Start here! The Underlined Table of Contents

An index of every post on The Underlined, organized by themes and book titles

Welcome to The Underlined, where readers discuss what we love about literature. I am delighted you’re here.

Since launching The Underlined, I have written about so many books that I’ve lost track. To make things easier to find, I’ve created a table of contents for this publication (formerly Words on Words, now The Underlined).

Below, you’ll find the following categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Books I Covet, RomComs, Mood Reading, Reading Habits & Reading Life, Writing Craft Books, Audiobooks, BookStack Directory, Notebooks, and Authors I Covet.

At the foot of the index is a list of books in alphabetical order that I have written about. I update this monthly so you’ll always be able to find what you’re looking for.

Fiction

• How did a plotless 136-page novel win the prestigious Booker Prize? (Orbital by Samantha Harvey)

• A funny book ab out HIV/AIDS? Bobby Finger did it (Four Squares by Bobby Finger)

• Author Amy Shearn on connecting with one’s truest, wildest, least-censored-for-society’s sake self (Animal Instinct)

• Five books that made me feel this month (I Watched ˚You From the Ocean Floor by Erin Cecilia Thomas, Orbital by Samantha Harvey, Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez, Along Came Amor by Alexis Daria, The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad)

• Five surprising books I made my husband read (and he loved) (Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors, Atomic Habits by James Clear, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Open Throat by Henry Hoke, and James by Percival Everett)

• A good story doesn't just copy life, it pushes back on it (Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, It’s a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan, You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver)

• Beautiful in its contradictions: on reading Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

• Book people will save the world | Author Kim Fay on her new book, Kate & Frida

• Open Throat by Henry Hoke

• Interview with Morgan Dick on her debut novel about addiction, mental health, and sisterhood (Favorite Daughter by Morgan Dick)

• Are divorced women having a moment? (All the Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Harman, The Love We Found by Jill Santopolo, Animal Instinct by Amy Shearn)

• Good as she ever was (Same as it Ever Was by Claire Lombardo)

• A deep analysis of Booker Prize-winning novel, The Remains of the Day

• My favorite book of 2024 so far (Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors)

• Greta & Sabine & Flavia & Piñon (Big Swiss by Jen Beagin)

• In All Fours, Miranda July goes where everyone is too afraid to

• Beauty for beauty’s sake

• If you’re going to borrow your friend’s borrowed library books, make them these two (Sandwich by Catherine Newman and Wedding People by Alison Espach)

• Reflection is how we heal ourselves and how we can fix any problem or heartbreak. — Brenda Lozano (Witches by Brenda Lozano)

• Nothing is more alluring than a mother-before-she-was-a-mother, an unknowable and irresistible figure. — Julia May Jonas (Vladimir by Julia May Jonas)

• If the health and wellness industry is maddening and impossible to fit into, Self Care by Leigh Stein is the antidote.

• Come & Get It (by Kiley Reid)

• There’s Nothing Wrong With Her (by Kate Weinberg)

• The Women by Kristin Hannah was all I cared about for an entire weekend

• 🎧 Five audiobooks you won’t want to pause (On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong and Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe)

• Elena Ferrante for new readers: your essential syllabus (every book Ferrante has written)

Nonfiction

• Sad girl lit, but make it a memoir (Better: A Novel About Wanting to Die by Arianna Rebolini)

• This book changed my life (Essentialism by Greg McKeown)

• A good story doesn't just copy life, it pushes back on it (Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power)

• The waves that accompany climate grief have been rising and falling within me for many years. — Elizabeth Rush (The Quickening by Elizabeth Rush)

• Do you need a warm, loving hug? (Wintering by Katherine May)

• I synthesize Dr. Becky’s GOOD INSIDE so you don’t have to read it and feel bad about yourself

• 🎧 Five audiobooks you won’t want to pause (Breath by James Nestor, The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt, Three Women by Lisa Taddeo)

• First Love (First Love by Lilly Dancyger)

