Anxious People by Frederik Backman. You know our boy Frederik as the author of A Man Called Ove. This is his newest book and, while I think it was too long, it was completely lovely and heartwarming and I absolutely love the way he writes. Recommend.

Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman. We watched the Netflix series (only 4 episodes) and really liked it so I wanted to read the book. The book is totally different from the show, and a good read! Definitely kind of depressing and sad but very interesting.

People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd. I don’t know that I’ve ever done this in 46 Kindle posts but I have to recommend strongly that no one read this book. I think it was a Skimm recommendation? It initially masquerades as a story about a mommy influencer who gets carried away but then it goes to a very dark and triggering place that I really really didn’t like. And this is coming from a person who would choose Karin Slaughter as one of the 3 people at my imaginary celebrity dinner. If you’re interested in the mommy influencer angle, listen to Jo Piazza’s “Under the Influence” podcast series.

The Hunting Game by Lucy Foley. I was really excited about this because I absolutely loved The Guest List but unfortunately this was boring. It reminded me a lot of One by One which I also didn’t like. Sorry Lucy.

The Kindest Lie by Nancy Johnson. This is about a woman who had a baby at 17 and gave him up for adoption, and then at 29 when she’s ready to have children with her husband decides she wants to try to track him down. It was just okay. It’s kind of slow and the audiobook didn’t add anything special.

The Love Season by Elin Hilderbrand. This is an old one (2006) that all takes place in one day, obviously with flashbacks. Definitely my least favorite Elin that I’ve ever read, not least because she uses a word that is very offensive and not politically correct (and wasn’t in 2006, or in 1996 for that matter) which really caught me off guard. If you haven’t yet read 28 Summers I recommend that one to get you in the Nantucket summer spirit.

The Next Wife by Kaira Rouda. I chose this as a Kindle First book and had to quit at 40% because the writing was so terrible. Now that “The ________ Wife ” is literally its own genre, I have much higher standards about the quality and this is a hard pass.

Good Company by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney. A pretty easy listen about two women who were aspiring actors in New York and both end up in LA, on different life paths. It was well-written and held my attention but I’m 100% sure if you ask me a year from now if I’ve ever read it, I won’t remember and will have to search the blog archives.

Parachutes by Kelly Yang. This is a YA novel about an international school in LA where Chinese students frequently attend and live with a host family- it centers around a wealthy Chinese girl who ends up living with the family of a fellow student and her single mom. It wasn’t the best book I’ve ever read but it held my attention and was entertaining.

Confessions on the 7:45 by Lisa Unger. This was SO GOOD. I listened to most of it on a day trip to WV and it made the trip go by beautifully fast. Kind of a suburban mystery/thriller vibe like Girl on the Train and I was very into it.

Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny. There’s this podcast that’s meant to help you fall asleep called “Nothing Much Happens” where a woman with a soothing voice tells a story where nothing much happens. It’s meant to give your mind just enough to focus on without being interesting enough to keep you awake to find out what happens. That’s what this book is like. The end.

The One by John Marrs. I LOVED this. The premise is that a DNA test is discovered which determines your “match” (as in a romantic match) so you can send in your DNA like you’re submitting to Ancestry or something and, if your person has also done it, you’ll find out your match. It sounded a little sci-fi to me but it didn’t read that way. It’s several separate stories of different situations, largely based on London. An engaged couple decides to find out their matches and (not surprisingly) they aren’t to each other. A woman finds her match only to have him die before she can meet him. A woman is matched with a serial killer. I couldn’t stop listening. Highly recommend!

Hope this kicks off your summer reading!