I wasn’t sure what kind of reading I was going to be able to handle during the high-anxiety week of the election, which ended up an emotional and difficult week for my family, as well. Tiny Beautiful Things is formatted as letters and replies from an online advice column. And although I didn’t have the energy to contemplate becoming a better version of myself, reading lots of short pieces was easier for my brain than one long book would have been.
When a friend asked me recently for a recommendation for her book club, “something somewhat new that probably most people won’t have read yet,” I couldn’t text her this title fast enough. I was riveted from the first page and raced through it at top speed, anxious and eager to see where Zhang would take her story next.
Not only did Robin, one of my oldest friends from Dartmouth, recommend this book to me, she actually handed me her copy when she finished reading it this summer. Having the book on my shelf certainly bumped it up on my reading list, and I’m so grateful Robin shared this beautiful little book.
In thinking about the two novels I’ve chosen to review this issue, it occurs to me that they have significant similarities. Both are written by women and have strong female protagonists. Both deal with issues of ownership and/or usurping the rights of others. And both are absolutely “must-reads.”
I recently added this book to my reading list based on several recommendations and then I spotted it in a Little Free Library in my neighborhood. So, after slogging my way through Donna Tart’s The Secret History, I wanted a book I could fly through and The Silent Patient definitely delivered.
First off, I want to point out that Jodi Picoult’s latest book is very different from any of her previous books. And, even though Picoult figures as one of my automatic “must read” authors every time she writes another book, By Any Other Name rocked me in a way only a very few of her other books have.
I’m not sure if Night Watch flew under the radar for everyone, or if it was just my 2023 baby fog, but I completely missed this Pulitzer Prize winner last year. And I’m thrilled I managed to snag it from the library because it was a truly stunning, unique and heartbreaking novel.
I might not have found this clever debut novel about time travel if my friend Jane hadn’t recommended it. Then after I’d finished reading it, I saw that it was on Barack Obama’s summer reading list!
I dont always love every pick in the Reece Witherspoon book club. I often find that the stories are exciting, but the actual execution lacks skill, or the authors choose the easy way out with a topic that could have been so much more. Anita de Monte Laughs Last surpassed all expectations and Gonzalez has written a truly skillful, intelligent and emotionally fascinating book.
Julia Phillips has written her second novel and it is every bit as wonderful as her debut novel, Disappearing Earth (read review here). To have Ann Patchett provide a promotional blurb on the cover of the book and call the author a “brilliant writer,” pretty much says it all. (I believe that Ann Patchett is one of the best authors writing today.)
To undertake the retelling of Mark Twain’s classic book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn could seem an incredible act of hubris. But to rewrite the iconic story from the perspective of Jim, the Black slave who is as crucial to the story as Huck himself, was absolute genius. In James, Percival Everett has forever changed how readers will view the story of Huckleberry Finn.
After reading and reviewing Anxious People (read review here), I knew I wanted to read more of Fredrik Backman’s work, and several people recommended Beartown as it’s the first in a series. When I was down visiting my mom in Maine and saw it on her shelf it felt like the perfect opportunity.
It has been a while since I read or reviewed a book by an African author, but Medie’s captivating novel has reminded me that some of the best contemporary writers seem to be coming from Ghana and Nigeria. And for a debut novel, His Only Wife is a knockout.
I was definitely late to the Claire Lombardo party. Somehow, I hadn’t heard about The Most Fun We Ever Had until people started talking about her second book which was released this summer: Same As It Ever Was. I thoroughly enjoyed The Most Fun We Ever Had from start to finish and have her new book waiting for me in my stack of “To Be Read” books.
Wow! Can Amor Towles write! I found myself repeatedly amazed at his ability to craft a sentence, a paragraph and ultimately a short story. He is most assuredly one of the greatest living American authors writing at this time. For those of you who loved A Gentleman in Moscow (read review here), Rules of Civility and/or The Lincoln Highway (read review here), you are in for a treat with Table for Two.
When my friend Carolyn told me that she was reading On Pluto and what it was about, I felt an obligation to read it. Having a mother who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease a few years ago, I wanted to see whether O’Brien could help me better understand what she is going through. How unexpected and delightful then to find a book that is not only truly informative, but heartfelt and light-hearted at the same time.
I kicked off my beach reads a little early this year and devoured this book during an amazing weekend away for a friend’s wedding. A swirling mix of suspense, psychological mystery, romance and coming of age, there was nothing I didn’t love about The House in the Pines. Except maybe how stressed I got reading the last 75 pages!
If reviewing Curtis Sittenfeld two months in a row doesn’t convince you of my love for her books, I don’t know what will. A collection of short stories, Sittenfeld published You Think It, I'll Say It in 2018. We often mention in our reviews that we take it as the sign of a good book when we find ourselves thinking about the characters or story after we finish reading.
Because I thought Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers was such a great read (read review here), I couldn’t wait to read I Have Some Questions for You. Although the two books are very different, I Have Some Questions triumphs as well. Where The Great Believers uses historical fiction to develop a story about the AIDS epidemic and its effects on a network of friends, I Have Some Questions falls somewhere between a psychological thriller and a mystery.
Thinking about my favorite kind of novels, I must admit that mysteries fall towards the bottom of my list. I feel like I’m not good at keeping track of all the clues that should lead me to figure out “who done it” before the writer actually reveals the killer. I know I’ve said this before, but this is one of the reasons why I love being in a book club. We make our book selections and inevitably some of those books I would never have read on my own. And guess what? Sometimes I really enjoy the books. Louise Penny’s Still Life is a perfect example of this phenomenon.
