Debut author Ted Sanders pours out a mixed bag of creatures, from tail-losing lizards to fisherman-dodging halibut. The message of their stories is all too human: No matter how hard we try, we never really know somebody. There are twelve short stories, and each is a surreal and thought-provoking trip.
Available at amazon.com, $14.
More than 25 writers from around the world riff about beauty and share woes about everything from big noses to splotchy freckles. Gina Frangello’s story about what happens when Beautiful Woman and Intelligent Woman meet on a cruise ship leaves you with the biggest think about what’s important in life.
Available at amazon.com, $15.
Debut author Maggie Shipstead’s social satire about a three-day wedding weekend in New England would make a great indie film — adulterous father of the bride, flirty bridesmaid, doting mom, and all. A slow build teases you toward not just a satisfying ending, but an understanding of why people chase love.
Available at amazon.com, $14.
Young love. Bicycles. Art school. Joe Meno’s hipster romance about a couple going against the grain bubbles with funny dialogue and the charm of a French new wave movie (chalk it up to the whole defiant-youth-run-wild thing). Black-and-white illustrations by artist Cody Hudson and photos by up-and-comer Todd Baxter set the mood.
Available at amazon.com, $11.
Driven gossip blogger Alex Lyons receives a salacious tip about the coke-sniffing underage daughter of a prominent political figure in Jessica Grose’s novel. She decides to publish it, and cyber mystery ensues. The barrage of pop culture references made us smile, and we’re happy we didn’t guess the twist.
Available at amazon.com, $11.
Oddball Calvin dropped out of grad school and is living back at home. Things aren’t easy for him there in the company of his pregnant, high school-age sister; overly ambitious brother; panicking mother; and incapacitated father. But Kris D’Agostino’s book makes for sharp and funny reading.
Available at amazon.com, $13.
Family members reconnect in Martha’s Vineyard in the wake of World War II, only it isn’t the happy reunion they expected. The dead body that turned up has something to do with it. Despite how it all sounds, this is more steamy epic than hard-boiled thriller. Herman Melville is author Liza Klaussmann’s great-great-great-grandfather, and the talent definitely trickled down.
Available at amazon.com, $14.
After writing three short story collections, author Elizabeth Crane gives us the longer, darkly comic gift we’ve been waiting for. Her painting of the colorful Copeland family (comprising a memory-deprived father, cheating mother, nerdy son, and prima-donna daughter) made us cringe-laugh the whole way through.
Available at amazon.com, $11.
On the first page of Maria Semple’s novel, you learn that 15-year-old Bee’s mom has disappeared. On the last page, you know where she ended up. But that’s not what matters: In this clever story of family dysfunction, the real ride is the 334 pages in between, in which Bee realizes through emails, faxes, and FBI papers how eccentric her mom really is.
Available at amazon.com, $15.
Mary Stewart Atwell’s teenage narrator draws you into her all-girls school in an Appalachian town once run amok by murderous girls. Scared, she tries anything to escape — including the supernatural. Needless to say, we found it spellbinding.
Available at amazon.com, $14.
Lidia Yuknavitch’s contemporary retelling of Freud’s famous Dora case study substitutes Dora for a punk, tech-savvy Seattle teen who runs with a posse of artists that includes a gay boy, a lesbian, and a straight girl. The voice is equal parts humor and anger and made us feel 17 again.
Available at amazon.com, $12.
Fantasy worms its way into reality when a natural disaster threatens the water supply of a small town in Shane Jones’s book. As a man desperately tries to save the situation by building a pipeline through the forest and into the ocean, you’ll start to wonder if the winds are blowing only in his own mind.
Available at amazon.com, $11.
In addition to watering plants, walking dogs, taking messages, and running errands, Janet Groth’s office job involved knowing the ups and downs of its noted staff (which then included E.B. White and Muriel Spark). Her lovingly crafted memoir, which kicks off in the late ’50s and spans more than twenty years, reminds you receptionists are always watching.
Available at amazon.com, $14.
Davy Rothbart, creator of Found magazine, puts together the pieces of his small-town travels and love life in his first book of memoir essays. It’s full of funny snippets you’d love to hear over a few beers, especially “What Are You Wearing?,” his account of a steamy phone-sex relationship.
Available at amazon.com, $16.
Young guns in 1920s New York City find themselves in the middle of a police investigation and, consequentially, the path of an occult-based murderer. It’s written for young adults, is the first in Libba Bray’s series, and is tinged with paranormal fantasy. Twilight cheese? No. Guilty pleasure. Heck, yes.
Available at amazon.com, $11.
If Aaron Sorkin’s version of Mark Zuckerberg had a daughter with Felicity, she’d be the neurotic and meandering Harvard freshman Penelope. First-time author Rebecca Harrington’s protagonist no doubt stems from personal experience (she graduated from the university just four years ago).
Available at amazon.com, $10.
You may know Rachel Dratch as Jennifer Garner’s conjoined twin or Will Ferrell’s goat-meat-eating lover, but after you read her autobiography, you’ll know (and adore) her for her. The longtime SNL cast member recounts the unpredictable events of her life (i.e., an unplanned pregnancy at age 43) with sincerity and hilarity.
Available at amazon.com, $15.
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