Author: Ellen Zielinski Whitfield

Happy Mean Girls day, one and all. Every year on Oct. 3, we come together to celebrate the most important of holidays, brought to you by Lindsay Lohan’s glorious comeback and Renee Rapp’s unearthly pipes. And you know we’re gonna celebrate with a list of book recommendations.

If you like the backstabbing cliques, try The Ivies by Alexa Donne: 

The Ivies are five girls with the same mission: to get into the Ivy League by any means necessary. I would know. I’m one of them. We disrupt class ranks, club leaderships, and academic competitions…among other things. We improve our own odds by decreasing the fortunes of others. Because hyper-elite competitive college admissions is serious business. And in some cases, it’s deadly.

If you like a high schooler starting over somewhere new, try A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey: 

For Lila Reyes, a summer in England was never part of the plan. But after things fall apart, her parents send her to England to reset. But with the lack of sun, a grumpy inn cook, and a small town lacking Miami flavor (both in food and otherwise), what would be a dream trip for some feels more like a nightmare to Lila.

If you like a revenge plot, try Queen Bee by Amalie Howard

Lady Ela Dalvi’s life was forever changed when her best friend, Poppy, betrayed her. She was sent away in disgrace, her reputation ruined. Nearly three years later, 18-year-old Ela is consumed with a desire for revenge. Her enemy is quickly joining the crème de la crème of high society while she withers away in the English countryside. With an audacious plan to get even, Ela disguises herself as a mysterious heiress and infiltrates London’s elite. 

If you like school-themed drama, try Come and Get It by Kiley Reed:

It’s 2017 at the University of Arkansas. Millie Cousins, a senior resident assistant, wants to graduate, get a job, and buy a house. So when Agatha Paul, a visiting professor and writer, offers Millie an easy yet unusual opportunity, she jumps at the chance. But Millie’s starry-eyed hustle becomes jeopardized by odd new friends, vengeful dorm pranks, and illicit intrigue.

If you like watching a young girl discover who she really is (and prom!), try You Should See Me In A Crown by Leah Johnson

Liz Lighty has always believed she’s too black, too poor, too awkward to shine in her small, rich, prom-obsessed midwestern town. But it’s okay — Liz has a plan that will get her out of Indiana, forever: attend an uber-elite college, play in their world-famous orchestra, and become a doctor. But when the financial aid she was counting on unexpectedly falls through, Liz’s plans come crashing down … until she’s reminded of her school’s scholarship for prom king and queen. 

If you like a look at the classic American high school experience, try The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe

Norris Kaplan, a Black French Canadian, is plunked into a new high school and sweating a ridiculous amount from the oppressive Texas heat. He finds himself cataloging everyone he meets: the Cheerleaders, the Jocks, the Loners, and even the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Yet against all odds, those labels soon become actual people to Norris. But the night of the prom, Norris screws everything up royally. 

If you like when the nerdy girl gets the popular guy, try Geekerella by Ashley Poston

When geek girl Elle Wittimer sees a cosplay contest for a new Starfield movie, she has to enter. The prize? A meet-and-greet with the actor slated to play Federation Prince Carmindor in the reboot. Teen actor Darien Freeman used to live for cons — before he was famous. Now they’re nothing but autographs and awkward meet-and-greets. Playing Carmindor is all he’s ever wanted, but Darien feels more and more like a fake — until he meets a girl who shows him otherwise.

If you like the drama from anonymous gossip in the burn book, try Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry by Joya Goffney

Quinn keeps lists of everything — from the days she’s ugly cried, to “Things That I Would Never Admit Out Loud” and all the boys she’d like to kiss. Then an anonymous account posts one of her lists on Instagram for the whole school to see and blackmails her into facing seven of her greatest fears, or else her entire journal will go public. 

I feel like there are more good movies coming out this fall than there have been in quite some time, or maybe I’m just paying more attention lately! If one of these new releases caught your eye and you’re looking for a book with the same vibe, we have a list for you! And keep an eye out for part 2 soon!

