Letters to Alice
Letters to Alice by Fay Weldon is one of 2026's most credible books, appearing on 1 of the year's most respected lists, including McKinsey & Company, for a Consensus Score of 12 out of 100.
Appears on these lists
Our take
AI-draftedFay Weldon's 1984 epistolary essay uses a fictional niece's complaint that Jane Austen is boring as a pretext for a broader defense of close reading, arguing that the discipline of literature matters independent of whether a given book feels immediately relevant. The best material is front-loaded; later sections lose momentum and occasionally get period details wrong.
In the press
“Shrewd and funny... full of pithy reflections on Jane Austen's life and the society of the day... full of unsuspected wisdom.”
Times Literary Supplement
How the Consensus Score is calculated
Our Consensus Score is our own transparent editorial metric — not a user rating. It weighs each list by the credibility of its source, how recent the listing is, and any award status. Here is the full breakdown.
| Source | Authority | Recency | Award | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| McKinsey & Company | 0.80 | 0.70 | 1.00× | 0.56 |
| Weighted sum → Score | 0.56 → 12 | |||
Similar consensus books
Because they appear on some of the same lists.
Frequently asked
What lists is Letters to Alice on?
Letters to Alice appears on 1 list in our 2026 corpus, including McKinsey & Company.
What is its Consensus Score?
Letters to Alice has a Consensus Score of 12 out of 100, our transparent editorial measure of how many credible lists agree on it.