'Three Women' & 5 Other Books Everyone On Instagram Is Posting About Right Now
There’s nothing like Instagram for providing a consensus opinion. Want to know what dress everyone is wearing? It’s that spotty Zara midi with the fun peplum flare. Want to know the shoes everyone is buying? Veja trainers, baby. And want to know the book everyone is reading? Three Women by Lisa Taddeo.
This searing work of creative non-fiction is one of the most talked about books of the moment, an impeccably researched deep dive into the lives of three ordinary women and how their hopes, dreams and deepest desires have played out over the years. Author Taddeo spent the better part of a decade working on the book, and each of her subjects gave her unprecedented access into their lives, from trawling through their text messages to in-depth interviews. The result is a work of non-fiction that reads like a novel. No wonder everyone is reading it right now.
But Three Women isn’t the only book in everyone’s tote bags. Here are the other must-read titles of the moment.
Fleishman Is In Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
Taffy Brodesser-Akner is one of the most celebrated profile writers working right now, whose stories on everyone from Gwyneth Paltrow to Tom Hiddleston have become classics in the genre of celebrity interviewing. In this, her first novel, Brodesser-Akner examines the life of a doctor as it slowly disintegrates after his wife’s disappearance. If you like books about relationships, sex and New York, you’ll love this.
Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino
Like Brodesser-Akner, Jia Tolentino has made a name for herself as an essay writer at The New Yorker, where her pieces on internet culture and feminism are true conversation starters. Trick Mirror is her first collection of essays and cements Tolentino’s position as the voice of her generation, as hackneyed an idea as that is thanks to Lena Dunham’s Girls. But seriously, who else could write about everything as wide-reaching as the cult of barre, #MeToo culture, recreational ecstasy use, reality television and the institution of marriage like Tolentino? Read this book and then gather your girlfriends for a discussion afterwards.
Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls
Nobody writes big, romantic, comedic novels quite like David Nicholls. This is the man whose books One Day and Starter For Ten have become instant classics, the author who gives voice to the kind of love stories that used to live in romantic comedy movies and now seem to only live in books. Sweet Sorrow is another of Nicholls’ triumphs, a book about a liminal summer in the life of a young man on the brink of everything, and the woman who came into his life at just the right time. It’s an ode to young love and hot weather and friendships forged over cold beer and sleepless nights, and it will take you right back to the best summer of your youth. Read it and treasure it.
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
There is a house in Pennsylvania that doesn’t belong, a relic of a once-great Dutch family who built an epic paean to their home country before losing all their money and letting the house fall to ruin. This is the setting for Ann Patchett’s layered, chocolate box of a novel, which has echoes of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History to it, and which follows the new family who purchases the house and all of the ill fortune that it brings them. If you like a novel that takes its time to unfold slowly, this is the book for you.
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
If you follow anyone on Instagram from the northern hemisphere then you might have seen this book pop up in your feeds at some point over the past few months. Quite simply, this book and its millennial pink cover was everywhere, as readers took the fizzy romance to the beach and devoured it in mere days. That’s how good this sexy, silly romance novel about the opposites-attract relationship between the fictional Prince Henry of England and the First Son of the United States (FSotUS, as they call him in the book) is. Fans of teen shows like Riverdale and Sabrina will gobble this one up but be warned—it’s addictive and definitely, definitely NSFW. Best consumed on a pool lounger somewhere glamorous with a cocktail in hand.
When you're ready for your next irresistible page-turner, consider one of these 9 mystery books.
