The 2027 Reading Challenge is here! This will be the 9th reading challenge since Jackie and I started Beyond the Bookends. We love seeing how much the challenge has grown and how much all of you have ...

I knew I needed to make a list of my favorite novels set in retirement communities. I read one, and suddenly, I had read so ...

WWII romance books for readers who want a love story with their history: The Bronze Horseman, The Invisible Bridge, The ...

I noticed a trend this year that I love. Some of the best books I read were books with child narrators. These are adult books told from a child’s perspective, rather then books intended for children ...

Looking for the November 2026 Celebrity Book Club Spoilers? You've come to the right place! For years, I've worked with ...

This year, I read a number of books that I loved with a clear antiheroine. These characters are flawed and should be unlikable, yet somehow, I was laughing ...

Every year, Kirsten and I love to find new ways to celebrate books for summer and knew books set on an island would be ...

Kirsten and I recently had a discussion about speculative fiction novels and what constitutes speculative fiction. It turns out that this is a long-running debate in the literary community. We wanted ...

I love a family drama book, but there is something even more captivating about multigenerational novels. I love seeing multiple generations together, connected in some way. Sometimes the generations ...