A New York Times Editors' Choice • A People Best Book“Masterful storytelling and memorable characters. . . . Elise Juska's best book yet.”—Liz Moore, New York Times bestselling author of Long Bright River and The God of the Woods“I loved this story about the importance of long friendships. . . . A perfectly crafted page-turner.”—Mary Beth Keane, New York Times bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes and The Half MoonFrom the beloved author of the “uniquely poignant” (Entertainment Weekly) novel The Blessings comes a gripping work of women's fiction about three friends in their forties forced to reckon with their lives during a college reunion in coastal Maine.It’s June 2021, and three old college friends are heading to New England and the twenty-fifth reunion that was delayed the year before. Hope, a stay-at-home mom, is desperate for a return to her beloved campus, a reprieve from her tense marriage, and the stresses of pandemic parenting. Adam is hesitant to leave his bucolic but secluded life with his wife and their young sons. Single mother Polly hasn’t been back to campus in more than twenty years and has no interest in returning—but changes her mind when her struggling teenage son suggests a road trip.But the reunion isn’t what any of them had envisioned. Hope, always upbeat, is no longer able to downplay the pressures of life at home or the cracks in her longstanding friendships. Adam finds himself energized by the memory of his carefree, reckless younger self—which only reminds him how much has changed since those halcyon days. Polly cannot ignore the ghosts of her college years, including a closely guarded secret. When the weekend takes a startling turn, this found family of friends finds themselves reckoning with the past—and how it will bear on the future.Beautifully observed and insightful, Reunion is a page-turning novel of literary fiction about the highs and lows of friendship from a writer at the height of her powers.

In this wonderful debut, Eliza, a woman in her late twenties has spent her life trying to find a deep, passionate relationship and has been consistently disappointed. A child of the 80's, she assumes early in life that rock stars are the answer to a deep boyfriend. (Of course, she uses the term 'rock stars' loosely since none of her boyfriends are actually stars nor have they all played rock.) The story begins with Eliza being disappointed again by her newest boyfriend (the bass guitarist) and frustrated by her day job writing copy for the too-cheery travel agency, Dreams Come True. After a disastrous blind date, the shocking news of her best friend's engagement, and her sister and brother-in-law's pregnancy announcement at the monthly family dinner, Eliza is emotionally overwhelmed. Retreating to her apartment, she goes into hibernation for two weeks and seeks comfort in John Cusack movies, forbidden food, and Leroy, her fair-weather cat. With the help of her mother and her friends, Eliza revaluates her aspirations for love in life.In the end, she realizes that in her search for a 'deep' relationship, she has lost sight of herself and that, once realized, is much easier to find.

Where are all the real rock stars? Eliza is looking to date a rock star -- though she uses the term loosely. None of her boyfriends have been famous. Most have unbearable habits and overbearing mothers. A few only played show tunes. Still, they''re intense. Pierced. Tragically stubbled. With a predilection for dressing in black. Eliza finds them deep -- in theory, anyway. But in reality, none comes close to the object of her original rock-star crush: actor/crooner Jack Wagner. When her latest catch turns out be another mama''s boy, Eliza begins to realize love is nothing like her favorite ''80s song. Is she ready to face the music? Just as Eliza is planning her next move, she''s dealt an emotional triple-whammy involving her sister, her best friend, and a horrific blind date. That''s when she realizes that only by taking a good look at her past -- and her tape collection -- will she ever be able to hear a different kind of song and live a different kind of life.

Charlotte's long nights are anything but restful, spent worrying and tossing while her mind reels with invisible noises and imagined burglars. Divorced for fifteen years, Charlotte has come to enjoy her small, tightly scheduled life, much of which is focused on her 22-year-old daughter Emily. A headstrong Ivy League graduate with a pierced tongue and an arsenal of opinions, Emily lives life from one passion to the next - the latest of which, her boyfriend, has invited Emily to move in with him, giving Charlotte one more reason to lie awake at night. But when Emily and her new man arrive for a much-anticipated weekend visit, what is revealed rivals anything Charlotte could have dreamt up in the darkness. And in the chaos that ensues, secrets are divulged, old memories are brought back to the surface, and Charlotte's carefully constructed reality breaks wide open. Following on the heels of her popular debut, GETTING OVER JACK WAGNER, this entertaining story about getting close and letting go confirms Elise Juska's place in the ranks of rising young literary stars.

