Ann Patchett

“Who should read this book? Every single person in the country”

— Ann Patchett

Source: National Writers Series appearance, Traverse City, Michigan, August 2023

“Alice McDermott has always been one of our greatest writers but here she exceeds every expectation. Absolution is one of the finest contemporary novels I've read. It is a moral masterpiece.”

— Ann Patchett

Source: National Writers Series appearance / Publisher Blurb, August 2023

“Barbara Kingsolver could never have pushed herself farther—and then she came out with Demon Copperhead, which I gotta say, nothing prepared me for Demon Copperhead.”

— Ann Patchett

Source: National Writers Series appearance, August 2023

“Subtly told and finely made, The Correspondent is a portrait of a small life expanding. Virginia Evans shows how one woman changes at a point when change had seemed impossible. That change, like this novel, turns out to be a cause for celebration.”

— Ann Patchett

Source: Crown Publishing Blurb / Parnassus Books 'New to You' Feature, April 2025

“I think that people will hugely love this book. It's a big, sweeping, Irish, multi-generational story. The writing's wonderful. There's magic elements to it. It's a real crowd-pleaser of a book.”

— Ann Patchett

Source: Fall Reading List / Woman's World Interview, July 2026

“Buckeye is a glorious sweep of a novel, full of love and war and the perilous intimacies of smalltown life. It's funny and tender, realistic and strange. Patrick Ryan has long been one of my favorite writers. I have a feeling that with this book he's going to be everyone's favorite writer.”

— Ann Patchett

Source: Penguin Random House Publisher Blurb, September 2025

“Vlautin writes about people overlooked by society and overlooked by literature.”

— Ann Patchett

Source: CBC's The Next Chapter Interview / Faber Publisher Blurb, June 2026

“Feels less like reading a novel and more like sitting in a car beside a dear friend as he navigates the road up ahead. A profoundly moving experience.”

— Ann Patchett

Source: Simon & Schuster Publisher Blurb / Parnassus Books First Editions Club Selection, January 2026

“To read John of John is to move to the Isle of Harris and take up residence in the family croft. The novel is so immersive, so all-encompassing, that I felt like I was living in it. Douglas Stuart has written something brilliant and rare.”

— Ann Patchett

Source: CBC's The Next Chapter Interview / Knopf Publisher Blurb, June 2026

“Kin is the kind of all-encompassing reading experience I'm always hoping to find: smart and funny and deftly profound. This is Tayari Jones's very best work.”

— Ann Patchett

Source: CBC's The Next Chapter Interview / Penguin Random House Blurb, June 2026

“Sipsworth is a love story about a woman and a mouse. Reason suggests that such a relationship couldn't possibly work, and yet I found myself pulling for this unlikely duo on every page. Simon Van Booy's characters are loaded with charm, resilience, and the deep desire for connection that all mammals share. I loved it.”

— Ann Patchett

Source: Godine Books Publisher Blurb / Parnassus Books TikTok, July 2024

“This is the best thing ever.”

— Ann Patchett

Source: NPR's All Things Considered / Parnassus Books TikTok series, November 2023

“It's brilliant, engulfing, can be read in a single sitting. Everyone I give it to is amazed by it.”

— Ann Patchett

Source: Elle Magazine's 'Shelf Life' Column, January 2021

“Sorrow and Bliss is a brilliantly faceted and extremely funny book about depression that engulfed me in the way I'm always hoping to be engulfed by novels. While I was reading it, I was making a list of all the people I wanted to send it to, until I realized that I wanted to send it to everyone I know.”

— Ann Patchett

Source: BookBub Recommendation / HarperCollins Blurb, August 2025

“Elizabeth Strout is one of my very favorite writers, so the fact that Oh William! may well be my favorite of her books is a mathematical equation for joy. The depth, complexity, and love contained in these pages is a miraculous achievement.”

— Ann Patchett

Source: BookBub Recommendation / Penguin Random House Blurb, August 2025

“I love this book so passionately.”

— Ann Patchett

Source: Parnassus Books 'New to You' Video series, April 2024

“By making 'The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness' so smart, funny, and engaging, Sarah Ramey has found a way to turn live-saving medicine into a delicious read. I've given this book to so many people and they've all come back with overwhelming gratitude.”

— Ann Patchett

Source: Parnassus Books Instagram 'If You Haven't Read This Book, It's New to You' series, March 2020

“In Bluebird, Bluebird Attica Locke has both mastered the thriller and exceeded it. Ranger Darren Mathews is tough, honour-bound, and profoundly alive in corrupt world. I loved everything about this book.”

— Ann Patchett

Source: Elle Magazine's 'Shelf Life' Column / Serpent's Tail Blurb, January 2021

“Watch for Purity to be the most talked about book of the year.”

— Ann Patchett

Source: Lit Hub 'The Great Booksellers Fall Preview', August 2015

“When someone recommended it to me, I thought there was no way I could read it, but it turned out to be the only book that helped.”

— Ann Patchett

Source: Elle Magazine's 'Shelf Life' Column, January 2021

“The story of a young woman with too much beauty and too little self-esteem, it's funny and smart and dirty and sad.”

— Ann Patchett

Source: Parnassus Books Holiday Guide / Elizabeth Gilbert's Facebook post, November 2014

“This book is a love letter to writers, and particularly fiction writers. The protagonist, a 30-ish fiction writer, drowning in debt, is one of the most appealing that I've read in ages.”

— Ann Patchett

Source: Parnassus Books Favorite Books of 2021 List, December 2021