Friday Reads 5.23.25

Getting Back In The Saddle

Hallo friends! Happy Friday. Happy Memorial Day weekend. Blessings on all of those brave souls who sacrificed their lives for our freedom. 🇺🇸

What a week it’s been. I finally managed to get to my parents, so I’m writing this from the very hot Atlantic coast of Florida. Did I mention it’s very hot? Record temps this week. My mother’s roses are blooming like mad and their cuttings are all over the house, perfuming the air. My beloved porch swing got a bit of a workout yesterday, which was very nice. It’s been a pretty low key week, and I head back home tomorrow.

This place has changed so much since I was a kid. I spent my summers here visiting my grandparents, and when they passed, my parents redid the house to be theirs. The town has grown—it’s much more commercial than it used to be; I found a fabulous new coffee shop today—but there are quiet moments, and when I close my eyes, I can still hear the beach of my childhood. Waves crash, the doves coo, the palms whisper in the wind. I can conjure the old place sometimes, the excitement of arriving to visit my grandparents, almost a portal experience, from the woods of Colorado into the lush, alien humidity of Florida. The must, the banana spiders, gritty sand and sand dollars and warm hugs. No-see-ums and salty skin and Evan Williams over ice. Decades of memories. Very special.

Since it’s a long weekend, I hope many of you have plans that involve good books! Hopefully ones recommended to you by legitimate sources, too. (If you don’t know what I mean, take a look at Kathleen Schmidt’s article on

Publishing Confidential

about the ridiculous AI summer book recommendation article that made it into several newspapers this week. Insert eyeroll here.)

Hey, AI is a thing. It’s here to stay. It has some very helpful uses, including research and interpreting medical information. I have thoughts about its proper usage in the creative fields, but that’s probably an essay for another day.

In the meantime, here are some legitimate, human recommendations from yours truly.

I finished LISTEN FOR THE LIE by Amy Tintera, and my goodness, what a fun, clever, intense book. I am so impressed. It’s hard to write a crime fiction novel that feels fresh and new, but Amy has succeeded.

My current read is Olivie Blake’s ATLAS SIX. I’ve had this book since it came out, long enough for two more in the series to join it, but because it’s urban fantasy and related to the library of Alexandria, with a crew of people brought together in a unique magical system, I’ve been saving it until I was wrapped with the Jayne books. And since the last Jayne book (THE SCROLLS OF TIME) came out Tuesday, my reward was this one—and holy cow is it good. Very engaging. And of course very different from my own magical librarians. Blake’s book has a very Magicians feel to it which I love!

I have two galleys on the list: HOT WAX by

M. L. Rio

and SILENT CREEK from my Thomas & Mercer bandmate Tony Wirt. Both look AMAZING…

Also discovered my friend Kate White’s book I SHOULDN’T BE TELLING YOU THIS. Kate is a fantastic mystery novelist now but she spent a huge swath of her career as the editor-in-chief of Cosmo magazine. This is a book she wrote a decade ago for “gutsy girls” and its advice is still salient and welcome.

I also grabbed THE RETURN OF ELLIE BLACK by Emiko Jean which was on special. It looks so good! There are so many amazing crime fiction novels right now, I can’t keep up.

And lastly, had to grab SILVER ELITE by Dani Francis, which is creating its own huge stir because Francis is a pen name and everyone wants to figure who the author is. I started reading and am interested enough to continue, but I’ve been waiting too long for ATLAS SIX, so it’s up first.

That’s it from me this week. What are you up to, and reading, this weekend? Any great recommendations for us?

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