The theme of this week is very simple: two of the hottest novels of summer 2026 What I read this week Famous Men by Julie Buntin "I was naive, but not so naive that I hadn't already heard this story, both of us fitting neatly into our
The theme of the week is terrible men and the havoc they wreak! What I read this week A Real Animal by Emmeline Atwood In 2019 Catapult published Meander, Spiral, Explode, novelist Jane Allison's craft book on narrative structure and the classic hero's journey and how
The theme of the week is multiple personalities, figuratively What I read this week I'm a Lot: Surviving Myself and All the People I've Been by Alison Leiby Alison Leiby is my husband's work wife which means that we are family. I know a
This week's theme is fictional characters who are destined to write autobiographical fiction What I read this week Whistler by Anne Patchett So damn charming, as always. Whistler is a deceptively simple story of family love told with absolute precision, just as Tom Lake was previously. How good
**More patience from you required because I'm definitely not my sharpest this week: After so much water leaked into our apartment last weekend, we found out that we have to completely pack up our apartment and move out while gut renovations happen, timing unknown – somewhere between four and
This week's theme is affordable housing **Please bear with me this week. On Sunday the sprinkler system in our building went on the fritz, and we had water coming in everywhere. Thankfully most of the books have made it (a few galleys had to go) but everything is
This week's theme is mighty triumvirates and/or friend throuples What I read this week My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein: A Fiction by Deborah Levy No one does it like Deborah Levy on a sentence level, whether she's writing a novel or a memoir
The theme of the week is crossing boundaries and borders; it's so on the nose that I'm a little ashamed What I read this week No God But Us by Bobuq Sayed "Istanbul is where the people displaced by all the wars end up. They&
The theme of the week is "Every piece of writing is a wager about how things may or may not hold together, on the page and off." – Emily Labarge What I read this week Dog Days by Emily Labarge I love books like this: a big fat blend
This week's theme is somebody's watching you. What I read this week Men Like Ours by Bindu Bansinath What a propulsive and assured debut novel! I know Bindu a little bit from her work at The Cut, and we've been to a few book
This week's theme is inheritances. What I read this week American Rambler by Isaac Fitzgerald It's always illuminating to read a friend's personal writing about a time period when you sort of knew what was going on but not exactly. Sporadic texts are not
This week's theme is the excesses of girlhood What I read this week Last Night in Brooklyn by Xochitl Gonzalez It's been a long time since a novel has captured a particular time and a place with such love and precision of feeling, if not fact.