May 27, 2026 The Ride of Her Life by Elizabeth Letts
Because that’s the thing about the future. You can’t get there by imagining. You can only get there one step at a time, and the hardest part is taking that first step.
Summer is here which means it’s road trip time! “The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Her Last Chance Journey Across America” is a great road trip book, albeit with a different form of transportation than most of us use.
The book tells the story of Annie Wilkins, a 64-year-old farmer in Maine in 1954, who has lost everything. Her doctor gave her the news that she had two more years to live. With nothing left to lose, she realizes that she has always wanted to see the Pacific Ocean. With only two years to live, she decided to set out on a journey across the United States to the Pacific Ocean with the only things she has left, her horse named Tarzan, and her dog named Depeche Toi. From 1954 to 1956, she journeys over 4,000 miles to discover the heart and soul of the nation. She meets celebrities and everyday Americans. She trudges through blizzards, rides through rainstorms, climbed mountains and captures the imagination of a nation at the brink of the Cold War. I loved reading about her journey and learning more about the United States in the 1950’s. It was a book that reminded me about the values of neighborliness, and that goodness exists in the world. If you want to kick off your own road trip with an inspiring journey across America, pick this one up.
May 20, 2026 The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King) by JRR Tolkien
But in the end it’s only a passing thing, this shadow; even darkness must pass.
With summer just around the corner, there’s no better time to embark on an epic journey through the classic fantasy trilogy, The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. I read these novels for the first time when I was in college, and they have stuck with me ever since and have been reread many times!
The books tell the story of Frodo Baggins, a hobbit who inherits a magical ring from his uncle Bilbo Baggins on his 111th birthday. But the ring that he inherits has a sinister past and must be destroyed in the very place that it was forged. To destroy the ring, Frodo embarks on an epic journey that will take him across Middle Earth and will introduce him to a host of allies, creatures, enemies, and fantastical worlds.
This book is recognized as the one of the first fantasy novels and is an absolute classic in the genre. For good reason! I’ve never read a book that is so comprehensive, so immersive, so detailed and so absorbing. As Frodo travels with the ring, I found myself completely absorbed in the journey and wanted to learn more. I was turning the pages as fast as I could and was transported to the world of Middle Earth. If you have seen the movies, but have never read the books, you are missing out! The Lord of the Rings books are an absolute masterpiece!
May 13, 2026 Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
No one in this world would ever love me as much as my mother, and she would never let me forget it.
Thinking about Mother’s Day reminded me of this honest and lyrical memoir that I read a few years ago. In this memoir, Michelle Zauner explores her relationship with her Korean mother following her mother’s death from pancreatic cancer when Zauner was twenty-five. Zauner relates her feelings as she grew up as the only Korean American student at her school in Eugene, Oregon. She is honest about and explores her feelings as her mother had high expectations for her daughter. Some of the most touching passages of the book take place as Zauner and her mother visit Seoul and have treasured bonding moments exploring the foods and tastes of Korea. When her mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Zauner begins to reckon with her Korean identity and to treasure the gifts that her mother imparted to her over the years. I found the book to be touching, deeply moving and overall, fully alive.
I loved learning more about Korean food, since food was the way, her mother expressed her love. It made me begin to eat and cook more Korean food myself. Zauner is also a member of the Grammy nominated rock band Japanese Breakfast, and so she talks about music throughout the book. If you are an elder millennial like me, you will love the book’s soundtrack! Overall if you want to read an honest, lively, lyrical memoir that explores the beauty and complexity of the mother daughter relationship, this is one that is worth reading.
May 6, 2026 What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
This longing for what was never known and is lost needs its word, something beyond nostalgia, which pines for what was once known.
I recently read the latest work by Ian McEwan and loved it. McEwan is always so smart, witty and unexpected in his writing. This newest novel by McEwan takes place in 2119 after the earth has undergone rising seas. The scholar and historian Tom Metcalfe has devoted his career to studying a dinner in 2014 where his favorite poet reads a poem written for his wife on her birthday and the poem has never been seen or heard again. As Tom embarks on his quest to find the poem, what he learns along the way will alter the course of his thinking and his career.
McEwan is known for stories that take a twist that turns the story you thought you were reading on its head, and this book is no exception. His writing always makes you think about things from a different viewpoint and in this work, he confronts the question of what we can ever know about each other and what is kept secret from even those who love us most. It had me contemplating the future, the deep questions of life and why we do the things that we do. I enjoyed the intellectual journey that this book took me on, and if you like a smart, well-written work of literature that will make your brain tingle, pick this one up today!
