Brenna
One sentence synopsis... Thirty, flirty, and not-so-thriving Joan narrates her descent into depravity after one too many traumatic events push her over the edge.
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Read it if you like... ‘My Year of Rest and Relaxation' or ‘Luster'.
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Dream casting... Allison Williams, Alexandra Daddario, or Leighton Meester as Joan.
One sentence synopsis... A mystery within a mystery, a book editor finds herself solving a murder with clues left in the manuscript of one of her author's detective novels.
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Read it if you like... Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes, pre-forensic detective work. Or just if you enjoy creative narrative devices or getting two books for the price of one.
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Dream casting... the book already casts Ben Kingsley as the fictional detective from the manuscript Atticus Pund but in addition to that I'd cast Michael Emmerson as the unlikeable author Alan Conway.
They Wish They Were Us✨
2/5
One sentence synopsis... Jill Newman is haunted by the death of her best friend and fellow Player in her exclusive prep school's secret society whose murder may not be as open-and-shut a case as it seems.
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Read it if you like... ‘Pretty Little Liars' meets ‘Gossip Girl'.
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Dream casting... Sydney Sweeney of ‘Euphoria' is making it into a TV show starring herself and Halsey.
One sentence synopsis... Two tragic teenage loves reunite after a decade apart - both are successful authors and have spent years writing their way back to each other.
Read it if you like... toxic codependent relationships. The main characters, Eva and Shane, are self-destructive and have zero character development even though we follow them from high schoolers to 30 year olds. Also if you like extremely of-the-moment pop culture references that are sure to be dated in a year. My personal pet peeve in books is when they make references to celebrity gossip or a current hit TV show, etc. It makes the book feel dated and disposable. Despite all this criticism I still read the book in a day so it gets two stars for being page-turning. If you want a better fun, Black romance try anything Jasmine Guillory or Talia Hibbert.
Dream casting... Logan Browning as romance writer Eva Mercy and Regé-Jean Page as Serious Author TM Shane Hall.
One sentence synopsis... Beginning at the dawn of the Opium War, this historical epic follows the rising and falling fortunes of a cast of Chinese, British, and American families.
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Read it if you like... all the other Rutherfurd sagas. However in ‘China' the prolific author takes a slightly closer look at the period of Mao's Cultural Revolution than he usually dedicates to a particular time period.
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Dream casting... Fala Chen as the beautiful and resourceful Mei-Ling. Ben Barnes as down on his luck opium trader John Trader.
One sentence synopsis... A series of loosely connected pieces of prose examining love and the loss of a relationship through observations about the colour blue.
Read it if you like... when books are described as ‘lyrical' and ‘poetic'.
Further reading... ‘Too Much and Not the Mood', Ocean Vuong, or Mary Gaitskill.
One sentence synopsis... A will-they-won't-they between best friends told through nine years of vacations they've gone on together.
Read it if you like... David Nicholl's ‘One Day' (the book only, not the terrible movie), ‘Beach Read' or just rom coms in general.
Dream casting... Emma Roberts as spontaneous, fun Poppy and Jake Lacy playing the same role he did in the underrated ‘High Fidelity' reboot tv show as Alex.
One sentence synopsis... Set in Brighton, this is a heartbreaking story about the consequences of a queer love triangle in the 1950s.
Read it if you like... ‘Atonement', ‘Less', or Harry Styles. And let's be honest, who doesn't like Harry Styles.
Dream casting... As alluded to above, this is soon to be a movie with Harry Styles and Emma Corrin (‘The Crown').
One sentence synopsis... The inhabitants of the iDEATH commune live in a perfect world where the sun shines a different colour everyday and most things are made of watermelon sugar - iDEATH is the answer to the inhumane, modern capitalist world... or is.
hint: the name is a bit of a giveaway.
Read it if you like... cult content, trout (Brautigan has a thing for them), Bolinas, or acid weird post-modern fiction. Do not read if you like the Harry Styles song.
Dream casting... Jim Sturgess as the narrator and Holland Roden (‘Channel Zero' Roden, not ‘Teen Wolf' Roden) as Margaret.
One sentence synopsis... In the midst of the #MeToo movement, Vanessa re-evaluates a relationship with her teacher that began when she was 15 and has cast a shadow over the rest of her life.
Read it if you like... ‘A Little Life' aka you just like reading stories about people who have terrible things happen to them.
Dream casting... recycle the redheaded duo of Amy Adams and Sophia Lillis as the older and young versions of each other from 'Sharp Objects'.
One sentence synopsis... An overheard conversation between her parents triggers a chain of events in the angsty adolescence of Ferrante's latest troubled, selfish, insecure female protagonist.
Read it if you like... the Neapolitan novels. This is her first stand alone since the wildly successful series ended and although it doesn't have the same scope it helps fill the empty void.
Dream casting... Gaia Girace is the obvious pick for rebellious teenager Giovanna.
One sentence synopsis... An outsider at a prestigious New England college finds herself in the thrall of a clique of four women who love Pinkberry yogurt, experimental prose, calling each other ‘Bunny', and performing dark magic to manifest their dream boys.
Read it if you like... ‘Heathers', ‘Carrie', ‘AHS: Coven', ‘Scream Queens' or ‘Jennifer's Body'. Dark comedy with an academic setting and dash of horror.
Dream casting... Emma Mackey as the Veronica/Cady Heron of the group, Samantha.
One sentence synopsis... In a dystopian society (barely different from our own) that is nearly completely automized, a conflicted engineer questions the negative impact machines have on humanity. .
