Contemporary fiction - Fully Booked Blog

First Look: Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri

Posted on April 8, 2021| Posted in First Look Club

A marvelous new novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Lowland and Interpreter of Maladies—her first in nearly a decade, and the first novel Lahiri has written in Italian and translated into English.

First Few Pages: How Beautiful We Were

Posted on March 4, 2021| Posted in First Few Pages

Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, where people live in fear amid environmental degradation, Imbolo Mbue's powerful second novel is told from the perspective of a generation of children and the family of a girl named Thula who grows up to become a revolutionary. Read the first few pages here on the blog.

Love Stories We Love

Posted on February 3, 2021| Posted in Featured

We've entered the month of love, and what better way to get into a cozy mood than picking up your favorite love story? Here are a few of our picks, from love-hate sparks to a steamy Regency romance.

First Few Pages: Super Host

Posted on January 4, 2021| Posted in First Few Pages

55-year-old Turner Prize-winning artist Bennett Driscoll is now a stranger in his own home. Without any income, he's forced to move into his artist studio at the back of his house and put the large West London residence up for rent on a popular vacation rental site. He struggles to find purpose in his day-to-day until three guests come along.

First Few Pages: Super Fake Love Song

Posted on November 19, 2020| Posted in First Few Pages

Self-proclaimed total nerd, Sunny Dae, meets Cirrus Soh and he can't believe how cool and confident she is. She comes over one day and mistakes Sunny's older brother Gray's room — filled with electric guitars and rock posters — for his own. Then Sunny sort of, kind of, accidentally winds up telling Cirrus that he's the front man of a band. He gets knee-deep in the lie until just he's about to come clean, Cirrus asks to see them play sometime.

First Few Pages: Love Your Life

Posted on October 21, 2020| Posted in First Few Pages

Ava still thinks that love should be found in the real world, not just on apps that filter men by specific personal information — she believes in feelings, not algorithms. After a recent breakup and dating app debacle, she decides to put love on hold and escapes to a remote writers' retreat in coastal Italy.

First Few Pages: Bestiary

Posted on October 12, 2020| Posted in First Few Pages

Three generations of Taiwanese American women are haunted by the myths of their homeland.

First Few Pages: Breathless

Posted on October 8, 2020| Posted in First Few Pages

Jennifer Niven brings us a new story about a sensitive girl ready to live her bravest life.

First Look: Just Like You by Nick Hornby

Posted on September 26, 2020| Posted in First Look Club

Nick Hornby's warm, wise, highly entertaining twenty-first century love story is about what happens when the person who makes you happiest is someone you never expected.

First Look Club: Jowana reviews Just Like You

Posted on September 26, 2020| Posted in Book Reviews, First Look Club

Nick Hornby's warm, wise, highly entertaining twenty-first century love story is about what happens when the person who makes you happiest is someone you never expected.