Our Souls at Night at Great New Books

Every once in a while, a book comes along that knocks me backward with its quiet power. Kent Haruf’s final novel, Our Souls at Night, is such a book: a story about ordinary people living simple lives, told in spare, melancholy, beautiful prose.

Addie Moore and Louis Waters, both elderly and widowed, live a block apart in a small Colorado town. They’ve known one another for years (though not very well), and both of them are lonely. Addie makes an unusual request of Louis: she wants him to come and spend nights at her house, lying in bed next to her, just talking.

Louis is surprised, but he agrees to give it a try, and they strike up a friendship – spending their nights in quiet companionship, telling each other the stories of their lives.

I’m at Great New Books today talking about how much I loved Our Souls at Night. Please join me over there to read the rest of my review.

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Kissing in America at Great New Books

“I loved romances because when you opened the first page, you knew the story would end well.”

Since her dad died in a plane crash, Eva Roth has found solace in romance novels – 118 of them over two years, to be exact. Her mother, a professor of women’s studies, is dismayed by what she calls her daughter’s “ultimate rebellion.” But Eva isn’t reading romances to upset her mom: she’s reading them as an escape, seeking a little stability and a few happy endings in a world that no longer makes sense without her dad.

Margo Rabb’s young adult novel Kissing in America is the story of Eva’s journey, literal and figurative, to come to terms with her grief and learn a few things about love.

I adore a good YA novel, and I don’t mind that a lot of YA novels are fairly typical boy-meets-girl stories. But Eva’s story doesn’t fit that mold, despite her addiction to steamy novels with lurid covers and dashing heroes. Instead, it’s a story about all kinds of love: friendship, love altered by grief, and the tight, complex bond between mothers and daughters.

It’s my turn again at Great New Books today, and I chose Kissing in America as my latest pick. (I read it on my trip to NYC last month and loved it.) Please join me over at the GNB site to read the rest of my review.

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Hammer Head at Great New Books

I’m a writer. I have always wanted to be a writer.

Since I was a little girl scribbling in my first couple of diaries (the kind with locks and keys), or making up stories to tell myself before bed at night, I’ve loved playing with words. But in this digital age, writing can sometimes look a lot like moving pixels around a screen, and less like anything real. Sometimes, after a day of hitting the delete key once too often, I go home and plunge myself into more tangible tasks: cooking, knitting, washing dishes.

After spending her twenties working as a journalist for a Boston newspaper, Nina MacLaughlin found herself similarly dragged down by the endless clicking and digital noise of her day job. Finally, exhausted and soul-weary, MacLaughlin quit, and applied for a carpenter’s assistant position she found on Craigslist. Her gorgeous memoir, Hammer Head, charts her journey into the world of carpentry, working for a tough, wise woman named Mary and discovering an entirely new way of life.

I’m over at Great New Books today talking about Nina’s memoir – one of my favorite books of 2015. Please join me over there to read the rest of my review.

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Picnic in Provence at Great New Books

“Paris is always a good idea,” Julia Ormond famously noted in the 1995 film version of Sabrina. Like many Americans enamored with la belle France, I tend to agree, as does American journalist and author Elizabeth Bard.

More than 10 years ago, Bard had a lunch date with a handsome Frenchman in Paris and never went home. That story is chronicled in her first memoir, Lunch in Paris, which I read several years ago and loved. So I was delighted to hear that Bard was releasing a second memoir, Picnic in Provence. As its title suggests, this book follows Bard, her French husband Gwendal and their infant son Alexandre as they leave Paris behind for a quieter life in the Provençal village of Céreste.

I love a good memoir—especially one featuring food, travel, or both. So I’ve read my fair share of true-life tales set in France. I’ve come to expect some of their common elements: rhapsodies about the food, the difficulty of putting down roots in a new community. (Anyone who has read Peter Mayle will expect the home-renovation subplot that crops up at one point.) But Bard’s memoir, while full of gentle humor (and luscious food descriptions), goes deeper.

I’m sharing my (glowing) review of Picnic in Provence at Great New Books today. Please join me over there to read the full review – and share your favorite French and/or foodie memoirs!

I write quarterly reviews for Great New Books. You can read all my recs over on the GNB site.

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Murder at the Brightwell at Great New Books

“It is an impossibly great trial to be married to a man one loves and hates in equal proportions.”

With a single witty sentence, Ashley Weaver introduces readers to the narrator of her sparkling debut novel, Murder at the Brightwell, and sets up one of its two central conflicts. (And doesn’t that sentence carry a whiff of Austen?)

Amory Ames is a wealthy socialite living in 1930s England, unhappy (or at least deeply ambivalent) in her marriage to dashing playboy Milo Ames. When her former fiancé, Gil Trent, appears on Amory’s doorstep and asks her to accompany him on a weeklong trip to a seaside hotel, Amory agrees.

Ostensibly, she’s being recruited to help Gil talk his sister Emmeline out of marrying the wrong man, a mistake to which Amory can relate. But Amory has always wondered how her life would have turned out if she’d married Gil instead of Milo. A week at the Brightwell Hotel – albeit in separate rooms – will provide the chance to find out.

I’m back at Great New Books today, sharing my take on Murder at the Brightwell, which I read during a stretch of snow days in early February. Join me over there to read the rest of my review.

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Food and Marriage: Delancey at Great New Books

I’m back at Great New Books today, sharing my thoughts on Molly Wizenberg’s second food memoir, Delancey.

I adore Wizenberg’s first book, A Homemade Life (I’ve read it three times), so I snatched up Delancey soon after it came out. I loved it. Here’s an excerpt of my review:

When I picked up Delancey, I did look at the subtitle: A Man, A Woman, A Restaurant, A Marriage. (It’s right there on the cover, after all.) But I had no idea how accurate it was, particularly the last phrase.

Delancey chronicles the process of opening and running the titular pizza restaurant in Seattle, which Wizenberg co-founded with her husband, Brandon Pettit. But while it is a book about food (and contains a handful of mouthwatering recipes), Delancey is fundamentally a book about marriage.

Early in their relationship, Molly knew her husband was a dreamer. Brandon was always chasing some big idea or other: a violin workshop, an ice cream shop, a career as a composer and music teacher. When he mentioned opening a pizza restaurant, Molly didn’t pay much attention: she thought it was simply another one of his crazy ideas. But when she finally realized Brandon was serious, Molly had to confront the truth: this restaurant would change the rhythm of their family life significantly, and she wasn’t sure she was ready for that.

Please click over to the GNB website to read the rest of my review. See you there! (And if you’ve read Delancey, I’d love to hear your thoughts.)

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Best Books of 2014 at Great New Books

I’m so pleased to be part of the review team over at Great New Books, as I’ve mentioned before. It’s a group of smart, thoughtful women, and I love reading everyone’s weekly recs (and sharing my own).

This week, we’re all sharing our top picks from 2014 at the GNB site. We’re a group of avid bookworms (obviously), and we read a LOT – so it was tough to choose our favorites, but we managed it. Head over there to read all about our faves – and share yours!

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The Movement of Stars at Great New Books

Today I’m excited to make my official debut as a member of the Great New Books review team.

Jennifer King invited me to join the team a few months ago. It’s a group of smart, lovely women who talk about books they love over at the Great New Books website. My first post, on Amy Brill’s The Movement of Stars, is up today.

Here’s an excerpt:

I’ve always been fascinated by the stars. Although I can’t name nearly all the constellations, I love to pick out the ones I do know: the Big Dipper, Orion, Cassiopeia, the Little Dipper pivoting around its anchor point, the North Star.

I love to watch the constellations shift their positions in the sky as the seasons change. This rhythm – seemingly steady, yet always surprising – is captured in both the title and the storyline of Amy Brill’s gorgeous debut novel, The Movement of Stars.

Please click over to the GNB website to read the rest of my review. I’ll see you there!

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