I almost forgot about you book review

Each of the characters broke my heart because they were all too familiar, but they also made my problems seem very small. It’s a short but dense novel of interconnected stories that shows the tragic lives of regular folks who don’t understand their loneliness and despair, and how they struggle to come to terms with the drafts in their lives, at a bar. These will get me through the rest of summer. Too many to name them all, but for starters: “In Other Words,” by Jhumpa Lahiri “The Never-Open Desert Diner,” by James Anderson “A Little Life,” by Hanya Yanagihara “Homegoing,” by Yaa Gyasi “The Nest,” by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney “Vinegar Girl,” by Anne Tyler “Evicted,” by Matthew Desmond and I’ll stop at “Kill ’Em and Leave,” by James McBride. What books are currently on your night stand? “I either know how they’re going to end or don’t care.”

The author of “Waiting to Exhale” and, most recently, “I Almost Forgot About You” doesn’t like to read espionage, science fiction or romance novels.