Reading Group Center




5 Great Reads Set in New England

Immerse yourself in an engrossing read set in New England, an area of quaint towns and gorgeous scenery. Our itinerary will take you on a literary tour of an insular coastal Massachusetts town; Cape Cod, with its beautiful beaches and maritime history; and Maine, whose virgin pine forests and pristine coastal towns draw visitors year round. Grab a cup of tea and soak up the charm of this quintessentially American region!

Vigil Harbor by Julia Glass

From the National Book Award-winning, bestselling author of Three Junes comes “an engrossing, richly drawn and exquisitely told story of small-town residents grappling with the difficulties of changing times” (People).

When two unexpected visitors arrive in an insular coastal village, they threaten the equilibrium of a community already confronting climate instability, political violence, and domestic upheavals. Vigil Harbor reveals Julia Glass in all her virtuosity, braiding multiple voices and dazzling strands of plot into a story where mortal longings and fears intersect with immortal mysteries of the deep as well as of the heart.

Read an excerpt | Buy the book


That Old Cape MagicThat Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo

For Griffin, all paths, all memories, converge at Cape Cod. The Cape is where he took his childhood summer vacations, where he and his wife, Joy, honeymooned, where they decided he’d leave his LA screenwriting job to become a college professor, and where they celebrated the marriage of their daughter Laura’s best friend. But when their beloved Laura’s wedding takes place a year later, Griffin is caught between chauffeuring his mother’s and father’s ashes in two urns and contending with Joy and her large, unruly family. Both he and she have also brought dates along. How in the world could this have happened?

By turns hilarious, rueful, and uplifting, That Old Cape Magic is a profoundly involving novel about marriage, family, and all the other ties that bind.

Read an excerpt | Buy the book


MaineMaine by J. Courtney Sullivan

For the Kellehers, Maine is a place where children run in packs, showers are taken outdoors, and old Irish songs are sung around a piano. As three generations of women arrive at the family’s beach house, each brings her own hopes and fears. Maggie is thirty-two and pregnant, waiting for the perfect moment to tell her imperfect boyfriend the news; Ann Marie, a Kelleher by marriage, is channeling her domestic frustration into a dollhouse obsession and an ill-advised crush; Kathleen, the black sheep, never wanted to set foot in the cottage again; and Alice, the matriarch at the center of it all, would trade every floorboard for a chance to undo the events of one night, long ago.

Read an excerpt | Buy the book


The Secret HistoryThe Secret History by Donna Tartt

Donna Tartt, winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for her most recent novel, The Goldfinch, established herself as a major talent with The Secret History, which has become a contemporary classic.

Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality their lives are changed profoundly and forever, and they find out how hard it can be to truly live and how easy it is to kill.

Read an excerpt | Buy the book


The Woman UpstairsThe Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud

Nora Eldridge is a reliable, but unremarkable, elementary school teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts. But the arrival of the Shahid family—dashing Skandar, a Lebanese scholar who’s taken a visiting professor position at Harvard, glamorous Sirena, an Italian artist, and their son, Reza—draws her into a complex and exciting new world. Nora’s happiness pushes her beyond her boundaries, until Sirena’s careless ambition leads to a shattering betrayal. Told with urgency, intimacy, and piercing emotion, this New York Times bestselling novel is the riveting confession of a woman awakened, transformed, and abandoned by a desire for a world beyond her own.

Read an excerpt | Buy the book


Continue your New England reading streak with these additional suggestions!

Lake Shore Limited   Empire Falls   The Walk Home   Midwives   Revolutionary Road