Here are 100 books that Sammy's Hill fans have personally recommended if you like
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In 2008, I accidentally started watching The West Wing, and it changed my life–leading me ultimately to start writing seriously and then to move to DC, where I lived for ten years. I would not have ever guessed that a TV show could have such an impact, but I repeatedly met people in DC who had similar stories. I wrote an essay about the fandom for my literary journalism class during my MFA, and that became the starting point for my anthology. I interviewed dozens of fellow fans, many of whom had moving stories of the show’s impact on their lives. It was a really special experience.
Many of us love the idealism of The West Wing. It’s often been said that one of the things that sets it apart from other shows–and from our more cynical age–is that it’s a show about passionate, (mostly) good people who are (mostly) effective at their jobs.
This anthology of essays by Obama staffers captures some of that same spirit: each of them writes about their path to the White House, the difference they made there, and the issues they fought for, and it demonstrates the life-changing, positive impact that individuals’ devotion to public service can have on all of us.
The Obama White House staff invites us behind-the-scenes of history for a deeply personal and moving look at the presidency and how the president’s staff can change the nation
“West Wingers is exceptional. . . . We have so much to learn from these stories.” —President Biden
When we elect a president, we elect with them an entire team that will join them in the West Wing to help run the country. Each of these staffers has a story to tell, and in West Wingers, Barack Obama’s White House staff reveals how these extraordinary citizens shape the presidency and the…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
In 2008, I accidentally started watching The West Wing, and it changed my life–leading me ultimately to start writing seriously and then to move to DC, where I lived for ten years. I would not have ever guessed that a TV show could have such an impact, but I repeatedly met people in DC who had similar stories. I wrote an essay about the fandom for my literary journalism class during my MFA, and that became the starting point for my anthology. I interviewed dozens of fellow fans, many of whom had moving stories of the show’s impact on their lives. It was a really special experience.
This book was Karin Tanabe’s debut novel based on her time at Politico, and it has made me a lifelong fan of her writing. I enjoyed the press room moments in The West Wing and would have loved to see more behind-the-scenes from the point of view of the journalists, and this was just what I needed.
It’s satirical and funny, so in a different genre to the show, but it was great to get this angle on the DC machine.
From a former Politico reporter, a fast-paced debut novel about a young journalist at D.C.'s hottest (and most cut-throat) political rag who uncovers a scandal sure to turn the Beltway inside out.
Meet Adrienne Brown, a twenty-eight-year-old Wellesley College grad who recently left her glamorous job at Town & Country for a spot at the Capitolist. Known simply as the List to Beltway insiders, it's the only media outlet in D.C. that's actually on the rise. Taking the job means accepting a painful pay cut, giving up perks like free Louboutins, and moving back in with her parents, but Adrienne…
In 2008, I accidentally started watching The West Wing, and it changed my life–leading me ultimately to start writing seriously and then to move to DC, where I lived for ten years. I would not have ever guessed that a TV show could have such an impact, but I repeatedly met people in DC who had similar stories. I wrote an essay about the fandom for my literary journalism class during my MFA, and that became the starting point for my anthology. I interviewed dozens of fellow fans, many of whom had moving stories of the show’s impact on their lives. It was a really special experience.
I really enjoyed the later seasons of The West Wing, which features a political campaign from the primaries to the general election and beyond.
This is David Plouffe’s account of Obama’s phenomenal and groundbreaking campaign, just a couple of years after the end of The West Wing, and it has a lot of the same exciting, hopeful vibe.
Enter The Audacity to Win Book Club Discussion Contest
Watch David Plouffe discuss The Audacity to Win on "Meet the Press"
David Plouffe not only led the effort that put Barack Obama in the White House, but he also changed the face of politics forever and reenergized the idea of democracy itself. The Audacity to Win is his story of that groundbreaking achievement, taking readers inside the remarkable campaign that led to the election of the first African American president.
For two years Plouffe worked side by side with Obama, charting the course of the campaign. His is the ultimate…
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…
In 2008, I accidentally started watching The West Wing, and it changed my life–leading me ultimately to start writing seriously and then to move to DC, where I lived for ten years. I would not have ever guessed that a TV show could have such an impact, but I repeatedly met people in DC who had similar stories. I wrote an essay about the fandom for my literary journalism class during my MFA, and that became the starting point for my anthology. I interviewed dozens of fellow fans, many of whom had moving stories of the show’s impact on their lives. It was a really special experience.
In my opinion, the character of Amy in The West Wing is vastly underrated. Obviously, I wanted Josh to end up with Donna, but it’s undeniable that Bradley Whitford, who plays Josh, has electric chemistry with Mary-Louise Parker. As well as being a fantastic actor, Parker is a brilliant writer.
This memoir is a collection of letters to important men in her life–from a taxi driver who picked her up on a difficult day to a teacher at drama school, as well, of course, as some love interests. By turns tender, witty, and almost unbearably sad, it’s a beautifully written book.
The bestselling, wonderfully unconventional, “warmly conspiratorial…seriously good” (The New York Times) literary memoir from the award-winning actress that has received fabulous and wide praise. “There is no one else quite like Mary-Louise Parker…Funny, heartbreaking and profound” (Elle).
An extraordinary literary work, Dear Mr. You renders the singular arc of a woman’s life through letters Mary-Louise Parker composes to the men, real and hypothetical, who have informed the person she is today. Beginning with the grandfather she never knew, the letters range from a missive to the beloved priest from her childhood to remembrances of former lovers to an homage to…
I’ve been passionate about absurdist literature since my early youth when we read Kafka’s Metamorphosis in school. Later in life, friends recommended Irving, Vonnegut, Bellow, and Boyle to me. I discovered Murakami, Mendoza, and Niven. Films like Common Wealth or The Last Circus by Spanish filmmaker Alex De La Iglesia, which are equally entertaining and thought-provoking, gave me the spark to start writing myself. I hope you enjoy the books on this list as much as I have!
I read the book when things were going well for me, and I laughed at all the absurdities happening to the hero who never gave up.
Despite everything, he persevered and hung on. It taught me to appreciate my loved ones and spend more time with them, enjoying every moment, savoring it like that tiny white mint on the tip of my tongue, letting it slowly dissolve.
A masterpiece from one of the great contemporary American writers.
'A wonderful novel, full of energy and art, at once funny and heartbreaking...terrific' WASHINGTON POST
Anniversary edition with a new afterword from the author.
A worldwide bestseller since its publication, Irving's classic is filled with stories inside stories about the life and times of T. S. Garp, struggling writer and illegitimate son of Jenny Fields - an unlikely feminist heroine ahead of her time.
Beautifully written, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP is a powerfully compelling and compassionate coming-of-age novel that established John Irving as one of the most imaginative writers…
I was born and grew up in Seoul. My bestselling debut novel has been longlisted for the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction and the 2024 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize and shortlisted for the 2024 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. My book is inspired by my great-aunt, one of the oldest women who had escaped alone from North Korea. It is available from Harper Perennial in the U.S. and Virago in the UK. The novel’s translations continue to meet readers worldwide, including in Italy, Romania, Greece, Denmark, Spain, Switzerland, and South Korea.
I both love and hate Zenia as a heroine in this witty, page-turning literary fiction by Atwood. Zenia is one of the cleverest and the most malicious female protagonists I’ve ever known: she constantly deceives her friends with her kaleidoscopic lies; she screws money out of them, and she even steals their men.
Would I want to be friends with her in real life? Probably not. But as a literary character, she stuns and captivates me and allows me to ponder the female transgression that lurks in all of us.
Zenia is beautiful, smart and greedy, by turns manipulative and vulnerable, needy and ruthless; a man's dream and a woman"s nightmare. She is also dead. Just to make sure Tony, Roz andd Charis are there for the funeral. But five years on, as the three women share an indulgent, sisterly lunch, the unthinkable happens; 'with waves of ill will flowing out of her like cosmic radiation', Zenia is back...
The Duke's Christmas Redemption
by
Arietta Richmond,
A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.
Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…
As a practicing clinical psychologist, teacher of psychotherapy theory and technique, and author (Barbarians at the PTA, Madmen on the Couch, Money Talks) who writes about the psychopathology of daily life for various online and print publications, I am a participant in/observer of mom culture. I love a juicy mother-child story.
This is mom culture at its best: Wolitzer traces the members of a clique who drop their kids at pre-k and enjoy over the ensuing years the gravitational pull of parenting, school volunteering, and part-time work.
She explores familiar dilemmas about aging, career versus family, and female friendship, while offering a sometimes heartbreaking, but always realistic, look at the choices moms face as they watch their kids grow.
The New York Times bestselling novel by the author of The Interestings and The Female Persuasion that woke up critics, book clubs, and women everywhere.
