June Books

I am still unclear how last month got by us so quickly, which is mainly why this is posted a few days late. See books from other months in the handy sidebar.

London is the Best City in America by Laura Dave. The main character is stuck, after disappearing on her fiancée, she works at a bait store in New England, ostensibly she’s working on a documentary about fishermen’s wives, although it’s not shaping up as she’d like. Her brother is getting married and then a complication arises in the form of another woman he’s crazy about. There is a great deal of suspense – will he, won’t he – I enjoyed it a great deal until about the last chapter or two. It kind of lost me a bit there, but I’d still recommend it.

I don’t have the first or last lines from this book because, in The Great Office Before and After 2008, I very cleverly filed the book on some shelf where I now can’t find it.

From Publishers Weekly: "In Dave's winning debut, narrator Emmy Everett is a sensitive and introspective young woman who is emotionally and geographically paralyzed. Ever since ditching her sleeping fiancé in a Rhode Island motel, Emmy has lived in the quiet fishing village of Naragansett, working at a bait shop and putting together an interminable documentary on fishermen's wives. Three years pass, and her beloved big brother, Josh—funny, smart and successful—is getting married, forcing Emmy out of her self-imposed exile for a weekend in the New York City suburb of Scarsdale. With 72 hours to the wedding, Emmy finds Josh confused: does he want to marry Meryl, or be with Elizabeth, the woman he's been seeing on the side? Emmy agrees to join Josh on the eve of the wedding for a daylong trip to find Elizabeth and, hopefully, what "the right thing to do" really is. The intriguing Elizabeth, as well as the authenticity of the relationship between Emmy and Josh, make the conflict credible and involving. It's hard not to root for these vivid characters; even the heroine's high school flame, Josh's best friend Jaime Daniel Berringer, is distinctive and likable, making Emmy's interest in him contagious. Josh and Emmy's happy, exasperating parents and Josh's buoyant sister in-law-to-be round out the cast, giving readers plenty of reasons to enjoy this promising new author."

Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott. I loved this. I think I would love Anne Lamott’s grocery list if I read it. One of the reviewers called her “the religious queen of crankiness; she’s Christianity’s Howard Stern . . .”

First line: There is not much truth being told in the world.

Last line: I went outside and sat on the front step with my coffee and looked at the wild orange blossoms of the ginger plants in my garden until it was time to go.

Straight Up and Dirty by Stephanie Klein. If you like her blog, you’ll love the book. It was definitely straight up. The book had a number of good quips but I couldn’t help but feel that the author was congratulating herself with every clever play on words.
But what do I know; Publishers Weekly said, “One month after discovering her husband was having an affair, 20-something Klein made him her "Wasbund" and started trying to find a man to date again-or better, a "pair and a spare," as her telephone therapist advised. She "rodated" desperately, searching for someone to repair her wounded ego. She even found a reasonably suitable boyfriend-only she broke it off when he suggested living together. At one point she faced the truth she'd avoided from the beginning, that she had to learn to appreciate herself for her own accomplishments before she could have a healthy relationship with a man. While there's nothing new about that story line-indeed, it's curiously proto-feminist for a recent Barnard grad-Klein's sense of humor is downright wicked. Her ex-mother-in-law was a "shrub of a woman" who "sounded like she'd swallowed a southerner" and looked "like a transvestite who had a one-night stand with a disco ball." Then there's "Mr. Madras Pants," who "carried a degree in poplin with a minor in seersucker... the type of man who was at complete ease when sending his order back to the kitchen." In the end, Klein's is a great, fun read.”

First line: It was April Fool’s Day, 2003 – fourteen days from tax time – and the biggest joke of a day.

Last line: I laughed and responded: A smile.

No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas For Your Blog by Margaret Mason.
I’ve been wanting to get this book by blogger Maggie Mason for ages and now I have. It was worth the wait. I highly recommend it, and not just for blogging. The book is full of great writing prompts for essays and/or blog posts. I liked it a whole heckuva lot, as I do her blog.

First line: Your cousin wears a red dress to your grandmother’s funeral.

Last line: Post about each and every one, and then leave the keyboard in peace.

Parched by Heather King. This is a memoir of an alcoholic. At turns sad and dispiriting at other times, well -- Actually, most of the book was sad and dispiriting, not unlike Leaving Las Vegas, without the prostitution and death. It got rave reviews.
First line: It was September 1986, right after I’d returned to Boston from my week in Nashville, when my mother started calling to badger me about the party she was planning for my father’s birthday.

Last line: As the great German mystic Meister Eckhart noted, “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was ‘Thank you,’ that would be enough.”

Favorite book: I think Grace, Eventually.

Character Who I'd Most Like To Have a Drink With: Anne Lamott. Definitely. Although she's a real person and not a character in a book.