Author 'Nathan Burgoine posted this simple, direct method of not getting paralyzed by the prospect of having to write reviews. The Three-Sentence Review is, as he notes, very helpful and also simple to achieve. I get completely unmanned at the idea of saying something trenchant about each book I read, when there often just isn't that much to say...now I can use this structure to say what I think is the most important idea I took away from the read and not try to dig for more.
Think about using it yourselves!
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IN THE ARMS OF MOUNTAINS: A Memoir of Land, Love, and Queer Resistance in Red America by COLE NICOLE LeFAVOUR
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: Rural America deserves more than an elegy: A powerful story of hope, resilience, and political resistance where you least expect it, from Idaho’s first openly LGBTQ+ lawmaker
Cole LeFavour was 11 years old when their hippie parents moved the family to a guest ranch in Idaho. Hours to the North, as the LeFavours unpacked pots and pans, Richard Butler dreamed of establishing a white separatist nation. It’s here, in one of the reddest states on the map, where Cole learned to raise ducklings, hike the wilderness alone, and build political resistance where you least expect it.
This is the story rural America deserves to tell—and that the rest of the country needs to hear. Follow LeFavour’s journey from their 2-mile walk to the school bus along a dirt road to their monumental election as Idaho’s first openly queer state senator. Cole recounts anti-apartheid protests in Berkeley, the solitary life of a fire lookout, and the gravitational pull of unexpected romance and loss.
In the Arms of Mountains is a memoir with dirt under its nails and heart on its sleeve. It shatters the carefully constructed “monolithic heartland” myth and rewrites
Hillbilly Elegy’s bleak epitaph.
Haunting, hopeful, and full of fight, Cole’s story reminds us of what’s possible when we look beyond red and blue, right and left, to meet each other at the edge of the wild.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: I liked this read just fine. I was more interested in the author's journey to becoming an Idaho state legislator than their family history, but both held my attention.
Seeing myself in their life's journey was not simple, but my curiosity pulled me along, and I ended my read feeling "here's someone I think would not like me personally but would be interesting to chat with at a cocktail gathering."
Beacon Press (
non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) politely holds out a hand expecting you to put $17.95 in their palm for an ebook.
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Under the Water by Paul Pen (tr. Simon Bruni)
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: What does the perfect family have to fear most? The perfect stranger.
From the outside, Frank and Grace seem to have the perfect family. He’s a loving husband, she’s a devoted wife, and together they have two happy children. But appearances can be deceiving. A strange series of misfortunes has left them an unexplained break-in, a catastrophic accident, and a bizarre poisoning that’s left Grace feeling especially unnerved. Packing up their RV for a move across the country, they’re ready for a fresh start, expecting to leave all their problems safely behind.
Then one night on the road to their new home, the figure of a young woman emerges from the darkness, causing them to swerve off the road. The injured stranger says her name is Mara. Miles from help, they invite her to stay. But Mara is hiding a secret. And she is not the only one.
Was it all just another inexplicable accident? Or have they opened the door to an escalating family nightmare designed to tear their perfect world apart?
I CHECKED THIS BOOK OUT FROM THE PRIME LENDING SERVICE.
My Review: Another creepy suspense story from Paul Pen, one that strongly hints at supernatural stuff without tipping its hand. Audrey's my kinda lass, irritatingly opinionated and highly judgmental and not smart enough to hide it despite being smart enough to know she should. Hello daughter of my cloning.
The way it all unravels as the parents' "perfect marriage" unsurprisingly fails the stress test of moving cross-country to escape something rather than make something was fun to watch, if predictable. I don't see classic written all over it but I'm not mad I read it.
Amazon Crossing (
non-affiliate Amazon link) asks you for $2.49 for the Kindle edition. Good value for your dollar IMO.
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Desert Flowers by Paul Pen (tr. Simon Bruni)
Rating: 3* of five
The Publisher Says: Rose and Elmer have created an idyllic sanctuary for themselves and their five daughters in Mexico’s Baja California desert. Out there in the middle of nowhere, blissfully cut off from the burdens of modern society, they’re free to raise their beautiful family…and preserve its secret.
And they’re never giving it up.
Then a young hiker named Rick comes looking for a place to stay. It’s just for the night, he says—but long enough for Rose and Elmer to fear they’ve made a horrible mistake. As the stranger grows more intrusive and more suspicious, the couple know they must do what they can to protect themselves. What they don’t know is that Rick has a secret, too. Soon, home and family will prove to be as cold and dark as the desert nights. And even with so many places to run, there’s still no escape from the past that binds them.
