Tag: fiction

Inspired by Austen

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Are you a Jane Austen fan? Do you like books inspired by Jane Austen? If so, we have a great list for you! I have gathered a list of books inspired by Jane Austen (think Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, or Sense and Sensibility) that were published in 2023, 2024, and 2025. This is by no means a complete list of all books inspired by Jane Austen! If you’re looking for more or have a favorite that you would like to share, let us know in the comments.

As of this writing, all titles are owned by the Davenport Public Library. Descriptions are provided by the publisher.

Emma of 83rd Street by Audrey Bellezza

In this witty and romantic debut novel, Jane Austen’s Emma meets the misadventures of Manhattan’s modern dating scene as two lifelong friends discover that, in the search for love, you sometimes don’t have to look any further than your own backyard.

Beautiful, clever, and rich, Emma Woodhouse has lived twenty-three years in her tight-knit Upper East Side neighborhood with very little to distress or vex her…that is, until her budding matchmaking hobby results in her sister’s marriage—and subsequent move downtown. Now, with her sister gone and all her friends traveling abroad, Emma must start her final year of grad school grappling with an entirely new emotion: boredom. So when she meets Nadine, a wide-eyed Ohio transplant with a heart of gold and drugstore blonde highlights to match, Emma not only sees a potential new friend but a new project. If only her overbearing neighbor George Knightley would get out of her way.

Handsome, smart, and successful, the only thing that frustrates Knightley more than a corked whiskey is his childhood friend, Emma. Whether it’s her shopping sprees between classes or her revolving door of ill-conceived hobbies, he is only too happy to lecture her on all the finer points of adulthood she’s so hell-bent on ignoring. But despite his gripes—and much to his own chagrin—Knightley can’t help but notice that the girl next door is a woman now…one who he suddenly can’t get out of his head.

As Emma’s best laid plans collide with everyone from hipster baristas to meddling family members to flaky playboy millionaires, these two friends slowly realize their need to always be right has been usurped by a new need entirely, and it’s not long before they discover that even the most familiar stories still have some surprises. – Gallery Books

Good Fortune by C.K. Chau

A whip-smart and charming debut novel that brilliantly reimagines Pride and Prejudice, set in contemporary Chinatown, exploring contemporary issues of class divides, family ties, cultural identity, and the pleasures and frustrations that come with falling in love.

When Elizabeth Chen’s ever-hustling realtor mother finally sells the beloved if derelict community center down the block, the new owners don’t look like typical New York City buyers. Brendan Lee and Darcy Wong are good Chinese boys with Hong Kong money. Clean-cut and charismatic, they say they are committed to cleaning up the neighborhood. To Elizabeth, that only means one thing: Darcy is looking to give the center an uptown makeover.

Elizabeth is determined to fight for community over profit, even if it means confronting the arrogant, uptight man every chance she gets. But where clever, cynical Elizabeth sees lemons, her mother sees lemonade. Eager to get Elizabeth and her other four daughters ahead in the world (and out of their crammed family apartment), Mrs. Chen takes every opportunity to keep her investors close. Closer than Elizabeth likes.

The more time they spend together, the more conflicted Elizabeth feels…until a shocking betrayal forces her to reconsider everything she thought she knew about love, trust, and the kind of person Darcy Wong really is. – HarperVia

Just as You Are by Camille Kellogg

The only thing worse than hating your boss? Being attracted to her.

Liz Baker and her three roommates work at the Nether Fields, a queer magazine in New York that’s on the verge of shutting down—until it’s bought at the last minute by two wealthy lesbians. Liz knows she’s lucky to still have a paycheck but it’s hard to feel grateful with minority investor Daria Fitzgerald slashing budgets, cancelling bagel Fridays, and password protecting the color printer to prevent “frivolous use.” When Liz overhears Daria scoffing at her listicles, she knows that it’s only a matter of time before her impulsive mouth gets herself fired.

But as Liz and Daria wind up having to spend more and more time together, Liz starts to see a softer side to Daria—she’s funny, thoughtful, and likes the way Liz’s gender presentation varies between butch and femme. Despite the evidence that Liz can’t trust her, it’s hard to keep hating Daria—and even harder to resist the chemistry between them.

