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7 Books Starring Fierce Women Who’d Make Fabulous BFFs

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Amy Poeppel is the award-winning author of many novels, including The Sweet Spot and Small Admissions. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The RumpusLiterary Hub, and Working Mother. She would love to hear from you on Twitter or Instagram: @AmyPoeppel or at AmyPoeppel.com.

When asked in an interview about her thoughts on friendship, Reese Witherspoon said, “I don’t know what I would have done so many times in my life if I hadn’t had my girlfriends.” Most of us cherish our ride-or-die friends, those women in our lives who have our backs and who know we have theirs. When I wrote my book The Sweet Spot, I wanted to highlight the value I place on female friendship—at any age. In honor of Galentine’s Day, here are a few books that feature women whom I would welcome into my circle of friends anytime. These women can—and would—celebrate successes, untangle messy situations, pass the tissues, evade a crisis, plot revenge, or even hide a body. Cheers to these relentlessly fierce and fabulous women!

Good Eggs
by Rebecca Hardiman

GOOD EGGS is a charming and heartfelt story about three generations of the Gogarty family—a grandmother, her son, and his daughter—as they each face the consequences of their own egregious mistakes. Why befriend octogenarian Millie Gogarty? She is a hilarious, no nonsense woman who might be an occasional shoplifter, sure, but she’ll keep you smiling with her keen perspective on life, her boundless energy, and her unwillingness to back down from a fight. Just make sure you fasten your seatbelt if she drives you anywhere in her car.

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Good Eggs
Rebecca Hardiman

When a home aide arrives to assist a rambunctious family at a crossroads, simmering tensions boil over in this “witty, exuberant debut” (People) that is an “absolute delight from start to finish” (Sarah Haywood, New York Times bestselling author)—perfect for fans of Where’d You Go, Bernadette and Evvie Drake Starts Over.

When Kevin Gogarty’s eighty-three-year-old mother is caught shoplifting yet again, he has no choice but to hire a caretaker to keep an eye on her. Kevin, recently unemployed, is already at his wits’ end tending to a full house while his wife travels to exotic locales for work, leaving him solo with his sulky, misbehaved teenaged daughter. Into the Gogarty fray steps Sylvia, the upbeat home aide, who appears at first to be their saving grace—until she catapults the Gogarty clan into their greatest crisis yet.

“Bracing, hilarious, warm” (Judy Blundell, New York Times bestselling author), Good Eggs is an irresistibly charming study in self-determination; the notion that it’s never too late to start living; and the unique redemption that family, despite its maddening flaws, can offer.

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Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun
by Elle Cosimano

If you haven’t taken a dive into the Finlay Donovan series, I suggest you start immediately! These fun mysteries combine the messiness of motherhood with a side of murder, keeping the reader turning pages faster than Finlay can change a diaper. What would this young mom of toddlers bring to my friend group? Non-stop laughs, a whole lot of adrenaline, some top-rate problem solving, and a shovel to bury a body.

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Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun
Elle Cosimano

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7 Books Starring Fierce Women Who’d Make Fabulous BFFs

By Amy Poeppel | February 13, 2023

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Vladimir
by Julia May Jonas

This book took me by surprise. With its shirtless hunk on the cover, the novel is a serious deep dive into the complicated worlds of marriage and academia. The main character, a fifty-eight-year-old English professor, engages in a relentless examination of aging, sexuality, and power. Why would I want to be friends with our nameless main character? Because she’s smart as hell, extremely open-minded, and complicated in the best possible way. Bonus: she would help analyze any of life’s problems over a cocktail (or three).  

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Vladimir
Julia May Jonas

An NPR, Washington Post, Time, People, Vulture, Guardian, Vox, Kirkus Reviews, Newsweek, LitHub, and New York Public Library Best Book of the Year * “Delightful…cathartic, devious, and terrifically entertaining.” —The New York Times * “Timely, whip-smart, and darkly funny.” —People (Book of the Week)

A provocative, razor-sharp, and timely debut novel about a beloved English professor facing a slew of accusations against her professor husband by former students—a situation that becomes more complicated when she herself develops an obsession of her own...

