Tana French
[isbn]
Readers familiar with Tana French's books will not be surprised by the depth of her latest mystery, nor by the dark current that runs beneath the surface of the plot. It begins typically enough: crimes are committed — maybe unrelated, maybe not — and the narrator takes it upon himself to conduct his own investigation. But the book doesn't end with the killer's confession, it continues on into the aftermath. And what starts out as an engrossing... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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R.O. Kwon
[isbn]
To call The Incendiaries a love story would be an oversimplification. There is love, yes, but there is also the darkness beyond that, where love crosses the line into obsession, and faith into fanaticism, and pain into annihilation. R. O. Kwon doesn't waste a single word, with prose sharp enough to draw blood and a distinctive, fully realized voice. I fully expect this to be one of the most-discussed debuts of 2018!
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Claudia Rankine
[isbn]
Claudia Rankine does great things and so naturally, this play is impeccable. It begins with a dinner party that is a minefield of micro- and macroaggressions and ends with a reckoning: a challenge to examine race on a more nuanced level. The White Card is a stunning demonstration of the undeniable bigotry of the conspicuously woke and a necessary reminder that America’s ongoing racist legacy is upheld by well-meaning white liberals.
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Liska Jacobs
[isbn]
Cilla is starting to realize that there are no earthly rewards for dutiful daughters: her hypercritical mother doesn't appreciate her devotion and her personal life is nonexistent. So when her brother-in-law invites her to Italy to help out with her niece, it seems like the escape she's been waiting for. But Hannah isn't the little girl she remembers; she's grown into a confident young woman with a vibrant social life. And despite the exotic new... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Kiley Reid
[isbn]
I made the mistake of starting this astonishing debut right before I clocked into work and then spent the rest of the day desperate to get back to reading — it’s just perfect in every way. From the very first racist “misunderstanding," Reid challenges the all too common belief that good intentions are enough to right wrongs, enough to exonerate our bad behavior. To a person, her characters are achingly real and complicated in a way that made me... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Benjamin Percy
[isbn]
Since Benjamin Percy never writes the same book twice, I wasn't sure what to expect when I opened his latest. By the end of it, I still wasn't sure. Is it literature, horror, pointed social commentary, or some sort of hybrid? He defies expectations with and between his stories, which range from the grittily realistic to the highly supernatural, and together they form a powerfully affecting display of Percy's range. My personal favorite was... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Kate Zambreno
[isbn]
I should be embarrassed by how much I idolize Kate Zambreno, but I'm not. I'm covetous of the breathtaking sprawl of her mind (which I imagine as being similar to my own, only cleaner and with more rooms). A compelling and curious mix of observation and speculation, Screen Tests blurs the line between fact and fiction — in fact, it makes the distinction feel unnecessary. As an attempt to reconcile interior and exterior lives, this... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Stephen Chbosky
[isbn]
Having read the entirety of Stephen King's oeuvre during my teen years, I have very definite ideas of what horror should be. And Imaginary Friend has everything I want: a huge page count, multiple narrators and endless back stories, gruesome visuals, and an epic showdown between good and evil. It all begins when Christopher and his mother move to the small town of Mill Grove. Fleeing a painful past and an abusive relationship, Kate hopes... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Leslie Jamison
[isbn]
In her best book yet, Leslie Jamison pokes into the unexplored corners of the world and tells stories on behalf of the collective and the individual. She begins with a singular premise and then widens her scope to encompass universal experiences. So when she writes about 52 Blue or Second Life or children with memories of past lives, she’s also writing about loneliness, alienation, and a deep longing for a connection strong enough to... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Olivia Gatwood
[isbn]
To the girls who walk the dark with their keys Wolverined between their fingers, who hover uneasily between fear and anger and desire, who crave the panopticon of the male gaze as strongly as they resent it: Life of the Party is the book for you. Describing the collection as true crime poetry, Olivia Gatwood uses the form to deconstruct female experience through acts of violence, both external and internal. Most interestingly, she... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Alexis Schaitkin
[isbn]
It is purely by chance that Claire even recognizes Clive, since she was just a little girl the last time she saw him. But as she's getting out of a cab, she realizes her driver was one of the suspects in her sister Alison's death, which remains unsolved. This random encounter ignites something in her and she begins an obsessive investigation of own, scouring the internet for information and following Clive around his neighborhood every night. But... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Lisa Lutz
[isbn]
They call it The Darkroom and it is Stonebridge Academy's most shameful legacy. For years, the male students have used it as a digital scoreboard to rank their female classmates by their sexual activity — pictures included. It's a disgusting display of misogynistic entitlement, but anyone who's tried to expose it has paid a steep price. Until a small group of girls decides to fight (and bite) back, but their burgeoning resistance has consequences... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Natalia Ginzburg
[isbn]
She is possessed by her desire to possess her husband. Because that's what marriage is, she thinks, you know where your partner is all the time and they are with you most of all. To make a short story even shorter, that's not how it works out and she is left alone in a world where nothing is familiar except the same old dread. So while it is a surprise when she shoots him between the eyes on the very first page, it isn't by the last. It is a... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Tommy Orange
[isbn]
Add me to the growing chorus of people who are raving about this book! In highlighting too often ignored Native voices, Tommy Orange takes the ugliness of rage, sorrow, heartache, and displacement, and channels them into something indescribably beautiful, something miraculous.There There is an oil slick rainbow of a book and a magnificent debut!