This page-turning, sexy, and delightfully funny rom-com celebrates queer culture, chosen family, and falling in love against your better judgment. – Dial Press Trade Paperback

Meet the Benedettos by Katie Cotugno

An A-list movie star moves to Los Angeles—next door to a family of five eligible sisters—in this irresistible novel where The Kardashians meets Pride and Prejudice, from the NYT bestselling author of Birds of California

Every family is complicated, and the Benedettos are no exception. A few years after a reality TV show skyrocketed them to pop-culture fame, the five twentysomething sisters are living together in their parents’ crumbling McMansion, nearly broke and teetering towards rock-bottom. Lilly, the sensible second-eldest sister, is all too aware that her family is viewed as a spectacle, but she’s focused on holding herself and her family together, and unlike her siblings she tends not to care what the world thinks.

The Benedettos’ fortunes finally appear to be brightening when Charlie Bingley, the dashing star of Captain Fantastic, moves into their Los Angeles neighborhood with his friend Will Darcy in tow. It isn’t long before Charlie falls for the warm and lovely eldest sister, June. Lilly has no such luck: the arrogant and judgmental Will Darcy, a man plagued by his own private demons, seems ready to clash with her at every turn–yet the two can’t seem to stay away from each other. And while the Benedettos’ matriarch sets to work encouraging a potential match between Charlie and June, there are plenty of others in the community who are determined to steer these eligible young men away from a ridiculous family of reality show has-beens… – Harper Perennial

Much Ado About Nada by Uzma Jalaluddin

A sparkling second-chance romance inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion…

Nada Syed is stuck. On the cusp of thirty, she’s still living at home with her brothers and parents in the Golden Crescent neighbourhood of Toronto, resolutely ignoring her mother’s unsubtle pleas to get married already. While Nada has a good job as an engineer, it’s a far cry from realizing her start-up dreams for her tech baby, Ask Apa, the app that launched with a whimper instead of a bang because of a double-crossing business partner. Nothing in her life has turned out the way it was supposed to, and Nada feels like a failure. Something needs to change, but the past is holding on too tightly to let her move forward.

Nada’s best friend Haleema is determined to pry her from her shell…and what better place than at the giant annual Muslim conference held downtown, where Nada can finally meet Haleema’s fiancé, Zayn. And did Haleema mention Zayn’s brother Baz will be there?

What Haleema doesn’t know is that Nada and Baz have a past—some of it good, some of it bad and all of it secret. At the conference, that past all comes hurtling at Nada, bringing new complications and a moment of reckoning. Can Nada truly say goodbye to once was or should she hold tight to her dreams and find their new beginnings? – Berkley

Once Persuaded, Twice Shy: A Modern Reimagining of Persuasion by Melodie Edwards

This modern reimagining of Persuasion is full of witty banter, romantic angst, and compelling characters as it captures the heart of the classic Jane Austen novel.

When Anne Elliott broke up with Ben Wentworth, it seemed like the right thing to do . . . but now, eight years later, she’s not so sure.

In her scenic hometown of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Anne is comfortable focusing on her successful career: filling her late mother’s shoes as town councilor and executive director of her theater company. She certainly keeps busy as the all-around wrangler of eccentric locals, self-centered family members, elaborate festivals, and the occasional attacking goose. But the more she tries to convince herself that her life is fine as is, the more it all feels like a show—and not nearly as good as the ones put on by her theater company. She’s the always responsible Anne, always taken for granted and cleaning up after other people, and the memories of happier times with Ben Wentworth still haunt her.

So when the nearby Kellynch Winery is bought by Ben’s aunt and uncle, Anne’s world is set ablaze as her old flame crashes back into her life—and it’s clear he hasn’t forgiven her for breaking his heart. A joint project between the winery and Anne’s theater forces both Ben and Anne to confront their complicated history, and as they spend more time together, Anne can’t help but wonder if there might be hope for their future after all. – Berkley

Puck & Prejudice by Lia Riley

From the author of Mister Hockey comes a sizzling marriage of convenience romance between a pro hockey player who accidentally travels back in time to Regency Era England and the brazen contemporary of Jane Austen he just can’t help but fall for…

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a modern single man in possession of a hockey jersey may be exactly what a Regency woman needs to avoid the shackles of marriage…

Goalie for the Austin Regals, Tucker Taylor is benched due to health issues. So he decides to visit his sister in England. But an accidental plunge into an icy pond thrusts him back to 1812 where he comes face to face with a captivating blue-eyed woman who regards him as if he’s grown two heads.

