Monica Wood, writer
Book Recommendations
Like most writers, I'm a passionate reader. If you're looking for something to add to your list, check out these recommendations. Some of my suggestions are books that have not received the attention they deserve. I know how much I love discovering buried treasures, so I hope you will, too. When buying books, put your money where your house is: buy local.
Spring 2023
Joan Is Okay by Weike Wang invites us into the rigid, hilairous world of an American ICU doc with Chinese parents. I loved this.
Lottery by Patricia Wood (no relation!) made me feel like a complete human being. The narrator, the unforgettable Perry L. Crandall, is a pure soul with a huge heart, and all I can say is you will be so glad you read this.
Trust by Hernan Diaz takes a while to reveal its clever structure, and it's so worth the wait. A deeply engaging novel about financial skulduggery in the 1920s, the erasing of smart women, the tangled web of truth and wishful thinking and lies.
December 2021
On Animals by Susan Orlean is a compilation of essays she wrote, mostly for The New Yorker, on various animals, beginning with her love affair with her pet chickens. Orlean is witty, often hilarious, tender, and smart. I loved this so much.
The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard is one of those litmus-test novels for many writers I know. If you love it, then you're in; if you don't, find another sandbox. I finally got around to reading it last week after years of writers recommending it. One the one hand, the writing is almost weirdly old-fashioned--I kept imagining the characters in long dresses though most of it takes place in the 1940s. On the other hand, I could have underlined one astonishing insight into the human condition on every single page. The story itself is a melodrama about two sisters, one a rule follower, the other an iconoclast.
September 2021
Oh my goodness, I pulled a novel called Heft by Liz Moore out of one of those "little free library" boxes in my neighborhood. I read it in one swoop and highly recommend it. It's the story of a 450-man confined to his house, the woman he once loved, and a teenaged boy who is stuck in the middle. Beautiful, humane, often funny, unforgettable.
I read Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday, which made a big splash a couple of years ago. I loved reading it, but at the end I just did not get it. Then I read a couple of reviews, realized I had missed something essential (sometimes I read too fast) and once I knew that essential thing, I really liked the book. So I will tell you that thing: the middle section, which seems to be an entirely different story, is in fact the novel that the protagonist in the has been longing to write. This is not a spoiler; this is a guide.
I am neither a cook nor a foodie, but I found the memoir Service Included by Phoebe Damrosch a delightful read. It tracks her experience being a server in an extremely posh NYC restaurant. I had NO IDEA how much training these jobs require, nor how stressful they can be. Her writing is quick and fun; good company.
If you like "psychological suspense" (I usually don't--these days there's always a psychopath in no need of logic or plausibility). But I did read The Other Passenger and found it enjoyable, reeeeeally suspenseful, and more like a clever Hitchcock story than yet another iteration of gone-girl-on-a-train/bus/jet-ski/unicycle that is saturating the market at present. You'll like it.
August 2021
Francine Prose is an old fave, and I'm currently reading The Vixen, about a young man in the fifties trying to find himself as he edits an inept novel that fictionalizes Ethel Roseberg as a femme-fatale Mata Hari. It's warm, funny, generous, and often hair-raising.
Another standout this summer was Land of Cockaigne by Jeffrey Lewis. (It comes out very soon.) This might be the best novel I've ever read. A breathtakingly insightful tale of a wealthy "from away" couple who move to a coastal Maine town. When their son is killed in New York, they decide to start a summer camp in his honor, bringing kids from the city to their large property. Not everyone in town thinks this is such a great idea, and the result is a stunning, affecting, deeply humane story that I won't soon forget.
For mystery lovers, I found a series of "new" Hercule Poirot novels by Sophie Hannah. It's like reading Agatha Christie, though a tad less dusty. Loved all four, especially Closed Casket.
I finally got around to A Gentleman in Moscow, and it's everything all the recommenders said it was. Though slow-moving in the first three quarters, it could be no other way. I found this story of a "gentleman" under house arrest after the Bolshievik revolution deeply moving and often very funny.
July 2021
The Liar's Dictionary by Eley Williams is a big, puffy froth of wordplay that's a pleasure to read. It follows two lexicographers, 100 years apart, working on the same doomed-to-fail dictionary.
I reread The Dutch House by Ann Patchet, a magnificent and riveting story of a brother and his beloved older sister. Their life in a storied mansion--from which they are cast away by a stepmother after Dad dies--makes for an unforgettable reading experience.
Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson. This guy is one of my new favorite contemporary writers. I LOVE his humanity, humor, and insight. Oh, and the gorgeous prose. This one's so original, narrated by a lost soul who is called into service by an old friend, now married to a senator, whose young stepchildren burst into flame when greatly stressed. Really. Wilson makes this not only plausible, but very moving.
For January 2004:
