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...
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...
Take It or Leave It: Contemporary Life
Contemporary life almost always makes for good fiction, but needs to be done right. That’s why the 'take it or leave it' theme today. I recently read two light fiction novels and only one struck the right note. Take It Nine Women, One Dress by Jane Rosen fits perfectly from beginning to end. The title is fairly self-explanatory, but in case you want to be ... Read More...
Break in Case of Emergency
Poor Jen. She was an artist while in college, but gave up after school and got a communications job at a non-profit. Which then hit hard times and laid her off. Now she’s at a new foundation started by Leora Infinitas (that’s not a typo on my part), a former sitcom star who achieved her wealth by marrying old money. Literally, her husband was old. And then he died and ... Read More...
The Trouble with Goats and Sheep
The summer of 1976 is one of upheaval for the families who live along the Avenue, a seemingly quiet British neighborhood. Mrs. Margaret Creasy has gone missing. Ten-year-old Grace takes the words of the local vicar that “If God exists in a community, no one will be lost” as her cue to find God within their neighborhood and in doing so, bring Mrs. Creasy back. She enlists her ... Read More...
The Summer Guest
Zinaida, Katya, and Ana have nothing in common, especially given that Zinaida lived in the small town of Sumy in the Ukraine in the 1800s and Katya and Ana are modern women. But in Alison Anderson’s debut novel, The Summer Guest, their lives intersect as Katya discovers Zinaida’s diary and hires Ana to translate it into English. For all three women this is their chance ... Read More...
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