Contemporary Fiction: Queenie Is Working on It by Candice Carty-Williams

It has been seven years since readers have been able to check in on Queenie Jenkins, but author Candice Carty-Williams has decided to give readers Queenie Is Working on It, the follow-up to 2019's Queenie. The title character may be older, but saying she is also wiser may be a stretch. At the very least, readers are promised another story full of honesty and drama.

The Situation: Queenie's visit to a fertility clinic is for research purposes, though she will also have the chance to learn more about her own reproductive health. Now that she has gotten away from her former toxic work environment, she has the opportunity to work on articles she cares about, and maybe even a bigger project about Black creatives. Her family relationships are also on track, in particular her relationship with her mother. And her love life...well, it is certainly headed in...a direction. With one fairly consistent situationship, and a few other promising options, Queenie is (somewhat) confident that at the very least, having a kid is in her near-future.

The Problem: Queenie is determined to have this new work project be a success, despite the clear pessimism of a coworker, and the difficulty that comes from dealing with another publication that seems less than committed to the cause. But Queenie forges ahead with it and the fertility article, until some concerning news has her reconsidering her timeline, and the men in her life, including an ex that she is sure will always and forever be the one that got away. It also does not help that everyone around her seems to be in a committed relationship, with one close friend about to have their first baby. Queenie does not want to fall back into old habits, so she moves ahead and does what she believes is best.

Genre, Themes, History: This is a work of fiction set in and around London, with Queenie at the center of all of the action. With a new job and great support from family and friends, Queenie is making the best of things and wants to be a better version of herself. With a tendency to self-sabotage and believe that things will eventually fall apart, Queenie often manages to both move forward and bring things to a grinding halt. She owns up to her past destructive behavior and terrible choices, while making more terrible choices and behaving destructively. Many of the characters from the first book make a reappearance, including Queenie's grandparents, her mother and her aunt, and several of her friends.

My Verdict: Queenie is a lot, and she knows it. And her friends know it. Sure, she has learned some lessons, but at 33 years-old, she has certainly not gotten it all figured out. This book is a picture of that pressure that many feel in their early 30s to already have it all together, as it looks like everyone else certainly does. It is a fun and honest look at a very particular phase of Queenie's life that many will relate to. The drama sometimes felt like too much, and the amount of grace Queenie receives at her job seemed unrealistic, but this is a fun, entertaining, but also thought-provoking book. 

Favorite Moment: Darcy makes a point to stand up for Queenie while they are at her bachelorette weekend. The offender is another attendee, and while the woman may be Darcy's friend, she insists on calling her out on her bad behavior.

Favorite Character: I adored Queenie's grandparents in the previous book and wish there was more of them in this one.

Recommended Reading: I recommend Maame by Jessica George. 

Goodreads Choice Awards 2026

Hard to believe, but it is that time of year again. It is time for readers to cast their votes for their favorite books of 2026 in the Goodreads Choice Awards. I am ready for the surprises (I think), and of course, to discover books that I have not yet had a chance to pick up.

Two DSNs have made it into the category for Favorite Fiction: Patmeena Sabit's Good People, and R.F. Kuang's Taipei Story (review coming in early December). In one, readers are told the compelling, but often conflicting story of an immigrant family. In the other, a young Chinese American student spends a summer in Taipei in an intense language program. I will be giving my vote to Sabit's Good People, but this is also the push I need to hurry up and read John Green's Hollywood, Ending, which is also nominated. 

For Favorite Historical Fiction, the family epic The Seven Daughters of Dupree by Nikesha Elise Williams is joined by Sadeqa Johnson's Keeper of Lost Children, and M.L. Stedman's A Far-Flung Life. In my opinion, all three are strong choices, but I personally will put my vote behind Keeper of Lost Children, a story of identity and adoption during and after World War II. 

