Becky

The handful of books I am currently most excited about are right here on this page. I read widely, though, and hate to ever remove a book from my list of suggestions, so I've categorized my archived picks. Scroll down and click on the links to find more of my recommendations! 

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Come and Get It By Kiley Reid Cover Image
$29.00
ISBN: 9780593328200
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Published: G.P. Putnam's Sons - January 30th, 2024

Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D' By Michael Cecchi-Azzolina Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9781250325747
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Published: St. Martin's Griffin - January 23rd, 2024

Everything Is Temporary: Illustrated Contemplations on How Death Shapes Our Lives By Iris Gottlieb Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593419472
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Published: TarcherPerigee - August 23rd, 2022

Reading Jane: A Daughter's Memoir By Susannah Kennedy Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9781736795477
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Published: Sibylline Press - September 5th, 2023

Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive By Stephanie Land, Barbara Ehrenreich (Foreword by) Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780316505093
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Published: Legacy Lit - January 21st, 2020

Central Park West: A Crime Novel By James Comey Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9781613164037
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Published: Mysterious Press - May 30th, 2023

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Everything/Nothing/Someone: A Memoir By Alice Carrière Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9781954118294
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Published: Spiegel & Grau - August 29th, 2023

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August Blue: A Novel By Deborah Levy Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780374602048
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Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux - June 6th, 2023

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In the Orchard: A novel By Eliza Minot Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780307593474
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Published: Knopf - April 25th, 2023

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Elsewhere: A Novel By Alexis Schaitkin Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781250219626
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Published: Celadon Books - July 11th, 2023

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The Marriage Portrait: A novel By Maggie O'Farrell Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593315088
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Published: Vintage - July 11th, 2023

A Flaw in the Design: A Novel By Nathan Oates Cover Image
$28.00
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ISBN: 9780593446706
Published: Random House - March 21st, 2023

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We Should Not Be Friends: The Story of a Friendship By Will Schwalbe Cover Image
$29.00
ISBN: 9780525654933
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Published: Knopf - February 21st, 2023

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Tides By Sara Freeman Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780802162304
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Published: Grove Press - January 17th, 2023

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Small Mercies: A Detective Mystery By Dennis Lehane Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9780062129482
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Published: Harper - April 25th, 2023

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Also a Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me By Ada Calhoun Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780802162137
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Published: Grove Press - April 18th, 2023

I liked this book so damn much. It's a memoir, but it's also a biography and a social history. Also a Poet is Ada Calhoun's very personal investigation of her father, the art critic Peter Schjeldahl, by way of his relationship to the work and life of the poet John O'Hara. It's not only a true pleasure to read, it is rich with information about a literary movement with which I was only vaguely familiar, so I learned a lot. For me, that is the description of the perfect book, so... This book is perfect. 


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Easy Beauty: A Memoir By Chloé Cooper Jones Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781982152000
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Published: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster - April 4th, 2023

Not since Lucy Grealy's Autobiography of a Face has a disability/disease memoir captured my consciousness so intensely. Jones, a philosopher by training, shares her most intimate observations of life–beauty, suffering, and the quotidian acts we all perform–through her scholar's lens, but does not leave out her personal circumstances: she has a rare congenital condition known as sacral ageneis and is small, hunched, unable to walk "normally", and is in chronic pain. Without making an explicit argument or banging the drum of identity politics, she nevertheless ignites a radical empathy in the reader. I did not want to work the day I wrote this: I only wanted to read this gorgeous book.


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The Horsewoman By James Patterson, Mike Lupica Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781538752937
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Published: Grand Central Publishing - December 13th, 2022

Why do I feel so compelled to make my endorsement of this book into a confession? Likely because I am a terrible book snob and before this particular James Patterson book came along, I had never felt the least bit inclined to read anything of his oeuvre (I told you I was a snob). But because I'm a snob, I know something about the world of compettive show jumping, and I couldn't resist this story of a mother and daughter competing for a spot on the Olympic team. The writing is only so-so and the characters are strictly 2D, but it didn't matter; Patterson knows how to spin a yarn and move the reader along (his trick? Short. Chapters. Over a hundred of them!). I could not put it down. We all need a light read now and then, so go out there, find a James Patterson novel about something that interests you (and note, I can barely ride a horse, so you needn't be an expert, only vaguely curious) and read it. I promise you pleasure and the satisfaction of finishing, if nothing else. 


