I bought this Aspen Words Literary Prize winner back in April when I was shopping Reviewed in the July 2024 edition of Quick Lit on Modern Mrs Darcy:
I bought this Aspen Words Literary Prize winner back in April when I was shopping with WSIRN alum Allison Matz at the Grand Rapids bookstore Books & Mortar. When Allison spotted it on a display and called it her favorite book of the year (or some similar superlative), I snatched up a copy immediately—and saved it for my beach reading. This was an excellent choice, as it proved to be the kind of book I had to read slowly: smart, reflective, and beautifully written. I knew very little about it going in and was surprised to discover it’s a theater book: in the wake of a destabilizing break-up, a Palestinian actress flees London and returns home to visit her Palestinian family in Haifa after a long absence, and while there is persuaded to join an Arabic production of Hamlet. This story demanded a close reading, and on top of that I often paused to google names, places, and the region's history, both for my understanding of the plot and timeline and to satisfy my own curiosity. While not at all the same, in many ways it reminded me of Hala Alyan’s The Arsonist’s City. ...more
I've been meaning to read this 2013 release for YEARS and never got around to it. BReviewed in the May 2024 edition of Quick Lit on Modern Mrs Darcy:
I've been meaning to read this 2013 release for YEARS and never got around to it. But our theme for the 2024 MMD Summer Reading Guide is "summer camp" so OF COURSE the timing was right to finally enjoy this story that introduces us to a group of friends who first meet at an artsy summer camp in 1970s upstate New York and then follows them for decades, well into mid-life. For as much as I'd heard about this book over the years, I was still surprised to find how exactly it suited my reading taste: perhaps you just need someone to tell you it hits the same notes as Cara Wall's The Dearly Beloved? Major thanks to team member Ginger for raving about this book for years, and most recently on What Should I Read Next, where we tell you all about this year's Summer Reading Guide, and she tells us all more about The Interestings: it was just the nudge I needed....more
This is the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club May 2024 selection. The author will join us for a live discussion!
Friends, I thought I wasn’t interested in a hThis is the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club May 2024 selection. The author will join us for a live discussion!
Friends, I thought I wasn’t interested in a horse book; I was so wrong. Here’s what I learned when I raced through this thriller in a single day: “Horse girls are the toughest girls around. You know why? They make a thousand-pound wild animal do whatever they ask.” And sometimes they ask for the unconscionable. I was hooked from page one: I wanted to know what would happen next, of course, but the story is also anchored by a strong emotional core revolving around ambition, sisterly rivalry, parenting angst, and devastating secrets. The stakes are high, the egos huge, the characters largely unlikable, and the horses untamable. I loved it....more
This is the first historical I've read from Katherine Reay, though her last severReviewed in the April 2024 edition of Quick Lit on Modern Mrs Darcy:
This is the first historical I've read from Katherine Reay, though her last several novels have been of that genre. I picked this up because I was certain we would pop over to Berlin when we were in Germany earlier this month. While we didn't make it to that great city, I'm thankful I at least got to visit on the page. The story revolves around a German family that was separated when the Berlin Wall went up overnight in 1961. Many years later, in 1989, Luisa puts the decoding skills she's been taught from a young age to use for the CIA in the DC area. She lives with her grandparents, since her parents were killed in a car accident when she was three—or so she was told. But after her grandfather dies, she finds a secret stash of his letters that leads her to question everything she's been told about her family, and eventually leads her to Berlin to catch up for lost time. I listened to the audio version, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld, Ann Marie Gideon, and P. J. Ochlan....more
This is the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club April 2024 selection. The author will join us for a live discussion!
Regular readers know I adore sagas of complThis is the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club April 2024 selection. The author will join us for a live discussion!
