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Bright, Precious Days

August 22, 2016

bright precious days

  Russell and Corrine Calloway move in all the right circles, but at the grand banquet that is New York society they’re seated at the children’s table. Yes, Russell owns his company, but it’s a publishing firm and while it has cachet it doesn’t have much cash. They live at an enviable address downtown, but in a cramped loft with one bathroom for four people. When Bright, ... Read More...

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, friendship, Knopf, Manhattan, marriage, midlife

Inventing the Rest of Our Lives by Susan Levine Braun

August 19, 2016

inventing

Yesterday, I had a milestone-ish birthday. 55, which means I can no longer say I’m in my early 50s. Boo to that. I’m not generally one to find age markers to be difficult—I thought 40 was a blast, but this one, for whatever reason hit me harder than any other in awhile. I decided I really needed to let go of the self-doubt and irritation that’s been dogging me recently and jump ... Read More...

19 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Non-fiction Tagged: midlife

How to Party with an Infant

August 17, 2016

how to party

  At twenty-eight Mele Bart finds herself as a single mother, because after giving birth to daughter Ellie her boyfriend Bobby tells her he was "kind of engaged" to someone else.  What?! Not one to wallow and with a infant to care for, Mele moves on. In an effort to have some kind of life outside her apartment she tries to find support in one of the neighborhood groups of ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, family, humor, San Francisco, Simon & Schuster

All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

August 15, 2016

ugly

Sometimes there are great books that are almost impossible to review. An example is A Little Life—a novel of abuse that, while it was brilliant, was not for everyone. But, what was not difficult about it was the fact of the abuse—a subject that does not divide or cause unease. Bryn Greenwood ‘s debut novel All the Ugly and Wonderful Things is the opposite of A Little Life in ... Read More...

13 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, childhood, contemporary life, literary, Thomas Dunne Books

Good Wives: Mini-Reviews

August 12, 2016

There are Biblical verses, poems, and a plethora of folksy sayings about the value of a good wife or what it takes to be a good wife. There is also no shortage of wives as the mainstay in fiction throughout the ages. I recently read two new novels with wives as the focus: one that looked at the criteria needed to be a good wife in modern day Houstonian society and the other ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, debut, Henry Holt and Company, historical fiction, marriage, Russia, Thomas Dunne Books

Invincible Summer

August 10, 2016

invincible summer

  Less than a quarter of the way into Invincible Summer and I realize why the novel feels so comfortable—I’ve superimposed the characters from Four Weddings and Funeral over the ones Alice Adams creates. This is not a bad thing because the story is not derivative, but you do have a small, tightly knit, British group of friends who get together once a year, not for ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: debut, friendship, Little Brown and Company, London

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