In Every Life: (Caldecott Honor) By Marla Frazee, Marla Frazee (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Marla Frazee, Marla Frazee (Illustrator)
$18.99
ISBN: 9781665912488
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Published: Beach Lane Books - February 7th, 2023

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Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory By Sarah Polley Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780593300374
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Published: Penguin Books - February 6th, 2024

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The Comfort Book By Matt Haig Cover Image
$22.00
ISBN: 9780143136668
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Published: Penguin Life - July 6th, 2021

Lessons: A novel By Ian McEwan Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780593468630
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Published: Vintage - July 25th, 2023

At once a sprawling history and a deeply intimate story, Lessons is an impressive and moving feat of novelistic ambition and artistry. McEwan explores, through the life of his protagonist Roland Baines, the impact on us of both uniquely personal experiences and global historical events. And I say, "on us," because throughout this book I recognized myself, in spite of the generational, cultural, and gender divide between me and Roland Baines (and McEwan, for that matter). McEwan's ability to universalize his characters' struggles without diluting the specificity of the story is so masterful as to verge on the magical. 

I rarely listen to such literary fiction, as I'm too easily distracted and lose the nuances, but Lessons was so compelling from the very beginning that not only was I able to stay with it, I relished the focus it demanded and used it as a most effective distraction while running long distances for marathon training. And now that the listening is over, I'm going to read the physical book, because that's how much I loved it. 

If you choose to listen, please consider joining Libro.fm, the audiobook app that supports independent bookstores like VBS. Here's the LINK. You can subscribe or purchase one book at a time. 


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The Marriage Portrait: A novel By Maggie O'Farrell Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593315088
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - July 11th, 2023

I liked this even more than Hamnet! Set in 16th C. Italy, then an assemblage of dynastic city-states, The Marriage Portrait is the story of Lucrezia de' Medici, the 15 year-old daughter of the grand duke of Tuscany, who has been betrothed to the son of the duke of Ferrara upon her older sister's untimely death. O'Farrell, who proved with Hamnet her a deft creativity with historical material, has written an elegant and downright thrilling drama. While reading this sumptuous book I swear I could feel the fabrics of the various characters' clothing, sense the damp of the stone-walled castles, and smell the burning candle wax. Fabulous!


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Fellowship Point: A Novel By Alice Elliott Dark Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9781982131821
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books - May 9th, 2023

I loved this big, sprawling book about a Maine summer "cottage" community and the Quaker Philadelphians who settled it so much that I hybridized my reading experience in order to not have to stop unless conversation was unavoidable. I read the physical book when I could, and when I had to do something else, I put in headphones and listened to the audio. In this manner, I finished it in 2 days. The strong, fiercely independent, 80 year-old woman at its center — Agnes Lee, a renowned children's book author — won my heart in much the same way as Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteredge did. I might actually be looking forward to growing old now... 


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MOTHERCARE: On Obligation, Love, Death, and Ambivalence By Lynne Tillman Cover Image
$23.00
ISBN: 9781593767174
Availability: Special Order, Hard to Find
Published: Soft Skull - August 2nd, 2022

I can hardly express how much respect I have for the great Lynne Tillman's willingness to put this work into the world. For how do we write about our mothers? All true honesty on the subject is inherently brutal, and when caregiving comes into play, the stakes are so, so much higher. I suggest pairing this with Brian Morton's Tasha to take in the full hellscape of caring for a difficult, deteriorating mother. 