Only one DSN made it into the Favorite Fantasy category, though I am always surprised when I manage to pick up any fantasy book that ends up as a nominee. Kate Quinn's The Astral Library brings readers into a place where books are worlds that can be lived in. Library patrons can choose to join Sherlock Holmes as he solves a mystery, or attend the party where Elizabeth Bennet meets Mr. Darcy. Honestly, the book did not quite go in the direction I thought it would, but I will still give it my vote anyway.

I am so pleased that both Operation Bounce House and Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel (review coming later this month) have been nominated for Favorite Science Fiction. They are both books that will be difficult to forget, but I will have to go with Dinniman's Operation Bounce House, where inhabitants of a far-off distant planet must defend their home against invaders from Earth sent to destroy it as part of a game.

It is easy for me to once again cast my vote for Patmeena Sabit's Good People in the Favorite Debut Novel category, and not only because it is the only DSN to appear there. If it wins for both this category and Favorite Fiction I will be beyond delighted. 

Seeing Shannon J. Spann's A Stage Set for Villains as a nominee for Favorite Young Adult Fantasy and Sci-Fi makes me happy for a few reasons. I feel like this book deserves more attention for the intricate world and story the author has crafted, and since it has been nominated, maybe it will receive that attention and find more readers. Spann created a land where stage performers are dangerous, but also worshipped, and one young girl must make a deal with one to save her life. 

While I am not usually into reimaginings or retellings, Katie Bernet's Beth Is Dead, which tells a different story of the five March women from Little Women, was both interesting and thrilling. Not sure how it will stand up against Marissa Meyer &Tamara Moss's The Escape Game in the Favorite Young Adult Fiction category, or even Elizabeth Acevedo's Anger Is Only a Shadow, which currently sits on my to-read shelf.

How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay by Jenny Lawson, and Catch the Devil by Pamela Colloff, have both made it into the Favorite Nonfiction category, but they are very different books. Lawson approaches the issues of our current reality with her signature honesty and humor, while Colloff's book follows the life of a con-artist, chronicling just how he managed to get away with his crimes. It is a close call honestly, but I will go with Lawson's book for this category. 

The Favorite Memoir category includes two DSNs that affected me greatly. Christine Applegate's You With the Sad Eyes, and Ke Huy Quan's Never Say Die are two memoirs that I would recommend to almost anyone. Honest, fascinating, and heartbreaking, but in different ways, these are two books that will take readers on intense emotional journeys. I will pick Quan's book, but fully expect them both to go far, maybe even all the way to the final round of voting. 

So there are 15 DSNs that have been nominated across nine categories, and no matter how high or low that number ends up being, I am always surprised. This first round of voting will close on Sunday, November 22, with the final round opening on Tuesday, November 24. Readers have nearly two weeks to make their decisions and cast their votes, so happy deciding.

Nonfiction: Never Say Die by Ke Huy Quan

For many people around my age who grew up in the U.S, the face on the cover of this book will be instantly recognizable. Even if you could not recall his name without looking it up, you probably knew he was in The Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I was beyond excited to pick up Oscar-winning actor Ke Huy Quan's new book, Never Say Die. I knew very little of his story and background beyond the movies I saw, so whatever I found on the pages was going to be enlightening in some way.

Genre, Themes, History: This is a memoir in which Quan goes over his life in detail, from his first time in jail at seven years old (you read that right), to getting the role in the movie that would win him the highest and most coveted award in Hollywood, along with many others, for Everything Everywhere All at Once. Quan begins his story as a confused little boy being woken up in the middle of the night in his bedroom in Vietnam. What follows is an adventure that will bring the family to Hong Kong, and ultimately to Los Angeles. Of course he details just how he ended up in a role in not one, but two of the biggest movies of the early 80s, and the unsettling quiet that came over his career afterwards. But Quan also talks extensively about his family, and how every moment and decision, both small and big, led him back to acting.

My Verdict: This book is an absolute delight. As Quan himself admits, his story is something that is found in the movies, and yet, here he is, having lived it. There is the perilous journey from Vietnam to Hong Kong, and eventually settling to Los Angeles, to being dubbed the "selfie king" as he takes advantage of every opportunity to take a picture with other big names in the industry, of which he is now one. Quan admits that his life and career have been riddled with self-doubt, anxiety, even feelings of despair, and credits his wife, family, and friends with helping keeping him focused and faithful. It is an honest story full of hope, the reality of failure, and the possibility of unimagined success, from a man who decided to not give up.