• Shame blocks the paths toward freedom and autonomy, cajoling us into choices that may not serve us in the long run. — Melissa Petro (Shame by Melissa Petro)

• Like every true love, that of the reader is blind. — Jhumpa Lahiri (The Clothing of Books by Jhumpa Lahiri)

• The average human lifespan is absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short. But that isn’t a reason for unremitting despair. — Oliver Burkeman (4000 Weeks by Oliver Burkeman)

• You’ll always be stuck in a state of fear if you’re always trying to keep your distance from it. — Barry McDonagh (DARE: the New Way to End Anxiety and Stop Panic Attacks by Barry McDonagh)

• I write in order to break down the wall, to express myself in a pure way. ― Jhumpa Lahiri (In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri)

• You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results. ― James Clear (Atomic Habits by James Clear)

• Books to expand your entrepreneurial mind

• How we spend our time is also, at its most precious, how we create meaning. ― Rainesford Stauffer (All the Gold Stars by Rainesford Stauffer)

Books I Covet

• The 25 most iconic first sentences I’ve ever read

• The 24 most beautiful sentences I read in 2024

• The 23 most beautiful sentences I read in 2023

• We need to talk about so-called unlikeable female protagonists

• The six best books I’ve read in 2024

• My most recommended books

Romcoms

• Reading a holiday romcom like a great piece of literature (The Christmas Countdown by Holly Cassidy)

• We shouldn’t reserve books by Native authors for November, but if you haven’t read this, now’s the time (The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava)

• Three holiday books and a campus novel (Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Stapley, The Christmas Café by Eliza Evans, A December to Remember by Jenny Bayliss, and Babel by R.F. Kuang).

Mood Reading

• Three small, irresistibly cheery books to dive into as we face the election (The Book of Delights by Ross Gay, The Komagawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai, and Love & Saffron by Kim Fay)

• Two feel-good book recommendations to kick off the long weekend (Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt and Summer Romance by Annabel Monoghan)

• We have seasons when we flourish and seasons when the leaves fall from us, revealing our bare bones. Given time, they grow again. ― Katherine May (Wintering by Katherine May)

Reading Habits & Reading Life

• Suleika Jaouad on the journal: It's a repository of memory, a place to catch moments as if in amber (The Book of Alchemy)

• Input / output: an experiment for the weary

• It’s ok if you don’t love reading the classics

• Claiming equal citizenship of the mind

• I don’t read so much in spite of having young kids; I read so much BECAUSE I have young kids

• The truth about habit tracking

• I won’t go anywhere without a book, but what does that say about me?

• Do I pre-order or wait until a book is published?

• Six books I purchased last week and why I bought them

• Books are the most beautiful common denominator

• When I feel like nothing I do is good enough, reading is

• A first quarter check-in with my Goodreads "reading threshold" goal

• Point of view, taste, and how to translate my book recommendations and inform your reading

• Dissent in itself can be exciting, can bring light into gray corners. — Francis Brown

• Books are the mirrors of the soul. ― Virginia Woolf

• 2024 reading ins and outs

• On Intentionality, Seeking Nourishment, and Reducing Your Reading Goal

• Why I don’t read book jacket copy

• How to challenge book bans: two scripts for smart conversations

Writing Craft Books

• Three craft books I’m reading while editing my novel (Refuse to be Done by Matt Bell, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King, and How Fiction Works by James Wood)

• I write because it's the thing I have to offer, the sharpest skill I have. — Jami Attenberg (1000 Words by Jami Attenberg)

• Life isn’t a support-system for art. It’s the other way around. — Stephen King (On Writing by Stephen King)

• For the dreamers who sat down to tell a story that no one asked them to write. — Courtney Maum (Before and After the Book Deal by Courtney Maum)

• Every single thing I have created worth a damn has been a practice of love, healing, and redemption. I know this process to be divine. — Melissa Febos (Bodywork by Melissa Febos)

Audiobooks

• 🎧 Five audiobooks you won’t want to pause

Poetry

• Do I like poetry now? (You can be the Last Leaf • Selected Poems | Written by Maya Abu Al-Hayyat, translated by Fady Joudah, Day of the Child • A Poem | Arra Lynn Ross; Beautiful Chaos: On Motherhood, Finding Yourself, and Overwhelming Love by Jessica Urlichs; and a Year & other poems by Jos Charles).