Lizzy Wooddash dreams of a life surrounded by books, engaging conversation, the presence of literary icons like Jane Austen, and… nary a husband in sight. But in Regency England, only widows like her cousin Georgie enjoy freedom and solitary pursuits, unencumbered by expectations. The only way to quickly become a widow is by marrying a dying man or killing a perfectly healthy one, neither of which Lizzy desires.

A visitor from the future might just be the husband of her dreams. Once married, they can figure out how to return Tucker to his proper time, and his absence—aka death—will make Lizzy the widow she always dreamed of becoming. Yet as sparks ignite, they soon realize that matters of the heart rarely adhere to carefully laid plans. Can their love stand the test of time, or will Lizzy get exactly what she wanted…as well as a broken heart? – Avon

Sex, Lies and Sensibility by Nikki Payne

Two sisters roll up their sleeves to run a dilapidated inn but must learn to work with the locals in this deliciously spicy novel inspired by Sense and Sensibility.

There’s never a good time to learn you are your father’s secret child—especially not at the reading of his will. With their father’s affairs laid bare and Nora’s sensible reputation in tatters due to a viral video scandal, she and her free-spirited sister have nothing left but a rustic inn in the middle of nowhere and each other. What’s more, they need to revamp the inn before Labor Day or they lose it all. Nora hasn’t even knocked the traveling dust off last season’s designer boots when she’s confronted with three problems:

1. She really should have watched more HGTV.
2. She hasn’t seen another Black person for miles.
3. A tall, dark stranger has already staked a claim on their property.

Native Abenaki eco-tour guide Ennis “Bear” Freeman has seen hapless tourists come and go. When he spots two pampered city girls at his unofficial headquarters, he expects them to catch a flight out of the inhospitable coastal Maine backwoods within a week’s time. But Nora, turns out, is made of sterner stuff. And as she rolls up her sleeves to breathe new life into the inn, she unwittingly reignites a flood of emotions inside of Bear that he had very intentionally suppressed.

Their connection is electric, their desire palpable. But Bear’s silence about his mysterious past might turn out to be the one thing that sends Nora packing. – Berkley

Pictures of You by Emma Grey

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“The endless, haunting, unchangeable dance of all that was said and unsaid as life pushes you further from the opportunity you lost to make things right.”
― Emma Grey, Pictures of You

Emma Grey’s newest novel, Pictures of You, is a dual narration from the view points of Evie and Drew as they work to figure out their new normal in the wake of a tragic accident. While trying to figure out how I wanted to review this book, I realized that this would have to be vague as the premise of this book relies on readers going in a bit blind.

Imagine waking up in the hospital and having absolutely no idea how you ended up there. This is what happens to Evie Hudson. Desperately wanting to get back to normal, Evie’s instincts tell her to reach out to the people that she can remember, only to find that their contact information has disappeared from her phone. What happened to her? A tragic accident must have been the cause, but why can’t Evie remember? And where are her family and friends? Why aren’t they at her bedside? And why is her life so different than how she thought it would turn out? Evie must work through her shocking present to figure out what went so wrong in her past.

This is a romance with some mystery elements, full of twists and turns that will have you almost needing to take notes to follow along with the story (in a good way). As I mentioned earlier, this novel is told from two separate points of view: Evie and Drew. In addition to being told from their points of view, this is also dual timeline, flashing back and forth between the present and the past, following each characters’ life decisions and highlighting their changing relationship dynamics (I warned you this would be vague). Trigger warnings: mental abuse, narcissism, and toxic relationships. While I enjoyed how deep this book went, there were times when I needed to step away and take a breath. The plot and storylines were well-developed, but at times I felt like the main problems would be solved if they simply talked openly face-to-face. I’m still glad I read it!

