hollywood housewife

notes from the underground

Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky is our 4th book in the Read Great Books literature challenge. RSVP here to be a part of the discussion of this short novella on Monday, May 18.

Notes from the Underground was written by Russian Fyodor Dostoevsky (also spelled Dostoyevsky, if you're searching, both are correct) and published in 1864, and is considered by many to be the first existentialist novel. (The fathers of existentialism - the belief that philosophy stars with the human individual, characterized by the disorientation of living in an absurd world - are considered to be Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, and Sarte.) It is told from the point of view of a rambling, first-person narrator who never gives his name. It wasn't published in English until 1918.

Fyodor Dostoevsky published his first work, Poor Folk, in 1846, when he was 25, after a childhood in Moscow. Poor Folk gave him access to the Russian literary scene, and he became active in a secret society of utopians, a group that also served as a literary discussion group for its members. In 1849, he was arrested for his participation in the group, and along with the other members was sentenced to death. At the last moment, standing in front of the firing squad, Dostoevsky was spared by Tsar Nicholas I. Instead he was sent to Siberia for ten years hard labor, where his occasional epileptic seizures became frequent.

When he was finally released from his labor and military service, Dostoevsky went on to write novels, novellas, publish in magazines, start and then fold his own magazines, and become a general thought-leader with his political and religious ideas. He had a lifelong gambling problem, and numerous love affairs, ultimately marrying twice. His second wife Anna gave him four children and stood by his side while his gambling debts and unsuccessful early works drove them in and out of financial ruin.

Friedrich Nietzsche called Dostoevsky "the only psychologist, incidentally, from whom I had anything to learn. More or less. And so on." Dostoevsky's writings explored the psychological complexities of man and have a mostly Christian bent, the religion that he believed gave him freedom, but that he feared was changing irreparably. His most famous works include Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov.

Fyodor Dostoevsky was my favorite writer when I was in college. I took classes on Russian lit, and then just on Dostoevsky himself. Notes from the Underground was my favorite work, and I often think of "the Underground man," but I haven't read it in over fifteen years. I chose it for the Read Great Books literature challenge because of sentimental value, and it's brevity, but I highly encourage anyone to read Crime and Punishment. Two decades later, I still think about that book and the fundamental moral question posed.

Notes from the Underground is short - less than 200 pages - so we'll be discussing it in just two weeks. If possible, try to find this translated version as it's considered the standard. RSVP here to follow along with the discussion on May 18, all of these events have been so interesting so far.

weekend reads

I've been so focused on the Read Great Books literature challenge, that I've merely been stuffing other novels in-between the classics that I'm reading each month. But I do love a good weekend read, something to get lost in for a few days. Here are a few titles I've read recently that I think should be on your list this season:

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. (Only $6 on kindle.) I read this after several people recommended it to me because they knew I loved The Passage. (And I LOVED The Passage. It kept me up at night, in the best way.) I enjoyed Station Eleven fine, but after I finished it I didn't feel like it held a candle to The Passage. But I've thought of it so often since, I can recall specific scenes with clarity months and months later. So, as this sometimes happens, I actually like this book even more today than I did when I read it. I never thought I would like apocalypse books, but I guess I do. (See also: The Stand. I swoon for Stephen King.)

Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler. I asked for book recommendations in my last Secret Post, and got tons of good suggestions. The description that Gail came back with for Shotgun Lovesongs made me buy it right away. This book brought me right back to my hometown, with guys I've known my whole life. It made me realize that I don't usually gravitate to these types of male-driven plots, but there was something really compelling about a group of hometown guy friends and their adult lives after one of them becomes world famous. It's the total opposite of Entourage. There was so much to relate to here, from the nostalgic love for place that may not be real, to the draw of celebrity.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. (Only $7 on kindle) I bought this on kindle after everyone kept talking about it, and read it on the airplane to New York last month. It is highly irritating to me when people call books the "new" Gone Girl (because there is only one Gone Girl), but chances are if you like Gillian Flynn books, you will like The Girl on the Train. As a plot point, the main character has addiction issues, and the unreliability of this drove me crazy. Some people think it's a fair representation of alcoholism, and I'm not sure about that. Still, the writing is fast paced and I card about the characters. As far as murder mysteries go, it's pretty satisfying.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed. (Only $7 on kindle) We talked about this book a little on the HH facebook page, I do understand why there are mixed reviews here. But I liked it. I even related to it, highly unlikely since drug addiction and hiking aren't so much a part of my story. I'm a sucker for memoir, especially the vulnerable kind. I was years behind on this one, but I'm glad I finally read it. It's a quickie, too.

Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty. (Only $5 on kindle.) I've made no secret that Liane Moriarty is my absolute favorite beach read indulgence right now. I think by now I've binged on everything she's written. My favorites are still What Alice Forgot and Big Little Lies, but I enjoyed Three Wishes, even though the plot is silly and the writing in this early one is not as strong as the more recent. Moriarty writes from inside a woman's head in the most comfortable way, not at all contrived. Her books are smarter than the chick lit covers suggest. Three Wishes is a fun weekend read if there ever was one.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. I listed in this in the Best Books of the Year last year, but I'm naming it here again because Anthony Doerr recently won the Pulitzer Prize for this gorgeous story. Of all I'm writing about today, All the Light We Cannot See is the least weekend-type read, but it's the one everyone is STILL buzzing about (similar to 2013's The Goldfinch), and I keep spying it in airplanes and hotel lobbies. If you're looking for something smart and beautiful and part of the cultural conversation, this is the one to pick up.

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My To Read stack is so tall right now. I have dozens of books waiting to be read, but I still like to hear what everyone else is reading. Tell me in the comments!

And if you enjoy talking about books, think about jumping into the Read Great Books literature challenge. I have had the best time with these discussions! We'd love to have you.

jane eyre

Jane Eyre is the third selection in the Read Great Books literary challenge. The first two were Pride & Prejudice (discussion here) and Frankenstein (discussion here). You can read the full list of books here.

Jane Eyre was written by Charlotte Bronte and published in England in 1847. It was originally published under the pen name Currer Bell.

Charlotte Bronte was the third of six children, and her mother died of cancer when she was only five years old. This left the five Bronte daughters and young son in the care of their father Patrick Bronte, and their aunt, Elizabeth Branwell. When they became school-aged, Patrick - an Irish clergyman - sent the four oldest girls to the Clergy Daughters’ School. Charlotte blamed the terrible conditions of the school for her life-long ill health, and only one year after arriving the two oldest Bronte sisters died from tuberculosis. After this tragedy, Charlotte and her younger sister Emily returned home.

Back home as the oldest of the living siblings, Charlotte and her sisters and brother spent their time creating elaborate fantasy worlds, stories that lasted for years, that were intertwined with one another, and that still exist in various unfinished manuscripts.

In her late teens and early 20’s, Charlotte Bronte became a teacher and then later a governess. In 1846, when she was 30 years old, Charlotte and her sisters began writing poems and stories for public consumption, originally self-publishing their work. They all chose to use pen names because of the inherent gender bias of the time, but they purposefully chose neutral sounding names, used the same last name as one another, and maintained their initials. The surname they used was “Bell,” after their local clergy Arthur Bell Nicholls (who Charlotte would later marry). Therefore Charlotte Bronte became Currer Bell, taking the “Currer” from the family friend Frances Mary Richardson Currer, the British Heiress who funded their local school.

After several unsuccessful literary works, Jane Eyre was published to commercial and critical success. Popularity of the novel was fueled by speculation on the author, and then soon the mystery deepened as the other “Bell” sisters were published. Wuthering Heights by Ellis Bell (Emily Bronte) and Agnes Grey by Acton Bell (Anne Bronte) made for an intriguing mystery. As speculation turned to these authors being women, so did the critical acclaim for Jane Eyre. Suddenly the writing and story was deemed “improper.”

Barely a year after the publication of Jane Eyre, Charlotte was hit with deep personal loss. Her brother and both her sisters died within eight months of one another, all from complications of tuberculosis. Charlotte Bronte had lost all five siblings to the disease.

At the age of 37, just before the publication of her third and final novel, Charlotte married Arthur Bell Nicholls. Shortly after their honeymoon, pregnant with her first child, Charlotte died. Her death certificate lists the cause as tuberculosis, but it has also been speculated to be extreme dehydration due to her pregnancy. Charlotte Bronte was just 38 years old.

