Here are a few books I read and enjoyed recently.
The Light We Lost: Lucy and Gabe meet on September 11, 2001, as seniors at Columbia University. They decide they want their lives to matter by having jobs that help people. They share a kiss…then Gabe shares that he is getting back together with his ex-girlfriend. They see each other at a bar a year later and quickly fall in love and have an extraordinary relationship. Lucy works at a children’s television show that helps kids understand values and issues in the world and is succeeding at work. Gabe decides to be a photojournalist in the Middle East and they break up. Lucy is shattered, but they stay in each others’ lives on and off over the next 13 years even as their lives change. I thought it was a really good love story that was complicated and real, they both had flaws and made mistakes. Jill Santopolo, the author, writes about relationships so well and I read that she wrote the book after she broke up with the person she thought was “the one.”
More Than Words: After reading “The Light We Lost,” I had to read Jill’s newest book “More Than Words.” Nina Gregory is engaged to her dad’s best friend’s son, Tim. They grew up together, were best friends, and were more like family. Nina is a speechwriter for Rafael’s campaign for mayor of New York City and is poised to lead her family’s hotel. But then her dad passes away and, as she is grieving, she finds out secrets about his relationship with her mom who passed away in a car crash when she was eight and how he ran the hotel. She is lost and devastated and starts to think about living her life on her own terms and not doing what she thinks she “should” do and is expected to do — and she falls for Rafael. Like “The Light We Lost” it’s another complicated story about love, but this time about romantic love and parental love, and loving yourself and other people despite not being “perfect.” Jill Santopolo writes about grief so well, and she started writing the book after her dad died in a car crash and people she loves had cancer. It was an excellent book and I read it so quickly.
The Night Olivia Fell (c/o): Abi Night is an overprotective single mom who thinks she knows everything about her teenage daughter Olivia. But then she gets a phone call in the middle of the night and learns that her daughter fell off a bridge in the neighborhood and is brain dead and pregnant. The police think it was an accident, but Olivia has marks on her wrist and Abi thinks someone may have pushed her. As she is grieving, and Olivia is kept on life support so the pregnancy can continue, Abi tries to investigate what happened to Olivia and what else she didn’t know about her daughter. I really enjoyed the book and it kept me guessing until the end. If you liked “Reconstructing Amelia” you’ll like this book too.
Everything I Never Told You: This book might have one of the most intriguing first sentences of any book: “Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” They had high expectations for Lydia and pressured her to be the “perfect” daughter. The family is reeling as they, and the police, try to discover what they didn’t know about Lydia and how she died. The book explores race, family, expectations, and secrets. It is excellent.
Little Fires Everywhere: This book starts with a fire. The Richardson family appears to have a perfect life, but now their house has burned down and it was arson. The book goes back to the past so we see what happens leading up to the fire. Elena Richardson, a journalist, and her husband rent out a house in the idyllic Shaker Heights neighborhood in Ohio, which is where my dad grew up. They rent the house to an artist and single mother Mia Warren and their daughter Pearl. Pearl quickly becomes best friends with the Richardson kids and spends most of her time at their house and eventually, Mia starts cleaning at the Richardson’s and becomes close with one of their daughters. A family friend of the Richardson’s adopt a baby, but the biological mother decides she wants the baby back and there is a custody battle with Elena and Mia on opposing sides. Elena starts to investigate Mia’s past and uncovers her secrets just as her daughter is getting much closer with Mia and the families are getting more enmeshed. It’s a story about family, race, and mostly what it means to be a mother. It’s going to be a Hulu series limited series with Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington and I can’t wait to watch it.
