I recently finished Honoré de Balzac’s Memories of Two Married Wives, and I have feelings. Big ones. The kind you have after a long dinner with old girlfriends—half-inspired, half-exhausted, and slightly emotionally hungover.

This book is basically the original 19th-Century WhatsApp Group Chat conversation between two best friends—Renée and Louise—who grow up together in a convent, then head off into womanhood down dramatically different paths. Think: “What if you and your bestie made completely opposite life choices, then spent decades dissecting them via eloquent, passionate, sometimes maddeningly long letters?” Read more