If you’re interested in The Substance (a fading celebrity decides to use a black market drug to temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself unknowingly giving herself horrifying side effects), try Rouge by Mona Awad: When a strange woman appears at the funeral of Belle’s estranged mother, she is offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience. Soon, Belle is lured into the barbed embrace of La Maison de Méduse, the same lavish, culty spa to which her mother was devoted. 

If you’re interested in His Three Daughters (three estranged sisters converge in a New York apartment to care for their ailing father and try to mend their own broken relationship with one another), try Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors: The three Blue sisters are exceptionally different. A year ago, the unexpected death of their fourth sister, Nicky, left Avery, Bonnie and Lucky reeling. As they each navigate grief, addiction, and ambition, they find they must return to New York to stop the sale of the apartment they were raised in.

If you’re interested in Long Gone Heroes (a special forces soldier who has given up country, religion, and even hope, must return to the field of battle to track down his niece, a reporter, caught in the middle of an illegal private contracting operation that went dead wrong), try The Investigator by John Sanford: Letty, a recent Stanford grad and adopted daughter of a famed detective, is partnered with a DHS investigator to investigate thefts of crude oil in Texas that might have ties to a violent militia group.

If you’re interested in Killer Heat  (after a mysterious death, a wounded detective investigates a dangerous love triangle on an isolated Greek island), try Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor: In the shadow of extravagant parties, predatory business deals and calculated political influence, three lives become dangerously intertwined: Ajay is the watchful servant, born into poverty, who rises through the family’s ranks. Sunny is the playboy heir who dreams of outshining his father, whatever the cost. And Neda is the curious journalist caught between morality and desire. 

If you’re interested in Lee (the story of American photographer Lee Miller, a fashion model who became an acclaimed war correspondent for Vogue magazine during World War II), try Code Name Hélène by Ariel Lawhon: Nancy Wake, an Australian expat has a reporting job and is in love with a wealthy French industrialist, but when the Germans invade France, she finds that she has a remarkable ability to smuggle people and documents across the border. 

If you’re interested in The Wild Robot (an intelligent robot stranded on an uninhabited island must bond with the island’s animals and care for an orphaned baby goose), try A Psalm For the Wild Built by Becky Chambers: It’s been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and wandered into the wilderness. Until the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. 

If you’re interested in Will and Harper (Will Ferrell and his close friend of 30 years decide to go on a cross-country road trip after she tells him about her transition), try Horse Barbie by Geena Rocero: By 17, Geena Rocero was the Philippines’ highest-earning trans pageant queen. But when she moved to the U.S., Geena hid her trans identity in order to survive. She craved acceptance as her authentic self yet had to remain vigilant in order to protect her dream career. 

If you’re interested in Rez Ball (a Native American high school basketball team from New Mexico must band together after losing their star player), try Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley: As greedy grave robbers seek to profit off of what belongs to her Anishinaabe tribe and  Indigenous women go missing, Perry Firekeeper-Birch, the troublemaker, has no choice but to uncover the mystery.

If you’re interested in We Live In Time (a chance encounter brings a chef and a recent divorcée together in a decade-spanning romance), try From Scratch: : A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home by Tembi Locke: It was love at first sight when actress Tembi met professional chef, Saro, on a street in Florence. Saro’s traditional Sicilian family did not approve of his marrying a black American woman. But the couple built a happy life in Los Angeles, and reconciled with Saro’s family just as he faced a formidable cancer that would consume all their dreams.

I see people talking about Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels frequently, but I haven’t heard a lot about the HBO adaptation. Perhaps it’s the internet circle I run in, or perhaps it’s just that it’s not as flashy a show as, say, House of the Dragon or something similar. But what I have heard about it is that it’s stellar, and stands up to the much beloved series. If you love the journey exploring the complicated friendship between Elena and Lila throughout the years, you can pick up one of these books that centers around intricate relationships.

Sula by Toni Morrison

Sula and Nel are born in a small town at the top of a hill. Sula is wild, and daring; she does what she wants, while Nel is well-mannered, a mama’s girl with a questioning heart. Growing up they forge a bond stronger than anything, even the dark secret they have to bear. Until, decades later, as the girls become women, Sula’s anarchy leads to a betrayal that may be beyond forgiveness.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Four college classmates — broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition — move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma.

