September 2026
Welcome to The Book List!
Hello!
I thought this newsletter would have three books, but then I finished six books the last week of August. Who knew. But in this email lies my favorite novel of the year so far. I mean, so stinkin' good.
But first, I've gotten a lot of questions about my rating system.
In summary, "Kendra, why do you give four stars to books it seems like you don't like very much?"
So here's the unscientific breakdown of how I rate books.
First, for the longest time, I didn't rate books. I would just say "I really loved it" or "It was good but not memorable" or any number of descriptors. Star ratings felt too limiting and personal, but now I use them. I'm not sure why I started, but here we are.
5 stars: I loved it so much, and my memories of it are visceral, positive, and I'd probably read it again.
4.5 stars: I really loved it but just not enough to make it into the 5-star club. Like really really good. But either not surprising or memorable or beloved enough in its genre to rise above.
4 stars: Really good. I enjoyed it. Like a good burger. Or it's a mushroom Swiss burger, which I don't really enjoy but understand why people do, so even though it's not for me, I recognize that it's objectively good.
3.5 stars: I liked it. Mostly glad I read it. Did what it was supposed to do but not life-changing. If I had high expectations of a book and it did not do what I expected it to do, but it was still fine, it also likely gets 3.5 stars.
3 stars: This is usually reserved for books that were fine but disappointing enough to make it kind of meh. Usually, 3-star books started as one thing and ended as another, or didn't deliver on the genre in a way that I hoped.
2.5 stars: Actively disliked. Not bad books, just more dislike than like.
I mean, I gave Gilead by Marilynne Robinson 2.5 stars. That book is objectively beautiful, but for me? I disliked more than I liked. 2.5 stars.
2 stars: Really disliked. Overall disappointing. Not much to redeem it. It doesn't mean it was poorly written or not for someone, but it was definitely not a good read for me. All Fours was a two-star read because I just did not like it at all. So was Gilded by Marissa Meyer, but that's because it was the second book in a series where I LOVED the first book and was just deeply disappointed and didn't like the follow-up at all. The Shining by Stephen King was two stars. Just... no.
1.5 stars: I've only given one book 1.5 stars, and that's We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. I tried so hard. I just thought it was dumb. But apparently not so bad that it got one star.
1 star: I hate it with the fire of a thousand suns, and only one book has gotten that for me. The First Husband by Laura Dave. I cannot even explain how much I hated this book. Visceral reactions up and down.
My average "didn't like it" doesn't drop below 2 stars, and it takes a lot to hit 5 stars. Most books I read are going to be between 3.5 and 4.5 stars, and I'm great with that. That's a solid middle of contented reading.
And there you go.
Alright, on to this month's books!
This Month’s Books
Book Reviews
House Hushing by Myquillyn Smith
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Content warnings: Only that you'll have gobs of beautiful motivation to do things in your home that actually matter! :)
I've been a personal and professional fan of Myquillyn Smith for twenty years. She's creative, consistent, and the primary reason I love my home. Really and truly. So when I say this is her best book yet, trust me. I'm an OG in every way, and this book is an incredible lifelong resource for not only figuring out why you love your home but how to practically get it that way.
House Hushing is about reverse decluttering, aka taking the space you have, quieting it so you can figure out what you want from it, and then put back the minimum amount to still feel cozy without being overwhelmed. It's a process that helps you get a room to its happiest place, and it's excellent.
Myquillyn's teaching works no matter who you are, what your budget is, what your style is, or what kind of home you have. It's so fantastic, and I'm grateful for her wisdom in the world. Not so we can have "beautiful" homes, but so we can all have homes that feel like home - safe, warm, and ready to welcome in people we love.
The Searcher by Tana French
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Content warning: some violence
Casting: Kyle Chandler, aka Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights, is the perfect Cal Hooper casting. No one else in the story has a real face, but Kyle as Cal is the most perfect choice of all the choices.
Book words: atmospheric, steady, character-driven, a slow-burn mystery
At the start of the summer, I got the urge to dive into Tana French's Cal Hooper series, and I'm so glad I did. This first installment is a slow, quiet read introducing us to Cal Hooper and the remote Irish village he moves to when he needs a break from being a divorced former detective in Chicago.
He befriends a local kid, Trey, whose brother has gone missing, but no one in town believes there's anything suspicious about it. You can't teach an old dog new tricks, and even though Cal tries to stay out of it, he can't.
It's excellent. A little slower than how I typically like my thrillers, but that's Tana French's style, especially with a lead character like Cal. He's methodical, thoughtful, and unhurried in most things. Which is why...
Make It Out Alive by Allison Brennan
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Content warnings: violence, torture, kidnapping, but all of it kind of stylized and shiny
Casting: none
Book words: shiny thriller, a bit dramatic, pretty violent, fast-paced
This is the most recent book in the Quinn and Costa detective series by Allison Brennan, and I have no idea why I put it on a library hold without having read the first six. It didn't matter really. It's one of those procedurals (like CSI on TV) where knowing the characters' history is nice but not paramount to the actual story. And the story was pretty bonkers.
A serial killer is attacking newlyweds at a particular resort, so detectives Kara Quinn and Matt Costa go undercover as a newly married couple to capture the killer. Unfortunately, they do not succeed and are captured by the killer. It's a manhunt for the kidnapper/killer and a race against the clock for Quinn and Costa's team to find them before they die.
