Summer is just around the corner, and this month we've chosen six brilliant books: a mix of impactful, thought-provoking reads and perfect summer books. From an incredible debut about the AIDS epidemic and a simmering novel with messy, complicated characters, to the return of a literary icon and some gloriously sultry summer reads, there's something for every kind of reader this month.
Our podcast launches on Wednesday the 3rd of June and we're so excited to bring you two author interviews with the writers of Little Vanities and Waiting for a Friend, plus a fabulous written Q&A with the wonderful Marie Rutkoski, author of Ordinary Love. You can find us on all major podcast platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Now let us dive into this month's books and why we chose them.
Our Hardback Picks
Waiting On A Friend by Natalie Alder
East Village, summer of 1984. Renata is a young dyke-about-town who has the ability to see ghosts, which has been happening more and more frequently as her friends have started dying of what has recently been named AIDS. So, when her best friend Mark dies, she assumes she'll see him again.
There's no way Mark wouldn't give her a chance to say goodbye, would he? But to her disappointment - and increasingly, her concern - Mark doesn't appear. Renata has other problems, too. A mysterious, police-like force has begun ridding their East Village neighbourhood of anything abnormal or inexplicable.
At first, she's sure they're scam artists, but it becomes clear they're actually trapping ghosts. With her band of lovably eccentric pals and lovers, Renata is determined to fight back against the erasure of her friends' memories and the sanitizing of her beloved New York. Both heartbreaking and healing, tragic and triumphant, Waiting on a Friend is a magical retelling of queer history and a celebration of youth and camaraderie.
With pathos and humour, empathy and an edge, Natalie Adler freshly reimagines the past for a new generation, reclaiming the spirit of resistance and determination that would become one of the era's defining legacies.
Why we chose it: Set in 1980s New York at the height of the AIDS epidemic, Waiting on a Friend by Natalie Alder is a stunning debut by a talented new voice in fiction. Told by Renata as she navigates grief, resistance and community in the East Village and her extraordinary ability to see ghosts, it hooks you from the very first line: "When Mark died, I thought I'd start seeing him more."
Full of warmth and wit, but never shying away from the devastation the epidemic left on gay community. In our podcast interview with Natalie, coming soon, we learned the origins of the book and the nod to her incredibly courageous aunt, which gives this story an extra layer of meaning. A bold, brilliant debut and exactly the kind of book Well Read Women exists to champion.
Whistler by Ann Patchett
When Daphne notices an older gentleman following her around the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, she doesn’t expect it to be Eddie – her former stepfather. Married to her mother for a short time when Daphne was nine, she hasn’t seen Eddie for many years; not since the fateful event that changed the direction of both their lives. Meeting again now, Daphne and Eddie feel that time has fallen away.
Their earlier relationship was brief but had a profound impact on both of them. Together, they consider not only their past, but the joys of the present and their commitment to face the future together. A moving, luminous story about how family, memory and love endures, Whistler paints an intimate portrait of how the feeling of being known by one other person, even for a short period of time, can change everything.
Why we chose it: The ‘talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular’ meme comes to mind when we think of Ann Patchett. A legendary writer, this is her 10th novel and she has hinted this may be her last. Whistler is a story about two adults reunited after 44 years looking back over the choices they made, and the choices that were made for them. Patchett wrote this as she navigated grieving her close friend and you can feel the tenderness on every single page. Richly drawn and complex, Whistler is a fantastic return by an incredible female literary icon.
Little Vanities by Sarah Gilmartin
Dylan, Stevie and Ben have been inseparable since their days at Trinity, when everything seemed possible. A glance between them can still conjure their younger dancing beneath pulsing lights, the sharp taste of salt after swims in Dublin Bay.
Two decades on, life feels smaller. Dylan, once a rugby star, is stranded on the sofa, cared for by his wife Rachel. Across town, Stevie and Ben's relationship has settled into a weary routine. Then, after countless auditions, Ben lands a role in Pinter's Betrayal. As rehearsals unfold, the play's shifting allegiances seep into reality, reviving old jealousies and awakening sudden longings, as each must reckon with how far they're willing to go in pursuit of desire.
