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How Hard Can It Be?

June 11, 2018

hard

You know how sometimes you see a trailer for a movie and it is fantastic, then you go see the movie and realize all the best bits were in the trailer? The cover for How Hard Can It Be? is like that. Every woman I know who’s seen it has laughed out loud, but does that mean that what lies behind the cover is any good?  It’s the modern-day story of Kate Reddy, who after an absence ... Read More...

13 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, humor, marriage, midlife, St. Martin's Press

Where’s an Editor When You Need One?: Mini-Reviews

April 6, 2018

editor

  We’ve all read novels by authors who have a way with words, know how to shape a sentence, generate tension…all the good stuff, right? But what about when that good stuff keeps going and going until what felt like a perfect balance turns into words and plot piling on unchecked? I’m left either annoyed or crushed under the weight of too much verbiage. It’s at that point ... Read More...

8 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1950s, Blue Rider Press, childhood, contemporary life, fantasy, historical fiction, Italy, marriage, mini-reviews, political intrigue, St. Martin's Press

Alternate Side by Anna Quindlen

April 4, 2018

alternate

  She’d realized that that was how life was, that certain small moments were like billboards forever alongside the highway of your memory. It is no secret I love Anna Quindlen. In the kind of way that makes me pushy about her, as in I’ve demanded innocent victims read her, because I think her voice is one of the best in fiction. I still believe that, but also realize ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, marriage, New York City, Random House, social issues

An American Marriage: A Novel

February 26, 2018

american

Where are you left when you’ve been married for less than two years and your husband is sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit? This is the weighty premise of Tayari Jones’s new novel, An American Marriage. Celestial and Roy are a young couple on their way in Atlanta. She is an artist and he is in marketing, they have a nice home and right up until they go to Louisiana to ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Algonquin Books, book clubs, contemporary life, marriage, racism, social issues, Southern life

Mrs. by Caitlin Macy

February 21, 2018

mrs

I’m not ashamed to admit that one of my go-to genres is Wealthy People Behaving Badly. There is just something about reading (or watching) people with stupid amounts of money acting foolish and, hopefully, getting caught doing it. It’s the small, petty part of my psyche, but I own it. When I read the synopsis for Caitlin Macy’s new novel Mrs. I thought I’d struck gold. ... Read More...

8 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, Little Brown and Company, Manhattan, marriage

Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella

February 12, 2018

surprise

With Valentine’s Day coming up this week it felt like the perfect time to review a new novel about marriage from an author I love. Surprise Me  by Sophie Kinsella is about a couple who have been together for ten years. In the course of getting their yearly physicals for insurance purposes their doctor, who’s a specialist in longevity, informs them that they’re both going to ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: chick lit, humor, marriage, Random House

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