On their way to a wedding, Megan and Joel crash their car in Elise Juska's 'Perfect Weather for Driving'. It makes for a great drunken story at the rehearsal dinner, but they've found themselves stuck indefinitely at a hotel in Vermont. In 'The Happiest Day of Your Life' by Heather Swain, everyone tells Annie that her wedding day will be the best yet, but her invitations have the wrong name, and a tornado destroys the bar where the is supposed to take place. But when a bomb explodes on the subway line that her fiancé, Ben, takes every morning, everything changes. In 'Losing California' by Tara McCarthy, L.A. surfing teacher Allison Beyer cancels her wedding and flies to Nova Scotia to infiltrate the life of a singer in her favourite band. And in 'Jules & Emily' by Lisa Tucker, two lonely people meet on an online board for agoraphobics, but both will be forced to change when one is invited to her estranged brother's wedding all the way across the country.

Say "I do" to five surprising stories of women grappling with love and marriage and whether to walk down the aisle or run away. In Elise Juska''s "Perfect Weather for Driving," Megan and Joel''s sunset fender-bender makes for a great drunken story at his friend''s wedding, but the reality is hardly romantic. Stuck in a New England hotel waiting for the verdict on their Volvo, the two are forced to take stock of their own damaged relationship -- and whether it''s too late to fix it. In Tara McCarthy''s "Losing California," engaged surfer Alison is convinced that Michael Madsen -- a member of her favorite band -- is her soul mate. Unfortunately, he''s not her fiancé. So Alison flies to Nova Scotia, where Michael lives, because she''s either right or she''s wrong -- and she better find out before the wedding. The bride-to-be in Pamela Ribon''s "Sara King Goes Bad" has always done the right thing but decides it''s important to know what it feels like to be reckless for once. And so two weeks before her wedding, she indulges in an unforgettable night of sex, drugs, and petty crime. In Heather Swain''s "The Happiest Day of Your Life," Annie and Ben plan a simple ceremony at an apple orchard. But when Annie loses perspective -- and everything that can go wrong does -- she''s forced to rethink why she wanted a wedding in the first place. The "Emily & Jules" of Lisa Tucker''s story are two lonely people who meet on an online bulletin board for agoraphobics. But when Emily is invited to her estranged brother''s wedding -- and it''s clear across the country -- both she and Jules may be forced to change their ways. Will any of these heroines get to the church on time? Cozy up with Cold Feet and find out.

When Claire glances at her hand resting against her kitchen counter and sees her skin is the exact shade as the Formica, she realizes that she has become indistinguishable from her kitchen. Moments later she announces to her husband, a harmless but hyper-literal entomologist that she is leaving. As a crossword puzzle writer, Claire has made a profession of finding definitions; now, she must face the fact that she has lost her own. By the end of the next day, she is heading to a small town on the coast of Ireland to visit her sister, Noelle, a college dropout she hasn't seen since their mother's death three years ago. What follows is the journey of a daughter facing the truth of her family, a wife admitting her marriage wasn't perfect, a linguist rediscovering the beauty and possibility of words.

"I wonder if Judy Blume really knows how many girls'' lives she affected. I wonder if she knows that at least one of her books made a grown woman finally feel like she''d been a normal girl all along..." —from Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume Whether laughing to tears reading Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great or clamoring for more unmistakable "me too!" moments in Are You There God? It''s Me, Margaret, girls all over the world have been touched by Judy Blume''s poignant coming-of-age stories. Now, in this anthology of essays, twenty-four notable female authors write straight from the heart about the unforgettable novels that left an indelible mark on their childhoods and still influence them today. After growing up from Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing into Smart Women, these writers pay tribute, through their reflections and most cherished memories, to one of the most beloved authors of all time.

For two quietly unhappy years, linguist Claire Gallagher has been living deep in the New Hampshire woods, enduring a polite but strained marriage to a highly respected scientist. Once a determined overachiever and academic star in her own right, she now spends her days avoiding her stalled dissertation and creating EZ crossword puzzles. But for all Claire''s knowledge of words and their meanings, the meaning in her own life eludes her. One bleak morning in winter, she announces that she''s leaving. By nightfall, at the urging of her younger sister Noelle, Claire finds herself heading to the last place she thought she would ever go: Ireland -- the birthplace of her abrasive, chronically ill mother and the country Noelle, a college dropout, now calls home. In a small town on the Irish coast, Claire''s struggle to move ahead with her life takes her deep into the puzzles of her past -- in a world in which there are no simple answers, and the only questions that matter are those of the heart.

