A heartfelt ode to community rooted in marching band dynamics and football play-by-plays.
In Stephens’ novel, two high school football teams and their spirited marching bands—separated by decades—face parallel challenges.
“Few things unite a town like a high school football win.” So observes Phil, the 49-year-old narrator of this debut novel that provides a keenly observed account of two eventful high school football seasons, one in 1986 and the other in the Covid-19 year of 2022. Phil is also the name of the author, who was clearly inspired by his own memories of performing as a band member during football season. Broken into 82 short chapters, the novel alternates between dual time frames: Phil’s tumultuous freshman year playing saxophone in an Alabama high school band in 1986 and his life in 2022 in small-town Indiana as a loving husband to Misha (the name of the author’s real-life wife). An upcoming reunion of his high school band serves as the catalyst for Phil’s self-reflective reminiscences about the school’s football team’s fight to reach the state finals when he was a student. The narrative includes rousing examples of how a marching band can galvanize players and the audience alike, but before the band and team can come together as a united front in 1986, there is some strife. Seniors on the football team are unhappy when band members are recruited to fill empty player slots; there are also girlfriend and boyfriend troubles, injuries, and a parent’s drunk-driving car accident. The present-day team struggles with its own difficulties, such as a captain with a chip on his shoulder, junior varsity players brought in to fill gaps after a resurgence of Covid-19, a critically ill teammate, a couple’s infertility anguish, and a coach working through self-doubt. Friendships and personal issues among wives and husbands are depicted with empathy; “church” (denomination not specified) is an understated source of social and spiritual support. Throughout, descriptions of football games and marching band performances, informed by lived experience and exhaustively detailed here, will resonate with any fan of a sport that’s fundamental to civic identity and pride in countless American towns.
A heartfelt ode to community rooted in marching band dynamics and football play-by-plays.Pub Date: May 28, 2026
ISBN: 9798218883188
Page Count: 406
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.
Stockett heads to Mississippi for another historical novel about feisty women.
This time, perhaps recalling criticisms of cultural appropriation in The Help (2009), she sticks to feisty white women, with one exception. The setting is Oxford in 1933. For two miserable years, 11-year-old Meg has lived in “the Orphan,” a county asylum for parentless girls. Chairlady Garnett—a villain so one-note she’d twirl a mustache if she had one—makes it her mission to ostracize the older girls she deems unadoptable, stigmatizing them as offspring of the “feebleminded” mothers who abandoned them. She particularly has it in for smart, sassy Meg, who refuses to believe her mother’s mysterious disappearance was deliberate. Elsewhere in Oxford, Birdie Calhoun comes to visit her sister Frances, who married a wealthy banker, to ask for money on behalf of their mother and grandmother back in Footely. Frances isn’t thrilled by this reminder of her impoverished small-town origins. But she’s trying to climb up in Oxford society by volunteering at the Orphan, the asylum’s books need to be done before the state inspector shows up in a few weeks, and Birdie is a bookkeeper. Having neatly arranged to keep Birdie in town and draw these two storylines together, Stockett goes on to spin a compulsively readable yarn with enough plot for a half-dozen novels. Birdie and Meg become friends, Meg is adopted despite Garnett’s best efforts, Meg’s mother turns up at the Orphan demanding to know where her child is—and that’s less than a quarter of the way through a long, winding narrative that keeps piling on more dramatic developments until all loose ends are neatly, if hastily, wrapped up in the final pages. Stockett might be making a point about Southern women facing facts and standing up for themselves, but mostly this is just a satisfyingly twisty tale that should make a great miniseries.
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781954118812
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
Simply charming.
A lovable gaggle of competitive quilters attempts to defy the odds.
The ladies of the Ogden Quilters Association are gearing up for another Simpton Family Quilting Extravaganza, and this year’s nationwide competition is extra special: It’s taking place just an hour away in Smithfield, Utah. For Betty Lou Dearden, OQA’s leader and most faithful member, who never misses a Wednesday quilting night and delights in reading the bylaws, this is a dream come true—a chance to put Utah quilting on the map. But beneath her bubbly surface, Betty Lou is struggling—longtime member Leera Smeeth has been passive aggressively shooting down Betty Lou’s ideas and attacking her sense of self for years (see: a particularly biting comment about her beloved peach bathroom); her children rarely visit; and her husband’s health is declining. And to top it off, OQA is down a member since Terry Blackfoot left following the oft-referenced but never explained “needle incident.” OQA’s remaining members—flighty but lovable Lucy Jones; dependable Diane Williams and her roommate, Alice Flagstaff; and innovative Candace Braithwaite—need more support. Enter Byron Grant, a gay sewing store manager who deals in rumor and gossip as much as in thread and batting, and his best friend, shy, artistic Rob, both younger than the youngest OQA member by about 30 years. Don’t worry, there’s nothing in the bylaws expressly prohibiting men. And so this quirky group of artisans attempts to dethrone the always-winning, clearly evil Logan Quilters Society (“We don’t hate anyone!...We just don’t prefer to associate with cheaters”), all the while wrestling with interpersonal conflict, trauma, and, let’s face it, a few tacky ideas. The plot is silly and largely predictable, but McCann’s prose is bursting at the seams with humor and genuinely tender, touching moments. You’ll root for these misfits from Page 1.
Simply charming.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
ISBN: 9798890920461
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Torrey House Press
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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