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
This cover image released by Doubleday shows “Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts” by Margaret Atwood. (Doubleday via AP)
‘Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts,’ by Margaret Atwood (Doubleday, 2025)
Atwood is a Canadian poet and author of fiction, nonfiction, short stories, children’s books and even graphic novels. She has won many literary awards, including two Booker Prizes (for “The Blind Assassin” and “The Testaments”). However, most readers will know her from the blockbuster “The Handmaid’s Tale.” After detailing her peripatetic and idyllic childhood, which tracks her father’s career as an entomologist living in the Canadian backwoods for much of each year, Atwood reveals her journey into writing, along with the inspirations and setbacks encountered for each of her major books. She also delves into her personal life, maintaining confidentiality only for those still living. Atwood has worked tirelessly to expand not only recognition of but also possibilities for Canadian writers. A rich life, with few regrets. May we all be so lucky. (A New York Times bestseller.) — 3 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
‘Long Island,’ by Colm Toibin (Scribner, 2024)
Eilis Lacey Fiorello has lived more than 20 years in Long Island, not far from her first American home detailed in Toibin’s “Brooklyn.” She’s closely hemmed in by her husband Tony’s Italian family, has two teenage children, and is mostly content, although she’s never developed tight bonds in her adopted country. Then a stranger comes to her door, announcing his wife is pregnant with Tony’s child. How Eilis reacts to the shock is the heart of this novel. Toibin puts us in Eilis’ mind, but we can’t predict what choices she will make — and in the unfolding of events lies the great pleasure of reading this sequel. (I suggest reading “Brooklyn” first.) An Oprah’s Book Club selection. — 3 1/2 stars (out of 4); Neva Gronert, Parker
‘The Land of Sweet Forever,’ by Harper Lee (Harper, 2025)
Fans of Lee’s novels may be delighted to discover antecedents for multiple characters and scenes in some of these earlier, previously unpublished short stories. Lee’s pithy, insightful essays span the early 1960s to the early 21st century. They include a meditation on the meaning of love; her experience (as a Southerner) of Christmas in New York City; her take on Gregory Peck (who portrayed Atticus Finch in the film “To Kill a Mockingbird”); her assessment of her dear friend Truman Capote’s work and time in Kansas (doing research for “In Cold Blood”); and even a letter to Oprah. A lovely addition to Lee’s short oeuvre. — 3 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
‘The Orchard,’ by Peter Heller (Vintage, 2025)
The Orchard
Author: Peter Heller
Pages: 256
Publisher: Vintage Books
Colorado favorite Peter Heller writes lyrical prose in both fiction and nonfiction. This brief novel from 2019, lately released in paperback, is full of poetry that glows like maple syrup in sunlight. Heller’s descriptions are exceptional. Narrated by Frith at the ages of 7 and 34, the story is both a coming-of-age and reflective memoir. Frith and her mother are living in a rustic cabin in Vermont, barely surviving in their bodies, but soaring in their souls. The adult Frith is finally putting her childhood into perspective. “I don’t know what happiness is; something we seek and try to hold onto and in the holding lose like water through fingers. In my own life, the happiness that sneaks up is the only true one, lands on your shoulder like a surprised bird and takes off again, and I will not name it.” While not Heller’s greatest work from a literary perspective, this gentle story is quietly satisfying. — 3 stars (out of 4); Neva Gronert, Parker
‘Angel,’ Elizabeth Taylor (New York Review of Books, reprint 2012)
Angelika Deverell is the kind of character you love to hate. Completely lacking a sense of humor as well as a grasp on reality, Angel becomes piqued by a childhood slight, not necessarily intended, and plots her revenge by throwing herself into the writing of bad novels with rich and royal characters and set in exotic locales. Angel cannot be bothered to consult historical sources or, for that matter, to read any other books by any other authors. She’s apparently got this and doesn’t need help. The novels become wildly popular. The secondary characters who observe her — their wide-eyed amazement at her delusion, deceit and crazy wardrobe, at her ability to hold hostage her friends, publisher and even her own drab, exhausted mother — held and carried me to the end. (Originally published in 1957.) — 3 stars (out of 4); Michelle Nelson, Littleton