Decades after her death, letters from Charlotte Bronte to a former boss and teacher named Constantin Heger revealed that she had been in love with a married man. Her biographer had kept these details hidden out of respect for her family, and the letters, once torn up by Heger, were retrieved by his wife and pieced back together. They now reside in the British museum.

We'll be discussing the classic Jane Eyre on Monday, April 27. These discussions have been so fun and interesting. RSVP here to join us for this us, sure to be full of opinions.
   

frankenstein

The first Read Great Books discussion on Pride & Prejudice went great. Frankenstein is the second book and I'm looking forward to the discussion on Monday, March 16. RSVP here. Check out the full list of books here.

If you want to feel old and unaccomplished, just know that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein when she was just 18. Shelley had been traveling through Europe with friends as a teen, and while in Switzerland had gotten caught up in the occult ideas that were swirling around. The group - which included her lover and future husband Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron - made a bet over who could write the best horror story. Frankenstein and his monster were born.

Frankenstein was published anonymously in 1818 when Shelley was just 20. In 1822, it was published in France, this edition bearing the author's name. These first two runs broke the story into three small editions, a common format at the time. In 1831, Shelley heavily revised Frankenstein and they were merged into one volume. From its first appearance, the critical reviews have been mixed, but it has always been popular. Stage show adaptations cropped up immediately, spreading the story throughout Europe.

Mary Godwin Shelley was the product of two radical thinkers. Both writers, her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, wrote a manifesto of sexual equality, "A Vindication of the Right of Woman," and her father, William Godwin, was a known political philosopher, churning out justice commentary as well as novels. Mary was born in August of 1797, and her mother died from complications of the birth in September.

William Godwin encouraged his young daughter to take part in the lively conversations around their family table, with noted writers and philosophers. At the age of 11, she wrote and published a children's booklet through her stepmother's newly formed publishing house.

When Mary met the poet Percy Bysse Shelley, he was already married to a woman named Harriet. In spite of this, two years after first meeting, Mary and Percy "eloped," though technically he was still married to Harriet. The new couple spent months traveling Europe, meeting with friends and writing.

The next few years brought a supreme amount of grief. Mary's stepsister Fanny committed suicide, and not long after so did Harriet, Percy's first wife. Harriet's death by drowning left Mary and Percy free to marry, by then they can endured one baby born premature who would not survive, and rejoiced with the birth of one son and later a daughter. By 1820, both of those children had died in separate incidents, and in 1822 Percy drowned while sailing.

Only 25, Mary Shelley had written several novels and was encountered debilitating grief. Her fourth and last child, Percy Florence Shelley, became her reason for living, and though she continued writing for the rest of her life - everything from travel journals to biographies - she never remarried.

There is much more to say about Mary Shelley, but I think it's important to read the book first. We'll be discussing Frankenstein on Monday, March 16. You can RSVP here to the discussion.

Happy reading!

pride & prejudice

Pride & Prejudice is the first pick for the Read Great Books: A Literature Challenge. We'll be discussing it on Monday, February 16. Coming in at around 300 pages (this version is 226 pages, the one I picked up is 323), if you started today you'd need to read about 23 pages a day to finish before we discuss it. (Also, it's free on kindle!)

I chose Pride & Prejudice because I knew that I wanted to include Jane Austen in the list, and this one is probably her most famous. I'm not sure how I escaped reading Austen throughout college - she seems like she would be up my alley - but for some reason I've always been turned off by purely romantic novels. (Gone with the Wind excepted, though that book is hardly "pure romance.")

A little bit about the book:

Pride & Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen set in England and published in 1813. The title term "Pride & Prejudice" originated in a passage about slavery in Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, published in 1776, but Austen probably came across it in Fanny Burney's novel Cecilia, published in 1782, which used the phrase three times in all caps.

Jane Austen wrote Pride & Prejudice between 1796 and 1797, originally calling it First Impressions. After receiving an initial rejection from publishers, she made significant revisions - including changing the title - and didn't make a publishing deal until 1812. Unlike her financial deal with Sense & Sensibility (published in 1811), where she made a commission on every book sold after the publisher's losses, Austen sold Pride & Prejudice for a flat fee of £110. 

There have been numerous movies, plays, and mini-series' based on Pride & Prejudice. The most popular have been the 1940 movie starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier, the 1995 BBC series starring Colin Firth, and the 2005 movie starring Keira Knightley.