I CHECKED THIS BOOK OUT FROM THE PRIME LENDING SERVICE.
My Review: Very much a Paul Pen uneasy-making story. Rick is a faceless menace with a name but no characterization to speak of. Elmer and Rose are stock characters that evoke "weirdo Murrikinz" to European eyes; it goes unexplored how these two norteños got to Baja California without considerable attention being paid to them.
I do not recall a single thing about any of their daughters. Nothing. A story to pass some time, but if I'd paid for it I'd be frothingly furious.
Amazon Crossing (
non-affiliate Amazon link) is "only" asking $3.99 for a Kindle edition.
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The Light of the Fireflies by Paul Pen (tr. Simon Bruni)
Rating: 3.25* of five
The Publisher Says: A haunting and hopeful tale of discovering light in even the darkest of places.
For his whole life, the boy has lived underground, in a basement with his parents, grandmother, sister, and brother. Before he was born, his family was disfigured by a fire. His sister wears a white mask to cover her burns.
He spends his hours with his cactus, reading his book on insects, or touching the one ray of sunlight that filters in through a crack in the ceiling. Ever since his sister had a baby, everyone’s been acting very strangely. The boy begins to wonder why they never say who the father is, about what happened before his own birth, about why they’re shut away.
A few days ago, some fireflies arrived in the basement. His grandma said, There’s no creature more amazing than one that can make its own light. That light makes the boy want to escape, to know the outside world. Problem is, all the doors are locked. And he doesn’t know how to get out…
I CHECKED THIS BOOK OUT FROM THE PRIME LENDING SERVICE.
My Review: The first of Spanish writer Paul Pen's books that I read. It's a bit more like
Room than I expected; it's dark and dreadful and worryingly claustrophobic.
Would've been a full four stars for eerie, entirely gorgeous prose...except that brisk, brusque ending that ties a neat little bow on the backside of a shambling, messy orc of a story.
Amazon Crossing (
non-affiliate Amazon link) would like $4.99 for the Kindle edition.
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This Never Happened by Mempo Giardinelli (tr. Rhonda Dahl Buchanan)
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: In this autobiographical novel, a journalist witnesses the hot-off-the -presses editions of his own books thrown onto a bonfire of books. The date is March 24th, 1976, the day of the coup d'etat that led to the overthrow of the Isabel Peron presidency in Argentina and 18 years of terror known as "La Guerra sucia" or The Dirty Wars" in which 30,000-plus are still unaccounted for.
Fearful for his life and those of his wife and children, the narrator must find a way to navigate the highly volatile and murderous world under the boot of La Junta, in hopes of saving himself and his family; but first he has more important business to attend to—his mistress, with whom he's been having a scorching love affair—and finds himself grappling with several major dilemmas and very real dangers confronting him as he works his way out of this lethal maze.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: In just over 200 pages, a future as dark as any Orwell dreamt up, as grim as
Fahrenheit 451, is limned from the author's lived past. It's a bitter draft to swallow...especially the book-burning scene.
I might have swallowed it with better grace had the author not larded in a tacky, creepy cheating episode and never explored its emotional resonances; it felt like a cheap ploy to engage my worst, most prurient feelings. Stalled at three and a half stars instead of the full five I was heading for.
Schaffner Press (
non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) needs a mere $11.99 to grant you access to the ebook.
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The Bridge: An Annotated Edition (1st Edition) by Hart Crane (annotated and with an Introduction by Lawrence Kramer)
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: Now in paperback, with a new preface and clear, reader-friendly annotations that unlock Crane’s landmark poem.
Hart Crane’s modernist masterpiece
The Bridge has steadily grown in stature since its 1930 publication. Once dismissed by influential critics as a noble failure, a view that hardened into conventional wisdom, it is now widely regarded as one of the major achievements of twentieth-century American poetry. The poem unites mythology and modernity to reckon with the promises, kept and broken, of American experience.
The Bridge is challenging in the best sense, exacting and ultimately rewarding. Beloved yet often misunderstood, it threads indirect and finely grained allusions through period-specific references to 1920s life that can elude contemporary readers. Crane’s elaborate compound metaphors braid disparate sources, making the poem’s movement at times hard to track. Its topical and geographic markers call not only for identification but for explanation. Without specialized knowledge, much of it not readily available even online, many passages remain opaque.
