Category: Books

Love Your Life by Sophie Kinsella (DNF)

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Title: Love Your Life
Author: Sophie Kinsella
Genre(s): Romance
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

I picked this up from my library as a light-hearted, contemporary romance story I could listen to in audiobook format while doing chores around the house. Sadly, it was a DNF for me. The main character was too naïve, clueless, and melodramatic for me to get interested in her. And the idea that the two characters thought they were in love (rather than just infatuated) having only spent a holiday together in which they refused to share personal details about themselves? I stuck with it long enough to see them get back home and start to learn about each other’s real lives and everyday personalities, and it all just felt so unreal and ridiculous that I couldn’t continue.

Husband Material by Alexis Hall

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Title: Husband Material
Author: Alexis Hall
Genre(s): Romance
Rating: ★★★★☆

There are a few things I adore about Alexis Hall’s romance novels that are well represented in this book: his couples communicate and act like real people, and so don’t end up in conflicts that could be solved with a straightforward explanation, thus inspiring me to yell “just talk to each other already!” (but do still sometimes end up with communication problems because, well, people are complex and sometimes communication is hard); his stories are full of feelings that often are not just about the two main characters, but also portray the benefits and challenges of friendship; and he is interested in looking for satisfying endings that aren’t necessarily the simple marriage and heteronormative HEA or the simplified fall-in-love-and-done story. Luc and Oliver are such interesting characters to me because at this point (heads up if you didn’t know, this book is a sequel to Boyfriend Material!) they are dealing with the kinds of problems that come up when the New Relationship Energy has run out and you’re left with questions about long-term compatibility and values and identity and those conversations that you see turning into arguments but can’t quite stop because the disagreements are well-worn grooves that you just fall into. They feel like such real people in a caring, imperfect long-term relationship. I maybe wasn’t a huge fan of the “Four Weddings and a Funeral” structure, which felt a little too predictable once I realized what was going on (around the end of the second wedding). But I was sucked in to the story, from the serious and loving moments to the hilarious — including the continued failed jokes with Luc’s coworkers and the very satisfying jabs at Tories and religion and the middle/upper classes.

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

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Title: The Dutch House
Author: Ann Patchett
Format: Audiobook
Genre(s): Literary fiction, Historical
Rating: ★★★★★

I picked up this book entirely because I’d heard that Tom Hanks does an incredible job narrating the audiobook; that’s 100% true and I’d recommend listening just to hear how a first-rate actor can really bring a story to life through narration. But this is also a moving story about a brother, a sister, their childhood home, and the ways their relationships (with each other and everyone around them) grow and change through their lives. We often think of a relationship as a thing that exists between two people, but this books illustrates how relationships exist in a web, and how changes in one relationship can pull on the other strands, shaping or loosening or weaving them tighter. The house also, unsurprisingly, has a strong presence throughout the book — unchanging while the family within it is remade over and over. A fascinating story about relationships, family, wealth, memory, and the ways that we build and rebuild our lives moment by moment.

Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King

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Title: Five Tuesdays in Winter
Author: Lily King
Genre(s): Literary fiction, short stories
Rating: ★★★★☆

This collection of short stories portrays a fascinating variety of relationships, with characters at different points in their lives struggling through very different situations. All of the stories have a profound element of sadness, and some even violence, but they are also threaded with hope and love. As with my favorite short stories, these drop us right into the middle of a character’s experience, seeing their struggles from their perspective, and they aren’t all resolved pleasantly. We sit with the messiness of real conflict, mixed with pain and affection. A wonderful set of stories and a great introduction to a new-to-me author; I’ll be reading more of Lily King’s work.

Arabella by Georgette Heyer

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Title: Arabella
Author: Georgette Heyer
Genre(s): Romance, Historical
Rating: ★★★☆☆

A friend recently introduced me to the Internet Archive Books collection, so I decided to take advantage of its vast collection of older books to read a regency romance by the author who established the genre. I love the historical details in Heyer’s novels, including the dialogue, and she includes a great deal of humor (especially in stories like this that revolve around a sort of mistaken identity). Arabella, as a relatively unsophisticated girl from Yorkshire, provides a refreshingly progressive perspective on the inequality that pervades London — her combination of privilege and naïvety is mostly endearing though at times offensive as she rides roughshod over those around her in an attempt to help the less fortunate. I tend to feel that Heyer rushes the endings, with everything resolved a bit too quickly. But the journey to get there is funny and witty and I always enjoy the ride.