Oprah’s Latest Book Club Pick: The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb

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Join Bestsellers Club to have certain celebrity book club picks automatically put on hold for you: Reese Witherspoon, Jenna Bush Hager, and Oprah Winfrey. While Reese and Jenna generally announce a new title each month, Oprah’s selections are more sporadic. Reminder that if you join Bestsellers Club, you can choose to have these titles automatically put on hold for you.

Oprah Winfrey’s latest selection is The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb.

Curious what The River is Waiting is about? Check out the following description provided by the publisher.

Corby Ledbetter is struggling. New fatherhood, the loss of his job, and a growing secret addiction have thrown his marriage to his beloved Emily into a tailspin. And that’s before he causes the tragedy that tears the family apart. Sentenced to prison, Corby struggles to survive life on the inside, where he bears witness to frightful acts of brutality but also experiences small acts of kindness and elemental kinship with a prison librarian who sees his light and some of his fellow offenders, including a tender-hearted cellmate and a troubled teen desperate for a role model. Buoyed by them and by his mother’s enduring faith in him, Corby begins to transcend the boundaries of his confinement, sustained by his hope that mercy and reconciliation might still be possible. Can his crimes ever be forgiven by those he loves? – S&S/Marysue Rucci Books

This title is also available in large print.

Join Bestsellers Club to have Oprah, Jenna, and Reese’s adult selections automatically put on hold for you!

The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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“A few students who were being trained to analyze crime scenes, pore over witness testimony, and track serial killers. What trouble could we possibly get into?”
― Jennifer Lynn Barnes, The Naturals

Cassandra Hobbes, known as Cassie, has been a natural at reading people for as long as she can remember. Growing up, her mother noticed her natural skills and started training her. Now Cassie is 17 and her mother has been missing for five years. Five years ago, Cassie walked into her mother’s dressing room at the theater where she was performing and stumbled upon a bloody and destroyed crime scene. Sadly her mother was never found. Cassie has spent the last five years living with her father’s family, feeling like she doesn’t completely fit in.

While at work one day, she is approached by a young man who leaves behind a card from someone at the FBI. Cassie eventually calls the number and learns that the FBI has started a classified program that uses talented natural teenagers to crack cold cases. Cassie was flagged in the system and they would like her to join. When Cassie arrives at her new home, the teens she meet have gifts as unique as her own. One can read emotions, one can detect lies, one is a walking encyclopedia, while the last is a profiler just like Cassie. As her training progresses and Cassie gets to know the other teens, she realizes that there is something off about everyone involved in the program: they all have secrets they want to stay hidden. The two agents in charge of the program are assigned to an active case involving a killer who isn’t afraid of danger. Cassie and the others are not allowed to help on active cases, but the Naturals soon find themselves drawn to help. Their curiosity quickly turns necessary as the killer escalates and the team must use all of their skills to survive.

Jennifer Lynn Barnes wrote my favorite young adult series, The Inheritance Games. When I discovered The Naturals series, I knew that this was right up my alley. This is a fast-paced and fun read (feels weird to say that about a book with murderers, but there you go!). Watching the characters’ relationships grow was intriguing as they all have complicated backstories and their own reasons for wanting to keep secrets. Cassie’s new life couldn’t be more different than her old one, but she feels more seen and understood amongst her fellow naturals. The suspense was built naturally, while the twist completely sucked me in. My only issue was the romance subplot. This author is a fan of love triangles, but the romance here seemed forced and didn’t add much to the story. All in all, I still gave this read five stars!

Naturals series

  1. The Naturals (2013)
  2. Killer Instinct (2014)
  3. All In (2015)
  4. Bad Blood (2016)

Twelve – A Naturals Novella

June’s Celebrity Book Club Picks

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Bestsellers Club is a service that automatically places you on hold for authors, celebrity picks, nonfiction picks, and fiction picks. Choose any author, celebrity pick, fiction pick, and/or nonfiction pick and The Library will put the latest title on hold for you automatically. Select as many as you want! Still have questions? Click here for a list of FAQs.

It’s a new month which means that Jenna Bush Hager and Reese Witherspoon have picked new books for their book clubs! Reminder that if you join Bestsellers Club, you can choose to have their selections automatically put on hold for you.

