It’s been back to school in our neck of the woods (desert), and even though it will be above 90 degrees for at least another month, the stores are stocking Halloween and fall decor, because capitalism and consumption do not care if a decorative gourd is out of place in your climate. Reading is, for me, how I escape from the horrors of the world and into new horrors in fake worlds. It’s how I start and end my days, it’s my hobby and — if reading a list of what I read ever makes you feel like you aren’t reading enough — it’s my job. I don’t go to an office with a boss and colleagues who want to “ping me” or “touch base.” I am the boss, and my colleagues don’t want to talk to me, I’m annoying!
Now, on with the books.
Wreck by Catherine Newman was a book I read in one night (thank you, insomnia!), even though I wanted to savor it. Catherine is one of those authors whose writing gets into the crevices of my brain and my soul: am I her? Her narrator? Has she tapped into my secret thoughts and published them in book form? I fell in love with her when I read We All Want Impossible Things. I became obsessed with her reading Sandwich and now, with Wreck, I would go to war for this woman. The book revisits the same characters from Sandwich, but stands on it’s own completely: Rocky is a middle-aged woman whose kids are out of the nest and whose father is living in her ADU. She has a loving husband and a weird skin thing that won’t go away and we live in the minutiae of her days while also exploring the big issues of existence: our impermanence, our changing bodies and relationships, and what it means to know and love the children we have raised into people. There are lines that will make you burst into laughter followed by sentences that will make you cry real tears, the best kind of writing in my not at all human opinion, which I treat as fact. Bonus points for the ways that it intersects with the issue of Big Consulting, which I’ve ranted about before!
Save the date by Allison Raskin is a true example of alchemizing your pain into art. When the author was ghosted by her fiance — right before she was set to publish a book about relationships!!! — her father joked that they should just keep the date, the venue and the vendors and find a new groom. She didn’t, but she wrote a book about a woman like her who does just that. It’s a sweet rom com that flies by.
The Salt Stones: Seasons of a Shepherd’s Life by Helen Whybrow is a memoir about land and history and the author’s life on a 200-acre farm. It’s so quiet and vivid that reading it in the morning before the sun came up in Phoenix, Arizona I would feel like I, too, had helped birth lambs in the freezing cold of a Vermont night (I had, and have, not).
Old Money by Kelsey Miller combines two of my great literary loves: thrillers and class conflict. 20 years after her cousin was killed at a fancy country club, Alice returns to her hometown and the scene of the crime to figure out what happened. Lots of twists and turns, and a great setting.
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty was an airport purchase, and what a strange book to read on an airplane! It starts with an older, disoriented woman walking through the aisles of a plane predicting the deaths — dates and causes — of her fellow passengers…who then start to die in the ways she predicted. Liane is a master of the braided narrative, and even if I wasn’t as in love with this one as I was her other books, it was worth the read.
If You’re Reading This It’s Meant For You by Leigh Stein has to be one of the most anticipated novels of the year, and not just by me, who repeatedly begged Leigh for a copy. It’s a gothic novel set in a d-list hype house in Los Angeles, where a down-on-her-luck former celebrity journalist finds herself reunited with the man who almost launched her art career when she was a Tumbler ingenue. Stuck in his crumbling mansion with a bunch of teenagers; she’s trying to rebuild her career, help him save his ancestral home and find the girl who suddenly went missing before she arrived. When you finish this, you’ll want to read her 2020 novel Self Care, trust me.
To The Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage pulled me right in even though I HATE SPACE. I really do. I’m the opposite of interested in it. But Eliana makes her characters and their world so engrossing I had to keep reading to see if Steph Harper fulfilled her dream of becoming the first Cherokee astronaut. It’s not really a book about space, it’s about family and identity and where we belong. I could have done without the bits that are Instagram captions or descriptions of Instagram posts — we have to find another way to incorporate these online parts of characters into books, I don’t want to be pulled out of the story in this way — but when
said she needed a big, beautiful book, I knew I’d send this one her way (soon! I promise!).
Book Giveaway Time!
If you’re new here, we do this every month. Leave a comment with what you’d like, and I’ll choose winners at random and message you for your address1. Your choices are:
To The Moon and Back
Old Money
Here One Moment
❤️ Wow, you guys really loved this episode.
❤️ Victor took a bullet for his friend. He shouldn’t have had to.
❤️ Our YouTube also has the May Reading List, June Reading List and July Reading List
❤️ Here’s our Summer Trip Recap and What I Packed.
❤️ Simplified my makeup routine with the essentials from Merit, I love it.
❤️ I bought this shirt full price and now it’s on major sale, lucky you!
❤️ My favorite headphones are over $100 off right now!
❤️ I’m hooked on the ZIIP Halo microcurrent device, and after using it for a year, I’m a partner!2 I don’t use the app, I just freestyle it on my jawline and my cheeks and I see such a difference. It ain’t cheap, but code NORAZIIP gets you 10% off.
❤️ I get 8+ hours of sleep a night because of these THC gummies. The DREAM ones conk me out for 8-9 hours, and the UPLIFT ones make me chill and fun. Code NORA gets you 15% off!
XO,
Nora
A note that paid subscriptions are always optional and always appreciated. There will always be plenty here for free, and just like Tommy Boy, I will absolutely accept no as an answer!!!! But if you’ve been on the fence, memberships are 20% off this month only!
Book giveaways are a perk for paid subscribers! If you can’t comment, you aren’t a paid subscriber and need to upgrade your subscription! Also this is only for Americans! I can’t afford to ship books across the world, sorry!
This means they give me a percentage of every sale. You never pay more, they just make less.
Enter me for To the Moon and Back or Old Money!
I would love To the Moon and Back or Here one Moment