Kin by Tayari Jones is as compelling as her first novel, An American Marriage. Jones is so revealing and subtle about relationships--especially chosen and found family--and about the social pressures that distort or force unnatural pressure upon them. A most moving story of love and friendship. @tayari #booksofinstagram #bookrecommendation
She is 37 weeks pregnant and caught in an earthquake in Portland, the long-feared Cascadia faultline kicking in rough. What follows is an Odyssey as she escapes IKEA, where she’d been shopping for a crib, and sets out to find her husband and home. Along the way, she is tested and sustained in equal measures by her various encounters, memories, and instinct. Such an interesting and propulsive story. Tilt by @emmapattee
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The Passenger tells of a man’s frantic effort to escape Berlin in 1938. He narrowly flees the knock at the door which sets him off on a mad attempt to cross the border to somewhere, anywhere, but nowhere is possible. Normal life is impossible. “Surely this can’t be happening,” notes Andre Aciman of the protagonist’s mindset in his introduction to the book. Author Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz had managed to leave Germany before the war, but in 1942, a German submarine fatally torpedoed the passenger ship he was traveling on. He was 27 and a fine writer.
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MI6 is running a mole inside the KGB. His intel is gold for years but then he is betrayed by Aldrich Ames and needs to be exfiltrated from Moscow. A perilous true story that reads like the best of spy fiction. The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre #reading #booksofinsta #spybook
A couple in midlife decide to escape the rat race, build a boat and sail around the world. They get across the Atlantic and through the Panama Canal into the Pacific Ocean but then get blown off course and capsized by a whale, at which point they drift for several months alone together in a raft and a dinghy. Will they make it or will their diaries survive them? This is a hell of a suspenseful true story: A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst. #booksofinsta #nonfiction #marriagestory
I thought it high time to check out why Unfck Your Brain by Faith Harper had done so well and continues to sell at pace. It’s clear: the book offers easy access to practical therapy wrapped up with compelling metaphors and super salty language. I like the idea of one part of the brain in negotiation with another part as they try to come up with a solution to your personal situation. #reading #booksofinsta #therapybooks
A favorite son, his mother blind to any faults, commits an act so awful that it scars everyone around him and the generation to come. The story is told through the wrecked women in his family who try to find solace by avoiding the truth and turning to drink or fantasy. An extraordinary story of post-apartheid South Africa: Crooked Seeds by Karen Jennings. What a compelling writer she is. #booksofinsta #southafricanovel #karenjennings #crookedseeds
All the holiday chocolates had me yearning for a bit of tartness. Tina Brown’s Palace Papers did the trick, with her signature character carve-ups and wickedly acid insights. Some of the royals and their hangers-on don’t stand a chance under her pen. I appreciate her use of the word scuzzy. And also her sense of fairness and solid reporting. #palacepapers #tinabrown #monarchy #reading
Cost, by Roxana Robinson is about the toll a young man takes on his family’s life as he descends, helplessly, into heroin addiction. Where did we go wrong, his parents and grandparents ask themselves, as they try anything, everything to save him. It is hopeless: He is no longer who they thought he was. Excellent novel about relationships and betrayal. #reading #booksofinsta @roxanarobinsonauthor
You can't look away as the characters hurtle toward bad trouble. Another intense SA Cosby novel that keeps you in its remorseless grip. So good. #booksofinstagram #fiction #sacosby #kingofashes
Jess Walter’s So Far Gone reminded me of an Elizabeth Strout novel but with more guns. It’s seriously good. #reading #novels #booksofinsta #jesswalter #elizabethstrout
Andrew Miller was new to me before the Booker shortlist. And, honestly, it was tiring to keep reading in the press how the judges this year had sooooo many books to read. I mean, that’s the gig. But I’m pleased they chose The Land in Winter as one of the contenders. It captures all the isolation of young married couples in rural, snowy England in the 60s, when people got together for impulsive reasons before they really knew one another, where class ruled your mind and behavior if you let it, and central heating is but a dream. You feel the cold. He’s got a big backlist so yay for that. @andy_miller_aka #reading #books #whattoread
