Memoir of a woman (also an award winning professor of creative writing at Princeton) whose two young adult sons both died by suicide few years apart. Her empathy for her sons and their decisions is remarkable. Her reaction is so restrained (but also authentic) that it was almost a little hard to relate (I imagine I‘d be a much hotter mess), but toward the end she does get into some of people‘s baffling reactions to her losses, and that is 👌.

⭐️⭐️ My first from the #ToB26 shortlist, and it‘s a no from me. It started off a little reminiscent of All Fours in that a middle aged lady is having a narcissistic midlife crisis and making questionable decisions that make me not like her at all. Then it sort of morphed into something less interesting and more self indulgent on the author‘s part. I was going to give it a so-so but realized I actually kind of hated it. 🤷‍♀️

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 Story of a thirty-something man who moves from Seattle back to the Bay Area after a loss and divorce and how old and new friends and lovers help him get back on his logistical and emotional feet. I think the impact of the loss wasn‘t built up very well or soon enough and it was sometimes hard to relate to the characters‘ decision making, but it was enjoyable enough. Soft pick.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 Oooh… this was fun. All the rumors, gossip, and palace intrigue of the Cardinals‘ selection of a new pope, with the front runners changing as new information comes to light about things from their past. I only heard of it when Stanley Tucci talked about filming the movie in his latest book, but this was a fun pick!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ History of the Secret Service, going back to its beginning after Lincoln‘s assassination but really picking up from JFK to ~2020. On the one hand many agents serve selflessly under difficult conditions, but man have there been some that have been a dangerous embarrassment. This was particularly true with the shortcomings during the Obama administration. A little dry to start, but definitely picked up steam as it went along.

It‘s here! The #ToB shortlist! But, ugh, it‘s a bunch of the books I looked at and thought, “maybe this one won‘t make it… 🤞” Oh well, here we go! #ToB26

https://www.tournamentofbooks.com/the-2026-shortlist

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 Oral history of the planning and execution of the Allied invasion of Europe in WWII. I loved Graff‘s similar book on 9/11, but found this one harder to really latch onto and follow. I think because there was so much happening simultaneously in such a short time, it felt leas like a cohesive narrative and more like a lot of similar stories without an overall thread. But still interesting and informative.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Perfectly enjoyable and not at all challenging. Loose diary of meals and musings. Lots of great sounding good and a fair amount of celebrity name dropping. Tucci lives a pretty charmed life that is fun to visit. It did inspire me to make a point of doing some more home cooking.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ History of women and their roles and responsibilities in Russia from the Revolution the modern day. The author wove in the stories of her female ancestors with prominent Russian political figures, giving a sense of both the more typical and also higher status experiences. I sort of stalled early on but decided to power through when I realized my library loan was ending, and I‘m glad I did.

Can‘t wait to dig into my #AuldLangSpine list from @Amiable ! I read and liked 9, 10, 12, and 15 and can tell I‘m in good hands! 2, 3, and 13 were at least in the precontemplation phase of the TBR, so they‘re getting bumped up. 1 is totally new to me but looks great, and 6 is one I encountered awhile back but had forgotten about. Several others look like winners as well! Thanks @monalyisha for a great match!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 This was beautiful. I finished a few weeks ago and remembered thinking maybe it didn‘t need to be quite so long, but thinking back on it I don‘t mind the length at all. Story of Sonia and Sonny, Indian young adults trying to make their way in the US and navigate family dynamics in India. It‘s a slow burn but worth the time.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Interesting food for thought about why and how to spend money to increase happiness instead of for status or admiration. I‘ll be honest and say that I got a little annoyed when I realized the author is a few years younger than her than I am and started talking about his financial independence later in the book, but that‘s a me issue. 🤣

This is a hug of a book. I find the author (of Salt Fat Acid Heat fame) completely charming and loved her stories and approach to cooking and enjoying eating with loved ones. I have the physical book, which is beautiful, and have made a few things from it, but also listened to her narrate the non-recipe parts on audio and enjoyed it. Great food/eating/cooking book!

