Book cover of State of Paradise

Book description

Along with her husband, a ghostwriter for a famous thriller author returns to her mother's house in the Florida town where she grew up. As the summer heat sets in, she wrestles with family secrets and memories of her own troubled youth. Her mercurial sister, who lives next door, spends…

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Why read it?

1 author picked State of Paradise as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I loved State of Paradise so much. I understand that some people may find it difficult to pick up a book about the early stages of the pandemic, but I am not one of those people. And honestly—who better than Laura van den Berg to reflect back to us the exceeding strangeness of that time? Also the exceeding strangeness of Florida, of going home again, of being and having a sister, of losing someone you love and then living with that absence, day after day?

Oh, also there’s a shadowy tech company, a virtual reality device that may or…

If you love State of Paradise...

Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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In late April 1865, almost 2,000 newly freed Union prisoners of war are packed onto the steamer Sultana, in poor repair and with a listed capacity of 376 passengers. Among them are four Indiana soldiers…