Everyday I Write the Book - It'll help you figure out what to read.

THE CORRESPONDENT by Virginia Evans

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans is my top read so far this year. It is an epistolary novel consisting almost entirely of letters written to and from Sybil Van Antwerp, a woman in her 70s living outside Annapolis. Sybil is a bit prickly and cold, but as you learn through her correspondence with many people in her life – her brother, her children, her best friend, former colleagues, neighbors, and even famous novelists – there are reasons for her prickliness. I think it is best to go into this book without knowing much more than that. It’s a gorgeous, wise,

THE CORRESPONDENT by Virginia Evans

WHAT KIND OF PARADISE by Janelle Brown

Janelle Brown’s novel What Kind Of Paradise takes a story we know – the Unabomber – and reimagines it as if he had had a daughter living with him in that isolated cabin in Montana in the 90s, telling the story from her point of view. For as long as she can remember, Jane Williams has lived alone with her father, having been told that her mother died in a car accident. She is homeschooled,

CULPABILITY by Bruce Holsinger

Bruce Holsinger’s Culpability is an of-the-moment novel about one family’s involvement in a fatal car accident and how it was ultimately caused by many layers of guilt and negligence. When the Cassidy-Shaw family – dad Noah, mom Lorelei, and kids Charlie, Alice and Izzy – is en route to Charlie’s lacrosse tournament on the Eastern Shore, their car, which was being driven by Charlie but had been taken over by self-driving mode, swerves and strikes

JULIE CHAN IS DEAD by Liann Zhang

Julie Chan Is Dead by Liann Zhang is not my typical fare – a thriller with some hints of horror – but I was intrigued by the plot and decided to pick it up. Julie Chan and her twin sister Chloe were separated as young girls, with Chloe adopted by a wealthy white couple and Julie sent to live with an poor, opportunistic aunt. Chloe becomes a wealthy influencer with no interest in a relationship

I SEE YOU’VE CALLED IN DEAD by John Kenney

John Kenney’s novel, I See You’ve Called In Dead, is about an obituary writer named Bud Stanley whose life has flattened out – his wife has left him, he has lost his job due to a drunken binge when he wrote – and published – his own outlandish obituary, and he is, simply, stuck. In the wake of his unceremonious dismissal from his job, Bud and a close friend decide to start going to strangers’

THE GRIFFIN SISTERS’ GREATEST HITS by Jennifer Weiner

Fans of Jennifer Weiner are familiar with her particular brand of women’s lit – strong women characters who overcome adversity and dysfunctional relationships and prove they are more than their appearance – and while The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits does have these elements, it is both a more serious yet less fulfilling book than some of her others. It’s about two sisters, Cassie and Zoe Grossberg, who grow up outside Philadelphia. They are very different

PENITENCE by Kristin Koval

Penitence by Kristin Koval is about a Colorado family torn apart by the killing of their teenage son by their younger daughter, and how they try to survive the aftermath. Penitence, as its title suggests, is about the acts of atoning and forgiving, both yourself and those whose actions have wronged you. In this case, there are layers of guilt going back to earlier generations that ultimately led to the girl’s awful act, including ones

I’LL NEVER CALL HIM DAD AGAIN by Caroline Darian

Caroline Darian is the daughter of Gisele Pelicot, the French woman whose husband drugged her night after night and let men sexually assault her while she slept. Her father’s trial attracted international attention and highlighted her mother’s bravery, as she opted for an open courtroom. Darian’s memoir, I’ll Never Call Him Dad Again, was written before the trial and focuses on her relationship with her mother after learning about the assaults, as well as her

CARELESS PEOPLE by Sarah Wynn-Williams

Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams is a brave tell-all memoir by a woman who worked on international policy at Facebook for many years. She was attracted to the company because of its potential to do good in the world, to connect people and facilitate participation in democratic societies. What she discovered when she got to Facebook, though, was utter disinterest in engaging with the leaders of other countries to push forth these ideals. Instead, Facebook’s

RABBIT MOON by Jennifer Haigh

Jennifer Haigh is an auto-buy author for me. I’ve read all of her books and simply adore her writing. There is a quiet, understated quality to how she tells a story – she never underestimates her readers with too much explanation, instead letting her characters’ actions propel stories forward amidst empathy and compassion. Rabbit Moon, Haigh’s latest novel, takes place in Shanghai, where Lindsey, the daughter of a wealthy Boston family, lies in a coma

DREAM STATE by Eric Puchner

Dream State by Eric Puchner is a decades-spanning novel about friendship, marriage, loyalty and the patterns of life’s joys and disappointments. One woman’s impulsive decision about her future causes ramifications that are felt for many years, by hers and the generations that follow. I especially liked how Puchner explores how passion and ambition change – and fade – over the years, and how memories themselves can be manipulated to serve different purposes and justifications. Plus

BACK AFTER THIS by Linda Holmes

I adored Linda Holmes’ novel Evvie Drake Starts Over, a melancholy but realistic and deeply satisfying romance about two broken people who find each other when they are at their worst. Her latest book, Back After This, may lack some of the emotional heft of Evvie, but it is a similarly smart story about dating and relationships, set in the world of podcasting. Cecily, single for many years after a bad breakup, is pressured to

RENTAL HOUSE by Weike Wang

In Weike Wang’s novel Rental House, Keru, a Chinese-American woman and Nate, her white husband, vacation at two rental homes, five years apart. During the first vacation, their respective parents come to visit for successive weeks, highlighting the cultural differences between their upbringings and the ways in which their parents ultimately shaped their views of family, marriage, immigration, parenting, and more. The second vacation finds Keru and Nate even more entrenched in their roles, and

THREE DAYS IN JUNE by Anne Tyler

If you’ve read any Anne Tyler before, you know her formula: female protagonist + Baltimore setting + family in flux + character-driven story. French Braid was one of my top books of 2022, so I was excited to pick up her latest, Three Days In June. It’s about Gail, a woman in her 60s, who attends her daughter’s wedding over a June weekend. Her ex-husband ends up staying at her house unexpectedly, which unearths memories

A GORGEOUS EXCITEMENT by Cynthia Weiner

Hi! I’m back! Thanks for your patience as I spent the last few months opening Wonderland Books. It has been an exhilarating, intense, rewarding and exhausting stretch, but I am finally getting my footing. Ironically, I haven’t had much time for reading, but I have read a few books over the last two months or so, and I am going to try to get back to reviewing them here. I’ll start with A Gorgeous Excitement