Category: women’s fiction (books)

Katherine Center’s The Rom-Commers

Emma Wheeler loves rom coms and she loves screenwriting. In a different world, maybe she would have been a professional scriptwriter, but in this one, she’s a full-time caretaker for her father living in Texas and takes on writing opportunities as they come. That is, until she gets the chance to help Charlie Yates, one of Hollywood’s premier screenwriters, rework his rom com screenplay. Charlie is one of her favorite writers, so it seems like a match made in heaven. But Emma quickly realizes that this script is absolutely awful and that the jaded Charlie hates the entire genre, despises cowriting gigs, and doesn’t even believe in love. Even worse, she maybe, kind of, starts to fall in love with him anyway.

Thanks so much to Mary-Esther for recommending this book to me! I don’t usually read romances, but I trust Mary-Esther’s judgment, and when she told me I had to read this one, I did. And I am so glad I did because it was a lot of fun!

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Book Buzz: Literary Fiction, Dark Fantasy, Show-Stopping Entertaining, and Series Galore

Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For December, we’re looking at literary fiction set in North Dakota, Hawaii, and Sarajevo; a delightful cozy women’s fiction series about a librarian set in rural Ireland; dark fantasy; nonfiction about eye-catching charcuterie boards; and a couple of very different series of audiobook historical mysteries.

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Book Buzz: Jamaican Fiction, Historical Fiction, Social Satire, Funny Romances, Outlaws, and Midwives

Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For August, we’re looking at a coming-of-age novel set in Jamaica, historical fiction that ranges from the Napoleonic Era to the mid-20th century, Kevin Kwan’s latest book, an amusing contemporary romance about cyclists, new Western reads, glamorous historic true crime, and a historical romance audiobook set in the American West.

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Book Buzz: Magical Realism, Summer Romances and Chick Lit, Comedic Mysteries, Sushi, and Audiobook Adventures

Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For July, we’re looking at magical realistic literary fiction set in the Dominican Republic, YA and adult chick lit and romance reads, comic mysteries that take on corporate America and the cozy genre, a how-to guide for making your own sushi, and a range of both fiction and nonfiction audiobooks.

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Book Buzz: Summer Reads

Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For June, we’re looking at this year’s If All Arkansas Read the Same Book selection, historical fiction about the Gilded Age, an anthology of Western mysteries, a family saga set in 1970s Mississippi, a vampire fantasy romance, a guide to eating around the United States, true crime about gator poaching, encouragement for writers, and audiobook memoirs, romances, chick lit, and mysteries.

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Book Buzz: Contemporary Gothic Suspense, Historical Fiction, Northwoods Fiction, Nature Reads, Canning, and Audiobook Office Suspense

Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For May, we’re looking at a gothic tale complete with atmospheric mansion and family secrets, historical fiction with settings that range from the construction of the Panama Canal to WWII, contemporary fiction set in rural Wisconsin, nonfiction about trees and the animal kingdom, a guide to canning, and an audiobook about an office cleaner.

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Walk a Mile in My Shoes: October

This year, our theme is “Walk A Mile In My Shoes.” The idea that you can’t understand someone (and shouldn’t judge them) until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes is a pretty common sentiment. And research has shown that reading fiction is one way to really get such a walk going. So, that’s what we are going to do this year: use fiction (and some nonfiction when we just can’t resist) to take walks in someone’s shoes. We hope you join our journey. For October, our theme is domestic violence.

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Walk a Mile in My Shoes: September

This year, our theme is “Walk A Mile In My Shoes.” The idea that you can’t understand someone (and shouldn’t judge them) until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes is a pretty common sentiment. And research has shown that reading fiction is one way to really get such a walk going. So, that’s what we are going to do this year: use fiction (and some nonfiction when we just can’t resist) to take walks in someone’s shoes. We hope you join our journey. For September, our theme is addiction.

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R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface

Junie Hayward lives in the genteel poverty one might expect from a struggling professional writer. On one hand, she’s had some professional success in that she’s had a book traditionally published. On the other hand, the book didn’t sell very well, her agent and editors are indifferent to her, and she really pays the bills through a glorified tutoring job.

Her Yale classmate Athena Liu, meanwhile, is the literary establishment’s new darling. She’s wracking up an impressive reputation as a young author of note–her books are received with widespread critical acclaim, and she gets publicity that Junie couldn’t even begin to dream of. Junie resents Athena, but they also are each other’s only friend/frenemy in the DC area, so they still find themselves hanging out together–awkwardly and passive-aggressively–but hanging out together all the same.

Then one horrible night, Athena dies by accident, and Junie ends up impulsively stealing the latest manuscript from her dead “friend” and passing it off as her own. Junie knows what she’s doing is wrong, but in her mind, she’s honoring Athena’s legacy while also affirming her own greatness at writing since she revised it. The book, about Chinese laborers in Europe during WWI, is a big hit.

But as Junie experiences the fame and acclaim she so envied Athena over, she realizes it comes at a price. And to protect her initial lie, she has to craft even more lies, as Junie does everything from ambiguously cultivate the idea she’s Chinese American like Athena to spinning more made-up stories about her inspiration for the story. What should be a happy moment and the crowning achievement of her career quickly descends into paranoia that she will be caught.

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Walk a Mile in My Shoes: April

This year, our theme is “Walk A Mile In My Shoes.” The idea that you can’t understand someone (and shouldn’t judge them) until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes is a pretty common sentiment. And research has shown that reading fiction is one way to really get such a walk going. So, that’s what we are going to do this year: use fiction (and some nonfiction when we just can’t resist) to take walks in someone’s shoes. We hope you lace up those sneakers and join our journey. For April, our theme is Neurodiversity, and we’re profiling books with characters whose brains work in unique ways. Thanks so much to Julie, Anna, and Kelly for helping me research this post!

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