Sarah McCraw Crow's Blog
January 7, 2024
Some of my favorite books of 2023
Though I have mixed feelings about all the best-of-the-year lists, I still like to compile my own list. Here’s my list of favorite books of 2023, mostly novels, along with my list of other worthy and interesting books I read this past year.
The post Some of my favorite books of 2023 appeared first on Sarah McCraw Crow.
September 29, 2023
Latest newsletter!
In my latest newsletter, I wrote a little about that bittersweet moment between summer and fall. Plus, my memoir recs for fall, and more….
And if you’re a writer who uses Substack, let me know!
The post Latest newsletter! appeared first on Sarah McCraw Crow.
September 12, 2023
Sale on THE WRONG KING OF WOMAN!
My novel THE WRONG KIND OF WOMAN is on sale for a short time: $2.99 for the ebook!
If you’re a fan of the ’70s, campus novels, and stories of midlife reinvention, THE WRONG KIND OF WOMAN might be the right novel for you!
The post Sale on THE WRONG KING OF WOMAN! appeared first on Sarah McCraw Crow.
August 31, 2023
Latest newsletter: Heartburn, Postcards from the Edge, and more
In the latest edition of my newsletter, I wrote a little about two spiky, funny novels–Nora Ephron’s Heartburn and Carrie Fisher’s Postcards from the Edge–and the movies that got made from them. Let me know what you think!
The post Latest newsletter: Heartburn, Postcards from the Edge, and more appeared first on Sarah McCraw Crow.
May 20, 2023
Come find me on Substack!
I’ve moved my newsletter over to Substack. This issue has some Laurie Colwin love, book and TV recs, and more!
Come find me and let’s talk about books, reading, writing, watching…
The post Come find me on Substack! appeared first on Sarah McCraw Crow.
April 2, 2023
Recent Reading, Spring 2023
I Have Some Questions for You, Rebecca Makkai
One of spring’s big books (along with Ann Napolitano’s Hello, Beautiful, the 100th Oprah Book Club pick), so maybe you’ve heard of it? Set in New Hampshire, I Have Some Questions… is part boarding-school novel, part literary murder mystery, and gets at some social issues, like our true-crime obsession, racism, sexism, and #metoo. It’s set at a fictional boarding school in New Hampshire (I can’t be the only one who pondered the real NH counterparts and some of the similarities), and it seems informed in part by the way St. Paul’s School handled its sexual assault incidents from about ten years ago. I really enjoyed this one, and was intrigued by the novel’s structure and by the way Makkai gave us the character of narrator Bodie Kane. It’s a big departure from her previous novel, The Great Believers. (literary fiction, listerary suspense)
Weyward, Emilia Hart
This big debut novel from British write Emilia Hart follows three women in three distinct timelines: Kate Ayres, in 2019, runs away from London to escape an abusive boyfriend; Violet Ayres (Kate’s aunt), who in 1943 is a lonely teen who senses that she has a strange connection to the natural world, and is missing her mother, who died suddenly when Violet was little; and Altha, Kate’s and Violet’s ancestor, who in 1619 is being tried for witchcraft. I reviewed it for BookPage. If you enjoyed Sarah Penner’s The Lost Apothecaries, you’ll love Weyward. Also it has the most beautiful cover art I’ve seen this year. (historical fiction, commercial fiction)
In Memoriam, Alice Winn
Another debut novel from a young British novelist. I loved this novel–one of my top reads of 2023. It’s a World War I novel, following two young men, Gaunt and Ellsworth, best friends from public school (boarding school) who can’t admit that they’re gay and that they love each other. (I was expecting to slog through it, dreading all the WWI stuff, but I was so wrong!) The men’s school, Preshute, is almost a character, because novel intersperces its scenes with articles from the school newspaper The Preshutian, particularly its In Memoriam column listing the dead and wounded, all impossibly young. Yes, there are some gruesome battle scenes, and there’s shell shock and a lot of loss. But it’s also both a tender novel and love story, and a gripping read–kind of an amazing balance. (literary fiction, historical fiction)
The Farewell Tour, Stephanie Clifford
I reviewed The Farewell Tour for BookPage. It’s the dual-timeline story of Lillian Waters, a washed-up country singer, who’s trying to make one last comeback, at age 57. The story moves back and forth between the summer of 1980, and key episodes in Lillian’s past–Lillian has a lot to come to terms with. Clifford must have done tons of research to create Lillian’s story, and the novel is packed with country-music lore and history, as Lillian bounces around from Spokane to Fresno to Nashville. Sometimes I wanted to shake Lillian, who often can’t get out of her own way, but loved the story’s redemptive ending. (historical fiction)
