The Good Parts (2000) The Best Erotic Writing in Modern Fiction edited by J H Blair
Susanna Moore recommends
Bright Objects (2024) Ruby Todd "Bright Objects is the story of a woman consumed by an unquellable obsession, reduced by solitude and incompleteness, caught in an unconscious embattled conspiracy of her own making. Ruby Todd writes of the strain of fearful events and discoveries, and the fatal inevitability of a sense of guilt when someone close to one is killed, all the while revealing to us the hidden realities that lie in wait for us."
The Anniversary (2023) Stephanie Bishop "The Anniversary is a haunting mystery, sophisticated, subtle and subversive. Bishop considers the discipline, scrupulous and otherwise, required to make a marriage, as well as to make art, capturing the longing and the disappointment inherent in the attempt to make one's self known to others."
Mid-Air (2022) Victoria Shorr "The two novellas in Victoria Shorr's book Mid-Air are intimate portraits of inclusion and exclusion, as well as the dangers implicit in nostalgia. Rich with an acerbic skepticism and abetted by the unexpected detail that renders something humorous, Shorr writes with a tolerance of ambiguity that is provocative as well as enlightening."
Highway Blue (2021) Ailsa McFarlane "The richness and pathos of the ordinary is heightened by the private mysteries of McFarlane’s innocent fugitives as they run from both the law and themselves. It is a journey filled with unexpected kindnesses and the illuminating effect of transformation. I so admire it."
The Harpy (2020) Megan Hunter "In The Harpy, a confession of a woman who refuses to inhabit the world under false pretenses, Megan Hunter effortlessly compels us to feel both heartbreak and the momentary gratification of revenge. It is a book about love and betrayal -- that between husband and wife, and parent and child -- and it is devastating in its evocation of the expense and sometimes fatal strain of passion, grief, and rage."
The Stone Girl (2020) Dirk Wittenborn "Dirk Wittenborn’s vibrant female characters refuse to turn themselves into commodities or victims. Suspenseful, witty, and wise, it is a compelling thriller."
The Guest Book (2019) Sarah Blake "The Guest Book is not only an exploration of the past, but a prophecy of the future. It illuminates a lost world with a brilliance that is neither nostalgic nor sentimental as it leads its characters, as well as the reader, to new and disturbing discoveries about prejudice and privilege. Sarah Blake's understanding of private life at a certain time in America and within a certain class gives us an incisive history of manners and morals, with the understanding that the survival of the spirit, no matter the time, depends upon endurance, tolerance, and solitary grief."
Mary B (2018) Katherine J Chen "Katherine J. Chen has made alive Jane Austen's irresistible Bennet family by her interest in all that we do not know, rather than what we do. If each novel is an answer to preceding ones, Chen has brought us up to date in a spirited and inventive way, reminding us with wit and charm that things are never as simple as we think."
The Captives (2018) Debra Jo Immergut "The weight of deception on an otherwise honorable being, and the strain of fearful events and discoveries is Debra Jo Immergut's subject... The Captives is a compelling story of two disparate individuals, only one of whom believes that consolation is more important than truth."
What You Don't Know (2017) JoAnn Chaney "Chaney's psychological insights and social perceptions are infallible - brutal, indignant, and full of surprises."
Evening Is the Whole Day (2008) Preeta Samarasan "Preeta Samarasan's passionate, striking book, stunned with light and heat, is full of the memory of enchantment and the enchantment of memory. Samarasan cultivates with brilliance the taut battle between the public and familial being, and the hidden and fragile inner self, trapped in a world of myth and mystery."
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