Shelf Life: Jennifer Weiner

Welcome to Shelf Life, ELLE.com’s books column, in which authors share their most memorable reads. Whether you’re on the hunt for a book to console you, move you profoundly, or make you laugh, consider a recommendation from the writers in our series, who, like you (since you’re here), love books. Perhaps one of their favorite titles will become one of yours, too.

In Jennifer Weiner’s latest novel, The Breakaway (Simon & Schuster), available in paperback on August 29, a 30-something-year-old woman named Abby embarks on a life-changing cycling trip from New York City to Niagara Falls. Weiner often takes her heroines on long and winding journeys of self-discovery; in The Summer Place, released last year, Sarah finds herself in Cape Cod. In That Summer, released in 2021, Daisy confronts her past in Philadelphia, where Weiner lives.

The Louisiana-born and Connecticut-raised writer attended Princeton and majored in English. She’s best known for her 2002 novel, In Her Shoes, which was adapted for the big screen in a film starring Toni Collette and Cameron Diaz. In 2010, she co-created an ABC Family (now known as Freeform) sitcom titled State of Georgia, starring Raven Symoné. In 2016, she was a finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay for her nonfiction book Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing. And in 2020, she was recognized by the Arts and Business Council of Greater Philadelphia with the Anne D’Harnoncourt Award for Artistic Excellence. Dive into her book recommendations below.

The book that…

…made me weep uncontrollably:

Sigrid Nunez’s The Friend. Any book about a dog has a guaranteed sad ending, and even though you know it’s coming, I found myself totally unprepared, and all-out sobbing, on a plane, when I finished this one.

…I recommend over and over again:

Almost Paradise by Susan Isaacs. I think it’s the perfect love story and the Platonic ideal of a beach read.

…shaped my worldview:

I read The Handmaid’s Tale at a young and impressionable age. In the wake of the 2016 election, people accused feminists of seeing Gilead everywhere—you’re alarmist! You’re hysterical! No. We were right.

…I read in one sitting, it was that good:

House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus. I somehow missed it when it first came out, and once I started it, I couldn’t stop.

…currently sits on my nightstand:

Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder and Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton.

…made me laugh out loud:

Curtis Sittenfeld’s Romantic Comedy has a scene where three writers at an SNL-like show collaborate on a skit about dogs’ Google searches—“Best hamburger near me,” “What is halitosis,” “Halitosis what to do,” “Where do humans pee,” “Taco Bell Chihuahua male or female.” “Lassie plastic surgery.” I literally LOL’d.

…I’d like turned into a TV show:

Meg Ellison’s The Book of the Unnamed Midwife is a dark dystopian fable that feels very timely.

…I first bought:

I don’t know if it’s the first, but I remember saving my babysitting money, biking to the local Waldenbooks and proudly buying The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub when I was 14.

…has the best title:

Whenever people ask why I haven’t written YA, I tell them it’s because there’s already a book called You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah!.

…broke my heart:

The Accidental Tourist is a perfect story about grief. And pets. And figuring out how to go on in the wake of a tragedy.

…I’ve re-read the most:

I can’t count the times I’ve gone back and re-read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

…that holds the recipe to a favorite dish:

I’m pretty sure I’ve cooked everything in Nora Ephron’s Heartburn, including and especially the mashed potatoes with many pats of cold butter…and I’ll never forget the line about one couple’s friendship with another couple: “Two of us liked dark meat and two of us liked light meat and together we made a chicken.”

The literary organization/charity I support:

Blue Stoop Books, here in Philadelphia.