Anonymous wrote:You and I share a lot of reading tastes!

Have you read Nothing To See Here?

How about Emily St John Mandel's more recent book Sea of Tranquility? I liked it even more than I liked the book Station Eleven (I, a heathen, preferred the TV show).

Gonna throw out another oldie - have you read Convenience Store Woman?

If you do Audible, OP, I'd recommend listening to this one. Marin Ireland narrates it and she's one of my favorite narrators.

Since you liked station 11, I’d recommend Parable of the Sower if you’d like more dystopian future.

I have similar taste. I've been recommending The Paper Palace and Ask Again, Yes.

Anonymous wrote:I am going to sum up your style as: intelligent, well-written popular fiction with layered elements/references or somewhat saga-ish books being a plus, and also sometimes okay with lighter books especially if there’s something to chew on theme- or structure-wise. I’m planning my recommendations with that in mind.

Seconding the rec for Sea of Tranquility.

Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
Multiple pov, examines wealth and privilege in modern day Brooklyn Heights.

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
Do you like Jennifer Egan? I think she’d be right up your alley! I also loved A Visit From the Goon Squad. Anyway, Candy House has that layered/semi-saga thing happening and it’s organized around themes of memory and time.

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepsys
YA historical thriller about a citizen spy network in Communist Romania.

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
A teenage boy kills two intruders to protect his family and disappears on the morning he is to be sentenced; his dad and siblings go find him. (This description doesn’t do it justice so I suggest you read a sample and see what you think.) it’s an older book but I think you might like it if you haven’t read it yet.



Not at all for vacation but maybe when you’re back:
We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman
Fiction that feels like a memoir, gut wrenching, account of friend helping friend who has cancer and is in hospice.

Haha nice, I like your summary!

Thank you all! Of the ones suggested, I've read The Guncle, Lessons in Chemistry, the Push, and Nora Goes Off Script but I haven't read any of the others yet! I will check them out - and I will report back - thank you again!

We have very similar taste. My two favorite books are The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O'Neill and The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne.

For something lighter I'd suggest The Guncle by Steven Rowley or Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld.

One of the PPs mentioned Less, A Novel - such a great book! Highly recommend - but don't take my word for it - it won the Pulitzer Prize - pretty unusual for a humor title. Plus he grew up in this area.

Also similar taste to yours, recent favorites not already mentioned that I’d love on vacation are:
They’re Going to Love You by Meg Howrey
Nora Goes Off Script

We have some similar tastes, so I pulled up my “rated titles” list on the library ebook site. I rate by how successful it is for its genre, so a trashy book can get a 5 if it’s successfully trashy. Many of my 5s were already in your list and many more are too deep/depressing for vacations (I too read Empire of Pain on vacation, but at least it wasn’t as bad as the memoir about a dying father that had me crying through my hotel breakfast!). Here are the rest:

Map of Salt and Stars (about refugees, but more mystical than depressing)

Book lovers and People we meet on vacation, both by Emily Henry

Lessons in chemistry

The Memory Police (but it’s snowy cold, which could be either a nice contrast or very out of place at the beach)

Luster, by Raven Leilani (reviews seemed love-it-or-hate-it but I read on vacation and got very drawn in)

She Would be King by Moore

Untamed Shore, Mexican Gothic, and Gods of jade and shadow by Garcia-Moreno

Less, by Greer

Not the end of the world, by Atkinson (I hate short stories, but Atkinson writes so well)

The Other Black Girl

The Wanderers by Howry

The Disappearing Act by Steadman (good beach read)

The Push by Audrain

Mambo in Chinatown by Kwok

The Ten Thousand Doors of January (good story in the same way as Addie LaRue, but shorter and lighter)

Have similar tasts to yours and I would recommend:

The Drowning Empire Series (Andrea Stewart, 3 books)
Fight Night (Miriam Toews)
How Lucky (Will Leitch)
The Scholomance (Naomi Novik, 3 books)
Wrong Place Wrong Time (Gillian McAllister)

I am going to sum up your style as: intelligent, well-written popular fiction with layered elements/references or somewhat saga-ish books being a plus, and also sometimes okay with lighter books especially if there’s something to chew on theme- or structure-wise. I’m planning my recommendations with that in mind.

Seconding the rec for Sea of Tranquility.

Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
Multiple pov, examines wealth and privilege in modern day Brooklyn Heights.

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
Do you like Jennifer Egan? I think she’d be right up your alley! I also loved A Visit From the Goon Squad. Anyway, Candy House has that layered/semi-saga thing happening and it’s organized around themes of memory and time.

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepsys
YA historical thriller about a citizen spy network in Communist Romania.

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
A teenage boy kills two intruders to protect his family and disappears on the morning he is to be sentenced; his dad and siblings go find him. (This description doesn’t do it justice so I suggest you read a sample and see what you think.) it’s an older book but I think you might like it if you haven’t read it yet.



Not at all for vacation but maybe when you’re back:
We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman
Fiction that feels like a memoir, gut wrenching, account of friend helping friend who has cancer and is in hospice.

Bad Summer People is a very fun vacation read.

Anonymous wrote:You and I share a lot of reading tastes!

Have you read Nothing To See Here?

How about Emily St John Mandel's more recent book Sea of Tranquility? I liked it even more than I liked the book Station Eleven (I, a heathen, preferred the TV show).

Gonna throw out another oldie - have you read Convenience Store Woman?

Oh wait - if you ever enjoy a mystery, how about The Plot?

You and I share a lot of reading tastes!

Have you read Nothing To See Here?

How about Emily St John Mandel's more recent book Sea of Tranquility? I liked it even more than I liked the book Station Eleven (I, a heathen, preferred the TV show).

Gonna throw out another oldie - have you read Convenience Store Woman?

If relevant: kid-free vacation to the Azores

Some of my favorite beach or vacation reads have been:
What Alice Forgot, The House in the Cerulean Sea, Carrie Soto is Back, City of Girls

My other top books of 2023 so far are: Remarkably Bright Creatures, Demon Copperhead, The Five Star Weekend, and Fourth Wing
My other top books of 2022: The Nightingale, Station Eleven, The Great Believers, The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Raising Self Reliant Children, It Happened One Summer, The Song of Achilles, and the Golem and the Jinni
My other top books of 2021: The Paradise Series (Elin Hilderbrand), The Four Winds, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, This Tender Land, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Homegoing, Pachinko, Circe, The Love Hypothesis, Winter Street series (Hilderbrand), Firekeeper's Daughter

I recently liked Every Summer After and Part of Your World as lighter books, but they didn't make my tops list - though they got solid 4 stars from me on Goodreads.

I recently made the mistake of reading Empire of Pain over spring break - I had started it before we left and didn't finish it. I liked the book, but it was not a fun vacation read. Thanks so much for any ideas!