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Billy Jensen
[isbn]
Although he works in the shadows, you probably already know who Billy Jensen is. He helped finish Michelle McNamara's instant classic, I'll Be Gone in the Dark, he's been a guest on My Favorite Murder, and he's got a podcast with retired investigator Paul Holes called The Murder Squad. And now he's written a book of his own, one that's part true crime memoir, part how-to guide for aspiring amateur detectives. In... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
[isbn]
Listening to My Favorite Murder is like eavesdropping on the most interesting conversation at a party, so I was delighted to continue the dialogue with the hosts' new book. Karen and Georgia are open and vulnerable to an almost radical degree (thanks, Brené Brown!) when sharing their stories and hard-earned advice — even non-Murderinos will enjoy their candor. For those of us who are already fans, this book is just as smart, funny, and... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Jill Ciment
[isbn]
No one knows why the defendant murdered her younger brother. And juror C-2 isn't sure why she is so drawn to juror F-17, she isn't looking for anything outside her marriage. But as they go back and forth between the courtroom and the budget motel where they are sequestered, it isn't long before they start having an affair. It should be jarring, all the competing elements of the story: the gruesome trial details, the painfully sterile locales, the... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Jia Tolentino
[isbn]
I always look forward to Jia Tolentino’s byline, so I had high expectations for her new book — and she exceeded them. Individually and collectively, these essays provide an incisive glimpse into this brave new world we have wrought in a way that feels both timeless and incredibly fresh. Using the trappings of modern life (athleisure, reality TV, megachurches, scam artists, chopped salads, and so on) as a starting point, she explores the... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Elvia Wilk
[isbn]
Forget flying cars, the future looks a lot like today, albeit ravaged by climate change and an ever-widening wealth gap. Enter Oval, a party drug designed to induce feelings of generosity in its privileged users and compel them to give without restraint to the less fortunate. Conveniently, this chemical counterbalance to capitalism’s ills places the burden of systemic change on the individual, while simultaneously profiting and exonerating the... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Rachel Monroe
[isbn]
Sometimes before sending a text, I'll pause to consider what it would sound like read aloud in the solemn, moderately judgmental voice of a crime show narrator. I wonder what picture the words would paint of me if the ephemera of my life became evidence. But until I read this book, I never stopped to think about which role I would play in these hypothetical, unspecified crimes: victim or perpetrator. Why are women especially so drawn to stories... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Hanna Jameson
[isbn]
As the Doomsday Clock inches towards midnight, we are forced to consider what the end of the world will look like. For Jon it arrives as a series of increasingly terrifying news alerts: there have been multiple nuclear attacks around the world, starting with Washington, DC. Just prior to this he was eating breakfast at a hotel in Switzerland, not thinking about anything in particular, completely unaware of what was to come — isn’t that always the... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Helen Phillips
[isbn]
Maybe it is due to a lack of sleep or perhaps it's the creep of parental anxiety, but Molly sometimes worries she is losing her mind. She has these moments, increasingly frequent and always disorienting, where everything feels slightly off — it is undeniable, but unprovable. It feels like a climax to the weirdness when a masked intruder breaks into her home and hands her a note, but it is only the beginning of a reality-defying ordeal. Like J.... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Halle Butler
[isbn]
Like a millennial Ignatius J. Reilly, Millie is brilliant, indolent, and chronically misanthropic. She wastes her days underperforming at a soulless temp job and loses her nights to fruitless plans for self-improvement. Not much happens in this nihilistic vortex of a novel, but it doesn’t even matter. It is incredibly enjoyable to lose oneself in Halle Butler’s vitriolic stream of consciousness as she rails against complacency, mindless... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Marcy Dermansky
[isbn]
Like the iceberg that sank the Titanic, this book has unexpectedly jagged edges beneath the surface. At first glance, it seems like an unusually well-written and juicy social drama — and it is that. But Marcy Dermansky weaponizes her wit and it quickly becomes apparent that her acute observations serve a higher purpose than mere amusement. She captures our current era with terrifying and ferocious accuracy for a story that made me laugh... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Casey Cep
[isbn]
Furious Hours, a matryoshka of mysteries, is perfect for readers seeking true crime as compelling and sensitive as I’ll Be Gone in the Dark. After assisting Truman Capote in his research for In Cold Blood, Harper Lee found the inspiration for her second book. She spent years pursuing the strange case of a reverend who got away with murder, the man who shot him in front of hundreds of witnesses, and the lawyer... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Candice Carty-Williams
[isbn]
Queenie is exhausted. It’s not just that her boyfriend wants to take a “break” and now she needs to find a new place to live. Or that subsequently her work performance has suffered and her boss has definitely noticed. It’s more than the creeping anxiety and the panic that threatens to overwhelm her. It’s all of those things together, alongside a daily barrage of microaggressions. She is a strong young woman struggling to stay afloat and I rooted... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Elizabeth Gilbert
[isbn]
