Book Recommendations — NATHALIE CON

Expecting Better by Emily Oster

Looks like you can drink while pregnant

Having and Being Had by Eula Biss

When you like owning things but also hate capitalism

Fire & Blood by George R. R. Martin

A history of incest, dragons, and a woman's right to the throne

Eat a Peach by David Chang

The rage behind Momofuku

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

Bumbling bank robber becomes even worse hostage taker

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Opportunistic wife of ponzi schemer goes missing

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

Librarians on horses

Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman

Making friends as an adult is hard, keeping them is harder

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Life goes on for two wartime friends whether they like it or not

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Four friends wrestle with abuse, shame, and loyalty

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

A good kid discovers a reform school’s covered-up history of abuse and murder

Uncanny Valley by Ann Wiener

Seduced and reduced by startup culture

Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid

Two white people try to outwoke each other over a relationship with a Black woman

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Boyhood but with a reluctant art thief

The Travelers by Regina Porter

Two families intertwine over a span of multiple generations, multiple races, multiple continents

The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton

An emotional look at buildings

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

Thirty-something wonders if she should follow her creative passion or the money

Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

If the Odyssey was set in 19th century slave-state America

I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron

Ah, to be a rich, older white lady in New York City

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

If the old man from Up was endearingly suicidal

Normal People by Sally Rooney

Unspoken attraction keeps pulling them together, class and privilege keep pulling them apart

Spring by Ali Smith

Slam poetry meets Brexit meets improbable connections

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

If Gypsy Rose went on and lived her life

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

Making a Murderer meets fanciful Savannah, Georgia, in the 80s

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley

Plane goes down with a suspicious group of rich people

Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi

Cuties be texting!

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

If Harry Potter was rated R and set at Yale

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo

A poetic love letter to Black British women

Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips

Two girls go missing, the townsfolk have clashing reactions

The Topeka School by Ben Lerner

Male rage on the debate team

Vulgar Favors by Maureen Orth

FBI and police badly botch a cross-country chase to catch sociopath serial killer, mainly because he’s gay

Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok

Sister goes missing and grandma might have answers

Exhalation by Ted Chiang

If Black Mirror was charming

Against Creativity by Oli Mould

An intellectual roasting of the word "creativity"

Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas

Why philanthropy is bad

Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

You're judging people incorrectly

Super Pumped by Mike Isaac

Uber: The underbelly of a celebrated hustle culture

Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino

What's wrong with you and society, answered

I Like to Watch by Emily Nussbaum

Analyzing cultural themes in your favorite television shows

Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner

Sisters Are Doing It For...Others

Essentialism by Greg McKeown

A necessary read for serial "yes" men