Jenna Bush Hager has selected A Family Matter by Claire Lynch for her June pick.

Curious what A Family Matter is about? Check out the following description provided by the publisher.

1982. Dawn is a young mother, still adjusting to life with her husband, when Hazel lights up her world like a torch in the dark. Theirs is the kind of connection that’s impossible to resist, and suddenly life is more complicated, and more joyful, than Dawn ever expected. But she has responsibilities and commitments. She has a daughter.

2022. Heron has just received news from his doctor that turns everything upside down. He’s an older man, stuck in the habits of a quiet existence. Telling Maggie, his only child—the person around whom his life has revolved—seems impossible. Heron can’t tell her about his diagnosis, just as he can’t reveal all the other secrets he’s been keeping from her for so many years.

A Family Matter is a heartbreaking and hopeful exploration of love and loss, intimacy and injustice, custody and care, and whether it is possible to heal from the wounds of the past in the changed world of today. – Scribner

Reese Witherspoon has selected The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King for her June pick.

Curious what The Phoenix Pencil Company is about? Check out the following description provided by the publisher.

In this dazzling debut novel, a hidden and nearly forgotten magic—of Reforging pencils, bringing the memories they contain back to life—holds the power to transform a young woman’s relationship with her grandmother, and to mend long-lost connections across time and space.

Monica Tsai spends most days on her computer, journaling the details of her ordinary life and coding for a program that seeks to connect strangers online. A self-proclaimed recluse, she’s always struggled to make friends and, as a college freshman, finds herself escaping into a digital world, counting the days until she can return home to her beloved grandparents. They are now in their nineties, and Monica worries about them constantly—especially her grandmother, Yun, who survived two wars in China before coming to the States, and whose memory has begun to fade.

Though Yun rarely speaks of her past, Monica is determined to find the long-lost cousin she was separated from years ago. One day, the very program Monica is helping to build connects her to a young woman, whose gift of a single pencil holds a surprising clue. Monica’s discovery of a hidden family history is exquisitely braided with Yun’s own memories as she writes of her years in Shanghai, working at the Phoenix Pencil Company. As WWII rages outside their door, Yun and her cousin, Meng, learn of a special power the women in their family possess: the ability to Reforge a pencil’s words. But when the government uncovers their secret, they are forced into a life of espionage, betraying other people’s stories to survive.

Combining the cross-generational family saga and epistolary form of A Tale for the Time Being with the uplifting, emotional magic of The Midnight Library, Allison King’s stunning debut novel asks: who owns and inherits our stories? The answers and secrets that surface on the page may have the unerasable power to reconnect a family and restore a legacy. – William Morrow

This title is also available in large print.

Join Bestsellers Club to have Oprah, Jenna, and Reese’s adult selections automatically put on hold for you!

The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka

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The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka is a slow-paced, meditative but short book about what happens when a routine is thrown off course for a woman experiencing dementia.

In the first half of the book, Alice takes comfort in her daily lap swimming. The other swimmers around her keep an eye on Alice as they follow their own routines. Through simple vignettes of the swimmers, readers get a sense of the community, culture and norms of this secluded, underground swimming pool. One day, a crack appears at the bottom of the pool. As the crack changes and grows, the swimmers become increasingly alarmed, except Alice who continues in her routine. Finally, the crack causes the pool to shut down and the swimmers disperse, most never to cross paths again.

The second half of the book focuses solely on Alice and how her dementia gets rapidly worse without the daily lap swimming. She is moved into a nursing home. Her memories of her childhood and early parenthood become as real to her as the present. Alice’s daughter is ready to form a bond just as her health declines.

This is not the book for readers looking for a compelling, character-driven story. It does, however, provoke a range of emotions, from regret to reconciliation, and yes, even moments of humor. I would recommend The Swimmers to anyone who is looking for a short read that never falls short on metaphor, imagery and beautiful prose.

The Swimmers is available from the Davenport Public Library in regular print and large print as of this writing.

