Why am I passionate about this?

I love writing and reading about comedy, friendship, and satire. I also love making fun of the absurdities in our society that we tend to accept without thinking. The world is a dark and scary place, and itā€™s my honor to help people leave their anxieties behind for awhile. I hope you enjoy the books on this list and the escape they provide as much as I do.


I wrote

You Should Smile More

By Anastasia Ryan,

Book cover of You Should Smile More

What is my book about?

Vanessa Blairā€™s telemarketing job pays the bills and feeds her foster kittens, but offers only one other perk: her friendshipsā€¦

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Lessons in Chemistry

Anastasia Ryan Why did I love this book?

I loved this book for so many reasons.

First, itā€™s incredibly funny, and humor is my favorite genre to read. The real world is scary enough. 

Second, the heroine is a strong, take-no-prisoners chemist dealing with all the harassment and discrimination women faced in the 1950s and 1960s, issues that women still experience in our current society.

Elizabeth is unapologetically brilliant, and she never gives up, despite repeated attempts to derail her, all traits that I admire. But this book has a bonus.

Iā€™m an animal lover, and the best character may be Six-thirty, Elizabethā€™s dog, a dropout from bomb-sniffing school, who narrates his scenes.

Thatā€™s priceless.

By Bonnie Garmus,

Why should I read it?

78 authors picked Lessons in Chemistry as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ā€¢ GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK ā€¢ Meet Elizabeth Zott: a ā€œformidable, unapologetic and inspiringā€ (PARADE) scientist in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show in this novel that is ā€œirresistible, satisfying and full of fuel. It reminds you that change takes time and always requires heatā€ (The New York Times Book Review).

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Oprah Daily, Newsweek, GoodReads

"A unique heroine ... you'll find yourself wishing she wasnā€™t fictional." ā€”Seattle Timesā€¦


Book cover of Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Anastasia Ryan Why did I love this book?

At the heart of this book is an important message: creativity cannot and should not be suppressed.

Iā€™m a creative person, and if Iā€™m not writing, Iā€™m making things with my handsā€”paper crafts, water coloring, miniatures, cross stitchā€”you name it.

In this book, Bernadette gives up her joy of creativity because of relentless criticism, lack of appreciation for her work, and self-imposed responsibilitiesā€”until she discovers itā€™s the work that matters.

There is so much to love about this interesting, thought-provoking book. Bernadette is an awesome characterā€”a brilliant architect whose early success has stopped her cold.

And without her creativity, sheā€™s a mess. A very funny, well-meaning mess. Until she finds it again.

By Maria Semple,

Why should I read it?

14 authors picked Where'd You Go, Bernadette as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A misanthropic matriarch leaves her eccentric family in crisis when she mysteriously disappears in this "whip-smart and divinely funny" novel that inspired the movie starring Cate Blanchett (New York Times).

Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect; and to 15-year-old Bee, she is her best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette vanishes. It all began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle --ā€¦


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Book cover of Everything We Had: A Novel of the Pacific Air War November-December 1941

Everything We Had by Tom Burkhalter,

War is coming to the Pacific. The Japanese will come south within days, seeking to seize the oil- and mineral-rich islands of the Dutch East Indies. Directly astride their path to conquest lie the Philippines, at that time an American protectorate. 

Two brothers, Jack and Charlie Davis, are part ofā€¦

Book cover of Anxious People

Anastasia Ryan Why did I love this book?

What I love most about Anxious People is two-fold: first, it is a funny and ridiculous story (in the best way), and second, it deals with the support and caring of friends.

This is one of my favorite themes and one that I love to write about myself.

In this case, however, theyā€™re strangers, who only happen to come together because theyā€™re accidentally kidnapped during a house showing by a bank robber whoā€™s been fired (not for their face like my character, but for equally inane reasons.).

The beauty of this book is how people can come together and do whatā€™s right, though not necessarily whatā€™s right by societal standards.

Everyone needs friends to get them through life, and everyone has the potential to be a friend.

By Fredrik Backman,

Why should I read it?

