A still from the season two finale of Succession, showing Jeremy Strong as Kendall Roy seated, surrounded by bright lights and microphones at a press conference.

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Reading lists

Books to read if you love Succession

Pineapple Street

A witty depiction of an old-money family in crisis

Filled with warmth and light. I was moved, engaged, inspired and charmed

Pineapple Street is that rarest of gifts-a novel you don't want to put down for anything. Transporting and laugh-out-loud funny, this intergenerational story is a perfect tale for our times

J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of FRIENDS AND STRANGERS

In this vibrant and hilarious debut, Jenny Jackson has taken a familiar tale-siblings, family money, competing interests-and given it fresh life. What binds the book together so wonderfully is Jackson's keen understanding of the beauty and difficulty of belonging, of how our desires can clash with our inherited narrative and what happens to the people we love when we need to rewrite the story. Pineapple Street is riveting, timely, hugely entertaining and brimming with truth

Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, New York Times bestselling author of THE NEST and GOOD COMPANY

Full of witty and caustic observations about a privileged class of New Yorkers, PINEAPPLE STREET is a sharp and juicy satire

Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of THE MAID

Killer debut about class, love and money

It's the novel Jane Austen would have written . . . if Jane Austen lived in Brooklyn Heights in the 21st century

If you're in search of the fiction trifecta - a captivating story that's masterfully constructed, vividly peopled, and crisply written - look no further. Jenny Jackson's Pineapple Street is pure reading pleasure, hilarious, big-hearted, and full of emotional truths. It's the kind of novel you hope will never end

A witty, easy-to-devour story of wealth and love's never-ending war in the modern age

This novel...is laugh-out-loud good....Love and money have always mixed like oil and water (not well), but Jackson finds new humor and warmth in her particularly witty debut

This witty novel about the haves and have-mores is Succession with a soul

A novel about inheritance and the cultural inanities of the American WASP, set in a maximalist mansion? Don't mind if I do. Pineapple Street is more than a field report on the WASPs and their shabby-sweater super-wealth, of course-it's about class difference and the taxations of love

Sparkling . . . The book is smart and sharply observed, peppered with small gems

Pineapple Street encapsulates the oftentimes ridiculous nature of the ultra-wealthy. The author seamlessly immerses readers in the lives of the Stocktons...[who] must ask themselves the uncomfortable question: Is it possible to be "good" with this much money?

Ever wondered what it's like to be a New York socialite? This account of three ficitionalied Brooklyn Heights women lets you into the world of tennis clubs, long lunches and party politics. Life for Sasha, Daley and Georgina isn't as rosy as it seems. Each has her own personal drama, but releatable failures keep you rooting for them. Remember: money can't buy you love

A observed comedy of manners set among New York's one-per-centers . . . the angsty relationship they each have with the family coffers spices the escapist entertainment that ensues

Sharp-eyed and witty, this is writing which cuts to the quick. Engrossing, full of pleasure, sadness too, it traces loss and change in a world of the haves and the have nots

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
'Searing, hilarious and poignant' MIRANDA COWLEY HELLER 
'Smart and clever' GUARDIAN 
'A killer debut about class, love and money' GRAZIA 
'Marvellous - clever, funny and brilliantly well observed' INDIA KNIGHT 
'Filled with warmth and light' DAISY BUCHANAN 
 
Meet the Stockton women of Brooklyn Heights: Darley, who was born with money; Sasha, who married into it; and Georgiana, who wants to give it all away. 
 
Among glittering parties, weekend homes and hungover brunches, the three will have to grapple with the burden of parental expectations, the hardships and bewilderment of growing up, and the miles between the haves and have-nots. 
 
Pineapple Street is a witty and wicked novel about New York’s one percenters: their first loves, family feuds and the complexities of being human – even when you have everything. 
 
'Wise, emotionally honest fun' HELEN FIELDING 
'Deliciously fun' KEVIN KWAN 
'Lovely, absorbing, acutely observed' NICK HORNBY 
 
Instant New York Times bestseller, March 2023

Jenny Jackson

I devoured The Shampoo Effect. Jackson has a rare knack for capturing the intensity of old friendships and the way love, jealousy, money, and history combust until everyone is behaving (deliciously) badly. It's funny, drama-fueled, and full of Jackson's breezy wit, but what stayed with me most was how honestly and insightfully it captures the grit beneath the gloss of these characters. A brilliant story of marriage, motherhood, and the difficult work of breaking old patterns to become someone new

Coco Mellors, New York Times bestselling author of BLUE SISTERS

I binged The Shampoo Effect and am now bereft and also jealous. Jenny Jackson has written a book that's so breezily readable and laugh-out-loud funny while excavating the deepest truths about motherhood, family, and forgiveness. What an unforgettable cast of characters. What an accomplishment.

Catherine Newman, author of WE ALL WANT IMPOSSIBLE THINGS

An absolute DELIGHT. This book has everything I love in a beach read: a coastal setting, multiple points of view, compelling storylines, and a delicious specificity to the writing that makes every single sentence feel fresh and alive. Jenny Jackson’s The Shampoo Effect is a must, must, must for your summer reading list.

Elin Hilderbrand, #1 New York Times bestselling author of SWAN SONG

Rebecca Serle, New York Times bestselling author of ONE ITALIAN SUMMER

The Shampoo Effect is a delicious, unputdownable portrait of a group of friends navigating love, marriage, and young parenthood. Jackson's characters are fully drawn, complex and flawed, each traveling a true arc of growth, arriving in the final pages at a deeper understanding of the ties that bind them to one another. I loved it

Belle Burden, #1 New York Times bestselling author of STRANGERS

One of the smartest, funniest, and most astute novels I've ever read . . . presented by Jenny Jackson with a combination of great humour and profound wistfulness. I loved this novel. You will, too.

