this month i read:
the fall of lisa bellow, by susan perabo (two girls go into a sandwich shop - there is a robbery gone wrong - one girl is abducted. we see the story from the girl who is left behind. in the summers i always try to read a few books from a list recommended to the teachers at my school by a local bookstore owner who comes on campus in the spring for this purpose. this is one - as are chilbury ladies and this is how it always is, also read this month. i enjoyed this book - the not knowing what has happened to the abducted girl and how it affects the whole community. thumbs up.)
theft by finding, by david sedaris (it took me a little while to warm up to literally entries from david sedaris's diary, but i did warm up to them and by the end i was reveling in the behind the scenes version of his life. like, he published a book and continued to help people remodel their homes because he needed the money. he worked as a seasonal fruit picker in california in his 20s! you get to see him fall in love with hugh, which is adorable. you get to read about the random conversations he overhears in the ihop where he writes daily for 9 years. i was totally entertained. be prepared, though, for this to be very different from the rest of his books.)
slow days, fast company, by eve babitz (are you single and in your 30s? GO BUY THIS BOOK. i already have four people for whom i will be purchasing this for christmas. hilarious and so true to life - even though she's writing from los angeles high society in the 1960s.)
the chilbury ladies' choir, by jennifer ryan (did you like the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society? you will like this book exactly that much. which is to say, it will not be the best book you read this year but you'll like it just fine. i enjoyed that the book is told in diary entries and letters.)
this is how it always is, by laurie frankel (the story of the raising of a transgender child. sweet, sad, funny, anxiety-producing. highly recommend, though parts of the dialogue felt a little too perfectly scripted.)
dear life, by alice munro (i wanted to read this because it seems like to be an educated american you ought to have read some alice munro. except her stories are all so SAD. beautiful writing, and i see why she's won the nobel prize, but i think this may be the only book of hers that i read.)
masterminds & wingmen, by rosalind wiseman (if you have a son or teach boys, you must read this book! she's brilliant and gives excellent advice. i recommended it to the parents that i work with in my back-to-school email.)