City of Girls has everything I hope for in historical fiction: well-researched period details, gargantuan personalities, and more sex than I ever found in my history textbooks! With her trademark exuberance and wit, Elizabeth Gilbert vividly evokes the glitz, grit, and clamor of New York City in the 1940s. At the bright center of it all is Vivian Morris, a proper young woman itching to be anything but. She rushes headlong into all the... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Pitchaya Sudbanthad
[isbn]
Immersive doesn't even begin to describe it: I sunk into this book — I almost felt like I drowned in it. It's comprised of short stories that blur into larger narratives, glimpses that add up to a dazzling whole. By referencing Bangkok's past and present and imagining its future, Sudbanthad creates a landscape that feels vividly three-dimensional. It's a substantial read, but incredibly rewarding. And although it's sure to draw comparisons to... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Adam Foulds
[isbn]
Although he doesn't even know she exists, Henry and Kristin actually have a lot in common. A famous actor, he is a brooding Tabula rasa — more clockwork than orange — a curiously contradictory person losing himself in better and better roles. And she: lonely, odd, too easily given to intimacies, she is his biggest fan. She shares Henry's preoccupation with himself (although hers is an obsession) and they are both similarly detached from the world... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Jo Baker
[isbn]
She hasn't really felt safe in London since the attack. So when she is offered a job teaching creative writing at a small university in the countryside, she takes it without hesitation. But she soon discovers that her new home isn't the escape she'd hoped for: the village is isolated, desolate when darkness falls, and her new job is a nightmare of inefficient bureaucracy. It isn't until she meets her students, however, that she feels that... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Justin Kuritzkes
[isbn]
This is not a book about Justin Bieber. It's the memoir-in-progress of a pop superstar who caught his big break as a tween after his dad/manager strategically released an amateur video showcasing his vocal skills. So it's not not a book about Justin Bieber either. Famous People is both a pitch-perfect roman à clef and a thought-provoking meditation on celebrity culture: What is it like to be seen but rarely known? Does the... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Sadie Jones
[isbn]
On the surface, it seems benign, even banal: a young couple on the verge of burning out decide to take a few months off work to travel. But their unexpected brush with violence in the first scene sets the tone for the rest of the book. After, the story proceeds uneasily, slithering towards a fixed point of shocking brutality. There is a discomfiting feeling of inevitability to it all, as though it never could have ended any other way. I've read... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Michelle McNamara
[isbn]
We are all drawn to darkness, but some people are more keenly attuned to the siren song of the void than others. Michelle McNamara was just such a person: a well-regarded journalist, she devoted herself to finding a man she dubbed "the Golden State Killer." Despite the breadth of his crimes and many near-misses, he was never caught, although he has occasionally emerged to taunt his victims. By the end of this incredible book, I was as obsessed as... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Lucy Ives
[isbn]
Troy Augustus Loudermilk is on to something when he realizes there is money to be made and girls to be had in the poetry racket. All he needs to secure a spot in the prestigious Seminars is the ghostwriting help of his asocial friend Harry... sound familiar? It's as though our fabulously named, conspicuously handsome hero has stepped out of an Abercrombie & Fitch catalog (this is 2003, after all) and into a production of Cyrano de... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Kristen Roupenian
[isbn]
Kristen Roupenian writes as though wielding a scalpel, as she delicately exposes the rot that lurks just beneath polite society. Despite varying degrees of obliviousness, her characters are each articulate in their downfall, collectively undone by their curdled desires. Beautiful, horrifying, and wincingly funny, this book glitters with malice — I couldn’t look away and I didn’t want to. You Know You Want This is the way a writer’s... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Deborah Shapiro
[isbn]
Emily doesn't know what to do with herself. She and her husband had plans to renovate the camp she inherited from her aunt, but work has stalled. With no other job prospects in sight, she is adrift in a listless echo of the eternity of childhood summers. So when she discovers a magnetic young woman staying on their property, she is more intrigued than alarmed. Despite her better judgment, Emily is drawn to Stella and they quickly become very... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Lisa Taddeo
[isbn]
Even today, female desire is too frequently regarded as only a footnote to the common narrative of male desire — it still remains largely unexplored in the shadow of its ubiquitous counterpart. To that end, Lisa Taddeo spent eight years embedded in the lives of three women: a high school student pursued by her beloved teacher, a lonely housewife embarking on an affair with an old flame, and a beautiful, privileged woman who is polyamorous at her... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Nafissa Thompson Spires
[isbn]
If I could stretch this book past the last page and into the infinite, I would, because I never wanted it to end. Whether she's chronicling an epistolary rivalry between two mothers who should know better (but thankfully don't), giving an achingly detailed account of a police shooting, or trying to craft the perfect suicidal Facebook post, Thompson-Spires entertains as much as she indicts. Her stories perfectly encapsulate modern life in a way... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Rabeah Ghaffari
[isbn]
Rabeah Ghaffari has written the perfect novel, a story of entwined sweetness and violence that hums with life. With this book, she thoughtfully explores issues of tradition, community, and identity amidst the growing tension and unease of the impending Islamic Revolution. But what moved me most (besides the mouthwatering descriptions of family meals) were her insights into each character's secret pain. I sympathized with even the most wretched,... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Lauren Acampora
