Quick Lit January 2025

This has a big premise: on a delayed flight from Hobart to Sydney, an older lady walks the aisle and tells every single passenger their age and cause of death. After the flight, some try to laugh it off but many are deeply disturbed by the woman's predictions and seriously rethink how to live their lives in the months following the flight. This multi-voiced novel tells the story of the psychic as well as many of the people whose lives were impacted by her predictions. As so often happens with Liane Moriarty novels, I didn't want to put this down—and then I found myself pondering the book's themes of probability, agency, and love long after I finished listening. This was great on audio, as narrated by Caroline Lee and Geraldine Hakewill.
Buy from Amazon Kindle
Buy from Amazon
Buy from Audible.com
Buy from Libro.fm
Buy from Bookshop
While reading this tightly interconnected collection of short stories ranging from 1700s Nantucket to present day New England, I gasped each time I experienced a new way Shattuck played one off another. Shattuck explains in the epigraph that the dozen stories are styled as a “hook-and-chain” poem: they are presented as pairs, with the second story providing a new perspective or fresh insight on what was shared in the first. The first and last stories serve as corresponding bookends, with the bracketed ten stories also divided into complementary pairings. This is the best short story collection I've read in ages and I suspect it could happily stand up to multiple rereadings. I’m so glad I read it via audiobook thanks to the full cast, which included Ed Helms, Paul Mescal, Jenny Slate, and Nick Offerman reading me stories. 
Buy from Amazon Kindle
Buy from Amazon
Buy from Audible.com
Buy from Libro.fm
Buy from Bookshop
This new holiday novella from the author of You, With a View and The Ex Vows was the last book I read in 2024, and the perfect close to my reading year. (Many thanks to my friend and team member Leigh who told me it existed—I had no idea!) It's about a woman named Claire who meets a great (and gorgeous) guy she really clicks with ... the night before she's set to move from Portland to San Francisco to take a new job. But before she goes, she embarks on a wildly out of character one-night fling with Connor. When a snow and ice storm turns one night into a whole weekend, that proves to be long enough for them both to realize they belong together, even if their lives make that impossible for the time being. I loved the sweet story, lively banter, and earned happy ending in this delightful little novella.
Buy from Amazon Kindle
Buy from Amazon
From the publisher: "The charming international bestseller about an unlikely friendship between an elderly door-to-door bookseller and a nine-year-old girl that changes his life. Small-town German bookseller Carl Kollhoff delivers his books to special customers in the evening hours after closing time, walking through the picturesque alleys of the city. These people are almost like friends to him, and he is their most important connection to the world. When Kollhoff unexpectedly loses his job, it takes the power of books and a nine-year-old girl to make them all find the courage to rebuild their bonds with each other."
Buy from Amazon Kindle
Buy from Amazon
Buy from Audible.com
Buy from Bookshop

Buckle Up!

It’s almost time for the Summer Reading Guide. Order now and plan to join us on May 15th for Unboxing—the best book party of the year!

summer reading starts May 16th

Grab your Summer Reading Guide and join us for the best book party of the year!