Chris Bohjalian, author of THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT and THE AMATEUR

Warm, witty, sharp and clever – it's the perfect smart summer book. Absolutely delicious!

Smart, funny, and perceptive, Jenny Jackson captures the messiness of modern relationships with rare precision. THE SHAMPOO EFFECT is an addictive, beautifully observed read.

A smart, sly gloss on Updike's tales of marital unrest. So funny, so compelling, this novel hit home with me in its examination of the ways secrets can erode families and friendships.

Joanna Rakoff, international bestselling author of MY SALINGER YEAR

The platonic ideal of a beach read: fun and fast-paced, with a cover that screams, "Can I borrow your sunscreen?" It also features one of my favourite setups (dating back to "Up Island," by Anne Rivers Siddons), in which an outsider arrives in a clubby enclave and makes waves. ... Here, [Jackson] delivers us to the land of clam rolls with [an] anthropological eye.

In this juicy send-up of privilege in all its rowdy dysfunction, a writing fellowship brings nepo baby Caroline Lash to small-town New England. There, she falls for a local environmentalist with a cliquey friend group that will soon regret freezing her out.

Jackson paints a nuanced, empathetic, distinct picture of each woman, exploring different views on marriage, parenthood, career aspirations, and adulthood... This astutely observed story is funny and gossipy without veering into the mean-spirited. Hand this to readers who love Emma Straub, Amy Poeppel, and Katherine Heiny.

Jackson rotates the point of view around the set of friends, deftly depicting the practices and pressures of modern parents... This easy read combines a literary rom-com with an acute portrait of midlife among millennials.

Meant to be read on a sweltering July day, with sand between your toes. Like Jackson's popular debut, Pineapple Street, this is one of those rare books that feel both breezy and meaty, sharp but empathetic.

The Shampoo Effect is a stylish, sharply observed novel about image, reinvention, and the chaos simmering beneath polished lives. It's perfect for readers who love emotionally messy characters with great taste...

Jackson has a knack for local color and well-rounded character work... this has plenty of heart.

The Shampoo Effect by Jenny Jackson From the author of Pineapple Street comes another juicy novel set among a tight-knit group of wealthy friends in a New England seaside town. Writer Caroline arrives in town and soon falls for local man Van. When she meets his friends, she finds out one is pregnant with his child…

Funny, dramatic and astute. Perfect for a sunbed read!

Jackson's classy romcom fizzes with smart takes on millennial tensions and the messy business of forging fiction from fact.

From the author of bestseller Pineapple Street comes another sharp social satire. ... Multiple narrators reveal the imperfections and secrets beneath the privilege.

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 
A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK 
A VOGUE 'BEST BOOK OF 2026' 
 
An accidental pregnancy turns a tight-knit group on its head in this witty and irresistible summer novel from the New York Times bestselling author. Perfect for fans of Romantic Comedy and The Wedding People. 
 
‘Funny, drama-fuelled, and full of Jackson's breezy wit…Brilliant’ 
COCO MELLORS, Sunday Times bestselling author of BLUE SISTERS 
 
‘A delicious, unputdownable portrait of a group of friends navigating love, marriage, and young parenthood…I loved it.’ 
BELLE BURDEN, bestselling author of STRANGERS 
 
'So breezily readable and laugh-out-loud funny' 
CATHERINE NEWMAN, bestselling author of WE ALL WANT IMPOSSIBLE THINGS 
 
'The platonic ideal of a beach read: fun and fast-paced' 
New York Times 
 
OVER ONE LONG SUMMER, WHO KNOWS WHAT MIGHT COME OUT IN THE WASH? 
 
When writer Caroline Lash arrives in Greenhead, she falls immediately for its scenic beaches and New England charm – and even harder for Van Whittaker, a gorgeous, fleece-wearing, litter-collecting, kayak enthusiast. 
 
She meets his friends: Augusta, old money and uptight; Fran, drowning in everyone else’s problems whilst keeping two kids (and an inebriated husband) afloat; and Bailey, who is sexy, confident… and inconveniently pregnant with Van’s child. 
 
Determined nothing will dull the shine of her new romance, Caroline joins the friends as they run wild through Greenhead, drinking on houseboats, gossiping on beaches while their children paddle, and playing risky games. 
 
It seems the fun will last forever – until it doesn’t. As decades-old friendships and marriages begin to fracture, Caroline’s place in their world is called into question. And with all the group’s most tightly held secrets at stake, who knows what might come out? 
 
Dazzlingly funny, sexy, and as juicy as it is astute, The Shampoo Effect is a story of late-night parties, early mornings with small children, and old friends finally growing up – despite all their best efforts. 
 
Further praise for The Shampoo Effect: 
 
'An absolute DELIGHT . . . a must, must, must for your summer reading list' 
ELIN HILDERBRAND, New York Times bestselling author of THE FIVE STAR WEEKEND 
 
‘The perfect smart summer book.’ 
DAISY BUCHANAN, author of CAREERING 
 
'Funny, sharp and charming' 
REBECCA SERLE, New York Times bestselling author of IN FIVE YEARS 
 
‘Smart, funny, and perceptive…an addictive, beautifully observed read.’ 
LOUISE O’NEILL, bestselling author of IDOL 
 
Readers LOVE The Shampoo Effect: 
 
'I can't tell you how much I loved being inside the pages of this book.' 5* reader review 
 
'The perfect beachy, summery read; it's messy, dramatic, funny, and completely entertaining.' 5* reader review 
 
'Another great book from Jenny Jackson. ... A very witty and sometimes emotional read.' 5* reader review 
 
'All I want in a great character driven novel. Loved it!' 5* reader review 
 
'A new favourite book for me.' 5* reader review

Jenny Jackson

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Books to read if you love Succession

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