[isbn]
Although she currently works as a cashier and lives with her parents, Abby knows she is destined for greatness. Aside from her art, she has two passions: the esoteric films of reclusive director Auguste Perren and following her former best friend’s rise to fame in Hollywood. Their brief reconnection at a high school reunion is just the first step of her preordained path to success... Reading this sinister book is like entering one of Abby’s... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Devi S Laskar
[isbn]
It begins with an ending: in a scenario that has become infuriatingly common, the narrator has been shot by the cops and is bleeding out in her driveway. The rest of the story proceeds as a series of snapshots, memories from her childhood and adulthood interspersed with her last thoughts and impressions. It wasn’t an easy life, lived as it was at the nightmarish intersection of racism and sexism, and it was cruelly cut short. The reader is left... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Maryse Meijer
[isbn]
The nightmares this book gave me could fill a book of their own. With these stories of unwholesome desire, Meijer shines a light on the shadowy corners of humanity. There is a boy possessed by his stillborn brother, a dog lusting after his owners, a man who starves himself and hungrily watches his daughter grow. Every page is clotted with forbidden want — it is a brand-new brutality and reading it, I couldn’t wait to see what came next. Dark,... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Yukiko Motoya and Asa Yoneda
[isbn]
The Lonesome Bodybuilder takes ordinary people and thrusts them into bizarre situations, which they accept with equanimity: the woman morphing into her husband doesn't question the transformation, just does her best to deal with it. The child confronted with a mysterious specter at the bus shelter doesn't run away, but eventually eats the biscuit he offers (and it's delicious). The world's most dedicated saleswoman will not leave work... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Anissa Gray
[isbn]
The women and girls at the broken heart of this gripping debut are indeed ravenously hungry, but not for food. Each is seeking something they can't name to fill the yawning vacancies inside them — too often they settle for poor substitutes. After a difficult upbringing, sisters Althea, Viola, and Lillian have managed to grow into fairly successful adults. But everything they thought they knew is called into question when Althea is arrested for a... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Blythe Roberson
[isbn]
Lately, it's been increasingly necessary to remind myself that I don't actually hate men. I hate the system that awards white, cis/hetero men a disproportionate amount of power, enables them to do whatever they want, and shields them from any and every consequence. So this delightful book was like a balm to my perpetually chapped soul. Blythe Roberson channels her well-honed wit (seriously, Google her), her relatable experiences, and her... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Laila Lalami
[isbn]
Laila Lalami possesses the kind of effortless talent that makes writing seem easy. But few can match her ability to convey a substantial story so simply. It's been a few years since her last book came out, but this one was well worth the wait. It begins with a phone call that splits Nora's life in half: her father has died, the victim of a hit-and-run. So she heads back to her childhood home in the Mojave desert, seeking answers. The narration is... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Samantha Downing
[isbn]
It started out as a game, a series of hypothetical questions to liven up their marriage: Who could they hurt? And what could they get away with? With two kids and a mortgage, Millicent and her husband need all the excitement they can find. But soon conversation isn’t enough and their dream life turns into a nightmare. Because the thing about games is there’s always a winner... and a loser. Downing has written the perfect psychological thriller, a... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Esmé Weijun Wang
[isbn]
Although I do not share Esmé Weijun Wang's diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, I too have wondered how to separate my brain from my true self — is there even any distance at all? In this riveting collection of essays, she documents the realities of living with a stigmatized diagnosis and explores the elusive nature of identity. Translated literally, "schizophrenia" means split mind and Wang struggles to reconcile the sum of her parts into a... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Leila Slimani
[isbn]
She is beautiful, privileged, and cherished by her husband, but she is not happy. Like a modern-day Emma Bovary, Adèle shares her agitation and her discontent with a life of respectable comfort — she too seeks oblivion in ecstasy. And so she has affairs, many of them. But despite the graphically physical nature of these liaisons, no one ever really touches her. She is alone with her all-consuming fear, her unacceptable desires, her indifference... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Laura Sims
[isbn]
Nietzsche warned of the abyss, but modern philosophers have Instagram to contend with — now that social media has permeated our culture, coveting thy neighbor's carefully curated life is a given. Any imperfections are filtered into oblivion and we tell ourselves that pictures don't tell the whole story, but what would we see if we got a closer glimpse into the lives we covet? The unnamed, but unforgettable narrator of this book is no stranger to... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Aja Gabel
[isbn]
The Ensemble unfolds like a piece of beautiful music, at an even pace with highs and lows and a stunning finish. It's a simple story, following four friends who form a classical music quartet, and the lives they lead together and apart. But Gabel's writing talent and intelligence elevate this debut to an epic at both a micro and macro level — I was completely consumed!
