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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 barometer and how the inclusion of certain words and clues can in itself be a political or subversive act. Last also explores how puzzling has

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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LIKE MOTHER LIKE MOTHER by Susan Rieger

I am having a hard time focusing on books these days – ironic – as the bookstore opening is just a few days away. I keep picking up books and putting them down. One that I did manage to finish last month was Like Mother Like Mother by Susan Rieger. It’s about three generations of women/mothers – Zelda, an abused wife living in Detroit; Lila, her very successful daughter who is an editor at a

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SHOW DON’T TELL by Curtis Sittenfeld

A new book from Curtis Sittenfeld is always a cause for celebration for me, and her upcoming collection of stories (due out February 25th) didn’t disappoint. Show Don’t Tell‘s protagonists are mostly middle aged women at moments of introspection about their relationships, their careers and their futures. I love Sittenfeld’s characters because they are so relatable – I feel sometimes like she is in my head taking notes on my own thoughts. Her writing goes

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BE READY WHEN THE LUCK HAPPENS by Ina Garten

I’m not much of a foodie, and other than owning a few Barefoot Contessa cookbooks, I didn’t know much about Ina Garten before reading her new memoir, Be Ready When The Luck Happens. But it was our book club’s latest pick, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Garten is a really interesting woman who overcame a difficult childhood to become an extremely successful cookbook author and TV personality. Be Ready

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HERE ONE MOMENT by Liane Moriarty

I haven’t read anything by Liane Moriarty in a long time, but I was in the mood for something that would grab me, so I picked up her latest novel, Here One Moment. It opens on a plane ride from Hobart to Sydney. The short flight has been delayed, and shortly after takeoff, an older woman starts walking up and down the aisle telling strangers when they will die, and how. These unsolicited announcements understandably

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A FORTY YEAR KISS by Nickolas Butler

A Forty Year Kiss is a second chance love story about Charlie and Vivian, a couple in their sixties who were married for only four years in their twenties. After many years of being single, Charlie has returned to the small town in Wisconsin where he and Vivian once lived, in order to win her back. Vivian has had trials of her own since their brief marriage, and she is reluctant to trust the man

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LITTLE MONSTERS by Adrienne Brodeur

Little Monsters by Adrienne Brodeur is a dysfunctional family drama about the Gardners, father Adam and kids Ken and Abby (their mother died in childbirth with Abby). They live in Cape Cod, where Adam is set to retire from a distinguished career as an oceanographer and is going off his meds for bipolar disorder. Ken is a successful real estate developer harboring anger and resentment toward his sister, an artist living a bohemian life and

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SANDWICH by Catherine Newman

Sandwich by Catherine Newman perfectly captures the place in life where I am RIGHT NOW. It’s about Rocky, a middle-aged mom of two grown kids, who is on her annual weeklong beach vacation at a rental house in Cape Cod. Her older son is there with his girlfriend, her parents arrive for their usual two-night stay, and they do all the things they always do when they go to the beach. That’s all that happens.

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Read in 2026

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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