This month’s choices:
Fiction
Piranesi
By Susanna Clarke
Full transparency: I haven’t read this one yet. But my wife, Gretchen, has, and she strongly recommends it. So here you go:
“Piranesi” is hard to describe, and I’m told that’s part of its appeal. The story centers on a man who lives in a vast, mysterious House—and you’ll find a lot of capitalized words in this book. I scanned the sample online, and it’s the first thing I noticed.
Anyway, the House has a labyrinth of endless halls filled with statues, tides that rise and fall, and a strict internal logic that only he seems to understand. He calls himself Piranesi. He carefully documents his world in journals, cataloging its beauty, its dangers, and the strange rhythms of his isolated existence.
As the story unfolds, cracks appear in Piranesi’s understanding of his reality. Small discoveries raise unsettling questions: Who is he, really? How did he come to live here? And what, exactly, is the House?
Many years ago, I read Clarke’s debut novel, “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell,” and from the brief online sample alone, I get the same feel with this one. Which is good; I really enjoyed “Strange/Norrell.”
Here’s another thing I know: This book is NOT a plot-driven thriller. It’s a novel about memory, identity, solitude, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive. It’s short, strange, and by all accounts unforgettable.
Based on a my trusted in-house recommendation, this is one I’ll be reading soon myself.
Find your copy here.
Nonfiction
1776
By David McCullough
With 2026 marking the 250th birthday of the United States, I thought it would be perfect to revisit the year that made everything possible.
I read “1776” nearly 20 years ago, and pulled it back out a few weeks ago. It’s not a broad, sweeping history of the American Revolution. Instead, McCullough focuses on one pivotal year—when independence was declared, nothing was guaranteed, and failure was a very real possibility. The British army was powerful, well-trained, and confident. The colonial forces? Hell, we were undermanned, underfunded, poorly supplied, and—honestly?—filled with a bunch of questionable characters.
At the center of the story is George Washington. But he’s not painted as a mythic figure carved into marble, but as a deeply human leader learning—sometimes painfully—how to command an army while holding together a fragile cause.
McCullough also gives overdue attention to figures like Nathanael Greene and Henry Knox, along with ordinary soldiers whose endurance mattered just as much as any famous name.
What I appreciate about “1776” is how human it keeps the story. These aren’t legends yet. They’re people making decisions with incomplete information, in really crappy weather, under enormous pressure, hoping they’re guessing right. Reading it, you’re shocked into realizing just how close the whole thing came to falling apart.
Which is what makes this such a good book for this moment. At 250 years old, it’s worth remembering that none of this was inevitable. The start was wobbly and uncertain. I shook my head more than once.
And that’s what makes it so interesting.
Find your copy here.
Last Month’s Picks
The Last Devil to Die
By Richard Osman
Another delightful installment in the Thursday Murder Club series.
The Splendid and the Vile
By Erik Larson
Experience the horrific Blitz, when Nazi bombs rained down on England during Winston Churchill’s first year as PM.
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Happy reading!