A running tally of the books that I have reviewed this year, updated and reranked after each book that I finish. Explore the latest reviews and discover hidden gems with insights from BarlinsBooks, your literary companion for top new releases.

★★★☆☆ A difficult novel to review without spoiling the story, it focuses on a family trying to have another child before a shocking event disrupts everything.

★★★★★ A children's book about life's most difficult subject—death—told with compassion, humor and grace at a level on par (or above) any adult literature.

★★★★☆ A woman returns home to ghostwrite her estranged father's memoir while trying to unravel if he was responsible for the 50-year-old murder of his siblings.

★★★☆☆ A British couple decide to sail from England to New Zealand in the 1970s, only to be stranded in the middle of the Pacific after a whale destroys their boat.

★★★★☆ Told mostly via flashbacks about four childhood friends, the novel focuses on resiliency and found family in the face of domestic violence and neglect.

★★★★★ A photographer spends a summer at a lake house where she meets a cocksure man whose charms threaten their mutual vow of friendship.

★★★★★ A strong start to a new fantasy series that can also be enjoyed as a stand-alone novel, a roguish young man travels to a distant city to solve the mystery of his father's death.

★★★☆☆ Part memoir, part history of fire, author Thomas recounts his time with the Los Padres Hotshots while positing ways to deal with megafires.

★★★★☆ A local publican is found dead with a crown of antlers on his head in this multi-layered mystery taking place in a small English town.

★★★★☆ A woman must set aside losing her job the day before her daughter's wedding as she navigates the intricacies of the wedding weekend.

★★★★☆ Actor Jeremy Renner recounts the harrowing events of an accident that left him with 38 broken bones and clinging to life by a thread.

★★☆☆☆ A serial killer targeting Asian women during the pandemic combines with a ghost story to form one of the more racist books I've read.

★★★★★ An author who has fiercely protected her anonymity—despite writing the biggest book series on the planet—finally tells all in a memoir.

★★★☆☆ The search for a missing hiker in Maine serves as the backdrop for this novel more focused on the complexities of human relationships.

★★★★★ Edgy, violent, and dark, Cosby's latest sees a successful money manager sucked into working for a sadistic gang in order to save his brother.

★★★★★ Filled with tragedy, perseverance, and love, the novel focuses on the fictional first women in the NASA space program in the early 1980s.

★★★★☆ An Atlanta cop with a secret terminal brain tumor attempts to orchestrate his death in the line of duty to help his family financially.

★★★★☆ Our assassins hell-bent on *not* killing return in a sequel to Assassins Anonymous that is satisfying but falls short of the original.

★★★★☆ A chance set of events leads to a down-on-his-luck elderly man assuming the identity of another in this sweetly sappy feel-good story.