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Rebecca Harrington
[isbn]
The quintessential millennial novel featuring a protagonist who's more of a stumbler than a hustler — cringeworthy, relatable, and really funny!
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Amparo Davila and Matthew Gleeson and Audrey Harris
[isbn]
How is this the first time I am reading Amparo Dávila? And when can I read more from her? In these stories, she creates creates claustrophobic worlds in miniature and populates them with people tormented by things we can't see. Whether she is writing about a wife whose husband brings home a ravenous and frightening guest, a young woman plagued by a not-completely-unwelcome visitor in the night, or a family held hostage by their possibly monstrous... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Taeko Kono, Lucy North
[isbn]
This book should come with a warning label! Although each story opens with relatively ordinary domestic scenes, they quickly veer into a perverted distortion of the mundane. Kono explores her characters' darkest desires with astonishing frankness and reveals the pleasure that can be wrung out of pain, degradation, and cruelty. Despite her conciseness, there is a feeling of opacity to the book — the effect is unsettling and oddly exhilarating.... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Sarah Weinman
[isbn]
Almost as reviled as it is beloved, Lolita holds a unique place in pop culture: What other classic has inspired slang, countless knockoffs, even a fashion subculture? And as dark as the plot is, it has an even uglier backstory. "Had I done to Dolly, perhaps, what Frank Lasalle, a 50-year-old mechanic, had done to 11-year-old Sally Horner in 1948?" She gets just one line, but Sally Horner was a real person and her story is heartbreaking.... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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John Boyne
[isbn]
Maurice Swift: he is not so much a man as he is a mirror, a narcissist with all the depth of a reflection. Too ambitious to toil away in obscurity, he longs to be a literary giant. Unfortunately, his writing skills are outpaced by his genius for manipulation. So he gets creative, exploiting the people who are drawn in by his charm and his beauty. Once he knows what they want, he presents himself as a facsimile of their innermost desires, just... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Shirley Barrett
[isbn]
Simply put, Eleanor is at a crossroads. Fed up with her useless cancer support group, her unsupportive friends, and her indifferent ex, she decides to take a teaching position in isolated Talbingo. Their previous teacher, the beloved Miss Barker, has disappeared without a trace — what timing! Perhaps Eleanor's luck is about to change... or perhaps not. With her snarky wit and old-school horror style, Barrett has mastered the art of the small-town... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Idra Novey
[isbn]
Atrocities are committed every day under the guise of "knowing best," and that's where this multifaceted book begins and ends. At it's simplest, this is the story of a corrupt politician and the women who will bring him to reckoning. More than that, it's an indictment of the people who look away from blatant injustice. Alternately, it's about how to come back to life after surviving a trauma. Finally, it's about the the corrosive effects of... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Alyson Hagy
[isbn]
Hagy writes like an oracle, conjuring up a world that is like a funhouse mirror distortion of our past. Her America is a lawless place, ravaged by civil war and sickness, and populated by marauding bands of survivors. The two characters at the beating, bloody heart of this book are profoundly damaged, calloused to the extent that they think they are impervious to pain or tenderness. This is, of course, spectacularly untrue. Every word of this... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Sophie Mackintosh
[isbn]
Here's what they know: men hurt women, even if they don't mean to. And the island is the only safe place in a world that has been completely corrupted by pollution — at least that's what they've been told. So Grace, Lia, and Sky occupy themselves with the painful rituals their parents have devised, exercises that will make them stronger and immune to love's sickness. Every day is the same, until their father disappears and three male strangers... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Meghan MacLean Weir
[isbn]
Essie has lived her entire 17 years in the public eye: her family — deeply religious, politically conservative, and multiplying at an astonishing rate — stars in their own reality show and she is ever the dutiful daughter. Essie is an expert at keeping her true self hidden, but she's about to throw a wrench into her well-planned future. She's got plans of her own and a baby on the way, and that's the least of her secrets. The Book of... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Claudia Dey
[isbn]
Growing up is hard, harder still when you're raised in a cult. Pony Darlene Fontaine lives at the very end of the world, in an isolated community founded by a charismatic leader. Time moves differently in the Territory: for its residents, it is still 1985. There are rules and rituals, by which Pony mostly abides, but all bets are off when it comes to her mother. Billie Jean Fontaine has been gradually disappearing for months and when she finally... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Brian Phillips
[isbn]
The world vibrates with weirdness, some people are just more attuned to it than others. This book is an astonishingly profound exploration of the pathos, humor, beauty, and irreconcilable strangeness that exists underneath the numbing mundanity of everyday life. Whether he is speculating about the inner lives of the Royal Family, searching for tigers in the Himalayas, or driving down Route 66 to Area 51, Phillips is always digging further,... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Lauren Groff
[isbn]
Florida, the place, isn't high on my list of potential vacation spots (sorry, Sunshine State!). Florida, the book, is a different story: I wanted to crawl inside this collection and live there. Lauren Groff has proven her talent time and again and her latest is no exception — she inhabits every character fully and creates complex emotional landscapes that are as lush and tangled as the book's namesake. Whether she's writing about a pair... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Tommy Orange
[isbn]
Add me to the growing chorus of people who are raving about this book! In highlighting too often ignored Native voices, Tommy Orange takes the ugliness of rage, sorrow, heartache, and displacement, and channels them into something indescribably beautiful, something miraculous. There There is an oil slick rainbow of a book and a magnificent debut!
