FALL RELEASES & NINA GEORGE - posted 10.31.25

I've spent the last few weeks reading ARCs of books coming out in 2026 - there's many to look forward to! Below are a few recently released titles worth sharing with you, as well as four sweet books by Nina George that have a special place in my heart.

Destroy This House - Amanda Uhle

Executive Director and Publisher of the literary journal, McSweeney's, Ann Arbor author Amanda Uhle unzips herself in her memoir about growing up with dysfunctional parents who were anything but "normal." They moved frequently and amassed greatly. They were hoarders, liars, and con-artists. But, they loved their two children, in their own way, resulting in Amanda coming to their rescue each and every time they needed her, which was a constant through her high school and college years, and beyond, into her professional life. I give Amanda Uhle great credit for coming out of her fractured childhood a strong woman who never gave up on her parents and never gave up on herself. Rather than repeating the behavior she grew up witnessing, she rose above it and found a good man to marry and create a healthy home for their children. One never knows what goes on behind closed doors. Amanda deserves gold stars for having the guts to reveal what went on behind her parents many doors.

Joyride   -   Susan Orlean

Susan Orlean has led a lucky life and she's happy to tell us about it and we're happy to read about her luck because she's a really good writer and we're lucky to have been the recipients of the long list of books and articles she has penned throughout her 45-year career. "Joyride" is a joyful memoir from a writer who has lived the dream, building a writing career her own way.

The Place of Tides - James Rebanks

Nonfiction writer James Rebanks reflects on his experience of working with an elderly woman, Anna, on a rocky remote Norwegian island on the edge of the Arctic, preparing for and then caring for the Eider ducks who inhabit the island during their mating and egg-laying season. From the arduous task during the bitter wintry spring of creating hundreds of egg-laying nests, many housed in hard to reach rocky crags, to protecting the ducks from their numerous predators as they sit on their eggs during the Scandinavian midnight sun, Rebanks' observation of the centuries-old undertaking of collecting the eider down left behind after the ducks return to the sea is written with the sense of awe he comes to experience. We learn he chose to "study" and help Anna as an escape from a marriage that was growing apart, yet during his time on the island his thoughts and writings turn on himself, when he questions his patriarchal nature and how he can be a better husband and father upon his return home. Not only is this an amazing look at a culture long forgotten and an ode to the wonders and beauty nature offers, it's also a study on compassion and mercy.

BOOKS by NINA GEORGE

Nina George has a special talent of creating a story that immediately grabs the reader's attention, offering no desire to turn away from the story until the last page. Many of her characters are sweet and gentle people, though not all, but who they are and how they impact others is Nina George's strength in developing her characters.

The Little French Bistro

A sweet sweet tale that takes the reader to the seaside of Brittany, the loveliest place imaginable, chock full of characters you would be blessed to be admired and loved by. Though the story is rather predictable, I don't think it's possible for anyone to read this book and not wish they could jump into the pages and have this story become their own. I recommend this read as a getaway from everything that is weighing you down . . . for a brief respite and fantasy of escaping to the world Nina George has created in this heartwarming story.

The Little Paris Bookshop

Ready to float on a French barge with books, wine, and scintillating conversations? " The Little Paris Bookshop" is a love letter to books and to lovers of books. From his floating bookstore on a barge on the Seine, Monsieur Perdu, a self-titled "literary apothecary," prescribes novels for those suffering from the hardships of life, using his intuitive feel for the exact book a reader needs, mending broken hearts and souls. Sweet. Very Sweet. A perfect get-away-from-it-all and beach read.    

The Little Village of Book Lovers

On the heels of the wonderful "The Little Paris Bookshop," Nina George's novel that I termed "a love letter to books," is her latest homage to love and to books. Nina George has gifted readers with another sweet story that takes place in southern France in 1960, in which Marie-Jeanne, a young orphan, plays matchmaker as she brings kindred souls together through books. She and her foster father create a mobile library, delivering books throughout the small mountain towns where they live. In the process they bring lonely people together through the written word. This feel-good story is a perfect pick-me-up read.

The Book of Dreams

This novel is a sidestep from the previous books of Nina George's that I've reviewed here. Taking place in a French hospital, two coma patients, unknown to each other, are visited by a teenage boy who is the estranged son of one of the patients. This is a deeply emotional story, with much of the story going into the mind of the father, and tragic backgrounds of the two patients and the people surrounding them in the hospital.