Book Chatter

Fox
By Joyce Carol Oates
Hogarth, June 2025, 672pp.

The Short of It:

An exploration of temptation and the need for love.

The Rest of It:

*No Spoilers*

Mr. Fox is quite popular, with a certain group of girls.

Francis Fox, an English teacher at the prestigious Langhorne Academy possesses charm and wit and knows just what to say to a select few. Many of his students hang on his every word and seek his approval whenever they can, often leading to days of misery when not in the radius of his attention.

But when Fox’s car is found submerged in a local nature reserve’s pond, and the unidentified body is strewn about, while Fox is nowhere to be found, detectives begin to ask the tough questions.

Who is Fox? What’s his story? How did he arrive at this sleepy little town? As Detective Horace Zwender and his partner begin questioning school administrators and really anyone who Fox came in contact with, they slowly discover another side to him that begs to be further explored.

I found myself completely enthralled with this book. It speaks to forbidden wants and desires and how they play out between people when the conditions are just right. The tension! Fox’s private life is not so private as each page is turned. Oates creates flawed vulnerable characters that pull you in, even when the subject matter is difficult to digest.

The nuanced writing takes center stage. The tone is subtle while creating tension that will have you reading each word, slowly. It’s mesmerizing and satisfying.

It checked all my boxes:

Imperfect characters
Surprising twists
Highbrow academia setting
Intellectually thoughtful, reflective
Delicate handling of a tough topic

At nearly 700pp, I did not feel its length whatsoever. I flipped those pages in awe because Oates takes you gently by the hand and then as you get further in, you end up running full speed to those final pages.

I didn’t want it to end. My mind got such a workout while spending time with Fox. I guess you could say he charmed me as well.

Highly recommend. Not sure how I missed this book when it was first released.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

Nuclear War: A Scenario
By Annie Jacobsen
Dutton, January 2026, 416pp.

The Short of It:

A terrifying nuclear scenario that could absolutely happen.

The Rest of It:

Terrifying? Yes. Realistic? Absolutely. Nuclear War: A Scenario is based on intel from retired military personnel and walks the reader through a nuclear incident as it’s happening. Second by second. In five seconds, this is the impact. Two minutes in, this is what’s happening. You get the idea.

Reading this book while our current President is building a bunker to rival no other, was chilling and infuriating because given the picture that this book paints, no one is surviving. Six floors of a bunker will not save you. This is hard to read about but factual.

In this scenario, the Pentagon is the target. This seems probable to me. Taking out the command center would be the way to go. Once the bomb is dropped, it provides several stages of destruction. There’s the detonation, the flash of thermal radiation, the blast wave, electromagnetic pulse (EMP), and the formation of a radioactive fallout plume. If you aren’t one of the lucky ones to die on impact, you face horrible burns, immediate loss of limbs, burned out lungs.

If you survived all that, then your real challenge comes next. Survival. Water and food, all contaminated. All food sources, obliterated. This goes on for a very long time.

If there is no water, the fires from the blast are left unchecked and just continue to burn which damages air quality and UV filters, creating a nuclear winter; a projected drop of about 35 degrees. That means crops and livestock are wiped out.

In this scenario, it will take approximately 25K years for the earth to recover. Read that again.

Writing this book had to be quite the undertaking. It’s fascinating and you cannot stop reading even though the outcome is so grim. It’s broken down into locations and time. What’s going on in California? Or D.C.? Or at military bases around the world? More importantly, what is the President doing? His cabinet? Held against this current administration I’d have to say that we have NO HOPE of surviving such an event.

Grim.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

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