2026 #27 The Queen of the Valley (Hughes)

 

The Queen of the Valley by Lorena Hughes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars (3.5)

I picked this book somewhat at random for the Read Around the World Challenge. This historical backdrop is the 1925 earthquake in Cali, Colombia, so starting it just two days after the awful earthquake in Colombia on August 10th this year felt rather eerie. The book is engaging with a reasonably interesting story/mystery, but I wonder if I would have connected better if I had read the first book, The Spanish Daughter, which introduces the character Puri (short for Purificación). Reading this one without the first didn't thwart enjoyment, but the (minimal) references to the first book would have been more meaningful. How Puri winds up "as a nun" might have been more believable, as well.

The other major context for the story is a cholera outbreak, and Hughes deftly handles descriptions in the cholera ward without sensationalizing the misery. The female characters are particularly strong, and Lucas is nicely complex. Martin is known mostly through the lens of those in his orbit, and I wish that Farid had his own chapters too. There's a web of entanglements that at times was hard to keep track of (Angélica, in particular, felt a bit happenstance and underdeveloped), but keeping the main narrative focused on just three characters (Lucas, Puri, Camila) helped. The circumstances of the disappearance of a certain character also felt a bit patched together near the end.

Overall, a solid read and good piece of historical fiction.

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Challenges 

2026 Reading Goals 27/60

Read Around the World: Ecuador (4/14 for South America)

2026 #26 The Opposite of Cheating (Gallant/Rettinger)

 

The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI by Tricia Bertram Gallant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is particularly useful for early-career teachers (or on the flip side, late-career teachers who have upheld the status quo in their teaching for the last twenty years) but almost any teacher in higher ed can benefit from parts of this book. Despite the subtitle, it isn't particularly "AI" oriented, but this is somewhat understandable because it is very difficult to keep up with AI as a specific context.

The authors' primary aim is to advocate for a culture "accepting of errors." This framing of "cheating as error-making" can be a bit tough to embrace when we picture in our mind's eye the student who seems to cheat because they believe they can get away with it. Gallant and Rettinger offer that we should try, however, to bring nuance to our understanding of cheating and resist painting with too broad a brush.

To that end, the first chapter is a great overview of types of neutralizing behaviors and rationales for cheating, and looks into how "help" and "assistance" are tricky words in this world of AI (and also a variety of online "services" (legal and not)). Chapter Two's emphasis on communication is vital, underscoring that is our job to make a syllabus meaningful and relevant, and there's considerable emphasis on developing "actionable and measurable learning objectives." A later discussion of rubrics is particularly welcome: "Creating a full rubric can and should take time and effort" the authors opine, and I'm certainly glad to see this in an age of Khanmigo-generated rubrics being used by brand new faculty who aren't even sure what a rubric is. The authors do support using a ChatBot to (help) generate a rubric, but their Chapter Four should be required reading before anyone attempts using chatGPT or Khanmigo for making a rubric for the first time.

I was a bit surprised at the credit for Universal Design for Learning being given to Burgstahler and Cory rather than David Rose (and no mention of CAST's Guidelines), although their 2008 book certainly was a crucial contribution to UDL as it applies in higher ed. There is also not a whole lot about alternative grading, save for a brief discussion of mastery grading, specifications grading, and ungrading. That said, it isn't really within the scope of the book to dig in to how alt-grading might help deter cheating, but it is highly relevant to the general principles of integrity that the authors support.

I was surprised by the multiple references to "contract cheating" which made me consider that it may be more prevalent than I thought. But ultimately the book isn't about types of cheating as much as how to create a better culture within a class to discourage it, and this includes how to respond when it does happen. The authors encourage a balance between protecting assessment integrity (Chapter Six) and teaching ethical thinking to our students. I wished that the latter had more examples and case studies reaching across a broader spectrum of disciplines, but what is there is inspiring and offers interesting models to explore. Teaching ethical thinking is largely teaching critical thinking and offers a student an opportunity to examine the false dichotomy of good v. bad choice. Instead, borrowing from Rushworth Kidder, that choice is reframed into a "trilemma" and the consideration of what lies outside of the dichotomy is where the learning happens.

The book is well-researched, but more anecdotal in tone, which gives it an arguably more accessible voice, especially for those more interested in practice than theory. But the citations are there for further reading when needed.

Ultimately, the authors successfully frame academic integrity as something that needs to be injected into course design, assessment, pedagogy, institutional policy, etc. They do put some onus on institutions, and advocate that faculty should be proactive in impacting institutional policy, but there isn't a whole lot of guidance as to how to go about this. Even if an institution has "teeth" in their follow through of their academic integrity policies, the authors don't really address the very real economic motivations that are perhaps a stronger consideration at the institutional level and may be part of the issue of disconnect between academic integrity policies and what faculty try to uphold.

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Challenges 

2026 Reading Goals 26/60

2026 #25 The Caine Mutiny (Wouk)

 

The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


One of the remarkable things about this book is that it isn't really about a mutiny. Yes, there is mutinous behavior, but I'd almost classify it more as a coming-of-age story of Willie Keith. It isn't your average war novel either, although it takes place during WWII. Wouk manages to focus on the world of the USS Caine, a clunky older minesweeper, commanded by various characters through whom we get to see Willie grow. There's also a love interest, but even there, the complexity and nuance sets this novel apart. The
The only thing that keeps it half a star away from 5 for me is the Navy jargon. If you aren't familiar with the various nautical and military terms applied to ships and the like, some of it can feel like a slog. But I'll also say that it was interesting enough that I looked up a good bunch of information on minesweepers and was happy to learn. Lieutenant Commander Queeg (played by Humphrey Bogart in the film), is an excellent character in that he navigates that in-between space between villain and flawed human--something Willie has to reckon with, alongside some of his shipmates.
For those interested in the real-life inspirations: https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-...

