Author: Tirzah Price

You might know Lindy West from her searing and hilarious essays about culture and politics, or her adaptation of Shrill, but before she wrote about serious topics, she used to be a film critic. (Her take on Love Actually has made the Internet rounds for years!) In this book, she returns to those roots in a hilarious and irreverent review of a truly random selection of movies—everything from The Fugitive (the only good movie, apparently) to American Pie, Titanic to Lion King. Her commentary is hilarious and she gives enough of a recap so even if you haven’t seen the movie, it doesn’t matter! Just enjoy the ride.

I will say that I think this book will probably appeal most to millennials—most of the movies West focuses on are big hits from the 90’s and early 2000’s, when she was a young adult, and the essays manage to balance a hint of nostalgia with some appropriate reflection and also a healthy dose of calling out problematic material. But even when she’s pointing out problematic tropes, toxic masculinity, racism, and other questionable elements, these essays are still fun and they delight in the absurdity, making this a surprisingly reflective and insightful book about society and the movies that influenced us! I also found myself excited to turn to a new chapter to see what movie she’d tackle next. Bonus: Lindy reads the audiobook, and as always with her work, you want that experience!

Hani and Ishu are the only two Bengali girls in their Irish (and Catholic to boot) girls’ school. As a result, everyone thinks they should be friends, but that’s not really the case. Hani hangs with a popular crowd and Ishu is bent on studying to succeed and please her parents. But when Hani comes out as bisexual to her friends, and they don’t believe her, she makes up a girlfriend to prove her identity is valid…and then assigns the girlfriend status to Ishu.

Luckily for Hani, Ishu has her sights set on being Head Girl, which is as much of a popularity contest as it about perfect grades. And Hani can help get Ishu in with her friends, so they launch a fake dating scheme, complete with real rules, and soon find that rules can’t keep their feelings safe when opposites attract.

There is so much to love about this book—a fun grumpy/sunshine dynamic, a fake dating scheme that feels plausible, and two really heartfelt characters who are also dealing with major things in their personal lives. One thing I really admire about Jaigirdar’s writing is she manages a really nice balance of funny, rom-com writing with exploration of deeper and much more serious topics, such as family estrangement, microaggressions, bigotry, Islamophobia, and homophobia. (Heads up for all those things, although I will say the book doesn’t feel super dark.) The balance makes the book feel very real, and it also shows readers that you can be facing these very hard things, but you still deserve a romance and a happily ever after. The dialogue is funny and smart, and I love that the author shows us different layers of the Irish Bengali community.

Bonus: The audiobook is really sweet and very well done! Another bonus: Read Jaigirdar’s debut novel The Henna Wars if you love this one, and keep an eye out for her new book out this winter, A Million to One, which is a Titanic heist story!

This was Karen Cushman’s debut novel, and she received the Newbery Honor for her epistolary story of Catherine, called Birdy, who is thirteen-going-on-fourteen and lives in England in 1290. Her father is one of the landed gentry and so her life is a little more comfortable than most, but as a girl she is expected to marry young. When her father begins searching for a husband for her, an odious string of suitors comes to call and Birdy becomes determined to run them all off—she’d much rather be a crusader, a goat herder, or literally anything else but a wife. But it’s difficult for even the most spirited of girls to shake off convention, especially in a world where women have narrow roles.

What I truly appreciate about epistolary novels is that when they are very well done, you get the unfiltered day-to-day thoughts of your narrator in all of their obsessive, mundane, or even brief glory. Birdy’s entries flit from topic to topic, she’s frequently (hilariously) frustrated to learn about the realities of life, and while she grapples with big questions about her place in the world she also records her crushes and her opinions, her random insights and song lyrics, and her hopes and dreams and disappointments. This format allows readers to dive right into her world without being weighed down by lots of description, and Cushman’s genius is that she’s able to impart so much about this strange world through the eyes of her protagonist. The exposition and world-building is all done subtly and beautifully, and the reader hardly notices it because they are preoccupied with Birdy’s wit. She’s not the perfect protagonist–she’s sometimes cross and often impatient. She’s unruly and disobedient, but she’s also passionate and loving and it’s a joy to see her change her mind about certain beliefs and matters over the course of the year she keeps her journal.

