Recent additions to my TBR and a call for recommendation requests
Plus what Booker you should read this summer and Vox's best books of the year
Hey, readers!
It’s time for another stretch of secretive reading. I’ll be spending the next couple months vetting fall releases for a special fall reading guide project I’m working on (details to come!) so I won’t have as many reviews to share here each week. I’ll still write about any additional reading I do outside of guide prep, but to fill the space and keep putting great books into your hands in the meantime, I’m going to try something a little different.
I’m inviting you to share a reading conundrum or book recommendation request with me and I’ll respond to a selection of them over the next several newsletters. Use this form to tell me your current reading mood, share a book you love that you want a readalike for, or pose a reading life dilemma you need help solving. I’ll share my thoughts and/or book suggestions in my regular Sunday newsletter (if you’d like to remain anonymous please let me know, otherwise I will include first names in my responses). Personal recommendations and reading advice were common requests in a recent newsletter reader survey, and I’m excited to experiment with something new!
For today, I’m taking inspiration from another reader suggestion and sharing a few books I recently added to my TBR as part of my “This week in books” roundup. I’ll tell you how I discovered them and why I’m excited to read them. While I haven’t yet vetted these books, maybe you’ll be intrigued enough to add them to your reading list as well!
This week in books.
This week I read…*
The Fraud by Zadie Smith. Smith wrote about her hesitation to pen a historical novel in a recent New Yorker article, and I’m so glad she jumped into this genre. All of the characters are based on real historical figures and the main story orbits around a Victorian case where a butcher claimed to be the long lost heir to an aristocratic estate. This fascinating story is fertile ground for Smith to explore race and class throughout British history and I loved the touch of humor her singular writing lends to these events. I’m just starting my fall books vetting but it’s hard to imagine this one not ending up on my fall guide somewhere. Amazon | Bookshop | Libro.fm
Two meta mysteries…is this a current trend? I still haven’t read Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone but it seems like we’re getting a bunch of these this year.
A really interesting speculative fiction novel reminiscent of Orlando and “If I Were a Man.”
Now I’m reading…*
The forthcoming novel by a Booker Prize winning author who I’ve never read before. The opening pages had me completely mesmerized so I’m excited to see where this one goes.
And I added to my TBR…
Good Bones and Simple Murders by Margaret Atwood. We decided to sign up for a library membership in Amagansett since we’ll be here for two weeks. While we mostly checked out kids books and let Louise play with the amazing toy collection, I stumbled across this collection of Atwood short stories from 1983 and couldn’t leave without it. Amazon
Little Rabbit by Alyssa Songsiridej. This was on the staff recommendations shelf at Book Hampton and it sounds absolutely up my alley. I’ve been enjoying stories about the interplay between art, desire, consent, and control. I discovered that this novel was on the shortlist for the Center for Fiction first novel prize which makes me all the more eager to read it. Amazon | Bookshop
The Mythmakers by Keziah Weir. I’ve seen this floating around Instagram, but a recent NYT review made me decide I really need to read it. It’s about a woman who begins to think that her life might be the basis of a recently deceased author’s short story. If you were obsessed with the NYT Bad Art Friend article, this book might be for you. Amazon | Bookshop | Libro.fm
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner. This Booker winning title about a romance writer who attempts to escape the drama of her life at a remote resort in Switzerland sounds like an absolutely dreamy summer read. It wasn’t my result when I took the Booker summer reading quiz, but a lot of FictionMatters Book Clubbers did end up with this one and, after learning more, I’m intrigued. Amazon | Bookshop
*Reviews and reveals of these books to come. For now I’m doing a lot of secret reading in preparation for my fall reading guide.
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Links I love.
Take this quiz to find out what Booker book you should bring with you on vacation.
Constance Grady’s best books of the year so far.
Milan Kundera died this week. His story collection Laughable Loves was an absolutely formative reading experience for me, and now I hope to revisit it this year.
If you care about diversity in historical romance novels, read this.
10 must-read books set in Cairo.
The Vegan is getting rave reviews right now. I received a copy from FSG and hope to read it asap!
What happens when a library book is a century overdue?
This is a great little piece of literary analysis about the way rooms can function in writing.
How Truman Capote was destroyed by his own masterpiece.
I thoroughly enjoyed discussing Parable of the Sower with the FictionMatters Book Club. Octavia Butler’s epic work of dystopian fiction is now an opera!
What is it about cult novels that we all find so fascinating?
The New York Times rounded up four feminist horror story collections.
End notes.
This week in views, listens, eats, and moments of joy.
Watching Louise fall in love with the beach and spend time with her family has been such a joy. She’s having the time of her life this week and I’m loving the chance to see it all happen.
I started listening to The Retrievals and oh my goodness what a story 😳
I’m typically a mood reader but I enjoy having a few times a year when I stick to a rigid TBR. Right now I’m making my way through my most anticipated titles of the fall and I’m enjoying making my plans and checking them off my list as I go.
This tiny toy house was a huge hit for Lou on the plane. I’m not afraid to bring out the iPad if necessary, but she contentedly play with this almost the entire flight.
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Happy reading!
Sara
I devoured Hotel du Lac over the weekend. Reminded me how much I love great writing - Brookner does so much without resorting to simile (I barely noticed any "likes" or "as ifs" ... and it was a breath of fresh air), her pacing is brilliant ... and I was surprised (and very pleased) by the ending.
Loved taking the Booker Quiz! Currently on vacation with TWO Booker winners--Possession by A S Byatt and A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James. So fun!