I‘m bored and annoyed by this book. I‘m mildly interested in knowing what the deal is with the dad‘s much (50 years) younger new wife and his sudden death, but I don‘t think I can get through another 10 hours of audio to find out. I came in here to see if others‘ reviews would spur me to push through, but they don‘t look too promising, so this will likely be a bail. Maybe I‘ll skim the end in a library someday…

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was a Litsy find I picked up after seeing @TEArificbooks post about it. Lovely memoir weaving together the pieces together timeline of the unexpected death of the author‘s husband while they were apart, and her sojourn to Flinders Island three years later when she finally stopped to grieve and heal. #nfn #nonfictionnovember

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ If you‘d asked me who Ione Skye was a couple of weeks ago I would have come up empty, but she was part of just about every Gen X coming of age touchpoint… In Say Anything, dated Anthony Kiedis (as a teenager 😬), married Ad Rock, dated Madonna‘s ex-girlfriends, and somehow wrote a very dishy memoir that was mature and insightful and not tawdry. Really enjoyed it! #nfn #nonfictionnovember

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 I‘m in Michigan but this wasn‘t on my radar until I happened to hear about an event with the author. The talk and book were both really interesting, weaving in context about Great Lakes shipping, the commerce and industry that drove it, the Edmund Fitzgerald itself and several members of the crew and their families, and even the making to the Gordon Lightfoot song. I learned a lot! #nfn #nonfictionnovember

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Whoo—what a ride. Story of a “workhorse” editorial assistant at a fancy fashion magazine at the beginning of the 21st century who struggles to manage her envy of the beautiful “show horse” girls from rich and famous families with the “right” pedigrees and the increasingly wild and unhinged decisions she makes to gain and keep a foothold in that world and how she reckons with who she becomes.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was just okay. Biography of Jane Birkin, Englishwoman with a long singing and acting career in France for whom a very expensive and exclusive bag by Hermes is named. This detailed the important events of her life—partners, children, professional accomplishments, but there wasn‘t much to hold onto in terms of who Birkin was as a person, what she wanted and cared about. She was a pretty woman who lived in France and matured. So what?

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 Engaging history of the 1929 stock market crash and its aftermath, told by profiling several of the men (and they all were) with prominent roles in banking and government. It also chronicled some of the fallout with congressional investigations and legislation meant to curb some of the excesses in the future. It got a little tricky to keep everyone straight at times, but was really interesting. 💰 💥 📉

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Story of an Albanian woman living in NYC, working as an interpreter, married to an American. She gets overly involved in the lives of other Southeastern European immigrants, straining her relationships. It had momentum but then the end just sort of petered off. It felt like nothing resolved, which left me wondering what the point was of picking it up at all. 🤷‍♀️ Between a soft pick and a so-so. #BookerLongList

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was really interesting—history of the USA as a colonial power, even when it was not acknowledged as such, weaving in geopolitical and technological realities and developments. I learned a lot!

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, this was fine. Series of short essays of historical “snafus”, mostly military and/or technological, written in a light, jokey tone. A lot of them seemed more like “things that happened” instead of actual snafus, and there was no overarching narrative or thesis to give any of it meaning.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ In-depth story of Milliken vs. Bradley, the Supreme Court ruling that overturned a local decision to include suburbs in efforts to desegregate Detroit schools. I live and work in the region, which is one of the most racially and socioeconomically segregated in the country, and can see its legacy every day. I really appreciated the deep dive into the case and the people involved. Dense, but a great read!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 I was a little skeptical of this—I‘ve read disappointing memoirs of children of famous parents—but that was my mistake. Hanks is an accomplished writer and this book has almost nothing to do with her father. Instead it was the story of her search for information about her mother‘s past by recreating a road trip they took when the author was a teen 20 years after her mother‘s death. I really enjoyed it and finished it in a day!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Loved this biography of Pamela Harriman—daughter-in-law of Churchill, courtesan of powerful men on both sides of the Atlantic, political powerhouse in her own right, and eventual US Ambassador to France. This checked so many boxes for me… ✅ Formidable woman protagonist ✅ 20th century American history ✅ Gossipy nonfiction ✅ Balance of privilege and struggle. Highly recommend!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Oooh, this book was good. What a bunch of predatory, philandering, mostly mediocre ghouls.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Lauren‘s attic keeps delivering her new husbands, and lives to go with them. She has to decide whether and how long to keep them and when and how to finally stop the cycle. Interesting to think about how to approach deciding whether to keep a fully formed life when you know all you have to do to reset it is send your partner into the attic and get a new one.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Interesting look at the use of special counsel investigations of presidents since Watergate, with reform suggestions at the end. It‘s well written, thoroughly researched and just came out so the information is current. I listened to the audiobook and did find my mind wandering a little at the end, but definitely worth a look if you‘re interested in nonfiction related to law and politics.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Elizabeth Gilbert gets dark in this one… Memoir of her relationship with her best friend, Rayya, who she declares her love and leaves her husband to be with when Rayya is diagnosed with advanced cancer, and each of their struggles with addiction that are triggered in different ways by the experience.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 Fun biography of Mamie Fish and a look at New York and Newport society. Definite pick for any fans of The Gilded Age!

