Reading

I love reading and it’s the thing I spend most of my free time doing.  I also love writing book reviews.  I’ve been thrilled by the response some of my reviews have received.  Someone said “I get more from your book reviews than I do from the ones I read in the Times and the NYRB” and someone else told me I was “an incredible source for great reads.”  This feedback makes me smile since there’s nothing at all better in the world (at least mine) than a good book.  For full disclosure, some of the links below are affiliate links.

READING LIST

Alternate Side (Anna Quindlen)
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death (Maggie O’Farrell)
What Comes Next and How to Like It: A Memoir (Abigail Thomas)
The Other Mother (Carol Goodman)
An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic (Daniel Mendelsohn)
Sometimes I Lie (Alice Feeney)
The Perfect Mother (Aimee Molloy)
Tangerine (Christine Mangan)
Mrs. (Caitlin Macy)
Two Girls Down (Louisa Luna)
Grief Works: Stories of Life, Death, and Surviving (Julia Samuel)
Need to Know (Karen Cleveland)
Force of Nature (Jane Harper)
Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult (Bruce Handy)
Anatomy of a Scandal (Sarah Vaughn)
Waking Up to the Dark: Ancient Wisdom for a Sleepless Age (Will Lytle)
The Wife Between Us (Greer Henricks and Sarah Pekkanen)
The Woman in the Window (A.J. Finn)
The Rooster Bar (John Grisham)
Small Admissions (Amy Poeppel)
Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I’m Learning to Say (Kelly Corrigan)
My Absolute Darling (Gabriel Tallent)
Everything I Never Told You (Celeste Ng)
End Game (David Baldacci)
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (Bryan Stevenson)
Little Fires Everywhere (Celeste Ng)
Saving Grace (Jane Green)
Two Kinds of Truth (Michael Connelley)
Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery (Scott Kelly)
The Book of Separation (Tova Mirvis)
We Could Be Beautiful (Swan Huntley)
Origin (Dan Brown)
The Goddesses (Swan Huntley)
Standard Deviation (Katherine Heiny)
The Lying Game (Ruth Ware)
The Burning Girl (Claire Messud)
In a Dark, Dark Wood (Ruth Ware)
Deadfall (An Alexandra Cooper Novel) (Linda Fairstein)
Morningstar: Growing Up with Books (Ann Hood)
It’s Always the Husband (Michele Campbell)
Do Not Become Alarmed (Maile Meloy)
The Arrangement (Sarah Dunn)
Fitness Junkie (Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza)
Love and Trouble: A Midlife Reckoning (Claire Dederer)
The Couple Next Door (Shari Lapena)
Nine Dragons (Michael Connelley)
Into the Water (Paula Hawkins)
Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life (Amy Krouse Rosenthal)
Between Them: Remembering My Parents (Richard Ford)
The Rules Do Not Apply (Ariel Levy)
Sycamore Row (John Grisham)
The Headmaster: Frank L. Boyden of Deerfield (John McPhee)
Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me (Bill Hayes)
Chasing Slow: Courage to Journey Off the Beaten Path (Erin Loechner)
Commonwealth (Ann Patchett)
On Living (Kerry Egan)
Saints for All Occasions (Courtney Sullivan)
A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal (Ben Macintyre)
A Country Between: Making a Home Where Both Sides of Jerusalem Collide (Stephanie Saldana)
Small Great Things (Jodi Picoult)
Conclave (Robert Harris)
The Trespasser (Tana French)
No Man’s Land (David Baldacci)
The Whistler (John Grisham)
Killer Look (An Alexandra Cooper Novel) (Linda Fairstein)
Devil’s Bridge (An Alexandra Cooper Novel) (Linda Fairstein)
Faithful (Alice Hoffman)
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (JD Vance)
The Woman in Cabin 10 (Ruth Ware)
The Wrong Side of Goodbye (A Harry Bosch Novel) (Michael Connelley)
Terminal City (Linda Fairstein)
Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art (Madeleine L’Engle)
Death Angel (Alex Cooper) (Linda Fairstein)
A Lowcountry Heart: Reflections on a Writing Life (Pat Conroy)
American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers (Nancy Jo Sales)
Today Will Be Different (Maria Semple)
Night Watch (Linda Fairstein)
The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo (Amy Schumer)
Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living (Shauna Niequist)
You’ll Grow Out of It (Jessi Klein)
There and Then: The Travel Writing of James Salter (James Salter)
Composing a Life (Mary Catherine Bateson)
The Course of Love (Alain de Botton)
