After an absence of 14 years Bridget Jones is back in Helen Fielding’s newest novel, Mad About the Boy. The novel is set in present day meaning that while the whole gang is back, they’ve all got steady jobs now and are discussing Botox and fillers to fight off aging. Yes, the flighty and funny Bridget Jones is now entering her fifties and, hold on to your hat, she has ... Read More...
The Hive
There is no shortage of mommy-lit in the world. There are stories (fiction and non-fiction) about nannies, schools, and mothers who work pitted against those who don’t. What is new is Gill Hornby’s debut novel, The Hive, which looks at the uber-competitive world of elementary school from the British mummy’s perspective. St. Ambrose is a school and community that prides ... Read More...
The Lighter Side of Reading
This may not be a burning question in your mind but I thought maybe, after a year of putting my thoughts out there about books, you might like a sense of where I’m coming from in what I read and, ultimately, decide to review. Earlier this week I covered what I need when I read but that was at the micro level. There is also the macro level of what kind of books. If compared to ... Read More...
What I Need When I Read
When I read Claire Messud’s The Woman Upstairs I loved it. The protagonist was a middle-age, single woman who was angry about a lot of life. For some this anger was off-putting and there were reviewers who found the woman (Nora) disagreeable and depressing. I certainly felt sympathy for her situation but by and large, even when she made me uncomfortable, Nora was a character I ... Read More...
What the Nanny Saw
What the Nanny Saw is not the first book to look at the insular and dysfunctional world of nannies and the uber-rich but it may be the first to delve into that life as the employers are on their way down. Ali Sparrow is taking a year off from school to earn enough money to pay for her final year and has chosen the role of nanny as her job. She lands a plum assignment with ... Read More...
Wedding Night
It may be the weather, it may be work, and it may be the kids. There are any number of reasons a woman needs outrageous fiction to take her away (because, honey, Calgon is not going to cut it). It’s a matter of personal preference, of course, but from the moment I picked up my first Sophie Kinsella novel she became my tried and true, light, ... Read More...