Read it if you like... sci-fi, ‘Westworld', Philip K. Dick. Read it if you hate (or at least hold serious reservations about) Amazon, Facebook, technology's overwhelming and unregulated place in our lives. .
Dream casting... it's themes are huge and scary but this novel is mostly hilarious. Therefore I propose Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele as spiritual leader the Shah of Bratpuhr and his translator, respectively.
One sentence synopsis... A harrowing semi-autobiographical story of Ruth Anne, ‘Bone' Boatwright, a young girl growing up entrenched in poverty, family dysfunction, and sexual abuse in the south.
Read it if you like... although it's now popular to put a poor, ‘white trash', female character as the center of a story (a la, ‘Winter's Bone' or ‘My Absolute Darling') this book was one of the earlier ones to accomplish it and the only one of those it's compared to written by a woman. Also a good read for people who liked the heartbreak of ‘A Little Life'. Very different but Bone is another character who will stick with me like Jude.
Dream casting... planning on checking out the 1996 movie version with a young Jenna Malone as Bone.
One sentence synopsis... In a future where natural death has been conquered, elected Scythes are responsible for culling the human population. .
Read it if you like... like ‘Hunger Games', this book poses philosophical questions about mortality and societal corruption in an entertaining way... also like ‘Hunger Games' it features a weak, lazy romance between two characters as little suited for each other as Katniss and Peeta. .
Dream casting... Griffin Gluck as outcast turned Scythe-hunter, Rowan. Taylor Russell as relevant Scythe-in-training, Citra.
One sentence synopsis... Precocious young Emma Woodhouse's delusions of her own match-making abilities lead to a series of comic, romantic misadventures. .
Read it if you like... rom-com books like “To All The Boys I've Loved Before” or modern reimagining like “Clueless”. .
Dream casting... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qsOwj0PR5Sk
One sentence synopsis... A masterful historical novel following the triumphs and struggles of generations of Parisians - from 1261 to 1968. .
Read it if you like... travel. Reading about other places is the closest thing any of us are going to get to taking a trip these days and Rutherfurd brings to life the City of Lights. .
Further reading... I've read two of this other books - ‘London' and ‘New York' - and both are equally transporting, informative, and entertaining.
One sentence synopsis... Exiled from their family home following the death of their father, this fairytale-esque story follows the Conroy siblings through the next five decades of their lives. .
Read it if you like... Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, anything with an evil stepmother really.. this book's one gives them all a run for their money. .
Dream casting... Margaret Qualley and Nicholas Hoult as the Conroy siblings Maeve and Danny.
One sentence synopsis... Reclusive and independent girl raising herself in the deep South tries to solve her boyfriend's murder while also becoming the main suspect.
Read it if you liked... Leave No Trace (If you haven't seen Leave No Trace, get off Instagram and go rent it now)
Dream casting... a younger Kristen Stewart or ‘Skins' era Kaya Scodelario as Kya, Evan Peters as Tate (could be influenced by his name being Tate in AHS)
One sentence synopsis... A huge, pretentious, information dump of magical world building around Yale's elites secret societies and the titular house that police the black magic on campus.
Read it if you like... exposition. This door-stopper of a book is 95% exposition with a Scooby-Doo style unmasking of the villain in the final pages. Another example of my recent mistake of assuming if I like one of an author's books I'll obviously enjoy the rest of their work. Wrong. Again.
Dream casting... Amazon swooped up this property probably based on the popularity of Bardugo's other books (currently being adapted by Netflix). Selena Gomez as unlikely Yale freshman, Galaxy ‘Alex' Stern.
One sentence synopsis... Ruthless and brilliant, Austen's last complete novel concerns Anne Elliot, a young Englishwoman, reunited with her first love 7 years after their breakup. .
Read it if you like... stories about second chances. .
Dream casting... Ella Hunt as Anne Elliot and Johnny Flynn as Frederick Wentworth.
One sentence synopsis... Billy Pilgrim's “unstuck in time” travels from the fire bombings in Dresden to the alien planet of Tralfamadore. .
Read it if you like... ‘Fahrenheit 451', ‘Catch-22', other modern classics with names and numbers as the title. .
Dream casting... Unfortunately I had recently seen ‘1917' so I could only picture George MacKay as Billy Pilgrim and Dean-Charles Chapman as Roland Weary.
One sentence synopsis... Presented as the autobiography of Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain, the King of Manhattan, this novel is ostensibly about the absurdity of loneliness and the subversive power of institutionalized “family” - “Lonesome No More!” .
Read it if you like... if you're a Vonnegut completionist, otherwise spare yourself. .
Dream casting... the main characters are described as twin geniuses, both born ugly and extremely tall. They were played by Jerry Lewis and Madeline Kahn in the 1984 adaptation of this novel. I wouldn't wish this role on anyone.
One sentence synopsis... This book follows two half-sisters separated from birth in 18th century Ghana, alternating each chapter to tell the story of a different descendant of each sister. .
Read it If you like... short stories. Despite continuing themes of colonialism and slavery, read all together they felt like a collection of short stories rather than a wholly realized plot. Still enjoyable but about halfway through the stories lose their momentum and become a series of emotionally distressing vingnettes. .
Further reading... for a better version of the many-alternating-narrators book: try ‘There, There'. For a better version of the American-racism-shaping-families: try ‘An American Marriage'. For a better version of family-followed-across-generations: try ‘Pachinko'. It's not that ‘Homegoing' is bad, it's just not as good as other books about the same ideas.