6 Must-Read Books from Alice Hoffman’s Shelf

A gripping novel about race in America that may be Jodi Picoult's best book. Told by three vastly different narrators the book becomes a compelling courtroom drama. It's a page-turner, and also a great book for book clubs. And, given the current political scene, it will elicit important conversations.

A heartbreaking and unsettling memoir of the author's upbringing in France, where she was raised by a paranoid fanatical father and a mother who was isolated from the world by her marriage. The author, who later became a therapist, tells the story of her survival and escape in matter-of-fact prose, as if she were the heroine in a fairy tale, which in fact, she is. THE ONLY GIRL IN THE WORLD is memorable and beautiful, but not for the fainthearted. If you read it, I promise you'll be grateful for the life you're living.

EXIT WEST is compelling story of two lovers in a fragile country that is about to explode into war, the tale of refugees in an ever-changing, violent, and nameless place. There are unexpected fantastic and magical elements. This haunting book is an emotional mystery, as well as a modern and war-torn fairy tale.

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Truly fun to read, this unique and unusual novel asks: What would you do if you knew the day you would die? This Jewish American family saga is about four siblings whose lives are changed by a fortune-teller and whose fates are intertwined forever more. Magic, logic, and emotion figure into a story that covers several decades and allows readers to know a fictional family as well, or perhaps better, than they know their own. I read nonstop until I reached the last page.

A moving and affecting memoir, written while the author knew she was dying of breast cancer at the age of 37, THE BRIGHT HOUR is a lesson for all of us. Every day counts. Every hour matters. Lyrical and funny, this beautiful book serves to remind us that life is a gift.

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This emotional thriller of a novel is set in Shaker Heights, Ohio, where everything seems perfect. When a single mother and her daughter move into the neighborhood, two families clash and secrets are revealed that affect everyone. Engrossing as any mystery, the novel deals with class, race, and gender and, perhaps more than anything, the complexities of motherhood. Celeste Ng's dark view of suburbia is fascinating and smart and beautifully told.