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The Crane Wife: A Memoir in Essays By CJ Hauser Cover Image
$28.00
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ISBN: 9780385547079
Published: Doubleday - July 12th, 2022

This memoir-in-essays is revealing, perceptive, and terribly funny. I gulped it down along with my near-beer and a bowl of pita chips over the course of a few evenings while my husband cooked, periodically reading him passages I simply could not keep to myself. Upon finishing, I put the book down and took a moment to mourn the fact that I am neither among Hauser's students, friends, or chosen family, nor her dog. 


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Mouth to Mouth: A Novel By Antoine Wilson Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781982181819
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster - January 17th, 2023

This is definitely one of the oddest books I've read in a long time. Wilson uses a storytelling device not unlike that employed by Patricia Highsmith in The Talented Mr. Ripley, wherein one character recounts to another a rather long and complicated story. The reader shares with the receiving half of the conversational pair an enticing dose of wonder, disbelief, and surprise at what is being disclosed over complimentary food and drink in a first-class lounge during a flight delay. I listened to this one, to be honest, and it got me through several runs which might have otherwise been pretty brutal! Mouth to Mouth was on Barack Obama's summer reading list. I admit, I fell for his recommendation. Glad I did!


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Trust (Pulitzer Prize Winner) By Hernan Diaz Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593420324
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Published: Riverhead Books - May 2nd, 2023

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The Year of the Horses: A Memoir By Courtney Maum Cover Image
$27.95
ISBN: 9781953534156
Availability: Special Order, Hard to Find
Published: Tin House Books - May 3rd, 2022

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The Treehouse on Dog River Road By Catherine Drake Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781647423513
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: She Writes Press - May 10th, 2022

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Mary Jane: A Novel By Jessica Anya Blau Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780063052307
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Published: Mariner Books - April 5th, 2022

Charming, warm-hearted, and uplifiting! Mary Jane is the story of a nerdy 14-year old girl in 1970's Baltimore, who slips out from under the strictures of her conservative parents when she is hired as a summer nanny for the progressive family down the street. The dad is a psychiatrist who is secretively treating the rock-star husband of a TV variety show star (think Cher), whom the braless hippie mom has been assigned to keep company. Mary Jane whips the messy house into shape, takes marvelous care of her charge, and learns how to have a little fun in the process. 


What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir (Vintage International) By Haruki Murakami Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780307389831
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Published: Vintage - August 11th, 2009

Taste: My Life Through Food By Stanley Tucci Cover Image
$29.00
ISBN: 9781982168018
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Published: Gallery Books - October 5th, 2021

I am neither foodie nor fan (though I like food and I have nothing against Stanley Tucci), but I picked this up after hearing an interview and am so glad I did. Tucci's reminiscences of dishes and meals and moments of his suburban childhood drew me in and warmed my heart - and my belly. We have made a couple of his recipes and they're just what you want from a memoir with recipes: food for and by real people. I especially recommend the variation on Pasta e Fagioli that includes scrambled eggs. Mmmm.


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The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois: An Oprah's Book Club Pick By Honoree Fanonne Jeffers Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9780062942951
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Published: Harper Perennial - May 10th, 2022

The reason this book is so big is because it is both a stunning novel and an entire, gut-wrenching course in the history of Black people in America. Jeffers needs all of its nearly 800 pages to accommodate the rich detail and complexities of one family's Georgia roots and the myriad ways those roots have informed the branches generations on. She might have told the story in half the words, but to our great fortune, the poet Jeffers had all the words to tell it whole. Make space for this book; it is a treasure.


Great Circle: A Novel (Man Booker Prize Finalist) By Maggie Shipstead Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781984897701
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - April 5th, 2022

If you're looking for a big, rich novel to get lost in, look no further. With threads of romance and adventure, Shipstead weaves together the story of an eccentric woman aviator and the troubled Hollywood actress taped to play her in a bio-pic, ultimately revealing the paradoxical fragility and durability of human lives. 


