Joanna is a freelance writer and editor, who has taught English at Baruch College of CUNY. She writes regularly for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Newsday, The Guardian, Vogue, and otherwell-known papers and magazines. She lives in New York with her husband, poet Evan Smith Rakoff.
Elegy, Southwest (2025) Madeleine Watts "Haunting and hypnotic, absorbing and provocative, Elegy, Southwest is the novel I've been waiting for. Watts' cool, precise prose calls to mind Joan Didion and Alexandra Kleeman, but this singular novel is something new, entirely. New and breathtaking."
The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus (2025) Emma Knight "Sally Rooney fans, take note! Emma Knight's witty, wistful debut will keep you up all night, pondering the mystery and romance at its core, and rooting for Knight's irresistible heroine. I loved it."
Summer Fridays (2024) Suzanne Rindell "I could not put down Suzanne Rindell's delightful romance, which brought me back, in the most charming way, to the 1990s. A sweet, nostalgic coming of age tale."
The Sicilian Inheritance (2024) Jo Piazza "Jo Piazza's latest is everything a person could want in a novel: Instantly gripping, gorgeously written, ingeniously plotted, filled with complicated, fascinating characters, both timely and timeless, and, of course, underpinned by Piazza's characteristic wit, intellect, and warmth. I couldn't put it down and now can't stop thinking about it. Remarkable, astonishing, and just plain wonderful."
Days of Wonder (2024) Caroline Leavitt "Caroline Leavitt is a national treasure. I've been reading her novels from the very first and I can say that no one writes about the bond of motherhood like Leavitt. I loved Days of Wonder and simply couldn't put it down. A warm, big-hearted story of love and longing, the novel gets at the very essence of what it means to be a mother and a daughter, a friend and a wife. Like all of Leavitt's novels, this latest offers the most profound narrative pleasures. Days of Wonder may be her best yet."
The Possibilities (2023) Yael Goldstein-Love "The Possibilities explores motherhood from a place of such raw, animalistic love and with such emotional veracity that I, at times, had to put the book down and take deep breaths. It calls to mind Octavia Butler, Madeleine L'Engle, and most of all Philip K. Dick."
Pete and Alice in Maine (2023) Caitlin Shetterly "A vividly realistic portrait of day-to-day life during lockdown, of the ways the pandemic both cleaved families together and wrenched them apart. Laced with wry humor, Pete and Alice in Maine is that rare thing: a deeply intelligent page-turner."
Half-Life of a Stolen Sister (2023) Rachel Cantor "Rachel Cantor is among the most exciting, singular novelists of our time and Half-Life of a Stolen Sister is her best yet."
Girlfriend on Mars (2023) Deborah Willis "A perfectly observed satire that captures the absurdity--and beauty--of twenty-first century life. It reminded me of so many favorite novelists, from Margaret Atwood to Dave Eggers to Alexandra Kleeman. I loved it."
I Could Live Here Forever (2023) Hanna Halperin "Brutal, beautiful, unputdownable, I Could Live Here Forever is a dark romance that reads almost like a thriller and captures the emotional complexity of life in the twenty-first century. I loved it."
Hestia Strikes a Match (2023) Christine Grillo "Warning: Do not pick up Hestia Strikes a Match without clearing your calendar. I could not put down this pitch-perfect dark comedy. I fell in love, and so will you."
Community Board (2023) Tara Conklin "Oh, how I loved this delightful, unputdownable novel! A pitch-perfect comedy of manners, a balm for difficult times, a charming coming of age story, Community Board is ultimately the literary equivalent of a warm hug."
My Last Innocent Year (2023) Daisy Alpert Florin "My Last Innocent Year possesses an urgent timeliness--in its examination of gender, power, and class on a college campus--but Daisy Alpert Florin's remarkable debut is, at heart, an intimate, intricately constructed coming of age tale to rival the greats of the genre, from The Great Gatsby to Catcher in the Rye. Remarkable, unputdownable, brilliant."
Small World (2023) Laura Zigman "A profound exploration of the depths and limits of unconditional love, Small World examines what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a sister, a person in the world. By turns hilarious and haunting, this is a novel for the ages."
We All Want Impossible Things (2022) Catherine Newman "A novel set in a hospice has no right to be as hilarious, charming, and hopeful as We All Want Impossible Things. With Nora Ephron-style lightness, Catherine Newman has constructed a truly singular tale of love and friendship in the twenty-first century. I loved it."
Shmutz (2022) Felicia Berliner "I read this pitch-perfect debut all in one sitting, barely breathing until I'd reached the stunning, poignant conclusion. I'm in awe of Felicia Berliner's wisdom and insight into the human condition and her virtuosic ability to turn a highly specific story into a thoroughly universal one."
Groupies (2022) Sarah Priscus "This dark, absorbing coming-of-age tale, set in the folk-rock scene of the 1970s, captivated me from the very first sentence. With deep intelligence and massive heart, Sarah Priscus captures both the allure of fame and its dangers. I loved her thorny heroine, Faun, and I loved this novel."
Fellowship Point (2022) Alice Elliott Dark "I loved Fellowship Point so intensely and so tremendously, I'm struggling to find words that capture its brilliance. At once a rich, deeply felt investigation of female friendship and a bold novel of ideas, Fellowship Point offers the most profound pleasures. It reminded me of my favorite novels - those I return to, over and over - Great Expectations, Howards End, Middlemarch. I wanted to live inside it forever."
Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance (2022) Alison Espach "Oh how I loved this novel! Alison Espach masterfully examines the effects of devastating loss with enormous wit, charm, and intelligence. This is truly a novel like no other."
The Last Party (2022) Cassidy Lucas "The Last Party is a pitch-perfect thriller with a heart of gold. Cassidy Lucas perfectly captures the soul-shattering anxiety of the pandemic and gorgeously dramatizes its ability to both bring people together and drive them, tragically, apart. I couldn't put it down."
Vladimir (2022) Julia May Jonas "Vladimir is among the best novels of the past two decades. Astonishing, magnificent, dazzling, deeply moving - and also deeply funny - it reminded me of some of my favorite works of fiction, from The Age of Innocence to Revolutionary Road to Le Divorce. It is the rare novel that I hoped would never, ever end."
Mercy Street (2022) Jennifer Haigh "I'm just going to say it: Jennifer Haigh is the greatest novelist of our generation. And Mercy Street is her best novel yet."
Mary Jane (2021) Jessica Anya Blau "MARY JANE is that rare thing: An utterly charming, absurdly delightful novel that also makes you think deeply about the world around you. Jessica Anya Blau's clear-eyed wit reminded me of Curtis Sittenfeld and Laurie Colwin, and, of course, Jane Austen."
Gypsy Moth Summer (2017) Julia Fierro "Julia Fierro's marvelous The Gypsy Moth Summer is a novel to slowly savor, settling in with her characters as you would old friends, cherishing every sentence, every turn of plot. Rarely does one encounter a novel this entertaining, which also speaks to the complicated truths about race and class at the heart of our country's tangled history."
'Round Midnight (2017) Laura McBride "I'm not one to pull out the term Great American Novel, but Laura McBride's sublime ROUND MIDNIGHT demands nothing less. Gorgeous, engrossing, moving, and at times wickedly funny, this brilliant novel pulled me in and didn't let me go until the shattering final sentence. This is the novel you need to read right now."
The Orphan Sister (2011) Gwendolen Gross "This charming portrait of an impossibly gorgeous and gifted family is something rare: a delightful confection, filled with humor and warmth, that also probes the complex nature of identity, the vagaries of romantic and filial love, and the materialism inherent in contemporary American culture."
