I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda – It started as an assignment. Everyone in Caitlin’s class wrote to an unknown student somewhere in a distant place. All the other kids picked countries like France or Germany, but when Caitlin saw Zimbabwe written on the board, it sounded like the most exotic place she had ever heard of — so she chose it. Martin was lucky to even receive a pen pal letter. There were only ten letters, and forty kids in his class. But he was the top student, so he got the first one. That letter was the beginning of a correspondence that spanned six years and changed two lives.
Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence by Nick Bantock – A novel in colorful postcards and letters depicts the enigmatic relationship between British artist Griffin Moss and Sabine Strohem, a mysterious woman living on a Pacific island who can see Griffin as he works in London.
Quiet Fire : Emily Dickinson’s Life and Poetry by Carol Dommermuth-Costa and Anna Landsverk – Emily Dickinson is revered as one of America’s greatest and most original poets. Quiet Fire presents the life and art of Dickinson through the poet’s own letters and poems.
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn – Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina. Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal phrase containing all the letters of the alphabet, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” Now Ella finds herself acting to save her friends, family, and fellow citizens from the encroaching totalitarianism of the island’s Council, which has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they fall from a memorial statue of Nevin Nollop. As the letters progressively drop from the statue they also disappear from the novel. The result is “a love letter to alphabetarians and logomaniacs everywhere”
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone – Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandment finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, becomes something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future. Except the discovery of their bond would mean the death of each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win. That’s how war works, right?
Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney – When Amelia wins a free weekend getaway to a remote venue in the Scottish highlands, she views this as the perfect opportunity to reconnect with her husband Adam, but the trip has the opposite effect as she no longer recognizes the person she married.
Mockingbird Songs: Harper Lee: A Friendship by Wayne Flynt – A memoir of Wayne Flynt’s friendship with Harper Lee, centered on a collection of letters between Harper Lee, her sisters, … Wayne Flynt, and his wife.
Class Mom by Laurie Gelman – Frowned upon by conservative fellow PTA members for her past as a single parent, Jen reluctantly agrees to become class mom during her youngest child’s kindergarten year, a role that is challenged by parent drama, hypersensitive allergies, and a former flame.
The Appeal by Janice Hallett – When the cast of a local theater group raises money for an experimental treatment for the director’s granddaughter, who has a rare form of cancer, one member raises her concerns, creating tensions within the community, which leads to murder. In the run-up to the trial, two law students find themselves sifting through the evidence in the form of e-mails, texts, and letters, trying to make sense of it all and unmask the real killer.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han – Lara Jean writes love letters to all the boys she has loved and then hides them in a hatbox until one day those letters are accidentally sent.
The Corpse Flower by Anne Mette Hancock – Danish journalist Heloise Kaldan is drawn into a nightmare when she begins receiving letter from a woman police believe is a killer, forcing her to revisit the darkest parts of her own past to confront someone she swore she’d never see again.
Never Been Kissed by Timothy Janovsky – Wren Roland has never been kissed, let alone been in love, but he wants that movie-perfect ending more than anything. Feeling nostalgic on the eve of his twenty-first birthday, he sends emails to all the boys he (ahem) loved before he came out. He didn’t expect a response from Derick Haverford, Wren’s #1 pre-coming-out-crush…but now that they’re working together at their hometown’s vintage drive-in theater, maybe that perfect-kiss-before-the-credits is finally within reach.
All the Flowers in Paris by Sarah Jio – Two women are connected across time by the city of Paris, a mysterious stack of love letters, and shocking secrets, sweeping from World War II to the present.
13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson – When seventeen-year-old Ginny receives a packet of mysterious envelopes from her favorite aunt, she leaves New Jersey to criss-cross Europe on a sort of scavenger hunt that transforms her life.
A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré edited by Tim Cornwell – During his lifetime, le Carré wrote numerous letters to writers, spies, politicians, artists, actors and public figures. This collection is a treasure trove, revealing the late author’s humour, generosity, and wit–a side of him many readers have not previously seen.
Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience compiled by Shaun Usher – Collects more than 125 letters providing a glimpse into famous events and people in history, penned by such authors as Queen Elizabeth II, Ray Bradbury, Katharine Hepburn, Jackie Robinson, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Louis Armstrong, Galileo, Jack the Ripper, and Flannery O’Connor. Each entry includes a transcript of the letter; a short contextual introduction; and, in 100 cases, a facsimile of the letter itself.
Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston – After an international incident affects U.S. and British relations, the president’s son Alex and Prince Henry must pretend to be best friends, but as they spend time together, the two begin a secret romance that could derail a presidential campaign.
The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary – Tiffy and Leon share an apartment in London. Tiffy and Leon have never met. After a bad breakup, Tiffy Moore needs a place to live. Fast. And cheap. But the apartments in her budget have her wondering if astonishingly colored mold on the walls counts as art. Desperation makes her open minded, so she answers an ad for a flatshare. Leon, a night shift worker, will take the apartment during the day, and Tiffy can have it nights and weekends. He’ll only ever be there when she’s at the office. In fact, they’ll never even have to meet. Tiffy and Leon start writing each other notes – first about what day is garbage day, and politely establishing what leftovers are up for grabs, and the evergreen question of whether the toilet seat should stay up or down. Even though they are opposites, they soon become friends. And then maybe more. But falling in love with your roommate is probably a terrible idea… especially if you’ve never met.
Dear Martin by Nic Stone – Writing letters to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., seventeen-year-old college-bound Justyce McAllister struggles to face the reality of race relations today and how they are shaping him.