What Alice Forgot (Liane Moriarty)
The Spiritual Life of Children (Robert Coles)
Modern Lovers (Emma Straub)
Wilde Lake (Laura Lippman)
A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life (Parker Palmer)
Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living (Krista Tippett)
Grace Without God: The Search for Meaning, Purpose, and Belonging in a Secular Age (Katherine Ozment)
The Nest (Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney)
Lab Girl (Hope Jahren)
Eleven Hours (Pamela Erens)
Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape (Peggy Orenstein)
The Accident (Chris Pavone)
Georgia: A Novel of Georgia O’Keeffe (Dawn Tripp)
The Narrow Door: A Memoir of Friendship (Paul Lisicky)
Between the World and Me (Ta-Nehisi Coates)
The Givenness of Things: Essays (Marilynne Robinson)
It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War (Lynsey Addario)
My Life on the Road (Gloria Steinem)
The Verdict (Nick Stone)
Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person (Shonda Rhimes)
The Art of Memoir (Mary Karr)
Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)
Heaven’s Coast: A Memoir (Mark Doty)
Felicity: Poems (Mary Oliver)
Gratitude (Oliver Sacks)
Fates and Furies (Lauren Groff)
The Ramblers (Aidan Donnelley Rowley)
M Train (Patti Smith)
The Round House (Louise Erdrich)
Did You Ever Have A Family (Bill Clegg)
Goodbye Stranger (Rebecca Stead)
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear (Elizabeth Gilbert)
The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed (Jessica Lahey)
Brave Enough (Cheryl Strayed)
Everybody Rise (Stephanie Clifford)
Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade (Walter Kirn)
On the Move: A Life (Oliver Sacks)
My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story (Abraham Verghese)
The Night Circus (Erin Morgenstern)
How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success (Julie Lithcott-Haims)
My Paris Dream: An Education in Style, Slang, and Seduction in the Great City on the Seine (Kate Betts)
Our Souls at Night (Kent Haruf)
A Window Opens (Elisabeth Egan)
In a Dark Wood: What Dante Taught Me About Grief, Healing, and the Mysteries of Love (Joseph Luzzi)
Luckiest Girl Alive (Jessica Knoll)
In the Unlikely Event(Judy Blume)
The Folded Clock: A Diary (Heidi Julavits)
The Knockoff (Lucy Sykes)
Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives (Gretchen Rubin)
Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs (Sally Mann)
H Is for Hawk (Helen Macdonald)
The Light of the World (Elizabeth Alexander)
Everything You Ever Wanted (Jillian Lauren)
Ongoingness: The End of a Diary (Sarah Manguso)
The Royal We (Heather Cocks)
The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion (Meghan Daum)
Always Pack a Party Dress: And Other Lessons Learned From a (Half) Life in Fashion (Amanda Brooks)
Primates of Park Avenue: A Memoir (Wednesday Martin)
Yes Please (Amy Poehler)
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (Bill Bryson)
On Immunity: An Inoculation (Eula Biss)
Station Eleven (Emily St. John Mandel)
Women in Clothes (Sheila Heti)
Blue Horses: Poems (Mary Oliver)
The Poets Laureate Anthology (Elizabeth Hun Schmidt)
Four Quartets (TS Eliot)
The Phantom Tollbooth (Norman Juster)
Playing Big: Find Your Voice, Your Mission, Your Message (Tara Mohr)
Lila(Marilynne Robinson)
The Marriage Plot (Jeffrey Eugenides)
Elements of Style: Designing a Home & a Life (Erin Gates)
The History of Love (Nicola Krauss)
The Empathy Exams: Essays (Leslie Jamison)
The Girls from Corona del Mar (Rufi Thorpe)
Cutting Teeth(Julia Fiero)
Friendship (Emily Gould)
Mother Daughter Me (Katie Hafner)
The Angel in My Pocket: A Story of Love, Loss, and Life After Death (Sukey Forbes)
Karma Gone Bad: How I Learned to Love Mangos, Bollywood and Water Buffalo (Jenny Feldon)
Can’t We Talk about Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir (Roz Chast)
Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls (Mary Pipher)
Eleanor & Park (Rainbow Rowell)
The Highly Sensitive Person (Elaine Aron)
Rooftoppers (Katherine Rundell)
So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading (Sarah Nelson)
Euphoria (Lily King)
Crossing to Safety (Wallace Stegner)
Americanah (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)
10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works–A True Story (Dan Harris)