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 Part treatise on the importance of writing well and clearly and part reference guide with specific advice for improving writing. There‘s a lot of great and useful information here, but it was difficult to absorb much of it in an audiobook.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I put this off for awhile because I‘m actually hit and miss with Julia Whelan as a narrator (she has a dopey man voice that drives me up the wall), but this worked for me! Romance where the MC is an audiobook narrator of romance novels. I liked the characters at the heart of the story and liked that the book acknowledges but doesn‘t fall into a lot of romance tropes.

Ooof, this book… 🫣 #CampLitsy

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I have a soft spot for gossipy nonfiction, and this is squarely in that genre. History of Condé Nast, and detailed looks at its flagship publications (Vogue, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair) and the people running them, and their impact on the culture in the late 20th century and early 21st centuries.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 Solid pick from TJR. It is a love story, as advertised, but I loved that the love story had to wrestle for priority with professional ambition and family dynamics, which felt more true to life than a lot of romance books. 🚀

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I wanted something light and not demanding while working around the house and yard over the weekend and this fit the bill. History of the show and in-depth summaries and reviews of several important episodes. It was perfectly pleasant and a nice reminder of the warm fuzzies I got from watching the show a couple of years ago.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed this. The author details her journey from running and calorie restriction into power lifting and eating to fuel performance, and how both her body and her outlook changed. I went to a gym that followed a version of the program she did once upon a time and it made me want to pick up a barbell again…

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I loved and devoured this. Loved the in-depth pieces about individual public servants and the breakthroughs they‘ve quietly made that have made lives better. Made me feel real pride in what this country is capable of accomplishing when we decide that‘s what we want to do.🇺🇸

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I don‘t want to say too much before #CampLitsy, but I really enjoyed this! It was suspenseful and surprising and dramatic but not overly so. This is probably more about me than about the books I‘ve been reading, but I actually had the thought that this was one of the least annoying fiction books I‘ve read recently! 😂

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Took me awhile to get into this, but once I did I liked it. Starts with a woman on a plane going down the aisle and telling other passengers an expected age and cause of death. Then it follows a few of them with deaths that were expected soon, and things get freaky when a couple of predictions come true. The woman‘s story is interspersed throughout. Entertaining, and gave some interesting things to think about.

I think this is going to be a bail. It‘s not bad, but it leans really heavily on a pet peeve of mine, which is when characters who were once close reunite after several years and interact like they were never apart. I also really dislike Julia Whelan‘s dopey male character voice, so I‘m just more annoyed than anything. This is the rare book that might be better in print for me.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I found this more insightful than I expected. It was not individual strategies for reducing time online or scrolling but instead went into more societal trends and pressures related to monetized attention. He makes some interesting points and I learned a few things.

⭐️⭐️💫 Mehhhh… ugh, yes, I get it, you wrote an *artsy* novel where nothing means anything and there is no clarity about WTF is going on. It felt like a book version of playing a game with a child where they keep making up new rules so that they always win. The writing itself was fine, but I still wish I could have those few hours back. #CampLitsy 🏕️

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Book was good, contents were infuriating. Behind the scenes/insider accounts of just how diminished Joe Biden was during his presidency and the disastrous decision-making that led him to run for a second term and stay in the race so long after it was clear he wasn‘t up to it. A national tragedy.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I‘m a casual SNL fan and really enjoyed this. It‘s a biography of Lorne Michaels and also a history of Saturday Night Live. It‘s long but moved quickly, interweaving a close look at the creation of one full modern episode with the longer history of the show overall. The description of the last few hours leading up to the taping was fascinating. Strong pick.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Pleasant enough retelling of Pride and Prejudice, set in modern day East Hampton. It was fine, although Elizabeth was more neurotic and Darcy less charming than the original. On its own this is pretty forgettable but I do love P&P, and so probably liked this more than I would have otherwise. Soft pick.

⭐️⭐️💫 I found this audiobook kind of annoying. I don‘t remember Emma very well, so I don‘t know if the back and forth of two people liking each other but not having a grown up conversation and instead assuming they know what the other is thinking, causing grief is from the original or the adaptation. Both narrators had annoying voices for the women in particular. The sex scenes were overdone and I sort of wished they‘d hurry up. Meh. 🤷‍♀️

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 Really interesting/infuriating look at several products/situations where Johnson & Johnson put profits over safety and efficacy. Also a rude wake up call about how ineffective the current system of FDA regulation and oversight is. Definitely worth a look if you like nonfiction, investigative journalism, and health and science writing.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 History of zoning and land use policies that have contributed to housing shortages, affordability issues, limited mobility in the US. It was interesting if a little dry in some places.