Brawler: Stories

Brawler: Stories

By Lauren Groff 

Riverhead Books, 2026. 275 pages. Fiction. 

Ranging from the 1950s to the present day and moving across age, class, and region--from New England to Florida to California--these nine stories reflect and expand upon a shared theme: the ceaseless battle between humans' dark and light angels.

I love short story collections because in a short 5 pages you can fall in love with a character, become invested in a plot and feel the story deeply. And then it's over. Lauren Groff is a talented author with the ability to hook you in just a few sentences. These stories are character driven and speak so much about the human condition. Time for me to read everything Lauren Groff has written.

If you like Brawler, you might also like:

A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories 

By Lucia Berlin Farrar

Straus and Giroux, 2015. 403 pages. Fiction. 

With her trademark blend of humor and melancholy, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday--uncovering moments of grace in the cafeterias and Laundromats of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Northern California upper classes, and from the perspective of a cleaning woman alone in a hotel dining room in Mexico City. 

You Have a Friend in 10A 

By Maggie Shipstead 

Alfred A. Knopf, 2022. 253 pages. Fiction. 

In this collection of stories, Maggie Shipstead dives into eclectic and vivid settings, from an Olympic village to a deathbed in Paris to a Pacific atoll, and illuminating a cast of indelible characters, Shipstead traverses ordinary and unusual realities with cunning, compassion, and wit. In "Acknowledgments," a male novelist reminisces bitterly on the woman who inspired his first novel, attempting to make peace with his humiliations before the book goes to print. In "The Cowboy Tango," spanning decades in the open country of Montana, a triangle of love and self-preservation plays out among an aging rancher called the Otter, his nephew, and a young woman named Sammy who works the horses.

JK

Disappoint Me

Disappoint Me
By Nicola Dinan
The Dial Press, 2025. 305 pages. Fiction

This novel is an exploration of love, loss, trans panic, race, millennial angst, and the relationships--familial and romantic--that make us who we are. It is funny, sharp, and poignant. One of the best ways to build empathy is to read books about people who are different from us. (Check out this article from the American Psychological Association that support this claim!) Autostraddle Magazine calls this book, "One of the sharpest and most emotionally vulnerable novels on the complicated dynamic of dating cisgender straight men as a trans woman.” I'll never experience what it's like to be a trans woman, so reading a book like this is an excellent way for me to build understanding, empathy, and compassion.

Our main character Max, a 30-year-old trans woman, poet, and legal adviser at a tech company, is struggling with writer’s block following a recent breakup. After deciding to date again, she meets Vincent Chan, a cisgender corporate lawyer and son of Chinese immigrants. Despite their genuine connection, not just as Asians in the London business world but as kindred spirits, their relationship is tested by Vincent’s occasional thoughtless remarks about Max’s trans identity and her emerging health concerns resulting from her gender-affirming care. She must use love and forgiveness to determine whether it’s possible to move beyond her dissatisfaction and their shared mistakes.

The character development in this novel is compelling, and the thought-provoking plot kept me invested. Max is an incredibly complex character, and this book will leave you thinking about her and caring about her, long after you're done reading.

If you like Disappoint Me, you might also like:

Woodworking
By Emily St. James
Crooked Media Reads, 2025. 351 pages. Fiction

Erica Skyberg is thirty-five years old, recently divorced, and trans. Not that she's told anyone yet. Mitchell, South Dakota, isn't exactly bursting with other trans women. Instead, she keeps to herself, teaching by day and directing community theater by night. That is, until Abigail Hawkes enters her orbit. Abigail is seventeen, Mitchell High's resident political dissident and Only Trans Girl. It's a role she plays faultlessly, albeit a little reluctantly. She's also annoyed by the idea of spending her senior year secretly guiding her English teacher through her transition. But Abigail remembers the uncertainty--and loneliness--that comes with it. Besides, Erica isn't the only one struggling to shed the weight of others' expectations. As their unlikely friendship evolves under the increasing scrutiny of their community, both women, and those closest to them, will come to realize that sometimes there is nothing more radical than letting the world see who you really are.

