The Top 13 Books You Couldn't Put Down
I asked. You answered.
On Instagram, I asked for recommendations for the last book you couldn’t put down. Here are your top 13 picks — plus many more! I’ve interviewed many of your selected authors on my podcast Totally Booked with Zibby, so I’m including links to listen — and to buy the books at Zibby’s Bookshop online if you’d like. No pressure!
TWO UPCOMING EVENTS
Wait, speaking of Zibby’s Bookshop, we have two amazing ticketed events coming up at our Santa Monica store in addition to our regular line-up. Tell your LA friends — and join us!
July 9th at 7 pm PT:
Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action and author of Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age (podcast with me here)
with
Mandana Dayani, entrepreneur, attorney, and presidential appointee to the Holocaust Museum; The OCU Chronicle; One Mitzvah a Day
Tickets here.
July 10th at 6:30 pm PT (with optional pre-meet+greet at 5 pm PT)
Christine Pride, author of All the Men I’ve Loved Again (and You Were Always Mine, We Are Not Like Them) (podcast with me here)
with
Tembi Locke, Reese’s Book Club pick author for From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily and Finding Home, now on Netflix, and upcoming original audiobook Someday, Now: A Memoir of Family, Reclaiming Possibility, and One Sicilian Summer (podcast with me here)
Tickets here.
The Top 13 Books You Couldn’t Put Down!
Here’s what you selected! Interesting to note:
12 novels; 1 memoir
6 were major book club picks
All 13 were on my Most Anticipated lists! I’ve interviewed 11 of the 13 authors and 1 was a Zibby’s Book Club pick
What other fun facts or commonalities can you spot? What makes a book un-put-downable these days?
THE LIST
Clare Leslie Hall, Broken Country (podcast with me here)
Charlotte McConaughey, Wild Dark Shore (podcast with me here)
Wally Lamb, The River is Waiting (podcast with me here)
Janelle Brown, What Kind of Paradise (and recommended by author Chris Bohjalian!) podcast with me here about Pretty Things
Alison Espach, The Wedding People (podcast with me here)
Fredrik Backman, My Friends (podcast with me here about Anxious People)
Sarah Damoff, The Bright Years
Annabel Monaghan, It’s a Love Story (podcast with me here)
Audrey Ingram, The Summer We Ran (podcast with me here and we published this at Zibby Publishing!!)
Florence Knapp, The Names
Taylor Jenkins Reid, Atmosphere (podcast with me here about Malibu Rising)
Virginia Evans, The Correspondent — signed copies available! (podcast with me here)
Amy Griffin, The Tell (podcast with me here)
Other Picks:
Ariel Lawhorn, The Frozen River
Emma Parry, Tilt
Ashley Audrain, The Push (podcast with me here)
Kristen Berry, We Don’t Talk About Carol
Emma Grey, Pictures of You (podcast with me here — and we published this!!)
Abby Jimenez, Say You’ll Remember Me
Carley Fortune, One Golden Summer (podcast with me here about This Summer Will be Different)
Jennifer Weiner, The Griffin Sisters Greatest Hits (podcast with me here)
John Kenney, I See You’ve Called in Dead (podcast with me here — and we published this!!!)
Ashley Elston, First Lie Wins
Frieda McFadden, One By One
Tiffany Jenkins, A Clean Mess (podcast with me here)
Rochelle Weinstein, We Are Made of Stars (podcast with me here)
Samantha Woodruff, The Trade Off (podcast with me here)
Liz Moore, Long Bright River (podcast with me here)
Kristin Hannah, The Women (podcast with me here)
Stacy Willingham, All the Dangerous Things
Ali Brady, Battle of the Bookstores (podcast airing soon)
Adam Ross, Playworld
Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful (podcast with me here)
Jena Kingsley, Darcy Dates
Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes (podcast with me here)
Kristin Harmel, The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau (podcast with me here)
Deborah Copaken, Shutterbabe (podcast with me here)
Brooks Whitney Phillips, The Grove
Richard Powers, Playground (podcast with me here)
Sara Melngailis, The Girl with the Duck Tattoo
Carley Fortune, This Summer Will Be Different (podcast with me here)
Glennon Doyle, Untamed (podcast with me here)
Tara Westover, Educated
Annie B. Jones, Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned While Staying Put (a Zibby’s Book Club pick!) podcast with me here
Fiona Davis, The Stolen Queen (recommended by author Katie Sise!) podcast with me here
Ava Dellaira, Exposure (podcast with me here — and we published this!!)
James Frey, Next to Heaven (podcast with me here)
Chris Whitaker, We Begin at the End (podcast with me here)
Asako Yuzuki, Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder
Cameo Elyse Braun, The Reset Button: Reflect, Reset, and Reinvent Your Life
Marty Dolen Ross, Always There, Always Gone: A Daughter’s Search for Truth
Lisa See, Lady Tan’s Circle of Women (podcast with me here)
Emily Henry, Happy Place (podcast with me here)
Amity Gaige, Heartwood (podcast with me here)
Brenda Davies, The Girl Behind the Gates
Kate Folk, Sky Daddy
Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter (podcast with me here)
Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures
Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead (podcast with me here)
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
Cary Gitter, Cammy Sitting Shiva
Bridget Crocker, The River’s Daughter: A Memoir (podcast with me here)
Maria Housden, Unraveled: The True Story of a Woman Who Dared to Become a Different Kind of Mother
Jessica Guerrieri, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Abraham Verghese, The Covenant of Water (podcast with me here)
Mary Alice Monroe, Where the Rivers Merge (podcast with me here)
Anne Tyler, Three Days in June
Amina Altai, The Ambition Trap: How to Stop Chasing and Start Living
Tirzah Price, Pride and Premeditation
Sophie Strand, The Madonna Secret
Liz Nugent, Strange Sally Diamond
Marian Kamala, The Lion Women of Tehran
Yael van der Wouden, The Safekeep
Jacqueline Friedland, Counting Backwards (podcast with me here)
Lola Akinmade, Bitter Honey (podcast with me here)
Lara Love Hardin, The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing and Healing (podcast with me here)
My phone😁
Kate & Frida by Kim Fay...I gobbled it up, didn't want it to to end, and hugged the book when I was done. The Correspondent was another favorite.