The original cover verses today's versions have gone through significant transformations. Here's 200 Years of Pride & Prejudice book design. (Some really cool ones there.)

A poll conducted by the BBC in 2003 named Pride & Prejudice "UK's 2nd Best Loved Book" behind The Lord of the Rings. In a 2008 survey of more than 15,000 Australian readers, Pride & Prejudice came in first on a list of the "101 Best Books Ever Written."

We'll be discussing the book here on the blog on Monday, February 16 over HERE. Come join in the conversation!

 

read great books: a literature challenge

Last year I did a monthly discipline challenge tackling some of the things that I want to change about my life theoretically (stop spending, exercise daily, be on time) but that I had previously never actually made an effort towards.

I learned a lot about myself with the monthly challenges. I learned that some disciplines matter and others do not. I learned that it’s harder to quantify “success” and “failure” than I would have thought. And most importantly I learned that I am goal-oriented. If I have a goal that I’ve stated publicly, I’m much more apt to follow through with it. Imagine that.

After years of thinking about it, I’ve decided this year to read more classic literature. I read a lot. I love to read. But about 90% of what I read is purely entertainment. I mean I won’t read dumb stuff. But I read what I want to read, following my own interests. It’s fun to be an adult.

Still, some of the best sentences ever written floated by my eyes when I was a teenager. When I was in classes that forced me to read classic literature. I didn’t hate it, but I haven’t done much of it since. So for awhile now I’ve been meaning to re-read some of the classics, and finally to pick up those that I skipped.

I asked friends and family and Secret Post readers for suggestions on which classics one should definitely read, and immediately I hit the first dilemma. What is a classic? There are so many definitions, and many strong opinions. I decided to define a “classic” work of literature as something generally accepted as well-written, and that has permeated culture. But that still adds up to hundreds and hundreds of books across continents and genres.

In the spirit of Start Where You Are, I made a big list of things I should read and those that I want to read and cross-referenced. That narrowed it down considerably, but there were still dozens of titles to choose from. I eliminated a few from sheer length. I took three of the most suggested from the Secret Post subscribers as definites. And then I filled in the rest with books we’ll be glad that we read. When choosing these books for us to read together I considered:

• Relevance to our culture and to our lives. There are books that are so constantly referenced that often we don’t even know their original source. See Shakespeare (who was not on my final list). I want to examine why a work was relevant then and now, and while this argument can probably be made for any works that fall into the vague “classic” category, I thought about it when choosing.

• Entertainment value. If it feels like a chore, I’ll loathe doing it, which is not the point of this exercise. This is (hopefully) just a starter list, and it’s easier for everyone if we go in with the possibility of loving what we’re reading. I didn’t want to read Moby Dick, so Moby Dick is not on this list.

• Length. Most of us are big readers around here, so we all have current To Read lists stacked high. I’m not ready to commit to 1,200 words of Atlas Shrugged (yet) and I certainly wasn’t going to ask you to. So yes, I looked at length. You’re welcome.

I’m new to the online book club thing, so it might be trial and error at first. But here’s how I think it’s going to work: I’ll write a post when we start the book and based on length and time of year, I’ll give a date for when we’ll have the discussion on it. We’ll schedule the discussion and I’ll host it either here on the blog or possibly in another forum (I'm still researching the best way to have a group chat, any suggestions are welcome). Jump in on the books you want to read, skip the ones you don’t. I'm posting the list in its entirely below so people can read ahead if they wish. This is going to be fun!

The list as it stands now, in chronological order:

(1813) PRIDE & PREJUDICE by Jane Austen (279 pages)

read the discussion
(1818) FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley (273 pages)

read the discussion
(1847) JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte (500 pages)

read the discussion
(1864) NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND by Fyodor Dostoevsky (138 pages)

read the discussion
(1899) THE AWAKENING by Kate Chopin (195 pages)

read the discussion

(1960) TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee (324 pages)

read the discussion

(1937) THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD by Zora Neale Hurston (256 pages)

read the discussion

(1939) THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck (496 pages)

read the discussion

(1925) MRS. DALLOWAY by Virginia Woolf (216 pages)

read the discussion

(1957) ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac (307 pages)

A few notes: many of these are available for free on kindle, so make sure and check there. Also, the best translation for Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground is the one linked above. There are less expensive versions, however. Just know that they will be a bit different. 