Until now, there was no single, convenient resource to help readers unlock Crane’s vision. This book is that guide. Its detailed, far-reaching annotations make
The Bridge fully accessible, whether you are a scholar, a student, or a devoted reader of poetry.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: I am not "...a scholar, a student, or a devoted reader of poetry," so I had no business reading this queer poet's great edifice of thought. I loved the Walker Evans photos, and appreciated Lawrence Kramer's erudite and informative annotations, but it took me from October 2025 until now to finish this #PrideMonth read.
He might be one of gay history's "might have been great"s but I simply could not care less about poetry no matter how hard I try.
Fordham University Press (
non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) requests and requires the surrender of $23.99 for an ebook. You do you, Boo.
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A Dangerous Sky: A WWII RAF M/M Romance by Sebastian Haig
Rating: 2.5* of five
The Publisher Says: Two fighter pilots. One secret that could destroy them both.
England, 1940.
The sky over the Channel is filling with enemy aircraft, and every sortie could be a pilot’s last.
Flight Lieutenant Tom Ashford has survived long enough to know the rules: keep your men alive, keep your emotions buried, and never let anyone see what truly matters to you. War is ruthless to weakness and even more ruthless to secrets.
Pilot Officer Callum Fraser arrives at the squadron young, capable, and determined to prove himself in the brutal air war over southern England. Under Tom’s steady command, he learns quickly how to fight, how to survive, and how thin the line between courage and fear can be when the sky fills with fire.
But danger isn’t confined to the cockpit.
In the quiet spaces between missions—fog covered village lanes, silent barracks after midnight, and the lonely miles of the Sussex countryside something begins to grow between them. What starts as trust between pilots becomes something far more dangerous: a connection neither man can deny, and neither can afford to be discovered.
Because in wartime Britain, loving the wrong person can destroy a career… or worse.
As the Battle of Britain intensifies and losses mount, Tom and Callum must decide what they are willing to risk in the air, and on the ground.
Because some battles are fought at thirty thousand feet.
And some are fought in the heart.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Blandly competent. WAAAY too long. Unmemorable prose, a subtitle that's a
log line, a synopsis that's ridiculously overcomplicated and simultaneously portentous and uninformative as well as clearly designed to be read on a smartphone...not much thrilled me about this read except finishing it.
Which I did, so there are 2.5 stars.
Sebastian Haig (
non-affiliate Amazon link) only wants $3.99 for the Kindle edition, so if you need to fill a few hours....
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The Grand Couvert by Eoghan Brunkard
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: One man trying to survive the revolution. One man trying to climb out of the gutter. One cat trying to kill them both…
Edouard Laurent is a young man struggling to survive in a tumultuous Paris during the dying embers of the Revolution. He was a hesitant participant in a chateau burning and has been conscripted to the Republican army. So, when Ivo Armel, a power-hungry official offers the chance of a pardon if Edouard retrieves a mysterious relic, Edouard and a strange team of adventurers set off. Unknown to them, they are being pursued by a small feline, who believes himself to be the Comte of the chateau Edouard helped reduce to ashes.
Will Edouard and his friends unravel the mystery of this relic and its significance to Armel’s revolution? Can the Comte endure terrible wine, worse lovers, and the indignity of repeatedly getting his head stuck in glasses while in pursuit for his vengeance?
A highly comedic, heartwarming and oddly, historically accurate novel by Eoghan Brunkard, author of ‘Clementine Lane’, of the trials of surviving late 18th century Europe.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: "Ivo" and "Armel" are Breton saints...the latter spent the end of his life defeating a dragon burning up a Breton forest, the former a sainted abbot who championed the rights and care of the poor; on the nose much, Author Eoghan? It was a fun read for me. I cheered when the comte died, and thoroughly reveled in his afterlife as a stray cat.
I liked the read because I was sent to Holy Scripture aka Wikipedia to test my knowledge of Revolutionary France while giggling. It wasn't paced that well, some scenes too long; but overall I'd be glad to read Author Eoghan's next book.
He only wants (
non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) $4.99 for a Kindle edition which feels reasonable to me.
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The Seduction by Sara Torres (tr. Mara Faye Lethem)
Rating: 3.75* of five
The Publisher Says: Unspoken tensions simmer between two women under the heat of a Catalan summer in this internationally bestselling, erotic, and quietly radical portrait of queer desire.