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Amma is a newly acclaimed playwright whose work often explores her Black lesbian identity; her old friend Shirley is a teacher, jaded after decades of work in London’s funding-deprived schools; Carole, one of Shirley’s former students, is a successful investment banker; Carole’s mother Bummi works as a cleaner and worries about her daughter’s lack of rootedness despite her obvious achievements. From a nonbinary social media influencer to a 93-year-old woman living on a farm in Northern England, these unforgettable characters also intersect in shared aspects of their identities, from age to race to sexuality to class.

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend, Eileen, is getting over a breakup, and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood. Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon are still young — but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in.

Happy Place by Emily Henry

Harriet and Wyn broke up five months ago. And haven’t told their best friends. Which is how they find themselves sharing a bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. But the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends’ hearts, and so they’ll play their parts.

Women Talking by Miriam Toews

One evening, eight Mennonite women climb into a hay loft to conduct a secret meeting. For the past two years, each of these women, and more than a hundred other girls in their colony, has been repeatedly violated in the night by demons coming to punish them for their sins. Now that the women have learned they were in fact drugged and attacked by a group of men from their own community, they are determined to protect themselves and their daughters from future harm. 

Wahala by Nikki May

Ronke wants happily ever after and 2.2 kids. But she’s dating Kayode and her friends think he’s just another in a long line of dodgy Nigerian boyfriends. Boo has everything Ronke wants, but she’s frustrated, unfulfilled, plagued by guilt, and desperate to remember who she used to be. Simi is the one with the perfect lifestyle. No one knows she’s crippled by impostor syndrome and lying to her husband about trying for a baby. When the high-flying, charismatic Isobel explodes into the group, she sows chaos, and Ronke, Simi, and Boo’s close friendship begins to crack.

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, was about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings. But the AIDS epidemic grows around him and his friends are dying. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, his friend Nico’s little sister. Thirty years later, Fiona is tracking down her estranged daughter who disappeared into a cult and staying with an old friend, a famous photographer. 

The Ensemble by Aja Gabel

Jana. Brit. Daniel. Henry. They would never have been friends if they hadn’t needed each other. They would never have found each other except for the art which drew them together. They would never have become family without their love for the music, for each other. Together, they are the Van Ness Quartet. After the group’s rocky start, they experience devastating failure and wild success, heartbreak and marriage, triumph and loss, betrayal and enduring loyalty. 

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life. And for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special — and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together.

There are a slew of excellent movies that take place at schools to help keep the back-to-school blues away, and we put together a list of books to read based on your favorite flick!

IF YOU LIKE Drumline TRY Blood At the Root by Ladarrion Williams

Ten years ago, Malik’s life changed forever the night his mother mysteriously vanished and he discovered he had uncontrollable powers. Since then, he has kept his abilities hidden, looking out for himself and his younger foster brother, Taye. Now, at 17, Malik is finally ready to start a new life for both of them, far from the trauma of his past. However, a daring act to rescue Taye reveals an unexpected connection with his long-lost grandmother: a legendary conjurer with ties to a hidden magical university that Malik’s mother attended. At Caiman University, Malik’s eyes are opened to a future he never could have envisioned for himself — one that includes the reappearance of his first love, Alexis. His search for answers about his heritage, his powers, and what really happened to his mother exposes the cracks in their magical community as it faces a reawakened evil dating back to the Haitian Revolution. Together with Alexis, Malik discovers a lot beneath the surface at Caiman: feuding covens and magical politics, forbidden knowledge and buried mysteries.

IF YOU LIKE The Perks of Being A Wallflower, TRY Looking For Alaska by John Green

Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words — and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet François Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young, who will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.

