Hope you find something you haven't seen elsewhere!

This was PHENOMENAL. Sometimes story collections start to have a sameness, but these all had a unique, memorable voice (even more incredible when you know that the author died at age 22).

Some highlights: the ending of Key to the City, the linked stories Health Service and Traffic Jam, the complex family dynamics in The Visitor and Spiders Cry Without Tears. Our Trip to the Nature Museum may have been my favorite. Please read this!

This is my first Alan Hollinghurst and I loved it. From the NYT:

...a muscular work of ideas and an engrossing tale of one man’s personal odyssey as he grows up, framed in exquisite language, surrounding us like a Wall of Sound.

Recommended if you were a young adult in the 1990's and like speculative fiction with nitty gritty everyday details. Other possible interests: performance art, the history of technology, the issue of gentrification. I liked the Booklist review that described it as "both nostalgic and dystopian."

I love reading about the history of medicine and this did an amazing job of showing how old, ridiculous biases against women are still in full force today. If you liked this, try American Breakdown by Jennifer Lunden. Also get ready to be enraged.

I absolutely adored this but see from other reviews that it is polarizing. But that voice! That dialogue!

I think the reason this didn’t get more attention is that the plot summary does not remotely do it justice. So don't let that stop you from reading it! Joseph O'Neill's writing and characterization are stunning.  I was also a superfan of Netherland.

Check this out if you’re in the mood for a big, minutely observed family drama. The relationship between the mother and her 17-year-old daughter was particularly spot-on. This had some Nathan Hill/Jonathan Franzen vibes, and I was very invested in these characters.

This was a beautiful description of building a life as a couple and maintaining friendships and family relationships as an adult. I think people who liked this would also like Dayswork by Chris Bachelder and Jennifer Habel.

This reminded me a lot of Melissa Bank (The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing, The Wonder Spot)—high praise!

Under discussion here: Red Lobster, Florida being terrible (agreed!), depictions of women in pop culture, the treatment of women in restaurants (as both patrons and employees/chefs), her takedown of Mario Batali, baking an almost-lost-to-history pie for her grandfather-in-law, her horrible meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant (and the backlash to her review of it), and more.