A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston

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“Sometimes, a book can change your life. It’s hard to explain that to someone who doesn’t read, or who has never felt their heart bend so strongly toward a story that it might just snap in two. Some books are a comfort, some a reprieve, others a vacation, a lesson, a heartbreak.”
― Ashley Poston, A Novel Love Story

Eileen Merriweather loves romance. As a professor of literature at a local college, she spends the school year teaching courses on history’s greatest romance writers. When her own relationship falls apart and her best friend suggests they both join a book club, Eileen is skeptical at first. She doesn’t want to be reminded of what she’s lost. However after their first meeting, Eileen is smitten. The Super Smutty Book Club members quickly become her friends. One week every year, the club members book a cabin in the Hudson Valley in New York where they read smutty books and celebrate the romance series that they all initially bounded over – the Quixotic Falls series. This year, Eileen is beyond ready for a break. When the club members start dropping out of the trip, she gets worried. When her best friend Pru is the last to drop out, Eileen decides she is going to take the trip alone.

Her trip to the Hudson Valley starts easily, but quickly devolves. Her car starts making weird noises shortly after she starts the trip and eventually completely breaks down in the middle of a thunderstorm in a small town. Eileen takes refuge in a bookstore much to the chagrin of the grumpy, yet sexy, owner. This quaint town seems very familiar to her. As it turns out, Eileen has landed in Eloraton, the town of her favorite book series, Quixotic Falls. It is everything she ever imagined, from the sweet honey taffy, the burnt burgers at the local bar, and the grumpy possum that lives in the cafe.

The longer Eileen stays, the more the town seems off. Nothing has changed in years, nothing has moved on, and the town is trapped. Ever since the author died suddenly in a tragic car accident before finishing the fifth and final book, Eloraton and its residents have been left in a limbo. Eileen quickly decides that she was brought to Eloraton to help it move on, to help the town and its residents find the endings that the author was never able to finish. She’ll do anything to give these characters the endings they deserve.

A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston is a standalone novel, but there are characters from some of her other standalone titles that make appearances in this book. While the romance between the two main characters happened a little too quickly for me (complete strangers to falling in love in less than five days!), the plot was intriguing enough and was something that I hadn’t read before, so I kept with it! This cozy warm read had me rooting for all of the characters to get their happy ending.

This title is also available in large print.

Books about Divorce

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Books about divorces are trending right now. Whether it is a nonfiction memoir or an autofictional novel, the representation of divorce in these books is varied. Below you will find a list of nonfiction and fiction books about divorce published recently that are all owned by the Davenport Public Library. Descriptions are provided by the publishers.

Nonfiction

This American Ex-Wife: How I Ended My Marriage and Started My Life by Lyz Lenz

Studies show that nearly 70 percent of divorces are initiated by women—women who are tired, fed up, exhausted, and unhappy. We’ve all seen how the media portrays divorcées: sad, lonely, drowning their sorrows in a bottle of wine. Lyz Lenz is one such woman whose life fell apart after she reached a breaking point in her twelve-year marriage. But she refused to take part in that tired narrative and decided to flip the script on divorce.

In this exuberant and unapologetic book, Lenz makes an argument for the advantages of getting divorced, framing it as a practical and effective solution for women to take back the power they are owed. Weaving reportage with sociological research and literature with popular culture along with personal stories of coming together and breaking up, Lenz creates a kaleidoscopic and poignant portrait of American marriage today. She argues that the mechanisms of American power, justice, love, and gender equality remain deeply flawed, and that marriage, like any other cultural institution, is due for a reckoning. A raucous argument for acceptance, solidarity, and collective female refusal, This American Ex-Wife takes readers on a riveting ride—while pointing us all toward a life that is a little more free. – Crown

The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward by Melinda French Gates

Transitions are moments in which we step out of our familiar surroundings and into a new landscape—a space that, for many people, is shadowed by confusion, fear, and indecision. The Next Day accompanies readers as they cross that space, offering guidance on how to make the most of the time between an ending and a new beginning and how to move forward into the next day when the ground beneath you is shifting.

In this book, Melinda will reflect, for the first time in print, on some of the most significant transitions in her own life, including becoming a parent, the death of a dear friend, and her departure from the Gates Foundation. The stories she tells illuminate universal lessons about loosening the bonds of perfectionism, helping friends navigate times of crisis, embracing uncertainty, and more.

