Sequel not quite as good IMO but still a fun read when I needed one!
Not a happy book but one of the best I’ve read in recent years.
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Let me know if you need more rom com recs. If you can handle dark romantic comedy, Butcher and Blackbird is very good.
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I’ve read the former and had forgotten there was a sequel. Thanks!
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You’d probably like the Crow Investigation series by Sarah Painter. Some woo-woo stuff, but an engrossing read.
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I’d had my eye on The Sisters by Jonas Hassen Khemeri, but was a bit put off by its heft. It kept ending up on lists (like National Book Award), so I finally bought it, brought it home, and got it off my nightstand. I liked it and would enthusiastically recommend it – selectively.
The writing is excellent, and it very thoughtfully and insightfully touches on/explores a lot of very “human condition” themes, from sibling relationships, friendship, parental influence, reality vs myth, mental illness, identity, being an outsider in a relatively homogeneous society, etc. This, through the exploration of the characters - 3 sisters of Swedish-Tunisian descent and a neighbor who is drawn to them, kept me quite engaged for the 600+ pages, but if you’re looking for more plot (although there are a couple of unexpected twists), this is unlikely to be your book! In fact, it’s a credit to the author that his characters’ lives can be such gripping story-telling.
I imagine that several folks on this thread would enjoy this. At the same time, I’m struggling a bit to think of who I might pass this on to.
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It sounds right up my alley, actually. My favorite books are those where not a whole lot happens.
Just placed a hold for it on Libby.
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I’m almost finished with The Starboard Sea by Amber Dermont. It’s really good. Takes place in 1987 in a New England boarding school in the voice of the senior male protagonist. Sad but really good.
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For our book group, we read The Tainted Cup and A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett. They are fantasy novels (part of a trilogy) that would not normally be fodder for our high-minded book group, but are fantastic.
The beginning of The Tainted Cup is a bit slow as he is creating the building blocks for a new world but once it is built, things really flow. Just a heads up.
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I just finished this - what an interesting book! It kept building and twisting- my eyes glazed at some of the financial discussions - and you don’t know who if anyone to trust of the narrators. This would make a good CC book - so much to dissect. Even though when I finished, I told husband I don’t think I’m smart enough to really appreciate the book.
I just finished" Culpability" by Bruce Holsinger. One of the best (if not THE) books I have read this year. A story about the ethics of AI and it’s effect on a family.
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Oh, that sounds good. I’ve added it to my waitlist. I’ve never heard of this author before but I see he has a number of other books too.
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I also enjoyed his book “ The Gifted School “. But this one really blew me away.
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Sounds interesting - not that I need more books to read!
I just finished Heartwood. I much preferred Good of the Woods. 
I just finished reading Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist by Daniel Pollack-Pelzner. I found it fascinating, and also a big exhausting - Miranda’s energy and activity is a lot to keep up with!
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Just finished Mill Town (Arsenault), a non fiction hybrid of memoir and environmental investigative journalism. Author is writing about growing up in a Northern Maine town centered on the paper mill, the damage the mill does to the people and the land, but also reconciling employment vs. stewardship, emigrating vs staying forever, Acadian history too. Eye-opening primary work on the destructive, and heartfelt sympathy for hard choices. My grandfather and his family were mill workers, and Acadian, but I think any nonfiction fan would enjoy this. Really readable and different.
Edit to add – link to the author : https://www.kerri-arsenault.com
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Just read this (stayed up late last night to finish)
The Names by Florence Knapp - tells a family’s story as three different versions based upon what a mother names her child.
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I just finished Iona Iverson’s Rules for commuting which I picked up because I really loved How to age disgracefully.
I liked that one less in part because everything ties up neatly in a cute bow and as a result feels like an adult fairy tale/care bear story rather than a contemporary story that could happen with some suspension of disbelief.
For instance the teen girl could have gotten a role, just not that one. The gym owner felt like a tack-on.
It also bothered me that Iona and Bea’s it-girl era felt 1970s-80s (“Sean Connery to Madonna” sic). I wondered if that was changed, as well as her age, due to the publisher fearing reactions to a character in her 50s or 60s rather than 40s?
(How to age disgracefully, which came afterwards, shows it’s a needless worry but back when that novel was published it might have mattered?)
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I really liked this book. I read it when I needed something light and easy.
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