In a sun-drenched house on the Catalan coast, a young, queer photographer arrives to capture the portrait of a celebrated writer. But what begins as a professional collaboration slowly unravels into something more intimate and unsettling—a charged exchange of glances, silence, and shifting emotional boundaries.
The photographer, unnamed and quietly observant, is drawn to the writer’s enigmatic presence, her self-possession, her power. Over shared meals and quiet routines, the difficulty of understanding the desire of the other begins to obsess the narrator. As the summer heat thickens, so too does the unspoken tension between them, heightening the photographer’s insecurities and her perception of her own flaws. When a third woman arrives, an old friend with blurred boundaries, the fragile connection begins to unravel. Is this seduction, or projection? Intimacy, or illusion?
Told through lyrical, introspective prose,
The Seduction is a poetic, slow-burn exploration of the complexities of seduction between women, intimacy, queer longing, and the quiet ache of unfulfilled connections.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: "Lyrical, introspective prose" is code for "pretty-sounding, too-long sentences telling a shaggy dog story." This is lovely to look at stuff that's in no hurry to tell you a story.
I kept reading, finished the book, because it might not've taken me much of anywhere new but it picked the most scenic route to get there that I could even imagine.
Atria Books/Primero Sueno Press (
non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) needs $12.99 before you get to read your ebook.
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Dearly Departed by Chip Pons
Rating: 3.9* of five
The Publisher Says: Hope is a dangerous thing for gods. Even former ones.
From the highly beloved author of “contemporary romance magic” (Christina Lauren) Winging It with You comes a Hades-inspired gay rom-com, in which the former god of the Underworld turned grumpy funeral director must find a loophole in the Immortality Retirement Act that banished him to Earth, until the florist next door who sees life in full bloom begins to unravel all his carefully laid plans.
Hayden Harlow, once the mighty Hades, has spent centuries quietly resenting his fall from immortality. Stripped of his godhood by the allegedly irreversible Immortal Retirement Act, he now runs Harlow and Sons Funeral Home—a front for his eternal sentencing among mortals, and a bleak reminder of the purpose he’s lost. Still, he’s determined to claw his way back…if only the Fates at City Hall would stop toying with him.
Enter Levi Wilder: a florist with an artist’s heart, an infectious smile, and a gift for finding beauty in life’s messiest moments. When Hayden storms into Levi’s shop to complain about a bouquet of sunflowers—an offensive choice for a funeral, in his opinion—their worlds collide. Hayden is all restraint and shadows; Levi is all sunshine and charm. But beneath the clash lies an undeniable spark neither can ignore.
As their connection blossoms, Hayden finds himself caught between the life he once knew and the bright future Levi dares him to imagine. But trusting Levi means risking the walls he’s kept in place all these years—and it’s not just his heart on the line. Because in the threads of fate, one choice can change everything.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Sweet, adorable meet-cute/grumpy-sunshine gay rom-coms are *perfect* summer reads. This one was just a shade too twee for my brooding cynical "heart" or whatever scar-tissue Frankenthing replaced it. There's more spicy racy stuff than I expected, but it was well done so I rolled with it.
I'd give four stars if Levi hadn't demanded emotional openness without offering to accept his own behaviors as occasionally over the top. It's not lethal but it niggled at me; Levi can be demanding but Hayden can't feel some kinda way about it...?!
G.P. Putnam's Sons (
non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) requires a fare of $12.99 to get on the ferry across the story-Styx.
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Queerleaders by Olivia A. Cole & Ashley Woodfolk
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: Two cheerleaders find themselves inconveniently tumbling head over heels for each other in this satirical, sapphic teen rom-com that’s Bring It On meets She Drives Me Crazy.
Oak Haven High doesn’t have cheerleaders—it has queerleaders.
It’s a fun coincidence that every new varsity cheerleader since Davie Cathee took the squad by storm three years ago is—or soon comes out as—queer.
But when a rumor sparks that this season, newly minted captain Davie has been specifically recruiting queer members only, Davie is accused of “discrimination” against straight students. She’s given an ultimatum: recruit a straight athlete for the team or the funding for their competitive cheer season will take a major tumble.
Enter Kendall Hayes, the edgy, mysterious new girl. When Davie sees that Kendall has a boyfriend, she quickly convinces her to join the squad. Problem solved.
Until she finds out that Kendall’s actually bisexual…and newly single.
Now Kendall and Davie are faced with having to keep those details under wraps until nationals, which only gets more complicated when they start falling hard and fast for each other. Can Kendall go back in the closet long enough to save the squad? Or will Davie find the courage to love her new crush out loud, even if it might mean the end of the queerleaders?