18 authors picked Anxious People as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The funny, touching and unpredictable No. 1 New York Times bestseller, now a major Netflix TV series

'A brilliant and comforting read' MATT HAIG
'Funny, compassionate and wise. An absolute joy' A.J. PEARCE
'A surefooted insight into the absurdity, beauty and ache of life' GUARDIAN
'I laughed, I sobbed, I recommended it to literally everyone I know' BUZZFEED
'Captures the messy essence of being human' WASHINGTON POST

From the 18 million copy internationally bestselling author of A Man Called Ove
_______

It's New Year's Eve and House Tricks estate agents are hosting an open viewing in an up-market apartment whenā€¦


Book cover of Bridget Jones's Diary

Anastasia Ryan Why did I love this book?

Bridget Jonesā€™s Diary is just as fun and relevant today as when it was first published in 1996.

It focuses on her romantic life and her insecurities, which are just as relevant to women today. The workplace, however, has changed remarkably in 26 years.

Bridget goes to work and comes home. No encroaching on personal time by the ā€œCompany.ā€

Thatā€™s where I find the ā€œfunnyā€ in working today. Bridget has covered the romantic angle as well as any book. Now itā€™s time to find the absurdity of our current work lives.

When I started working, I seriously thought a job did not extend past the scheduled hours. I was so, so wrong.

By Helen Fielding,

Why should I read it?

18 authors picked Bridget Jones's Diary as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The multi-million copy number one Bestseller

A dazzlingly urban satire on modern relationships?
An ironic, tragic insight into the demise of the nuclear family?
Or the confused ramblings of a pissed thirty-something?

As Bridget documents her struggles through the social minefield of her thirties and tries to weigh up the eternal question (Daniel Cleaver or Mark Darcy?), she turns for support to four indispensable friends: Shazzer, Jude, Tom and a bottle of chardonnay.

Welcome to Bridget's first diary: mercilessly funny, endlessly touching and utterly addictive.

Helen Fielding's first Bridget Jones novel, Bridget Jones's Diary, sparked a phenomenon that has seenā€¦


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Book cover of Shadow of the Hidden

Shadow of the Hidden by Kev Harrison,

Itā€™s Sebā€™s last day working in Turkey, but his friend Oz has been cursed. Superstition turns to terror as the effects of the ancient malediction spill over, and the lives of Oz and his family hang in the balance. Can Seb find the answers to remove the hex before itā€™sā€¦

Book cover of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Anastasia Ryan Why did I love this book?

It might seem strange that this outrageous and thoroughly enjoyable comedy wound up on my list of workplace comedies.

In the original version of Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet was stuck in a Regency-era comedy of manners. Her only choice of life ā€œcareersā€ was ā€œwife.ā€

Grahame-Smith has taken Austinā€™s words and turned this classic upside down by giving her a very important jobā€”Zombie Killer.

Itā€™s a hilarious take on the power of women, and, strangely enough, adding a Zombie apocalypse has made some of the charactersā€™ motivations much more understandable.

Elizabethā€™s workplace is her small village in England, and, always on call, she has lots of work to do.

I loved this book, and I think Austin would have, too. Itā€™s my kind of humor.

By Jane Austen, Seth Grahame-Smith,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" features the original text of Jane Austen's beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone crunching zombie action.


Explore my book šŸ˜€

You Should Smile More

By Anastasia Ryan,

Book cover of You Should Smile More

What is my book about?

Vanessa Blairā€™s telemarketing job pays the bills and feeds her foster kittens, but offers only one other perk: her friendships with Jane Delaney and Trisha Lam. But, as mind-numbing as her job is, things are about to get worse. Xavier Adams, her shoeless, self-absorbed boss, calls Vanessa, a star employee, into his office and fires her. For her resting bitch face.

After a girls' night of schnapps, Vanessa awakens to find her friends took their revenge strategy, based on Sun Tzuā€™s The Art of War, a little too seriously. At first, Vanessa wants nothing to do with it. She wants to move on, possibly with the cute, cat-loving unemployment rep assigned to her case. But when Xavier contests her unemployment claim, Vanessa is all in...

Book cover of Lessons in Chemistry
Book cover of Where'd You Go, Bernadette
Book cover of Anxious People

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