For a group of four New York friends the past decade has been defined largely by marriage and motherhood, but it wasn’t always that way. Growing up, they had been told that their generation would be different. And for a while this was true. They went to good colleges and began high-powered careers. But after marriage and babies, for a variety of reasons, they decided to stay home, temporarily, to raise their children. Now, ten…
I was born and bred on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in South Florida, so I am passionate about beach reads. There is nothing I love more than to get lost in a great book with themes of summer, the beach, love, and loss. Spending the whole day on a lounge chair by the shore, devouring a book, is my idea of heaven.
As a teacher of creative writing, I enjoy books with deep and complex human relationships. I also love books with a strong sense of place, where the setting is almost a character in its own right. Beach reads are great at giving the reader both!
I love this book because it is laser-focused on family relationships. Maine delves into the secrets and simmering emotions of one dysfunctional family during a crossroads summer.
It’s a ruthless yet tender ode to how understanding can bloom even in the most strained family relationships. I loved the quirky cast of family members and the beautifully rendered descriptions of the cottage and the town. I felt like I was along for the ride.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The celebrated author of Commencement and The Engagements introduces four unforgettable women and the abiding, often irrational love that keeps them coming back, every summer, to Maine and to each other.
"Rich and exhilarating ... You don't want the novel to end."—The New York Times Book Review
For the Kellehers, Maine is a place where children run in packs, showers are taken outdoors, and old Irish songs are sung around a piano. As three generations of Kelleher women arrive at the family's beach house, each brings her own hopes and fears. Maggie is thirty-two and…
Growing up, no one needed to tell me that I’m a highly sensitive person – although they did. The label was confusing: was it a bad thing? I wasn’t sure. So, I tried to keep myself in check and followed my love of words into a legal career. Other people’s books became my refuge: a safe place to explore the full reach of my empathy and find connection. Reading still gives me sanctuary. Only now, since leaving law to become an author and poet myself, I also embrace the emotional rollercoaster of sharing my own creativity. It’s balm for my bittersweet soul.
Developing alongside Afi Tekple through this book was like spending time with an inspirational cousin.
Despite being in my mid-thirties, I frequently feel like I’m just beginning to shake off external expectations and live my own life. Unlike Afi, my scenarios don’t involve marrying a man I’ve never met for the sake of my family. But constantly striving to “do the right thing” – as defined by others – has been an emotional burden.
I loved this sensitively written, funny, sensual portrayal of a woman locating her own inner compass. It helped me believe that speaking up for the contours of my existence – and even disappointing a few people along the way – is healthy. Inevitably, some things are lost as a result. But there’s also much to be gained.
A feelgood debut set in modern-day Ghana, about fashion and finding your voice
'Vivid, witty and utterly absorbing.' Daily Mail
In one of the most talked about and hilarious debuts of the year, Afi Tekple, a bright young seamstress from a small town in Ghana, is convinced by her family to marry a man she has never met.
Elikem Ganyo is a wealthy businessman whose family has chosen Afi in the hope that she will distract him from a relationship with another woman they think is inappropriate.
The fact that she doesn't know Elikem seems a small price to pay…
This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the world’s most famous heart surgeon.
In these and other intimate conversations, the book…
I wanted to write my book (below) because I often wonder, “What if?” about many things in my life. What if I’d stayed in-state for college? What if I’d never moved to California? What if I’d stayed together with my high school boyfriend? This book answered those questions for me, and I know that reading any of the books below will not only do that for you but also bring lots of reading joy.
I wanted to read this because the title made me think, "Yes, I want to know what it's like to be in someone else's shoes." And...yes, this delivered. I really enjoyed the journey that Nisha and Sam go on, swapping places. Along with the other supporting female characters, what I read felt so feminist and empowering.
As a reader, I marveled at all of the subtle messages we were given about what it means to truly support other women. This all came in a very fun, entertaining, and page-turning book! Loved!
A story of mix-ups, mess-ups and making the most of second chances, this is the new novel from international sensation Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You and The Giver of Stars
'A delightful reverse-Cinderella story of two women who seem polar opposites - until circumstance forces them to experience each other's lives. Nobody writes women the way Jojo Moyes does - recognizably real and complex and funny and flawed' JODI PICOULT
Who are you when you are forced to walk in someone else's shoes?
Meet Sam . . . She's not got much, but she's grateful for what she…
