While some readers are drawn to books in the "Young Adult" category, I think "Middle Adult" is more my speed -- stories about middle-aged people undergoing marital crisis are the kind of thing that tend to fire my pleasure centers, or that can play on my hopes and terrors in a way that makes me aghast, or wince in recognition, or laugh in admiration. In a way reminiscent of David Markson, "Dept. of Speculation" proceeds by way of linked anecdote -- pungent morsels in themselves -- drawing the reader irresistibly forward (this is a one- or two-sitting book). If you're a fan of Markson or Rachel Cusk, check this one out.

As a guy who's come around to the comforts of athleisure as everyday wear and is semi-seriously considering buying a "going-out" track suit, this passage spoke to me:

"How has she become one of those people who wears yoga pants all day? She used to make fun of those people. With their happiness maps and their gratitude journals and their bags made out of recycled tire treads. But now it seems possible that the truth about getting older is that there are fewer and fewer things to make fun of until finally there is nothing you are sure you will never be."