Recommendations based on "Creation Lake"

"The best book of the summer." -- InStyle"I LOVED this novel....If you have ever sung along to a hit on the radio, in any decade, then you will devour Mary Jane at 45 rpm." —Nick HornbyAlmost Famous meets Daisy Jones & The Six in this "delightful" (New York Times Book Review) novel about a fourteen-year-old girl’s coming of age in 1970s Baltimore, caught between her straight-laced family and the progressive family she nannies for—who happen to be secretly hiding a famous rock star and his movie star wife for the summer.In 1970s Baltimore, fourteen-year-old Mary Jane loves cooking with her mother, singing in her church choir, and enjoying her family’s subscription to the Broadway Showtunes of the Month record club. Shy, quiet, and bookish, she’s glad when she lands a summer job as a nanny for the daughter of a local doctor. A respectable job, Mary Jane’s mother says. In a respectable house.The house may look respectable on the outside, but inside it’s a literal and figurative mess: clutter on every surface, Impeachment: Now More Than Ever bumper stickers on the doors, cereal and takeout for dinner. And even more troublesome (were Mary Jane’s mother to know, which she does not): the doctor is a psychiatrist who has cleared his summer for one important job—helping a famous rock star dry out. A week after Mary Jane starts, the rock star and his movie star wife move in.Over the course of the summer, Mary Jane introduces her new household to crisply ironed clothes and a family dinner schedule, and has a front-row seat to a liberal world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll (not to mention group therapy). Caught between the lifestyle she’s always known and the future she’s only just realized is possible, Mary Jane will arrive at September with a new idea about what she wants out of life, and what kind of person she’s going to be.

And the Internet has democratised overly. But you know what? People love hierarchy. It infuriates them but it makes them horny. It's gold dust.Anna. 25. Curator. I ? art, fashion, NYC. Ariel. 32. CEO @Genesis. A dating app by invite only. SF-NYC-LDN.It's all about concept, and it's so easy. Anna and Ariel, they make the world. They curate and create and know what people want. The fashionistas, the art scene, the elite party circuit. Outsiders who infiltrate, who influence, who dazzle. Appearance is everything. And then it isn't. And there's a price to pay.A story about narcissism inspired by real events, Anna X premiered at the VAULT Festival, 2019, and transferred to the Harold Pinter Theatre, London, in July 2021.

From the New York Times Bestselling Author of The Magnolia Palace: A thrilling story about love, sacrifice, and the pursuit of dreams, set amidst the glamour and glitz of Radio City Music Hall in its mid-century heyday.New York City, 1956: Nineteen-year-old Marion Brooks knows she should be happy. Her high school sweetheart is about to propose and sweep her off to the life everyone has always expected they’d have together: a quiet house in the suburbs, Marion staying home to raise their future children. But instead, Marion finds herself feeling trapped. So when she comes across an opportunity to audition for the famous Radio City Rockettes—the glamorous precision-dancing troupe—she jumps at the chance to exchange her predictable future for the dazzling life of a performer.Meanwhile, the city is reeling from a string of bombings orchestrated by a person the press has nicknamed the “Big Apple Bomber,” who has been terrorizing the citizens of New York for sixteen years by planting bombs in popular, crowded spaces. With the public in an uproar over the lack of any real leads after a yearslong manhunt, the police turn in desperation to Peter Griggs, a young doctor at a local mental hospital who espouses a radical new technique: psychological profiling.As both Marion and Peter find themselves unexpectedly pulled in to the police search for the bomber, Marion realizes that as much as she’s been training herself to blend in—performing in perfect unison with all the other identical Rockettes—if she hopes to catch the bomber, she’ll need to stand out and take a terrifying risk. In doing so, she may be forced to sacrifice everything she’s worked for, as well as the people she loves the most.

#1 New York Times bestseller!The critically lauded, wickedly smart whodunit with a “Knives Out feel by way of Lemony Snicket,” now in paperback.On the day they are born, every Swift child is brought before the sacred Family Dictionary. They are given a name, and a definition. A definition it is assumed they will grow up to match.Meet Shenanigan Swift: Little sister. Risk-taker. Mischief-maker. Shenanigan is getting ready for the big Swift Family Reunion and plotting her next great scheme: hunting for Grand-Uncle Vile’s long-lost treasure. She’s excited to finally meet her arriving relatives—until one of them gives Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude a deadly shove down the stairs.So what if everyone thinks she’ll never be more than a troublemaker, just because of her name? Shenanigan knows she can become whatever she wants, even a detective. And she’s determined to follow the twisty clues and catch the killer.Deliciously suspenseful and delightfully clever, The Swifts is a remarkable debut that is both brilliantly contemporary and instantly classic. A celebration of words and individuality, it’s packed with games, wordplay, and lots and lots of mischief as Shenanigan sets out to save her family and define herself in a world where definitions are so important.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * In Danielle Steel's dazzling new novel, a young woman must overcome tremendous adversity in her quest to find herself and achieve real happiness. Nicole "Coco" Martin is destined to have it all. As the only child of doting and successful parents, she has been given every opportunity in life. Having inherited her mother's stunning beauty and creativity, along with her father's work ethic and diligence, she has the world at her feet. Her graduation from Columbia is fast approaching, and with it the summer job of her dreams working at a magazine. Between work, leisurely weekends at her family's home in Southampton, and spending as much time as possible with her best friend, Sam, life couldn't be better--until tragedy strikes. Coco's beloved parents are killed in a terrorist attack while on vacation in France. Now devastated and alone, Coco must find a way to move forward and make her way in the world without the family she loved. Determined to forge her own path and make her parents proud, Coco pursues her dreams, dazzled by exciting opportunities that come her way. Her goals are to think outside the box--and always play by her own rules. As she finds herself drawn to charismatic, fascinating men, each relationship will teach Coco new lessons, some delightful, some painful. She will come to realize what matters, and how strong she truly is--and in the end, she will discover herself. Richly exploring one woman's poignant journey through life, All That Glitters is a compelling tale of challenges, heartbreak, discovery, and triumph, a powerful reminder that all that glitters is not the essence of life. And what is truly worth having was right there in our hands all along.