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. (Judy Blume)
Out of the Woods: A Memoir of Wayfinding (Lynn Darling)
All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel (Anthony Doerr)
New Life, No Instructions: A Memoir (Gail Caldwell)
Love Life (Rob Lowe)
Homesick and Happy: How Time Away from Parents Can Help a Child Grow (Michael Thompson)
The City of Ember (The First Book of Ember) (Jeanne DuPrau)
Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever’s Search for the Truth about Everything (Barbara Ehrenreich)
You Should Have Known (Jean Hanff Korelitz)
Cambridge (Susanna Kaysen)
X vs. Y: A Culture War, a Love Story (Leonora Epstein and Eve Epstein)
An American Childhood (Annie Dillard)
Me Before You: A Novel (JoJo Moyes)
All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood (Jennifer Senior)
Life Work (Donald Hall)
Anonymous Sources (Mary Louise Kelly)
Glitter and Glue: A Memoir (Kelly Corrigan)
The Best Day the Worst Day: Life with Jane Kenyon (Donald Hall)
Early Decision: Based on a True Frenzy (Lacy Crawford)
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Vintage International) (Haruki Murakami)
The Engagements (Courtney Sullivan)
The Merry Recluse: A Life in Essays (Caroline Knapp)
Seating Arrangements (Vintage Contemporaries) (Maggie Shipstead)
The Giver (Readers Circle (Laurel-Leaf)) (Lois Lowry)
The Signature of All Things: A Novel (Elizabeth Gilbert)
Still Writing: The Pleasures and Perils of a Creative Life (Dani Shapiro)
Wonder (R.J. Palacio)
Magical Journey: An Apprenticeship in Contentment (Katrina Kenison)
The One and Only Ivan (Katherine Applegate)
Divergent (Divergent Series) (Veronica Roth)
The Fault in Our Stars (John Green)
The Light Between Oceans: A Novel (M.L. Stedman)
When It Happens to You: A Novel in Stories (Molly Ringwald)
The Longest Way Home: One Man’s Quest for the Courage to Settle Down (Andrew McCarthy)
Teach Your Children Well: Parenting for Authentic Success (Madeline Levine)
Those We Love Most (Lee Woodruff)
The Age of Miracles (Karen Thompson Walker)
Wild (Cheryl Strayed)
Wife 22 (Melanie Gideon)
The Red Book (Deborah Copagen Kogan)
The Starboard Sea (Amber Dermont)
Mrs Kimble (Jennifer Haigh)
Contents May Have Shifted (Pam Houston)
Faith (Jennifer Haigh)
The Anti-Romantic Child (Priscilla Gilman)
The Long Goodbye (Meghan O’Rourke)
The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
Learning to Breathe (Priscilla Warner)
Fire Season (Philip Connors)
One Day (David Nicholls)
This Beautiful Life (Helen Schulman)
Falling Apart in One Piece (Stacy Morrison)
Just Kids (Patti Smith)
Planting Dandelions (Kyran Pittman)
Townie (Andre Dubus)
This Life is in Your Hands (Melissa Coleman)
BossyPants (Tina Fey)
A Double Life (Lisa Catherine Harper)
Cinderella Ate My Daughter (Peggy Orenstein)
Poser: My Life in 23 Yoga Poses (Claire Dederer)
An Object of Beauty (Steve Martin)
Half a Life (Darin Strauss)
Family History (Dani Shapiro)
Three Stages of Amazement (Carol Edgarian)
Slow Motion (Dani Shapiro)
A Strong West Wind (Gail Caldwell)
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress (Rhoda Janzen)
Black and White (Dani Shapiro)
This is Not the Story You Think It Is (Laura Munson)
The Romantics (Galt Niederhoffer)
The Slippery Year (Melanie Gideon)
Life After Yes (Aidan Donnelley Rowley)
The Geography of Love (Glenda Burgess)
Hand Wash Cold (Karen Maezen Miller)
Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting (Kabat-Zinn)
The Gift of an Ordinary Day (Katrina Kenison)
Lift (Kelly Corrigan)
Devotion (Dani Shapiro)
Committed (Elizabeth Gilbert)
Abide With Me (Elizabeth Strout)
Olive Kitteridge (Elizabeth Strout)
Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith (Anne Lamott)
The Embers (Hyatt Bass)
It Happens Every Day (Isabelle Gillies)
World Made By Hand (James Howard Kunstler)
Divisadero (Ondaatje)
How I Became a Famous Novelist (Steve Hely)
The Sun Also Rises (Hemingway)
Perfect Life (Jessica Shattuck)
Home Game (Michael Lewis)
Bad Mother (Ayelet Waldman)
Free Range Kids (Lenore Skenazy)
Changing Planes (Ursula Leguin)
Anathem (Neil Stephenson)
Healthy Child Healthy World (Christopher Gavignan)
Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
Better (Atul Gawande)
Comfort (Ann Hood)
Here if You Need Me (Kate Braestrup)
Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson)