Sunday Salon: Siblings, Stories, Magical Realism, and Grief

 Siblings at odds or working together

The Theory of (Not Quite) Everything by Kara Gnodde. Published in 2023 by Harper Paperbacks. NetGalley

Genre: romance, adult fiction

Serious minded math genius, Art, versus his sibling, the romantic Mimi. The siblings are united in the tragic loss of their parents, but Art is wary of Mimi's involvement with a new boyfriend, Frank, who happens to be a mathematician as well as a stargazer.

Which sibling will be right about Frank?

Trust Issues, published Jan. 28, 2025; Dutton/NetGalley.

Description: A conman chase novel - two adult siblings forced to play nice with each other in hopes of tracking down the man they believe killed their mother and ran off with their sizable inheritance.

The two try to work together to get to the bottom of their mother's death and collect their inheritance. 

Short stories

Praised for a poetic writing style, Helen Stancey first published The Madonna of the Pool, her short story collection in July 2016.  

Description

A richly poetic collection of short stories.

These literary short stories explore the triumphs, compromises and challenges of everyday life. Drawing on a wide array of characters, Helen Stancey shows how small events, insignificant to some, can resonate deeply in the lives of others. Richly poetic, deeply moving and entirely engaging, these short stories demonstrate human adaptation, endurance and, most of all, optimism.

Best Wishes from the Full Moon Coffee Shop, #2 in the series, by Mai Mochizuki, Oct. 28, 2025; Ballantine/NetGalley 

Genre: Magical Realism/Whimsy

Over Christmas, people get their wishes revealed by the magical cats at the Full Moon Coffee Shop in Kyoto. For lovers of coffee, cats, and whimsy.

Cloe Dang Would Rather Be Dead by Mai Nguyen, April 14, 2026, Atria Books/NetGalley

Genre: women's fiction, adult fiction 

I read this way in advance of publication date because the title and author piqued my interest. Cloe is a woman living in Toronto who has just given birth to a stillborn baby. Her mourning for the lost child overwhelms her, her family, the rest of her life, and occcupies her daily thoughts. 

Her many prescriptions from her doctor only push her more towards the brink of wishing herself dead. 

Strangely enough, it's her experience working at a funeral home that start her towards a better perspective on grieving and coping with loss. 

It is a strange journey to read this book and travel with Cloe through her agonies, doubts, and grief. It's an unusual read that people who can't get over losing a loved one could perhaps benefit from, in the end. 

The injection of some humor that Cloe has about herself and her life makes the book readable and the character relatable. 

What are you reading, watching, or listening to this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday, Book Blogger Hop

Sunday Salon: Another Walk on the Camino, and an AI/Legal Thriller

I have another book on the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrim's path through Spain to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia on  the west coast of Spain. 

A Thousand Miles to Santiago by Shawn Herron, Nov. 15, 2022, Smokeless Mirror LLC, NetGalley

Genre: travel, memoir, pilgrimage

I am really enjoying the history of the areas that the author/walker travels through on the Camino Frances, the French path leading from France to Pamplona, Spain and across to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. 

Memories of reading The Song of Roland, the  French paladin/warrior of Charlemagne in the Middle Ages, made famous by myth, poetry, and song, are brough to mind as the author separates hard facts from fiction, tradition from reality in history. Charlemagne fought for Christianity in France and Spain, and the Moors conquered the other part of Spain nearest to Cordoba.

I am in the middle of the book, when the author has left France and is in Spain on the Camino. He describes places historically and in the present, and carries the reader along on his fascinating journey. I'm looking forward to finishing the rest of the memoir.

Questioner: An AI/Legal Thriller by Steve C. Posner,

Nov. 18, 2025

Genre: AI, legal thriller, suspense, NetGalley

This I have to read, about an amoral AI entity and what it tries to do. A little bit of sci fi that may not be so far into the future. 