Favorite Moment: There are so many...but I will choose when Quan reunites with fellow The Goonies co-star Jeff Cohen, who played 'Chunk.' 

Recommended Reading: Steve Martin's Born Standing Up remains one of my favorite memoirs of all time.

Contemporary Fiction: The Seekers of Deer Creek by Thao Thai

A time jumping mystery featuring distant sisters and a somewhat obscure artist is what is promised in Thao Thai's The Seekers of Deer Creek. Readers are taken on a journey that starts in Wisconsin, but will also spend time in France and Vietnam, as two sisters attempt to connect the clues left behind by their father.

The Situation: It has been months since Vivi has seen her little sister Calla. Growing up, the two were inseparable against their father's addiction and grief, and Vivi made it her mission to look out for Calla after their mother left. But while both her career and her love life seem to be headed in great directions, she worries over Calla's continued reckless existence, with guilt eating away at her for the part she played in some of their more recent painful memories. When Calla shows up with a letter and a sketch she found among their dead father's things, Vivi must decide if she will choose an adventure with her sister, or stick with the safe existence she has managed to cultivate.

The Problem: Once Vivi makes her decision she knows there is no going back, especially since part of making the decision involved a choice that may have jeopardized her career as an art conservator. The letter hints at a lost work of art by Surrealist Vietnamese painter K.P. Lý, and the first stop on the sisters' journey is France. Vivi is not sure what they will find, if they find anything at all, but what is certain is that the unresolved tension between the sisters will add a layer of difficulty neither has truly prepared for. Vivi is afraid that Calla is on the verge of relapsing, while Calla simply wants her sister to be honest with herself and live her life. This mystery could potentially lead to life-changing discoveries, while also tearing the sisters apart.

Genre, Theme, History: This is a work of fiction set mostly in the modern-day, while also reaching back into the 1940s as it explores the life of fictional painter K.P. Lý. The third-person narrator mostly sticks with Vivi's point of view, with the occasional email, letter, or journal entry making an appearance. Vivi also has moments of retreating into her memory of life at Deer Creek with her father and sister, as well as her friend and Calla's now ex-husband, Wayland. Much of her memory will include Calla, as her sister has always been a constant presence in her life, for better and for worse, and continues to occupy most of her current thoughts and concerns. 

My Verdict: This story certainly manages to convey the feeling of those impossible conversations with family that manage to frustrate instead of clarify. Vivi and Calla need each other, but always manage to make each other just a little bit crazy, and old memories and arguments from the past threaten to come up at nearly any given time. Thai communicates the general difficulty of all human connections, and how easy it is to justify our actions and frame them as something we are doing for, or because of, someone else. And the mystery surrounding K.P. Lý is interesting, almost to the point of overshadowing what is happening with the sisters. The story could have perhaps ended 30-50 pages sooner, but overall, it held my interest and curiosity.

Favorite Moment: At various moments, there are small glimpses that show how the closeness of the sisters' relationship does not necessarily make it a healthy one.

Favorite Character: Paul Quân, tenured professor at Rathmore, is pretty much the epitome of a cranky older professor and Surrealist expert. Even so, his often harsh honesty is refreshing next to the sisters' subtle barbs and pretenses.

Recommended Reading: My Friends by Frederik Backman takes a different, more humorous look at art and what inspires us.

Young Adult Fiction: Wayfarers by Jeff Zentner and Brittany Cavallaro

The second collaboration between authors Jeff Zentner and Brittany Cavallaro promises a road trip with two teens, both looking for an escape. The Wayfarers follows Sylvie and Knox as they trek from Michigan to North Carolina, wanting desperately to connect to each other, but afraid to reveal the whole truth of what they left behind.