“When I was a child, I loved old men, and I could tell that they also loved me.” And so we are introduced to our narrator who’s “a work of art in herself” (The Washington Post): a popular English professor whose charismatic husband at the same small liberal arts college is under investigation for his inappropriate relationships with his former students. The couple have long had a mutual understanding when it comes to their extra-marital pursuits, but with these new allegations, life has become far less comfortable for them both. And when our narrator becomes increasingly infatuated with Vladimir—a celebrated, married young novelist who’s just arrived on campus—their tinder box world comes dangerously close to exploding.

“Timely, whip-smart, and darkly funny” (People), Vladimir takes us into charged territory, where the boundaries of morality bump up against the impulses of the human heart. This edgy, uncommonly assured debut perfectly captures the personal and political minefield of our current moment, exposing the nuances and the grey area between power and desire.

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None of This Would Have Happened If Prince Were Alive
by Carolyn Prusa

What a wild ride this novel is! Carolyn Prusa’s funny, fast-paced debut is the story of a young mother who discovers her husband is cheating on her, just as warnings of a massive hurricane are hitting the news. She’s a bit of a mess, so why buddy up to Ramona? If you’re ever in a jam, she’ll throw her kids (and possibly a guinea pig) in the minivan and hightail it to your place to help you out, even if it means driving through a dangerous storm.

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None of This Would Have Happened If Prince Were Alive
Carolyn Prusa

Perfect for fans of Maria Semple and Jennifer Weiner, this smart and witty debut novel follows Ramona through the forty-eight hours after her life has been upended by the discovery of her husband’s affair and an approaching Category Four hurricane.

Ramona’s got a bratty boss, a toddler teetering through toilet training, a critical mom who doesn’t mind sharing, and oops—a cheating husband. That’s how a Category Four hurricane bearing down on her life in Savannah becomes just another item on her to-do list. In the next forty-eight hours she’ll add a neighborhood child and the class guinea pig named Clarence Thomas to her entourage as she struggles to evacuate town.

Ignoring the persistent glow of her minivan’s check engine light, Ramona navigates police check points, bathroom emergencies, demands from her boss, and torrential downpours while fielding calls and apology texts from her cheating husband and longing for the days when her life was like a Prince song, full of sexy creativity and joy.

Thoroughly entertaining and completely relatable, None of This Would Have Happened if Prince Were Alive is the hilarious, heartwarming story of a woman up to her elbows in calamities and about to drive off the brink of the rest of her life.

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The World According to Fannie Davis
by Bridgett M. Davis

This memoir is riveting and timely! The author, Bridgett Davis, gives an honest and touching account of her childhood in Detroit and reveals a big, well-kept family secret she came to understand: her mother Fannie ran an illegal lottery called “the Numbers” for decades, a job that provided the family with a beautiful home and financial stability, all while society did everything possible to put up obstacles to her success. Why do I wish I could have been friends with the formidable, resourceful Fannie Davis? She was exceptionally generous, she loved to take a great vacation, and she would passionately defend anyone she loved. As Tayari Jones said, this book is “a triumphant tale of female empowerment.”

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The World According to Fannie Davis
Bridgett M. Davis

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By Amy Poeppel | February 13, 2023

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Stay Up with Hugo Best
by Erin Somers

I loved this sharp, hilarious debut by Erin Somers, a book Vogue called “a devilishly fun ride.” Our young protagonist, June, a recently unemployed comedian/writer for a late-night TV show, is simultaneously hopeful and deeply cynical as she spends a long weekend in Greenwich, Connecticut, with her famous, now-retired boss. Why would I love to be pals with June? She’s incredibly funny, and her endless supply of stories about her work would be so entertaining. Doing stand-up must be one of the hardest jobs imaginable, so as her devoted friend, I would be in the audience at the comedy club to cheer June on during her sets, drinking cheap beer . . . but maybe skipping the free hot dog.

