read-alikes and weekend travel guarantees (and hey, welcome!)
Only a real reader knows the distress of putting down a book you loved, one where you savored every page and slowed down to keep from getting to the end. Not to mention the horror of taking one (1!) book on a trip and realizing, one chapter in, that you have chosen … poorly.
I got you! And also, HEY HOWDY. A bunch of you are new here (thanks to Booksweeps, and I DO hope you’ll stick around—this is the best email for readers like us) so here’s the deal: I write New York Times best-selling, fun-but-oh-I-also-see-myself, thoughtful books about relationships (as in, sisters, mother-daughter, bffs) including Reese’s Book Club pick The Chicken Sisters, In Her Boots and—coming this fall—Playing the Witch Card, which is Elin Hilderbrand-but-make-it-witches with a stolen deck of rather rogue tarot cards.
But HERE, in this weekly #AmReading email, I focus on other books—books I loved, that gave me what I hope my books give readers. If you’d like more Taylor Jenkins Reid, more Kristan Higgins, more Steven Rowley, Emily Henry, Annabel Monaghan—in short, more joy—in your reading life, you’re in the right place. On to this week’s project! Here are the books to head to after you’ve just gobbled one of these delights, and the bonus is that any of the books is pretty much guaranteed to fill that I-can-only-take-one-book weekend need. If the description sounds like it’s for you, I can tell you that what’s in the jar is as good as the label. So here goes!
Loved Same Time Next Summer? Try The Reunion from Kayla Olson (assuming you’ve already read Nora Goes Off Script). Here we have smart books about smart adult women who’d like to have the right romance in their lives, but also already have lives that will go on regardless—and it’s never entirely clear what will or should happen or why. All three also offer that dash of glamour that a beach read needs (speaking of which, Beach Read itself is the perfect romance).
Speaking of romance—if you adore Ali Hazelwood and have already gobbled up Love, Theoretically, reach for The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley by Courtney Walsh for more stifled academics yearning for love and tenure. And if you’ve read and enjoyed absolutely any romance, ever, then your hard-earned hard cover $$ should absolutely go to The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren, the absolutely meta uber-romance for romance fans everywhere.
Still mourning The Devil Wears Prada, which you read oh-so-many-years-ago? If it’s the assistant to the famous piece that you treasured, you must, must, must run out and grab A Star Is Bored, darling. Is it a roman-a-clef from Carrie Fisher’s one-time assistant (Byron Lane) told with love and tenderness and with a story all its own? It is.
There’s no one like Liane Moriarty, but fans of Apples Never Fall and The Husband’s Secret should absolutely check out Swimming with Ghosts from Michelle Brafman, which has all the parents-behaving-badly in the suburbs you could possibly want, and just a touch of her twisty this isn’t a thriller and yet maybe it is vibe.
Speaking of humans behaving badly, if you jumped on Yellowface the very minute it came out, do try Who Is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews for more in the writers-behaving-badly genre, which I wrote about two weeks ago here.
JANE AUSTEN FANS ALERT: You must grab The Other Bennet Sister , which is Mary Bennet’s story and feels like exactly the way a modern Jane Austen would have told it. (Mystery readers—special shout out to The Murder of Mr. Wickham and The Late Mrs. Willoughby, which I wrote about last week here.
BONUS: Road trip audio with broad appeal: Murderbot Diaries (and the rest of the series). My entire family (teens and adults) adored this dry story of a humanoid robot who decides to take control of his own fate. Your results may vary, but I’d say this would work for pre-teens and some younger kids as well. Also check out Murder Your Employer (with Neil Patrick Harris!) for a twisty fun story of highly justifiable homicide—and its costs.
That’s it from me this week! But if you ARE new around here—you can download a free first chapter of In Her Boots right HERE with just one click below. And The Chicken Sisters in digital form will be super-duper on sale next week, so watch this space for details!
Before you go, the weekly poll! You’re packing for the aforementioned weekend getaway. It’s somewhere glam (this is our fantasy after all) with parties and hikes and drinks by the pool but of course there will be time to read! Bags are small and space is tight (and you want to look chic boarding that flight, so you’re toting only a stylish mini pack). How many books do you REALLY take?