Which Curtis Sittenfeld book should you read first?
Perhaps you are a person who is thinking: ‘I am interested to read this extremely good author, but also I am time-poor and do not know where to begin’. This guide* is for you…
*This piece was originally published in 2019 and has been updated with contributions from our booksellers to reflect Sittenfeld's latest work (Rodham & Romantic Comedy) and to ensure our advice remains up-to-date!
Prep (2005)
When shy fourteen-year-old Lee Fiora arrives at the exclusive boarding school of Ault on a scholarship, she finds herself set adrift in a minefield of unstated rules and incomprehensible social rituals. Prep is a brilliant dissection of class, race and gender in a hothouse of adolescent angst and ambition.
Read this book if…
You want to read the cult favourite.
You have a fondness for campus novels.
You enjoy YA novels.
Do not read this book if…
You can not bear the idea of returning to high school.
The Man of My Dreams (2006)
Hannah Gavener is fourteen in the summer of 1991. In the magazines she reads, celebrities plan elaborate weddings; in Hannah’s own life, her parents’ marriage is crumbling. So how does love work exactly? The Man of My Dreams is a candid story about about the collision of fantasies with the realities of adult life.
Read this book if…
You want to read the sleeper hit.
You like it when a book pushes back against expectations.
You enjoy an anti-romance story.
Do not read this book if…
You’re looking for the kind of book that this title suggests.
American Wife (2008)
A bookish child born in the 1940s, Alice Lindgren has no idea that she will one day end up in the White House, married to the president – a man she both loves and fundamentally disagrees with. American Wife is a sweeping yet intimate story of one woman’s life.
Read this book if…
You want to read the word-of-mouth pick.
You’re interested in the intersection of the personal and political.
You enjoy big, sprawling novels.
Do not read this book if…
You are feeling crushed by politics.
Sisterland (2013)
Identical twins Kate and Violet are as unlike as can be, except in one respect: they share a hidden gift they call ‘the Senses’. As adults, Kate is a suburban housewife who suppresses her premonitions, while Violet lives alone and works as a psychic medium. Then one day, Violet ignites a media storm by predicting a major earthquake in the St Louis area where they live.
Read this book if…
You want to go with the left-field pick
You just really, really, really love stories about twins.
You enjoy literary fiction with a hint of supernatural.
Do not read this book if…
You don’t like to take risks with fiction.
Eligible (2016)
For sisters Liz and Jane, coming home to suburban Cincinnati means being paraded unwillingly at the Lucas family’s BBQ. Yet as their mother reminds them, it’s not every day you meet a pair of handsome single doctors… Eligible is a bitingly funny modern-day adaption of Pride and Prejudice.
Read this book if…
You want to read the one with a happy ending.
You’re an Austen fan who’s partial to a genre-bend.
You enjoy satire.
Do not read this book if…
You are an Austen purist. Abort!
You Think It, I'll Say It (2018)
You Think It, I’ll Say It is a dazzling collection of stories skewering modern life. A suburban mother of two fantasises about the downfall of an old friend whose wholesome lifestyle empire may or may not be built on a lie. A high-powered lawyer honeymooning with her husband is caught off guard by the appearance of the girl who tormented her in high school.
Read this book if…
You want to read Bronte's pick.
You listen to the New Yorker Fiction podcast.
You enjoy books that make you laugh.
Do not read this book if…
You are an empty, vacant soul.
Rodham (2020)
Rodham is a retelling of Hillary Clinton’s (née Rodham) life, imagining what might have happened if she hadn’t married Bill Clinton. This sharp exploration begins with Hillary as a determined and ambitious student, a star on the rise, and takes flight at its sliding door moment when she rebuffs fellow student Bill Clinton’s proposal of marriage.
Read this book if…
If you want to begin unpacking female ambition in patriarchal structures.
You love alternate histories and ruminating on ‘what could have been’.
You’re secretly into RPF fanfiction and thrive on innuendo.
Do not read this book if…
You firmly prefer fact to fiction.
Romantic Comedy (2023)
Romantic Comedy, centres a television script writer who has all but given up on love – until she falls, hard, but not for the person she expects. A compellingly self-aware chrysalis of the thought ‘could someone like them ever date someone like me?’, Sittenfeld latest work reminds us why our hearts remain untenable to logical influence (as well as why she’s a household name).
Read this book if…
You thrive on seeing behind-the-scenes content.
You’re a fan of Tina Fey and loved 30 Rock.
You love subversive novels that know and respect the space they’re operating within.
Do not read this book if…
If you’re not ready to read a story set during the pandemic.