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Adorable! And, as a YA novel, so chock-full of quality representation it bulges. I'd hand this to my granddaughter without batting an eyelash.
I myownself am old enough to see through to the plot beats so wasn't deeply engaged; great for the sixteen and unders and you won't pass out from boredom pre-reading it but it's not for us.
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (
non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) says, "$10.99 please" at checkout.
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Bromantasy by Máire Roche
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: Two heroes. One brain cell.
BROMANTASY is a cozy, queer fantasy about the mortifying ordeal of being known by your totally platonic best friend and the epic quest that might force you to confront the truth.
Fellas, is it gay to kiss your bff while on a quest through the forest you’re unqualified for?
Juniper O'Reilly is good at only two things: demolishing a pint of mead and finding the perfect skincare routine. Everything else—taking care of the farm, bartering for goods, any sort of manual labor—falls to Juniper’s best friend, the absurdly capable, endlessly patient Mo Elmthorn.
But when Juniper accidentally volunteers them both for a quest to kill a fearsome monster, he knows he’s finally gotten in over his head. Juniper hates camping, he hates the dark, and there’s no way all these foraged mushrooms are going to sit well in his stomach. One thing he doesn’t hate? How good Mo’s thighs look in his questing pants—he doesn’t have time to think about that, though, with a monster to hunt and their futures on the line.
But monsters come in all shapes and sizes. When Juniper and Mo realize that the terrifying beast they’ve sworn to kill is just a scared little girl torn from their family, they’re off to find not only the true villain of the story, but maybe even a happy ending.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: The humor's a little obvious for my taste. I don't think the set-up is as cute as more sentimental readers will. The fantasy trappings wore thin very soon because they felt very inconsistent to me.
If you like the publisher's comps up top, or that orc/coffee shop thing, maybe you'll get a kick out of this one, too.
G.P. Putnam's Sons (
non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) asks $12.99 for an ebook.
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This space is dedicated to
Nancy Pearl's Rule of 50, or "the Pearl Rule" as I've always called it. After realizing five times in December 2021
alone that I'd already Pearl-Ruled a book I picked up on a whim, I realized how close my Half-heimer's is getting to the full-on article. Hence my decision to track my Pearls!
As she says:
People frequently ask me how many pages they should give a book before they give up on it. In response to that question, I came up with my “rule of fifty,” which is based on the shortness of time and the immensity of the world of books. If you’re fifty years of age or younger, give a book fifty pages before you decide to commit to reading it or give it up. If you’re over fifty, which is when time gets even shorter, subtract your age from 100—the result is the number of pages you should read before making your decision to stay with it or quit.
So this space will be each month's listing of Pearl-Ruled books.
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Dreams in Which I'm Almost Human: A Memoir (35%) by Hannah Soyer
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: Dreams in Which I’m Almost Human is a genre-defying memoir of disability, identity, and desire that fuses lyricism, myth, and medical truth to explore what it means to live and love a body defined by others.
At eight years old, Hannah Soyer had no choice but to undergo an intensive spinal fusion surgery, in order to keep her lungs from eventually collapsing. Fourteen years later, she chose another treatment for her neuromuscular condition: regular drug injections into her spinal fluid. But what does “choice” really mean, and how much weight do our choices hold?
In taut, lyrical chapters,
Dreams in Which I’m Almost Human confronts and communes with bodily autonomy, medical and sexual consent, traveling abroad in a wheelchair, caregiving and caretaking, appreciating the natural world, family history, bedtime stories, fantastical creatures, Irish poetry, and the limits and wonders of language and love. A bold collection of genre-bending essays, this memoir is an investigation into what we (and our words) are capable of, as we yearn to make sense of our relationships to ourselves, each other, and the worlds we inhabit.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: I like lyrical prose, I batten on queer identity stories; I had to nope out of this one after I read:
What I mean is, in the words of Jenny Boully, "why is it that I have feet and yet still refuse to flee?"
The next paragraph enumerates the experiences the lover has regarding the beloved, and I literally could not stop sobbing. I'm not happy with how my Young Gentleman Caller left things between us, and was hopeful when I got a text from him; the conversation I'd hoped for was not forthcoming, and I still feel raw. Sorry Author Hannah, I just can't. Maybe later...?
Red Hen Press (
non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) will need you to cross their palm with $9.99-worth of silver before granting your wish to become one with this sky-mermaid's being.
