Comment on USA TODAY staff's 2021 favorite first-time reads

Editor’s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. So we asked them, and all Denver Post readers, to share these mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer?

I’ve completed 17 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles in the past 14 weeks. Mostly by myself. Over that same time, I also cut way back on booze, halved my phone screen time (okay, it’s maybe 30% less), and gone on a dozen hikes. All without losing a single cardboard piece. I never really saw myself as a puzzler, but it’s become a nice way to put aside the problems of the world and focus on something else for five or 10 minutes, or for a couple of hours.

Editor’s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. So we asked them, and all Denver Post readers, to share these mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer?

“Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel,” by Shahnaz Habib (Catapult, 2023) Editor’s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. So we asked them, and all Denver Post readers, to share these mini-reviews with you.

“The Memory of Lavender and Sage,” by Aimie K. Runyan (Harper Muse) Tempesta’s father is dead. His will leaves the family fortune to her brother.  But to everyone’s surprise, the will gives Tempesta money that had belonged to her mother, who died years before. Tempesta has no reason to remain in New York.  Her grandmother hates her, her brother is disdainful, and she’s bored with her newspaper job. So on a whim, Tempesta buys, sight unseen, a house in her mother’s native Sainte-Colombe, France.

“End of Story,” by A. J. Finn (William Morrow) “End of Story,” by A. J. Finn (William Morrow) A. J. Finn’s “The Woman in the Window” was a huge best-seller. “End of Story” is destined to be, too. It’s a mystery more than a thriller, and a tightly crafted page-turner. Literary critic Nicky Hunter is a huge fan of mystery writer Sebastian Trapp.