My Last Innocent Year, Daisy Florin
I’m in the middle of this debut novel, which is set at a fictional college in New Hampshire, Wilder College, in the late 90s. Main character Isabel navigates her senior year, getting into an affair with her English professor. It’s an evocative campus novel that’s also beautifully paced. I’m catching echoes of Meg Wolitzer’s The Wife and Joan Didion. More on this one when I finish. (literary fiction)
The Rachel Incident, Caroline O’Donoghue
This one’s not out until June, but keep an eye out for it. It’s a funny and bittersweet coming-of-age story; Rachel Murray is haphazardly getting through her last year of university in Cork, Ireland in 2009, during the Great Recession. A story of first love, heartbreak, and platonic love. It will get compared to Sally Rooney’s novels about Millenials, but there’s more than a hint of Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones, although The Rachel Incident gets in more sharp commentary on a more repressive Ireland and its misogynistic policies. (literary fiction)
Endpapers, Jennifer Savran Kelly
A moody, evocative LGBTQIA coming-of-age story set in Brooklyn of the early 2000s. Here’s the beginning of my review for Bookpage: As Jennifer Savran Kelly’s debut novel, Endpapers, opens, main character Dawn Levit has stalled. She’s in her mid-20s, dissatisfied with her art (she designs, prints and binds handmade books) and unable to make anything new. She’s also feeling stuck in her relationship with Lukas, whom Dawn is pretty sure would love her more if she were a man. Dawn has been exploring her own gender and sexual identities since high school, taking tentative steps to find her way, but she’s still doubting her instincts and herself. Lately, she and Lukas have found comfort in “slipping back into the closet,” where neither has to worry about feeling accepted. But neither of them is content, either… (literary fiction)
Enchantment, Katherine May
Katherine May’s essay collection Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age offers similar meditative pleasures as her previous collection, Wintering, though you don’t need to have read Wintering to enjoy Enchantment. “When I want to describe how I feel right now, the word I reach for the most is discombobulated,” she writes, going on to chart the losses, burnout and anxieties of the COVID-19 pandemic, and of this era. “Time has looped and gathered, and I sometimes worry that I could skip through decades like this, standing in my bathroom, until I am suddenly old.” I loved this book–I think it will resonate with a lot of us. I reviewed it for BookPage. (memoir)
Life B, Bethanne Patrick
Publishing May 16. A candid, life-affirming memoir about Patrick’s struggle with depression (in her 50s, she learns that she has double depression, in which a person cycles between a more ongoing, ordinary low, and more extreme lows). It’s a quick read; more on this one after it publishes. (memoir)
The post Recent Reading, Spring 2023 appeared first on Sarah McCraw Crow.
Conversations with Concord Authors 2023
I’m excited to take part in Conversations with Concord-area Authors this Wednesday night, April 4, at Bank of NH Stage. I’ll join other local authors to talk about our books, other books we love, and the writing life. And NHPR veteran journalist and talk-show host Laura Knoy will moderate! Like a mini book festival in one evening.
Here’s the description from Capitol Center for the Arts:
“The greater Concord area is a creative landscape that includes many gifted authors, writing in every possible genre. Following in the footsteps of last year’s memorable evening…Come join the remarkable Laura Knoy as she talks with some of those authors. It will be an entertaining evening filled with humor, heart and inspiration. You may even discover your own “inner writer” in the process.” Presented by The Duprey Companies, Concord Public Library, NH Writers Project, and Gibson’s Bookstore.
Admission is free but you need a ticket.
The post Conversations with Concord Authors 2023 appeared first on Sarah McCraw Crow.
March 28, 2023
Book Bingo Adventure Celebrating Women’s History
Wednesday, 3/29, 7 pm ET:A virtual event with Adventures by the BookI’m excited to take part in a fun virtual book event on Wednesday night: Virtual Book bingo with five other novelists, all of us talking about our books. There will be lots of book prizes, and it’s free to join!
