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BRAWLER by Lauren Groff

Brawler by Lauren Groff is a collection of short stories that mostly revolve around women in a state of desperation or at a crossroads in their lives. In one, a woman tries to flee an abusive marriage with her three young children in tow. In another, a woman reaches midlife without ever really pursuing what she wants, and then finds herself in the throes of unrequited love. The longest story in the book is about a young underachiever who falls in love with a woman who has neither the time nor the emotional space for vulnerability. These stories are sad

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BRAWLER by Lauren Groff

Brawler by Lauren Groff is a collection of short stories that mostly revolve around women in a state of desperation or at a crossroads in their lives. In one, a woman tries to flee an abusive marriage with her three young children in tow. In another, a woman reaches midlife without ever really pursuing what she wants, and then finds herself in the throes of unrequited love. The longest story in the book is about

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DOMINION by Addie Citchens

Dominion by Addie Citchens is the April pick for Wonderland Books’ literary fiction book club. It centers on a Black family living in Mississippi – a couple with five sons. The father, Sabre Winfrey, is a popular and powerful preacher in the town, yet one with a roaming eye and wandering hands. His wife, Priscilla, is aware of her husband’s transgressions, but looks the other way to maintain her role in the church and in

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WHO NEEDS FRIENDS by Andrew McCarthy

Andrew McCarthy’s new book, Who Needs Friends: An Unscientific Examination Of Male Friendship Across America, is a travelogue of the author’s cross-country road trip to visit five close male friends with whom he has basically lost touch. He not only analyzes his relationships with these men – how they started, why they lapsed, and how they reignited thanks to these impulsive visits – but also talks to various men across America whom he encounters on

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A HYMN TO LIFE: SHAME HAS TO CHANGE SIDES by Giséle Pelicot

A Hymn To Life: Shame Has To Change Sides by Giséle Pelicot is the long-anticipated memoir by the French woman whose husband drugged and raped her hundreds of times, allowing strange men into their bedroom at night while she slept, unaware. While I’ve heard people in the bookstore say, “I could never read that book,” I was eager to do so, wanting to hear her story in her words and be an audience to the

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Escape! by Stephen Fishbach

Escape! by Stephen Fishbach is about two characters looking for redemption on a fictional, Survivor-like reality competition show. Kent, a has-been former winner, and Beck, a disgraced TV producer, are each hoping that Escape! will give them a fresh start, a chance to erase former mistakes and emerge victorious, at least in the public’s eye. But the show goes in some very dark directions, thanks to manipulative producers and ruthless contestants. Fishbach, a two-time Survivor

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STRANGERS by Belle Burden

As I watched the hype grow for Strangers by Belle Burden, I resisted it, thinking it was yet another divorce memoir by a privileged woman. What more could it add to this subgenre that I hadn’t read before? As it turns out, I really enjoyed it. Belle Burden was living in New York City with her banker husband and three children at the start of the pandemic. They immediately relocated to their house in Martha’s

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THE MANY LIVES OF MAMA LOVE by Lara Love Hardin

The Many Lives of Mama Love by Lara Love Hardin was the pick for the first Wonderland Books Memoir Book Club. It’s the story of Lara Love Hardin, a mother of four living in an affluent Northern California suburb. who hid a drug addiction from her family and neighbors. To pay for her habit, she stole from people around her, using neighbors’ credit cards and taking money from people’s houses. When she and her husband

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THE RESERVATION by Rebecca Kauffman

I adored Rebecca Kauffman’s novel Chorus, and was very excited to see that she has a new novel out. The Reservation is a compelling mix of mystery, kaleidoscopic character study and workplace drama. On the day that John Grisham is to attend a dinner at an upscale restaurant in a Midwestern college town, 22 ribeye steaks go missing from the kitchen, and the restaurant’s owner, Orsa, spends the day trying to figure out who stole

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ISOLA by Allegra Goodman

Isola by Allegra Goodman is historical fiction (based on a real person) about a noblewoman named Marguerite who lived in France in the 16th century. She is orphaned and left under the care of a guardian who treats her cruelly, siphons away her fortune, and forces her to join hin as he sails to the New World (Canada). Ultimately, he maroons her on a bleak, uninhabited island, where she is forced to fend for herself.

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ACROSS THE UNIVERSE by Natan Last

Crossword puzzle fans – this one is for you. Natan Last’s Across The Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of the Crossword Puzzle is an entertaining look at crossword puzzles, a pastime that has grown in popularity in recent decades, exploding especially after the pandemic. Last, a constructor and constructing instructor, explores the history and roots of the crossword puzzle, but what I found more interesting was the discussion of the puzzle as a social

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THE SAFEKEEP by Yael van der Wouden

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden is historical fiction set in 1960s Netherlands about a family who owns a large house in a small town. The siblings – Isabelle, Louis and Hendrick – lived in the house with their mother after WWII, and now that their mother has died, Isabelle lives there alone. She is a rigid, contained woman with few social interactions, and when she goes into town to see her brothers and

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THE RACHEL INCIDENT by Caroline O’Donoghue

One of our booksellers at Wonderland Books is constantly handselling The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue, and when I asked her for a book rec that would grab me from the start, she handed it to me too. She wasn’t wrong. The Rachel Incident is about Rachel and her roommate James, who work together at a bookstore in Ireland. Rachel is about to graduate from university, and she develops a naive crush on one of

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THE BRIGHT YEARS by Sarah Damoff

Oh man. This book. The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff is the story of a Texas couple – Lily and Ryan – whose marriage is plagued by Ryan’s addiction to alcohol. Despite the love that they share, as well as Jet, the daughter they adore, Ryan’s addiction simply becomes too big to overcome, and he abandons the family. The Bright Years is a wrenching, beautiful book about so many things – grief, forgiveness, acceptance, addiction,

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THE COMPOUND by Aisling Rawle

The Compound by Aisling Rawle is a vaguely dystopian novel about Lily, a woman who competes in a reality TV show that is a mashup of Survivor, Big Brother and Love Island. It takes place in a compound located in a remote desert area where contestants win prizes by completing group and individual challenges, and they remain in the compound only if they wake up each morning next to a member of the opposite sex.

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THE MAD WIFE by Meagan Church

The Mad Wife by Meagan Church is historical fiction set in the 1950s about a housewife named Lulu who has just learned she is pregnant with her second child. The first half of the book nicely sets the scene of what it was like to be a suburban wife at that time: the expectations for women as far as motherly and wifely duties; the conformity within neighborhoods and the microscopic scrutiny from those around you;

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Read in 2026

Brawler by Lauren Groff

Dominion by Addie Citchens

Who Needs Friends by Andrew McCarthy

A Hymn To Life by Giséle Pelicot

Escape! by Stephen Fishbach

Strangers by Belle Burden

The Many Lives of Mama Love by Lara Love Hardin

The Reservation by Rebecca Kauffman

Isola by Allegra Goodman

Across The Universe by Natan Last

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue

The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff

The Compound by Aisling Rawle

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About Me

I have been blogging about books here at Everyday I Write the Book since 2006. I love to read, and I love to talk about books and what other people are reading.

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