Some unsolicited thoughts and opinions from a mother and daughter who love reading and talking about books!

I’ll admit, I’m drawn to authors who know how to tell a realistic, compelling story about families and the many relationships that exist between the two parents, each parent and child, and between siblings.  Jean Hanff Korelitz tells an absolutely masterful story of one such family’s intricately complex relationships in The Latecomer. From the moment I read that Salo and Johanna first met at the funeral of Salo’s girlfriend who died in a car he had been driving, I realized this story would be riveting.

Ever since I read Bel Canto when it came out in 2001, Ann Patchett has been one of my favorite authors.  She keeps writing the most amazing books

Not only does this wonderful author share my name, but she also comes from my home state of Massachusetts. I very clearly remember being in high school when The Pleasing Hour came out and suddenly my name was all over the place.

This totally delightful, completely original, novel was recommended to me by my friend Jane.  I am quite sure that as  I detail its contents, it will sound peculiar at best.  But I promise you, there is a good reason why Dear Committee Members won the Thurber Prize for American Humor.

When you genuinely loved an author’s first novel, as I did Cutting for Stone, and you wait 14 years for a second novel, expectations can run high.  When I heard that Abraham Verghese had finally brought out his second novel, I immediately bought it and started to read.  At 715 pages, I had no misgivings about its length because I just knew it was going to be great.  Oprah had already chosen it for her bookclub!  Nearly three weeks later, I limped across the finish line and am still trying to figure out why.

I have never read a book by Barbara Kingsolver that I didn’t love, and Prodigal Summer is no exception. Published in 2000, somehow, I hadn’t read this one and was keen to explore whether early Kingsolver novels were as gorgeous as her recent books.  Prodigal Summer has an almost ineffable aura about it that I hope I can adequately describe.

When I think about Pineapple Street, it strikes me as the first fun summer book that I’ve read this year, albeit before summer has technically begun.  Set in Brooklyn Heights—and the first novel by Jenny Jackson, a Williams College graduate—the characters and storyline seem very familiar and realistic. 

This gorgeous story about four sisters and their relationships with each other, with their overbearing mother and their under-achieving father, is a modern-day recast of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.  I am not sure that Hello Beautiful will stand the test of time to rival that classic in its staying power.  Nevertheless, I found it enthralling to read.