My Reading List

As an author, people often ask me about the books that I read myself.  This list contains short reviews of some of the books that I have recently enjoyed.  I started this list for myself, to remind me of what I have already read, but decided to share it with you.  All are available for free through your local library, where I get most of my books and where I encourage you to get yours.  But, if you would rather have your own copy, or if you simply want to learn more, each review contains a link to its Amazon listing. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission for purchases through my links at no extra cost to you. This helps support my writing and keeps my free website going.  I only recommend books that I truly enjoy.  If I didn't like it, I'll tell you that, too!

Make sure that you bookmark this page, as I update the list often.

This Is Me: A Reckoning by Hayden Panettiere pulls back the curtain on a life spent in the spotlight, and given her tragic death in August 2026 at just 36 years old, reading it now carries a heartbreaking weight. She talks to the reader like a friend who's finally ready to spill the truth, diving straight into the "lifequakes" that defined her off-screen world—from severe postpartum depression and addiction to domestic abuse and devastating family losses. Sure, the book moves fast and can feel a bit scattered at times, but her refusal to gloss over the hard stuff gives the memoir its soul. Knowing what we know now, her determination to reclaim her story and face her struggles so openly makes This Is Me feel less like a standard Hollywood tell-all and more like a brave, painfully human portrait of survival.

The Old Man and the Sea  by Ernest Hemingway is a story about pure grit and holding onto your dignity when the universe seems completely stacked against you. I had not read it since high school and I'm glad I gave it another look. It follows Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who hasn't caught a thing in 84 days, as he gets locked in an exhausting, days-long battle with a massive marlin out in the Gulf Stream. Hemingway keeps the writing super clean and stripped-down, but behind that simple plot is a deeply moving look at what it means to keep pushing forward. Santiago takes a massive beating out on the water, but his belief that "a man can be destroyed but not defeated" sticks with you, showing that real strength isn't about always winning, but about how you handle the fight.

Not a Word by Linwood Barclay is a fun and fast read if you enjoy thrillers. The story starts with a total nightmare scenario: unemployed journalist Reece Chartwell walks into his parents' home and finds what looks like a murder-suicide, only to realize the dead woman isn't actually his mother—and then his real mom vanishes without a trace. From there, the book takes off at a breakneck speed as Reece and a local detective start digging into his family’s past, unearthing shady pharmaceutical connections and secrets nobody was supposed to find. While a few of the plot turns get a little wild, Barclay keeps the tension so high and the characters so grounded that you genuinely can't put it down. It’s an absolute blast of a popcorn read and easily one of his most entertaining books yet.

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke is the kind of book that really sneaks up on you in the best way possible. It’s an atmospheric, super relatable dive into memory and identity—capturing that exact bittersweet feeling of missing the past while trying to figure out how to move forward. Burke’s writing is intimate and grounded, balancing quiet, introspective moments with real emotional weight. If you're looking for a story that stays with you long after you close the cover, this one is definitely worth the read.  By the way, the ending is a great twist!

Holmes, Marple & Poe by James Patterson and Brian Sitts is just pure, lighthearted fun. The premise alone hooks you right away: three mysterious private investigators in modern-day Brooklyn who share names—and freakishly sharp skills—with literary legends Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, and Edgar Allan Poe. They team up to crack a bunch of wild, high-stakes NYC cases, like stolen historical artifacts and a long-buried serial killer, all while dodging a suspicious NYPD detective trying to figure out who they actually are. With Patterson's signature super-short chapters, the story flies by at a breakneck speed. It doesn't dive too deep into backstories or character development, but if you're looking for a fast, clever mystery that doesn't take itself too seriously, it’s a total blast to read.

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is a story that I hadn't read since college and I'm glad I gave it another go.  It starts with one of the most famous setups in literature—a guy wakes up as a giant bug—but at its heart, it’s really about how heartbreakingly conditional human relationships can be. What makes the story hit so hard isn't just the weirdness of Gregor turning into an insect. It's how quickly his family moves from total horror to viewing him as an annoying burden, and eventually just forgetting about him altogether. Kafka writes the whole thing in this surprisingly calm, everyday tone that makes Gregor's loneliness feel way too real. It’s a quick read, but it leaves you with a heavy, uneasy realization of what happens when your worth to the people around you is tied strictly to what you can do for them.

Based on a True Story by Sarah Vaughan is well worth picking up if you love a good psychological thriller packed with dark secrets, . The whole thing kicks off in a stormy Cornish estate during the lavish 70th birthday bash of Dame Eleanor Kingman, a famous children’s book author. Just as a documentary crew starts filming the party, someone threatens to expose the huge lie that her whole multi-million-pound career was built on. Before long, a body washes up on the beach. It’s got a bit of a "King Lear" vibe as Eleanor's three daughters and inner circle turn on each other, making for a super gripping, slow-burn mystery about just how far people will go to protect their own narrative.

