Emma Straub is from New York City. Her first novel, Laura Lamonts Life in Pictures, will be published by Riverhead Books in September 2012. Her debut story collection Other People We Married, arrived in February 2012, also published by Riverhead Books. Her fiction and non-fiction have been published by Tin House, The Paris Review Daily, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Time, Slate, Cousin Corinnes Reminder, and many other journals, and she is a staff writer for Rookie. Emma lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband.
Crush (2025) Ada Calhoun "Ada Calhoun writes with absolute clarity about the giddiest and most destabilizing feeling--the crush. This novel made me feel dizzy and I loved every second. Calhoun can seduce me any day of the week."
I'll Come to You (2025) Rebecca Kauffman "Rebecca Kauffman writes like a sun beam, strong and warm on whatever lands in her path. This book only looks short - in reality, it reveals a family so richly drawn, so deep and complex, that it contains the whole world."
Slow Dance (2024) Rainbow Rowell "Who can deny the absolute, dizzy pleasure of loving a novel so much that you cannot bear to put it down, that you want to do nothing but keep flipping pages, that you want to immerse yourself fully and not come up for air until you are finished. I read Slow Dance in just that way, breathless and weeping. There is no one better than Rainbow at creating flawed, deeply human people. I loved every page of Slow Dance, a book that is romantic to its core, and as funny and smart as its wonderful characters."
The Cliffs (2024) J Courtney Sullivan "J. Courtney Sullivan is so skilled at multi-threaded narratives, and this is her most ambitious book yet. Weaving together the stories of women in Maine over centuries, this novel is about maternal loss and trauma, the idea of home, and most affecting, the stories that remain untold."
Honey (2024) Isabel Banta "Honey is a sexy swagger of a debut. The ambition and grit of its heroine are matched by the dextrous smarts of its writer, and it is deeply satisfying to see the mistreated pop princesses of the millennium get the respect that they-as complicated humans-deserved all along."
Rainbow Black (2024) Maggie Thrash "I've loved Maggie Thrash's work for years, and Rainbow Black is going to set so many new hearts aflame - murder, intrigue, queer love, dark humor AND satanic panic? Welcome to the Maggie Thrash Fan Club, world!"
The Prospectors (2023) Ariel Djanikian "Vivid and precise, this epic story asks what happens after the gold rush, to those whose pockets are deep and to those whose pockets have been picked. Djanikian brings the historical details to life as well as the moral questions of the present in this rich, glittering novel."
Prom Mom (2023) Laura Lippman "Prom Mom subverts the tabloid headline of its title into something more surprising, transgressive, and sexy. Laura Lippman is an absolute master of plot and timing, and I would follow her anywhere--even to the prom."
Do Tell (2023) Lindsay Lynch "There is little more alluring than the promise of secrets, and Do Tell is full of them--glamorous, tawdry, and human. Lindsay Lynch has created a rich portrait of the lives of early Hollywood's beautiful puppets and those holding their strings."
Once More with Feeling (2023) Elissa Sussman "This book is catnip for those of us who love boybands, musical theater, and second chances at first love. Written with humor and a fan's eye for adoration, Elissa Sussman has given us another hit."
The Daydreams (2023) Laura Hankin "Catnip for anyone who feels deeply about the private lives of popstars. If you wanted Britney free, read this book. If you wanted Justin Timberlake to pay for his crimes, read this book. Juicy and heartfelt. I couldn't put it down."
The Celebrants (2023) Steven Rowley "What can stave off the fear of death, or rescue you from one of life's less fatal heartbreaks? Steven Rowley, ever warm and witty, offers up lifelong friendship, and I am inclined to believe him."
Advika and the Hollywood Wives (2023) Kirthana Ramisetti "A rich portrait of a family facing their powerful matriarch's death, Dava Shastri's Last Day is full of music, magnetism, and familial obligation. If Succession were about a multicultural family who actually loved each other, it might look like this."
White Cat, Black Dog (2023) Kelly Link "Kelly Link's stories are spooky and funny, grounded and floating, and, as always, completely her own. There is no mistaking a story by Kelly Link. This book is sublime."
