Books like Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop — picked by fans

Unlike Ivey’s other book The Snow Child, which grapples with the grief of infertility (a book I also love!), this book considers the opportunities a life without children allows for.

It opens with Lieutenant Colonel Allan Forrester as he prepares to lead an expedition into Alaska in 1885. His wife, Sophie, is an explorer in her own right and plans to accompany him—until they realize she’s pregnant and decide she has to stay behind.

Spoiler: Sophie miscarries and learns she will likely never be able to carry a baby to term. But this isn’t an endpoint for Sophie: instead, it sets her on a path toward professional and creative success, as well as love and happiness in her marriage.

We’re used to reading about how motherhood gives life meaning—I loved Ivey’s portrait of how not having kids can do the same.

Want to spend 10 glorious hours with Meryl Streep?

I loved her audiobook performance of Tom Lake. Her intonation mirrors the exact qualities that the main characters, who are actors, strive for: neither underacted nor overacted. Just genuine. 

Ann Patchett is a treasure, and in Tom Lake, she effortlessly navigates two timelines: one in which Lara tells her daughters about meeting famous actor Peter Duke in a long-ago play. These scenes are just as compelling as the flashbacks in which we learn about her time with Duke before he became a famous movie star.

It's a talent, the ability to tell a mostly ordinary life in a page-turning way. Her imagery is magnificent. Every scene is wondrous. Touching. So real.

This is a story about adoption. But not the story of the poor child no one wants. Instead, it is the story of the joy of growing up knowing that the child is blessed to have been chosen by their adoptive family.

Laurie Frankel’s main character, India Altwood, wants people to know that family is complicated. Love is complicated. And maybe people shouldn’t be too quick to judge.

This book is an excellent example of why I love this author. She is brave and honest, tackling stories that need to be told.

This book, about a girl who believes she's an alien, is so beautiful and moving and honest. Adina illustrates so perfectly the heartbreak of being human, of being a girl. How hard it all is and at the same time how achingly beautiful. I was totally enamored.

My second recommendation is 'The Mars House' by Natasha Pulley. I'm a Natasha This This delightful, imaginative novel uses sci-fi tropes as a launching point into something whimsical and playful — closer to fantasy than hard sci-fi. It's a love story masquerading as a sci-fi novel and fantasy cosplaying as speculative fiction. And it all works like gangbusters. In a not-too-distant future, London has become a drowned city. Our hero January Stirling was the principal dancer in London's Royal Ballet — now he's living on a terraformed colony on Mars. And through a series of circumstances (that are equal parts hilarious and tragic), he's in a marriage of necessity with a politician who should be his sworn enemy. Big adventure ensues. The plot has things to say about issues like climate change, immigration, gender, and politics. But all that smart stuff unfolds through a story that includes powerful twins, a… show more.

Like getting a strong, warm hug at the end of the world. This book is moving, compelling, and quietly defiant.

This book is strange and beautiful. It was a surprising book that unfolded like poetry. I didn't always understand what was happening, but I couldn't put it down either. I had no idea what to expect during the entire book, and even though it's not a mystery, it kept me on edge because of it. In many ways, it was like a beautiful dream during a refreshing sleep.

I highly recommend this book to people who like strange and dreamlike stories.

I am an imperfect human being. You are an imperfect human being.

Annie Hartnet takes her version of an imperfect human being out on a road trip. PJ Halliday sets out with a cat and three human companions, none of whom really knows the others, although each is grieving a loss. Talk about quarrels, talk about making up.

I heard on TV last night that "loss enables greater love." I believe that is true.