Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan Closing out this year’s Bookends section is Barbarian Days by William Finnegan. There are no surfers in our team and yet we found ourselves mesmerized and very much in awe of, what seemed to us, was a life well lived. It’s one of the best ones we’ve [...] Read More

The Paper Bark Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu Here’s another book that delves into the history of a place that we like to visit written by a local author. In these pages, you will come across familiar places and find out about their rich history. Although fictional, a lot of the encounters are “based” on [...] Read More

You Are Not Alone by Cariad Lloyd As the commemoration of the dead nears, we’re recommending this book to help those who might be having difficulty in getting through the days ahead. We have featured the author’s podcast, which is also the inspiration for this book, a while back so listeners will recognize familiar stories [...] Read More

The Celebrants by Steven Rowley We enjoyed Rowley’s The Guncle and so we gamely picked up this book. The Celebrants, as can be foreshadowed from its title, is a celebration of friendship with all its highs and lows. It made us laugh and cry but mostly cry especially towards the end. That said, we have [...] Read More