Looking for authors similar to Curtis Sittenfeld and Catherine Newman

[Moveyourbleedingarse]

I love reading Curtis Sittenfields work.
One of the authors that I regularly search for updates on.

I'm just reading 'show don't tell' and realised I love being in her world. I've read all her back catalogue.

Is there anything else that I might like? I also love Catherine Newman but struggling with her third novel. First two made me laugh and cry in equal measure.

Tried Elizabeth Strout but did nothing for me.

Can anyone recommend anything else please? Thank you!

Melissa Bank is very good , similar vibe

Another CS fan.

Kristin Hannah?

Lily King, Ann Patchett, Lorrie Moore.

Was coming on to also recommend her!

I've read several of hers and absolutely inhaled Standard Deviation in particular.

PS also love Curtis Sittenfeld 😊

I echo lots of the recommendations here, and there are some new to me, so thanks all for those.

I would add Monica Heisey, Really Good Actually, to the list.

I love Curtis Sittenfeld. Similiar are Emma Straub. Meg Wolitzer, Ann Patchett and Mary Beth Keane (Ask Me Again, Yes).

@SheilaFentiman yes I have read four winds and listened to the one about the Vietnam war and loved the latter particularly. I felt Four Winds was a beginner level Steinbeck about the depression.

But, and I can't put my finger on it, CS characters have a sophistication. I don't think I'm articulating it well!

This thread is great though!

I'll confess I started it in the garden after a second glass of Rose yesterday, but I'm loving the output!

“Ask me again yes” was brilliant!

Love this thread, huge Curtis Sittenfeld fan and have been since Man of My Dreams. I loved Standard Deviation and The Wedding People.

Have you read The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller? It’s set in the milieu you enjoy - intellectual, affluent, upper mc - and it’s a good story, spanning several decades, with a few shocking twists.

The worst book is that one by that woman about the nurse in the Vietnam War? Oh it's just terrible.

Have you read Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie? I find her quite similar in some ways and readly like them both. The incredibly clear and well-crafted writing and the immediacy. Some crossover in character types / social settings / echelons too. The Thing Around Your Neck is short stories, as readable as Show Don't Tell. Half of a Yellow Sun is amazing.

Yes. Americanah is one of my favourite ever novels.

@BlueHeat yes read paper palace as a throwaway holiday book a few years ago. It was OK, enjoyable and passed the time.

You are right that those are the sorts of characters I like though!

Btw my utter obsession is spy Novels. Just in case anyone is judging my love of middle class American women!

@Moveyourbleedingarse Do you have any good spy novel recs please?

@BlueHeat

All the David mcloskey books, though I wasn't as keen on The Persian.

Mick Herron slow horses.

Charles Cumming - though the narrator for the 'Box' series is absolutely dreadful so you should read those not listen

Henry Porter is magnificent and Brandenburg is a favourite from him.

I also like Peter Hannigan books which are spy like. The ones based on the R4 journalist, not the latest which is a terrible attempt to cash in on the 'murderer next door gone girl girl in the window' genre (In my opinion!)

I quite enjoyed Maile Meloy. Think she's written about 3 novels.
From what I recall, they're not dissimilar to Curtis Sittenfield. I may reread them.
I am currently reading Show don't Tell and enjoying it.

Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner is similar in its dissecting of modern life and relationships . Very readable and clever like Curtis Sittenfield.

She's written another book too, not read that yet.

Ann Patchett? The Dutch House, The Magicians Assistant and The Patron Saint of Liars are the ones that are most tonally similar to Curtis Sittenfeld.

I also love Curtis Sittenfeld and read a newspaper article where she recommended ‘The Idea of You’ by Robinne Lee. I really enjoyed this.

Clare Lombardo, The Most Fun We Ever Had and The Same as it Ever Was.
The Weekend by Charlotte Wood. And her book Stone Yard Devotional.
The Wedding People by Alison Espach.
The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovits might fit. It’s similar but from a male perspective.

I found the third Rocky book by Newman SO annoying I didn’t finish it. Like the first two though.

Another vote for Laurie Graham.

If the intimate American setting is part of what appeals to you, you might try Betty Macdonald? She was writing in the 40s about the 30s so it’s not the same but Anybody Can Do Anything might hit the spot.

I find the audiobooks of Elizabeth Strout so much better than reading them myself. I think they are meant to be read slowly which is not in my nature.

@whirlyhead I’ve just read this on your recommendation and absolutely LOVED it! Thank you! Have just downloaded her other book.

Totally agree on Katherine Heiny. Standard Deviation and Early Morning Riser
have re read both

Love her books! Standard Deviation is my all time favourite book, I re read it every year.