I'm using the hashtag #HHreads or #ReadGreatBooks on social media, and please make sure to tag me if you post about what you're reading!

4 of my favorite true crime books

With the conclusion of today's Serial podcast - a series put out by This American Life that follows investigative journalist Sarah Koenig while she pursues the truth behind a real teenager murder from 1999 - people who had never given much thought to the true crime genre are now riveted.

I've always enjoyed true crime, but not the cheesy, airport paperback kind. I like my crime and courtroom stories well-done, thank you very much.

These are four of my favorites of all time:

Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi. This is the story of the famous Charles Manson murders and subsequent trial as told by the prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi. The story is goring and disturbing, and there is no doubt as to the guilt of who carried out the actual execution of these innocent people. What is so interesting here is the cae against Manson himself, who was not present but who, ostensibly, ordered them to be carried out. This book is fascinating, no one writes about crime like Bugliosi.

Columbine by Dave Cullen. I've written and talked about this book so often, I think my friends and husband now roll their eyes whenever I reference it. Again, there is no doubt who pulled out guns to kill and be killed in a Columbine high school, but almost everything you think you know about this crime will be challenged. The media spin, the false national narrative, the innaccurate eyewitness accounts, this book will forever change how you think about crime being reported in a world with 24-hour news.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. This book is the one that put Mr. Capote over the edge. It's a difficult story (I guess all are in this genre), but becomes art in his hand. Not the murders themselves - that is never to be lauded - but the dark side of humanity.

And the Sea Will Tell by Vincent Bugliosi. Closer to Serial in that you're not sure how you feel about the accused throughout this book, this story is told so well that you won't want to read it alone. Make a friend or book club pick it up just so you'll have someone to discuss it with. (Can you tell I'm a fan of Mr. Bugliosi? I named my computer hard drive after him, because he's just that smart.)

best books of the year

By mid-December, I’ve read 44 books this year. By the end of the month I’ll be at 48. (I plan to finish this novel and finish up several of my non-fiction reads - such as this one on parenting and this one on food.)

I read some great stuff this year and my stack for next year is already full of titles I’m excited about. After a bit of a reading slump while in the baby stage, I feel like I’m back in a good groove again. A huge part of this has been embracing the kindle. I know I sing ebook praises often, but it really has changed the way I read. Now I always have a book in my purse and I’m reading more than I have in a long time. This year I’m taking the further step of purchasing my absolute favorites in hard copy for my physical library as well. Yes, this means I’ve purchased some of them twice, but that’s okay. I willing to do that for the convenience of reading on the kindle and the minimalism of only having things in my library that I love.

It was hard to narrow down the best this year. There are really good things I read this year that aren’t on here. But all of these stand out for one reason or another. My reading tastes run the gamut, but there’s something on this list for everyone. So here goes, in no particular order:

6 interesting and very different novels worth your time

I can't believe that I haven't updated my book list here in three months. I review a book each month in my Secret Posts, and I've taken to discussing what I'm reading on the HH facebook page, so I didn't realize how much time had passed since I'd done an update here.

We have a lot of ground to cover...

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. People have been recommending Rainbow Rowell's books to me for a year or more and I don't know why it took me so long. I guess I had low expectations for the book, because it took me utterly by delight. It's technically a Young Adult novel, but don't let that throw you. (One of my favorite books of last year was YA, Why We Broke Up, and I found it kind of similar to Eleanor & Park.) It was an easy, interesting read, and the writing is very clever. Makes me want to pick up Fangirl or Attachments.

The Secret Place by Tana French. Okay, I'm going to be really honest and tell you that this was not my favorite of Tana French's books. I love Tana French. I've bought her last couple of books on release day. And the premise of The Secret Place was way up my alley - private girls boarding school - so I can't exactly explain why I didn't connect to it as usual.

I saw some critique about the magical elements to the plot (something that is present in all of her stories, in one way or another), and that didn't bother me at all, though I didn't think it served the book all that well, either. I'm only mentioning this one here because I do call Ms. French one of my favorite current writers, but if you're new to her work I would start with In the Woods or The Likeness. I also really liked Broken Harbor, though I know it has mixed reviews and some people are really uncomfortable with the crime elements when children are involved.

