The World According to Garp by John Irving

What to Read When…you’re doing some hard hospital time. We all know that there are different kinds of “hospital time.”  Time spent waiting in the emergency room with a colicky child, or waiting for a new member of the family to emerge, sipping bad coffee as a grandparent is rolled into a machine, or pacing […]

Miss Benson’s Beetle, by Rachel Joyce

What to read when… …you need to feel there are still adventures to be had in this world.  I promise you that Miss Benson’s Beetle will make you want to quit your job, sell all your belongings, and hop a freight for the other side of the world.  The only issue there is that I […]

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, by Jesse Q. Sutanto

What to read when… …your boyfriend’s moved in and you’re trying really hard to be normal about it.  It had been 13 years since a man lived in my house, and for all the ways his nearness turned me into a warm gooey brownie inside, his permanent presence in my previously unmanned house baked me […]

Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery

What to read when… …you just need a soft place to go to sleep.  Do you have a “comfort” book?  Something like mashed potatoes, or macaroni and cheese, or ice cream?  A book you read on a bad day but with less calories?  Or maybe a book you switch over to when you’re finishing Colson […]

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

What to Read When…you just need to breathe a bit. I’d just finished Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad which left me feeling…shaken (so much so that I still don’t know what to say about it; look for that blog post a little later).  I needed a book I could relax into.  Not something “light,” but […]

The Lobotomist’s Wife by Samantha Greene Woodruff

What to Read When…you’re in the waiting room of your therapist’s office. I thought I’d start a list of “What to Read When…” only because there are so many times in our lives when a book can save us from a variety of social angst, or divert our attention from bad days or existential crises.  […]