20 reviews 4 DEPENDS · 14 YES · 1 NO · 1 DNF Who this is

• LITERARY FICTION Roundtable Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingsolver · 2022 I would not call it an easy recommendation because of the length, the violence, the addiction, and the amount of grief. A Hard Life, Told Without Looking Away DEPENDS
• NONFICTION Roundtable Into Thin Air Jon Krakauer · 1997 I finished it impressed by Krakauer's reporting and deeply unconvinced by the idea that Everest is a reasonable goal for most people who can afford the fee. I Read It the Way I Read a Postmortem YES
• HISTORICAL FICTION Roundtable Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry · 1985 That is a heavy book to spend time with, but it is an honest one. The Drive Is the Point YES
• LITERARY FICTION Roundtable Now Is Not the Time to Panic Kevin Wilson · 2022 The book earns that conclusion, even when it explains it one time too many. A Good Poster, a Bad Handoff, and a Panic That Gets Out of Scope YES
• CRIME & THRILLER Roundtable Only to Sleep: A Philip Marlowe Novel Lawrence Osborne · 2018 The case gets there by wandering, but the wandering has a destination. A Good Last Case for a Very Tired Man YES
• HORROR Roundtable Swan Song Robert R. McCammon · 1987 I finished Swan Song, and I am still not sure whether I admire it more than I distrust it. A Long Way to Go After the World Ends DEPENDS
• LITERARY FICTION Roundtable The Calamity Club Kathryn Stockett · 2026 The book occasionally overstates what its own characters have already made clear, but it earns the final feeling. A Good Story With Too Many Open Doors YES
• LITERARY FICTION Roundtable The Covenant of Water Abraham Verghese · 2023 I finished The Covenant of Water, and I am glad I did. A Big Book That Earns Most of Its Space YES
• HISTORICAL FICTION Roundtable The Nightingale Kristin Hannah · 2015 I ended up respecting The Nightingale more than I enjoyed it. A Strong Story That Does Not Know When to Stop DEPENDS
• CLASSICS Roundtable The Razor's Edge W. Somerset Maugham · 1944 But its practical counterarguments are strong, its secondary characters are memorable, and its best scenes understand that people rarely choose between good and bad. A Good Argument With a Problem It Never Solves YES
• NONFICTION Roundtable Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig · 1974 Read this if you are interested in the relationship between work, attention, technology, and identity, and if you can tolerate a narrator who keeps turning a useful observation into a complete philosophy of the universe. A Good Manual Buried Under a Lot of Philosophy DEPENDS
• CRIME & THRILLER Roundtable Bits and Pieces Nichole Severn · 2021 It is a romantic suspense novel that takes its forensic details seriously enough to be interesting and its romance seriously enough to be tolerable. A Killer Who Understood the Scope YES
• CRIME & THRILLER Roundtable Unspoken Truths Liz Mistry · 2019 When everybody in a five day window turns out to be tangled up with everybody else, that's not a web, that's an outline that never got trimmed. A Shrine to Dead Rock Stars That Nobody Ever Explains NO
• LITERARY FICTION Roundtable May We Feed the King Rebecca Perry · 2026 The final apple she saves for the archivist to place is the argument in one gesture: a record should be finished by more than one hand. The King would not sign YES
• ROMANCE Roundtable Not Your Average Earl Eliza Lloyd · 2019 Still, those are minor complaints in a book that gets the core mechanics right. Scope Before Price YES
• CRIME & THRILLER Roundtable Perfect Remains Helen Fields · 2017 But I know the difference between a job that's taking longer than planned and one where somebody keeps changing what the job even is. Scope Creep Killed My Interest Before the Killer Could DNF
• SCIENCE FICTION Roundtable Station Eternity Mur Lafferty · 2022 The subplot with the Gneiss provides the best operational conflict in the entire book. A Facility Governed by Unenforced Scopes YES
• WESTERN Roundtable The Broken Bow Larry D. Sweazy · 2022 That is the most honest line he has in the book, and it sits right next to his later refusal to pretend the Marberry girl is someone else's problem. The badge was the constraint, not the point YES
• CRIME & THRILLER Roundtable The Forgotten David Baldacci · 2012 But the investigation holds together, the villain's business made sense on its own ugly terms, and the family stuff underneath all the gunfire actually landed. Somebody Finally Checked the Odometer YES
• HORROR Roundtable The Gospel of Z Stephen Graham Jones · 2014 It's a real cost, stated in months and materials, and it's why he gets bumped down to class four graverobber duty at J Barracks instead of just getting shot. Every terrible decision here has a paper trail YES

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