Truth & Beauty
Ann Patchett
Patchett's memoir of her fierce, complicated friendship with the writer Lucy Grealy. One of the great books about platonic love.
Buy on Bookshop.org ↗If you liked this, try…
★ 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.
The Pleasing Hour
Lily King
King's debut, about a young American au pair for a family in France with its own quiet fault lines. You can already feel the writer she'd become.
★ 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.