A collection of essays from some of today's hottest writers reflecting on how Judy Blume's novels affected their childhoods. From puberty to first loves to divorce, Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume follows the journeys of twenty four women whose life experiences we can all relate to.

With her free-spirited daughter away at college and her "hip" ex-husband living across the country, Charlotte has grown used to being alone. For the most part, she prefers it. She relies on familiar routines: manicures, grocery shopping, game shows. But at night, no matter how hard she tries (and in spite of the Dream Machine her daughter Emily sent her) she can''t stop her logical mind from running wild -- imagining burglars, strange noises, and all manner of trouble that might befall her fearless daughter. Having just graduated from Wesleyan with a pierced tongue and an arsenal of opinions, Emily has always been passionate about her beliefs -- from mindfulness to vegetarianism to her new live-in boyfriend. Though Charlotte rarely understands her, she''s learned to keep her doubts to herself. But when Emily and the new boyfriend arrive for a weekend visit, secrets are revealed that compel Charlotte to take a stand. Forced to examine her own life choices, she''s about to learn she can''t control everything. What she can do is open her heart to new possibilities, and to the fact that headstrong Emily might have a thing or two to teach them all.

After a shooting in her local mall in rural New Hampshire, English professor Maggie Daley is surprised to learn the gunman was her former student, and chagrined when she finds an old essay offering clues to his violent nature she might have missed. Even as the tragedy begins to fade from the national consciousness, it takes up a larger and larger part of Maggie's attention and obsession--and it begins to disrupt her relationships with her anxiety-ridden daughter, her ex-husband, and her new lover. Meanwhile, both Maggie's employer and a determined blogger, separately, are digging into the shooter's troubled past. Feeling pressured from all sides, Maggie begins to fear that her culpability may extend past a simple sense of guilt and put the life she's built at risk. IF WE HAD KNOWN explores the private implications of public tragedies, how we navigate fear in today's world, and whether it's possible to see anyone--spouses, parents, students--as they truly are.

A New York Times Editors' Choice • A People Best Book“Masterful storytelling and memorable characters. . . . Elise Juska's best book yet.”—Liz Moore, New York Times bestselling author of Long Bright River and The God of the Woods“I loved this story about the importance of long friendships. . . . A perfectly crafted page-turner.”—Mary Beth Keane, New York Times bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes and The Half MoonFrom the beloved author of the “uniquely poignant” (Entertainment Weekly) novel The Blessings comes a gripping work of women's fiction about three friends in their forties forced to reckon with their lives during a college reunion in coastal Maine.It’s June 2021, and three old college friends are heading to New England and the twenty-fifth reunion that was delayed the year before. Hope, a stay-at-home mom, is desperate for a return to her beloved campus, a reprieve from her tense marriage, and the stresses of pandemic parenting. Adam is hesitant to leave his bucolic but secluded life with his wife and their young sons. Single mother Polly hasn’t been back to campus in more than twenty years and has no interest in returning—but changes her mind when her struggling teenage son suggests a road trip.But the reunion isn’t what any of them had envisioned. Hope, always upbeat, is no longer able to downplay the pressures of life at home or the cracks in her longstanding friendships. Adam finds himself energized by the memory of his carefree, reckless younger self—which only reminds him how much has changed since those halcyon days. Polly cannot ignore the ghosts of her college years, including a closely guarded secret. When the weekend takes a startling turn, this found family of friends finds themselves reckoning with the past—and how it will bear on the future.Beautifully observed and insightful, Reunion is a page-turning novel of literary fiction about the highs and lows of friendship from a writer at the height of her powers.

In this wonderful debut, Eliza, a woman in her late twenties has spent her life trying to find a deep, passionate relationship and has been consistently disappointed. A child of the 80's, she assumes early in life that rock stars are the answer to a deep boyfriend. (Of course, she uses the term 'rock stars' loosely since none of her boyfriends are actually stars nor have they all played rock.) The story begins with Eliza being disappointed again by her newest boyfriend (the bass guitarist) and frustrated by her day job writing copy for the too-cheery travel agency, Dreams Come True. After a disastrous blind date, the shocking news of her best friend's engagement, and her sister and brother-in-law's pregnancy announcement at the monthly family dinner, Eliza is emotionally overwhelmed. Retreating to her apartment, she goes into hibernation for two weeks and seeks comfort in John Cusack movies, forbidden food, and Leroy, her fair-weather cat. With the help of her mother and her friends, Eliza revaluates her aspirations for love in life.In the end, she realizes that in her search for a 'deep' relationship, she has lost sight of herself and that, once realized, is much easier to find.