The Situation: At one point, Sylvie was excited about this trip. The plan was to graduate high school, drive around and see all the sights in the van she worked so hard on, and then attend college in the fall. And while the basic plan is the same, the situation at home has changed, and Sylvie does not believe she has the right to enjoy herself. For Knox, there has never really been a plan, other than survive. Used to a nomadic life on the road, he decides it is time to maybe find a place to call home. When he breaks his arm while chasing down Sylvie's dog, Winslow, she decides to make sure he is okay, and offers him a ride to his next destination. 

The Problem: There are certain questions Knox is not excited to answer about his past, and same is true for Sylvie. She is fine talking about her issues with her mother, her not-so-great stepfather, and her plans for college, but the topic of her ex-boyfriend is off limits. Knox is fine talking about his own chaotic mother, the grandmother he misses, and the unconventional way he grew up, but he leaves out certain details that he is pretty sure would cause Sylvie to kick him out of her van. The thing is, they each want to know more about the other, but are terrified of sharing too much of themselves. They will each have to decide if it is worth sharing the worst of themselves, and risk losing whatever it is they have just found.

Genre, Themes, History: Written in both prose and verse, this is a young adult fiction novel that begins in Traverse City, Michigan, and follows Sylvie and Knox as they make their way down to Indiana, back up to Wisconsin, crossing Illinois a second time to enter Kentucky, and through Tennessee to get to North Carolina. The trip is one Sylvie had been planning for, and she even made extensive changes to the luxury van she bought in preparation. Knox grew up with his mom and a roaming group of people, criss-crossing the U.S. as they move from campsite to campsite, spending as little as possible and stealing what they can. The two teens could not have grown up more differently, and yet they each have reasons to want to leave the only life they have known. Guilt and regret move them forward, while also threatening to keep them apart.

My Verdict: I always look forward to diving into pretty much anything Zentner writes, and my excitement grew once I learned that this collaboration was written in both prose and verse. Having Sylvie and Knox's thoughts be written as poems is incredibly effective and powerful. While one grew up in privilege, and the other grew up in a constant state of impermanence, they each have stories of tragedy and sadness, and their intention of keeping the worst of themselves hidden away makes for these tense moments that are frustrating for the reader, yet I was compelled to keep reading and see how (or if) these kids were going to work it out. It is a story about trust and taking chances, particularly when experience may have lead us to believe that both can be a bad idea. 

Favorite Moment: There is a stretch of highway where Knox and Sylvie encounter not one, but two different billboards for two different psychics, and the adventures that follow each are pretty funny.

Favorite Character: Sylvie gets in a fender bender with a woman named Lara, who is both kind and helpful. I kinda wish she had stuck around in the story for a little longer.

Favorite Quotes: "I spent a lot of time blaming everything and everyone else. But there's no freedom in that." - Lara

"This world will grind you up if you're not brave." - Knox

"I choose uncertainty over the certainty of
the small existence that's for those
who lack the backbone
to make their life their own." - Knox

Recommended Reading: I recommend Zentner and Cavallaro's previous book, Sunrise Nights. 

Nonfiction: The Jackal by Joby Warrick

The full title of Joby Warrick's book is The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos, the World's First Super-Terrorist. In the book, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist chronicles the life of Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, most commonly known to the world as Carlos or 'The Jackal,' after appearing on the world's stage in 1975. The Venezuelan born Marxist would go on to become one of the most hunted men in the world.

Genre, Themes, History: This is a work of nonfiction that follows the career of Carlos, The Jackal, a super-terrorist most active in the 1970s and 1980s, until his capture in 1994. The book talks of his early life in Venezuela, his time studying in the Soviet Union, a place that he found to be somewhat rigid and stifling, to his eventual recruitment by a terrorist mastermind. It would be the 1975 hostage situation in Vienna, Austria, during the annual meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (or OPEC), where the world would be introduced to Carlos. Motivated by money more than ideology, The Jackal experienced successes, as well as many failures, killed many, and got married twice, before his ultimate capture and imprisonment in France. The author details Carlos' seemingly unfailing confidence, as well as the magnetism that attracted women, and got other men to follow his lead.

