Why am I passionate about this?

That moment when you realize, whew, you’ve survived the catastrophe, but the greater challenge lies ahead? That intrigues me. Maybe that’s because my grandmother was struck by a Vespa in Italy when I was five years old, and we traveled home by ship through a hurricane that rocked much of the East Coast. Stories about “What’s next?” and “How do we push the rubble away?” are my go-to now, as they were during the years I worked as a journalist, first as a reporter, then for much longer as an editor. After my husband’s death in 2011, clearing the rubble yielded the first two installments of my vampire trilogy. 


I wrote

Chasing Ashes

By Joanne McLaughlin,

Book cover of Chasing Ashes

What is my book about?

Investigative reporter Laura Cunningham writes a true-crime book two decades after her best friend and college roommate disappeared the day…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Crying in H Mart

Joanne McLaughlin Why did I love this book?

I craved a book that would distract me from the daily sadness I felt more than a year after my cousin’s death, I knew she wouldn’t want that. I needed something that wasn’t a “how-to” but a “how I got here and what I’ve learned about myself.” This memoir gave me that.

I was gripped by the frank introspection and the way Zauner confirms and affirms her memories now that her mother is gone. That resonated because I have almost no childhood memories that don’t include my cousin, who was more like a fraternal twin because we were raised in the same house and were only four months apart in age.

I don’t read much nonfiction and very few memoirs, but I found a kindred spirit here.

By Michelle Zauner,

Why should I read it?

13 authors picked Crying in H Mart as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2021

The New York Times bestseller from the Grammy-nominated indie rockstar Japanese Breakfast, an unflinching, deeply moving memoir about growing up mixed-race, Korean food, losing her Korean mother, and forging her own identity in the wake of her loss.

'As good as everyone says it is and, yes, it will have you in tears. An essential read for anybody who has lost a loved one, as well as those who haven't' - Marie-Claire

In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer,…


Book cover of The Dutch House

Joanne McLaughlin Why did I love this book?

Its setting in suburban Philadelphia (near my old house) drew me to this book. But I loved it for the way Patchett unwinds the event that upends everything two siblings understand about and expect from their lives.

I’ve experienced how a single accident or illness can change the course of the future. What I recognized and connected with was this book’s portrayal of what I call the Grief Cha-Cha, two steps forward, three steps backward, and how sometimes what you grieve isn’t so much the person you’ve lost as the person that loss makes you. 

By Ann Patchett,

Why should I read it?

13 authors picked The Dutch House as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Lose yourself in the story of a lifetime - the unforgettable Sunday Times bestseller 'Patchett leads us to a truth that feels like life rather than literature' Guardian Nominated for the Women's Prize 2020 A STORY OF TWO SIBLINGS, THEIR CHILDHOOD HOME, AND A PAST THAT THEY CAN'T LET GO. Like swallows, like salmon, we were the helpless captives of our migratory patterns. We pretended that what we had lost was the house, not our mother, not our father. We pretended that what we had lost had been taken from us by the person who still lived inside. In the…


Book cover of Eternal Life

Joanne McLaughlin Why did I love this book?

A little of me was dying every day from the stress of a job I excelled at. So I loved this book’s premise that immortality brings its own peculiar kind of stress.

I, too, have wanted to negotiate with God to save someone or something I believed in. I sometimes feel a bad bargain is better than none at all. Naturally, I found it so much more enjoyable to read about two people who actually make that deal with God to save a loved one, only to be fated to life everlasting, constantly veering toward and away from each other in an existence that’s always changing but never-ending.

With this book, I gained another perspective on being careful what you wish for.

By Dara Horn,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Eternal Life as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Rachel's current troubles are only the latest in a litany spanning dozens of countries, scores of marriages, hundreds of children and 2,000 years. Only one person shares her immortality: an illicit lover who pursues her through the ages. But when her children develop technologies that could change her fate, Rachel must find a way out. From ancient religion to the scientific frontier, Dara Horn pits our efforts to make life last against the deeper challenge of making life worth living.


Book cover of Hamnet

Joanne McLaughlin Why did I love this book?

“What if?” is a question I often ask myself as a person and as an author. This is why I so loved this book, in which an unassuming young woman marries and has children and then loses one, though the loss of the son brings the talent of her husband to its full potential.

As I get older, I wonder about my choices and the choices life thrusts upon me. What if, after my own husband died, I hadn’t written my first novel? Would I be the same person I am today? What it would be like to be famous?

This book offers a backstory I found fascinating.

By Maggie O'Farrell,

Why should I read it?

41 authors picked Hamnet as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

WINNER OF THE 2020 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION - THE NO. 1 BESTSELLER 2021
'Richly sensuous... something special' The Sunday Times
'A thing of shimmering wonder' David Mitchell

TWO EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE. A LOVE THAT DRAWS THEM TOGETHER. A LOSS THAT THREATENS TO TEAR THEM APART.

On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a sudden fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home?

Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London.

Neither…


Book cover of Parable of the Sower

Joanne McLaughlin Why did I love this book?

I used to be paid to ponder the end of the world as we know it: I was a health editor during the early years of the COVID pandemic; at the same time, I was editing environmental stories.

What I loved most about this book is that the worst has already occurred, and the protagonist, a teenager, chooses her own new way to navigate what’s still to come. I was engaged by the concepts of resilience as a survival skill, reinvention as a necessity, and rebirth as an act of personal and global faith.

I am not a fan of religion as such, but this book made me believe.  

By Octavia E. Butler,

Why should I read it?

28 authors picked Parable of the Sower as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The extraordinary, prescient NEW YORK TIMES-bestselling novel.

'If there is one thing scarier than a dystopian novel about the future, it's one written in the past that has already begun to come true. This is what makes Parable of the Sower even more impressive than it was when first published' GLORIA STEINEM

'Unnervingly prescient and wise' YAA GYASI

--

We are coming apart. We're a rope, breaking, a single strand at a time.

America is a place of chaos, where violence rules and only the rich and powerful are safe. Lauren Olamina, a young woman with the extraordinary power to…


Explore my book 😀

Chasing Ashes

By Joanne McLaughlin,

Book cover of Chasing Ashes

What is my book about?

Investigative reporter Laura Cunningham writes a true-crime book two decades after her best friend and college roommate disappeared the day of a deadly fire. She wants to find out what happened back in 1992 and why, ultimately teaming up with her police detective ex-husband to pursue leads in the very cold case. Laura expects her book to rouse old demons. What she doesn't foresee is so much fresh pain.

Book cover of Crying in H Mart
Book cover of The Dutch House
Book cover of Eternal Life

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For those who have no support system in place, the thought of aging without help can be a frightening, isolating prospect. Whether you have friends and family ready and able to help you or not, growing old does not have to be an inevitable decline into helplessness. It is possible to maintain a good quality of life in your later years, but having a plan is essential. WHO WILL TAKE CARE OF ME WHEN I'M OLD? equips readers with everything they need to prepare on their own:

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