Bazaar 

“Although most young women are not also writing and directing a series that makes them a household name, Dunham finds a way to hang her experiences on a scaffolding of normal feeling, describing the kinds of nausea and social panic one can experience even without an HBO deal.”—New York Magazine

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Kin: a Novel by Tayari Jones (2026)

29 Tuesday Sep 2026

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Vernice and Annie, two motherless daughters raised in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, have been best friends and neighbors since earliest childhood.  Vernice leaves Honeysuckle at eighteen for Spelman College.  Annie takes a different path searching for her lost mother in perilous places. This is about friendship, sisterhood and the complexities of being a woman in the American South  

“Beautifully written and powerfully compelling. . . . Tayari Jones interrogates social injustice through the lens of personal relationships while exploring the ways in which it shapes those relationships, and she does this in language that is intimate, conversational, and musical all at once.” —Kirkus (starred review)

“Jones delivers a triumphant novel of two motherless girls from rural Honeysuckle, Louisiana, who follow very different paths into adulthood. . . . Throughout, Jones tells her protagonists’ stories with grace, humor, and pathos. Kin is a tour de force.” ­—Publishers Weekly (starred review) 

“Ambitious and accessible, emotionally challenging without pushing readers away. . . . Kin shows off Jones’s considerable skill through strong pacing and a plot that is emotionally taut without feeling unnecessarily dramatic. Without fail, Jones delivers a brilliant turn of phrase, at turns witty and insightful.” —Shelf Awareness

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When We See You Again by Rachel Goldberg-Polin (Author) and Jon Polin (Afterword) (2026)

22 Tuesday Sep 2026

Posted by in Biography, memoir, Non-fiction

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In this powerful memoir, Rachel Goldberg-Polin tells the story of her son Hersh, one of the hostages kidnapped in Israel on October 7 and killed a year later. Rachel, her husband Jon, and their three children moved from the United States to Israel in the mid-2000s, and this book explores the lives of Rachel and her family before Hersh was taken, as well as the terrifying aftermath. This is an extremely sad book and a moving tribute from a mother to her son.

“Refined, precise and finely carved . . . When We See You Again brings the miracle of the everyday into sharp relief. It is a paean to pain; a difficult gift.”—The New York Times

“A searing . . . unflinching account of grief.”—Los Angeles Times

“An excavation of a mother’s grief for her only son.” —The Washington Post 

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The Calamity Club: A Novel by Kathryn Stockett (2026)

15 Tuesday Sep 2026

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I highly recommend listening to this one – available on Hoopla instantly, no waiting! It’s almost 30 hours long, but the time flew by, especially the chapters told from the perspective of 11 year old Margo Louise Lafleur. Meg stole the entire book for me with her funny, fierce, endearing personality.  

“Stockett’s vibrant follow-up to her bestselling 2009 novel, The Help, traces the intersecting lives of an exasperated older sister, a precocious orphan, and an enterprising woman in 1933 Mississippi. . . . By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, this offers a memorable view into the impossible choices faced by women in the Great Depression.”—Publishers Weekly 

“Smart, funny, and driven by unforgettable characters whose opinions and actions leap off the page, this is a must-read.”—Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry 

“All three protagonists are compelling, but Meg is the star of The Calamity Club. She owes a debt to other smart, lonely girls of Southern literature—especially Frankie, from Carson McCullers’ “The Member of the Wedding”—but her voice is singular and laugh-out-loud funny. . . . Stockett deftly unites her three main characters for an ending that’s as cozy and satisfying as the chicken pot pies her characters keep making and eating.”—Minnesota Star Tribune

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Raising Hare: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton (2025)

09 Wednesday Sep 2026

Posted by in anecdotes, Biography, meaning of life, memoir, nature

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“Ms. Dalton has given us a portrait, both ephemeral and real, of a ‘creature of habit, set hours and favorite places, that walks so lightly on this earth, and that can be trusting on its own terms.’ She seems to share Hare’s traits of serenity, stillness and alertness to danger. It’s a testament to her skills of observation that the two reflect and enhance each other in unexpected, often remarkable ways.”—Wall Street Journal 

“An astounding debut memoir in which Dalton shows how a serene and long-misunderstood creature opened her eyes in many ways. It just might do the same for readers. . . . Soulful and gracefully written.” —Kirkus, starred review

“The best books make you rethink how you relate to the world. This is one of those books. Quietly profound, beautifully written, Hare is now lodged in my heart.”—Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with a Pearl Earring 

“Magical, endearing. . . . Dalton’s memoir expands on the relatively little knowledge we have about this enchanting species, while also serving gentle commentary on the state of wildlife and the need to preserve their habitats. . . . A sweet and curious meditation on what we gain when we allow the natural world to teach us.” —BookPage, starred review

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Villa Coco: a Novel  by Andrew Sean Greer (2026)

14 Friday Aug 2026

Posted by in Fiction, Humor, Travel

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 Novels at Night choice for Sept 8, 2026, 7:00 pm @ Weston Public Library

Unable to travel this summer? Open these pages into a sun-drenched, Italian villa tucked back in the rampant vines and olive trees, rooms stuffed with art and possessions collected over a lifetime, populated by a host of one-of-a kind characters on a rollicking escapade that dazzles. Light and refreshing.

“Easy-breezy funny and charming . . . [Greer] has confected an airy champagne bubble of a book. . . The characters in this novel are loveable enough to live in your head for days afterward.”—Vox 

“Charming from start to finish . . . Seductively entertaining . . . [Villa Coco] feels itself like a proverbial box of chocolates—a treasure chest of surprises waiting to be sampled. . . . Greer’s novel is a Tuscan romp that overflows with sunshine and surprises while providing a deep meditation on growing up, growing old and navigating the many crossroads in between.”—BookPage (starred review) 

“What a beautiful book: an absolutely engrossing world full of golden sunlight and strange little secrets and anchovies and art. I feel like I’d recognize its glorious haphazard villa and determined Baronessa on sight.”—Holly Gramazio, author of The Husbands 

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Land: A Novel by Maggie O’Farrell

10 Monday Aug 2026

Posted by in Fiction, Historical Fiction, nature

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 A story of one family, their history, their continuous story of survival relying on each other, and with the land itself – some parts magical, some unexplainable but always richly connected and intertwined. Take your time and savor the language.   O’Farrell’s descriptive writing and fully developed characters brings 19th century Ireland to life. 

“A breathtaking hymn to the sanctity of natural spaces, operating on timescales both intimate and geological. I finished Land moved not only by the vivid lives of its human characters but the thrumming, gorgeous presence of its mosses, waters, winds, and skies.” —Daniel Mason, author of North Woods 

“Majestic. . . . O’Farrell’s prose is a gift: Her language is lush and muscular. . . . Land is a story of great losses—and greater power.” —BookPage (starred review) 

“A rich portrait of family life. . . . Land is a historical novel imbued with O’Farrell’s signature interest in absorbing family relationships. . . . O’Farrell’s writing is propulsive and luscious throughout.” —The New York Times 

“Land is filled with lush, almost fragrant prose. . . . Every word matters, though, which O’Farrell makes clear in the final 130 pages of this epic. . . . The last section of Land is the best thing I’ve read this year.” —Chris Hewitt, The Minnesota Star Tribune 

“Land is as visceral as a novel can get. It feels deeply and it tells deeply, both of nature and of the small tragedy of man. It’s rare to find a story so grand told with such a fine brush. Land read to me as ancient and brand-new all at once, and something best experienced by diving into it headfirst.” —Yael van der Wouden, author of The Safekeep

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