One vote for Dutch House, Ann Patchett. Also, you are really missing out if you don’t read Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver.
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I have liked pretty much everything I’ve read by Ann Patchett (although I don’t think they are all equally good.) With that said, I think Bel Canto was probably her best. It was, however, ages ago that I read it, so I wonder if it’d be as compelling now. By the same token, part of what appealed to me about Tom Lake was how it was clear that the mother had experienced the story so differently as it was happening given her youth and naivete than what she now understood it to be, and how having the audience of her daughters provided even more perspective/remove. This might have not resonated as much with me 20 years ago as it does now, as someone who is no longer so young. But I’d say give Bel Canto a try!
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My friendship compatibility test - if you didn’t love Bel Canto then we probably won’t be friends 
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Loved Bel Canto and liked State of Wonder. But, each had something happen at the very end which marred the book for me. (Two things for Wonder).
But I love her writing so much, that I’ll read anything she writes. I held my breath in Tom Lake waiting for some shoe to fall that would mar it for me, but that never happened. It all came together perfectly.
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I’m in the camp of “read anything by Ann Patchett” too but I just finished Patron Saint of Liars and have to say it was one of the most disappointing endings of any book I’ve ever read. I do not recommend that one.
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TBH, I think I read that so long ago that I forget what it was about.
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I am split on Ann Patchett. I liked Tom Lake, Dutch House, and Commonwealth. I did not like - Bel Canto, State of Wonder, The Patron Saint of Liars, Run, and The Magician’s Assistant. I agree that some of these I liked until the ending ruined it for me (same with Horse by Geraldine Brook)
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I might be the only person who really could not get into that book. Possibly it was just not the right book for me when I tried to read it a few months ago…
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My favorite as well, though I realize I’ve missed one or two. (One Two Three was also great.)
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I think Geraldine Brook has ruined the ending of every book I’ve read of hers. (Two.) I liked The Dutch House, but didn’t enjoy reading it as I didn’t like or believe in most of the characters. I thought the last chapter was unnecessary.
Our zoom book club (started in Covid) has only done repeat-author for Ann Patchett. We all loved Tom Lake. We had liked The Dutch House, but not as much.
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I really enjoyed The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer
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I just finished it as well and absolutely loved it. Looking forward to watching the documentary, “American Symphony” next.
Just finished This Other Eden (Harding). It’s not very long but it is beautiful and sad and poignant and lovely. Premise is an isolated community on a Maine island is evicted — but the eviction (not a spoiler) is the end of the book. The rest is meeting the small group of family that has lived there for generations.
There’s a fair amount of controversy over that book, because those related to the families say the author, who is from elsewhere, used allegations about the inhabitants, made to excuse the eviction, as real things things that happened, not fabricated to get them off the island. (Yes I know it’s a novel, but based on real people whose families feel they were slandered).
Interesting, I had not heard that. Very understandable reaction from the families though – you really can’t tell where the history stops and the fiction begins. He does make it plain that the eviction was bias-based , manufactured, and regrettable; the people’s history is where he could get into trouble mixing fact and fiction.
I read an older Kristin Hannah book Home Front and it was very good. A mother in the National Guard is deployed with her best friend. She is a Black Hawk pilot. Her family is back home coping with her absence. She comes home. What comes next is heart wrenching. “At once a profoundly honest look at modern marriage and a dramatic exploration of the toll war takes on an ordinary American family, Home Front is a story of love, loss, heroism, honor, and ultimately, hope.”
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I just started her new book The Women. It is about a girl that enlists to be a nurse in Vietnam.
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4 years later…I just finished this book (American Dirt). I really enjoyed it, read it in two days (thanks to a snow day yesterday). The story sucked me in and it was a page-turner. I actually stayed up a couple of hours past my normal bedtime last night to get to the end.
Is it the most well-written book I’ve ever read? No. But it doesn’t stand out as poorly-written to me. Middle of the road prose.
I did read about the controversy surrounding the story being written by a white woman. I personally feel that anyone who can tell a good story…should.
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I’ve been into memoirs lately and finished two that I highly recommend. The first is Inheritance by Dani Shapiro (2019) and the other is We Should Not Be Friends by Will Schwalbe. I loved an earlier book of his–The End of Your Life Bookclub.
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