Each one of us, no matter who we are or where we are in life, is headed toward transitions of our own. With her signature warmth and grace, Melinda candidly shares stories of times when she was in need of wisdom and shines a path through the open space stretching out before us all. – Flatiron Books

No Fault: A Memoir of Romance and Divorce by Haley Mlotek

An intimate and candid account of one of the most romantic and revolutionary of relationships: divorce

Divorce was everything for Haley Mlotek. As a child, she listened to her twice-divorced grandmother tell stories about her “husbands.” As a pre-teen, she answered the phones for her mother’s mediation and marriage counseling practice and typed out the paperwork for couples in the process of leaving each other. She grew up with the sense that divorce was an outcome to both resist and desire, an ordeal that promised something better on the other side of something bad. But when she herself went on to marry—and then divorce—the man she had been with for twelve years, suddenly, she had to reconsider her generation’s inherited understanding of the institution.

Deftly combining her personal story with wry, searching social and literary exploration, No Fault is a deeply felt and radiant account of 21st century divorce—the remarkably common and seemingly singular experience, and what it reveals about our society and our desires for family, love, and friendship. Mlotek asks profound questions about what divorce should be, who it is for, and why the institution of marriage maintains its power, all while charting a poignant and cathartic journey away from her own marriage towards an unknown future.

Brilliant, funny, and unflinchingly honest, No Fault is a kaleidoscopic look at marriage, secrets, ambitions, and what it means to love and live with uncertainty, betrayal, and hope. – Viking

Fiction

All Fours by Miranda July

A semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to NY. Thirty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, checks into a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in an entirely different journey.

Miranda July’s second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July’s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy, and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, All Fours tells the story of one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic, and domestic life of a forty-five-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectation while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive. – Riverhead Books

Liars by Sarah Manguso

A nuclear family can destroy a woman artist. I’d always known that. But I’d never suspected how easily I’d fall into one anyway.

When Jane, an aspiring writer, meets filmmaker John Bridges, they both want the same things: to be in love, to live a successful, creative life, and to be happy. When they marry, Jane believes she has found everything she was looking for, including—a few years later—all the attendant joys and labors of motherhood. But it’s not long until Jane finds herself subsumed by John’s ambitions, whims, and ego; in short, she becomes a wife.

As Jane’s career flourishes, their marriage starts to falter. Throughout the upheavals of family life, Jane tries to hold it all together. That is, until John leaves her.

Liars is a tour de force of wit and rage, telling the blistering story of a marriage as it burns to the ground, and of a woman rising inexorably from its ashes. – Hogarth

Animal Instinct by Amy Shearn

The world has stopped. But Rachel is just getting started…

It’s spring of 2020 and Rachel Bloomstein—mother of three, recent divorcée, and Brooklynite—is stuck inside. But her newly awakened sexual desire and lust for a new life refuse to be contained. Leaning on her best friend Lulu to show her the ropes, Rachel dips a toe in the online dating world, leading to park dates with younger men, flirtations with beautiful women, and actual, in-person sex. None of them, individually, are perfect . . . hence her rotation.

But what if one person could perfectly cater to all her emotional needs?
Driven by this possibility, Rachel creates Frankie, the AI chatbot she programs with all the good parts of dating in middle age . . . and some of the bad. But as Rachel plays with her fantasy to her heart’s content, she begins to realize she can’t reprogram her ex-husband, her children, her friends, or the roster of paramours that’s grown unwieldy. Perhaps real life has more in store for Rachel than she could ever program for herself. – G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Crush by Ada Calhoun

When a husband asks his wife to consider what might be missing from their marriage, what follows surprises them both—sex, heartbreak and heart rekindling, and a rediscovered sense of all that is possible

She’s happy and settled and productive and content in her full life—a child, a career, an admirable marriage, deep friendships, happy parents, and a spouse she still loves. But when her husband urges her to address what the narrow labels of “husband” and “wife” force them to edit out of their lives, the very best kind of hell breaks loose.