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by Alta * Bustle * LitHub An exuberant, brutally hilarious novel about a young woman’s insatiable quest to carve her own path—even if she needs to step over a few dead bodies along the way It’s 1974 and San Francisco is full of mystery and menace. Nineteen-year-old Celia Dent keeps telling herself how lucky she is to be working at the phone company and to be married to her Drew, a man who says he loves her. Celia’s contentment with her little life is shattered, though, when a woman she knows from work is murdered in a love tryst gone awry. What would that be like, Celia wonders, to die for love—or to kill for love? What would it be like to live each moment passionately and with full awareness that each breath is bringing her closer to her last? Before Celia knows it, her musings about love-and-death happenings are bleeding into daily life. Suddenly she’s playing hooky from work and searching for a love tryst of her very own. She’s practicing her marksmanship at a local gun range and thinking about how good it would feel to bury something sharp inside her domineering husband’s ear. It’s all pretend, though, until the night comes when Celia finally goes too far, and she and Drew are set on a deadly collision course. Exhilarating, surreal, and bitingly clever, Evil Genius is a comic noir exploring obsession and desire—and what happens when a sweetly seditious young woman dares to imagine a better life.

"Audrey Jones wants to be friends with the new girl at school, Mailee, but she can't tell if Mailee feels the same about her. So she decides to starts a slam book to get the scoop. Slam books are against school rules, but with pages to write about everyone in the sixth grade, and a code to see who wrote what, Audrey can find out what Mailee really thinks about her. The book is a huge hit--everyone is excited to write (and read!) about everyone else. But does Audrey really want to know the truth?"--P. [4] of cover.

Pride and Prejudice for the modern age: a fresh and stylish debut following a family of women who are thrust into the spotlight in the wake of a scandal and expertly exploit their newfound fame, perfect for readers of Blue Sisters and Good Material. When Lili Lowe gets caught having an affair with her married boss, an admired local politician, she finds herself at the epicenter of a scandal that could dismantle her life as she knows it. She turns, as many women would, to her mother. But Lydia Lowe is not the kind of mother to offer gentle words of consolation. Instead she devises a strategy that doesn't just manage the fallout, it actively exploits it, and Lili goes from making coffee and booking meetings to making headlines and booking talk shows. Soon, thanks to the commodification of Lili's scandal, the whole world knows the Lowe family. Lili's three sisters--Stevie, Iris, and Katie--have differing reactions to being in the spotlight, but once the wheels are turning, it seems impossible to stop what's in motion...and it doesn't take long for the craziness surrounding the Lowes to spiral out of control. Money and celebrity, the Lowes discover, come at a price--sometimes, the louder one's voice (especially a woman's), the more others will seek to silence it. With a potent blend of spectacular style, compulsive voice, sharp social commentary, and ferocious heart, The Lowe Job is escapism with teeth: a contemporary book club novel for the modern reader looking for fresh fiction that is at once funny, sexy, incisive, and heartfelt.

Somehow, in the race to commemorate in Sylvia's bridal quilt all that they hold dear about her wisdom, skill, and devotion, they forget to give honesty its pride of place. As the quilt blocks accumulate, the Elm Creek Quilters celebrate the joy of new beginnings and the ongoing success of their business -- until forces conspire to threaten their happiness and prosperity. Two among them falter in their personal relationships, yet they are too proud to share their pain. The financial problems of another leave the quilt project vulnerable to a malicious act that may prevent its completion. And as two others weigh the comfort of the present against dreams of a future far from Elm Creek Manor, closely guarded secrets strain the bonds of friendship with those who may be left behind.

Slyly funny and disarmingly tender, Fallow is the story of a young woman who signs up to be the world’s first in-house corporate surrogate, then finds herself caught up in a social experiment of another kind.Natalie knows one truth: there is no such thing as a good job. As the clock ticks away at the call center where she logs complaints of workplace harassment, she tries to ignore the increasing pain in her jaw. She has no dental insurance. She has no skills or ambitions. She has student loans. And, minute by minute, she hears the many ways workers are not just not getting by, but actually getting hustled.Then, at the blood bank where she sells her plasma, a mysterious flyer leads her to The Company. Natalie turns out to be the perfect candidate for their pilot program, pitched as an opportunity to help women access greater gender equity. She will be their in-house surrogate, delivering seven babies in ten years and enabling their executives to have motherhood without maternity leave. Finally, she will be adequately―generously―compensated.For years, her every need is met: stacks of healthy meals in the refrigerator of a luxury condo, fitness coaches and nutritionists, around-the-clock health care. Between deliveries, she takes time off―a fallow period, with no obligations or expectations. For the first time in her life, she is good at her job; for the first time, she feels free.But just as she’s about to fulfill the terms of her contract, a staffing decision upends everything. Natalie is pulled into an entirely different kind of social experiment, one that raises new questions about her future, her freedom, her purpose, what she can expect from the world, and what she can offer to it.Woundingly funny and genuinely moving, Sarah Anderson’s Fallow is a tender, alarmingly real vision of a woman balancing on the knife-edge of capitalism as she comes to realize who she wants to be.