It should also be noted that Cushman is really, really frank about how living in 1290 is not glamorous. There are fleas. So. Many. Fleas. And no sense of hygiene. And everyone lives on top of each other, death comes often and quickly, and Birdy’s father is not a nice man—he seems her as a commodity to be traded and often mistreats her. For being wealthy and privileged, they still must work very hard to survive. So just be aware going into the book that you are getting an unfiltered and sometimes gross view of life! It’s a wonder humanity has survived to now! But it’s refreshing to get a realistic and also very human look at life back then, and I am in awe of Cushman’s abilities!

For Sabine, winning a full ride scholarship to a prestigious art school should be a dream, but it’s quickly turning into a nightmare. Sabine lost her mom in a horrible car accident her senior year of high school, and she has no one else to turn to. Her day-to-day security rests on her ability to keep her scholarship and good student Sabine is suddenly struggling to keep up in Colin Krell’s painting class. Krell is harder on her than any other student, and when he makes a comment about doubting her ability to keep her merit scholarship, desperation sets in. That’s when she meets Adam while putting in long hours at the studio. He has access to Krell’s personal studio, and shows her his latest masterpiece: a painting that’s already sold for millions. Adam encourages Sabine to try to understand Krell better by replicating his painting in secret. Sabine knows it’s wrong to copy another artist’s work without their consent, but in her desperation to improve and to keep hold of her scholarship, she readily agrees…but it may soon become a decision she deeply regrets.

I really like it when books can take me into a very specific subset of life, especially if it’s a sphere I’m not likely to ever inhabit or get close to, and I feel like this book did a great job of immersing me into what it must be like to go to a fine arts school for visual art. (I went to a fine arts grad school—the same one as the author, actually—but had very little overlap with the visual arts department!) Sabine is a character who has been dealt a bad hand, and you can’t help but feel for her and her recent loss and what a destabilizing force it is in her life. However, she does make some rather questionable decisions and while those actions aren’t exactly right, Linka does a great job of painting Sabine in such a way that even though you know it’s wrong, you hope it’ll all work out for her. The savvy reader will probably see where this plot is heading, but there’s enough here that keep me guessing and I was so invested in Sabine’s story and how she’d pull through that I never once thought of putting the book down at the inevitable moment when she realizes she’s been duped.

This is a book about impressions—first, false, and skewed. It’s also a book about education and growth, and how in order to grow, you have to do the work. What I appreciate about this story is that mistakes are made—very, very big mistakes that have lasting repercussions outside of the people who make them. And while there are consequences, at no point is the reader left with the idea that making a mistake makes you a terrible person. It’s about learning to own up to your mistakes, address them head on, make things right the best you can, and move forward. I think it’s a really valuable lesson a lot of young people need, but older readers do, too.

This was an excellent and fascinating book about a young person with ambition coming up against the realities of adult life and the cutthroat pressure of the art world, and learning to forge her own path and own up to her choices. And bonus: The audiobook narrated by Frankie Corzo is excellent!

Lauren and Ryan are together for over a decade before their marriage reaches a breaking point. Angry and unhappy, they know they can’t keep moving forward like this, but they’re not willing to get divorced, either. Instead, they come up with an agreement: For one year, they’ll go their own separate ways. Anything goes and anything can happen, but the one thing they agree on is that they won’t contact each other before the year is up.

For Lauren, this means embarking on a new lifestyle and contending with what it’s like to live life as a single person for the first time since becoming an adult. And along the way, everyone has opinions about her marriage and her break from Ryan, from her grandmother to her best work friend. But when it really comes down to it, Lauren has to decide who she wants to be, with or without Ryan.

One of my favorite pastimes is reading advice columnists about life, love, and relationships—I like the little peeks into other people’s lives and relationships and how they think and what makes them tick and what their petty (and not-so-petty) dramas might be. Reading this book kind of felt like reading a really fascinating novel-length letter and response. (And there’s even an advice columnist subplot, plus voyeuristic emails!) We get a view of Lauren and Ryan’s marriage via snapshots from various points in their relationship leading to the disintegration and breaking point, and then we are with Lauren through the aftermath of her decision as she puts her life back together. I loved seeing all of the relationships she has, and how she pays attention to her friendships and her connections with her siblings, mom, and grandma even more after her separation. Each person has something to teach Lauren about love and life, and it was great to read about how she synthesized all of their wisdom and advice (both good and bad) to come to a few truths of her own. This isn’t the most plot-heavy book, and maybe some readers will find certain aspects predictable, but I thought it was an emotionally satisfying and insightful read!

