Three Books I'm Reading Now, 1/12/26 Edition

The Books I'm Reading Now

I'm reading Belle Burden's upcoming memoir about the abrupt end of her marriage, Strangers; I'm listening to Listen for the Lie author Ashley Elston's upcoming mystery Anatomy of an Alibi; and I'm listening to Jennifer Givhan's mystery-thriller-horror story featuring Indigenous and Latina folklore, Salt Bones.

What are you reading, bookworms?

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01 Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden

It was a great love story, one for the ages. The speed of our beginning and the speed of our ending felt like matching bookends. They both came out of nowhere. He wanted it, he wanted me. And then he didn’t.

Belle Burden, whose parents and grandparents were moneyed and well known in high society, grew up in a golden life of wealth and privilege. She was twenty-two years into her marriage, living between posh homes in Tribeca and Martha's Vineyard, raising three children, with her own Harvard law degree largely languishing unused, when her husband abruptly disclosed his recent affair and left Belle, the children, the dog, the houses--their whole life. He offered no explanation and no apology, then he set about threatening to take everything from her and the kids.

In Strangers, Burden recounts her shock, shame, and her reckoning; she had let her husband make too many of their decisions, handle all of their finances, shape the rhythms of the house, and force Belle to be quiet and small. Then she decided to speak her mind, write her story, and share her stories. This is her story of her pain, confusion, and reemergence as a truer version of herself.

I received a prepublication version of Strangers, scheduled for publication January 13, courtesy of NetGalley and Random House.

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02 Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashley Elston

I loved Ashley Elston's mystery First Lie Wins (it was on my December favorites list; it was one of my Bossy Fiction Ideas for Your Holiday Gift List; and it was on my recent list of Four-Star Mysteries I Loved Reading Last Year).

So I'll admit that my hopes for Elston's upcoming Anatomy of an Alibi are sky-high.

Camille Bayliss is living a charmed life of wealth, prestige, beauty, and privilege in Louisiana, married to a handsome hotshot lawyer, Ben. Aubrey Price, a local bartender, was orphaned as a young woman when her parents were killed in a hit-and-run car accident, and she's been struggling and bending the rules to get by ever since.

When the two women become unlikely partners in sniffing out the truth about Camille's husband Ben's secrets, they set into motion a course of events that will change each of them forever.

I'm listening to Anatomy of an Alibi, to be published January 13, as an audiobook courtesy of Libro.fm and Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group.

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03 Salt Bones by Jennifer Givhan

Jennifer Givhan's mystery-thriller-horror novel Salt Bones made it onto multiple best-of lists for 2025, and I've been in a mystery-reading mood, so I'm diving into this story.

Three generations of women in a dysfunctional Mexicali family struggle to come to terms with the disappearances and loss of beloved friends and family members, all women. Givhan explores Latina culture, Indigenous issues, folklore, instinct, tough women, magical realism, horrifying betrayals, corruption due to wealth and power, and the strength of family.

Jennifer Givhan is also the author of River Woman, River Demon; Trinity Sight; Jubilee; and other novels.

I'm listening to Salt Bones as a library audiobook.