1. Avery J.C. Kleinman’s review of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine: A Novel by Gail Honeyman. “Whatever happened to Eleanor was bad. So bad that it left a scar covering half her face. So bad that it explains why she has no friends and lives a reclusive life. The reader doesn’t find out exactly what happened until the final pages, even though it feels like the answer might be coming at nearly every turn. That suspense makes the book compelling, vivid, and delightfully frustrating.”


2. Steve Orr’s review of The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness by Paula Poundstone. “Give Poundstone credit, as well. She’s not afraid to dive feet-first into her experiments. Take the ‘Get Up and Dance’ chapter, where she tries swing dancing. Even though she claims to feel like an idiot a lot, she concludes that dance lessons provide her with ‘several heps of happiness.’ Let’s hope, as promised, she plans to continue.”


3. Cathy Alter’s review of Amanda Wakes Up: A Novel by Alisyn Camerota. “Usually when a reviewer uses the phrase ‘fun read,’ it’s a polite euphemism for a book you’d more than likely toss in a beach bag or leave on an airplane. And while you may do just that with Alisyn Camerota’s Amanda Wakes Up (because it is super fun to read), her debut novel is also a juicy tutorial in political scandal, vocational backstabbing, and Faustian-level soul-selling. In other words: morning news television.”


4. “On the Allure of Eros” by Grace Cavalieri. When Cavalieri, our resident poetry powerhouse, took a deep dive into Plato’s love- and lust-filled Symposium, readers eagerly jumped in with her.


5. “Tome Sweet Tome” by Tara Laskowski. “Moving sucks generally, but it's even worse when you're a book-lover,” wrote Laskowski in her monthly column, Long Story Short. Fellow bookworms — who surely understand the special hell of boxing up all those titles — across the internet clicked on the piece to commiserate.

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