This short novel, a finalist for the 2004 National Book Award, deals with a circle of women who married and had children in the ’50s somewhere in New England. Much of their story is told in flashbacks from a point in the 1990s, when they have aged and have lost many of those who had been close. As a result, we get nothing like a linear narrative, and that’s not terribly important. The relationships that these women form, the choices they have made, and how […]
Grief and family and friendship and a ghostly alligator. Also – Cannonball!
Disclaimer! I got a free ARC of this through NetGalley. I have not been promised anything in return for this review, although if people wanted to start bribing me to read their books, that would be ok too. Kate Pheris has been a widow for a year, and has been sleep-walking through her life since her husband Matt died. Now her house has been sold, her and her daughter’s things are all packed and they’re all set to move in with her mother-in-law, who has all […]
A prayer for Owen is a prayer for us all
In a similar vein as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I was on the fence about John Irving, though swayed a bit more in his favor. The World According to Garp is one of my favorite books of all time, but I have tried to read Ciderhouse Rules three or four times and just couldn’t get in to it. I had heard amazing things bout “A Prayer for Owen Meany” and was pushed to tackle it after a friend a few states away said she was starting […]
The Happiest Dog in Town
Because of Winn-Dixie is an amazing book about a girl named Opal who moves to Florida with her father and finds a dog in a supermarket. She names him after the store and claims he is hers. She immediately falls in love with him because of his toothy grin and his fun-loving nature. She brings him home and introduces him to the preacher, her father. His father is unsure about Winn-Dixie at first but Opal talks him into keeping him. He has bald spots, smells […]
Are We All Defined by Our Inner 15-year-old?
Meg Wolitzer’s novel spans many decades—telling the story of a group of friends who meet at an “arty” summer camp in upstate New York in the early seventies but whose lives remain entangled with each other’s into the new millennium. Most of the novel is told from the perspective of Jules Jacobson, who comes to the camp as Julie but after getting invited into a circle of already established friends, turns into Jules and embraces a life in the arts. The group consists of the […]