New York City, particularly Brooklyn, has an undeniable reputation as the best place for writers to live. But while Washington, DC may not have quite as many marquee names, I have to say, it’s got a wonderful writing community. The whole metro area is full of talented people writing across the full spectrum of genres—not to mention an insanely robust independent bookstore scene, the hives in which we writers act as busy bees. At places like One More Page, Kramerbooks, Solid State Books, Politics and Prose, and East City Books, I’ve been fortunate to get to know a wide variety of local writers. And that’s how I met Julie Langsdorf, whose sharp suburban satire WHITE ELEPHANT made a big splash last year in hardcover. The outpouring of critical praise included phrases like “smart, satiric fun” (Washington Post) and “entertainment at its best” (Shelf Awareness, starred review.) Now it’s out in paperback—today!

More about Julie: Julie Langsdorf’s short stories and essays have appeared in Poets & Writers, Lit Hub, and Electric Literature, among other publications. She has two children and lives in Washington, D.C.

For #read99women, Julie recommends SUITE FRANCAISE by Irene Nemerovsky, which she calls “a miracle of a book—two books, really, novellas about the Nazi invasion and occupation of France that were written at the time the events occurred. Nemirovsky herself was murdered in Auschwitz in 1942, the book published over sixty years later, when her daughter found it written in a leather notebook. It’s the only book I’ve ever read that puts the reader so immediately into France during wartime, puts you in the hearts and minds of those fleeing Paris, a sea of people desperate to survive. Her writing is luminous, the details photographic, as she shows humans at their best and their worst.”

Read more about SUITE FRANCAISE on BookBub here.

For more on Julie and WHITE ELEPHANT, click here for julielangsdorf.com.