I had not heard of Fear of Flying (1973) by Erica Jong before I saw it on my list of 50 Books Every Woman Should Read Before She Turns 40. I subsequently learned that Jong’s book was controversial for its racy sex; that it involves the sexual escapades of the protagonist in Europe; and it was important in second-wave feminism. Once I began reading, though, it was not what I expected. I found the protagonist grating at times, and the plot felt rambling. But it also grew on […]
A real-life Miss Hannigan
I saw Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate on NPR’s Best Books of 2017. I’d never read anything by Wingate before and wasn’t sure what to expect. On the whole, it was an interesting page turner. Loosely based on real events, Before We Were Yours, alternates between two story lines. Avery Stafford is a present-day federal prosecutor who has recently moved back to Aiken, South Carolina. She is there to help her father, a famous Senator from a long line of prestigious politicians, who is suffering from cancer. […]
Drama in the suburbs
I read Everything I Never Told You a couple of years ago, and I was surprisingly impressed by the writing and the characters in the novel. So when I saw that Celeste Ng had a new book out, Little Fires Everywhere, and it was on NPR’s Best Books of 2017 List, I immediately put it on my to-read list. The blurb on the book made me think that this book was only about the adoption of a young Chinese baby by a white couple. In reality, the book has […]
The very slow death of a grumpy, old man
I’d never heard of A Man Called Ove (2013) by Fredrik Backman until my book club decided it was our next book. It is a Swedish novel, translated into English, and it has also, apparently, been turned into a film. As a New York Times bestseller with four and a half stars on Amazon, it seems to be a book that many people have enjoyed. I found the idea of an old, grumpy man finding a community and becoming happier appealing. There were also parts of the […]
You kill them with your success
I’m not sure how I’d missed Tiffany Haddish before, but I first saw her on The Daily Show promoting her new book, The Last Black Unicorn (2017). She was energetic, hilarious, and optimistic. You could see Trevor Noah was delighted by her, and so was I. I immediately got myself on the wait list for her audio book. I usually prefer to read books, but I figured since Haddish was reading her own book, she would bring something more to it. And I was right. I was […]
Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) by Zora Neale Hurston is a relatively short classic that I read because it was on my Fifty Books Every Woman Should Read Before She Turns 40 List. The introduction stated that the book is a classic because of its unique contribution to black literature: “it affirms black cultural traditions while revising them to empower black women.” I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect, and was afraid it was one of those classics that feels dated or is difficult to read and […]
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