After I retired my old blog at the end of last year, I thought I was done with writing a monthly synopsis of what I've been reading, but I guess I just can't quit! For the last couple of months, I tried squeezing it into my newsletter, but there just wasn't room. So now I'm back to blogging about books! Here's what I read in May:

Fiction
I'm still on my mystery/crime kick, and read a pretty broad range this month:

• Toucan Keep a Secret by Donna Andrews, which is a cozy/whodunit with humor and madcap antics. I like that Andrews' books are lighthearted mysteries and that the heroine is always juggling caring for kids (twins!) plus about four jobs while also solving murders.
• The Five Year Lie by Sarina Bowen, a "domestic thriller" (I haven't quite figured out what this new subgenre means--does domestic refer to the stories being about concerns of the home or the fact that there's no international element to the events?). I really like Sarina on the #AmWriting podcast, but her genre up until now has been romance, which interests me not at all, so I was excited that she branched out, and I enjoyed this book very much.
• The Midcoast by Adam White, which is really more of a book club novel than a mystery, although there is crime involved (it would be called "women's fiction" if the main characters were women and not men), about a lobsterman who gets involved in drug running/organized crime, told from the point of view of a secondary character who lives in the town (a town not far from where I live!). It's a little on the slow side, if you're used to heart-racing thrillers, but the deep dive into place and this one family's rise and massive downfall is compelling to the end.

Multigenre

• Last year I was invited to teach a class through a project called Writing Waterville, which involved four workshops and the publication of a chapbook of writing that arose from those workshops, also called Writing Waterville. At the end of last month, there was a launch event where the books were distributed and contributors read from their pieces. It was really great to see the huge range of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction that participants generated and to have the chance to contribute myself. Big shoutout to Catie Joyce-Bulay and Tyler French for pulling it all together. Being a writer in a rural area can be so isolating, and it's wonderful that these two are putting in the work to build a writing community in central Maine.

You may or may not be aware that I have a split writing personality, applying my pen to both nature nonfiction and mystery fiction. Today's news is about the latter: I'm thrilled to announce that my short story, "The Rest of the Story," has been selected for third place in the CrimeFlash Fiction Contest for the 2024 Maine Crime Wave crime writing conference. I, along with the winner and other finalists, will be reading my story during the opening evening of the conference, An Evening of Crime (Writing)! This part of the event, to be held on June 14th, starting at 5 p.m., is free and open to the public.

Have you discovered the Shepherd book recommendation site yet? There you can find curated lists of books recommended by authors in an astonishing range of categories: mystery novels with a strong sense of place; books about women who went on adventures and changed their lives; detective novels that keep you laughing. If there's a very specific kind of book you love to read, there is probably a list on the site to match! I was invited to put together a list of books that shared something in common with my book, Uphill Both Ways, and I came up with the category of "the best books about women in the wild." It was fun and challenging to narrow it down to five books--I ended up choosing four that have been pivotal in my development as a reader, a writer, and a person, plus one that I only read recently but which I think will prove to be equally life-changing. You can check out my list and why I chose each of the books here.