Run For The Hills by Kevin Wilson

For The Hills by Kevin Wilson

Read by Marin Ireland

7 hours, 22 minutes

Published May 2025 by HarperCollins

Publisher’s Summary: 

Ever since her dad left them twenty years ago, it’s been just Madeline Hill and her mom on their farm in Coalfield, Tennessee. While it’s a bit lonely, she sometimes admits, and a less exciting life than what she imagined for herself, it’s mostly okay. Mostly.

Then one day Reuben Hill pulls up in a PT Cruiser and informs Madeline that he believes she’s his half sister. Reuben—left behind by their dad thirty years ago—has hired a detective to track down their father and a string of other half siblings. And he wants Mad to leave her home and join him for the craziest kind of road trip imaginable to find them all.

As Mad and Rube—and eventually the others—share stories of their father, who behaved so differently in each life he created, they begin to question what he was looking for with every new incarnation. Who are they to one another? What kind of man will they find? And how will these new relationships change Mad’s previously solitary life on the farm?

Infused with deadpan wit, zany hijinks, and enormous heart, Run for the Hills is a sibling story like no other—a novel about a family forged under the most unlikely circumstances and united by hope in an unknown future.

My Thoughts: 

I read Kevin Wilson’s Nothing To See Here in 2020, having been convinced to read it, despite my belief that it was definitely not the kind of book I would enjoy. I was wrong. It was utterly unique and quirky, but also funny and full of heart. Needless to say, it took no convincing whatsoever to get me to read Run For The Hills, even before I knew what it was about. 

• Marin Ireland’s reading is fantastic, as always. 
• Maureen Corrigan on Wilson’s writing: ‘He'll start off with these goofy, almost sitcom-type contrived premises and from there create stories that knock you out with the force of their emotional truth.’She hit the nail on the head. The premise of this one is not quite as out there as was the premise of Nothing See Here, but it's still utterly unique. 
• I really grew to care about these characters, especially given that they are all carrying the scars of being the offspring of a man who just walked away from his life, and them, again and again. Each of them grows as the journey continues, but they always remain to who they were to begin with. 
• Wilson blends humor (that poor PT Cruiser takes the worst of it) and heart. He asks interesting questions. How would you react if someone came to you saying that they are your long lost sibling? What exactly is this patched together family going to do when they finally reach their father? How do you deal with facing a person who was supposed to love you forever, but walked away? Do you really want to know the answers he'll give once you find him? What becomes of this new family once their trip comes to an end? Are they really a family, just because they have the same father, a man each of them knows only vaguely? 

For the humor, the quirkiness, the realness of his characters, the questions that he raises, I won't hesitate to pick up Wilson's next book. Which I hope he's working on even as I type. 

Life: It Goes On - May 12

Happy...Tuesday?! It didn't feel like it at work today; but when I think that this is already almost 3 days late getting posted, it feels like the week is flying by. I hope all of the moms had a wonderful day and got to celebrate you at least a little bit. We had such a lovely weekend that we spent a good part of it outside, including dinner on Mother's Day. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I got half way through Niall Williams' This Is Happiness when my loan expired so I'm waiting now to see which will become available first, the audiobook or the physical book. So I started Michelle Obama's The Light We Carry. 

Watched: So many things! My book club and I went to see The Devil Wears Prada 2; while none of us thought it was as good as the original, we all agreed that we liked it. At home I watched Fine Me Falling, starring Harry Connick, Jr; Mr. Malcolm's List; and the finale of Masterpiece Theater's The Count of Monte Cristo. 

Read: I'm about half way through both Peggy by Rebecca Godfrey and Heart the Lover by Lily King. 

Made: Pastas, salads, grilled burger, grilled cheese. My ambition in the kitchen has been lacking; but at least we're getting to eat on the patio a lot lately. 

Enjoyed: Happy hour before the movie Tuesday; dinner out with friends Friday and dessert at their house on Saturday; and dinner with Mini-him and Miss C for Mother's Day. Oh, and a day off on Friday. I really need to start using my PTO! 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: I've got some projects to work on outside and created a new one for myself tonight when I decided to knock some loose paint off a bench before I moved it and then spent an hour talking off paint that was peeling. And now I have to either sand it or strip it and repaint it. Not on my agenda at all! But it did feel good to work with furniture again. 

Thinking About: The paltry turnout at my polling place today. I hope that means that most of the people in my area voted by mail or got there before me. We actually have some pretty important races and I would hate to think that people just can't be bothered to care about them. 