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Gary Shteyngart
[isbn]
Barry Cohen has his own hedge fund, a faltering marriage to a beautiful woman, and a beloved and bewildering son who was recently diagnosed with autism. When it all gets to be too much for him, he retreats to his favorite daydream of hitting the open road in a Greyhound bus to reunite with his college girlfriend. It would be a trip filled with authentic, folksy poor people and their humble, yet fulfilling food. He would be enriched by his... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Maria Dahvana Headley
[isbn]
On the surface, the two mothers who drive this book are complete opposites. Dana is ex-military, traumatized, and on the run after an ordeal that left her pregnant and with no memory of what came before. She has retreated to what used to be her home, the abandoned railway tunnels that are her legacy after her town was gentrified into oblivion. Willa, on the other hand, lives in Herot Hall, the shiny suburban community where everyone lives the way... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Gabriela Wiener, Jennifer Adcock, Lucy Greaves
[isbn]
Thank god Gabriela Wiener wrote this book, so that I don't have to do any of the things in it! I don't have to spend a weekend with a sex guru and his seven wives, I don't have to visit an upscale swinger's club with my husband, I don't have to be a pants-less prop in a revered dominatrix's demonstration. But more than that, I don't have to face my deepest fears and insecurities. I don't have to look inside myself and record what I find for all... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Riley Sager
[isbn]
Everyone lies sometimes, some people more often than others. But what if your lies had fatal consequences? It's been 15 years since Emma Davis attended Camp Nightingale, 15 years of nightmares since her friends disappeared from camp and were never found. Now she has the chance to go back and look into what really happened, but should she? She hasn't been entirely honest about what happened that night, but neither has anyone else... To... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Emma Healey
[isbn]
When her teenage daughter returns after having gone missing, Jen is relieved but uneasy. Lana is cagey about where she was for the last four days, evading any questions about her whereabouts or if she was held against her will. Once home, she quickly retreats back into the depression and anger that have consumed her in the past, unable to shake her fear or settle back into her life. Like Demeter searching for Persephone, Jen will do anything to... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Joseph ONeill
[isbn]
Reading this book is like scratching an itch: at once deeply satisfying and all too brief. Joseph O'Neill manages to channel both Larry David and Truman Capote, balancing his savage wit and relatable irritability with genuine warmth and unexpected poignancy. His characters twist and turn within the confines of their comfortable lives, aware of their privilege, but still filled with a bewildered rage at the secrets the world has withheld from... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Chibundu Onuzo
[isbn]
To paraphrase the late, great, fictional Omar Little, "a man's got to have a code." What is a person to do when their idea of who they are diverges too greatly from their actions? As an officer in the Nigerian army, Chike Ameobi is no stranger to violence, but he draws the line at killing civilians. When he decides to leave his post and head to Lagos, it's an attempt to reconcile his character and his ideals, to wrest back control of his own... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Alexia Arthurs
[isbn]
A good debut inspires a particular kind of excitement, a feeling of wonder that such talent has been there all along. This is just such a book. From page one, I was held in place by Arthurs's clear-eyed and unflinching gaze, her startling, precise observations, her distinctive voice. Every one of her characters is someone I've never met, but recognized immediately: a pop star who remains tethered to her home despite the ways she and it have... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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EVGENIA CITKOWITZ
[isbn]
The Shades revolves around an absence, the space left when Rachel, a teenager, died in a car accident. It's been a year, and her mother is consumed with regret, her father with longing, and her younger brother with anger and doubt. They are all mired in their own separate griefs, until something happens: a young woman appears and causes a ripple in their new routines. Can she be trusted? This is a story that is deeper and darker than the... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Geir Gulliksen
[isbn]
Instagram is littered with perfect marriages — everyone is in love and photogenic and happier than you. But what would you see if you got to peek behind the shiny facade? For 20 years, Jon and Timmy have maintained the heightened passion that ignited their relationship, even as they raise kids, build a household, and advance in their careers. But this is a story of a marriage that ends and that's where the book begins, after Timmy has left Jon... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Alice Bolin
