Take What You Need

By Idra Novey,

Book cover of Take What You Need

Book description


A New York Times Notable Book of 2023

A Best Book of the Year: The New Yorker, L.A. Times, Boston Globe, NPR, The Guardian Author Pick, and Today

Longlisted for the 2024 Dublin Literary Award

Longlisted for 2024 Joyce Carol Oates Prize

“A heart-rending book, but also a beautiful celebration…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Take What You Need as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This book immersed me in a world we don't usually read about in fiction--unemployed, working-class Western Pennsylvania-- with vivid writing, bringing together two very different narrators. I was drawn into the characters' deep relationships. And I particularly loved the "manglement" sculptures that the author invents.

I Meant to Tell You

By Fran Hawthorne,

Book cover of I Meant to Tell You

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Why am I passionate about this?

Author Museum guide Foreign language student Runner Community activist Former health-care journalist

Fran's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

When Miranda’s fiancé, Russ, is being vetted for his dream job in the U.S. attorney’s office, the couple joke that Miranda’s parents’ history as antiwar activists in the Sixties might jeopardize Russ’s security clearance. In fact, the real threat emerges when Russ’s future employer discovers that Miranda was arrested for felony kidnapping seven years earlier—an arrest she’d never bothered to tell Russ about.

Miranda tries to explain that she was only helping her best friend, in the midst of a nasty custody battle, take her daughter to visit her parents in Israel. As Miranda struggles to prove that she’s not…

I Meant to Tell You

By Fran Hawthorne,

What is this book about?

When Miranda’s fiancé, Russ, is being vetted for his dream job in the U.S. attorney’s office, the couple joke that Miranda’s parents’ history as antiwar activists in the Sixties might jeopardize Russ’s security clearance. In fact, the real threat emerges when Russ’s future employer discovers that Miranda was arrested for felony kidnapping seven years earlier—an arrest she’d never bothered to tell Russ about.

Miranda tries to explain that she was only helping her best friend, in the midst of a nasty custody battle, take her daughter to visit her parents in Israel. As Miranda struggles to prove that she’s not…


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