Jenna Blum has been writing professionally since she was sixteen, when in 1986 her short story, "The Legacy of Frank Finklestein" won first prize in Seventeen Magazine's National Fiction Contest. Since then, Jenna's short stories and nonfiction have appeared in numerous literary and commercial periodicals, including Faultline, The Kenyon Review (which awarded her the Charles Monroe Coffin Prize for Short Fiction), The Bellingham Review, Glamour, Mademoiselle, and The Improper Bostonian.
Teddy (2024) Emily Dunlay "As if Mad Men had a baby with The White Lotus, this novel has it all: atmosphere, glamour, danger, a heroine at the center of a web she doesn't understand, so you want to protect her even as you cheer for her to escape. Teddy is the beautiful flaw, the ungovernable passion at the center of every woman that makes us perfectly imperfect, human, and real."
The Unforgettable Loretta, Darling (2024) Katherine Blake "Picture Daphne from Frasier gone rogue and you have Loretta Darling! You will love this saucy little British grifter unleashed in 1940s Hollywood with a makeup brush and a plan for vengeance on very bad men - what a delicious dark delight of a book!"
Bunyan and Henry (2024) Mark Cecil "A quintessentially American story that reflects us in all our generosity and grotesqueness, with unflinching honesty and hope."
The Stockwell Letters (2023) Jacqueline Friedland "The Stockwell Letters is a novel that would draw me from all the way across a crowded bookstore, because not only am I fascinated with the abolitionist era, it has so much resonance for our time. This is an immersive, human, important novel that everybody should read!"
The Glass Chateau (2023) Stephen P Kiernan "Stephen Kiernan has pulled off the nearly impossible, reminding us by wrapping a war story in a love story that although we hold the power for our own extinction, we also have the power to redeem, heal, and save. The most tender, terrifying, relevant book you'll read this year."
The Society of Shame (2023) Jane Roper "The Society of Shame is like Tom Wolfe and David Sedaris had a baby and it was female. I was HOWLING with laughter on every page. This is the book we NEED right now: not only because it's absofreakinglutely hilarious, not only because it makes trenchant points about cancel culture - but because it's zany and zeitgeisty and, like all exquisite satire, it reflects us back to ourselves in a way that raises questions - and possible solutions. YOU NEED THIS BOOK."
The Audrey Hepburn Estate (2023) Brenda Janowitz "The Audrey Hepburn Estate is as charming and elegant as Miss Hepburn herself and, also like Audrey, hides a huge heart. This book is smart and sweet and funny."
The Real Mrs. Tobias (2022) Sally Koslow "This power struggle between mothers- and daughters-in-law over how to handle a wrenching family secret is told with emotional intelligence and Koslow's signature wit. Tart and nutritious, as refreshing as a raspberry vinaigrette."
The Ocean in Winter (2021) Elizabeth de Veer "Wise, beautiful, moving, sad, rich...It makes you feel less alone on the trying, miraculous journey of being alive."
Count the Ways (2021) Joyce Maynard "Joyce Maynard is the queen of the family saga, and Count the Ways is the best! Instantly addicting, the story of Eleanor, Cam, and their children pulls you in and wraps itself around you like an heirloom quilt made of familiarity, intimacy, and the orchestral complexity of loving the people closest to us. This is the novel you'll be longing to return to at the end of every day and one you will re-read for years to come."
All the Children Are Home (2021) Patry Francis "This moving novel grabs you by the heart right away and doesn’t let go, celebrating the strength of the children who survive tragedy, the adults who take them in and love them, and the diverse families we make not from the people we might be born to but the people who are there and care."
Millicent Glenn's Last Wish (2020) Tori Whitaker "A novel about the legacies women pass to their daughters—and the price of the secrets they keep. Millie is a heroine to cheer for as she makes her journey from…working wife and mom to grandmother seeking forgiveness for her decisions—made because of jaw-dropping challenges you will never forget. You’ll miss her long after the book’s cover is closed."
The Ghost Manuscript (2019) Kris Frieswick "Absolutely addictive—Indiana Jones with a female lead. And I would follow heroine Carys anywhere: she's funny, warm, smart, and vulnerable. The fact that she's leading us on a treasure hunt—accompanied by a ghostly monk, no less—makes this a buddy story, a detective story, a thriller, a terrific read you will never forget."
The Forgotten Hours (2019) Katrin Schumann "A relevant, compelling, and compassionate look at the torture of conflicted loyalties and the slipperiness of truth."
The Chef's Secret (2019) Crystal King "The Chef's Secret is a sumptuous buffet, serving up a love story (two of them!); mystery and suspense so thick you could cut it with, well, a chef's knife; and such a vibrant panorama of Ancient Rome you'll feel you've walked its streets and inhabited its kitchens. Anyone who loves history, food, a great story--read this novel! Warning: it will make you hungry."
The Wartime Sisters (2019) Lynda Cohen Loigman "The Wartime Sisters shows the strength of women on the home front: to endure, to fight, and to help each other survive."
The Age of Light (2019) Whitney Scharer "When I first read THE AGE OF LIGHT, I thought it might have been written expressly for me, since it has everything I love in it: photography, sex, love, war, 1920s Paris, a relationship struggle between two artists, a woman's journey from model to photographer, and the most exquisite writing. Then I realized: this magnetic, addictive novel will beguile every reader. Read it, read it!"
Ecstasy (2018) Mary Sharratt "Evocative and passionate, Ecstasy illuminates through its tempestuous and talented heroine a conundrum that resonates across the centuries: how a woman can fulfill her destiny by being both a lover and an artist."
I'll Stay (2018) Karen Day "I'll Stay is a heart-pounding, addictive portrait of how one split-second choice can twist our whole lives—and how the patterns of our lives lead us to those choices. A smart, compassionate, psychological spellbinder of a book—with one of the scariest scenes you'll read anywhere that'll stay with you forever!"
Margot (2013) Jillian Cantor "A compassionate imagining of what might have happened had Anne Frank's sister Margot survived."
The Clover House (2013) Henriette Lazaridis and Henriette Lazaridis Power "A rare treat: an elegantly written debut about a family mystery set during wartime, the slipperiness of memory, and the challenges of forgiveness. Plus, we get to go to Greece! What more could you want from a novel? Read it, read it!"
This Burns My Heart (2011) Samuel Park "Samuel Park's astonishing novel, This Burns My Heart, provides mesmerizing perspective into the life of a Korean wife and lover - intricate and intimate as only a woman's secret life can be."
Here, Home, Hope (2011) Kaira Rouda "Endearingly honest, consistently upbeat, Here, Home, Hope is an inspiring read that left me feeling genuinely hopeful."
My Enemy's Cradle (2008) Sara Young "As her spirited heroine Cyrla navigates the treacherous labyrinth of the SS breeding nurseries, Sara Young shines a powerful flashlight on one of the lesser-known Nazi atrocities: the thievery of children from their mothers. Young's research is so scrupulous that when devouring this novel, you''ll swear you''re reading a genuine survivor account, and you'll hold your breath as Cyrla attempts to find and found her own family."