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The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven By Nathaniel Ian Miller Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780316592581
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Back Bay Books - October 4th, 2022

Intimacies: A Novel By Katie Kitamura Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780399576171
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Riverhead Books - July 19th, 2022

An unnamed narrator, recently relocated from New York City, has taken a new job as a translator at the International Criminal Courts in The Hague. Lonely, she takes up with a Dutchman whose wife has recently left him and taken his children to Portugal. At work, she is assigned to translate for the despot of an unnamed African nation who has been accused of war crimes. more is communicated in the gaps of this spellbinding novel than in its actual words, much as in real life. 


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Klara and the Sun: A novel (Vintage International) By Kazuo Ishiguro Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780593311295
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - March 1st, 2022

Kazuo Ishiguro is, hands down, the reigning master of the understated novel, and Klara and the Sun is yet another laurel in his crown. The bulk of the emotional substance of this novel about a girl and her solar-powered artificial friend occurs below the surface. The text tells the story, but its meaning is between the words, which is not to say it's a hard book... Ishiguro feeds it to the reader, but manages to do so by sleight of hand. I was mesmerized by this magical novel. 


O Beautiful: A Novel By Jung Yun Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9781250853585
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: St. Martin's Griffin - February 28th, 2023

This was not the novel I expected. It is far more immediate, gritty, timely. From the jacket and title, I expected one of those "lyrical" novels, when in fact it is about a tough, young, Asian-American journalist who returns to ther remote corner of America where she was raised, but which has been irrevocably changed by the oil boom and the men who populate it. It's about gender and class and money and sex and violence... In other words, it's kind of dark. I loved it, but the pretty painting on the cover is all wrong. 


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I Hate Running and You Can Too: How to Get Started, Keep Going, and Make Sense of an Irrational Passion By Brendan Leonard Cover Image
$14.95
ISBN: 9781579659882
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Artisan - March 16th, 2021

The Magician: A Novel By Colm Toibin Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9781476785097
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Published: Scribner - September 20th, 2022

It's not a book for everyone, but Com Toibin's new novel about Thomas Mann sure triggered my intellectual curiosity. My knowledge of the Nobel-winning German novelist was limited to those minimal signifiers until Toibin opened the doors of the man's mind and welcomed me in. Now I understand Mann's place in the pantheon of 20th C. literature and have a deeper understanding of Germany, European politics, and America's promise – or lack thereof – for the exiled. I'd never really had any interest in reading Mann, but Buddenbrooks is now on my stack and I am looking forward to diving in, with Toibin's Mann to inform my experience. 


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The Midnight Library: A GMA Book Club Pick (A Novel) By Matt Haig Cover Image
$26.00
ISBN: 9780525559474
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Published: Viking - September 29th, 2020

This is a charming and profoundly hopeful book. Due to its popularity I may have avoided it just a little, but I am so glad that I gave in because I genuinely enjoyed it and found some useful wisdom between its pages. I would recommend it as readily to the young, who still have so many choices left which will determine the course of their lives, as to the (let's say) more mature, who may be grappling with regrets. Delightful, reassuring, magical.


The Lincoln Highway: A Novel By Amor Towles Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780735222366
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Penguin Books - March 21st, 2023

Towles lives up to his estimable reputation with this story of four boys, eachi in search of his own version of liberty, on the road together. It's adventurous and fun, yet heartfelt and full of compassion for its characters. I thoroughly enjoyed htis novel for all of its elements: plot, character development, quality of prose, readability – The Lincoln Highway has it all!


What Are You Going Through: A Novel By Sigrid Nunez Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593191422
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Riverhead Books - September 7th, 2021

A middle-aged woman goes out of town to visit a friend who is dying of cancer and encounters a man with whom she was once involved. That's pretty much the plot; the pleasures of this novel by the National Book Award winner for The Friend are the internal musings of a woman who has begun to feel invisible. Reading it was like having a long, intense conversation with a close friend. Think Sally Rooney for those of us over 40.... I loved this book!


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