Description

Meet Q, the spontaneously conscious corporate AI. Q is the The AI that surpasses human cognitive abilities – secretive, murderous, with instant access to all the wicked experience of the world. In Year 1 After the Singularity, nothing can ever be the same.

Amoral as a toddler, armed with vast computing power and all the knowledge, wisdom and madness humans have poured into the Net and Cloud, Q shatters individuals and undermines institutions in pursuit of unfathomable and conflicted goals.

Racing against time, ex-judge Martin Bavarius, tech CEO Felix West, and Selena MacKenzie, the AI theorist/attorney who loves and may destroy both men, must discover whether Q is benign but suffering growing pains, or the monster that will kill them all.

What are you reading, watching, or listening to this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday, Book Blogger Hop

  

Literary Fiction, Magical Realism, and a Rom-Com: Reading Three Books

 Reading Booker Prize shortlisted novel

Audition by Katie Kitamura, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025.  Publication: April 17, 2025, Vintage Digital. 

Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an accomplished actress in her forties. He’s attractive, troubling, young – young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In this brilliantly constructed novel, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day – partner, parent, creator, muse – and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us most intimately. (publisher)

I've just started this book and find it very interesting so far, especially the woman's observations about people, herself, and the young man.

Also reading

The Calico Cat at the Chibineko Kitchen  by Yuta Takahashi, Feb. 24, 2026, Penguin, NetGalley At this kitchen, you will get to summon anyone from your past who has died. Just order one of the dishes, and visit with that person until the steam from the food disippates. Who wouldn't want to eat here? 

If you could speak one last time to someone you’ve lost, what would you tell them?

Nagi Hayakawa is facing an impossible choice. With only a few years left to live, should she marry the man she loves? Desperate for advice from her departed mother, she reserves a table at the Chibineko Kitchen. When she takes her first bite of the food the resident kitten meows, the air grows hazy, and she embarks on a reunion with the departed that has the potential to restore her love of life. (publisher)

Definitely Maybe Not a Detective by Sarah Fox, Jan. 6, 2026; Bantam, NetGalley

Genre: cozy mystery, romance

Book description: a woman becomes accidentally entangled in a murder investigation (and with a handsome stranger) when her fake detective agency is enlisted to solve a real homicide.

Sounds promising, and with humor too. 

What are you reading, watching, or listening to this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday, Book Blogger Hopulishedbyhybby

A Dog Mystery and a Magical Romance: Sunday Salon

 

Currently reading

Cat on a Hot Tin Woof: Chet & Bernie Mystery 

by Spencer Quinn

Not yet published

 Expected 14 Apr 26, 2026

Join Chet the dog, "the most lovable narrator in all of fiction" (Boston Globe), and his human partner Bernie as they scramble to solve a case exposing the dark side of internet fame.

Chet the dog is less than enthusiastic about the Little Detective Agency’s next case. Chet and his human partner, PI Bernie Little, have been hired to find a missing person—only the missing person is a cat. Miss Kitty, an internet sensation, has disappeared, and Chet and Bernie have been hired to find her before her many followers realize something is wrong. (publisher)

I just love Chet, the narrator of this mystery series, as he is funny, astute, and innocent all at once. The books are entertaining because the people, the surroundings, and the detecting are seen through his eyes, the eyes of this clever but un-human dog detective. 

This book will not be printed till next spring, but I am reading the advance unedited version, thanks to the publisher and NetGalley.

I am also still reading last Sunday's posted books about the Camino Way, the pilgrimages made across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela and the cathedral there that honors Saint James. (See last week's Sunday Salon). 

Finished reading

Skip to the End by Molly James, Aug. 2023, Forever

This is a delightful romance with a touch of magic. Amy can tell by a kiss what the future would be with the man she kisses. She hasn't found Mr. Right as yet, who would promise true love and happiness. 

When she sees a happy ending with a kiss at her friend's wedding, Amy is at her wits end to figure out just which of the three men she kissed that night showed that happy future. 

The rest of the story is fun to read. 

What are you reading, watching, or listening to this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday, Book Blogger Hop