BETTER CHARACTERS

Hi. Again. You know how sometimes you start a blog because your freelance career, and your full-time painting job, and you volunteer leadership position with a storefront theatre company, and being a Company Member with two other theatre companies, and having a social life just don't seem like enough so you think "sure, why not, let's set lofty book reading and blogging goals"? Then you start a blog and let it fade to the background of your life. Then you restart it AND THEN

There's a very touching back story to this book: the author, Jane Lotter, was a very successful humorist writing for the Seattle Sun and winning awards for doing it. Critical acclaim aside, she could not find a publisher for her only novel, The Bette Davis Club, and so decided to take matters into her own hands and self-publish. Then she passed away, and only after that did Lake Union Publishing come forward with interest in the book. Ms. Lotter never lived to see her book wi

Ok. I have a somewhat complicated relationship and set of reactions to this book, but to start: it is ultimately about four friends who are professional, competent, awesome women by day, seeking romance by night. Very Sex and the City and similar to my thoughts on that show, there are moments that make my feminism cringe. But usually those moments are just honest and while not sitting on the pedestal of what it is to be a strong, independent woman...well, we've all been there

On August 1, 2016 I tweeted: "I get pretty annoyed with female literary characters named Hope." I’m behind on updating this blog so despite it being September now, I am pretty sure that tweet was in reference to this book. And I stand by it: I think the same character with a less obvious metaphor for a name certainly would not diminish how great The Sudden Appearance of Hope is. Hope Arden is an extraordinary woman, and I mean this in the most literal sense. Because Hope is f

If you've never picked up a Jane Austen novel in your life, I still believe you will enjoy this book. I can't say this for certain (since I have read them all) but I feel pretty confident in that diagnosis. The Jane Austen Book Club is about five women and one man, all at different points in their life but with a common appreciation of good literature. As you can probably tell from the title, they come together to form a book club working it's way through the Austen oeuvre. T

Fair warning: you will hit a point where you will not want to put this book down. So if you’re like me, prepare for a “stay up late to find out what happens” finish. Last year I read Carey’s The Girl With All the Gifts which is simply fantastic. I highly recommend it - I hesitate to call it a “zombie story” because I (and I assume others) am getting bored with the genre, but it’s wonderfully atypical and full of suspenseful surprises. So when I saw he had another book availab

It would be so easy to say this book is about a boy "somewhere on the spectrum." Or it would be easy to say that this is a book about a publisher's assistant-turned-nanny who shows up and influences the lives of her employer and charge - a modern-day Mary Poppins. Because a reclusive author and her eccentric son, Frank, command and drive the story. However, this book is really about a young woman who, for a time, is part of a family and lifestyle outside of anything she has e

There's a moment in the movie "Alex & Emma" (please don't judge me too harshly for loving that movie) where the two title characters are arguing about how female characters in books are often portrayed as so exciting and exotic, they are unbelievable. And Emma says, "Like when it's time for the first laundry. I know, I know. In great romantic novels there is not laundry or there's people like Ylva or Elsa to do it. Maybe that's why I like them. They can wash their own clothes