The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing
Melissa Bank
A linked short story collection following one woman from her preteens to adulthood. Its exploration of love, dating, and ambition is sharp and funny and wonderfully honest; I’ve read it multiple times and always notice something different.
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★ 5Happy All the Time
Laurie Colwin
Colwin writing about happy people in love, which sounds boring and is somehow the opposite. Warm, witty, and completely charming.
★ 5Middlesex
Jeffrey Eugenides
The sweeping story of Cal, intersex, and three generations of a Greek American family. Eugenides makes the whole saga sing.
★ 5Bel Canto
Ann Patchett
Bel Canto by Anne Patchett is, I think, her masterpiece. (And I’ve read all of her books!) The plot sounds like it’s ripped from an airport thriller: An opera singer is performing at a millionaire’s birthday party when terrorists take the entire mansion hostage. But what happens next is anything but predictable, and the prose is gorgeous. I read it every few years and recommend it to all of my friends.