[isbn]
We all know the Dead Girl. She's the reason for the story, but rarely the focus. Instead she's a prop, a symbol, a fetish, a harbinger, or a means to an end. Bolin deftly explores this morbid phenomenon in the first section of her vital new essay collection. From there, she goes on to (among other things) challenge Joan Didion's iconic but problematic portraits of Southern California, reveals the subtle brilliance of seemingly banal pop hits,... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Amy Bonnafons
[isbn]
The Wrong Heaven is a portal into a familiar but off-kilter world where women can become horses, angels offer comfort of a sexual nature to the dying, and tiny wooden dolls come to life as a manifestation of one's secret desires. Bonnafons is enormously, unbelievably talented, and I'm sure she'll draw comparisons to all the best authors who create worlds in miniature, from George Saunders to Kelly Link to Elizabeth Crane. But she... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Andrew Martin
[isbn]
I'll be honest: this seems like a book I'd hate. It follows a privileged male protagonist who just sort of loafs through life, halfheartedly working on a book, and eventually cheating on his smart, funny, long-term girlfriend. But I couldn't hate it, it's just too damn good. Martin's writing is assured, his voice is well-developed, and his characters are incredibly compelling and real. Early Work is almost painfully clever at times, but... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Jessica Knoll
[isbn]
A second novel that's as good as its very successful predecessor is rare, but Jessica Knoll's newest hits the mark! With her trademark snarky wit, she skewers the current trend of feminism as a commodity for a story that's as useful as it is funny. Reading The Favorite Sister is as addictive as binge-watching reality TV, but infinitely more satisfying!
Recommended by Lauren P.
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A J Finn
[isbn]
The premise is chilling and Hitchcockian: Anna Fox is agoraphobic and spends her days inside, watching her neighbors and living vicariously through the lives she imagines for them. She sees ordinary things (a teenager practicing violin) and not so ordinary things (a housewife just barely getting away with her affair), but one night, impossibly, she witnesses a murder. What follows is more twisted and surprising than anything even the most... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Rachel Ingalls and Rivka Galchen
[isbn]
In which a lonely housewife falls in love with a tall, handsome sea creature and discovers the devastating secrets underpinning her life. Mrs. Caliban is a strange and lovely little tale from a deplorably underappreciated author, worth rereading for years to come!
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Jennifer Wolfe
[isbn]
Fittingly, I read this book on a dark and stormy night. And although I started reading on a well-lit, crowded train, I quickly felt as frightened as though I were wandering around the Dark Road by myself. It begins with a washed-up actress, a woman who had a promising career at a young age, but burned out after a family tragedy. As a last resort, she crowdfunds a web series promising to solve a mystery of the highest donor's choice. The case she... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Tara Isabella Burton
[isbn]
Louise came to New York eight years ago, searching for something or someone that would lift her out of the drab life she was born into and launch her towards something better. And for eight years, she has been hanging on by her fingernails, scraping by with a cheap wardrobe and an income cobbled together from a series of unfulfilling jobs. But that all changes the day she meets Lavinia. Lavinia, with her wealth and eccentric charm, moves through... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Curtis Sittenfeld
[isbn]
What sets this collection apart is Sittenfeld's ability to balance enjoyable storytelling with clever prose — she doesn't neglect one in pursuit of the other. In You Think It, I'll Say It, she fills the pages with complex characters who find themselves in everyday situations. There's a gender studies professor reflecting on the end of a long-term relationship while her shuttle driver alternately repels and fascinates her with his... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Meg Wolitzer
[isbn]
It should come as no surprise that Meg Wolitzer's newest book is incredibly enjoyable. She tells a nuanced story well, filling it with clever sentences, witty observations, and compelling, fully realized characters. But more than that, it forces readers to ask themselves hard questions, to think critically about privilege, feminism, and their role in the world and society as a whole. What do we owe each other? And how much is enough? The... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Laura Lippman
[isbn]
This book has the perfect cast for a satisfying noir: a mysterious dame with flame-licked hair and a troubled past, a PI with a weakness for redheads, and a crooked businessman with deep pockets and a long memory. Someone is pulling these people's strings, but it isn't clear who (or why!) until the very end. It's a fitting homage to James M. Cain: suspenseful, gritty, and dark. Sunburn is a slow burn of a read!
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Shirley Jackson
[isbn]
Everyone wears a mask, a public self that conceals the inner, true self. Shirley Jackson is the master of capturing the subtle horror of the moment when the mask slips. She sets her stories in harmless places — cheerful suburbs, beloved vacation spots, well-known cities — and skillfully peels back the layers of ordinary life to expose the hypocrisy, cruelty, and pure evil underneath. Her talent lies in taking everything that is familiar and... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Emily Fridlund
[isbn]
Emily Fridlund is an author to watch. In Catapult, we get the same brilliance she displayed in History of Wolves distilled into short stories — pockets of deeply affecting weirdness. It's filled with flawed characters, and sentences that run the gamut from hilarious to heartbreaking. A perfect book, featuring the chronically imperfect.
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Dorothy B Hughes
[isbn]
In a Lonely Place is classic noir, brooding and introspective, filled with shadows and a thick marine fog that cloaks the darkest of deeds. But more than that, it's an indictment of an America no one likes discussing, a past that isn't "great," but problematic in the extreme. Dorothy Hughes demonstrated the perils of toxic masculinity and misogynistic entitlement decades before those issues became part of a larger conversation, in ways... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Margaret Atwood
[isbn]
I have read The Handmaid's Tale at least half a dozen times, and my reading experience is different each time. When I read it at age 13, it was a warning: oppression can come disguised as protection. When I read it at 21, it was a reminder: men aren't all bad, but even the best of them can betray you in ways large and small. And when I read it now, it's with a deep sense of foreboding: we aren't there yet, but we could be.
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Luke Kennard
[isbn]
Imagine a future very much like the present day, only everything is slightly, predictably worse: housing prices have skyrocketed, unemployment is at an all-time high, and increasing advances in technology have made privacy a thing of the past. This is the world Kennard has created for Karl and Genevieve, a young married couple surviving off their scant paychecks and credit cards. After a little "creative accounting" lands Karl in legal trouble,... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Alice Feeney
[isbn]
There are three things you should know about this book:
1. The narrator might be lying to you.
2. Everyone else might be lying to her.
3. You will never see the ending coming!
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Anonymous
[isbn]
The title is both a description and a warning, for the author is unflinching in her descriptions of the abuse she endured; her twinned feelings of shame and desire; the toxic dynamic of a family poisoned by incest; and the endless reverberations of all of this in her life. It's not an easy book to read, but it's impossible to put down — I got lost in the gap between the brutality of the story and the beauty of the writing.
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Dezso Kosztolanyi
[isbn]
In stark contrast to the ethereal qualities implied by her nickname, Skylark is a dud. In an era that values decorative women, she's plain, dull, and introverted. But two people think she hangs the moon: her parents. When Skylark goes away for a week to visit relatives, her devoted parents aren't sure what to do with themselves — but the days that follow aren't what they expect. Amusing details of life in a provincial Hungarian town at the turn... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Jamaica Kincaid and Ian Frazier
[isbn]
If you haven't yet read the incomparable Jamaica Kincaid, this book is a great place to start! Her short essays for the New Yorker are written with her trademark clean, spare prose, and provide fascinating glimpses into the grimy, wonderful New York of just a few decades ago.
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Sarah Bailey
[isbn]
We've all known someone like Rosalind Ryan, someone who fascinates us, who moves through life easily, and who is a mystery to the people around them. Gemma Woodstock was equally attracted to and repelled by their small town's golden girl when they were in school together, always watching her from afar. But that was years ago and much has changed since then. The Dark Lake begins with a jogger stumbling across Rose's body and Gemma, now a... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Liska Jacobs
[isbn]
When this book begins, Elsa is about two inches from rock bottom and she just keeps descending, aided by a potent mixture of pills, booze, and regrettable decisions. She's lost her job and her lover in one fell swoop, and she's just beginning to realize what a pitiful weapon her beauty is. Throw in the aforementioned chemical distractions and a trip to Catalina Island with a motley crew of college friends, an ex-husband, and a half-sexy,... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Tom Perrotta
[isbn]
It starts, as so many good stories do, with a bit of a mystery: Who is the anonymous texter behind the message, "U R my MILF!" that Eve Fletcher receives one night? And why can't she stop thinking about it? The events that follow are topical, hilarious, absurd, and completely plausible. In Mrs. Fletcher, Perrotta chronicles modern suburban angst with astonishing acuity and wit. A thoroughly enjoyable read!
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Robyn Harding
[isbn]
A deliciously schadenfreude-y read! Read this book and be glad you are not a rich person who makes poor decisions.
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Dina Nayeri
[isbn]
As the title suggests, this is a book about refuge and the many forms it can take: the shelter a country can provide (or deny), the safety of a stable relationship, the camaraderie of a group united for a cause, or the shelter of a shared language or a familiar food. For Niloo, it's her work ethic and the corners of her living space that she thinks of as her "perimeter." For her Baba, still in Iran, it's his photographs of the children who are... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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