Happiness Sold SeparatelyLolly Winston Elinor and Ted Mackey have been unsuccessfully trying to have a baby for awhile, and the strain on their marriage leaves Ted open to an affair with Gina, the personal trainer at his gym. Elinor’s discovery of the affair sets a series of breakups, reconciliations, and realignments of relationships. Despite the overly dramatic plot summary, Winston conveys the story with humor and humanity, as she shifts viewpoints among the three main […]

The Good LifeJay McInerney When I was young, I often re-read my favorite books. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become far less likely to do so, probably due to a combination of less time to read in the first place and so many appealing new books I haven’t gotten to yet. Brightness Falls by Jay McInerney is one of the few novels I’ve read multiple times since I left my 20’s. Russell and Corrine Calloway […]

The Kite RunnerKhaled Hosseini I bought this book over a year ago, in anticipation of its being a selection for my book club, but the member who was going to pick it ended up dropping out, and I just wasn’t motivated to pick it up until another member of the club chose it for our meeting this week. Despite the fact that everyone I know who has read this book loved it, I’ve been rather […]

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter Kim Edwards On a snowy late-winter night in Lexington, Kentucky in March 1964, a doctor’s wife unexpectedly goes into labor, and he has to perform the delivery himself in his own office. Twins are delivered – a healthy boy, and a girl who clearly exhibits Down’s syndrome. Believing that it’s in everyone’s best interests, the doctor asks his nurse to bring the baby girl to a home for the mentally impaired. […]

Water for Elephants Sara Gruen This was picked for my book club’s meeting this past week, but the meeting didn’t happen – too many people couldn’t make it, and most of those that could be there were behind on their reading and didn’t think they could finish by Friday (myself included). We’ll be deferring our discussion till our August meeting, where this will be double-featured with The Kite Runner. From the book cover: As a […]

The Jane Austen Book ClubKaren Joy Fowler from the book cover: In California’s central valley, five women and one man join to discuss Jane Austen’s novels. Over the six months they get together, marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements become suitable, and love happens…The result is a delicious dissection of modern relationships. Dedicated Austenites will delight in unearthing the echoes of Austen that run through the novel, but most readers will simply enjoy the […]

Abundance: A Novel of Marie AntoinetteSena Jeter Naslund from the book cover: Marie Antoinette was a child of fourteen when her mother, the Empress of Austria, arranged for her to leave her family and her country to become the wife of the fifteen-year-old Dauphin, the future King of France. Coming of age in the most public of arenas, the young queen embraces her new family and the French people, and she is embraced in return. […]

Accidental HappinessJean Reynolds Page(selection for next week’s Book Club meeting) from the book cover: After her husband’s unexpected death at the age of thirty-six, Gina Melrose becomes a “live-aboard” on his boat, docked at a marina in coastal South Carolina, near the home she and Ben once shared. In this temporary, borrowed existence on the water, she settles into numb survival. But Gina finds her life taking yet another dramatic turn late one night when […]

72-Hour HoldBebe Moore Campbell I’m going to try dispensing with the clips from Amazon and writing my own summaries, starting now. But before that, from the cover: Trina is eighteen and suffers from bi-polar disorder, making her paranoid, wild, and violent. Frightened by her own child, Keri searches for help, quickly learning that the mental health community can only offer her a seventy-two hour hold. After these three days Trina is off on her own […]