6 Books We Wish We Had Read Sooner

BOOKS BY LAURA BRADING

We've all been here, right?

Books come to us at different seasons of our lives and sometimes the timing is perfect. Other times, not so much. We asked the PRIMER team and some of their bookish friends which books they wish they’d read earlier (to save you from making the same mistake).

The Days of Abandonment

by Elena Ferrente “I’ve never before been so enraptured and harrowed and changed by a book” S elected by Isobel Beech, author

Years of Wonders

by Geraldine Brooks “Reading it … as we were processing and recovering from the worst of covid was a revelation.” Selected by Benjamin Law, writer and broadcaster

The Glass Hotel

by Emily St. John Mandel “I’ve never before been so enraptured and harrowed and changed by a book” S elected by Isobel Beech, author

The Year of Magical Thinking

by Joan Didion “It’s a beautiful memoir and I loved it. It won the Pulitzer Prize, for god’s sake.” Selected by Felicity Robinson, PRIMER co-founder

Lunch Poems

by Frank O’Hara “This small, perfect parcel of a collection made me learn about love and life from the inside out.” Selected by Kelly Fagan, publisher at Allen & Unwin

The Dutch House

by Ann Patchett “A sprawling family saga, which might appeal to fans of Jonathan Franzen or Jane Smiley.” Selected by Anna Saunders, PRIMER co-founder

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