Regular readers know I adore sagas of complicated families. This nonfiction work delivers all that and more. Calhoun is the daughter of art critic Peter Schjeldahl, who I've been quoting for YEARS about his approach to works that aren't "immediately hospitable." Calhoun's new genre-bending book is a memoir-ish look at their complex relationship—and also a profile-of-sorts about poet Frank O'Hara. I devoured it in 36 hours and put it straight on my Best of the Year list. By the time I closed the last page I'd googled a hundred things about NYC history and requested ten books from my local library. Fascinating, devastating, vexing, illuminating. Heads up for a handful of content warnings that aren't obvious from the publisher's description or reviews....more
From our Spring Book Preview! Olga Dies Dreaming author González returns with a fiery, campus-y novel set in the worlds of academia and fine art. In 1985, artist Anita de Monte falls to her death during a nasty fight with her husband, the prominent artist Jack Martin, whose fragile ego is threatened by Anita’s burgeoning success. Jack calls it an accident and carries on like nothing happened, but Anita is determined to make him pay. Flash forward to 1998, when Brown art student Raquel is preparing to launch her senior thesis on Martin, but gets sidetracked when she learns of Anita’s forgotten art—and suspicious death. Raquel admires the work and feels a kinship with its creator, another outsider in the art world. Raquel may hang with the white and rich Art History Girls, but as a first generation Puerto Rican college student, she can’t—and doesn’t want to—be mistaken for one. Plus the ways her own aspiring artist boyfriend’s actions resemble Jack’s are deeply unsettling. Smart and sophisticated (and more than a little sweary), this scintillating sophomore effort was everything I hoped for and more....more
This is the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club March 2024 selection. The author will join us for a live discussion!
Five years ago, Sunday Brennan left her smaThis is the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club March 2024 selection. The author will join us for a live discussion!
Five years ago, Sunday Brennan left her small New York hometown, abandoning her parents, three brothers, and devoted fiancé with no explanation. In the present, after a wildly uncharacteristic episode of binge drinking lands her in the hospital, her brother convinces her to come home for a little while to recuperate and help with the Irish American family's struggling bar. Not everyone is thrilled to see the prodigal daughter, and her reappearance eventually causes all kinds of long-held family secrets to finally come pouring out. I loved this for its portrayal of complex family dynamics (especially among the four siblings), its sweet tale of young love, the ever-interesting setting of the bar, and its hopeful—but not tidy—resolution....more
This historical mystery is based on the life and diary of Martha Ballard, an actual 18th century midwife who delivered over a thousand babies in her cThis historical mystery is based on the life and diary of Martha Ballard, an actual 18th century midwife who delivered over a thousand babies in her career and never once lost a mother in childbirth. As midwife, Martha keeps careful written records of every birth she attends, as well as many of the community’s happenings. When she cares for a woman following a sexual assault, she records the details in her diary and resolves to do what she can to see justice served. Four months later, a body is found in the frozen river, and there’s reason to believe the two crimes are connected. The existence of Martha’s diary makes her a key witness in the upcoming trial, placing her at the center of the biggest scandal the small community has ever seen. This book is a MOOD: tender, violent, and utterly gripping.
The enemies-to-lovers trope is the backbone of this contemporary romance: London and Drew were arch rivals in high school, fiercely competing for top of the class. Years later, they once again find themselves in competition: London is a star surgeon at her Austin community hospital; Drew is the businessman with the power to privatize or close that hospital. I loved the contemporary Austin setting: as is the case in so many of Farrah's novels, I found myself googling neighborhoods, parks, restaurants, food trucks, shopping destinations, and more so I could see the real places where the fictional story unfolds. I've enjoyed this series for its strong female protagonists, essential female friendships, and pleasantly complex family relationships. (Open door.)...more
Laurie Frankel seems to write as a form of wish fulfillment: she writes the woReviewed in the February 2024 edition of Quick Lit on Modern Mrs Darcy:
Laurie Frankel seems to write as a form of wish fulfillment: she writes the world as she wants it to be, and hopes it can become. Her new novel about adoption is easy to read and hard to describe; I'm so glad we got to talk about her new release live at our Spring Book Preview event! The story begins with an actress named India, who finds herself at the center of a media firestorm for criticizing her new movie in the press. Her precocious ten-year-old twins, recognizing their mother is living a PR nightmare, take it upon themselves to seek help from a person uniquely positioned to do so: a family member their mother doesn’t know they know about, and whom they’ve never met. Alternating between the present day media fracas and India’s early days as an actress, and moving between LA, Seattle, and NYC, Frankel firmly roots her tale in the world of theater and film, exploring the many forms family can take and the limits of love. With its unforgettable scenes, bold plot choices, Shakespeare and musical theater references, and at least one gasp-out-loud moment, this is a book I’m still thinking about months after turning the final page. I can't wait to talk about it with everyone I know—especially because this is a book that begs to be discussed!...more
In his Booker-longlisted novel, Malaysian writer Eng imagines how British novelReviewed in the January 2024 edition of Quick Lit on Modern Mrs Darcy:
In his Booker-longlisted novel, Malaysian writer Eng imagines how British novelist W. Somerset Maugham came to write his short story "The Letter," which was hugely popular in its time (largely because it was adapted into a widely-seen play and then a film starring Bette Davis). Maugham, who was vastly more successful in his day than I had realized, was known to mine real life for material, particularly the relationships of his friends and acquaintances. Eng focuses here on Maugham's visit to Penang in 1921 to visit an old British friend and his wife. Shortly upon his arrival, he learns he's lost his life savings to a bad investment, and must quickly write another novel to fund his much-desired further travels. With a novelist's ear for scandal, he quickly suspects the wife has stories to tell that he can then re-tell on the page: of her loveless marriage, her relationship with a Chinese revolutionary, and especially of her friend who will soon stand trial for murder. You don't need to be familiar with Maugham's work to enjoy this lush historical look at colonial Malaysia and the disrupting influence of a famous writer on the hunt for material—but you'll likely want to read "The Letter" because of it....more
WSIRN guest and literary agent Elisabeth Weed recommended this book, which she called a good example of a title "has a thimble full of weird. Coulson worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for 25 years, where one of her last jobs was writing the 75-word wall labels for the museum's new British galleries. She imagined a novel in that form, and this life story of Kitty Whitaker is the result: a sly and stylish novel told solely through museum wall labels about a 20th-century woman who transforms herself over the course of her lifetime. This short novel could easily be read in one sitting, and is an excellent pick for structure nerds or art and design fans....more
This is the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club January 2024 selection. The author will join us for a live discussion on January 31!
In this first person, charaThis is the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club January 2024 selection. The author will join us for a live discussion on January 31!
In this first person, character-driven narrative, we meet thirty-something ICU doctor Joan. Her relationships with her Chinese and Chinese American family members are fraught, and her inability to read cues makes friendship and neighborliness tricky, but her great love for her work is utterly uncomplicated—that is, until her father dies. Her workaholism has always been seen as an attribute in her NYC hospital, but when she takes just 48 hours off to fly to Shanghai and back for his funeral, HR steps in and makes her take some extended time off. Without the distraction of work, Joan is forced to reckon with the things she's been avoiding, in all their complexity and ambiguity. But then COVID-19 enters the story, with devastating effects in her personal and professional life. I so appreciated being let into Joan's interior world: her cool assessments of the people around her, her dry (and sometimes unintentional) humor, and her frank reckoning with individual and societal struggles. Catherine Ho's excellent audiobook narration was a wonderful way to experience this story....more
This is the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club July 2024 selection. The author will join us for a live discussion!
Olga is a Puerto Rican Brooklynite who worksThis is the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club July 2024 selection. The author will join us for a live discussion!
Olga is a Puerto Rican Brooklynite who works as a wedding planner to the ultra-rich—those who might thinking nothing of spending seven figures on a wedding. The juicy wedding details made for fascinating reading (and are rooted in Gonzales's real-life experience), but the emotional heart of this story lies with Olga's family of origin: their revolutionary father was a heroin addict who died years ago of complications from AIDS; their mother abandoned the pair when they were young so she could fight for Puerto Rican independence. Now 40, Olga finds herself restless with the life she's leading, her brother feels trapped for his own reasons, and the two find themselves torn between the success they've found and the ideals with which they were raised. This is a story about finding love and healing, breaking free from past hurts, and also very much about the past and present of Puerto Rico. I loved this, and found the ending particularly satisfying....more
I strongly considered including this novel—and Pulitzer Prize winner—on my favorite audiobooks of 2023 list! This multi-layered story is told in four distinct parts, each one subtly—or, in the case of the final section, not so subtly—changing the meaning of what came before. Part I is a biographical novel based on the life of an infamous Wall Street trader. Part II, an unfinished draft of the autobiography the trader began writing, with the help of a ghostwriter, to "correct" the novel's portrayal of his life. Part III is from the point of view of that ghostwriter, and Part IV ... no spoilers, but it blows the lid off the whole thing. Structure nerds like myself will find much to appreciate here....more
A friend talked me into reading this after she shared that every member of her diverse This is the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club December 2023 selection.
A friend talked me into reading this after she shared that every member of her diverse book club loved this—the twenty-somethings and the sixty-somethings. That got my attention. It's the last day of 1984, and 85-year-old Lillian Boxfish takes a walk in late-night Manhattan, on a very specific mission. As she walks, she reflects on the life she's lived, the people she's known, and where things began to go wrong. This reminded me of J. Courtney Sullivan's The Engagements because of the strong women at the center of each....more
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