IF YOU LIKE The Breakfast Club, TRY The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

Six teenagers at a summer camp for the arts become inseparable, and while decades later the bond remains powerful, so much else has changed. Jules Jacobson, an aspiring comic actress, eventually resigns herself to a more practical occupation and lifestyle. Jonah stops playing the guitar and becomes an engineer. But Ethan and Ash, Jules’s now-married best friends, become shockingly successful — true to their initial artistic dreams, with the wealth and access that allow those dreams to keep expanding. The friendships endure and even prosper, but also underscore the differences in their fates.

IF YOU LIKE Booksmart, TRY Leah On the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

Leah is an anomaly in her friend group: She’s the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it. And even though her mom knows she’s bisexual, she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends. So Leah really doesn’t know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. With prom and college on the horizon, tensions are running high.

IF YOU LIKE Clueless, TRY Kamila Knows Best by Farah Heron

Kamila’s life is filled with her elaborate Bollywood movie parties, a dog with more Instagram followers than most reality stars, a job she loves, and an endless array of friends who clearly need her help finding love. Kamila is so busy with her friends’ love lives, she’s hardly given any thought to her own. Fortunately, Kamila has Rohan, a longtime friend of the family. Only lately, Kamila’s “harmless flirting” with Rohan is making her insides do a little bhangra dance. But Kamila isn’t letting herself get distracted — until her secret nemesis returns to town with an eye for Rohan. 

IF YOU LIKE Remember the Titans, TRY A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi

It’s 2002, a year after 9/11. It’s an extremely turbulent time politically, but especially so for someone like Shirin, a 16-year-old Muslim girl who’s tired of being stereotyped. Shirin is tired of the rude stares, the degrading comments — even the physical violence — she endures. So she’s built up protective walls. But then she meets Ocean James. He’s the first person in forever who really seems to want to get to know Shirin.They seem to come from two irreconcilable worlds — and Shirin has had her guard up for so long that she’s not sure she’ll ever be able to let it down.

IF YOU LIKE Bring It On, TRY We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry

In the town of Danvers, Massachusetts, home of the original 1692 witch trials, the 1989 Danvers Falcons will do anything to make it to the state finals — even if it means tapping into some devilishly dark powers. Helmed by good-girl captain Abby Putnam and her co-captain Jen Fiorenza, the Falcons flaunt society’s stale notions of femininity and storm their way through an unforgettable season.

IF YOU LIKE 10 Things I Hate About You, TRY Better Hate Than Never by Chloe Liese

Katerina Wilmot and Christopher Petruchio shared backyards as kids, but as adults they won’t even share the same hemisphere, until Kate makes a rare visit home. When a drunken Kate confesses she’s only been hostile because she thought he hated her, Christopher vows to make peace.  As desire gives way to deeper feelings, Kate and Christopher must decide if it’s truly better to hate than to never risk their hearts.

IF YOU LIKE Dead Poets Society, TRY We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

On the day Oliver Marks is released, he’s greeted by the man who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but he wants to know what really happened a decade ago. As young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingénue, extra. But when the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. 

 

Listen, I don’t watch Emily In Paris (it’s back Aug. 15), but I might be convinced to try it soon, given how many of y’all seem to love it. There’s just something about being whisked away from your problems through travel… only to find a new set of problems abroad. If this is your vibe, you might also enjoy one of these books featuring expats getting in all sorts of trouble in other countries.

THE CLASSICS

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (Italy)

Yossarian is a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy — it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

Democracy by Joan Didion (Indonesia and Vietnam)

A bitingly funny, cumulatively devastating post-mortem of our national mores and institutions set against the historical backdrop of the final withdrawal from Vietnam. A U.S. Senator, his wife, senatorial groupies and international arms dealing intersect with one another in this blistering indictment of American amnesia.

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin (Paris)

David is a young American expatriate who has just proposed marriage to his girlfriend, Hella. While she is away on a trip, David meets a bartender named Giovanni to whom he is drawn in spite of himself. Soon the two are spending the night in Giovanni’s curtainless room, which he keeps dark to protect their privacy. But Hella’s return to Paris brings the affair to a crisis, one that rapidly spirals into tragedy.

NONFICTION

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle (southern France)

A couple buys a 200-year-old home in southern France and experiences the culture shock and growing pains of a new life outside England. Mayle documents the first year of their life in Provence, including the amazing cuisine, strange local customs, onslaught of wanted and unwanted house guests, and the peace he and his wife manage to find despite their struggle to learn the language and establish themselves as permanent residents. 

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway (Paris)

A correspondent for the “Toronto Star, ” Hemingway arrived in Paris in 1921, three years after the trauma of the Great War and at the beginning of the transformation of Europe’s cultural landscape: Braque and Picasso were experimenting with cubist form; James Joyce, long living in self-imposed exile from his native Dublin, had just completed “Ulysses; ” Gertrude Stein held court at 27 Rue de Fleurus, and deemed young Ernest a member of “une gneration perdue; ” and T.S. Eliot was a bank clerk in London. 

The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country by Helen Russell (Denmark)

Keen to know their secrets, Helen gave herself a year to uncover the formula for Danish happiness. From childcare, education, food and interior design to SAD and taxes, this is a funny, poignant journey, showing us what the Danes get right, what they get wrong, and how we might all live a little more Danishly ourselves.

Beyond the Shores: A History of African Americans Abroad by Tamara J. Walker

Drawing on years of research, Walker takes readers from well-known capital cities to more unusual destinations like Yangiyul, Uzbekistan, and Kabondo, Kenya. She follows Florence Mills, the would-be Josephine Baker of her day, in Paris, and Richard Wright, the author turned actor and filmmaker, in Buenos Aires. Throughout “Beyond the Shores,” she relays tender stories of adventurous travelers, including a group of gifted Black crop scientists in the 1930s, a housewife searching for purpose in the 1950s, and a Peace Corps volunteer discovering his identity in the 1970s. Tying these tales together is Walker’s personal account of her family’s, and her own, experiences abroad—in France, Brazil, Argentina, Austria, and beyond.

YOUNG ADULT

Love From A to Z by S.K. Ali (Qatar)

But Zayneb, the only Muslim in class, isn’t bad. She’s angry. When she gets suspended for confronting her teacher, and he begins investigating her activist friends, Zayneb heads to her aunt’s house in Doha, Qatar. Fueled by the guilt of getting her friends in trouble, she resolves to try out a “nicer” version of herself. Then her path crosses with Adam’s. Since he got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, Adam’s stopped going to classes. He’s intent on keeping the memory of his mom alive for his little sister, and his diagnosis a secret from his grieving father. Alone, Adam and Zayneb are playing roles for others, keeping their real thoughts locked away in their journals. 

A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey (England)

A summer in England was never part of Lila’s plan. She was supposed to take over her abuela’s role as head baker at their panadería, move in with her best friend after graduation, and live happily ever after with her boyfriend. But then everything fell apart. So her parents make a new plan: spend three months with family friends in Winchester, England, to relax and reset. Lila is unhappily stuck in a small town lacking Miami flavor (both in food and otherwise), until she meets a tea shop clerk with troubles of his own. Orion is determined to help Lila out of her funk, and appoints himself as her personal tour guide. Soon a new future is beginning to form in Lila’s mind.

Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean (Tokyo)

Izumi Tanaka has never really felt like she fit in — it isn’t easy being Japanese American in her small, mostly white, California town. It’s always been Izumi — or Izzy, because “It’s easier” — and her mom against the world. But then Izumi discovers her father is the Crown Prince of Japan and travels to discover the country she always dreamed of. There are conniving cousins, a hungry press, a scowling but handsome bodyguard, and thousands of years of tradition and customs to learn practically overnight.

HISTORICAL FICTION

The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys (Madrid)

Under a fascist dictatorship, Spain is hiding a dark secret. Meanwhile, tourists and foreign businessmen flood into Spain under the welcoming promise of sunshine and wine. Among them is eighteen-year-old Daniel Matheson, the son of an oil tycoon, who arrives in Madrid with his parents hoping to connect with the country of his mother’s birth through the lens of his camera. Photography — and fate — introduce him to Ana, whose family’s interweaving obstacles reveal the lingering grasp of the Spanish Civil War — as well as chilling definitions of fortune and fear. 