Lulu and Milagro are two sisters who couldn’t be more different, and they both have exciting plans for spring break: Lulu is headed out on the school’s cross-country college road trip, and Milagro has finagled a way to stay home alone so she can finally lose her virginity. But when Milagro’s plans fall through, she finds herself tagging along on the trip, much to Lulu’s horror and Milagro’s annoyance. As they try to get along on the road trip, Lulu is bent on learning the truth behind the fallout between their mom and oldest sister—her hopes of attending school out of state depend on it. Meanwhile, Milagro discovers there are many different paths in college, and maybe a college career is in her future after all.

This novel is told in dual POVs, allowing you to get into both Lulu and Milagro’s heads. Velez does a great job of making each girl sound unique yet similar enough that you can buy that they’re sisters, and their perspectives on the world will make you laugh and also have you empathizing with their struggles, which aren’t as dissimilar as they might believe at first. While Lulu is very focused and Milagro tends to be the fun-loving sister, they teach each other that there is value in exploring your academic options and in taking the time to socialize and venture outside of your comfort zone. There is plenty of excitement on the road when the trip gets underway, but underneath it all is a big question: Why did their older sister Clara stop talking to the family after she went off to college? And what is their mom not telling them about Clara? It was just enough of a mini mystery to pull the story along and add some great tension to this story of discovery, and the truth will have readers contemplating what it means to work towards the future, and how if a plan falls apart, then it’s okay—you just make a new one.

The tl;dr version? Read this book if you like sister stories, humor, and soul-searching alongside family secrets.

Tessa lives an ordinary life in modern Belfast: She’s a single mom to an infant, a sister, a daughter, and a dedicated producer for a BBC news show. She’s used to getting a ribbing for working for the Brits, but the violence of the IRA doesn’t really touch her life until one day a robbery hits the news. It was carried out by the IRA, and Tessa’s beloved sister Marian is caught on camera pulling a mask over her face. Tessa’s life implodes as she goes into shock, then denial. There’s no way that Marian could be a member of the IRA…but if she is, that means Tessa must reconcile everything she thought she knew about her family with the tenuous reality of living in a country marked by violence.

I became intrigued by the Troubles of Northern Ireland a couple years ago when I happened to catch a documentary that touched on them, and I’ve recommended the nonfiction book Say Nothing: A true Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe in this newsletter before. But other than the contemporary aspects of Keefe’s book, I hadn’t read much about the Troubles that wasn’t firmly rooted in history, and I thought this was a really fascinating look at modern life shaped by these struggles. What struck me was how most people learned to just live against this backdrop of violence, while it deeply affected others in very different ways, inciting them to action. And then I realized that to those living in Northern Ireland, life in the U.S. must feel similar from afar, given how often our country faces unexpected and jarring gun and police violence.

In this novel, Tessa really has to dig deep into her own thoughts and feelings about how far she’ll go to protect her own family, and how deep she’s willing to wade into this conflict in order to buy herself and her loved ones some peace. The writing is elegant and also gut-wrenching, and I sped through the chapters because I truly had no inkling of how it would end. I highly recommend this if you like a more literary, interior thriller that looks at social and political issues.

Alice is on the cusp of her 40th birthday, dating a man she likes but not well enough to marry, and dissatisfied in her career. But the worst thing about her life is the fact that her beloved father is terminally ill, and no one knows how much longer he has. When she goes to sleep on her fortieth birthday, she’s stunned to wake up on her sixteenth birthday again. Alice is intrigued and unsettled, but she has to admit there is one perk: Her father is healthy and alive, and she can talk to him again. No matter what led her here, this seems like an opportunity too good to pass up…but whatever changes she makes at sixteen will have serious consequences for the future.

I thought that this was such a great premise that allowed Straub to really take her characters in interesting places, and it’s all set against the interesting backdrop of New York City, particularly NYC in the 1990’s. Alice’s dad is a famous sci-fi writer of time travel fiction and while his books bear little resemblance to Alice’s situation, it does mean that Alice has some really intriguing conversations about time travel with the people in her life, and I thought that Straub approached the time slips in a really clever way. It was like sci-fi lite for people who might not be into the genre, but it also had enough nods to the genre that those who come to the book for the time travel will be satisfied. I loved the way that Straub examined how decisions we make as young people can inform our world view, which can have a profound impact on our futures…but that doesn’t mean things are always set in stone. This is a great novel that looks at identity and possibility and mortality in a moving way, it’s perfect for fans of The Midnight Library by Matt Haig!

