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
“The Correspondent,” by Virginia Evans (Crown, 2025)
Sybil is a lifelong letter writer (not a journalist, the other meaning of “correspondent”). Her life and relationships are explained through the letters by and to her, which comprise this entire novel. Sybil is much more comfortable and, in her own mind, more effective with the written word. And she uses it to great effect throughout her professional legal career, for reaching out to admired authors, to maintain her relationships and in explaining herself (sometimes to her very own self). That last purpose is often the hardest to fulfill yet Sybil perseveres to find her own truth, through her faith in words. — 3 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
“How to End a Love Story,” by Yulin Kuang (Avon, 2024)
Helen Zhang, a best-selling author now on assignment to help with a screenplay, reconnects as an adult with her high school classmate, Grant Shepherd, a screenwriter. Neither is comfortable following up on their struggling feelings of attraction because Grant was the source of her younger sister’s death years before. Helen’s parents certainly are upset by the thought of the two partnering in any way. Although the title emphasizes ending a love story, this novel capitalizes on many of your favorite tropes in contemporary romances: enemies to lovers, office romances, forced proximity to move the story forward. The characters are charming, and you can honestly cheer for their romance even if the plot holds few surprises. (A Reese’s Book Club pick in 2024.) — 2 stars (out of 4); Bonnie McCune, Denver (bonniemccune.com)
“Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey,” by Kathleen Rooney (Penguin, 2020)
An odd but wonderful novel based on true World War I events. Chapter narrators alternate between a homing pigeon and a soldier whose futures intersect in the most terrible of war offensives in France. Sounds weird, but withhold judgment; it works beautifully. The writing is excellent, the lessons of war unglamorized and poignant. From the Chicago Review of Books: “Rooney brings history to life without becoming beholden to its flawed narratives. (This) is a war novel filled with tenderness, a love story marked by mankind’s brutality. And it digs deeper and soars higher than anything else you’ll read all year.” A worthy read. — 4 stars (out of 4); Jo Calhoun, Denver
“I Cheerfully Refuse,” by Leif Enger (Grove Press, 2024)
This novel of a post-literate, dystopian world is set in a village on the shores of Lake Superior. Our unassuming hero finds himself inexplicably blessed by a satisfying life with his beloved wife, when a sequence of unexpected events spirals his life literally into uncharted waters. This book overflows with literary references and sailing knowledge. Enger also offers a realistically disoriented depiction of grief, along with some magical thinking, a dogged will to survive and resilient hope for a possible future. — 2 1/2 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
“The Still Point,” by Amy Sackville (Kensington, 2010)
Edward Mackley ventures to be first to reach the North Pole in 1899-1901, while his bride, Emily, lives as a guest in her brother-in-law’s home in England. She is a 20th-century Penelope, steadfastly loving her Ulysses, waiting, waiting. A hundred years later, Emily and Edward’s story is romanticized by Edward’s great-grand-niece, Julia, who with her husband Simon now inhabits the Mackley family home. Julia and Simon negotiate crevasses of their own, traversing the rifts in their marriage as Edward traversed the Arctic ice, all of them searching for their own still point around which to revolve. Sackville’s prize-winning debut evokes both locations and time settings beautifully. “The Still Point” tells two (or is it three?) very different love stories, in language rich as Edward’s favorite meal (asparagus soup, sole, quail, veal, and cherry clafoutis). — 3 1/2 stars (out of 4); Neva Gronert, Parker
