This month I had the unexpected pleasure of reading two ARCs and checking many highly anticipated books off my TBR as they became available through the library. In the mix were two romances – Great Big Beautiful Life (Emily Henry) and The Austen Affair (Madeleine Bell), two beautifully humane novels – The Names (Florence Knapp) and The Emperor of Gladness (Ocean Vuong), and two books that I can only characterize as literary explorations – Audition (Katie Kitamura) and Gliff (Ali Smith).

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My Top Recommendations

The Names was by far my favorite book this month.

The Names, Florence Knapp

In the aftermath of a stormy day in 1987, Cora takes her nine year old daughter Maia with her to the registrar’s office to register the name of her newborn son. Her husband Gordon expects that their son will be named Gordon, like all the men in his family. Cora hates the name Gordon, not just the sound of it, but the fear and violence it represents, as she is trapped in an abusive marriage. Three parallel stories ensue, one for each version of life that her son will have under each name that she’s contemplating giving him. Ultimately, the book is less about the specific names than it is about the enduring impact of the doors we choose to walk through in life. It was a bit uneven for me at times but generally very impressive for a debut novel with some genuinely heart wrenching moments. Read my full review.

Gliff, Ali Smith

Knowing nothing about Ali Smith’s previous work, I opened this book expecting a tense dystopian novel. I closed it having experienced something far different: a literary exploration of words and languages set against the backdrop of two siblings left to fend for themselves in a surveillance state. I now understand this is a hallmark of her writing. I wish I’d known what to expect with this book when I started it because I didn’t really understand what the author was doing as I was reading it. But now, reflecting on it, I appreciate it much more and want to read it again. I look forward to reading her companion novel Glyph when it comes out this year.

The Rest of the List

The Emperor of Gladness, Ocean Vuong

The Emperor of Gladness is poet Ocean Vuong’s second novel; his first novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, is an autofiction letter from a Vietnamese immigrant boy to his illiterate mother. As evidenced by the titles of his books, his prose is really beautiful and evocative. The Emperor of Gladness is about a 19-year old immigrant boy seeking connection and purpose and finding it in an elderly woman who rescues him from suicide and the workers at the fast food restaurant where he works. They are “soft, simple people, who live only once” – and the book is full of touching and poignant moments of humanity among them.

The Let Them Theory, Mel Robbins

Somehow I just discovered Mel Robbins and her podcast last year. I’m not an acolyte, but I’ve found mild inspiration in her work so I was curious about her latest book, which encourages people to find inner peace by accepting other people’s behavior (“let them”), even if it’s negative or hurtful, and choosing their own reaction (“let me”). It’s very similar to what I’ve seen in various mindfulness practices, or even the serenity prayer, so it wasn’t groundbreaking, but had some good reminders. I skimmed the book after the first couple of chapters as it was very repetitive.

The Austen Affair, Madeline Bell

The cover of this book caught my eye and the premise sounded so fun, so I was thrilled to get approved for an ARC. Two co-stars of a Northanger Abbey film adaptation accidentally time travel from the movie set back to the Regency era, where they must get over whatever it is they hate about each other in order to escape an unexpected fake engagement and get back to the present-day. The book is as frothy as the petticoats beneath a Regency ball gown – and highly entertaining. I’ll post a full review at pub date in September. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Audition, Katie Kitamura

An unnamed middle-aged actress struggling with her latest stage role. A handsome young man claiming to be her son. A sudden second-half transformation of the book’s circumstances into a version of the story that completely contradicts its opening premise. Through an increasing sense of destabilization and unease, the author challenges readers to think deeply about perception versus reality. Read my full review.

Wanting, Claire Jia

Ye Lian’s picture-perfect life gets disrupted when her childhood best friend Luo Wenyu, a successful influencer, returns to Beijing from America. As the young women rekindle their friendship, Lian begins to question everything she thought she wanted. Meanwhile, Wenyu’s architect Song Chen is coming to terms with his own fading hopes and dreams. Their stories connect in the third part of the story, when they collectively grapple with the consequences of their wanting. I enjoyed the Beijing setting and the strength of Lian and Wenyu’s friendship, but would have been more satisfied with the book if the characters had evolved more and come to accept that, as Chen’s wife says, greatness is elusive and ordinary is the stuff of life. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. Read my full review.

Great Big Beautiful Life, Emily Henry

I love Emily Henry’s romance novels and was eager to read her latest, but didn’t love it as much as her other novels. The vivid small town setting, smart dialogue, and slow burn romance are all there – but this one also includes a story-within-a-story – in this case, the family saga of Margaret Ives, the reclusive heiress and former tabloid queen whose biography the two MCs are vying for the chance to write. Because the book is just as much about Margaret’s family history as it is about Alice and Hayden, it doesn’t feel like a romance. Margaret’s story was a lot more interesting to me and it could almost stand alone as its own book. Combining the two stories had the effect of watering both down. Without a convincing romance the whole thing fell a bit flat for me. 

What good books have you read in the past month? Let me know in the comments!