Taylor Jenkins Reid Author Read Alikes
July 2021
If you enjoy reading books by Taylor Jenkins Reid, try these authors whose titles are also accessible through Digital Library of Illinois (Overdrive and Libby apps) and Hoopla
The Forest of Vanishing Stars
by Kristin Harmel

Raised in the unforgiving wilderness of eastern Europe after being kidnapped, a young German woman, in 1941, vows to teach a group of Jews fleeing the Nazi terror how to survive in the forest until she is betrayed as her past and present collide. 

Scheduled release date: July 6, 2021 - place hold on Overdrive/ Libby now.
The Removed
by Brandon Hobson

A Cherokee family takes in a remarkable foster child on the eve of the Cherokee National Holiday and anniversary of a loved one’s death. By the National Book Award-winning author of Where the Dead Sit Talking. 

Physical copy available. Also available on Overdrive/ Libby.
Utopia Avenue 
by David Mitchell

The members of a music band in 1967 London navigate the era’s parties, drugs and politics as well as their own egos and tragedies while exploring transformative perspectives about youth, art and fame. 

Physical copy available. Also available on Overdrive/ Libby.
Memorial 
by Bryan Washington

A Japanese-American chef and a Black daycare teacher begin reevaluating their stale relationship in the wake of a father’s death and the arrival of an acerbic mother-in-law who becomes an unconventional roommate.

Available on Overdrive/ Libby.
The Most Fun We Ever Had
by Claire Lombardo

The four adult daughters of two Chicago parents who have been madly in love for decades recklessly ignite old rivalries, until a long-buried secret threatens to shatter the lives they built.

Physical copy available. Also available on Overdrive/ Libby.
Everything I Never Told You
by Celeste Ng

"Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet." So begins the story of this exquisite debut novel, about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee; their middle daughter, a girl who inherited her mother's bright blue eyes and her father's jet-black hair. Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue-in Marilyn's case that her daughter become a doctor rather than a homemaker, in James's case that Lydia be popular at school, a girl with a busy social life and the center of every party. When Lydia's body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together tumbles into chaos, forcing them to confront the long-kept secrets that have been slowly pulling them apart. James, consumed by guilt, sets out on a reckless path that may destroy his marriage. Marilyn, devastated and vengeful, is determined to find a responsible party, no matter what the cost. Lydia's older brother, Nathan, is certain that the neighborhood bad boy Jack is somehow involved. But it's the youngest of the family-Hannah-who observes far more than anyone realizes and who may be the only one who knows the truth about what happened.

Physical copy available. Also available on Overdrive/ Libby.
A Little Life 
by Hanya Yanagihara

Moving to New York to pursue creative ambitions, four former classmates share decades marked by love, loss, addiction and haunting elements from a brutal childhood. 

Physical copy available. Also available on Overdrive/ Libby.
The Giver of Stars
by Jojo Moyes

Volunteering for Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library in small-town Kentucky, an English bride joins a group of independent women whose commitment to their job transforms the community and their relationships.

Physical copy available. Also available on Overdrive/ Libby.
Red at the Bone
by Jacqueline Woodson

As Melody celebrates a coming of age ceremony at her grandparents’ house in 2001 Brooklyn, her family remembers 1985, when Melody’s own mother prepared for a similar party that never took place in this novel about different social classes. 

Physical copy available. Also available on Overdrive/ Libby.
Fates and Furies
by Lauren Groff

Marrying in a glamorous whirlwind amid predictions of future greatness, Lotto and Mathilde are shaped throughout a subsequent shared decade by complications, secrets and powerful creative drives. 

Physical copy available. Also available on Overdrive/ Libby.
The Turner House
by Angela Flournoy

Learning after a half-century of family life that their house on Detroit's East Side is worth only a fraction of its mortgage, the members of the Turner family gather to reckon with their pasts and decide the house's fate.

Available on Overdrive/ Libby and Hoopla. 
Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots
by Jessica Soffer

Two women, one a daughter about to be sent off to boarding school, and the other, a widowed immigrant dealing with loss, find comfort and friendship connected by their love of food when they become friends in a Manhattan cooking class.

Physical copy available. Also available on Overdrive/ Libby and Hoopla. 
The Girls in the Picture
by Melanie Benjamin

An intimate reimagining of the powerful creative partnership between Hollywood superstars Frances Marion and Mary Pickford traces their friendship and boundary-breaking achievements against a backdrop of pre-World War I Hollywood.

Physical copy available. Also available on Overdrive/ Libby.
Halsey Street
by Naima Coster

Penelope Grand has scrapped her failed career as an artist in Pittsburgh and moved back to Brooklyn to keep an eye on her ailing father. She's accepted that her future won't be what she'd dreamed, but now, as gentrification has completely reshaped her old neighborhood, even her past is unrecognizable. Old haunts have been razed, and wealthy white strangers have replaced every familiar face in Bed-Stuy. Even her mother, Mirella, has abandoned the family to reclaim her roots in the Dominican Republic. That took courage. It's also unforgivable. When Penelope moves into the attic apartment of the affluent Harpers, she thinks she's found a semblance of family, and maybe even love. But her world is upended again when she receives a postcard from Mirella asking for reconciliation. As old wounds are reopened, and secrets revealed, a journey across an ocean of sacrifice and self-discovery begins.

Physical copy available only.
The Animators
by Kayla Rae Whitaker

Two women, who met in an art class in college and instantly became best friends, try to salvage their relationship after their successful animated filmmaking partnership nearly destroys their personal lives nearly a decade later.

Available on Overdrive/ Libby.
The Book of Unknown Americans
by Cristina Henríquez

Moving from Mexico to the United States when their daughter suffers a near-fatal accident, the Riveras confront cultural barriers, their daughter's difficult recovery, and her developing relationship with a Panamanian boy.

Physical copy available. Also available on Overdrive/ Libby.
After Dark
by Haruki Murakami

Two sisters--Eri, a fashion model sleeping her way to oblivion, and Mari, a young student--form the center of a novel that documents a series of encounters--with a jazz trombonist, the manager of a "love hotel" and her maid staff, and a Chinese prostitute brutalized by a businessman client--in Tokyo during the witching hours between midnight and dawn. 

Physical copy available. Also available on Overdrive/ Libby.
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
by Dawnie Walton

Accepting a contract from a fledgling record company, a talented music artist in early 1970s New York endures racist responses to her activism, before a reunion interview decades later reveals explosive secrets. 

Waitlist on Overdrive/ Libby- place holds there now.  
Songs in Ursa Major
by Emma Brodie

In 1969, Jane Quinn, an aspiring singer, gets the chance of a lifetime when she goes on tour with Jesse Reid, a folk music superstar, and as their partnership turns into a passionate love affair, Jane discovers too late the dark secret beneath his music.

Waitlist - place holds on physical copy or on Overdrive/ Libby now.
Mary Jane
by Jessica Anya Blau

Taking a summer job as a nanny for the daughter of a local doctor, straight-laced Mary Jane is introduced to a world of sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll, which helps her figure out what she really wants out of life, and what kind of person she’s going to be. 

Waitlist on Overdrive/ Libby- place holds there now.  
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