My Verdict: What drew me to this book was the opportunity to follow the life of someone who would eventually be known for taking hostages, hijacking planes, and bombing a radio building in Germany. There is a curiosity to understand what leads someone down that path, and Warrick meticulously lays out the events that led Carlos to become someone known for such spectacular acts of violence, that several countries would eventually deny him entry for fear of both what he might do, and which other countries may be angered by him being allowed to reside in their borders. The personal accounts from Carlos himself, as well as those who knew him, fill out the man's history and experiences, allowing for a satisfying account of a fascinating life.

Favorite Moment: The account of the bombing of Radio Free Europe's Munich headquarters in 1981 was particularly interesting to me, mostly due to the details that made it seem like more of a failure than a success.

Recommended Reading: I will recommend it forever: Michelle McNamara's I'll Be Gone in the Dark.

Contemporary Fiction: Dèy by Edwidge Danticat

My first introduction to Edwidge Danticat's work was during graduate school, and I am delighted to see a new novel that once again looks at the Haitian-American experience. In Dèy, a young woman is at a shopping mall when a gunman opens fire, and the event will shape how she looks at everything else going on in her life.

The Situation: Magnolia is not 100% behind the idea of buying her daughter Zoë a cell phone for her tenth birthday. But she and Harrison, Zoë's father, decided together that it was time. Getting the phone was Magnolia's reason for being at the Miami shopping mall when a gunman decides to open fire, causing her to take cover and hide out in a restaurant. Once everything has settled down and Magnolia is allowed to leave the mall, she does not talk to reporters. She does not even tell Harrison, or Zoë, or her boss Caroline, or her parents, that she was at the mall when everything happened. 

The Problem: Magnolia may not be ready to talk about her experience, but she finds herself searching online for stories and information about the shooter and the victims. And she now sees her situation and her relationships more than a little differently. There is her relationship with Zoë, and all of the questions surrounding her relationship with Harrison, including the ones she is sure everyone wants to ask now that they are no longer living together. Then there are her parents back in Haiti, where the violence escalates daily, and her mother's illness continues to take a toll on Magnolia's father, while causing her to question if her own mind will one day turn against her. With family all around, Magnolia has some choices to make, including how she will let current troubling events shape her future.

Genre, Themes, History: This is a literary fiction novel set in and around the Miami area. Magnolia reminisces about her time in Haiti, as well as Brooklyn, before settling in Miami, where she works as a real-estate agent. While she will have her own experience with an armed gunman in a public place, there is also mention of the shooting at the Marjorie Stoneman Denman High School in Parkland, Florida, which took place on Valentine's Day in 2018. Also mentioned is the violence and political unrest in Haiti, with armed gangs kidnapping and murdering citizens, and destroying property. Magnolia is a woman often caught between giving up hope, or continuing to believe that things can get better.

My Verdict: This is not a fast-moving, action-packed, or incredibly dramatic story where every chapter has a new twist or turn. Granted, it does begin with an armed gunman moving through a shopping mall and sending everyone running for cover. But what follows is a close examination of Magnolia's life and situation, which includes her separation from her daughter's father, and her parents' life in Haiti. The slower pace is deliberate and effective, and while Magnolia may keep more than she should to herself, her reactions to what is happening around her are honest and relatable. Anyone with older or aging parents will recognize the situation, as will anyone who has lived through a violent event.

Favorite Moment: There is an early scene of Magnolia showing a condo that has been on the market for six months, mostly due to the seller not accepting previous offers. Overall, it is not that important of a scene, but I enjoyed seeing who Magnolia is at work, and this condo listing will come back again at the end of the book.

Favorite Character: Harrison is always there when Magnolia needs him, as are several of his family members, and he is a great father to Zoë. 

Recommended Reading: Danticat's Beath, Eyes, Memory is one of her earlier works that I had to read for school, and it is one of those assigned readings that I actually enjoyed.