Where are all the real rock stars? Eliza is looking to date a rock star -- though she uses the term loosely. None of her boyfriends have been famous. Most have unbearable habits and overbearing mothers. A few only played show tunes. Still, they''re intense. Pierced. Tragically stubbled. With a predilection for dressing in black. Eliza finds them deep -- in theory, anyway. But in reality, none comes close to the object of her original rock-star crush: actor/crooner Jack Wagner. When her latest catch turns out be another mama''s boy, Eliza begins to realize love is nothing like her favorite ''80s song. Is she ready to face the music? Just as Eliza is planning her next move, she''s dealt an emotional triple-whammy involving her sister, her best friend, and a horrific blind date. That''s when she realizes that only by taking a good look at her past -- and her tape collection -- will she ever be able to hear a different kind of song and live a different kind of life.

Charlotte's long nights are anything but restful, spent worrying and tossing while her mind reels with invisible noises and imagined burglars. Divorced for fifteen years, Charlotte has come to enjoy her small, tightly scheduled life, much of which is focused on her 22-year-old daughter Emily. A headstrong Ivy League graduate with a pierced tongue and an arsenal of opinions, Emily lives life from one passion to the next - the latest of which, her boyfriend, has invited Emily to move in with him, giving Charlotte one more reason to lie awake at night. But when Emily and her new man arrive for a much-anticipated weekend visit, what is revealed rivals anything Charlotte could have dreamt up in the darkness. And in the chaos that ensues, secrets are divulged, old memories are brought back to the surface, and Charlotte's carefully constructed reality breaks wide open. Following on the heels of her popular debut, GETTING OVER JACK WAGNER, this entertaining story about getting close and letting go confirms Elise Juska's place in the ranks of rising young literary stars.

On their way to a wedding, Megan and Joel crash their car in Elise Juska's 'Perfect Weather for Driving'. It makes for a great drunken story at the rehearsal dinner, but they've found themselves stuck indefinitely at a hotel in Vermont. In 'The Happiest Day of Your Life' by Heather Swain, everyone tells Annie that her wedding day will be the best yet, but her invitations have the wrong name, and a tornado destroys the bar where the is supposed to take place. But when a bomb explodes on the subway line that her fiancé, Ben, takes every morning, everything changes. In 'Losing California' by Tara McCarthy, L.A. surfing teacher Allison Beyer cancels her wedding and flies to Nova Scotia to infiltrate the life of a singer in her favourite band. And in 'Jules & Emily' by Lisa Tucker, two lonely people meet on an online board for agoraphobics, but both will be forced to change when one is invited to her estranged brother's wedding all the way across the country.

Say "I do" to five surprising stories of women grappling with love and marriage and whether to walk down the aisle or run away. In Elise Juska''s "Perfect Weather for Driving," Megan and Joel''s sunset fender-bender makes for a great drunken story at his friend''s wedding, but the reality is hardly romantic. Stuck in a New England hotel waiting for the verdict on their Volvo, the two are forced to take stock of their own damaged relationship -- and whether it''s too late to fix it. In Tara McCarthy''s "Losing California," engaged surfer Alison is convinced that Michael Madsen -- a member of her favorite band -- is her soul mate. Unfortunately, he''s not her fiancé. So Alison flies to Nova Scotia, where Michael lives, because she''s either right or she''s wrong -- and she better find out before the wedding. The bride-to-be in Pamela Ribon''s "Sara King Goes Bad" has always done the right thing but decides it''s important to know what it feels like to be reckless for once. And so two weeks before her wedding, she indulges in an unforgettable night of sex, drugs, and petty crime. In Heather Swain''s "The Happiest Day of Your Life," Annie and Ben plan a simple ceremony at an apple orchard. But when Annie loses perspective -- and everything that can go wrong does -- she''s forced to rethink why she wanted a wedding in the first place. The "Emily & Jules" of Lisa Tucker''s story are two lonely people who meet on an online bulletin board for agoraphobics. But when Emily is invited to her estranged brother''s wedding -- and it''s clear across the country -- both she and Jules may be forced to change their ways. Will any of these heroines get to the church on time? Cozy up with Cold Feet and find out.