No Way Home by T.C. Boyle builds up incredible, high-stakes tension with the author's dark humor and super vivid writing, and the characters are so delightfully flawed that you can't help but get hooked on their terrible decisions. That said, the ending felt pretty rushed after such an amazing setup, leaving a few big story threads hanging. It’s a disappointing that the final payoff doesn't quite hit the mark, but the rest of the book is so fast-paced and entertaining that it's still well worth picking up.

Hope Rises by David Baldacci delivers a high-stakes ride that’s easy to jump into even if, like me, you haven't read Nash Falls, which preceded it. Watching Walter Nash navigate his double life—shifting from a mild-mannered corporate exec into the lethal operative Dillon Hope to avenge his daughter—keeps you hooked, especially as he goes head-to-head with crime boss Victoria Steers. The international action is top-notch, from wild chase scenes to a tense rescue mission in Myanmar, but what really grounds the story is Nash’s constant struggle between pure revenge and actual justice. Even without prior backstory, this works brilliantly on its own as a fast-paced, twist-filled thriller with a main character who isn't afraid to get his hands dirty.

Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino is a darkly comedic, satirical psychological thriller that perfectly targets the absolute desperation of the modern real estate market. The novel captures millennial financial anxieties and transforms a suburban house hunt into a full-blown obsession. The main character is at her wits' end: she is struggling with infertility and believes that securing a stable, perfect home is the missing puzzle piece required to fix her marriage, have a baby, and finally feel secure.  Once she finds what she believes is the perfect home, she is willing to go to any length to obtain it.  Although she commits multiple crimes in her quest to win the bidding war, I found myself rooting for her to succeed.  A really fun page turner!

The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho is a book that everyone should read at least once in their lifetime.  Set in the remote, stagnant village of Viscos, it is a tense moral parable that explores the battle between good and evil within the human soul. The story follows a cynical stranger who, broken by personal tragedy, arrives in the village to conduct a twisted experiment to see if humanity is inherently wicked: he promises a fortune in gold bars to the townspeople if they commit a single murder within a week. He uses Chantal Prym, a frustrated young bartender longing for escape, as his messenger, throwing her and the entire community into a severe moral crisis.  Ultimately, the stranger gets his answer. Does humanity possesses the free will to choose good over evil?  You need to read it to find out.

The Widow by John Grisham delivers everything you’d expect from the master of the genre. The story dives headfirst into the drama and messiness that unfolds after a wealthy man dies, leaving behind a sudden, controversial inheritance that sets off a wave of secret motives and clever courtroom maneuvering. It hits many of those familiar, comforting Grisham notes—sharp southern atmospheric detail, smart legal strategy, and a constantly shifting sense of who you can actually trust. It’s a breezy, fun read that holds your attention from start to finish, making it a super satisfying pick for a weekend read.

The Maltese Iguana by Tim Dorsey is the author's 26th zany crime caper, the last one before he sadly passed away.  In it, Florida's most eccentric, history-obsessed vigilante serial killer, Serge A. Storms, is finally fully vaccinated and eager to break free from a long COVID-19 quarantine. Along with his perpetually stoned sidekick, Coleman, and a group of enthusiastic condo neighbors, Serge organizes a series of weekly, high-energy road trips across the Sunshine State in a rented shuttle van. Meanwhile, a completely separate subplot unfolds as a botched CIA revenge operation in Honduras leaves a local liaison as the sole witness to a massive disaster; targeted for elimination by a black ops contractor, the witness flees to Miami under a fake identity. As the rogue operatives hunt him down and drive him further south toward the Florida Keys, his path inevitably collides with Serge’s chaotic, celebratory convoy, setting off an explosive, hilarious, and characteristically violent showdown.

Evil Genius by Claire Oshetsky is a darkly comedic, surreal comic noir that centers on Celia Dent, a naive nineteen-year-old phone company employee trapped in a highly controlling, emotionally abusive marriage with her domineering husband, Drew. Celia's quiet, submissive existence is completely upended when a female coworker is murdered in a scandalous "love tryst gone awry," a grim event that paradoxically awakens Celia’s suppressed desires for passion, autonomy, and revolutionary change. As she begins fantasizing about what it would feel like to die—or kill—for love, her internal daydreams quickly bleed into a bizarre, unhinged reality where she plays hooky from work, practices her marksmanship at a local gun range, and visualizes doing physical harm to her husband. A fun book that is good as an "intermezzo" read between more weighty tomes.

The Extinction Agenda by Michael Laurence is a blistering, high-octane thriller that reads like a cinematic cross between a Jack Reacher epic and a classic Dan Brown conspiracy. The story follows FBI Special Agent James Mason as he goes rogue on a deeply personal vengeance mission following the murder of his wife and partner, only to stumble into a century-old bio-terror plot orchestrated by a shadow cabal known as "The Thirteen." Laurence keeps the pedal to the floor with relentless pacing, expertly blending historical deep-state lore, modern biological threats, and crisp, visual action sequences.  While the book is definitely "formula," it is formula well-done.

