It's a chilly, rainy, dreary day on the U.S. Mid-Atlantic coast - perfect for staying inside and reading.   [10 books on a piano bench, from left to right: India..., Winning the Earthquake..., Two Can play arranged atop 2 books showing only their bottom edges, Gabby Greene Knows Whodunit, Drive Me Crazy, Fated Skates, Free Falling, The Shop on Hidden Lane, Definitely Maybe Not a Detective]  Read   Two Can Play by Ali Hazelwood  contemporary romance  originally 2024 (this hardcover money-grab ed. from Berkley, February 2026)  Viola and Jesse's love story contains the key elements that consistently make an A.H. read enjoyable for me: smart, ambitious women who don't apologize for being themselves and the smart, ambitious people who appreciate and love them as they are.  Gaming culture context adds interesting nuance.  Reading   India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent by Audrey Truschke  May need to buy my own copy of this intrigu...

Family, friendship, romance, couplehood, polyamory, community... Relationships form,  intersect and overlap, diverge, collide, merge and combust in infinite ways.   [a Pointillism acrylic paint canvas showing 5 overlapping freehand hearts in dark blue, orange, red, yellow and green; all against a light blue background]    [8 books, from left to right: India..., Winning the Earthquake, Son of the Morning, Definitely Maybe Not a Detective, The Wild Card, Two Can Play, Common Goal, Role Model; arranged on a piano bench]  Reading   India...  Winning the Earthquake: How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds...  Read Son of the Morning by Akwaeke Emezi  contemporary supernatural fiction  Avon, 2025  Lush language combined with lyrical pacing and shady characters with questionable intentions that swirl around mysterious Galilee Kincaid, her origins and her purpose, transcend the limits of categories. It's gorgeous and captivating.  From th...

  [8 books from left to right: The Love Audit, August Lane, Heated Rivalry, The Long Game, India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent, Remember That Day, Son of the Morning, The Bodyguard Affair]  Read   August Lane by Regina Black  contemporary romance  Grand Central Publishing, 2025  Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice...  August Lane has legitimate cause for hating Luke Randall. Maybe if she'd never loved him she could forget him, but he's coming back to their home town and she has a plan that includes making him an offer he can't refuse without exposing himself to public ruin. Will it destroy or renew them? Their struggles, failures, and victories lead them back to each other in this achingly lush, layered narrative.  The Love Audit by Lucy Eden   contemporary romance  Forever, 2025  Succession collides with a Hallmark Channel movie in this spicy tale of regrets and redemption. Jasmine and Derek are force...

As a GenX-er, remembering the 1989 image of one Chinese man standing in the path of a line of military tanks to protest the violent authoritarian response against peaceful protestors feels like it happened forever ago and also like just the other day.  [front cover of a trade paperback copy of Looking for Tank Man, A Novel by Ha Jin with a "NEW" sticker in the upper right corner; split image of 2 different faces of Chinese people]  Looking for Tank Man by Ha Jin  contemporary (circa 2008) fiction  Other Press, 2025  Pei Lulu's scholarly pursuits lead her into risky situations at the intersection of academic, sociopolitical, and cultural maneuvering. The conclusion of the novel launches her into the next fraught phase of her life and prompts readers to consider what they'd do (or not) in similar circumstances.  From the end of chapter 40:  He even said that his department might be the right place for me because they had just started a project on dictato...

On this 40th anniversary of observing a U.S. federal holiday honoring the life and legacies of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this blog post riffs on perceptions, expectations, and inheritances across generations and cultures.  There are so many elements to enjoy and appreciate about the characters, storylines, themes, and visual cues and queues that make Heated Rivalry compelling media. For me, Shane and his nuclear family dynamics in isolation and in the context of a racialized worldview resonate as familiar.  An expectation of excellence projected onto and infused into a beloved only child* born to parents who endured hardship and overcame challenges in order to succeed as individuals and as a couple, these parents set high standards and expect their offspring to meet and exceed them. It's a common stereotype about Asian people. It's been my personal experience that Black people in and from African nations and in the United States aspire and strive toward greatness as th...

Rewatching Heated Rivalry and reading upbeat romances have distracted me from and helped me take time to process 2 recent losses of people who have loved and encouraged and supported me throughout my life. They lived long, mostly healthy, rich, meaningful lives that contributed so much to others. I'm working hard to let my gratitude outweigh my grief.   These books offered intrigues and added joy.  [bookstack of 7 books, from top to bottom: All the Men I've Loved Again, Second Chance Romance, Much Ado About Hating You, All Superheroes Need Photo Ops, Crash Test, Undead and Unwed, The Baby Dragon Bakery]  All the Men I've Loved Again by Christine Pride asks What if? when young lovers who were separated by challenging circumstances cross paths again later in life.  Crash Test by Amy James offers fans of Heated Rivalry a racing world homage that hits similar emotional notes and nods within a more condensed timeline and different narrative structure.  Much Ado About...