currently reading: Right now I’m reading an oddball mystery called The Clementine Complex by British comedian Bob Mortimer, which is bonkers. I’m still reading It’s Not a Cult, which is a little fascinating. But what I really want to talk about tonight is the new KJ Dell’Antonia, Playing the Witch Card. Flair is a woman who moved away to become a baker. But when her grandmother died, she moved back to the small town where she had lived and turn her tea shop into a bakery. But no one comes in. It’s not until Flair agrees to take part in the town’s Halloween festival that she sees things start to turn around for the store and for her teenage daughter. But the cost to her emotional health is deep, having to deal with memories that she had buried. Will Flair finally deal with her family legacy and find her place in the town, or will she run away again?

I’m also reading This Time Could Be Different, about another woman dealing with long buried feelings. Madeline is almost 50. She is a senior VP of marketing at a bank and constantly wonders if her life has meaning. She finally met the love of her life, and he wants to get married, but her crazy work schedule is making it difficult for her to make any wedding plans. She has started working with a psychologist, but she struggles to understand what is going on with her. This one is about toxic workplaces and the thought patterns that keep us stuck in them. It is funny and smart and subversive, and this is one to keep an eye on.

up next: For me, it’s all about Jessica Knoll’s Bright Young Women, which is out September 19. But this week I saw a cover reveal on Instagram that I am still buzzing about. Ruth Reichl has written another novel, which comes out next spring. It’s The Paris Novel, and I am already ready to read it. In Save Me the Plums, she wrote about a dress she bought on a trip to Paris, and the story is amazing, so I’m not going to spoil it. I hope that you will read it in Plums if you haven’t already. From the blurb about the new novel, I know that the dress story plays a part of this novel, and really, I am so excited about this book!