We’re featuring this week’s Summer Reading Challenge author, Amy Shearn! In Amy’s novel, The Mermaid of Brooklyn, Jenny Lipkin is pulled from the brink by an unexpected (and, as it turns out, sometimes annoying) supernatural ally, and is forced to rethink her ideas about success, motherhood, romance, and relationships. In honor of her second novel, here are Amy’s five picks for the books that inspired her to write The Mermaid of Brooklyn:

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf 

A vivid portrait of a single day in a woman’s life, Clarissa reexamines the choices that brought her there, hesitantly looking ahead to the unfamiliar work of growing old.

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

 A masterful portrait of desire and betrayal during the sumptuous Golden Age of Old New York, a time when society people “dreaded scandal more than disease.”

Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout

 An evocative story of a teenager’s alienation from her distant mother—and a parent’s rage at the discovery of her daughter’s sexual secrets.

Birds of America by Lorrie Moore 

A collection of stories remarkable in their range, emotional force, and dark laughter, and in the sheer beauty and power of their language.

The Seas by Samantha Hunt

Part modern gothic, part coming-of-age, it explores the gray boundaries between ocean and land, illusion and delusion, desire and reality.

Pinterest PS – Amy’s novel made this mermaid-inspired Pinterest board too much fun to create!