Bookshelf — Leah Worthy

Skip to Content

My favorite thing about Ben Lerner’s writing is how he layers images and ideas so that none are used only once and left behind. Instead, they build upon one another until they converge into a whole that’s complex and nuanced and, without

In Elizabeth Von Arnim’s 1922 The Enchanted April, Lotty Wilkins meets Rose Arbuthnot and recognizes in her the weariness she feels in the face of her wifely duties. Even though they’ve just met, Lotty convinces Rose to rent a medieval ca

Set in 1968 San Francisco, Where the Girls Were tells the story of seventeen-year-old Baker Phillips, the focused and straightlaced valedictorian of her class with plans to attend Stanford in the fall. Baker dreams of becoming a writer someday, a hea

Published in 1971, The Condor Passes is a wild ride of a novel with so many POV characters, each of them so thoroughly fleshed out, that you’ll wonder how one book can contain so much life without coming apart at the seams.

Since he was youn

Sleep is full of beautiful sentences and moments of emotional depth that sneak up on you amongst its humor and honest portrayal of day-to-day routines. Margaret is reordering her life in the aftermath of her divorce, managing her career as an editor

Big Kiss, Bye-Bye considers intimacy from every angle through the point of view of a writer who moves to a secluded shed in the countryside, away from Xavier, the older man she loves deeply even though she no longer desires him, and away from the rou

Endling is set in Ukraine against the backdrop of the early days of the war. As if the moment were too restless and unresolved to fit into a conventional narrative structure, the novel breaks free of itself, shifting into metafiction that introduces

Seascraper is one of those novels that earns your trust instantly. Wood’s writing is so assured it seems to say, “You’re in good hands.”

Thomas Flett still fishes for shrimp the way his grandfather did, with a cart and horse

As a reader, I care less about a novel’s plot than I do about discovering the motivations and emotions of its characters. As a writer, I tend to focus on these things as well. My plot development usually comes naturally out of character develop

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont is about a woman who moves to a hotel in London that’s popular among aging residents in their last years of independence. Mrs. Palfrey is a window, and while she’s not estranged from her family, she isn&rsquo

Happiness & Love is hard to put down. It’s a breathless rush of gripping interiority, and the fact that it’s so gripping is incredible considering that it takes place during a single evening, at a dinner party in Manhattan. Its unname

Sometimes, you just need to read The Secret Garden again. Still just as magical as it seemed when I was young, and a good reminder to never outgrow our capacity for wonder.

What’s your favorite book from childhood?
.
.
.
#TheSecretGarden

© 2022 Leah Worthy