In this perfect summer read, Harrison explores 1950s life for three women facing complicated personal challenges. Tennis brings them together, and they use their inner strength and smarts to fight through troubles as they rely on each other. I recently gave a talk about newish books I recommend for spring and summer reading (stay tuned for the full post), and I also mentioned a few great books I was in the process of reading; this was one I was in the middle of and mentioned.

Jones throws every issue imaginable at her two main protagonists, best friends living in the Deep South, both without their mothers. The young women cope with their pain in divergent ways, and while I was interested in the story, I wanted to feel a deeper emotional connection to the characters and the increasingly dramatic layers of the novel's events. Young Annie and Vernice were best friends in small-town Louisiana. Both grew up without mothers, but then their paths diverge

Smith's historical fiction story in two timelines equally powerfully evokes the bleak Dutch winters of the 17th century and grimy,...

Ron Rash's newest Appalachian-set novel explores a small town shaken by upended expectations, the Korean War, and selfish rigidity that...

ICYMI: Taylor Brown's five-star, 1950s North Carolina-set novel offers mountain clans, whiskey runners, folk healers, family conflict,...