The Exes by Leodora Darlington is such a fun, wildly addictive thrill ride that you'll easily devour it in one sitting. It follows Natalie, a wonderfully flawed narrator whose string of strangely doomed ex-boyfriends turns her search for "the one" into a deliciously tense game of cat-and-mouse. Darlington does an amazing job of balancing dark, witty humor with genuine, spine-tingling suspense, all while throwing in twists you genuinely won't see coming. It’s smart, fast-paced, and wildly entertaining—a absolute must-read if you love psychological thrillers with plenty of bite.

Gone Before Goodbye, co-authored by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben, is a high-stakes medical thriller that follows Dr. Maggie McCabe, a disgraced and heavily indebted former Army combat surgeon struggling with the tragic loss of her husband, Marc. Trapped in her grief—and frequently communicating with an AI "griefbot" clone of her late husband—Maggie is thrown a financial lifeline when a former professor recruits her for a highly secretive, off-the-record surgical job for an ultra-wealthy Russian billionaire. What begins as a lucrative opportunity under absolute discretion quickly turns catastrophic when her patient suddenly disappears from her care, thrusting Maggie into a dangerous international web of corporate espionage, illegal organ harvesting, and a conspiracy tied directly to the medical charity she and her husband once built. Forced on the run from a ruthless global elite through Dubai and Bordeaux, Maggie must team up with her eccentric, biker-bar-owning father-in-law, Porkchop, to uncover the truth about her husband's past and save her own life.

My Husband's Wife by Alice Feeney.  I really enjoyed this book!  It is a mind-bending psychological thriller that kicks off when an artist named Eden Fox returns home from a morning run to find that her house key no longer fits the lock. When she knocks, she is confronted by a stranger who looks eerily like her, is wearing her clothes, and calmly claims to be the real Eden Fox—a claim that Eden's husband, Harrison, shockingly backs up by pretending he has never seen our narrator before. Driven into hiding and desperate to reclaim her identity, Eden's nightmare deepens when a body is found, and a parallel narrative introduces Birdy, a sharp London detective facing a terminal diagnosis who inherits the very house at the center of the mystery. As Birdy uncovers a web of long-buried secrets involving a tragic past accident, a prediction clinic, and a staged disappearance, the book careens toward a chilling climax where no one's identity or motives are what they seem.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans centers on Sybil Van Antwerp, a sharp-tongued, retired lawyer in her seventies living in Annapolis who navigates her daily life and expanding vulnerabilities entirely through letters and emails. I must admit that I did not enjoy the format.  Writing to a sprawling network of family, local neighbors, customer service agents, and even her favorite authors like Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry, Sybil slowly uncovers a complex mosaic of her own history—including her experiences as an adoptee, a painful divorce, the tragic loss of an eight-year-old son, and her own declining eyesight. The quiet rhythm of her solitary routine is disrupted by a string of threatening letters from a vengeful figure tied to a past legal case, forcing her to confront deep-seated guilt and the raw contents of her own unsent letters.  I know this is a very popular book, but it was not to my taste.

The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho is a 1987 semi-autobiographical novel that chronicles the author's journey across northern Spain along the Camino de Santiago, a legendary road of medieval origin. Undertaken as a quest to find a lost sword necessary for his initiation into a Christian mystic order called RAM, Coelho is accompanied by a mysterious spiritual guide named Petrus. Along the way, Petrus teaches him exercises designed to awaken his perception, face his personal demons, and master his "Good Fight"—the pursuit of his dreams. Ultimately, Coelho realizes that the true purpose of his journey is not the destination or the acquisition of the sword itself, but the profound inner transformation and spiritual wisdom gained through the journey's everyday struggles and simple experiences. As I have said before, everyone should read Paulo Coelho at least once in their lifetime. Here is a list of all of his books.

The Fair Weather Friend by Jesse Garcia is a fun ride if you love a fast-paced psychological thriller that pulls back the curtain on the media world  It kicks off with the sudden murder of Faith Richards, a beloved Detroit TV meteorologist who seems completely perfect on screen, but clearly left a trail of messy secrets behind the scenes. Garcia tells the story through a ton of different perspectives—from bitter coworkers to an obsessed fan club and a nosy news intern—which keeps you constantly guessing with plenty of clever red herrings. Honestly, it gets a little crowded with so many characters, and you might spot a few of the early clues coming from a mile away. But the short, snappy chapters make it incredibly easy to binge, and that final, genuinely shocking twist completely makes up for it.

The Last Kings of Hollywood by Paul Fischer is a super fun, easy read about how Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg completely flipped the movie industry on its head. It’s at its best when digging into the juicy behind the scenes drama—the giant financial gambles, the messy studio fights, and the way these three friends cheered each other on while secretly trying to outdo one another. That said, if you’ve already read a couple of books or watched documentaries about 1970s filmmaking, a lot of this will feel like stuff you’ve heard a dozen times before. Plus, the book focuses way more on money, contracts, and box office numbers than it does on what actually made the movies great. It’s a fantastic, breezy pick if you just want a good story about movie history, but die hard film nerds might feel like they're watching a rerun.