Editor’s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. So we asked them, and all Denver Post readers, to share their mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer? Email bellis@denverpost.com. – Barbara Ellis
“Not Quite Dead Yet,” by Holly Jackson (Bantam, 2025)
Sarcastic, foul-mouthed Jet Mason has been murdered, and has a week to find her own killer. (You read that right.) Twenty-seven, a law school dropout, Jet has moved back home with her family and feels like a loser. Finding who attacked her, leading to a catastrophic brain injury that will lead to her death, is now her mission, and a chance to finally succeed at something important. The sardonic tone of this book drives the action and makes it quite fun, despite the dire plot and my ambivalence about Jet. Even though it spans only a week, there’s time for plenty of intrigue — and perhaps a little romance. By the end of this quick read, I truly was hoping Jet would succeed. (A “Good Morning America” Book Club pick.) — 2 1/2 stars (out of 4); Neva Gronert, Parker
“Your Steps on the Stairs,” by Antonio Muñoz Molina; translated by Curtis Bauer (Other Press, 2025)
A slow burn of suspense drives this novel, in which past memories and present reality blur, leaving the reader wondering what’s real up until the very end. The narrator has relocated from New York City to Lisbon and is obsessively re-creating the NYC apartment he shared with his wife in every loving detail, while he awaits her arrival in Lisbon. Is she actually coming? Is she actually real? Are the narrator’s memories to be trusted? — 3 1/2 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
“Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life,” by Jason Roberts (Random House, 2025)
This history of how biology came to exist is an example of narrative nonfiction as compelling and immersive as the finest fiction. Carl Linnaeus and Georges-Louis de Buffon, 18th-century contemporaries, one in Sweden and the other in France, try to identify all of life on Earth. The men disagree on just about everything as they posit how to approach nature: as “static objects to be inventoried, or as dynamic, independent manifestations of a greater whole.” Their diametrically opposed views will have consequences regarding how we perceive race, evolution, climate, even how we imagine the boundary between life and death. The book owes its success in large part to the author’s rich, deeply drawn depictions of these two men. Add in the author’s grasp of the latest scientific discoveries (the last chapter blew my mind), and you’ve got a winner. (Pulitzer Prize winner, 2025.) — 4 stars (out of 4); Michelle Nelson, Littleton
“We All Live Here,” by Jojo Moyes (Pamela Dorman Books 2025)
Protagonist Lila Kennedy, mother of two daughters, is a successful writer under contract to finish a book about how to have a good marriage. Then, kerblam! Hubby knocks up a girlfriend, leaves Lisa high and broke, struggling to handle the emotional and fiscal turmoil he’s left behind. Her aging stepfather knocks heads with her flawed and irritating ex-husband, who also moves into the home. Add the enticement of a new lover to mess with Lila’s head. Will he be loving and normal? By the finale, the reader is cheering that they’ll all live happily ever after while retaining their off-beat, all-so-human personalities and cockeyed relationships. — 3 stars (out of 4); Bonnie McCune, Denver (bonniemccune.com)
“My Name is Emilia Del Valle,” by Isabel Allende, translated by Frances Riddle (Ballantine Books, 2025)
Allende is solidly back in her metier with a multigenerational cast of characters, thrilling action in Chile and a sprinkling of magical realism. Emilia grows up in the poor Mission District of post-Gold Rush-era San Francisco and seeks adventure and independence as a journalist. The story comes to life when Emilia gets assigned to cover the Chilean Civil War in 1891. While in Chile, she meets the family that had earlier disavowed her, discovers her roots and finds her true self. — 3 1/2 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
