Laurie Muchnick

1 month ago | kirkusreviews.com | Laurie Muchnick

Every book lover has an ideal summer reading set-up: Maybe you like to read on the beach, with the sun beating down and the waves breaking at your feet, or on an airplane with no Wi-Fi, anticipating your vacation. My fantasy reading experience would take place in a hammock, with a warm breeze blowing and a glass of lemonade in easy reach. Wherever you find yourself reading this summer, here’s a selection of books you’ll want to dive into.

2 months ago | kirkusreviews.com | Laurie Muchnick

There’s so much great fiction coming out in May that it’s hard to know where to begin. If only this column could take a hint from Florence Knapp’s debut novel, The Names (Pamela Dorman/Viking, May 6), and go down three different paths. I’ve always been a fan of novels that explore alternate lives for their characters resulting from a single decision, such as Carol Anshaw’s Aquamarine (1992), which follows an Olympic swimmer through three possible lives after losing the gold medal.

2 months ago | kirkusreviews.com | Laurie Muchnick

Almost inadvertently, I’ve spent the last few months immersed in the world of Jane Austen. My husband decided to listen to an audiobook of Persuasion, so I joined him, and I didn’t stop till I’d listened to all six novels.

Mar 29, 2025 | kirkusreviews.com | Laurie Muchnick

The 21st century started with a bang, fiction-wise, with The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (2000), a historical novel about two comic-book artists in which Michael Chabon explores so many 20th-century themes—from the immigrant experience to the growth of pop culture—that it serves as the perfect bridge to more recent hits like Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (2022).

Mar 13, 2025 | kirkusreviews.com | Laurie Muchnick

Now more than ever, it’s good to be reminded that the U.S. is part of an international community, and there’s no better reminder than reading a novel or story collection from another country. Some of these recent books are explicitly political, while others delve into neighborhoods or private lives; all will transport you far away.