Here are a few books I read and loved recently!
The Female Persuasion: Meg Wolitzer is one of my favorite authors. I absolutely loved “The Interestings” and was excited to read “The Female Persuasion.” Greer meets the feminist icon Faith Frank (think Gloria Steinem) her freshman year of college, shortly after she is groped by a college classmate, and is instantly captivated by her. When she graduates a few years later, she ends up working for Faith at a startup that kind of reminded me of my time at Levo League. We see her life trajectory from the end of high school and the start of her freshman year to her 30s. Meg is good at writing about imperfect characters and their flaws. I enjoyed the book, although I thought the ending was wrapped up a bit too neatly.
Marriage Vacation: I love the show “Younger” and think it’s brilliant that they had someone write the book that Charles’ wife wrote on the show. The book is based on her own “marriage vacation.” She left Charles and their daughters and moved across the world. The book explores motherhood, marriage, and independence. It was an easy, light, and fun read. Pack it in your beach bag.
One of Us is Lying: If you like “Pretty Little Liars,” “13 Reasons Why,” “The Breakfast Club,” and “Riverdale,” you’ll like this book. It’s about five high schoolers who are in detention until one of them dies when he drinks a glass of water that has peanut oil in it. Someone runs to get an epi-pen from the nurse’s office to save him, but there are no more epi-pens and he dies. The kids all become suspects as they, and the police, try to find out who killed Simon. The book will leave you guessing until the last page. I highly recommend it.
A Stranger in the House: Karen and Tom Krupp have what seems like a perfect marriage until Karen gets into a car crash. Karen was driving erratically and hit a pole nearby a murder scene. She is in a coma and loses her memory, just as the police start to investigate the murder, her crash, and whether she was involved at all. Suddenly Tom realizes he didn’t know Karen as well as he thought, that they definitely don’t have a “perfect” marriage, and that the neighbor across the street isn’t a friend. I love thrillers and this one kept me guessing.
The Couple Next Door: A young married couple is eating dinner with their neighbors with their young baby home alone next door. The baby sitter cancels last minute, but they don’t want to change their plans or bring the baby and they trade off going home every half an hour to check on Cora. (Truly terrible parenting.) When they get back home, the baby is missing. The police start to investigate and learn more about the parents, Anne and Marco, as they try to find the baby along with Anne’s wealthy parents who are willing to pay expensive ransom to get her back. The book is disturbing. I definitely wouldn’t recommend it to a mom, but it was a good book and reminded me of “What She Knew.”