Psst...just saw that you can buy all 5 of the Dublin Murder Squad books here. This would make a great gift for a reader in your life who hasn't read any Tana French yet.

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant is sort of a modern classic. Currently there's a mini-series of the novel on Lifetime. This is a beautiful, important book that had me crying at multiple points. It's a story about women and family and choices and even though it's not something any woman in 2014 should connect to, the scope of it is so universally female. People on the FB page were saying that they've read The Red Tent over and over again. I'm not sure that's something I could do, but it's worth mentioning.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. Here's the weird thing about everyone giving their opinion on the internet all the time: drive-by raves or pans happen and stick in your brain. Awhile ago, I saw someone online call this book "weird." For some reason that seems outside of my personality, I then deemed it not worth my time. I also had in my head that his books were science-fiction-ish, which also moved it to the bottom of my priority. But here's the deal, some of my favorite books in the last few years have been straight weird (Geek Love) and also science-fiction/fantasy (The Passage), so I need to readjust the labels in my brain to align with what I really like to read.

I'm so glad I gave The Ocean at the End of the Lane a try. It is great. Fantastic writing, thought-provoking story, I'd definitely nominate this for a book club pick, only because I see the range of opinions on it. I discussed the ending with a friend and we widely varied with our takeaway, even with what we thought actually happened at the end. I loved it, and promptly downloaded another Gaiman book Neverwhere to read soon.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. First and foremost, I highly recommend that you just jump right in on this book and don't read a single thing about it first. I downloaded it on my kindle after a friend mentioned it, having no idea what it was about, and was given a total about face around chapter 3. This book is SO INTERESTING. I read it almost as if it was memoir. I was invested in this family like it was a true story I would someday see on Dateline. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves was unexpectedly sharp and touching.

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton. The cover was a little girly/romance novel for me, so much so that I kind of groaned each time it kept popping to the front of my kindle. I decided to read it over Thanksgiving, when I thought I would have a lot of time on my hands, but wouldn't want to go too deep. I was wrong about it all. Ignore the cover. This is a really entertaining and well-woven story about unlikeable characters that you are rooting for anyway. I guessed the ending, but it didn't dampen the read for me. The Secret Keeper seems like the kind of novel to get wrapped up in over the holidays beside the fire.

Now that we've gotten most of the fall reading out of the way, I'm working on my list for Best Books of the Year. I'll post those next week.

What have you read recently worth recommending?

 

*affiliate links included in this post. This means if you click through and make any purchase, it supports this blog at no additional cost to you. I have no affiliate with the authors or publishers, the opinions are all my own.

four good novels

I've been escaping into good books even more than usual. Naturally this makes me very happy. Here are four that I've read and loved lately:

Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt is a novel about a teenager with a sick uncle. I was worried that this book would be exactly NOT what I want to be reading right now, but it was actually really beautiful, with several themes of family dysfunction that were hard and interesting. It's a simple story on the surface that went about three layers deep with each character (and those are my favorite kinds of novels).

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (plus the companion novella Eve in Hollywood) is an entertaining love story set in 1930's New York City, and I bought into that world whole hog. This was an easy, fun read that kept my attention and left me wanting more of these people and this story. 

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty is probably my second favorite Moriarty novel (after What Alice Forgot) and maybe even my very favorite. I just love her characters, and the women in Big Little Lies felt like my friends, even the deplorable ones. I flew through this in just two days and even though I guessed the ending pretty far in advance, I still loved the way it unfolded and there were still several suprises along the way. Such a fun read (great for an airplane or wanting to pass the time quickly).

The Wife by Meg Wolitzer is something I picked up when it was cheap on the kindle. I wasn't enamoured with The Interestings (though all of my friends and my book club was), but I thought I might connect with the premise of The Wife and Wolitzer's strong writing, and I was right. The story and dynamics of a marriage with a famous writer husband and his housewife wife was very interesting (and somehow both depressing and invigorating at the same time).

What have you read that was great lately?

PS - Books are one of my favorite things I talk about. In my right sidebar you can see what I'm reading, and on my book page you can get an even longer list. In my monthly Secret Posts, I review a book there that I haven't posted about elsewhere.