For the Love of Reading, January 2026

Time to take a look back at the books I read in the month of January.

 Queen Esther by John Irving
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I want to say I love this novel (because John Irving!) but the most I can come up with it that I admire it. The narrator recounts events with a cool, observational tone, almost like a long-form news article or a case study rather than an immersive work of fiction. Scenes are summarized rather than inhabited, and the prose frequently tells us what happened instead of letting moments unfold on the page. This creates a sense of remove that made it difficult to fully connect with the characters. The pacing also suffers. Large stretches of the novel, particularly the sections set abroad, felt heavy and slow, not because of subject matter but because the voice resists intimacy. Esther herself, despite being the title character, often feels oddly peripheral. Readers who value intellectual structure over emotional immediacy may find it rewarding. For me, it was a slog that only fully came alive near the end, leaving me appreciative of Irving’s intentions but wishing for more warmth along the way.

Fire Exit by Morgan Talty
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
We are made of stories, and if we don’t know them—the ones that make us—how can we ever be fully realized? How can we ever be who we really are?
This is an incredible debut novel and tells the story of Charles, a man who has spent his life half-inside and half-outside his Penobscot identity. Talty’s writing is restrained in the best way. The prose is clean and uncomplicated, but the emotional weight is immense. Nothing is overstated, and yet every sentence seems to have an impact. This is not a redemption story tied up with a bow. It’s a story about living with the consequences of silence, about identity as something shaped by both blood and choice, and about how love can be imperfect and still real.

Vigil by George Saunders
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I absolutely loved this book. Vigil captures the intimate, unsettling experience of sitting at someone’s deathbed, the way time stretches, the way the room fills with memory, regret, resistance, and meaning whether the dying person wants it to or not. At the center of the novel is Jill “Doll” Blaine, whose openness, naivety, and fundamentally good heart anchor the story as she seeks to comfort the dying oil tycoon K.J. Boone. Whether he’s deserving of that comfort or not is quite another issue, as we are shown by the various other visitors who come to encourage him to repent for the consequences of his actions. Saunders takes on the themes of climate change, power, and accountability and doesn’t let us pretend these issues exist somewhere “out there.” They are human choices with human consequences, and they show up, unavoidably, at the end of a life. The writing is, of course, spectacular, full of passages that make you slow down, reread, and then pause to think about how you’re living your own life. Not in a grand, moralizing way, but in small, piercing moments of recognition. If you enjoyed Lincoln in the Bardo, you will love this book as well. Highly recommended.
I was given an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A Forty Year Kiss by Nickolas Butler
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was enjoyable enough and I appreciated reading a romance that focuses on older adults rather than 20 somethings. Some things felt slightly unrealistic (there’s a lot of PDA which didn’t ring true for me) and it’s wildly predictable with very little tension in the story. Still, it’s a thoughtfully written book about second chances and finding your purpose and making the most of the time we have. Recommended for those who enjoy light romance novels.

The Irish Goodbye by Heather Aimee O’Neill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A family gathers for Thanksgiving and plenty of drama ensues. Each character has their own issues, secrets, and ulterior motives. There’s a bit of a mystery worked in from their past, there’s grief over the tragic loss of their brother, there’s money issues and religious judgment and lies galore. The writing is quite good and the various difficult topics are handled with sensitivity and care. It’s rather short for a family saga and the ending is perfectly satisfying without wrapping everything up too neatly.

Homeseeking by Karissa Chen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
. . . home wasn’t a place. It wasn’t moments that could be pinned down. It was people, people who shared the same ghosts as you, of folks long gone, places long disappeared. People who knew you, saw you, loved you. When those people were far-flung, your home was too. And when those people were gone, home lived on inside you.
This is one of those books that quietly rearranges you. I loved the way Chen moves Haiwen’s story backward in time as Suchi’s moves forward. It’s such a smart way to illustrate how memory works, how trauma pulls us backward even as life insists on moving ahead. The way these two timelines inch toward each other moved the plot along perfectly. I was especially struck by how much the novel expanded my understanding of China’s history, particularly Shanghai. I am frustrated by how little my own education addressed any of this and grateful to have learned more about it through the lives of these characters, rather than through a purely scholarly framework as this made it feel both accessible and deeply real. Ultimately, Homeseeking asks us to consider what home truly means, and how we search for it when it has been stripped away by politics power, cruelty, and circumstance. It is a powerful novel that will stay with me for a long time.

Exit Lane by Erika Veurink
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A sweet love story with some definite nods to my favorite rom-com, When Harry Met Sally. While it follows a very traditional romance plot, there are a few twists and turns to keep it fresh and enough sex to make it spicy. Predictable in all the best ways, I’d recommend this to fans of contemporary romance. And When Harry Met Sally fans, too.

It was a pretty great month of reading and an excellent start to the new year!