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Stay Up with Hugo Best
Erin Somers

One of Vogue’s Best Books of 2019

“Incisive, funny, and tinged with melancholy, the timely novel follows two lost but clever souls desperate for connection.” —Entertainment Weekly

June Bloom is twenty-nine, broke, and an aspiring comedy writer. Hugo Best is a beloved late-night TV icon and notorious womanizer who invites her to his mansion for Memorial Day weekend. This is the story of their four days together, a “zippy…magnificent…devilishly fun ride” (Vogue).

When June Bloom, an assistant on the late-night comedy show, Stay Up with Hugo Best, runs into Hugo himself at an open mic following his unexpected retirement, she finds herself fielding a surprising invitation: Hugo asks June to come to his mansion in Greenwich for the long Memorial Day weekend. “No funny business,” he insists. “Incisive, funny, and tinged with melancholy, this timely novel follows two lost but clever souls desperate for connection” (Entertainment Weekly).

June, in need of a job and money, but harboring the remains of a childhood crush on the charming older comedian and former role model, is confident she can handle herself. She accepts. As the weekend unfolds and the enigmatic Hugo gradually reveals appealingly vulnerable facets to his personality, their dynamic proves to be much more complicated and less predictable than June imagined.

“A witty and subtle commentary on sex, power, and social politics” (Refinery 29) and “an outstanding comedic debut” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Stay Up with Hugo Best announces a gloriously irreverent, bold, and winning new voice in fiction.

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Lessons in Chemistry
by Bonnie Garmus

Bonnie Garmus’s highly acclaimed novel was a favorite read of 2022, mostly because of the funny, brave, brilliant heroine, Elizabeth Zott. What would Elizabeth bring to my life? Scientific explanations for things I don’t understand, some terrific recipes, and a clear vision of how society should really work. We all need a brave feminist like Elizabeth in our lives.

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Lessons in Chemistry
Bonnie Garmus

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7 Books Starring Fierce Women Who’d Make Fabulous BFFs

By Amy Poeppel | February 13, 2023

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The Sweet Spot
by Amy Poeppel

THE SWEET SPOT IS AVAILABLE NOW!

In the heart of Greenwich Village, three women form an accidental sorority when a baby—belonging to exactly none of them—lands on their collective doorstep.

 

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The Sweet Spot
Amy Poeppel

Amy Poeppel brings her signature “big-hearted, charming” (The Washington Post) style to this wise and joyful novel that celebrates love, hate, and all of the glorious absurdity in between.

In the heart of Greenwich Village, three women form an accidental sorority when a baby—belonging to exactly none of them—lands on their collective doorstep.

Lauren and her family—lucky bastards—have been granted the use of a spectacular brownstone, teeming with history and dizzyingly unattractive 70s wallpaper. Adding to the home’s bohemian, grungy splendor is the bar occupying the basement, a (mostly) beloved dive called The Sweet Spot. Within days of moving in, Lauren discovers that she has already made an enemy in the neighborhood by inadvertently sparking the divorce of a couple she has never actually met.

Melinda’s husband of thirty years has dumped her for a young celebrity entrepreneur named Felicity, and, to Melinda’s horror, the lovebirds are soon to become parents. In her incandescent rage, Melinda wreaks havoc wherever she can, including in Felicity’s Soho boutique, where she has a fit of epic proportions, which happens to be caught on film.​

Olivia—the industrious twenty-something behind the counter, who has big dreams and bigger debt—gets caught in the crossfire. In an effort to diffuse Melinda’s temper, Olivia has a tantrum of her own and gets unceremoniously canned, thanks to TikTok.

When Melinda’s ex follows his lover across the country, leaving their squalling baby behind, the three women rise to the occasion in order to forgive, to forget, to Ferberize, and to track down the wayward parents. But can their little village find a way toward the happily ever afters they all desire? Welcome to The Sweet Spot.

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