The Pursuit of Alice Thrift
Elinor Lipman
A prickly, socially clueless surgical intern gets courted by a fast-talking charmer. Lipman is so good at awkward, funny people.
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The Inn at Lake Devine (Vintage Contemporaries)
Elinor Lipman
A Jewish girl becomes quietly obsessed with a Vermont inn that won't take Jewish guests. Lipman turns prejudice into something wry and human without letting it off the hook.
★ 5At Weddings and Wakes
Alice McDermott
An Irish-Catholic family in New York, seen through the kids being shuttled to their grandmother's apartment. McDermott makes the ordinary ache.
★ 5Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Anne Tyler
The Tull family, wounded and prickly, told through the meals that never quite go right. One of Tyler's most bittersweet.
★ 5The Amateur Marriage
Anne Tyler
A story about a marriage that shouldn’t have happened. A gorgeous recreation of Baltimore from 1940s to present-day. I recommended it to Aliza, and she left me multiple voice notes about how much she loved it.
★ 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.