Lots of sex. Lots of swimming. Dating apps. Boarding school vibes from the \u201990s. A mystical jungle. A group of outcast artists. A group of outcast scientists. Longing, desire, obsession. Lying. Telling the truth. A goldfish that watches cartoons in slippers. Eight Mennonite women who imagined something beyond the only world they\u2019d ever known. Meet our ten favorite new books\u2014novels, short stories, essay collections\u2014each peculiar and alluring in its own way.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Smart, sexy, addictive. This book has Labor Day written all over it. It\u2019s told through the perspective of several characters, including college-age Rachel Klein and her newly divorced mother, Becca, who are both attracted to the same man: acclaimed (broke) novelist and Rachel\u2019s creative writing professor Zahid Azzam. Most of the characters in\u00a0Very Nice<\/em>\u00a0have an inclination toward bad behavior, which is partly what makes it fun. And they bring together specific circles of Manhattan investment banking, Midwest MFA programs, and suburban Connecticut\u2014poolside in the summer. As for the book\u2019s ending\u2026we really need more people to discuss it with. So: #goopbookclub.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Set in the \u201990s at a fictional boarding school called St. James (the author, Alex Tilney, went to St. Paul\u2019s), this beautifully written coming-of-age novel is a subtle exploration of WASP culture and elite institutions: what it means to hail from them, the lengths we\u2019ll go to to protect them, and what it means when they can\u2019t keep up with the evolution of society.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lots of sex. Lots of swimming. Dating apps. Boarding school vibes from the \u201990s. A mystical jungle. A group of outcast artists. A group of outcast scientists. Longing, desire, obsession. Lying. Telling the truth. A goldfish that watches cartoons in slippers. Eight Mennonite women who imagined something beyond the only world they\u2019d ever known. Meet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beaches"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\tThe Expectations<\/em>\u00a0by\u00a0Alexander\u00a0Tilney<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n