The Rose Field

these are not the daemons you’re looking for

We Are All Guilty Here

no Will Trent and a damn good read

The Invisible Circus

the past is never what we thought it was

My Antonia by Willa Cather

Somehow I’d never read Willa Cather’s My Ántonia. Fortunately, it was my read and be happy book club’s choice this month. Now I know why the book is so famous:…

The Everlasting

a fable of power and great love

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment opens with a terrific premise. After an irksome delay on a flight from Hobart to Sydney, a middle-aged woman rises from her seat, walks the…

Wild Dark Shore

My choice for best book published in 2025 reminds us that in the face of disaster, the only real choice is love.

And The Crowd Went Wild by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Dabney: Susan Elizabeth Phillips published her first Chicago Stars book, It Had to Be You, in 1994. The book, featuring a tall, rugged football coach named Dan and a curvy…

Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

Charlotte McConaghy’s Wild Dark Shore is one of my favorite reads of the last few years. It is the third of three books by McConaghy; Once There Were Wolves is…

Heart the Lover

Lily King

At the start of Lily King’s Heart the Lover, a novel of three parts, our narrator is in her final year of college. While the school she attends is never…

The Rose Field

If you were to ask me what the greatest fantasy series ever is, I’d not hesitate to say: His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. I read the trilogy when it…

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey

(originally published on December 25, 2019) Despite being a family of non-believers, every year we pull out our holiday paraphernalia. We dress the tree, hanging with care the delicate glass…