Feeling: After plenty of me time over the weekend, I'm feeling more productive the past couple of nights. Or maybe that's just my new mattress. Did I mention that we FINALLY got a mattress picked out and it was delivered on Mother's Day. I'm so happy to be done thinking about that. 

Looking forward to: A lot of outdoor time this week. 

Question of the week: Are you good about not finishing books that aren't working for you? I've started a couple lately that just weren't grabbing me and I'm trying other decide if I just give up on them or give them another chance. 

Life: It Goes On - May 3

Happy Sunday from sunny Omaha! I am happy to report that I'm finally able to get my plants into pots. As you know, I'm a happy girl when I can get my hands into the dirt and finally start seeing my vision for this year come to life. 

I contine to struggle with getting Blogger to allow me to add pictures. Every day I have to block cookies and then allow them again, then sign out and back in again to my Google account. Today I did all of that, got to my pics, selected the one I wanted and then it told me it wasn't able to copy photos to my blog. So frustrating. I suppose it means that it's time to move off of this platform but it seems like a lot of work for a blog that's essentially just for me and when so many others that I've always followed have moved away from blogs. Still, after almost seventeen years, I'm loathe to pull the plug. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I finished Allen Levi's Theo of Golden (I think you'll be surprised by my thoughts on this one) and started Niall Williams' This Is Happiness (as recommended by Ann Patchett). 

Watched: A little of this, a little of that. An episode of The Gentlemen (at this point, it's so convoluted, I'm not sure what's going on) and an episode of Wednesday (still not enjoying it as much as season one, but we'll finish the season). Also, the Netflix adaptation of Emily Henry's The People We Meet on Vacation. Cute, predictable, just the thing to watch while the Big Guy was gone for an evening.

Read: I finished The Berry Pickers and am about a third of the way through Rebecca Godfrey's and Leslie Jamison's Peggy, which is the story of Peggy Guggenheim, from her early life to her time in Venice. 

Made: Pasta, salads, pizza - nothing that required too much effort. I save a lot of recipes for someone who's not in the mood to actually cook any of them! 

Enjoyed: Buying a mattress. Don't get me wrong, the process of actually trying out twenty mattresses and buying one was NOT enjoyable. But getting to stop thinking about mattresses is very enjoyable. We've been, as you know, talking about them for weeks and weeks! 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: On finishing up the planting today then enjoying lots of meals on the patio this week. Also, paperwork - ick. 

Thinking About: BG has spent a fair amount of the weekend doing all things Berkshire Hathaway. Once again, he has come home with lots of things sold by companies that BH owns. Every year he buys something that makes me wonder how an intelligent man gets sucked into buying it. This year it was a scoop that I thought was a kitty litter scoop, but which is, in fact, mean for food. It's huge - where am I going to house it? Also, a device that's sole purpose is to cook an egg in the microwave. If everyone else gets as caught up in a buying frenzy as BG does, they must make a fortune at that event. 

Feeling: Lighter, as I always do this time of year, when color and blossoms begin appearing in my yard. 

Looking forward to: Getting our new mattress on Mother's Day. 

Question of the week: BG is talking about getting a Blackstone grill. Do you have one? If so do you like it and how often do you use it? 

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

320 pages

Published October 2023

Publisher’s Summary: 

July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come.

In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret. 

My Thoughts: 

Any time I pick up a book that features a minority or a different culture, I’m interested to learn more about the author. Is he or she writing from a place of knowledge? In this case, she is. Peters is, according to the book jacket, a writer of Mi’kmaq and settler ancestry, who was the winner of the 2021 Indigenous Voices Award, and who lives in Nova Scotia, where much of the book is set. She is, in fact, of mixed Mi’kmaq and European heritage. This book is inspired by the real-life Mi’kmaq families who pick berries. All that contributes to a higher estimation of the book for me, knowing it’s not just researched, but lived. 

I pondered how I was going to write this review without giving anything away because I couldn't remember reading the summary many weeks ago. Then I copied the summary over here and realized this book isn't even a mystery to anyone who's read and remembers what it says. So bearing that in mind, it won't be a surprise that when I started reading Norma's first section of the book (the book alternates chapters between Joe and Norma) and realized that Peters was either really bad at dropping subtle clues or had no interest in keeping readers in the dark. The truth of the matter is that this is not a book that spends its entirety in search of Ruthie; instead it's a book about the damage that a traumatic event can cause on everyone involved. 

