Check back soon
Once posts are published, you’ll see them here.
Having spent this weekend at the beach, I was able to spend time finishing an advance copy of Elinor Lipman's new book (coming out 2/5/19), GOOD RIDDANCE. If you're already a fan of hers, I think you will love this book; it's full of her trademark quirky characters and a plot line that only she can come up with.
The story revolves around a twenty-something woman in NYC who throws out her recently deceased mother's 1968 yearbook, from when she was the faculty yearbook editor at a local high school in New Hampshire. A neighbor in her building finds the yearbook in the trash and becomes obsessed with making a documentary about all the people under whose pictures the mother had jotted notes. The protagonist has her own issues with an ex-husband, a new (male) neighbor and her recently widowed father who decides to move from NH to NYC to be near her.
It's a fun, crazy, sweet story full of very likable characters, and is a perfect weekend read.
If you're not familiar with Elinor Lipman, I would suggest starting with some of her earlier works. THE INN AT LAKE DEVINE is probably her best-known work, and it's the book that turned me into a huge Lipman fan. Though the subject matter of this one is more on the serious side, she finds a way to lighten it up, and creates characters you can't help but love.
Others of hers that I would recommend are THEN SHE FOUND ME and ISABEL'S BED. The words I would use to describe her books is: charming, entertaining, off-beat and quirky. They are just fun books. Check her out.
Having finished this one, I was trying to decide what to read next. Since THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY film is being released on Netflix next week (August 10), I decided I needed to re-read that. If you haven't read it yet, I HIGHLY recommend it! The entire story is told through letters, and is set in England immediately following WWII. [Side note: I adore books that are told in letters; it gives the reader the opportunity to fill in the blanks as they choose, and I think it provides a built-in narrative that is sometimes hard to accomplish in a regular novel. Two of my other favorites that are told through letters are 84, CHARING CROSS ROAD by Helene Hanff and A WOMAN OF INDEPENDENT MEANS by Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey.]
Back to GUERNSEY.... I've probably watched the trailer for the movie ten times, and I recently saw a short behind-the-scenes video that reminded me just how much I'd loved reading the book the first time. And as much as I loved reading it, I decided this time I'd also like to listen to it (a 2-hour drive back from the shore helped in that decision!) I'm here to tell you that the Audible version is absolutely wonderful! While I don't normally like having different voices (male/female) throughout a book, it works perfectly with this, since each chapter is a letter from each character. If you're a fan of historical fiction set in England, this is the book for you; if you're also a fan of lovely British accents, this is the audiobook for you :)
Is anyone else reading/re-reading the book in anticipation of the film?