Bestseller

Brian and Barbara review Barbara Kingsolver’s Pulitzer Prize winning book Demon Copperhead, forty-four weeks on the New York Times hardcover fiction list as of September 17, 2023.   In her acclaimed new novel, Kingsolver reimagines the story of David Copperfield, transplanting Dickens’ classic hero from Victorian England to late 1990s Appalachia, where the young Demon struggles to thrive and survi...

Brian and Barbara review the “romantasy” book Fourth Wing, number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction list for six weeks (so far), from July 23 to August 27, 2023.   In the adult fantasy novel blowing up BookTok, romance author Rebecca Yarros introduces us to the world of the Empyrean: dragons, gryphons, magic, and young cadets like Violet Sorrengail managing complicated love lives while f...

Brian and Barbara review the book The Five-Star Weekend, number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction list from July 2 to July July 16, 2023.   In the latest novel from Elin Hilderbrand, “Queen of the beach read,” beloved food blogger Hollis Shaw gathers four friends from different stages of her life for an impeccably curated getaway weekend on Nantucket, as she seeks to begin rebuilding her...

Brian and Barbara review the romantic suspense novel Identity by Nora Roberts, number one selling book on the New York Times hardcover fiction list of June 11, 2023.   Baltimore bartender Morgan Albright's life is turned upside when a psychotic serial killer steals her identity and kills her roommate. Emotionally devastated and financially ruined, Morgan moves back to the Vermont home shared by he...

Brian and Barbara review the book Only the Dead by Jack Carr, number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction list of June 4, 2023.   The sixth novel in the Terminal List espionage series finds Navy SEAL and CIA operative James Reece locked in a federal supermax prison, accused of organizing the assassination of the President of the United States. His mission, beyond surviving months of solitar...

Brian and Barbara review the book Happy Place by Emily Henry, number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction list for five weeks, from May 12 to June 25, 2023.   Harriet and Wyn are the perfect couple--well, except they broke off their engagement five months ago and haven't yet told any of their friends. In this romantic beach-read set in a Maine resort town, we see how it goes when two ex-lov...

Brian and Barbara review the book Simply Lies by David Baldacci, number one novel on the New York Times hardcover fiction list of May 7, 2023.   In Baldacci's latest thriller of psychological suspense, single mother and former detective Mickey Gibson is drawn away from the security of her desk job--tracking down the hidden assets of deadbeat billionaires--and back into the field when an anonymous...

Brian and Barbara review the book Dark Angel by John Sandford, number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction list of April 30, 2023.   In the second suspense novel featuring Homeland Security agent Letty Davenport (the adopted daughter of Minneapolis detective Lucas Davenport from the 32-volume "Prey" series), Letty is partnered with NSA computer nerd--and reluctant field operative--Rod Baxte...

Brian and Barbara review the book I Will Find You by Harlan Coben, number one novel on the New York Times hardcover fiction list of April 2, 2023.   Coben's new thriller of murder and mistaken identity: five years into a life sentence for killing his three-year-old son Matthew, David Burroughs gets unexpected evidence that Matthew is still alive and resolves to escape his maximum security prison,...

Brian and Barbara review the book Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction list for FOURTEEN weeks from December 25, 2022 to April 23, 2023 (in other words, from Christmas to Shakespeare's birthday--or is it his deathday?).   In this stunningly successful debut novel, single mother Elizabeth Zott confronts the entrenched sexism of early-1960s corpor...

Brian and Barbara review the book "Storm Watch" by C.J. Box, number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction list of March 19, 2023.   In the 23rd novel of his suspense series, Wyoming Game Warden turned homicide detective Joe Pickett races against gathering storm fronts to solve the murder of a University of Wyoming professor, his partially decapitated body spotted outside a mysterious high-te...

Brian and Barbara review the book Encore in Death by J.D. Robb, number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction list of February 26, 2023.   In this, the 56th novel in the author's futuristic "In Death" suspense series, New York City detective Eve Dallas investigates the murder of stage and film star Brant Fitzhugh, who collapses at his wife's glittering play-opening party, poisoned by cyanide...

Brian and Barbara review the book Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo, number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction list of January 29, 2023. In this follow-up to her bestselling fantasy novel Ninth House, Galaxy "Alex" Stern must navigate the magic, violence, and guarded lore of Yale University's secret societies to break her friend and mentor Darlington out of purgatory. Twenty minutes with us, and...