A Gentleman's Gentleman
By T.J. Alexander
Vintage Books, 2025. 322 pages. Fiction

The notoriously eccentric Lord Christopher Eden is a "man of unusual make" and even more unusual habits: he wears pastels year round, prefers to live as far from the prying eyes and ears of the town as possible, and wholeheartedly prefers the comfortable company of his childhood cook and aged butler, Plinkton, to any swarm of servants that would normally befit a man of his station. His penchant for privacy makes for a pleasant, if occasionally lonely life. That life is threatened to be upended entirely when Christopher receives word from his lawyers that, according to his late father's will, he must find a wife in London by the end of the Season if he intends to maintain his status as the only living heir to the Eden's End estate. While most men his age and status would leap at the chance to marry, he cannot imagine a worse fate... Enter: the handsome-if stoic James Harding, the new valet Christopher very reluctantly hires after Cook and Plinkton remind him that if he's to stay in London, he must keep up appearances befitting that of a wealthy, eligible bachelor. After a rocky start to their relationship, the two strike up a fragile friendship amid the throes of the London Season; a friendship that threatens to shatter completely as Christopher's deadline to find a wife looms.

Bad Habit

By Alana Portero
HarperVia, 2024. 224 pages. Fiction

I read this book in 2024 and blogged about it here. It's a staggering coming-of-age novel deeply rooted in the struggles of a trans woman growing up in Madrid. Set against the very real heroin epidemic that ravaged Madrid in the 1980s and the city’s vibrant party scene that dominated its nightlife in the 1990s, the novel follows an unnamed protagonist as she grows up in a blue-collar suburb that has no place for her. Forging ahead, she discovers community and kinship in downtown Madrid, amid a lively party scene animated by junkies, pop divas, and fallen angels. But with each step she takes forward, she finds herself confronted by a violence she does not yet know how to counter; in this exciting and often terrifying world, each choice can truly be a matter of life and death.

The In-Between Bookstore
By Edward Underhill
Avon Books, 2025. 253 pages. Fiction

When thirty-year-old trans man Darby finds himself unemployed and in need of a fresh start, he moves back to the small Illinois town he left behind. But Oak Falls has changed almost as much as he has since he left. One thing is familiar: In-Between Books, Darby's refuge growing up and high school job. When he walks into the bookstore now, Darby feels an eerie sense of déjà vu--everything is exactly the same. He's transported back to 2009, and face-to-face with his teenage self, who just might give Darby the opportunity to change his own present for the better--if he can figure out how before his connection to the past vanishes forever. The In-Between Bookstore is a bingeable time travel novel of love, self-discovery, and the choices that come with both. It's for anyone who has ever wondered what their life might be like if they had the chance to go back and take a bigger, braver risk.

LKA

The Oks Are Not OK

The Oks Are Not OK
By Grace K. Shim
Kokila, 2026. 352 pages. Young Adult Fiction.

When seventeen-year-old influencer Elena Ok's family loses its fast-fashion fortune and flees Los Angeles for rural California, she is forced to confront her family's dynamics, and when she begins helping local vendors at the Blaire Fair, she starts to rethink her definition of success.

While this feels like the setup for a romantic comedy on the Hallmark Channel, The Oks Are Not OK is not what I was expecting. The tiny fictional California town of Blaire (located about 20 miles outside of Bakersfield), is a far cry from the Christmas tree farms and leaf-strewn New England hamlets you’ll usually find in a Hallmark film—California’s Central Valley is a massive agricultural region that goes largely ignored by the rest of the world. It’s sweltering hot for much of the year, and most tourists only see it through their car windows as they drive through on their way to someplace more exciting. (Source: I was born and raised in the Valley, and I was thrilled to see it get a little attention.) Blaire takes it even further, as the town lies within a National Radio Quiet Zone where all high-frequency electronic transmissions are forbidden—there’s not even cell service! In another story, exile to this "forgotten town" would set the stage for Elena to meet a sweet and probably flannel-clad young man who would teach her some important life lessons, and she would fall in love with him after a series of comical hijinks and misunderstandings.

