Three Books I'm Reading Now, 7/6/26 Edition

The Books I'm Reading Now

I'm reading Jordy Rosenberg's offbeat novel about a yenta on her deathbed examining her many failures, Night Night Fawn; I'm reading Daniel Mason's upcoming novel about two academics and their family move to rural Vermont, Country People; and I'm listening to Amy Bloom's first foray into mystery writing, Blunt Instrument.

What are you reading, bookworms?

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01 Night Night Fawn by Jody Rosenberg

Barbara Greenberg is terminally ill, medicated out of her mind with opioids, and writing down the laundry list of failures in her life--including, in her view, her raising of her only child.

From her front-desk work at a questionable plastic surgeon, to her marriage to a man with declining aspirations, to her failed attempt at a career as a film actress, her estranged former (and now famous and successful) best friend, and most especially her outdated and close-minded views on gender and sexuality--illustrated by her inability to understand the motivations of or identity of her trans son--Barbara doesn't pull punches when considering herself or anyone else.

Add in hallucinations in which her son takes the form of a bird, and you'll need to buckle up for this wild ride.

This is darkly funny, poignant, and surprising so far.

Jordy Rosenberg is also the author of Confessions of the Fox and Transgender Marxism.

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02 Country People by Daniel Mason

Country People tracks a year of a family's life as they strike out for rural life and leave the comforts of urban life behind.

Patriarch Mike is a dreamer and a romantic--and over a decade late achieving his Russian folklore PhD, increasingly worried that he is a disappointment to everyone. When his wife Kate is offered a visiting professorship at a prestigious university in Vermont, their family traipses into a town with a colorful cast of characters, legends and stories, and woods that seem magical--making up a life unlike anything they've experienced before.

I'm reading a prepublication edition of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Random House.

Daniel Mason is also the author of The Winter Soldier, North Woods, and The Piano Tuner.

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03 Blunt Instrument (Dell Chandler #1) by Amy Bloom

Amy Bloom is the author of one of my favorite historical fiction novels (see below), but she is no stranger to varied genres.

In Blunt Instrument, she dives into mysteries, offering a private investigator whose father's past association with Cromwell University leads to her hiring. A prickly professor has turned up dead, his head crushed by a bronze bust of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and self-taught PI Dell Chandler uses her unorthodox approaches to determine which of the tenure-desperate, self-satisfied, resentful, overconfident, or simpering suspects is responsible.

Bloom is also the author of White Houses, which I gave 5 Bossy stars, the heartbreakingly beautiful In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss, I'll Be Right Here, Away, Lucky Us, Come to Me: Stories, and A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You: Stories.

I received an audiobook version of this title courtesy of Libro.fm and Highbridge Company, and I received a prepublication electronic version of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Penzler Publishers: The Mysterious Press.