The Floating Feldmans by Elyssa Friedland. This is about a family (grandparents, two adult children, two young adult grandchildren) who go on a cruise for the grandmother’s 70th birthday. It’s not an action packed book by any means but I found it very entertaining to listen to. Recommend!

The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth. This is about three young moms who live in the same neighborhood in Australia and each have their own set of family issues. I REALLY liked it and it redeemed Sally Hepworth for me after not loving The Secrets of Midwives. It has Liane Moriarty vibes. Recommend!

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware. This one has a LOT going on. A girl becoming a nanny at a creepy house in the middle of nowhere, smart house having a mind of its own, ghosts, haunted children, creepy dad. It was okay but I like a lot of her other books much better (The Woman in Cabin 10 and In a Dark, Dark Wood specifically).

I Found You by Lisa Jewell. My cousin Megan recommended this author to me in general and I put a bunch of her books on hold and this was the first one I got! Megan said she has Liane Moriarty vibes, too (I like how this is a bar we can all agree on) and I don’t disagree. I found this a little long but definitely unpredictable and I’m 100% going to read whatever I get next!

After the End by Clare Mackintosh. I looooooooved this. It is so so heartbreaking- about a couple with a two year old son with a terminal cancer diagnosis and they disagree on whether to provide palliative care or take him to the US for some experimental therapy and have to go to court. But I could not stop listening to it and the author explains at the end that she faced a similar choice with her own son so I think she takes extra care to be sensitive to all perspectives on the topic. Highly recommend. (I also really liked one of her other books- I Let You Go).

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb. This is non-fiction: a psychotherapist writing about her own experience in therapy, as well as sharing the stories of 4 of her patients. I imagine there’s some creative license with all of it but I generally found it entertaining and interesting. The audiobook is extremely long but we know this isn’t an issue for me because I travel constantly.

The Last Widow by MY GIRL Karin Slaughter. Finally another Will Trent book is here! It wasn’t my favorite of the series but it was still good. And the topic of this one was definitely timely given the actual craziness happening in the world right now (think Charlottesville…)

Vox by Christina Dalcher. The woman next to me on one of my flights recently was reading this and the cover says something about it being comparable to Handmaid’s Tale, so I figured I would give it a shot. It definitely has the anti-feminism, cult Christian vibes; the premise is that women have to wear “counters” on their wrists that limit their number of words to 100 per day and if they exceed it they get an electric shock. The main character is a renowned sociolinguist, now confined to housewife life, so there’s a lot of speech-pathology jargon that I could appreciate. It started off decent but then got bad. Pass.

She Said by Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey. This is basically the story of the “Me Too” movement written by the women who broke the Harvey Weinstein story. They cover Weinstein, Trump, and Brett Kavanaugh. I think it was a little too long but I thought they did an excellent job of 1) somehow staying relatively non-partisan and 2) acknowledging when the “Me Too” movement has gone too far and gotten a little cloudy.

My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing. This is about an average suburban married couple who happen to capture and murder women on the side as a hobby. I liked it, didn’t love it. Given the subject matter you would think it would be a thriller but it’s pretty subdued.

American Royals by Katharine McGee. The premise of this is that George Washington became America’s first king rather than president, and the monarchy has continued into present day. I simultaneously loved this and can see it being turned into a terrible teen drama on Freeform. There’s a sequel coming in 2020 that I am already anxiously awaiting. Thank you Amanda for the recommendation!!

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. Unlike a lot of people I am not a diehard Kristin Hannah fan. I find some of her books to be incredibly corny, but I did LOVE The Nightingale so when I was looking for something quickly available I grabbed this. It’s about a 14-year-old girl who moves to a super remote part of Alaska with her parents in the 1970s after her dad gets back from Vietnam. It’s definitely too long but it held my attention. I’m still neutral on Kristin Hannah.

If You Tell by Gregg Olsen. This is an absolutely insane true story of this woman who abused her daughters, nephew, and random adult female friend. I picked it as my Kindle First book for November and couldn’t put it down despite it being horrific. Really weird and coincidental because I was just telling the GS about A Child Called It and then ended up getting this, too. Recommend but not for the faint of heart.

Books that I didn’t finish because I wasn’t into them at the 40% mark: Mostly Dead Things by Kristin Arnett and The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner. They were both dark and depressing in a weird way that I did not enjoy. I also tried to read You and didn’t like it, but I could not get into the show at all either (sorry I know everyone was obsessed with it) so I don’t know why I thought I’d like the book.

Books I’m excited for: Three Women, The Dutch House (the audiobook is narrated by Tom Hanks!!), and Then She Was Gone. Send me your recommendations!