But that’s where The Oks Are Not OK takes a different path. It’s not a rom-com at all, it’s a coming-of-age story, for both Elena and her family. Elena’s journey of self-discovery leads to her brother Gavin’s attempts to break free of the “heir to the empire” image placed on him from birth to forge his own career path, and to her parents’ realization that their intense focus on creating a prosperous new life for themselves has had unintended effects upon their entire family. The good-hearted citizens of Blaire don’t get as much attention as they deserve, but it’s really for the best that focus stays on the Ok family. It’s a surprisingly heartwarming story of family members learning to finally see one another, and of a heroine who learns to love and value herself for more than just her social media following.

If you like The Oks Are Not OK, you may also like:

The Complex Art of Being Maisie Clark
by Sabrina Kleckner
Flux, 2025. 284 pages. Young Adult Fiction.

When eighteen-year-old Maisie moves to London to develop her own artistic style outside her family's portrait business, she embarks on a journey of self-discovery with help from her older brother and her brooding photography partner.

 

The Edge of Anything
by Nora Shalaway Carpenter
Running Press Teens, 2020. 362 pages. Young Adult Fiction.

Len is a loner teen photographer haunted by a past that's stagnated her work and left her terrified she's losing her mind. Sage is a high school volleyball star desperate to find a way around her sudden medical disqualification. Both girls need college scholarships. After a chance encounter, the two develop an unlikely friendship that enables them to begin facing their inner demons. But both Len and Sage are keeping secrets that, left hidden, could cost them everything, maybe even their lives. 

Everything Within and Between
by Nikki Barthelmess
HarperTeen, 2021. 328 pages. Young Adult Fiction.

Raised by her strict Mexican grandma, Ri Fernández has never been allowed to learn Spanish. She has always been pushed away from the neighborhood they call home and toward her best friend's world of mansions and country clubs in the hopes that it will bring Ri closer to achieving the "American Dream." Her mother disappeared when Ri was young, so when Ri finds an unanswered letter from her mom begging for a visit, Ri decides to reclaim what her grandma kept from her: a language and a mother.

-LAH

Fearless and Free

Fearless and Free
By: Josephine Baker 
Tiny Reparations Book, 2025. 282 pages. Memoir

Josephine Baker took Paris by storm in the 1920s, dazzling audiences with her humor, beauty and effervescence on stage. Later, as one of the most recognizable women in the world, she became a spy for the French resistance, her celebrity working as her cover. After the war she became increasingly interested in civil rights. In 1963 she spoke at the March on Washington alongside Martin Luther King. All this from a girl born in Missouri to a poor single black woman and a white father she did not know. Flirtatious, funny, candid and this memoir gives us the wildly famous but elusive Josephine Baker telling her own story.

This was a really fun and unique read! Going into it I knew little about Josephine Baker and by the end I felt that she was my friend. The book was written by using hours and hours of conversation between a French journalist, Marcel Sauvage, and Josephine Baker. Because of this, the book reads as if you are sitting in her home as she tells her life story. She bounces around topics and times and is very personable and witty. She lived such an extraordinary life, and as the title suggests she was fearless! I wish I had her bravery and confidence and I feel by reading this book I got a sprinkle! I was thoroughly inspired and entertained by her many stories of performance, espionage and activism. I highly recommend listening to the audiobook. 

If you like Fearless and Free you might also like: 

Errand into the maze: The Life and Works of Martha Graham

By: Deborah Jowitt

Straus and Giroux, 2024. 465 pages. Biography 

From the legendary dance critic Deborah Jowitt, Errand into the Maze is the definitive biography of the visionary dancer and choreographer Martha Graham She changed how dancers were perceived onstage, devised new ways of moving, and pioneered a revolutionary dance technique. Along the way, Graham engaged with the debates, ideas, and events of the twentieth century―creating dances of social comment and human experiences. Hers was the iconic face of what came to be called modern dance.

Agent Josephine : American beauty, French hero, British spy

By: Damien Lewis

PublicAffairs, 2022.

In Agent Josephine, bestselling author Damien Lewis uncovers the extraordinary story of Josephine Baker's transformation from Paris performer to dauntless spy. Throughout World War II, using her stardom as a cloak for her secret work, Baker undertook daring clandestine missions to fight the Nazis, stamping an indelible mark on history. 

Drawing on a plethora of new material and rigorous research, including previously undisclosed letters and journals, Lewis upends the conventional story of the renowned performer, revealing why she fully deserves her unique place in the French Panthéon.

MT

It's Different This Time

It's Different This Time
By Joss Richard
Dell, an imprint of Random House, 2025. 420 pages. Romance.

Reeling from the cancellation of her hit TV show, June Wood has nothing left to lose when a mysterious email lures her back to the New York City brownstone she once called home before she moved to Los Angeles. Thanks to a clause in the former owner's will, she and her old roommate, Adam Harper, now own the multimillion-dollar property--or at least they will in a month, once all the paperwork is signed. Four weeks, then June can return to her life in LA and forget about New York City and everything she left behind. 

Sure, the fact that June and Adam are estranged and haven't even spoken in five years, and that their friendship didn't exactly end on good terms might complicate matters, but this is an opportunity of a lifetime. As the autumn leaves fall around them, through shared meals and late-night conversations, old wounds and long-buried sparks resurface, and it becomes strikingly clear: June and Adam have unfinished business. Confronted with the consequences of their choices years before, they must now navigate the minefield of their past the best way they know how: together. Second chances are always a risk, but maybe, if they get it right and are finally honest with each other and with themselves, it could be different this time.

It's Different This Time is a fantastic debut novel with a whole lot of heart and yearning, showcasing the love story of June and Adam while also acting as a love letter to New York City, Broadway, and Autumn. There were times where I found myself frustrated by both Adam and June (especially June) when they wouldn't properly communicate with one another, but their intentions and their insecurities felt very human and realistic in a way that only added emotional depth to the story and made the pay-off even more worth it. If you are looking for a slow-burn, second-chance, friends-to-lovers romance that also touches on tough topics like grief in a sensitive, beautiful way, you will love It's Different This Time.

If you like It's Different This Time, you might also like:

Happy Place

by Emily Henry

Berkley, 2023. 395 pages. Romance.

Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college—they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now—for reasons they’re still not discussing—they don’t.

They broke up six months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.

Which is how they find themselves sharing the largest bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blue week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.

Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends’ hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week… in front of those who know you best?

If It Makes You Happy

by Julie Olivia

Berkley Romance, 2025. 500 pages. Romance.

Grab your favorite fall candle, cuddle into a comfy blanket, and travel back in time to 1997 autumn in Vermont in this cozy, slow-burn romance. My new next-door neighbor seems to have everything figured out. Small town golden boy? Check. Single dad extraordinaire? Check. Hot baker forearms? I didn't notice them, I swear. I, on the other hand, don't-at all-have anything figured out. Trust me, I didn't think taking over my mom's dream bed and breakfast in Copper Run Vermont was going to be easy. It should be a good place to heal after my divorce. But apparently my scones belong in the garbage with my small talk skills. As pointed out by none other than Cliff. 

Cliff is inescapable. He knows exactly what people need-always. His charm, the way he wears flannel, and even his pastries, make not wanting to be friends with Cliff and his daughters pretty hard. Friends? I can make friends. That's safe. Except I'm leaving in three months to pass the inn off to my little sister and get the promotion in Seattle I've been working towards. So ask me why I'm thinking about kissing my hot neighbor."

Passion Project

by London Sperry

Penguin Books, 2025. 368 pages. Romance.

If your twenties are supposed to be the best years of your life, Bennet Taylor is failing miserably . . . with a big emphasis on the miserable. Where’s that zest she keeps hearing about? She’s a temp worker in New York City with no direction, no future, and no social life. And at the painful center of this listlessness is grief over the death of her first love.

When Bennet runs into Henry Adams just hours after standing him up for a first date, she makes an alcohol-fueled confession: She’s not ready to date. In fact, it’s been years since she felt passion for something. Not even pottery, or organized sports—not anything. Rather than leaving her to ruminate, Henry jumps at the opportunity for adventure: Bennet needs to find a passion for life, and Henry will help her find it. Every Saturday, they’ll try something new in New York City. As friends, of course.  

As their “passion project” continues, the pair tackle everything from carpentry to tattooing to rappelling off skyscrapers, and Bennet feels her guarded exterior ebbing away. But as secrets surface, Bennet has to decide what she wants, and if she’s truly ready to move on. With emotional resonance and sparkling banter, Passion Project is a fun, flirty, thoughtful story of finding a spark—and igniting happiness.

ND

The Dallergut Dream Department Store

The Dallergut Dream Department Store 

by Mi-Ye Lee 

Hanover Square Press, 2024. 287 pages. Sci-Fi & Fantasy. 

Penny gets a sought-after job at Dallergut Dream Department Store and begins work at the front desk, helping slumbering customers find the dreams they need. This whimsical and cozy Korean bestseller offers a well-drawn world with a cast of colorful characters. This book takes place in the world we go to when we dream. Penny gets a job at one of the top dream department stores, and gets to try out working at each floor. In addition to following Penny’s story, each section describes a character who gets a dream, and the reader gets a little glimpse into their life and how their dream affected them. 

This is such a lovely and cozy story, perfect for reading before bed. The world of dreams is whimsical and it’s fun to imagine that this is what happens when we fall asleep. The sequel to this book, The Dallergut Dream-Making District, is equally as enjoyable. This book is recommended for people who enjoy cozy fantasies, and those who would like a relaxing and whimsical break from life. 

If you like The Dallergut Dream Department Store, you might also like: 

Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop 

by Bo-Reum Hwang 

Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024. 301 pages. General Fiction. 

Yeongju is burned out. She did everything she was supposed to: go to university, marry a decent man, get a respectable job. Then it all fell apart. In a leap of faith, Yeongju abandons her old life, quits her high-flying career, and follows her dream. She opens a bookshop. In a quaint neighbourhood in Seoul, surrounded by books, Yeongju and her customers take refuge. From the lonely barista to the unhappily married coffee roaster, and the writer who sees something special in Yeongju - they all have disappointments in their past. The Hyunam-dong Bookshop becomes the place where they all learn how to truly live. A heart-warming story about finding comfort and acceptance in your life - and the healing power of books, Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop is a gentle reminder that it's never too late to scrap the plot and start again. 

The Full-Moon Coffee Shop 

by Mai Mochizuki 

Ballantine Books, 2024. 228 pages. General Fiction. 

In Japan, cats are a symbol of good luck. As the myth goes, if you are kind to them, they'll one day return the favor. And if you are kind to the right cat, you might just find yourself invited to a mysterious coffee shop under a glittering Kyoto moon. This particular coffee shop is like no other. It has no fixed location, no fixed hours, and seemingly appears at random to adrift young people at crucial junctions in their lives. It's also run by talking cats. While customers at the Full Moon Coffee Shop partake in cakes and coffees and teas, the cats also consult them on their star charts, offer cryptic wisdom, and let them know where their lives veered off course. Because every person who visits the shop has been feeling more than a little lost. And for a down-on-her-luck screenwriter, a romantically stuck movie director, a hopeful hairstylist, and a technologically challenged website designer, the coffee shop's feline guides will set them back on their fated paths. 

If Wishes Were Retail 

by Auston Habershaw 

Tachyon Publications, 2025. 226 pages. Sci-Fi & Fantasy. 

In this hilarious debut fantasy cozy, a rebellious--but enterprising--young woman and an ancient--but clueless--genie set up shop at the local mall. Alex Delmore needs a miracle. She wants out of her dead-end suburban town, but her parents are broke and NYU seems like a distant dream. Good thing there's a genie in town--and he's hiring at the Wellspring Mall. It'd help if the Jinn-formerly-of-the-Ring-of-Khorad knew even one thing about 21st-century America. It'd help if he weren't at least as stubborn as Alex. It'd really help if her brother didn't sell her out to her conspiracy theory-loving, gnome-hating dad. When Alex and the genie set up their wishing kiosk, they face seemingly-endless setbacks. The mall is failing and management will not stop interfering on behalf of their big-box tenants. But when the wishing biz might start working, the biggest problem of all remains: People are really terrible at wishing.

Reclaiming Quiet: cultivating a life of holy attention

Reclaiming Quiet: cultivating a life of holy attention 
By Sarah Clarkson
Baker Books, 2024. 188 pages. Nonfiction 

Recapture wonder and learn to live by the healing shapes and rhythms of stillness In a restless and distracted world, the cultivation of quiet often feels abstract and impossible. But quiet is, and always has been, essential to spiritual life, the only way we can turn from the frenzy toward the peace for which we were created. Reclaiming Quiet is an invitation to discover the profound, daily joy of resisting patterns of anxiety and hurry and cultivating a life of holy attention instead. With practical strategies to address our use of screens or fear of silence and compassionate ideas to nourish stillness, listening, and rest, this book explores: what it means to become a person who listens each day for God's voice before all others; how to reclaim wonder in prayer; how to cultivate an interior life.  Quiet is not for specialists or the ultra-disciplined. It's not limited to those who have great swathes of time. Quiet is our inner native land, the place to which we turn to find God already waiting, calling us beloved, and drawing us homeward into a life of holy and joyous attention.

From the first page of this short yet powerful book, I was deeply moved. I wanted to read it all at once, absorb what it was saying, but also I wanted to linger over it, ponder the questions that Clarkson has at the end of each chapter, linger over the beautiful prayers she has written. Though her life sounds romantic - living in a Victorian house in Oxford, England, Clarkson doesn't shy away from sharing her struggles throughout her life with mental health, and the ways in which she struggles from day to day. Her suggestions are humble and beautiful, she never comes across as a privileged or condescending. Her descriptions of experiences, landscapes and decisions she's faced were relatable and touching to me. I would recommend this to anyone who is grappling with the distractions of modern life and technology and is seeking both to become more grounded, and to deepen their understanding of God, whichever branch of Christianity you might belong to. 

 

If you like Reclaiming Quiet, you might also like: 

Seeking Slow: reclaim moments of calm in your day

By Melanie Barnes

Rock Point, 2019. 128 pages. Nonfiction

Seeking Slow provides you with the tools you need to slow down and reconnect with the harmonious rhythm of daily life, the gentle pace of nature, and, most importantly, yourself.

The Power of Silence

By Robert Cardinal Sarah

Ignatius Press, 2017. 249 pages. Nonfiction

 

In a time when technology penetrates our lives in so many ways and materialism exerts such a powerful influence over us, Cardinal Robert Sarah presents a bold book about the strength of silence. The modern world generates so much noise, he says, that seeking moments of silence has become both harder and more necessary than ever before. Silence is the indispensable doorway to the divine, explains the cardinal in this profound conversation with Nicolas Diat. Within the hushed and hallowed walls of the La Grande Chartreux, the famous Carthusian monastery in the French Alps, Cardinal Sarah addresses the following questions: Can those who do not know silence ever attain truth, beauty, or love? Do not wisdom, artistic vision, and devotion spring from silence, where the voice of God is heard in the depths of the human heart? After the international success of God or Nothing, Cardinal Sarah seeks to restore to silence its place of honor and importance. "Silence is more important than any other human work," he says, "for it expresses God. The true revolution comes from silence; it leads us toward God and others so as to place ourselves humbly and generously at their service."

MGB