thoughts on books

Category: Best of 2026

  • mad mabel by sally hepworth

    Seems like a bold statement to make on July 31, 2025… but I think I have just read my FAVORITE book of 2026. I am about to become a book bully to make everyone read this hilarious, heartwarming, shocking book. If you like books that have a feisty octogenarian, quirky memorable side characters, secrets and twisty mystery, and plenty of laughter through tears, have I got a book for YOU. Especially if you cherished Anne of Green Gables as a kid, and always wanted a bosom friend like Diana Barry.

    Elsie knows everything that goes on in her neighborhood, even with her nemesis Imhann. When he ends up dead, precocious neighbor Persephone announcing his demise, Elsie’s hidden identity as “Mad Mabel” comes out. But why is she known as “mad Mabel”? What happened in her young life?

    Told in alternating timelines, we follow the oddball outcast Mabel from age 3, when her younger sister tragically died of polio, like so many in the 1950’s. In the present timeline, Elsie at 81 is charmingly grouchy, annoyed with the police, and begrudgingly ends up with Imhann’s dog Nugget. What is her story? How did she become known as Elsie? And did Imhann die of natural causes or was Elsie behind it after all?

    I was SO sucked into this story, the CHARACTERS- even minor ones, are so real. I roared with feet-kicking laughter, my mouth dropped open with shock at the reveals, and I put down the book to cry real tears. This book is a supreme roller coaster of emotions that you won’t forget. It ABSOLUTELY will be made into a movie. My first choice for playing Elsie is Jane Fonda, but Lily Tomlin would also be phenomenal. Only a skilled actor with incredible range will do.

    The last line of the book? Just about threw my e-reader across the room.

    Seriously this story is just too good for Hollywood to miss it. I can’t wait for you all to read it. It is worth bumping to the very top of your TBR.
    6/5 stars

    Thanks to NetGalley and St Martins press for the ARC. Book to be published 4/20/26

  • the future saints by ashley winstead

    The setting is a rock band that explodes into stardom after grinding in the Indie Rock circuit for years. “We may be devils but in the future we’ll be saints” is the line that Ginny says in their youth that inspires their band name, The Future Saints. In a somewhat coincidental way, they are assigned a new manager Theo from the record company the same day they go viral on TikTok. Their former manager, Ginny, died in a drowning accident. Ginny was frontgirl Hannah’s sister. And Hannah keeps seeing her and talking to her everywhere. Her bandmates are excellent characters.

    Told in alternating POV (Hannah/Theo) as well as interviews and transcripts. I absolutely loved it. This is not really a romance, romance was such a small piece of this, but I can’t fault the publisher for marketing it as romance.

    At its core, this is a book about the very human desire to want to bring someone back from the dead. Raised to never give up and that determination will make you successful, Hannah just doesn’t want to let Ginny go. And she melts down on a very public stage, having issues with depression and alcoholism. Strong comparisons to Britney, Whitney, and Amy.

    There are 3 things you want to have in a musical act; talent, looks and presence. But if you can only have one, pick presence. And the public loves her, connects with her talent an raw emotion and grief. This book is so emotionally powerful. How can we be lovable in this kind of grief stricken madness?

    If you like books about the grieving process, music industry, and human connection, you will love this book. Boy oh boy I cried.

    Don’t skip the acknowledgements. There are 4 indie bookstores named and I immediately followed all of them on instagram. Bucket list to visit them someday if I land in their towns.

    Thanks to NetGalley and Atria for the ARC. Book to be published January 19, 2026.