Bonus: Marin Ireland, narrator and actress, voices this audiobook and her performance is excellent!

This is a novel told from two viewpoints, across two timelines. First, we have Lore Rivera, a thirty-something international banker from Texas who makes frequent trips to Mexico City for work. She’s holding her family—husband and two sons—together by a shoestring back home, but when she meets a dazzling man in Mexico City it’s not long before she is living a double life, falling in love and then, against her better judgement, marrying him. For three years she splits her time between Mexico and Texas, no one any wiser, until her double life is discovered and one of her husbands kills the other.

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

In present day, Cassie Bowman is a true crime journalist looking for her big break. When she reads a retrospective about Lore’s case, she’s disgusted by the sloppy telling and intrigued by Lore—what would inspire a woman to risk everything for a double life? And is she really completely innocent in the murder of her husband? Cassie sets out to convince Lore to tell her side of the story, but not everything is as cut and dry as it seems.

I really loved this book, and I was drawn to it for the same reasons that Cassie was drawn to Lore’s case: The concept of a woman having two husbands and a double life is not nearly as common as a man having two families. In alternating chapters, we learn about Lore’s past and the circumstances that led her to meeting her second husband, falling for him, deceiving him, all while trying to hold together her family back home. Lore clearly loves both of her husbands, and she’s under a lot of pressure to provide for her family during a recession, leaving her little room to be wholly herself. This is not an excuse for her actions, but rather the very intriguing set of circumstances that lead to her choices, which will have a devastating effect on everyone involved.

Cassie does come across as a little mercenary and voyeuristic at first. She’s aware of the problematic nature of murder as entertainment and her part in perpetuating stereotypes that women are victims. But she has her own reasons to be drawn to true crime, and skeletons in her closet that she keeps locked away. She truly wants to understand Lore, and Lore in turn forces Cassie to face those skeletons. Soon, they both become so enmeshed in each other’s stories that it’s impossible to walk away, and Cassie and Lore began to wonder if sometimes, telling the truth isn’t necessarily the same thing as obtaining justice.

I loved this book for the big questions it asks, the layered characters, and the vivid depictions of Laredo, TX and Mexico City in the 1980s. After reading this book, I would pick up anything that Katie Gutierrez writes! Bonus: The audiobook was excellent, with seamless dual narration!

Claudia is a twenty-something Chinese American woman living in New York City and trying to duck her family’s weighty expectations. She works for a firm called Veracity, which exists to verify the details listed on dating profiles for their anxious online dating clients. Claudia likes the job because it means she spends as much time out on her bike as she does in an office, and she’s keen on mystery novels even if her boss would be the first to insist they aren’t detectives. But when a client dies under suspicious circumstances, Claudia can’t let it go. Soon, she’s looking into the case on her own time, and what she finds suggests foul play.

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

I loved this mystery because it has a lot of elements I love in a good murder mystery—a smart protagonist, mysterious death, interesting characters, and an intriguing set-up—and it’s not a procedural (I do like a good procedural but I am weary of reading about U.S. police departments). Claudia takes a lot of her inspiration from mystery novels and her favorite is a series starring Inspector Yuan, whom she invokes a lot in her investigation. She’s savvy and smart, but she’s definitely an amateur and that shows in the missteps she makes…but rather than detract from the mystery, it endeared her to me and lead to some interesting revelations and twists. The mystery itself is an interesting exploration of the tech world and journalism, which made the book feel very modern and relevant, and I liked how the investigation plot was balanced with subplots involving Claudia’s relationship with her siblings and mom, and a mini mystery her older sister was facing. Claudia is also queer, and while this book doesn’t have any romance in it, her queer identity is an important part of the story. This mystery is resolved by the end, but the author cleverly sets up a sequel—and hints at a surprising potential love interest for Claudia!—which I can’t wait to read! Definitely read this book if you enjoy the Vera Kelly mysteries by Rosalie Knecht, as they have similar sensibilities despite the 50-odd year difference in setting!

Happy reading!
Tirzah