I would've had more context for the team if I had started at the beginning of the series (which I later did), but again it didn't matter too much.
This fills the hole that the Jackman and Evans series left in my life from a couple of years ago. The Gamache series does not work the same because it's more about the characters than the stories. This is just a flashy story about finding a creepy killer.
Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Content warnings: death of a child, infidelity, and a few other difficult life things, but in the context of side conversations with co-workers so no first-person accounts
Casting: none
Book words: witty, snappy, character-driven, repetitive
I loved the first few chapters of this. So much. It was a sharp, witty commentary on office life, relational politics, and trying to be friends with people you see every day.
But then it got old. Nothing really happened. It was almost a procedural, but with conversations between co-workers. And since the writing style is a bit unusual, it was sometimes hard to follow. So much happens because it spans the decades of a group of coworkers in a floundering advertising firm, but also it feels like nothing happens. I just got bored really fast and started skimming.
For me, I would've loved it as a single essay or even a short story (and I don't really like short stories), but I can see why readers who enjoy a fly-on-the-wall narrative of interesting people would find this enjoyable the whole way through.
The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Content warnings: death of a spouse, grief throughout
Casting: none really because the writing and story were so good
Book words: a sassy family saga (the only way I'll read a family saga, I think)
Allow me to introduce you to my favorite novel of 2026.
This book is a little triumph, and I think most readers would find it deeply enjoyable.
In a series of shifting timelines, we follow the lives of sisters Helen and Edith, estranged after one sister seemingly manipulated her way into the full family inheritance to start one of the first female-founded breweries in Minnesota.
There are narrative threads about pie, beer, family, catching a break, poverty, and paving your own way, especially as a woman. It's funny, smart, heartfelt, mysterious, fast-paced in a strange way, and sticks the landing so well. Obviously, I loved it because it's my favorite of the year. A truly special book.
The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny 🎧
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Narrated by Robert Bathurst
Content warnings: creepiness and typical Louise Penny content
Casting: none
Book words: As always, not a cozy mystery because bad things happen, but everything is through the eyes of Inspector Gamache, who is the most thoughtful, kind detective on the page.
This is The One Where They Figure Out Who Killed the Crazy Scientist's Sister.
The Gamaches (and the world) are coming out of Covid quarantine, and a study by a prominent scientist proposes that the prosperity of the world would be better if the elderly and those with disabilities were killed. Cool cool cool.
But when that scientist's assistant and best friend is found killed in Three Pines, right under the nose of Inspector Gamache, all the things start happening.
It's one of my favorites because it was so focused. Sometimes the Gamache stories can feel overly complicated with lots of moving parts. This one didn't, and I really enjoyed it.
A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny 🎧
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Narrated by Robert Bathurst
Content warnings: creepiness and typical Louise Penny content
Casting: none
Book words: As always, not a cozy mystery because bad things happen, but everything is through the eyes of Inspector Gamache, who is the most thoughtful, kind detective on the page.
This is The One with the Attic Painting and the Creepy Maybe Murderer Siblings.
I loved this one so much. It felt rich, easy to follow, and a "pure" mystery if that makes sense. Plus some callbacks from old books. Just so good.
I only have a couple of Gamache novels left, and I'm really sad about it.
King Sorrow by Joe Hill🎧
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Narrated by a full cast
Content warnings: incredibly violent and scary. No tender hearts should enter here.
Casting: none
Book words: terrifying, dark, evil, again please run unless you absolutely love horror
I got this doorstop of a book as a gift a couple of years ago, and I started feeling like I would never pick it up because my hands were not strong enough to hold the actual book. So I got it on audiobook instead.
Joe Hill is Stephen King's son, and you can feel the writing similarities. There's no rush to get to the end. Lots of characters, layers, and incidents to get us to the final showdown against the monster.
In this case, King Sorrow is the monster and is an old, evil dragon who's been behind all of the evil in the world. When a group of college students can't figure out how to get out from under the violent thumb of a peer, they summon King Sorrow to help. King Sorrow comes through and kills their enemy, but little do they know that they're required to supply a new victim for King Sorrow every Easter. If they don't, one of them will be killed. So the book covers many years as the group of friends try to defeat King Sorrow, stay connected, and survive over decades.
I love horror, but this was too dark for me. I didn't love any of the main characters, King Sorrow was so evil, and it just felt like I was in a dark, scary room that had no way out. Sometimes people want that from horror, and I might not mind that with short horror. But this was 27 hours and 897 pages. Great in parts and definitely memorable, but overall not for me.
The Third to Die by Allison Brennan 🎧
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Narrated by Suzanne T. Fortin
Content warnings: violent but typical violence for a thriller procedural
Casting: none
Book words: a shiny procedural thriller, fast-paced, gaspy
This is the first Quinn and Costa book, and it was solid. The narrator is fine, but the story is better.
Kara Quinn, an LAPD officer on leave, is back home in Liberty Lake, Washington, and while out on a run, she finds a body. Since the murder matches a string of unsolved murders possibly linked to a serial killer, FBI agent Matt Costa takes over the investigation. It's a great mystery, fast-paced, and it's fun to see the beginnings of the characters I encountered way down the line in Make It Out Alive. I'll definitely keep going with the series.