Here are the books I’ve added to my to-read list this week and you should too!
The Best of Everything Rona Jaffe: With a “Sex and the City”-esque feel this book follows the story of 5 New York career women who work in a publishing company. I’ll admit, it’s not the Sex and the City reference that pulled me in here, but the publishing company. I like seeing how the inner workings of a publishing company work (even if things are a little exaggerated). As the book was also originally published in 1958 there’s another, to some extent historical, context here that probably wasn’t intended when the book was published, but I’m looking forward to seeing how it lives up in the 21st century.
The History of Love Nicole Krauss: Following the story of Leo Gursky, a Polish Jew living in New York City and Alma Singer, a teen-native New Yorker Krauss tells the story of the book which brings this
unlikely pair together. I’m not sure why I seem to have a New York City theme going here, maybe there’s something going on in my subconscious and it’s time to get out of the midwest for a while. Who knows? What I think sounds appealing about this book is that it’s not your typical boy meets in and they bond over a book in NYC. Based on the title it may be a love story, but a different kind of compassion, and I’d like to see how that story runs its course.
The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty Who doesn’t love a good coming of age novel? (Emphasis on the “good” of course). The story follows 10-year-old Evelyn who lives in Kansas, which she believes is the center of the universe. This optimistic pre-teen has to battle her teenage drama alongside the challenges of being raised by a single mother. Sure, it doesn’t sound like the most exciting plot in the world, but if Moriarty crafts a good story it might be a poignant look inside the mind of a young adult. And it gets away from the NYC theme and takes us back to the Midwest, so that’s something too.
Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell : This book combines ordinary life with extraordinary circumstances and a touch of the supernatural. But don’t let the title fool you, not all the stories are about vampires (and especially not vampires a la Twilight). While I haven’t read the book (obviously) it sounds like it’s divided up into different tales, and all of them sound as intriguing as the next. I’ll admit it’s the cover that drew me to this book (a vampire in lemon grove…I mean, who doesn’t want to read that) but it’s the description that makes me want to pick it up and read on.
