You Want a Book Like Your Favorite Show

From Special Guest Laura Hankin

Hi friends!

Greetings from South Bend, Indiana. While I’m on vacation, my friend Laura Hankin has three book recs for you, each one connected to a popular TV show.

You can pre-order Laura’s new book, The Daydreams, about the starts of a popular teen drama reuniting for a reboot special thirteen years after a live finale gone scandalously wrong, now. I heard her read the first few pages at an event this spring, and I think it’s going to be one of the buzziest books of the summer. Signed copies are available at East City Bookshop. (Pre-orders are really important to a book and author's success. You can learn more why here.)

— Elizabeth

Every Monday morning, I sit down at my computer, determined to have the most productive week of my career. I will concentrate on my writing, and not just waste time checking my email!

And then inevitably, five minutes in, I check my email. Despite my disappointment in my own willpower, I’m always delighted to find Elizabeth’s newsletter waiting in my inbox, full of recommendations and insight. So I’m honored she asked me to cover for her while she’s away. (Hope you’re having fun on your trip, Elizabeth!) I’m going with a TV theme this week, so here’s what to read if…

You’ve Re-watched “Gilmore Girls” One Too Many Times

Mika in Real Life by Emiko Jean

Recently, I found myself laughing and crying over a fictional mother-daughter pair. The mother was a thirty-something woman whose life was a bit of a mess, the daughter was a teenager born when her mom was still a teen herself. Their story was full of feeling and humor, not to mention some swoon-worthy romance and a withholding grandmother. No, I’m not talking about Lorelai and Rory Gilmore. I was reading Emiko Jean’s winning, heartfelt Mika in Real Life.

Thirty-five-year-old Mika doesn’t have much to show for herself. So when the daughter she gave up for adoption years ago gets in touch, Mika can’t help embellishing the details of her life. Just a little. And then a little more. And then a lot. Soon, Mika is lying not only to Penny, the daughter she desperately wants to impress, but to Penny’s widowed adoptive father, who happens to be inconveniently attractive. But how long can Mika keep the ruse going? And could Mika be loved for who she really is?

This book is honest about the darkness and pain in life. But then it wraps readers up in a warm hug while whispering something witty in their ear. Jean’s writing is beautiful but accessible, while her characters feel achingly real. I loved it.

“The Good Place” Whetted Your Appetite for the Afterlife

Sign Here by Claudia Lux

The Good Place’s comedic take on the afterlife was wildly original and genuinely surprising. I miss that show all the time, so I was eagerly anticipating Claudia Lux’s debut novel, which is set partly in Hell. And Lux did not disappoint. In her capable hands, the bad place isn’t just fire and brimstone. It’s also a corporate nightmare where the only beer on tap is Jägermeister.

Half of Lux’s inventive novel follows a guy who convinces humans to sign over their souls for a living. (Well, not for a “living.” He’s dead, and this career is his eternal damnation.) The other half follows the earthly family — wealthy, hiding their fair share of secrets — on whom he has set his sights.

This book defies genre. At times, it’s hilarious. At other moments it’s suspenseful, even brutal. (Be warned that Sign Here goes way darker than The Good Place ever did.) Overall, I found it to be intricate, creative, and all-consuming, with twists and turns that threw me for a loop and a deeply satisfying ending.

You’re Eagerly Awaiting Season Two of “The Bear”

Marrying the Ketchups by Jennifer Close

If, like me, you devoured Hulu’s hit series about a Chicago restaurant and immediately wanted more, I have a question: would you like to hear about an excellent, darkly-comedic novel following a different Chicago restaurant family?

Say it with me… yes chef!

Jennifer Close’s Marrying the Ketchups is about three members of the Sullivan family — don’t worry, they’re just as dysfunctional as the characters on The Bear — as they run their grandfather’s restaurant and try to figure out their places in a changing world. The Sullivans are MESSY (though they keep their tables clean!), and they don’t always make the right decisions as they grapple with love, politics and how to be a good person.

But I’m a sucker for reading about a complicated family as long as the dynamics ring true, and the Sullivans practically leap off the page. Close’s talent as a writer had me wanting the best for all of her characters, even if they don’t always want the best for themselves. She also had me wanting to eat something deep-fried and delicious. Seriously, stock your fridge before reading. Much like the TV show, this book will make you hungry.

Thanks for letting me hop on and share my recommendations with you! And please forgive the self-promotion, but a quick TV show pairing for each of my novels… I’d recommend Happy & You Know It if you love the rich mom drama of “Big Little Lies,” A Special Place for Women if you like the genre-bending and complicated women of “Yellowjackets,” and The Daydreams if you cannot wait for the TV adaptation of Daisy Jones and the Six (but also if you have a special place in your heart for early 2000s shows like “Lizzie McGuire”).

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Thanks to Laura for her recs! You can follow her on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.

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What to Read If is a free weekly book recommendation newsletter. Need a rec? Want to gush about a book? Reply to this email, leave a comment or find me on Twitter @elizabethheld.

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