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Challenges 

2026 Reading Goals 25/60

#192030 Challenge:1951

Pulitzer Winners: 18

2026 #24 The Conservationist (Gordimer)

 

The Conservationist: Booker Prize Winner by Nadine Gordimer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wanted to like this, and in theory, I did. I've heard that this is Gordimer's most poetic book and the language is undoubtedly that. I prefer it in straightforward poetry, however, rather than omniscient third person narration. Stylistic considerations aside (which I think are truly about personal preference), the book is artful in its illumination of white male privilege in the form of Mehring, a wealthy industrialist who buys a farm in South Africa (as a "getaway") that he is ill-equipped to run (leaving most of the management to his Black workers headed by Jacobus). Divorced and with an estranged son, Mehring wanders through life with little regard for relationships (platonic and romantic), and whose self-absorption fuels the evils of apartheid. The book opens with a murdered unidentified Black man being found on the farm, and Gordimer artfully allows that body to "surface" throughout the novel in various ways.

The book is very literary, with little distinction between dialogue and narrative, and some beautiful descriptive language. If you are somehow new to apartheid and colonialism in fiction, well this wouldn't be my first recommendation to introduce those topics, but otherwise it is an experience to read this Booker prize-winning book.

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Challenges on Storygraph (@rebcamuse):

2026 Reading Goals 24/60

#192030 Challenge:1974

2026 #23 The Modigliani Scandal (Follett)

The Modigliani Scandal by Ken Follett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Published under a pseudonym (Zachary Stone) in the 1970s before Follett reached his fame, The Modigliani Scandal is an entertaining look at the follies of the art world, and a reasonably good "mystery" of sorts. The back-of-the-book blurb would have it: "A high-speed, high-stakes caper from the grand master of international action and suspense." High-speed is pushing it a bit--the plot only really picks up speed in Part III, "Figures in the Foreground," but it is good fun. None of the characters are particularly likeable, although I daresay I was originally rooting for Dee, since she needs the "lost Modigliani" for her thesis. Certainly there is intrigue, but as stakes go, they aren't that relatable unless you happen to be in the art world running a gallery. The best part for me is how Follett sets up the denouement at a pub, but then steps back from it before revealing what happens inside that pub. That kept me reading and made for an entertaining ending.

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Challenges on Storygraph (@rebcamuse):

2026 Reading Goals 23/60

#192030 Challenge:1976

Tackle Your Physical TBR 2026 challenge: 14/18

2026 #22 Dawn - Xenogenesis #1 (Butler)

 

Dawn by Octavia E. Butler
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In contrast to the Patternmaster series (and certainly also the Earthseed books), this falls into the category of what I would call more generic science-fiction. That isn't a criticism, but reading this made me realize that I'm less drawn in by aliens vs. humans than her books that bring in more socio-political commentary or dystopia. (I make an exception for Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary which is my favorite book that features an alien. Blame the fact that I'm of the E.T. generation, I guess.)
In Dawn, there's little in the way of world-building, but a lot of species-building (one might guess, with the name of the series). Lilith is an interesting character, but I found her hard to place because she is both an observer of humanity and an actor of humanity. Butler doesn't give us a lot of time to adjust to the other human characters in the book, so I had trouble feeling much toward them other than viewing them as archetypes of different foibles. Maybe that was the point.
Did I enjoy it enough to read the rest of the trilogy? Maybe, but those will go on the back-burner "to read" list.

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Challenges on Storygraph (@rebcamuse):

2026 Reading Goals 22/60

#192030 Challenge:1987

2026 #21 Whistler (Patchett)

 

Whistler by Ann Patchett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Well, my streak of crying at some point during an Ann Patchett novel continues unabated. This one, however, snuck up on me. It is what I would call a "quiet book." There's a plot, but it comes in pieces as a recollected narrative. There's also a very mild plot that takes place in the present, but as plots go, it is less important. I would also like to say God Bless Ann Patchett for NOT giving us an epilogue. Some readers will want one, and the book sets it up, but we get instead, what to my mind was the perfect ending.

If you've read any blurbs or reviews, you know that the book is not about a horse, but don't worry -- the horse is significant as a metaphor. There were a few places where I felt the narrative dragged a bit and the relationship between Daphne and Eddie seemed strange and maybe even questionable, initially, until the backstory starts filling in. As a character, Daphne seemed a bit idealized to me at times, but I also think I'm slightly envious of her hardiness (both as a child and as an adult).

Like most of Ann Patchett's novels, this is a very human story, and the author gets out of the way of her characters and let's them tell us what we need to know, when we need to know it. I highly recommend it for those favoring reflection and character growth. If you are lucky enough (as I am) to have a beautiful relationship with a step-parent, you will probably very much enjoy this book. If, however, you've had a troubled or terrible relationship with a step-parent (particularly a stepfather), I'd recommend passing on this one if that relationship has traumatized you.


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Challenges on Storygraph (@rebcamuse):

2026 Reading Goals 21/60

#192030 Challenge:2026