Like most writers, I’m a passionate reader. If you’re looking for something to add to your list, check out these recommendations. Some of my suggestions are books that have not received the attention they deserve. I know how much I love discovering buried treasures, so I hope you will, too. I’ll add more recent reads at the top of the list as I finish them.When buying books, put your money where your house is: buy local.
Middlemarch by George Eliot is my favorite novel ever, because Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) was brilliant, hilarious, and far ahead of her time. This one is her masterpiece. For her, this was a historical novel, set in 1830 when she would have been about 10 years old. I’ve read it every ten years or so since I was a youngish adult, and I hook into a different facet of it each time. It’s a marvelous love story; a tale of thwarted ambitions; a hilarious sendup of puffery and arrogance in British politics at the time; and so, so much more.
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro is my other all-timer. Narrated by a serious English butler at Darlington Hall in 1956, it’s a tour de force of voice. It’s an often heartbreaking tale of self-delusion as the narrator, a few years after the two world wars, comes to understand what it means to misplace one’s loyalty.
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler is the novel I keep in my writing space, because every single scene is perfectly structured and gives me inspiration. It’s also a funny, sweet, quirky story about finding love and home where you don’t expect it. Tyler at her best.
Joan Is Okay by Weike Wang invites us into the rigid, hilarious world of an American ICU doc with Chinese parents. I loved this.
Lottery by Patricia Wood (no relation!) made me feel like a complete human being. The narrator, the unforgettable Perry L. Crandall, is a pure soul with a huge heart, and all I can say is you will be so glad you read this.
Trust by Hernan Diaz takes a while to reveal its clever structure, and it's so worth the wait. A deeply engaging novel about financial skulduggery in the 1920s, the erasing of smart women, the tangled web of truth and wishful thinking and lies.
If you’re looking for something life-affirming, feel-good, but also substantive, try Sipsworth by Simon Van Booey. An 82-year-old woman returns to her native England to wait for death. Her routine is upended by her discovery of a mouse, whom she feels compelled to care for. I know this sounds teeth-rottingly sweet, but it’s not. The novel has much new and profound to say about loneliness, connection, and meaning.
On Animals by Susan Orlean is a compilation of essays she wrote, mostly for The New Yorker, on various animals, beginning with her love affair with her pet chickens. Orlean is witty, often hilarious, tender, and smart. I loved this so much.
The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard is one of those litmus-test novels for many writers I know. If you love it, then you’re in; if you don't, find another sandbox. I finally got around to reading it after years of writers recommending it. One the one hand, the writing is almost weirdly old-fashioned – I kept imagining the characters in long dresses though most of it takes place in the 1940s. On the other hand, I could have underlined one astonishing insight into the human condition on every single page. The story itself is a melodrama about two sisters, one a rule follower, the other an iconoclast.
Oh my goodness, I pulled a novel called Heft by Liz Moore out of the “little free library” I curate in my neighborhood. I read it in one swoop and highly recommend it. It's the story of a 450-man confined to his house, the woman he once loved, and a teenaged boy who is stuck in the middle. Beautiful, humane, often funny, unforgettable.
I read Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday, which made a big splash a couple of years ago. I loved reading it, but at the end I just did not get it. Then I read a couple of reviews, realized I had missed something essential (sometimes I read too fast) and once I knew that essential thing, I really liked the book. So I will tell you that thing: the middle section, which seems to be an entirely different story, is in fact the novel that the protagonist in the first section has been longing to write. This is not a spoiler; this is a guide.
I am neither a cook nor a foodie, but I found the memoir Service Included by Phoebe Damrosch a delightful read. It tracks her experience being a server in an extremely posh NYC restaurant. I had no idea how much training these jobs require, nor how stressful they can be. Her writing is quick and fun; good company.
If you like “psychological suspense” (I usually don’t – these days there’s always a psychopath in no need of logic or plausibility). But I did read The Other Passenger and found it enjoyable, really suspenseful, and more like a clever Hitchcock story than yet another iteration of gone-girl-on-a-train/bus/jet-ski/unicycle that is saturating the market at present. You'll like it.
Land of Cockaigne by Jeffrey Lewis is one of the best novels I've ever read. A breathtakingly insightful tale of a wealthy “from away” couple who move to a coastal Maine town. When their son is killed in New York, they decide to start a summer camp in his honor, bringing kids from the city to their large property. Not everyone in town thinks this is such a great idea, and the result is a stunning, affecting, deeply humane story that I won’t soon forget. Another of his novels, The Inquisitor’s Diary, might land a tick or two above this one on my all-time list. That one’s about a devout 17th-century Spanish friar who is hoping for a promotion by rounding up candidates for the Spanish Inquisition in what is now New Mexico. When he becomes attached to one of his captives, his inner life begins to change. Just stunning.
For mystery lovers, I found a series of “new” Hercule Poirot novels by Sophie Hannah. It's like reading Agatha Christie, though a tad less dusty. Loved all four, especially Closed Casket. Similarly if you’re a Sherlock Holmes fan, I recommend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s Mycroft and Sherlock, which is just as good, maybe better, than reading one of the originals. I think there are three in the series. Oh, and in that same vein, I recommend Julia Seale’s Jane Austen mystery series, which takes Pride and Prejudice and marries it to Agatha Christie. Light, hilarious, entertaining, and suspenseful. The characters are based on Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy. The first is called A Most Agreeable Murder.
I finally got around to A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, and it's everything all the recommenders said it was. Though slow-moving in the first three quarters, it could be no other way. I found this story of a "gentleman" under house arrest after the Bolshievik revolution deeply moving and often very funny.
The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams is a big, puffy froth of wordplay that's a pleasure to read. It follows two lexicographers, 100 years apart, working on the same doomed-to-fail dictionary.
My very favorite Ann Patchet is The Dutch House, a magnificent and riveting story of a brother and his beloved older sister. Their life in a storied mansion--from which they are cast away by a stepmother after Dad dies--makes for an unforgettable reading experience.
Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson. This guy is one of my new favorite contemporary writers. I LOVE his humanity, humor, and insight. Oh, and the gorgeous prose. This one's so original, narrated by a lost soul who is called into service by an old friend, now married to a senator, whose young stepchildren burst into flame when greatly stressed. Really. Wilson makes this not only plausible, but very moving.