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 SHOCK OF THE LIGHT (Pamela Dorman Books)
‘The Shock of the Light,’ by Lori Inglis Hall (Pamela Dorman Books, 2026)
A twin brother enlists in the Royal Air Force during World War II; his plane is shot down over Normandy. His twin sister joins the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), parachutes into France, connects with the French Resistance, is arrested by the Nazis and goes missing. Her family is shattered and then enraged when they get only non-answers from British authorities, who are hesitant to admit that they would place women in harm’s way. Decades later, a doctoral student researching the SOE moves beyond the dusty archives to interview the few remaining eyewitnesses and uncovers, at long last, the twin sister’s heroic yet also tragic fate. Based on true events, this story shines a light on the little-discussed yet important contributions of a few incredibly brave women in World War II. — 3 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
‘The Sirens,’ by Emilia Hart (St. Martin’s Press, 2025)
Sisters Lucy and Jess live in New South Wales in 2019; twins Eliza and Mary are deported there from Ireland in 1800. The link between these storylines is not quite as I had anticipated, and the pleasure of reading benefits from the unknown. Jess, an artist, disappears from the coast just days before a big opening, and her younger sister Lucy, exiled by her own problems, is alone in her alarm. Hart conjures an almost-plausible story with enough reality to make sense, and a frisson of the supernatural adds spice. Although I deciphered some of the twists, there were still sufficient unforeseen events to make for a diverting read. (A “Good Morning America” Book Club selection.) — 3 stars (out of 4); Neva Gronert, Parker
‘Transcedence for Beginners: Life Writing and Philosophy,’ by Clare Carlisle (New York Review of Books, 2026)
For those who want to slow down and reflect, Carlisle gives us a beautifully written collection of essays drawing on her background in philosophy and literature. Author of philosophy books, a biography of Kierkegaard, and a recent award-winning biography of the novelist George Eliot (“Middlemarch”), Carlisle also edited George Eliot’s translation of “Spinoza’s Ethics” (Spinoza, who had the heretical belief at the time that God is in everything and that everything is interconnected.) The essays reflect on Spinoza, Kierkegaard, Proust and Eliot, Ramana Maharshi, and at times herself, and inquire into the elements of biography, how writing resembles life, and the deeper meaning of a life. They ask what a “whole” life is and what it means to live a life of devotion (to anything). These gorgeous essays demonstrate how philosophy is “oriented to ideals of awakening, enlightenment, and liberation” are inspiring. — 4 stars (out of 4); Michelle Nelson, Littleton
‘Madelaine Before the Dawn,’ by Sandrine Collette, translated by Alison Anderson (Europa Editions YEAR?)
Set in a rural French community in an unspecified but older time, Collette’s latest novel follows the peasant families of twin sisters as they struggle to eke out a living in the face of repeated crop failures, brutal winters, cruel deaths and the heedless nobility who unfairly control and exploit them in all ways. Most of the peasants are resigned to their fates, repeatedly falling back on the words, “That’s just the way it is.” Then Madelaine, a young orphan, shows up and is taken in, ultimately changing everything. Madelaine isn’t resigned, she’s angry and challenges the way things are, first in small ways and ultimately in one cataclysmic way. Beautifully written and artfully translated, this novel evokes a world long past, but with themes recognizable today: economic inequity, resilience, resistance and, in the end, hope. (Winner of 2025 American Choix Goncourt Prize.) — 3 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
