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A Novel
From the author of the national bestseller Women's Hotel, the irresistible and wildly entertaining story of one woman contending with age and friendship—a narrative that reads like an homage to Nora Ephron's Heartburn.
Sixty something, twice-divorced Barbara is at a crossroads. In the midst of her emotional uncertainty, she looks back on the dissolution of the nine best friendships of her life, in hopes of figuring out how to optimize finding her tenth, and hopefully last, best friend. Barbara is acerbic, opinionated, and wrong about many things, but she also doesn't shy away when she's at fault. The turning point of her predicament comes from Barbara's choice, in friends, between (too-young) Caitlyn and the (unsuitable) Other Barbara. Will she repeat the exciting mistakes of the past, or will she try a new kind of mistake for a change? She feels like an out-of-season Scrooge who is unexpectedly, and all at once, surprised and entirely transformed by the possibility of joy.
For readers who loved Bobby Finger's The Old Place and Elif Bautmann's Either/Or, Meeting New People will feel like a long-lost companion—Lavery at the height of his storytelling powers. It is an unforgettable novel from one of our most inventive and brilliant writers.
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (7/2/2026)
I'm reading (and loving) Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth. Last week it was Meeting New People by Daniel M. Lavery. Both books feature 'older' women protagonists. Kind of a theme with me lately (on purpose?) as I try to make a graceful slide to my next birthday wh...
-Evonne_Benedict
"Wry and empathetic … Barbara is an endlessly companionable narrator, especially in her moments of self-awareness. … Thanks to Lavery's sharp-tongued heroine, this one leaves a mark." —Publishers Weekly
"Often hilarious … Barbara's prickly personality illuminates Lavery's exploration of who is worthy of our love and attention and why friendship is so often a zero-sum game. Utterly human: funny, sad, happy, questioning." —Kirkus Reviews
"A sensitive and funny look at a demographic that is often ignored. … Readers will cheer for Barbara as she tries to be a better, more open person while still remaining true to herself." —Booklist
"Daniel Lavery's Meeting New People is absolutely brilliant, full of the honesty and humor that made me fall in love with Laurie Colwin's work. It weaves so many complex elements of the human condition (friendship! family! mortality! food!) but in the most unexpected and refreshing ways, until I found myself nearly crying with the desire to hold onto this book as long as I could." —Kevin Wilson, New York Times-bestselling author of Run for the Hills
This information about Meeting New People was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Eustache Boch
Daniel M. Lavery is a former "Dear Prudence" advice columnist at Slate, the cofounder of The Toast, and the New York Times bestselling author of Texts from Jane Eyre, The Merry Spinster, Something That May Shock and Discredit You, and Women's Hotel. He also writes the popular newsletter The Chatner.
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