When I moved to NYC in my early 20s, my two roommates worked at random house publishing. If we weren’t at the corner bar, we were in the apartment reading the newest book about to hit the shelf, back when books were tangible items that actually hit a shelf. There was no shopping online, we had little money to go out all the time so we spent our time doing the one thing we could do for free and that was passing around a good read.
Fast forward 20 years and I never thought I would be living through a pandemic or reading a book on my phone for that matter but here I am. I have binged watched every show that doesn’t give me anxiety (can’t do the housewives anymore, they are too mean and get me worked up, doesn’t take much these days) so I’ve found myself after I put the kids to bed, losing myself in a good book. I have to be honest, I still actually like to hold a book and I feel I can sleep better at night when I don’t read on a screen so I’ve been ordering a ton of books (god I miss a good city bookshop).
Reading really took a backseat after I got married and then really took a real backseat after children. The last thing I would think about after having little kids was using my brain after putting them to bed. This year has been challenging in many ways so I’ve really enjoyed falling in love with reading again. It has been cathartic, relaxing and helped the long days seem not so long.
Here are some of my picks from me and one of my roommates who was in publishing. Her picks were the biggest books at the time she worked there. Mine are just some that I just really enjoyed back then. I also listed my current favorite reads.
Shannon’s picks of the biggest books of her tune at random house.
A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
All Over But the Shoutin by Rick Bragg
Jemmima Jay by Jan Green
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Ava’s Man by Rick Bragg
I love a good fluff book so my picks are sort of all over the place.
This was one of the best books I ever read. I still remember being so upset it was over. Definitely a fluff book but I loved it. Good Grief by Loly Winston
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Foer
The History Of Love by Nicole Krauss
The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
Running with Scissors by Augustan Burroughs
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (this is an older book but read it in my 20s)
She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
Here are my recent picks.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Ownes
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
The Stationary Shop by Marjun Kamali
Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reed
The Last Mrs. Parish by Liv Constantine
The Scent Keeper by Eric Bauermeister
Verity by Colleen Hoover
Happy reading!!
