Rach's Reading Recs

Is this a thing?!

People often ask me for book recs. These requests come in many forms — sometimes via text the night before a vacation/trip or more frantically the next morning from the plane hoping for a quick response while WiFi is still available for a last minute download before take off. Some people ask me in person while waiting in line at the deli counter at the market, or the mobile order pick up line at Starbucks or while we are on a walk and talk together. They then take out their phones to write down my recs. This is the point when I head into my phone/bag into my Beautiful Mind like system of notes, emails, notebooks and random pieces of paper to come up with the requested recs.

And so I’ve decided to get a bit more organized and put together actual thought out book recs on this very platform. Here they are pretty much in order of when I read them. I am purposefully capping this list at six titles as to not overwhelm anyone. I am that person whose eyes glaze over at the moment people start spewing out long lists of book/show/movie recs. I was overwhelmed (and also intrigued) when the New York Times recently published their list of the 100 best books of the 21st century so far.

Included in my small list of recent recs is insight into how I learned about the books and how/when I read the books because I always like to know these things about other people’s reading lives. Please let me know what you think, whether via comments below, comments in text/email or comments in person — at the market, Starbucks, a walk and talk or anywhere. I am ALWAYS up for a good book chat/email/text.

LOVE, ME by Jessica Saunders

I learned about this debut novel by lawyer, lifelong reader and now author Jessica Saunders on Zibby Owens’ Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books podcast. After listening to Zibby’s conversation with Jessica, I became intrigued by this modern day romance/romcom. I read LOVE, ME in two nights, staying up super late while my husband was out of town to see what would happen to Jessica’s protagonist Rachel (not many main characters named Rachel out in the world save for Rachel Green on FRIENDS.) Jessica’s writing is sharp, intriguing and fun. She drew me in right away and I found the ending to be quite satisfying. I wasn’t sure who I wanted Rachel to end up with — her husband Dan or her high school boyfriend turned super famous actor Jack. I liked LOVE, ME so much that I ended up having Jessica on my own podcast. Her accessory was her Kindle, and we got into the reading and writing life. Listen to our conversation here.

REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES by Shelby Van Pelt

My friend Kara told me about REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES on a group text with my college friends where we go back and forth between making plans to get together, updates on our families, thoughts and links on the latest news of the world, what to wear emergency questions……and book recs. This is the same group text where I learned about the documentary MY OCTOPUS TEACHER in 2020. I mention this because REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES is a fascinating story where one of the main characters is an Octopus (a truly bright creature) who befriends a widow, and thus began my own deep dive into the lives and brains of Octopi. I listened to this book on Audible because Kara said she really enjoyed the audio version, and we always like to read/listen to the same books. Side note my husband says I need to specify whether I listen to a book or read a book and that listening doesn’t count as reading. This wonderful book got me thinking about the people and creatures we connect with in life, the choices we make and sometimes finding answers in the most unlikely of places.

SANDWICH by Catherine Newman

My friend Jill who is a book nerd like me told me about Catherine Newman’s newest book over (iced) coffee this summer. I devoured Catherine’s debut novel WE ALL WANT IMPOSSIBLE THINGS in 2022 and had high hopes for SANDWICH. My hopes were met and then some. SANDWICH takes place over the course of a family’s week long vacation on Cape Cod, in the town of Sandwich, where Rocky (the protagonist, whose real name is Rachel BTW — just saying) makes interesting sandwiches for lunch every day as she navigates being in the sandwich generation. So yes excellent triple meaning behind the book’s title. Rocky struggles with the changes in her life that have come along with having young adult children, having aging parents, and looking back at the choices she made along the way that brought her to this point. I told one friend that SANDWICH is about nothing (day to day stuff) and also about everything (life!!) After I read the book during the first part of my family’s beach vacation in Maine in August, I spotted several readers on the beach with a copy of SANDWICH in their hands. I smiled at them and even gave one reader an awkward thumbs up as I passed her by.

LONG ISLAND COMPROMISE by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

I read Taffy’s first book FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE during the summer of 2020 and was so looking forward to this new book in 2024. I read Taffy’s New York Times Magazine piece this summer about the 1974 kidnapping of her father’s friend Jack Teich, which inspired the fictionalized Fletcher family of LONG ISLAND COMPROMISE. I listened to this book on Audible (see above as to whether this should count for reading a book or not.) I stopped listening about a third of the way into it as I was really not liking/on the verge of being disgusted by pretty much each member of the Fletcher family. They were terrible people in my opinion. And then my writer friend Amy convinced me to go back to the book and give it a second try. She recommended the audio version, BTW. I did just that. By the end of the book, I found myself sympathizing with the Fletcher grownup kids having a better sense of what happens when family secrets are kept, what trauma (inherited and otherwise) can do to a family and appreciating that you really never know what someone is going through, especially when you only make it through one third of their story.

THE GOD OF THE WOODS by Liz Moore

While popping into my local bookstore planning for an upcoming book event, one of the lovely and very knowledgeable booksellers who I have become friendly with told me about THE GOD OF THE WOODS. She thought I would like this book as she knew I had a thing for summer camp. I do indeed. This book takes place at the fictionalized Camp Emerson in the Adirondacks in the 1970s with some flashbacks to the 1950s and 1960s. I pictured my camp in Maine in the 1980s the entire time because that is what I do when I read. Ramona Quimby’s walk to her school bus stop in Beverly Cleary’s childhood books was (in my childhood head) my walk to my own childhood bus stop. Does everyone do this when they read? I raced through THE GOD OF THE WOODS wondering what happened to missing camper Barbara Van Laar and also her long ago lost brother Bear. I had my own theories which changed practically every time I picked up the book. On one level this book is a thriller/mystery. On another it’s a story of family, friendship, class and long time kept secrets.

STAY by Julie Fingersh

I ignored my life for a weekend and sat on my porch reading Julie Fingersh’s debut memoir, STAY: A Story of Family, Love & Other Traumas. Full disclosure: Julie is a friend of mine. I adore her, and I am pretty sure her book changed my life. This is not an exaggeration and I am fully aware that I tend to exaggerate. There is one line in STAY that I underlined so many times I can barely read it anymore, but I know it by heart. If I have run into you in the last month, I may have said this line to you whether you asked me to or not. Julie writes about her recent past as a middle aged women questioning her life choices as she is on the verge of sending her daughter to college, who, at the same time, is facing a chronic illness. Julie weaves that story into her not so recent past with her beloved little brother Danny who struggled with mental illness and died young plus the family secrets that were kept for many years. To quote Anne Lamott, who blurbed the book (no big deal) “Julie Fingersh’s STAY is so rich, wise, funny and beautifully written. It’s hard to put down once you start.” STAY came out into the world earlier this week and Julie joined me on my podcast for a conversation I won’t soon forget. I can’t wait to share her episode (and her accessory!) later this month.