Anxious People

by Fredrik Backman

Fredrik Backman knows exactly how to break my heart. And he does it just moments after making me snort with laughter. The author of A Man Called Ove and Britt-Marie Was Here ups the comedy in his new novel, but his trademark unfolding of each character’s back story several times left me so stunned I had to stop reading and remind myself to breathe. Anxious People is about a bank robber, a bridge, an apartment open house, a father-son relationship, loneliness, and how so many of us are unable to tell people we love them out loud but do so in quiet ways that go unnoticed. It is classic Backman, where he illuminates the flaws and foibles that make us fully human.

The Girl in the Mirror

by Rose Carlyle

Greenwood

by Michael Christie

The Woman in the Window

by A.J. Finn

The Guest List

by Lucy Foley

Pretty as a Picture

by Elizabeth Little

Where the Crawdads Sing

by Delia Owens

Eight Perfect Murders

by Peter Swanson

Along the Infinite Sea

by Beatriz Williams

Her Last Flight

by Beatriz Williams

I love historical fiction that focuses on strong female characters, especially when it’s written by Beatriz Williams, who is a master at slowly unfurling connections between characters years apart. Her latest book, Her Last Flight, is a kind of homage to Amelia Earhart and the daring men and women of the 1920s and ’30s who took to the skies to prove that airplanes were the future of travel. In 1928, 20-year-old Irene Foster meets famed aviator Sam Mallory, who teaches her to fly before the two attempt a historic flight from California to Australia. Irene’s fame soon eclipses Sam’s as everyone is fascinated by a woman pilot, until they both disappear without a trace 10 years later. In 1947, a daring female journalist with her own secrets tracks down a woman she believes to be Irene, as she tries to discover what really happened to Sam and Irene on that last flight.

Maisie Dobbs

by Jacqueline Winspear