When Claire glances at her hand resting against her kitchen counter and sees her skin is the exact shade as the Formica, she realizes that she has become indistinguishable from her kitchen. Moments later she announces to her husband, a harmless but hyper-literal entomologist that she is leaving. As a crossword puzzle writer, Claire has made a profession of finding definitions; now, she must face the fact that she has lost her own. By the end of the next day, she is heading to a small town on the coast of Ireland to visit her sister, Noelle, a college dropout she hasn't seen since their mother's death three years ago. What follows is the journey of a daughter facing the truth of her family, a wife admitting her marriage wasn't perfect, a linguist rediscovering the beauty and possibility of words.

"I wonder if Judy Blume really knows how many girls'' lives she affected. I wonder if she knows that at least one of her books made a grown woman finally feel like she''d been a normal girl all along..." —from Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume Whether laughing to tears reading Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great or clamoring for more unmistakable "me too!" moments in Are You There God? It''s Me, Margaret, girls all over the world have been touched by Judy Blume''s poignant coming-of-age stories. Now, in this anthology of essays, twenty-four notable female authors write straight from the heart about the unforgettable novels that left an indelible mark on their childhoods and still influence them today. After growing up from Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing into Smart Women, these writers pay tribute, through their reflections and most cherished memories, to one of the most beloved authors of all time.

For two quietly unhappy years, linguist Claire Gallagher has been living deep in the New Hampshire woods, enduring a polite but strained marriage to a highly respected scientist. Once a determined overachiever and academic star in her own right, she now spends her days avoiding her stalled dissertation and creating EZ crossword puzzles. But for all Claire''s knowledge of words and their meanings, the meaning in her own life eludes her. One bleak morning in winter, she announces that she''s leaving. By nightfall, at the urging of her younger sister Noelle, Claire finds herself heading to the last place she thought she would ever go: Ireland -- the birthplace of her abrasive, chronically ill mother and the country Noelle, a college dropout, now calls home. In a small town on the Irish coast, Claire''s struggle to move ahead with her life takes her deep into the puzzles of her past -- in a world in which there are no simple answers, and the only questions that matter are those of the heart.

A collection of essays from some of today's hottest writers reflecting on how Judy Blume's novels affected their childhoods. From puberty to first loves to divorce, Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume follows the journeys of twenty four women whose life experiences we can all relate to.

With her free-spirited daughter away at college and her "hip" ex-husband living across the country, Charlotte has grown used to being alone. For the most part, she prefers it. She relies on familiar routines: manicures, grocery shopping, game shows. But at night, no matter how hard she tries (and in spite of the Dream Machine her daughter Emily sent her) she can''t stop her logical mind from running wild -- imagining burglars, strange noises, and all manner of trouble that might befall her fearless daughter. Having just graduated from Wesleyan with a pierced tongue and an arsenal of opinions, Emily has always been passionate about her beliefs -- from mindfulness to vegetarianism to her new live-in boyfriend. Though Charlotte rarely understands her, she''s learned to keep her doubts to herself. But when Emily and the new boyfriend arrive for a weekend visit, secrets are revealed that compel Charlotte to take a stand. Forced to examine her own life choices, she''s about to learn she can''t control everything. What she can do is open her heart to new possibilities, and to the fact that headstrong Emily might have a thing or two to teach them all.

After a shooting in her local mall in rural New Hampshire, English professor Maggie Daley is surprised to learn the gunman was her former student, and chagrined when she finds an old essay offering clues to his violent nature she might have missed. Even as the tragedy begins to fade from the national consciousness, it takes up a larger and larger part of Maggie's attention and obsession--and it begins to disrupt her relationships with her anxiety-ridden daughter, her ex-husband, and her new lover. Meanwhile, both Maggie's employer and a determined blogger, separately, are digging into the shooter's troubled past. Feeling pressured from all sides, Maggie begins to fear that her culpability may extend past a simple sense of guilt and put the life she's built at risk. IF WE HAD KNOWN explores the private implications of public tragedies, how we navigate fear in today's world, and whether it's possible to see anyone--spouses, parents, students--as they truly are.