I read Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner in two days. I couldn’t put it down. Great writing is such a treat, and when you get a book like this in your hands, you know the author is on a different level.

I bought Shred Sisters after reading about it in the NY Times because I was so interested in why the author wrote it. Lerner is in her 60s and has had an impressive career in publishing. She loves non-fiction and wrote a memoir a number of years ago.

It wasn’t until a lockdown during the pandemic that she started even contemplating writing a novel. Up until that point she used to say, “I like the truth. Sometimes I don’t even understand why people write fiction. Why not just stick with what’s there?”

But she ended up writing a great novel, albeit filled with angst, mental illness, loneliness, and family dysfunction, but I found it deeply compelling.

In addition, Lerner has built quite a following on TikTok sharing her diary entries from her 20s. “The most profound thing that’s come out of these diaries is finally finding compassion for the girl that I was,” she says.