BookStack Directory

• For the new and the curious: A guide for those who are new to the big world of Substack book lovers

Notebooks

• I have already lost touch with a couple people I used to be. — Joan Didion on keeping a personal notebook

• The three different and necessary notebooks I use to keep my life on track

Authors I Covet

• Elena Ferrante for new readers: your essential syllabus

• Jhumpa Lahiri: A Mood-Based Reading Guide

• I write in order to break down the wall, to express myself in a pure way. ― Jhumpa Lahiri

• Like every true love, that of the reader is blind. — Jhumpa Lahiri

• What’s so brilliant about Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet?

Other

• Minnesota State Fair Foods and Book Pairings

• It’s not what they remember but who they become

• On Vulnerability and Revealing Your Scars

Books by Alphabetical Order

• 1,000 Words by Jami Attenberg

• A December to Remember by Jenny Bayliss

• a Year & other poems by Jos Charles

• All Fours by Miranda July

• All the Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Harman

• Animal Instinct by Amy Shearn

• Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez

• Along Came Amor by Alexis Daria

• Atomic Habits by James Clear

• Babel by R.F. Kuang

• Beautiful Chaos: On Motherhood, Finding Yourself, and Overwhelming Love by Jessica Urlichs

• Before and After the Book Deal by Courtney Maum

• Better: A Memoir About Wanting to Die by Arianna Rebolini

• Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

• Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors

• Bodywork by Melissa Febos

• Breath by James Nestor

• Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams

• Come & Get It (by Kiley Reid)

• DARE: the New Way to End Anxiety and Stop Panic Attacks by Barry McDonagh

• Day of the Child • A Poem by Arra Lynn Ross

• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

• Essentialism by Greg McKeown

• Favorite Daughter by Morgan Dick

• First Love by Lilly Dancyger

• Four Squares by Bobby Finger

• Good Inside by Becky Kennedy

• How Fiction Works by James Wood

• I Watched You From the Ocean Floor by Erin Cecilia Thomas

• In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri (Another post here)

• It’s a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan

• James by Percival Everett

• Kate & Frida by Kim Fay

• Love & Saffron by Kim Fay

• Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

• On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (Another post here)

• On Writing by Stephen King

• Open Throat by Henry Hoke

• Orbital by Samantha Harvey

• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

• Refuse to be Done by Matt Bell

• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (Another post here)

• Same as it Ever Was by Claire Lombardo

• Sandwich by Catherine Newman

• Self Care by Leigh Stein (Another post here)

• Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King

• Shame on You by Melissa Petro

• Summer Romance by Annabel Monoghan

• The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

• The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad (Also here)

• The Book of Delights by Ross Gay

• The Christmas Café by Eliza Evans

• The Christmas Countdown by Holly Cassidy

• The Clothing of Books by Jhumpa Lahiri

• The Love We Found by Jill Santopolo

• The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai

• The Neapolitan Quartet by Elena Ferrante

• The Quickening by Elizabeth Rush

• The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue

• The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

• The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava

• The Wedding People by Alison Espach

• The Women by Kristin Hannah

• There’s Nothing Wrong With Her by Kate Weinberg

• Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Stapley

• Three Women by Lisa Taddeo

• Vladimir by Julia May Jonas (Another post here)

• Wintering by Katherine May (Another post here)

• Witches by Brenda Lozano

• You Can be the Last Leaf • Selected Poems Written by Maya Abu Al-Hayyat, translated by Fady Joudah

• You Can Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith