An A-To-Z Guide To 50 Novels I Like

I review each in 100 words or fewer, alphabetically listed by title

Janice Harayda
Lit Life

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Photo by Elaine Howlin on Unsplash

One of the risks of being a critic is that you have to keep chasing what’s new.

You seldom have the luxury of pulling back and writing about your all-time favorite books of fiction or nonfiction — not when editors want you to do the new Sally Rooney novel or Bob Woodward’s exposé of what Donald Trump said secretly to Vladimir Putin.

But I enjoy aerial views from trusted critics. My favorite is the weekly “5 Best” column in the Wall Street Journal that asks experts to review standout books in their field in 250 words or fewer: the tech pioneer Ray Kurzweil on science fiction, the novelist Tracy Chevalier on Venice. I don’t mind paying $50 a year for a digital subscription so I can read mini-reviews like those.

So I’ve done something similar at my Jansplaining newsletter on Substack. Most of its stories are free, but for paid subscribers, I’ve written an A-to-Z guide to 50 I novels I like, each reviewed in 100 or fewer words and listed alphabetically by title.

My “50 Novels I Like” gives mini-reviews of novels from classics like Pride and Prejudice and War and Peace to new or recently rereleased novels like Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These and Magda Szabó’s The Door.

Most of those books I haven’t reviewed on Medium. I hope to follow up soon with similar guides to nonfiction and to children’s books.

I’ll repost a few of my 100-word reviews on Medium soon to give you an idea of what you’d see. If you’re interested, please stay tuned!

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Janice Harayda
Lit Life

Critic, novelist, award-winning journalist. Former book editor of the Plain Dealer and book columnist for Glamour. Words in NYT, WSJ, and other major media.