Why we chose it: If you haven't read anything by Sarah Gilmartin yet, where have you been? Her debut Dinner Party was fantastic and her follow-up Service has been a firm fave of ours for years. Little Vanities follows two couples from their Trinity College days to early middle life, centered around a production of Pinter's Betrayal. A pressure cooker of a novel with simmering tension and messy life-like characters that keeps you absolutely glued to the pages. We can't wait to bring you our exclusive interview with Sarah on Little Vanities and her ability to write tension so well. Plus her literary favourites as fantastic - your TBR will be stacked afterwards.
Our Paperback Picks
Ordinary Love by Marie Rutkoski
When Emily catches sight of Gennifer Hall at a party, she is transported back to the moment they fell in love as teenagers. Their connection was electric, and they thought it was forever.
Now Gen is an Olympic runner, the career she strived for, while Emily is living a picture-perfect life with her two young children and wealthy husband, Jack. But Jack's controlling behaviour is spiralling, and Emily has lost sight of who she once was.
Despite everything keeping them apart, Emily and Gen still feel that magnetic attraction. After years of heartbreak, missed chances and misunderstandings, will they finally get a second chance at first love?
Why we chose it: Ordinary Love is a gorgeously written sapphic love story about two women who fell for each other in high school and go in different directions — until they run into each other again years later at a Manhattan cocktail party, with very different lives behind them. For Emily, that reunion comes at a moment when she's finding her way out of an abusive relationship and the reappearance of her Gen makes everything feel at once more possible and more complicated. Ordinary Love is a bisexual, queer second chance love story that’s unafraid to tackle difficult themes such as emotional abuse, class, motherhood and reinvention. It's a seductive, beautifully crafted story of pursuing your own happiness later in life, even if this does not seem at the beginning the easiest option.
Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan
The French Riviera: home to the Beautiful People. And none are more beautiful than Cécile, a precocious seventeen-year-old, and her father Raymond, a vivacious libertine. Charming, decadent and irresponsible, the golden-skinned duo are dedicated to a life of free love, fast cars and hedonistic pleasures.
But then, one long, hot summer Raymond decides to marry, and Cécile and her lover Cyril feel compelled to take a hand in his amours, with tragic consequences. Bonjour Tristesse scandalised 1950s France with its portrayal of teenager terrible Cécile, a heroine who rejects conventional notions of love, marriage and responsibility to choose her own sexual freedom.
Why we chose it: This Penguin Modern Classic is what all the cool literary girls are reading this summer - and have been since 1954. Françoise Sagan wrote this novel when she was just 19 which became a "succès de scandale" and even earned its author a papal denunciation. Cécile is one of fiction's most charming, fascinating and unforgettable protagonists. She's selfish and completely self-aware, and somehow that makes it worse. As readers we become complicit in every disastrous decision she makes and the consequences that follow. It's a slim novel that's timeless, stylish and the ultimate summer l(it) girl read.
The Unwilding by Marina Kemp
When fledgling writer Zoe arrives at the Sicilian holiday home of famed novelist Don Travers, she feels that she has made it. And yet as the week unfolds it is not Don but his children and unknowable wife, Lydia, who come to intrigue Zoe most.
On the fringes, Don’s youngest, Nemony, watches as her older siblings begin to navigate the treacherous waters of the adult world. When her adored oldest sister makes a terrible mistake, the holiday ends suddenly, shattering the fragile balance of their parents’ marriage and the siblings’ lives. Many years later and in the wake of loss, the events of that summer continue to haunt.
Nemony, now a lonely new mother herself, strikes up a chance friendship with Zoe. With her support, Nemony attempts to grapple with the casual damage enacted by her father. But as their relationship deepens, she is soon forced to question the true extent of Zoe’s fascination with the Travers family.
Tracing their lives through Sicily, London and the old mining towns of Appalachia, Nemony must uncover the stories untold – about her implacable father, her troubled mother, and the siblings she might still do anything for.
Why we chose it: A Guardian Book of the Year and shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award, The Unwilding is set across Sicily, London and Appalachia and follows a young writer invited to the Sicilian holiday home of a famous novelist - only to find herself far more drawn to his enigmatic wife and children than to him. What unfolds is a slow-burning story of desire, power and family secrets, all simmering and set to a sultry Sicilian summer. Atmospheric and deeply immersive, Kemp is a fantastic storyteller we can’t wait to read more from in the future.
We hope you love these picks just as much as we did. You can shop our subscription or learn more about us and how our subscription works right here.