For Joe's family, Ruthie's disappearance is only the first of the traumas the family will suffer. Joe suffers the most visibly, living with the unbearable weight of guilt and loss. His pain manifests as violence, ultimately causing him to commit a violent act that he can't forgive himself for. So he chooses to hit the road, to punish himself and protect those he loves. We learn what Joe's life has been like as he looks back on it as he lies dying from cancer. Norma has suffered her own pain and loss. The emotional damage her parents have suffered hangs over her for the rest of her life. She grows up certain that she wasn't born to her parents but is unable to find the truth, even from those who claim to love her. 

As I neared the end of the book and struggled with what I thought might be the right way to end the book. Should Peters break our hearts? Or should Norma finally be reunited with her family? Should Joe finally find peace? Let's just leave it at this - I was happy with the way the book ended. If you recall I like a book that doesn't have a happily-ever-after ending. But then, too, some books need one. You'll just have to read this one for yourself to find out. 

One last note: this book will make for a great book club discussion, touching as it does on so many themes.

The Windsor Affair by Melanie Benjamin

The Windsor Affair by Melanie Benjamin

384 pages

Published June 2026 by Random House Publishing Group

My copy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review

Publisher’s Summary: 

Feuding Windsor brothers and their wives—some things, it seems, never change. The Windsor Affair recreates the cataclysmic events that nearly toppled the monarchy and incited the power struggle between Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon and Wallis Simpson. Told from the perspective of both women, the novel propels readers into the fabulous world of the debonair Prince of Wales, café society of the 1930s, and the glittering private lives of the Windsors. The first novel to be dedicated to this infamous rivalry, The Windsor Affair brings us all the gossip and intrigue between the two very different—yet perhaps more similar than they would admit—wives of royals.

As Queen, Elizabeth would become the symbol of British pluck and courage during World War II and remain a British institution the rest of her long life. Wallis would be forever forced to enact the World’s Greatest Love Story even after it sours, as she goes from being admired to vilified and, ultimately, pitied. Against the backdrop of the Abdication Crisis, World War II, coronations, funerals, births, and deaths, these two women maintain a biting, sharp-tongued feud—until age and the long arm of history bring about a kind of understanding. For the last communication between these bitter rivals was a simple, surprising message: “In friendship, Elizabeth.”

My Thoughts: 

This is the eighth book by Benjamin that I’ve read and it gave me everything I’ve come to expect from her. Benjamin's books are always centered around real women who have played a role in history, two topics I love. Frequently they are women whose place in history has been overlooked; sometimes the women are very well known, as in this case. 

Over time, I've read a fair amount about Edward VIII (later known as the Duke of Windsor) and Wallis Simpson and I long ago gave up the idea that theirs was a great love story that stood the test of time. What I didn't know about was the feud between Simpson and Queen Elizabeth. 

Elizabeth was much beloved in England as the Duchess of York, after marrying Albert "Bertie", the Duke of York and second in line to the throne. Her hope was to remain in those roles for the remainder of their lives. It allowed them to spend a lot of time together and with their daughters and allowed Bertie to remain out of the spotlight, where his stammer would be less noticeable. 

The first in line to the throne, Edward, the Duke of Wales was a known womanizer, particularly when it came to married women. Wallis Simpson was American, once divorced, and, at that time, married woman who loved a good party, wore stylish clothing, and had a biting humor who set her sights on Edward. 

In January of 1936, King George V died and Edward became king. The family felt certain that Edward would do the right thing and walk away from Wallis, as it was inconceivable that he could remain king if he married her. Edward insisted that he could, and would, in fact do just that. In the end, he was not, as we know, allowed to marry her as king, abdicating the throne to Bertie. 

And here's what I didn't know about all of that: 

• Stylish Wallis looked down her nose at Elizabeth, who continued to wear clothing designed by the woman who had designed her mother's clothing, and made no secret of it. Elizabeth looked dowdy and was constrained by doing things the right (the royal) way. 
• Elizabeth had once been the apple of the public's eye; but the public, surprisingly, got caught up in the great love story and adored Wallis. 
• Elizabeth was very unhappy with Edward's abdication, putting Bertie, as it did, into a highly stressful and very public role that vastly changed both their private and public lives. 
• Wallis and Elizabeth publicly avoided each other as much as possible and their "feud" was very much public knowledge. 

And here's what I'm not sure if fact or fiction - was Elizabeth instrumental in making sure that Wallis and Edward were not allowed to marry if he remained king? Was she instrumental in making Bertie (King George VI) forbid the royal family from having any contact with Edward and Wallis? In Benjamin's world she did. Given what I know about the amount of research puts into each book, I can't help but think that there's some truth to those things in this book. Regardless, it makes for a wonderful tale of two strong women, neither of whom got what they ended up wanting out of life.