Using the author’s personal experiences as a jumping-off point, Crush is about the danger and liberation of chasing desire, the havoc it can wreak, and most of all the clear sense of self one finds when the storm passes. Destined to become a classic novel of marriage, and tackling the big questions being asked about partnership in postpandemic relationships, Crush is a sharp, funny, seductive, and revelatory novel about holding on to everything it’s possible to love—friends, children, parents, passion, lovers, husbands, all of the world’s good books, and most of all one’s own deep sense of purpose. – Viking

Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su

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In Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su, 23-year-old Vi has dropped out of college and is working a dead-end job as a front desk attendant at a hotel. She was dumped by her boyfriend six months ago and just can’t seem to get over it.

Things start to change when she finds, and takes home, a gelatinous blob she finds next to a garbage can. From Vi’s couch, this blob starts to absorb bits of cereal and junk food. It develops beady black eyes. Then blinking eyelids. It turns out it is a living, maybe alien creature. It starts to obey Vi’s commands to move, stay and grow an arm. From there, Vi continues to play sorcerer and develops it into a good-looking, if socially clueless, boyfriend named Bob.

Sounds like a change for the better, right? You’d be wrong. Instead of growing together to be an on-the-town couple, Vi holds the Bob hostage, limiting who and when he interacts with any other living creature. But by now, Bob has developed a curiosity about the world and the people in it. He breaks out of Vi’s apartment and complicates her life significantly.

Readers may find Vi’s embodiment of ennui frustrating. She gets in her own way on almost every desire to be social with her coworkers or (human) romantic interests, re-enroll in college, or look for any type of more fulfilling job. Vi likes the idea of a boyfriend but puts no effort into being in a couple with Bob beyond her apartment walls. Even the perfect boyfriend she has developed from a blob outgrows her in a matter of weeks.

Supporting characters from co-workers to parents fill in some other gaps about Vi and why she is the way she is. If you are up to suspending your belief in reality, the story will make you reflect on loving and letting go and what it means to be a young adult in the 2020s.

Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow

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“Stories aren’t for shocking, in my opinion. They’re for chewing on longer than you would a meal. That’s not to say things you tell about don’t come as a surprise, and sometimes the things you tell about suck. But it’s what you do with what sucks that makes it worth listening to, or not.”
― Kenneth M. Cadow, Gather

Ian Gray knows the woods in rural Vermont better than he knows the town. He lives on land that has been in his family for generations. Ian spent his younger years walking through the woods with his grandfather, learning anything and everything about the nature around him. Growing up with his grandparents and his parents in the same house afforded Ian the privilege to learn from many adults, but then the troubles started.

While outside one day cracking nuts, Ian is startled by the bark of a large dog that has walked into his yard and is standing right by him. Ian isn’t supposed to have a dog, but since this one has showed up, he figures he may as well keep him. The issue is his mom. Ian names the dog Gather and stows him in the back shed, hoping to keep him hidden for as long as possible. Ian is glad Gather has come into his life since he has to help his mom defeat her opioid addiction and find a job. He also had to quit the basketball team because getting to school on a timely basis is proving hard. The house is in disrepair, not a lot of money is coming in, plus his grandpa died, his grandma moved away, and his dad left too. Ian won’t let his mom down though. He makes friends, finds a job, spends time outdoors, and is able to put his skills fixing things to use by finding more work helping his neighbors.

Right when it seems like he has everything worked out, it all splinters apart. Tragedy rocks Ian, leaving him and Gather with only one choice: to go on the run. Desperate to escape a future that would separate them from each other and would force Ian to lose his land and the house forever, Ian and Gather take to the woods. Their new isolation has Ian wondering who cares for him. What will their futures look like? Even if someone actually helped him, would he be able to return his home and land?

This emotional and hopeful story had me on the edge of my seat. The chapters are short, but I took my time to absorb all the tragedy and confusion Ian goes through every day. He is forced to grow up too quickly, but he is incredibly resourceful and capable when it comes to finding ways to survive. This book taught me about how resilient one can be in the face of unimaginable hardships. I recommend you read this book, but be sure to go in with an understanding and careful heart. This story will pull at your heartstrings the whole read.

“You want my voice, but you want my voice to be out there using somebody else’s rules, somebody else’s voice. Otherwise, they ignore me. Isn’t that what you call censorship or oppression or whatever? Don’t you see how screwed up that is?”
― Kenneth M. Cadow, Gather