I tend to choose books from my tbr shelves without reminding myself of the plot or premise. When I realized that The Dinner List was premised on magical realism, I was incredibly skeptical about enjoying and even finishing the novel. But I kept turning pages, and by the end I couldn't control the tears streaming down my face on the bus.

The concept: Sabrina walks into her thirtieth birthday dinner with her best friend Jessica and is surprised to encounter four other guests from a list she made ten years ago. If you could have dinner with any five people, dead or alive, who would they be? Joined by Audrey Hepburn, her alcoholic absentee father, a former philosophy professor, Jessica, and "him," Sabrina discusses love, loss, and memory with interspersed stories from the previous ten years. 

This book surprised me in such wonderful ways. Serle narrated with a profound sense of wistfulness and nostalgia that had me fully invested in the characters and crying by the end.