Come celebrate Women’s History Month with us!
And if you haven’t heard of AdventuresbytheBook or NovelNetwork, check them out! They’re great resources for readers, book clubs, and writers.
The post Book Bingo Adventure Celebrating Women’s History appeared first on Sarah McCraw Crow.
January 17, 2023
Alyson Shelton’s favorite fiction of 2022
I was thrilled to see THE WRONG KIND OF WOMAN included on essayist and screenwriter Alyson Shelton’s favorite fiction of 2022 list. Here’s what she said about THE WRONG KIND OF WOMAN:
The Wrong Kind of Woman by Sarah McCraw Crow
This is a quiet book that pulled me in and there were twists and character turns but they all felt motivated and believable. I felt so deeply for each character and this book tackled grief in such a complex way. You can miss someone deeply and still love the person you are now that they’re gone.
Thank you, Alyson!
The post Alyson Shelton’s favorite fiction of 2022 appeared first on Sarah McCraw Crow.
December 28, 2022
Early 2023 Reading List
What’s on your early-2023 reading list? I’ve got a bunch of books I’m excited about (or that I should have already read!). Tell me what you’re reading, or what you’re looking forward to reading!
Here’s my first list of 2023, mostly novels:
We All Want Impossible Things, Catherine Newman, out now
A friendship story and a novel about grief that’s also funny: Lifelong friends Ash and Edi cope with Edi’s ovarian cancer.
From the publisher: Edith and Ashley have been best friends for over forty-two years. They’ve shared the mundane and the momentous together: trick or treating and binge drinking; Gilligan’s Island reruns and REM concerts; hickeys and heartbreak; surprise Scottish wakes; marriages, infertility, and children. As Ash says, “Edi’s memory is like the back-up hard drive for mine.”
The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O’Farrell, out now
O’Farrell’s Hamnet was my favorite novel of 2020. Her new novel is another historical novel, this one set in Renaissance Florence, about Lucrezia, who marries into the Medici family.
From the publisher: Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to wonder at its treasures, observe its clandestine workings, and devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding to the ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf.
The Love Scribe, Amy Meyerson, forthcoming in February
I’m excited about Amy Meyerson’s latest novel–I loved her previous novel The Imperfects, a heartfelt but astringent family story. The Love Scribe is the story of Alice, a woman with a special gift.
From the publisher: When Alice’s best friend, Gabby, is reeling from a breakup, Alice writes her a heartfelt story to cheer her up. While reading it in a café, Gabby, as if by magic, meets the man of her dreams. Thinking the story might have some special power to it, Gabby shares it with her sister and other friends, who all find instant love. Word of mouth spreads, and Alice stumbles upon a new calling—to be a love scribe.
Dickens and Prince, Nick Hornby (essays), out now
Dickens and Prince, two prolific creatives who seem to have little in common; Nick Hornby argues otherwise.
From the publisher: Equipped with a fan’s admiration and his trademark humor and wit, Nick Hornby invites us into his latest obsession: the cosmic link between two unlikely artists, geniuses in their own rights, spanning race, class, and centuries—each of whom electrified their different disciplines and whose legacy resounded far beyond their own time.
The Farewell Tour, Stephanie Clifford, forthcoming in March
A dual-timeline novel: Lillian Waters, a mid-century country-music star and songwriter (like Loretta Lynn or Tamy Wynette), tells us her story as she tours the country one last time,
From the publisher: It’s 1980, and Lillian Waters is hitting the road for the very last time.
Jaded from her years in the music business, perpetually hungover, and diagnosed with career-ending vocal problems, Lillian cobbles together a nationwide farewell tour featuring some old hands from her early days playing honky-tonk bars in Washington State and Nashville, plus a few new ones. She yearns to feel the rush of making live music one more time and bask in the glow of a packed house before she makes the last, and most important, stop on the tour: the farm she left behind at age ten and the sister she is finally ready to confront about an agonizing betrayal in their childhood.
Trust, Hernan Diaz, out now
A novel with an inventive structure (a fictional novel within the novel, called Bonds). I’ve just started this one.
From the publisher: Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth—all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit.
Find my favorite books of 2022 here and here.
And you can find some of my recent book reviews at BookPage magazine.
The post Early 2023 Reading List appeared first on Sarah McCraw Crow.
