Guys, I hardcore dropped the ball on my New Year’s resolution of reading a book a month. Sorry for the lack of an April Book Club. (I tried to think of a valid excuse, but the God’s honest truth is that I just spent too much time trolling other people’s lives on Instagram.) Can we all please pretend that we were too busy with our flourishing careers and jetsetting lifestyles to find a time to do book club in April??

However, I am supersupersuper excited to share May’s Book Club pick, Modern Lovers by Emma Straub. Specifically, I am stoked because 1) Along with the rest of the world, I am OBSESSED with Ms. Straub’s beautiful writing. 2) The Vacationers is one of my all-time favorites, and a book I always recommend when people ask me what to read next. (Have you read it yet? You should have! I told you to, like, a year ago!) And 3), perhaps most thrillingly of all, I was sent an advance copy of the book to read prior to its release. ADVANCE COPY. This is the fanciest I have felt since Tony and I were sent a box of free meat sprinkles in hopes that we would post a picture of our dogs eating them!

So, here is the scoop: Modern Lovers is about a group of people who’ve been best friends since college – and now, their own children are college-bound (and also, sleeping with each other). Set in Brooklyn, it is smart, hilarious and painful all at once. Even though the main characters are tiptoeing into middle age, their struggles with adulthood resonated with me – like them, I wonder at what point in my life I’ll finally feel like a “grown up.” (Maybe when I’m getting paid in real hot cash, and not meat sprinkles?) Anyway, Elizabeth, Andrew and Zoe were in a band together back in their college days and the backdrop of the story is that now, decades later, a movie biopic is being made about the fourth band member who left them all behind. But really, the book is about people – their relationships, marriages, betrayals, kids, dreams and passions that don’t necessarily die but rather evolve with age. My favorite type of book is the ones where the characters come alive off the page and feel like friends, and Emma Straub has such a gift for capturing all of the funny, heartbreaking nuances, insecurities and secrets that make us human. This book is going to be on all of the summer reading lists, and you’re going to feel so cool for getting the inside track on it here first.

Modern Lovers comes out May 31st and I implore you to pretty please pre-order it because it is a wonderful, delicious read (and also because then maybe then I will be sent MORE advance book copies! And will feel like a real adult contributing to society! And will be forced to read real books, and not just the Facebook status updates of my frenemies! Guys, it’s win win win.) I hope you love it as much as I do!