American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson (West Africa)

Marie Mitchell is an intelligence officer with the FBI during the Cold War. She’s brilliant, but she’s also a young black woman working in an old boys’ club. So when she’s given the opportunity to join a task force aimed at undermining the revolutionary president of Burkina Faso, she says yes. Yes, even though she secretly admires the work he is doing for his country. Marie will observe Sankara, seduce him, and ultimately have a hand in the coup that will bring him down. But doing so will change everything she believes about what it means to be a spy, a lover, a sister, and a good American.

Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros (Mexico City)

Every year, Ceyala “Lala” Reyes’ family — aunts, uncles, mothers, fathers, and Lala’s six older brothers — packs up three cars and drives from Chicago to the Little Grandfather and Awful Grandmother’s house for the summer. Struggling to find a voice above the boom of her brothers and to understand her place on this side of the border and that, Lala is a shrewd observer of family life. But when she starts telling the Awful Grandmother’s life story, seeking clues to how she got to be so awful, grandmother accuses Lala of exaggerating. Soon, a multigenerational family narrative turns into a whirlwind exploration of storytelling, lies, and life. 

CONTEMPORARY

The Vacationers by Emma Straub (Mallorca)

For the Posts, a two-week trip to the island of Mallorca with their extended family and friends is a celebration: Franny and Jim are observing their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary, and their daughter, Sylvia, has graduated from high school. The sunlit island also promises an escape from the tensions simmering at home in Manhattan. But all does not go according to plan: over the course of the vacation, secrets come to light, old and new humiliations are experienced, childhood rivalries resurface, and ancient wounds are exacerbated.

What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell (Bulgaria)

On a warm autumn day, an American teacher enters a public bathroom beneath Sofia’s National Palace of Culture. There he meets Mitko, a charismatic young hustler, and pays him for sex. He returns again, drawn by hunger and loneliness and risk, and finds himself ensnared in a relationship in which lust leads to mutual predation, and tenderness can transform into violence. As he struggles to reconcile his longing with the anguish it creates, he’s forced to grapple with his own fraught history, the world of his southern childhood where to be queer was to be a pariah. n narrative, his private history of illness, exploitation, and want.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Pakistan)

At a café in Lahore, a Pakistani man converses with an uneasy American stranger. He begins to tell the story of a man named Changez, who is living an immigrant’s dream of America. At the top of his class at Princeton, he is snapped up by an elite valuation firm. His budding romance with elegant, beautiful Erica promises entry into elite Manhattan society. But in the wake of September 11, Changez finds his position in his adopted city suddenly overturned, and his relationship with Erica shifting. And Changez’s own identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and maybe even love.

THRILLERS

The Searcher by Tana French (Ireland)

Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a bucolic Irish village would be the perfect escape. After twenty-five years in the Chicago police force and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens. But when a local kid whose brother has gone missing arm-twists him into investigating, Cal uncovers layers of darkness beneath his picturesque retreat, and starts to realize that even small towns shelter dangerous secrets.

Murder in G Major by Alexia Gordon (Ireland)

With few other options, African-American classical musician Gethsemane Brown accepts a less-than-ideal position turning a group of rowdy schoolboys into an award-winning orchestra. Stranded without luggage or money in the Irish countryside, she figures any job is better than none. The perk? Housesitting a lovely cliffside cottage. The catch? The ghost of the cottage’s murdered owner haunts the place. Falsely accused of killing his wife (and himself), he begs Gethsemane to clear his name so he can rest in peace. Gethsemane’s reluctant investigation provokes a dormant killer and she soon finds herself in grave danger. 

The Expats by Chris Pavone (Luxembourg)

Kate Moore’s days are filled with playdates and coffee mornings, her weekends spent in Paris and skiing in the Alps. But Kate is also guarding a secret that’s become so unbearable that it begins to unravel her newly established expat life. She suspects that another American couple are not who they claim to be; her husband is acting suspiciously; and as she travels around Europe, she finds herself terrified that her past is catching up with her. Kate finds herself buried in layers of deceit so thick they threaten her family, her marriage, and her life.