Winterland (2022) Rae Meadows "Rae Meadows always writes with absolute clarity and power, and it is a pleasure to soar through the air with her in Winterland, weightless, strong, and capable of anything."
The Old Place (2022) Bobby Finger "I loved being inside this skillful novel--at the planning parties for church fundraisers, learning to drive with a can of beer in the cupholder, and in the heads of some wonderfully tangy old Texan ladies. Bobby Finger has built a rich world in The Old Place, and I will think of it every time I make toast."
The Work Wife (2022) Alison B Hart "The Work Wife is a bold and wholly satisfying novel about power, ambition, and the price women must often pay for their dreams. I gobbled it up."
The Night Shift (2022) Natalka Burian "The Night Shift is an engrossing and vibrant novel, and I loved watching my fair city shine in these pages. This is a great book for readers who love New York City after dark, and who see mysterious possibilities around every corner."
Woman of Light (2022) Kali Fajardo-Anstine "This novel is indelible, and shines its big light on the Lopez family so brightly that I could draw a map of their breath. . . . An absolutely glorious novel."
The Catch (2022) Alison Fairbrother "This big-hearted debut absolutely crackles with smarts--the sentences are crisp, the story unfurls, the characters are just right. The Catch is a delightful read about love, loss, and the vulnerability of growing up."
Book Lovers (2022) Emily Henry "I would follow Emily Henry anywhere. A small town, a literary enterprise, a bookstore to rescue, and sex in moonlit streams? Yes, please! Book Lovers is sexy, funny, and smart. Another perfectly satisfying read from the unstoppable Emily Henry."
I'll Be You (2022) Janelle Brown "Absolutely delicious . . . Janelle Brown is a surgeon of the complex relationships between women. I gobbled this up."
The World Gives Way (2021) Marissa Levien "Marissa Levien's debut novel is a thrilling adventure, and in a moment when we're all looking for escape pods, this is a great one."
With Teeth (2021) Kristen Arnett "With Teeth is a wonderfully sticky novel about motherhood, partnership, sex and love. Kristen Arnett lets her characters have the run of the place, and it's delicious fun to watch them do, say, and think things they'll regret."
Cheat Day (2021) Liv Stratman "A feverish story of attachment and desire, and the search for satisfaction through food, sex, and hard work—while simultaneously proving the impossibility of perfection."
Perfect Tunes (2020) Emily Gould "Perfect Tunes is a zippy and profound story of love, loss, heredity, and parenthood. I gulped it down, as will all mothers, New Yorkers, music fans, and lovers of quick-moving novels that are both funny and deep. I loved every page."
Writers & Lovers (2020) Lily King "If you loved The Friend but wish it had had more sex and waitressing, get ready for Lily King’s Writers and Lovers. Delicious."
Hex (2020) Rebecca Dinerstein Knight "Hex reads like a botanist’s cross-breeding of The Secret History and Department of Speculation, full of brilliant and bodily obsession. Rebecca Dinerstein Knight is both a scientist and a magician, and she conjures this beautiful spell of a novel with total control."
Woman No. 17 (2017) Edan Lepucki "Edan Lepucki is the very best kind of writer: simultaneously generous and precise. I am long been an admirer of her prose, but this book---this book, this massive, brilliant book---is a four alarm fire, the ambitious and rich introduction that a writer of her caliber deserves."
The Heirs (2017) Susan Rieger "Susan Rieger is thrillingly erudite and compulsively readable, a satisfying combination hard to find in any section of the bookstore. The Heirs is an absorbing page-turner, full of sex and secrets, and I loved getting to know the entire Falkes clan."
Station Eleven (2014) Emily St. John Mandel "Station Eleven is the kind of book that speaks to dozens of the readers in me - the Hollywood devotee, the comic book fan, the cult junkie, the love lover, the disaster tourist. It is a brilliant novel, and Emily St John Mandel is astonishing."
The Anatomy of Dreams (2014) Chloe Benjamin "Chloe Benjamin's ambitious debut novel matches the subtle surrealism of a dream with the underpinnings of a thriller. Back and forth in time like so many memories coming to light at once, Benjamin has produced a wholly original tale."
