Buckle Up! 31 Books For You

In 9-word reviews

Oh dear.

Oh bother.

I’m desperately sorry.

I’m so far behind in my book updates it almost felt like time to just shutter this newsletter entirely. There’s no path forward! Goodbye sweet internet!

But then, I remembered what my mom used to say to me when I would announce as a dramatic 10-year-old that I could not possibly journal, there was too much to catch up on!

Keep it simple.

Also 

No one cares about every detail of your vacation.

Well, oh dear again.

I guess I start here. With 31 simple reviews of 31 excellent books.

(No vacation to talk about.)

The Secret Bridesmaid by Katy Birchall

The Wedding Planner meets Confessions of a Shopaholic. British!

If You Lived Here You’d Be Famous By Now by Via Bleidner

High school in Calabasas by a budding Joan Didion.

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

Literary thriller. Stolen plots. A thorough excoriation of MFAs.

Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales

Fizzy YA romance. Bisexual protagonist. Secret love advice column!

The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel

27 years alone in the woods of Maine, examined.

Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

Suburban mom turned accidental assassin. Funny as it sounds.

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Wow. "Indigenous Nancy Drew” award-winning epic. Wow. Wow.

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

Swoony (steamy) academic romance. Grumpy meets Sunshine. Kylo Ren?

Almond by Won-pyung Sohn

Tender, surprising mother/son Korean YA story. A Bonus!

Ghosts by Dolly Alderton

Bridget Jones for the millennial reader. Perfect, perfect  ending.

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker

Six schizophrenic siblings. A family’s mental health explored. Nonfiction.

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

Cape Cod. Family secrets. Prose that makes you achy.

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

Septuagenarians solving crimes in their retirement village. Delightful. Hilarious.

No Cure for Being Human: And Other Truths I Needed To Hear by Kate Bowler

Cancer memoir. If you like Glennon/hate bucket lists.

Amelia Unabridged by Ashley Schumacher

Fandoms, friendship, first love. Dreamy, tragic, fairytale-ish YA story.

If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy

Cinderella retelling. Plus-size Bachelorette. Couple to root for.

Before She Disappeared by Lisa Gardner

Gripping, quick crime thriller. Missing girl. Gruff, lovable protagonist.

A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan

Absolutely wild Ingrid Goes West satire horror mismash mindtrip.

The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard

Irish serial killer. Book-within-a-book. Pagiest-turner!!

The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson

Read the Truly Devious series already, why don’t you?

The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynne Barnes

Read The Inheritance Games series already, why don’t you?

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Devastating mother/daughter memoir sure to make you cry. 

Life’s Too Short by Abby Jimenez

An influencer romance that I really fell for? #blessed

No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

A book for the very online. Horrifying, true, gross.

(I admired it more than I enjoyed reading it.)

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

For those of us with an insatiable sad tooth.

Other Boys by Damian Alexander

Heartfelt middle grade graphic novel memoir. Therapy, grief, Barbies.

Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs by Beth Ann Fennelly

Micro memoirs with little truths. Check out this one:

All These Beautiful Strangers by Elizabeth Klehfoth

New England boarding school. Secret societies. A missing mother! 

Almost American Girl by Robin Ha

Graphic novel memoir. Immigration. Will break/heal your heart.

The Maid by Nita Prose

Quirky maid gets caught up in hotel murder. Twists!

“Am I ever not going to feel wrecked?” Adelaide said. “I feel like

ever since Mikey broke up with me at twelve-forty-five,

and now for possibly the rest of my life, there is an

invisible membrane

between the rest of the world and me, and it’s an

ugly, slimy, viscous membrane,

like on an egg yolk but tougher, and

I won’t be able to poke through it.

I will be stuck looking through the membrane to the life outside in a terrible

egg yolk of misery.”

“A membrane?”

“Yes!” Adelaide cried, “I am an

egg yolk of misery inside a

membrane,

and the name of the

membrane

is Mikey broke up with me.”

“You are losing it,” said Stacey S.

Again Again by E. Lockhart

(YA multiverse moody wistful sibling story. With dramatic quotes!)

Have you read anything great recently? Please do share. So many of the books above came straight from the comments section.