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This was the right book at the right time for me. It is philosophical and humorous, with lots of heart and timely social commentary. Man Overboard! is a first-person narrative by Patrick Kick Kilpatrick. Kick is a personal trainer who swam in high school and college. He s always feared the ocean. The novel opens with [ ] The post Man Overboard! by Kathleen Rooney appeared first on Stay Curious…
It s time again for Sue Jackson s Big Book Summer Challenge, which started the Friday before Memorial Day (6/22) and ends on the Monday of Labor Day (9/7). The challenge is simple: to read a book that s 400 pages or more. Check out Sue s Welcome post for details, including links to her and co-host Melinda s (A [ ] The post Big Book Summer Challenge 2026 appeared first on Stay Curious with Chris…
TV Series Have you seen the news that there s a TV series in the works of Nevada Barr s Anna Pigeon mystery series? Well, there is! It is scheduled to premiere on August 7, 2026. For those unfamiliar with the series, Nevada Barr s Anna Pigeon is a National Park Ranger. Barr herself worked as a National [ ] The post Big News for Nevada Barr Fans! appeared first on Stay Curious with Chris Wolak .
Looking through my list of blog post drafts the other day, I was surprised to find that I never published my response to Isabel Cañas s Vampires of El Norte. I listened to the audiobook in February 2024. Two years after reading the novel, some scenes still stick with me. Oddly, I don t remember much about [ ] The post Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas appeared first on Stay Curious with Chris…
True Crime surprised me. I assumed I would be more interested in Cornwell s adult years, the time when her Scarpetta novels took off. But looking back on the reading experience, I preferred the earlier part of the memoir — Cornwell’s writing about her childhood is engaging and impressive for its storytelling, pacing, and restraint. True [ ] The post True Crime by Patricia Cornwell appeared first…
I first heard about Yesteryear via a Facebook post announcement that Ann Hathaway was going to star in a movie adaptation of the book, which is about a popular tradwife influencer who suddenly finds herself in 1855. Well, I thought, sounds like she’s going to get what she deserves. I love history, but I am [ ] The post Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke appeared first on Stay Curious with Chris Wolak…
For years now, I ve been setting annual reading intentions for myself. Initially, it started with the simple aim of reading 52 non-work-related books a year. That s one per week, which seemed manageable. The first time I left the academic world, after a decade of graduate school and teaching, I worked in a bookstore, which was [ ] The post 2026 Reading Intentions appeared first on Stay Curious…
Happy Blogiversary to me! Today is my 16th anniversary as a book blogger. My first post was on January 19, 2010. One of the post types I used to write when I first started blogging was author event recaps. These were easy for me to write as I d worked as an events manager at Borders [ ] The post Revisiting Patricia Cornwell s Kay Scarpetta Series appeared first on Stay Curious with Chris Wolak .
The title of this post is awful, and I feel bad about it. But it’s true! I forgot to include some books in my 2025 fiction and nonfiction recaps. This is no reflection on the books. I just didn’t do a good job of tracking my reading. I “found” these by scanning the show notes [ ] The post Books I Forgot About appeared first on Stay Curious with Chris Wolak .
Happy New Year! The first book I read this year is a memoir about how a puppy changes everything in their human s life. Helen Humphreys s And a Dog Called Fig: Solitude, Connection, the Writing Life is the glorious result of her decision to get a puppy. Humphreys was 59 at the time and had other [ ] The post And a Dog Called Fig by Helen Humphreys appeared first on Stay Curious with Chris Wolak .