My favorite book I read this year was Lucy by the Sea, by Elizabeth Strout. I've enjoyed all of Strout's books about Lucy Barton, of which this is the fourth. In this pandemic-era novel, Lucy's sometimes-overbearing ex-husband, William, demands that she leave New York City as Covid hits, and come with him to a seaside town in Maine to wait things out. The relationship between Lucy and William is depicted with humor and sensitivity, and Strout does an amazing job of recreating 2020, with all its fears and frustrations and horror. I also enjoy the way Strout brings characters back from her other novels, including Bob Burgess from The Burgess Boys, to play cameo roles. I'm looking forward to Strout's latest novel, Tell Me Everything, which brings Lucy together with Olive Kitteridge, perhaps the author's most famous creation.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From Pulitzer Prize–winning author Elizabeth Strout comes a poignant, pitch-perfect novel about a divorced couple stuck together during lockdown—and the love, loss, despair, and hope that animate us even as the world seems to be falling apart.
“No novelist working today has Strout’s extraordinary capacity for radical empathy. . . . May droves of readers come to feel enlarged, comforted, and genuinely uplifted by Lucy’s story.”—The Boston Globe
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, Oprah Daily, Entertainment Weekly, San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, Time, The…
My second favorite book was Bear, by Julia Phillips. I loved Phillips's previous novel, Disappearing Earth, which was set on Russia's remote Kamchatka Peninsula. Bear takes place in another remote location, an island off Washington state. It features two sisters, Sam and Elena, and their encounter with a bear. But that description doesn't do this book justice. Phillips has a true gift for creating a world that seems completely real--and yet, in this case, almost mythical. What does the bear represent? And how does it upend the sisters' lives? Definitely worth reading.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the celebrated author of Disappearing Earth comes a tale of family, obsession, and a mysterious creature in the woods—“a mesmerizing story about hope, sisterhood, and survival with a truly shocking twist at the end” (People, Book of the Week).
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK!
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, Vulture, Chicago Public Library
“Thrilling and propulsive, glorious and terrifying. Julia Phillips is a brilliant writer.”—Ann Patchett
“Beautiful and haunting . . . this is brilliant.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
My third favorite book is James, by Percival Everett. This was the first of Everett's books that I've read and now I want to read more of his work. As most of us already know by now, James is a retelling of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, from the enslaved Jim's point of view. I've always loved books that offer a different perspective on a familiar tale, and Everett does not disappoint. His character James displays a brilliant understanding of the world in which he lives and how to survive in it. The scenes where James and Huck are together reflect a mirror image of Twain's original work, and the episodes where James is on his own add texture to the story. It's probably a good idea to (re)read Huck Finn alongside James, but not necessary.
'Truly extraordinary books are rare, and this is one of them' - Roddy Doyle, Booker Prize-winning author of Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha
James by Percival Everett is a profound and ferociously funny meditation on identity, belonging and the sacrifices we make to protect the ones we love, which reimagines The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. From the author of The Trees, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and Erasure, adapted into the Oscar-winning film American Fiction.
The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new…
My most recent book is the novel Off to Join the Circus (2023). It focuses on an overly enmeshed Jewish family in the D.C. suburbs and what happens when a long-lost, legendary relative returns after 64 years. Adele Pinsky ran away from home at age 16 in 1954, and her disappearance reverberates through three generations of the Pinsky family. As the Pinskys prepare for a bar mitzvah and the birth of a baby, Adele's presence shakes things up in poignant and humorous ways.
