Smart but easy
My favorite category of book. Smart enough to keep you interested but not so difficult you're wading through.
20 books
★ 5Heart the Lover
Lily King
A college love triangle from the '80s reignites decades later when crisis pulls the three back together. Turns out it's Casey from Writers & Lovers all grown up, and King just keeps getting better.
The Road to Tender Hearts
Annie Hartnett
An 80-year-old sets off across the country to win back his high school crush, then gets saddled with two orphaned grandkids and a cat who can predict death. Darkly funny and big-hearted at once.
★ 5The Heart of Winter
Jonathan Evison
Ruth and Abe, nearly 70 years married, opposites who somehow made it work. A tender ode to the long haul and all the small forgivenesses it takes.
★ 5The Other Bennet Sister
Janice Hadlow
Plain, overlooked Mary Bennet finally gets her own story, and it's lovely. If you're an Austen fan, this one's for you.
★ 5Beautyland
Marie-Helene Bertino
A girl who's pretty sure she's an alien faxes her observations about Earth back home. Weird, funny, and it completely won me over.
★ 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.
★ 5Margo's Got Money Troubles
Rufi Thorpe
A broke young single mom starts an OnlyFans and ropes in her ex-wrestler dad. So much more heart and wit than that premise suggests.
★ 5Sandwich
Catherine Newman
Sandwich, by Catherine Newman, describes a family’s week-long vacation in Wellfleet and instantly transported me back. It’s funny, moving, and relatable, much like Newman herself (Aliza and I saw her speak in Boston a few weeks ago.) If you just finished All Fours and aren’t ready to stop thinking/reading about menopause, try Sandwich next.
★ 5The Husbands
Holly Gramazio
Every time a husband goes up to the attic, a new one comes down, with a whole new life attached. A wildly clever premise that's secretly about choice.
★ 5Heartburn
Nora Ephron
A food writer's marriage falls apart while she's pregnant, told with jokes and recipes. Bitter, hilarious, and over far too fast.
★ 5Nothing to See Here
Kevin Wilson
A woman is hired to care for two kids who literally burst into flames when they're upset. Somehow this is a tender, hilarious book about love. Loved it.
★ 5Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
Kathleen Rooney
An 85-year-old former ad copywriter walks across Manhattan on New Year's Eve, remembering her whole dazzling life. I adored her.
★ 5The Nix
Nathan Hill
A man reconnects with the mother who abandoned him, now suddenly in the national news. Sprawling, ambitious, and a total blast.
★ 5Eligible
Curtis Sittenfeld
A modern-day Pride and Prejudice set in Cincinnati, and enormous fun. No one does banter and human foibles better than Sittenfeld.
★ 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.
Like This, But Funnier
Hallie Cantor
A stalled TV writer snoops in her therapist husband's patient notes and just... can't help herself. A laugh-out-loud debut about ambition, envy, and faking it in Hollywood.
The Shampoo Effect
Jenny Jackson
From the Pineapple Street author: a New Yorker parachutes into a tight seaside-town friend group and stirs everything up. A fun, fast beach read with a little more going on underneath.
Alan Opts Out
Courtney Maum
An ad guy tanks the biggest pitch of his life and decides to just... opt out of capitalism entirely, from his suburban Connecticut backyard. Funny and sharp about ambition and privilege.
Same As It Ever Was
Claire Lombardo
A big, engrossing novel about a stay-at-home mom coming undone, and the older woman whose friendship reshapes her life. Lombardo writes marriage and parenthood and loneliness better than almost anyone.
Fellowship Point
Alice Elliott Dark
Two women in their eighties, lifelong friends, and a stretch of Maine coast they're fighting over. Rich and slow in the best way.