Best Fiction Books
We spend all year reading copious amounts of fiction and have collectively torn through over a hundred books—ranging from lightweight beach reads to highly complex literature. Below is a list of our 2019 favorites in no particular order. We rarely get advance copies from publishers and buy most of our own books. Please click on our BUY links if you want to contribute to our book buying fund. Every little bit helps.
Happy Reading!
THE SURE THING.
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. This is a story about the unbreakable bond between a brother and sister who grow up in a grand house in Philadelphia. Unfortunate circumstances herald a reversal of fortune which alters the course of their lives, intertwining their future while stirring up the past. It’s a contemporary take on the Hansel and Gretel fable but where the villains are also victims of circumstance. We’ve recommended this book to more than a dozen friends and it’s been loved across the board. BUY IT HERE
HISTORICAL FICTION.
The Flight Portfolio by Julie Orringer. Orringer's prose is like a butterfly wing--dazzling, intricate, precise, soaring. Her novel is the reimagining of the true story of Varian Fry, a dapper, hard-headed Harvard journalist who leaves his swank life in Manhattan to run a rescue network in the South of France that saved some of Europe's finest painters, poets, writers, and intellectuals, as well 2,000+ other anti-Nazi and Jewish refugees during WWII. Varian's motley crew of unlikely operatives includes a glamorous American heiress, a thieving Legionnaire, and a housekeeper with a heart of gold. They manage to carry out their duties with panache and ample bottles of French wine and champagne in threadbare Marseille. And as they successfully smuggle Europe's intellectual capital to safer shores, they're faced with hard questions about the value and hierarchy of human life, love, and loyalty. BUY IT HERE
The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See. Before this book we knew little about Korean history and its violent struggles with Japan, China, and the U.S.. Island of Sea Women tells the story of friendship, betrayal, and the hardscrabble life between female deep-sea freedivers on the island of Jeju spanning a period of Japanese colonialism in the 30s and 40s followed by WWII and the Korean War until present day. BUY IT HERE
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri is a haunting story from the point of view of a gentle beekeeper who lives an idyllic life with his wife and son in the Syrian countryside. Many of us are aware (and deeply concerned) about the Syrian refugee crisis and other refugee crises around the world but few understand the harrowing journey these survivors must brave before, and if, they can find another home. It’s a critical read for us all as we enter an inevitable era of mass diaspora around the world caused by war, famine, climate change, and a struggle for survival. BUY IT HERE
HUMOROUS READS WITH AN EDGE.
Fleishman Is In Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner captures all the angst, frustration, miscommunication, midlife crisis, and betrayal in a long-term marriage amidst the posh environs of New York's elite. This debut novel is being compared to hard-hitting male writers, a backhanded compliment literary reviewers often make when praising female authors. We prefer how Elizabeth Gilbert put it: “Just the sort of thing that Philip Roth or John Updike might have produced in their prime (except, of course, that the author understands women).” BUY IT HERE
Stay Up With Hugo Best by Erin Somers. Hugo Best is a David Letterman-like late night talk show host who has a penchant for the ladies that eventually catches up with him. Feeling unmoored after his forced retirement he spontaneously invites a young, brooding comedy writer on his staff (who he barely knows) for a long weekend at his luxurious compound in Connecticut. Despite their age gap, they find themselves at the same crossroads. Both share a mindset of desperation and uncertainty about what comes next and muddle through their despair together (think Lost In Translation). The exceedingly clever, comedic banter between the two is fun to read and their struggle through feelings of irrelevance and hopelessness that comes at retirement age but also right before one’s thirties feels all too familiar. Erin Somer’s debut novel is definitely worth staying up for. BUY IT HERE
There’s A Word For That by Sloane Tanen. Set in London then Malibu, a wildly successful middle-aged (and then some) author of young adult fiction (think J.K. Rowling) is blindsided by an intervention by her agent and friends after some particularly unconscionable behavior at her milestone birthday party. When she lands in a California rehab her journey takes an unexpected turn with a lovable mix of misfit including her distant professorial son, a charming ex-husband, and a former child star.Drama ensues (and possibly salvation). Funny, painful, and acerbic as only the English can be. BUY IT HERE
The Editor by Steven Rowley is set in early 90s in Manhattan. It’s a positively delightful story about a gay, first-time author whose manuscript is singled out by the inimitable Jackie O. who becomes his editor at Doubleday, a position she held in real life from roughly 1977-1993. It’s a wonderful book about the endless mystery between mothers and sons; the Camelot days of the Kennedys and later Clintons; forgiveness, and loving and supportive partnerships. Similar to Lillian Boxfish Takes A Walk, but with the added bonus of droll conversations and magical moments spent with Jackie (a fantasy I’m sure most people share). This is a book everyone will love and a must-gift for every Perennial on your list. BUY IT HERE
OTHER GREAT READS
Suspense
The River
The Plotters
Dystopian Future
The Parade
Recursion
The Farm
Frankisstein
Machines Like Me
The Testaments
Artsy
Costalegre
Museum of Modern Love
Oddball
Cherry
Vacuum In The Dark
The Feral Detective
Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of The Dead
Beautiful Writing
The Aviator
Lost Children Archive
Washington Black
The Topeka School
-Gina Pell, The What Content Chief
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