Liane Moriarty’s Book Recommendations

Welcome to Shelf Life, ELLE.com’s books column, in which authors share their most memorable reads. Whether you’re on the hunt for a book to console you, move you profoundly, or make you laugh, consider a recommendation from the writers in our series, who, like you (since you’re here), love books. Perhaps one of their favorite titles will become one of yours, too.

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

<i>Here One Moment</i> by Liane Moriarty

$30 at penguinrandomhouse.com

Liane Moriarty has sold 20 million copies of her books, all of which have been optioned or become prestige TV, notably Big Little Lies, executive produced by and starring Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon, which won eight Emmys and four Golden Globes for HBO. (She watched the series sitting on the bathroom floor on her iPad–same!) Now comes her 10th novel, Here One Moment (Crown).

The Sydney-born, -raised, and -based NYT bestselling author (the first Australian to top the list upon publication) thought she’d be a journalist, but began her career in advertising (she started her own company, The Little Ad Agency). She earned a master’s degree in creative writing from Macquarie University, where she wrote 100,000 words (30,000 were required) of what would become her first book Three Wishes. Other projects include Apples Never Fall with Annette Bening, Peacock; What Alice Forgot, Tri-Star Pictures), and The Husband’s Secret, Amazon Prime. Nicole Kidman also starred in Hulu’s adaption of her 2019 novel Nine Perfect Strangers and produced the Australian drama series based on The Last Anniversary. (She would love for another Aussie actress Margot Robbie to take on one of her characters.) She’s also written the children’s Space Brigade series.

Moriarty has two children with her Tasmanian husband, a former farmer; five younger siblings, including writers Jaclyn Moriarty and Nicola Moriarty; was paid $1 by her father to write “books” (he also offered the kids $1,000 to fix the lawn mower); took off a “year of joy” from writing novels; once gave up coffee for 5 days; writes to an hourglass.

Likes: Secrets; skiing, bellinis time travel.

Not so much: Cooking.

Bad at: Short stories.

Good at: Procrastinating by editing; looking for a reason to drink champagne. We’ll drink to her book recs below.

The book that:

…helped me through a breakup:

Range of Motion by Elizabeth Berg. I read nothing but Elizabeth Berg novels one summer while recovering from a broken heart.

…kept me up way too late:

The Firm by John Grisham. I was meant to be working, and I could not stop reading no matter how hard I tried. Many millions of readers had the same experience.

…made me weep uncontrollably:

Dragon Skin by Karen Foxlee. My daughter was 12, and we were reading this exquisite book out loud to each other. I can remember sitting on her bed, sobbing, unable to get the words out, while my daughter laughed at me—but she was teary too!

…I recommend over and over again:

Crow Lake by Mary Lawson. It’s perfect in every way.

...shaped my worldview:

Pennington’s Seventeenth Summer by K.M. Peyton. I read this YA book as a 14-year-old and fell deeply in love with Patrick: a big, brooding, leather-jacket-wearing bad boy who played the piano like an angel. I still swoon at the thought of his big grazed knuckles caressing the piano keys. It’s Patrick’s fault I took so long to find the right man.

..made me rethink a long-held belief:

Feeling Sorry For Celia by my sister, the amazing author Jaclyn Moriarty. I read the manuscript while visiting her at Cambridge University, and I was so envious of her wonderful, hilarious writing that I went home and wrote my first novel, Three Wishes. Up until then I didn’t think real people could write novels. I’m so grateful to her because if she hadn’t done it first I would never have tried.

…I swear I'll finish one day:

Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Who am I kidding? I know I won’t.

…made me laugh out loud:

Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce. Set in London during World War II, this reminded me of a kind of a book I haven’t read in a long time, and I didn’t realize how much I was missing it. It was laugh-out-loud funny, charming, witty and sad.

...I last bought:

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. Oprah says it’s one of the best books she’s read in her entire life.

...has the best title:

PS, I Love You by Cecelia Ahern. What a genius title for a beautiful book.

...has the greatest ending:

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. It was a magical experience from start to finish.

...I’ve re-read the most:

The Republic of Love by Carol Shields. There is a particular page I have earmarked because it’s so funny and sad and perfect.

….I would have blurbed if asked:

In Memoriam by Alice Winn, a debut novel about two young men who fall in love during WWI. I just finished it. An extraordinary, beautiful book which everyone is talking about - my blurb is not required!

...surprised me:

Life after Life by Kate Atkinson. I had such a sense of movement when I was reading this book, it was as though the author was spinning me round and round leaving me laughing, dizzy, breathless and exhilarated.

...I’d want signed by the author:

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler, and I have it! My editor gave it to me as a gift, and I said it was the best gift I’d ever received, which deeply offended my husband. I would grab it in a fire, possibly leaving the photo albums behind.

Bonus question: If I could live in any library or bookstore in the world, it would be:

One of my favorite events ever on book tour was at the Changing Hands Bookstore in Phoenix, Arizona. I will never forget it. The bookstore has its own bar, which may have accounted for the cheerfulness of my audience, but I think they were actually just the loveliest people. So they would keep me company and I’d have an endless supply of cocktails and books, what could be better?