Recent reads: March 2026
It's been.... a while. I know. I got this website updated and then I started to sew again, kept knitting, and I've been reading a lot. I've had days where I sit down to read and somehow hours pass and it's been so good. This all led me away from my computer and posting on this site. But here I am and things are OK, especially if I stay offline as much as I can so that's what I'm trying to do (not always successful there).
You'll notice a lot of romance in this list of books for two reasons. The first is that I've needed the happily ever after type stories with what's going on both in the US and the world. The second is that I've been reading on my phone as a way to keep me offline. It's starting to work. When I go to pick up my phone I go for either my RSS feeds or Libby. Reading on my phone is easier with lighter reads that can easily be stopped and started, hence the romance. I'm starting to branch out to other types of books now that I'm used to it and have found that it works for me.
Friends to Lovers
Two best friends who grew up going with their families to the coast of Oregon meet up again after a failed attempt at romance for one of their sibling's wedding. I loved that this book took place in my state and had references to Portland and places I knew but it's not the best book I've read. The female lead character at times annoyed me quite a bit, but I pushed through that.
First Time Caller
A woman catches her daughter on the phone late one night with the local call in radio show for questions about love. It turns out that the host of the show doesn't really believe in love, but is grinding his way through the job. The woman agrees to work with the show to find a date and off we go in this story with the tension between the radio host and the woman. This was a funny book in many parts and I enjoyed both characters quite a bit, although it was slow to get going.
The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War
To say that reading this book at the beginning of 2026 was extremely bizarre and I've thought about it since finishing quite a bit with all that's gone on. Stephen Kinzer looks at how the Dulles brothers, as Secretary of State and head of the CIA, change the course of history when they decide to go for regime change in several different countries over the course of the 1950s. Reading while events were happening in Venezuela in January and having read it with what is happening now in the Middle East is, to say the least, wild. Apparently a lot of people currently in power have learned absolutely nothing from history (no shocker there). This is a well written and researched book, but you have to be prepared to be angry most of the time while reading it. The repercussions of their actions are still being felt (one of the chapters is on the overthrow of the leader of... wait for it.... Iran).
Real Americans
I loved this story, taking the various stories of the three generations of one family and telling them in succession. So many questions in this one, What makes someone American, what makes someone a son, daughter, or mother, what makes a family.
All That Is Secret
The first book in a mystery series that I saw a recommendation for somewhere but knew very little about before reading the book. While the mystery was good, I didn't realize it was a Christian author and it felt like the faith parts were needless at times and didn't add to the story.
Sisters in the Wind
I've read Angeline Boulley's other books so when I saw her new book was out and sitting on the shelf at my library I grabbed it. At times Lucy Smith's story is heartbreaking but she survives and she perseveres and it's awesome to see. I also like the way Boulley ties in characters from her other books, a bit of an epilogue to see where they are now.
The Skyland Series
I'm grouping a three book series here together because, quite honestly, these books were about me staying offline, but they weren't great reads. The goal of going to Libby instead of Safari was met on my phone when I was in the midst of these. I enjoyed the first book the most Before I let Go and read the other two to see where the two characters I met in the first two ended up.
The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise
I love Olivia Laing's writing and found a used copy of this book last fall. The combination of history, gardens, and life in these essays works so well and I really enjoyed them. I love how Laing uses the history of gardens around her to talk about so many other life topics and she uses that to talk about the garden she's building.
Slow Dance
I almost didn't finish this book, it started off very slowly and wasn't drawing me in, but I'm glad I kept with it. Rainbow Rowell writes one of the best little kid characters I've read in a while and the difficulties and hesitations and bad communication between the two main characters felt so real.
33 Place Brugmann
An apartment building in Brussels in 1939 where you meet all the people who live there and see what their lives are like before the occupation. The story then jumps in time to 1942 and you see what the people who live there are going through during the occupation. A difficult story, given the setting, but also lovely to see how some of the residents support each other during the hard times.
Meet Me at the Lake
Since I enjoyed the Carly Fortune books I read at the end of last year and I could get more of them from the library, I checked out this book. This is my least favorite of her books. Fortune uses two different things to propel a story; something happened in the past so the story moves between that and the current time and there is a secret being kept by one of the people which is revealed at the end. In this book I didn't find the way she did both of those things as compelling, but read to the end to see if it would get better.
This Summer Will be Different
The final book by Carly Fortune that I hadn't read yet and it turned out to be my favorite. Felix and Lucy meet without knowing exactly who each other is and we go back and forth between the various times they spend time together and the current time where a wedding is coming up. I loved these characters and I absolutely loved that Felix was the one who understood, in the end, what they needed to do to come back together.
Thank You for Listening
A romance book about people who narrate books written by someone who totally understood the tropes she was using and made good use of them ended up being a fun read. Near the end of the book one of the characters is telling her mom the story of what's been going on and she laughs and says it's like a movie and welp, I loved that Whelan made fun of the story she'd written in that way, it was perfect. I also found the bits about narrating books to be interesting, although I'm not sure how accurate it is.