Here are my top five books published in 2015 in alphabetical order according to author:
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff (Barack Obama cited this novel as his favourite book of the year, for one. Dip in and you’ll see why. Groff is at her best here, examining married life with deft insight.)
Villa America by Liza Klaussmann (If you’re a fan of the Fitzgeralds, the Hemingways, Cole Porter, Picasso, or Sara and Gerald Murphy, this novel of the Twenties is waiting to dazzle you.)
West of Sunset by Stewart O’Nan (I’ll read anything O’Nan writes, but this one, about Scott Fitzgerald’s final years as a script doctor for MGM, is especially gorgeous in its telling.)
Dear Mr. You by Mary-Louise Parker (This memoir in letters surprised me in its humour and tenderness. If you read it, you’ll understand why the cover art is pitch perfect.)
Meanwhile There Are Letters: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and Ross Macdonald (Welty and Macdonald (a.k.a. Kenneth Millar) met at The Algonquin in NYC and thereafter nurtured an enduring friendship through their letters that reveal as much about themselves as they do about their writing lives. It is a privilege to begin to know them this way.)
janetsomerville 