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Editor鈥檚 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 their mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer? Email bellis@denverpost.com. 鈥� Barbara Ellis

‘The Silence that Remains,’ by Meg Wingerter (Mission Point Press, 2026)

This debut novel by Wingerter resonates with an assured voice and steady hand, as it weaves together the lives and fates of three characters and their families in this epic sweep through half a century of Russian history. The timeline runs from roughly World War I through the end of the Stalinist Era. The settings span Europe, from Paris (with its White Russian 茅migr茅 community) to Ukraine (during the 1930s famine and the competing invasions during World War II), to Moscow and Siberia during Stalin鈥檚 reign. Wingerter makes the reader feel in their bones the compromises, betrayals, paranoia and sheer terror fomented by the impossible choices imposed by brutal authoritarian regimes. She creates fully realized characters, who embody the human range of reactions 鈥� resignation, deviousness, cynicism, subversion, rage and courage; yet, they are also people who dare to live, love and hope for better days. I, for one, hope for another novel by this promising young author. (Editor’s note: Wingerter is a Denver Post staff writer. This review was submitted by a freelance writer.) — 3 1/2 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver

‘The Palm House,’ by Gwendoline Riley (New York Review of Books, 2026)

One of Riley鈥檚 previous novels, “My Phantoms,” painted a picture of a mother-daughter relationship unlike what we often see in fiction nowadays. Rather than glorifying or venerating that relationship, Riley depicted a more complicated bond. In this book, the mother is similarly absent emotionally, and the father is practically non-existent. So, having to navigate her way through the land mine that is maturation, the narrator focuses on the other people in her life. It’s fascinating to watch this pastiche of friends and acquaintances come and go. They all matter, but some far more than others.聽 Riley鈥檚 prose has been described as focused, precise and darkly humorous. How she can convey such depth and complexity of character and of situation and of thought in so few words amazes me. I meant to read only a page or two of this slim novel, as I was testing a few books to see which one I wanted to read next; but before I knew it, I was halfway through. (Longlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize. In April, Riley won Britain’s Windham-Campbell Prize for fiction.) — 3 stars (out of 4); Michelle Nelson, Littleton

‘One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow,’ by Olivia Hawker (Lake Union, 2019)

This book is full of slow, luxurious writing, especially about the grandeur of the plains. It is set in the Wyoming prairie in 1876, when two women find their families thrown together to survive a harsh winter after one鈥檚 husband kills the other鈥檚. Each chapter is narrated by a different character 鈥� the two women, Nettie Mae and Cora, and their two eldest children, Clyde and Beulah (who is the primary protagonist). This is also their coming-of-age story. A few reviewers criticized the slowness of the plot, but I believe that Hawker does a great job of interpreting both the beauty and the barrenness of the plains. — 4 stars (out of 4): Jo Calhoun, Denver

‘This Land Is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History,’ by Beverly Gage (Simon & Schuster, 2026)

Using the device of the quintessential American road trip as a framework, Gage has crafted a very accessible outline of what she considers critical events throughout U.S. history. Each chapter describes a single road trip to a city or state or region, all arrayed somewhat chronologically from 1776 to the present. There are some obvious way points (like Independence Hall in Philadelphia or Colonial Williamsburg or Fort Sumter near Charleston, S.C.) but there are also numerous surprises along the way, like on any good road trip (Hull House in Chicago, Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Mich., or the National Presidential Wax Museum in South Dakota). You can get ideas for your own road trip, or save gas and ride along virtually with Gage, but in either case, you鈥檒l learn a lot about this land that is our land. (Gage is a historian and winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century.”) — 3 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver