Three Books I'm Reading Now, 7/27/26 Edition

The Books I'm Reading Now

I'm listening to Christopher Buehlman's horrifying medieval-set novel Between Two Fires; I'm reading Sophie Chen Keller's love story to music and the bonds between mothers and sons, Little Wonder; and I'm listening to Sally Hepworth's mystery featuring an octogenarian main protagonist, Mad Mabel.

What are you reading, bookworms?

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01 Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

It's 1348, and Thomas, formerly a knight but now fallen in with brigands, encounters a young, innocent girl whose father has died of the Black Death, which is ravishing France.

The girl tells Thomas that a battle is afoot between fallen angels, led by Lucifer, and heaven above. She seems to be delusional, but as Thomas reluctantly accompanies her toward Avignon, he encounters stranger and stranger events, and begins to believe that she is telling the truth--and is possibly an angel in human form.

This is dark dark dark, with constant clashes between good and evil, crises of faith, and horrifying monsters bent on terror and destruction.

Christopher Buehlman is also the author of The Blacktongue Thief and The Daughters’ War.

I'm listening to this novel as an audiobook through my library and Libby.

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02 Little Wonder by Sophie Chen Keller

Song is a poor single mother who secretly brings her baby River with her to clean houses in Northeast China. But when River is just four, he picks out a tune on a piano in a grand home where Song is working. She is determined to find a teacher for him, and after years of musical giftedness and hard work, at age 11 he's invited to study with a prestigious teacher in Beijing.

But in the madness of the Beijing train station on the busiest travel day of the year, Song and River are separated.

Mother and son spend days, then weeks, then months and longer searching for each other, even as their lives diverge more and more fully.

I received a prepublication version of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Ballantine Books.

Sophie Chen Keller is also the author of The Luster of Lost Things.

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03 Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

Elsie is an 81-year-old living in a Melbourne suburb, grumbling and mainly keeping to herself, aside from her best friend since childhood, a persistent 7-year-old girl who's determined to befriend her, and Peter, a kind young man across the street who she doesn't mind running into.

But when Elsie's next-door neighbor and nemesis turns up dead, and Elsie's the one who discovers the body, details of her past come out, and she's suddenly suspect number one in her neighbor's death.

Sally Hepworth is also the author of The Good Sister, Darling Girls, The Mother-in-Law, The Family Next Door, and other books.

I'm listening to this novel as an audiobook through my library and Libby.