Overcoming Trauma

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir is a 2025 high school Nutmeg nominee.

Sal and Noor have been friends since childhood. They are Pakistani, and have endured varying levels of racism and isolation.

Their relationship is put to the test during their senior year of high school. First is their separation after Noor tried to kiss Sal. Then they lose Sal’s mom (she was also Noor’s mother figure) to kidney disease.

The story gradually reveals that both characters have different abusive backgrounds. Noor’s is still occurring. Her only out is to go to college, but she has been denied by most of them. Sal has turned to selling drugs to save his family’s motel, while his dad spirals deeper into alcoholism.

Events transpire between both characters’ viewpoints, along with various chapters devoted to Sal’s mom. Her chapters reveal how she became married and their move to California, as well as her hopes for the future.

One impactful message: “If we are lost, God is like water, finding the unknowable path when we cannot.” The author did an amazing job of weaving their stories together, and in doing so, providing strength and beauty amidst misfortune.

Top Story

Guilty by Laura Elliot is what I would consider a psychological thriller.

A teenager goes missing which ramps up a huge investigation. Her uncle Karl becomes the prime suspect due in large part to heavy media influence.

Karl’s world is in turmoil, meanwhile, the news reporter (Amanda) responsible for his demise, is flourishing.

This book was a page turner that had me enraged at the media and its influence on the masses. There were many questions to answer: would Constance’s death be solved, would Karl get restitution and would Amanda ever have consequences for her actions? All are answered by the end of the book as each character is explored more fully.

Writerly Life

By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult is a pretty fascinating read that incorporates history along with a love of literature and play writing.

In present time, Melina is an aspiring play writer who has discovered that her long ago relative was a writer during Shakespearean times. Melina uses her research to create a play about her relative. There is much more to Melina’s story which begins to parallel certain elements of her ancestor’s experiences.

Her relative, Emilia Bassano, is an actual person. She was one of the first published female poets of her time. However, she may have also been one of Shakespeare’s primary writers. In fact, according to this book, he may not have written any of his famous works.

Emilia’s story was my favorite part of the book. She experiences many highs and lows in her lifetime.

I really enjoyed this book. It is extremely well written and full of great story elements: drama, tragedy and love.

Home Run

Golden Arm by Carl Decker is a 2025 high school Nutmeg nominee that explores privilege versus poverty in sport recruitment. It’s a realistic fiction book.

Laz is a solid pitcher, but he doesn’t get any attention at his current school. When his high school’s new principal cuts the baseball team, he is fortunate enough to get an offer to play at a nearby high school with way more opportunity.

Laz begins getting positive attention. But he is torn between this new life and his real life. In real life, he has a half brother caught up with a known drug dealer. And his family was just relocated to a new trailer home without enough space for him.

This book will appeal to sports fans, especially baseball. It was a straightforward story with a positive message about working hard and staying true to oneself.

Party Fowl

The Midnight Feast by Alice Foley is an entertaining murder mystery.

It’s written from multiple characters’ viewpoints around the opening weekend of the exclusive Manor Inn.

Bella is there to seek revenge for a horrible moment in her past. Snippets of her journal slowly reveal what transpired at the manor back when she was on holiday nearby as a teenager.

The Manor’s owner, Francesca, has perfectly planned the weekend’s events. She didn’t account for the townspeople (and Bella’s visit) trying to sabotage her dream.

Detective Walker is on the scene to investigate the body and fire.

Through it all is a strange haunted quality due to tales of vengeful “birds” that dominate the town.

Characters intersect in unexpected ways which will keep readers guessing throughout the story.

Magical Powers

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik is first in a series and also a 2025 high school Nutmeg nominee.

The main character, Galadriel, is a student at a wizard school. She is basically on her own until another student begins impacting her existence. He repeatedly saves her life (and the lives of other classmates) from the various monsters that prowl around the school. As graduation day approaches, more and more creatures are on the loose. El and her new friends will need to work together to ensure their safety and their hopes to reach senior year alive.

For me, this story had a great premise but I struggled to finish it. The narration was very chatty and assumed the reader would understand all the wizarding jargon. This left me feeling a bit lost and not hungry for more.

Breaking Patterns

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover explores the struggles and perspectives around abusive relationships.

The story begins following Lily’s father’s funeral. She isn’t very broken up considering his abusiveness toward her mother growing up. She meets Ryle in this moment. He is a handsome neurosurgeon who is only interested in one night stands.

Fast forward a year and Lily is opening her dream flower store. It turns out that her new hire is Ryle’s sister. It’s only a matter of time before they become involved.

Meanwhile, flashbacks are provided through Lily’s letters to Ellen Degeneres, her favorite tv personality as a teen. Through her letters we discover her first true love was a homeless young man that she developed a relationship with as he was staying in the abandoned home near her.

All seems great until Ryle shows his aggressive side on more than one occasion. Lily doesn’t want to repeat the abusive pattern that she witnessed growing up, but she acknowledges the complexity of the situation.

The book was predictable for me, but still kept my interest.

Kansas Killers

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is a classic that I hadn’t read until now.

It is an account of the real-life murder of the Clutter family in 1959. The family of four was well-respected and liked in their small Kansas town. Their murders shocked the town and instigated a tireless search to apprehend the killers.

The book provides background on the two men responsible for their deaths. Events detail their eventual capture, trial and deaths.

It is a chilling story due to its reality. The murderers are two very different men who managed to connect during time in prison. They shared a desire for easy money and disregard for human lives.

The Body

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride flashes back to small town life in Pottstown, Pennsylvania after a body is discovered at the bottom of a well.

The neighborhood was a mixture of races with Chicken Hill being predominantly black and the town below white and European immigrants. There is also a Jewish community and much of the story revolves around the Jewish couple Moshe and Chona. Chona is a much-loved store owner in the Chicken Hill neighborhood, and her husband runs the music hall in town.

There are too many characters and subplots to summarize each. A pivotal event is when Chona offers to hide her friend Addie’s recently orphaned nephew Dodo, so that he won’t be put into a nearby asylum. This leads to an unfortunate encounter with the lecherous town doctor. Lives drastically change after this event.

The author connects everything to paint a clear picture of the town: discrimination, gossip, questionable backgrounds, friendship, and striving for a better life are some of the elements. By the end there was also a clear message of the impact of kindness and loyalty. And of course, the mystery of the body’s identity is revealed.

Artistic Legacy

The Girl You Left Behind by JoJo Moyes combines historical fiction, art, romance, a touch of mystery and legal drama into its story.

It begins during WWI in France. Sophie and her sister are taking care of their family’s inn which becomes occupied by German soldiers. Sophie hopes to use her relationship with the German commandant as a way to locate her husband Edouard who was taken to an internment camp. Edouard is an artist. His painting of her becomes a critical piece of the story (both in her time and in the future).

Fast forward to 2006. Sophie’s painting now resides with widowed Liv. Acquiring the painting is one of the precious memories with her former husband. She becomes involved in a legal battle to keep the painting against a budding love interest.

Both women’s stories are developed with the commonality of finding true love and experiencing different levels of hardship and loss. Liv delves into Sophie’s life through her letters, various records and interviews. Eventually the true provenance of the painting is revealed.

I have to admit that at first I wasn’t going to finish this book, but I’m glad that I did. It ended up being a satisfying read.