Killing Monica

So, this novel is by Candace Bushnell of Sex and the City fame. I have never read any of her novels and thought I would give it a try, since I liked the TV show (at least early on). Killing Monica is the story of Pandy Wallis, the author of a hit series of books about Monica and her escapades in New York City (made into a series of successful movies). After a bitter divorce and the rejection of her new non-Monica book by her publisher, Pandy winds up faking her own death, and adventure ensues.

I have to say I found this book REALLY hard to get into. It started kind of all over the place, and the characters of Pandy, her friends, and her husband Jonny, seemed superficial and not very likeable. But then when she fake died - which I thought was going to come much earlier in the novel - I really got into the story, and wanted to see how it played out. And the little surprise at the end with her sister Hellenor totally caught me off guard.

I'm going to say this is a beach read, and the kind of book I read in my twenties but am over now that I'm ... not in my twenties. And I definitely wouldn't see the movie.


Killing Monica

Rutherford Park

I picked up this novel by Elizabeth Cooke because the story was compared to Downton Abbey, and the writing was compared to several authors I've read and liked, including Catherine Cookson. Although the story took some time to draw me in, in the end I would say the comparisons were more than fair.

Rutherford Park is the story of the Cavendish family and their Yorkshire estate. Lord William Cavendish traces his family back for hundreds of years, but his much-younger-wife Octavia came from "trade" and was selected for her great fortune in mills, although they have over the course of their 20-year-marriage developed a fondness for each other, and have three almost-grown children. We meet them just on the verge of World War I... see, I could totally be talking about Downton Abbey right now, except that Cora came from America, not mill towns.

There are scandals and interesting below-stairs characters, too, and the house and grounds themselves are almost another character. As I said, I had difficulty getting into the story at first, and there are a lot of characters who make very brief appearances, so I found myself wondering, "which one was that again?" But by the end of the story I felt it actually ended too soon - I wanted more.

Rutherford Park

A God in Ruins

Okay, so if you've been following this blog for a while you know that I loved the last novel by Kate Atkinson I read, Life After Life, about a woman named Ursula who keeps getting reborn into the same life and living it in different ways. This novel is not a sequel, but more of a companion, and focuses on Ursula's younger brother Teddy.

Teddy is a hero of WW II, a bomber pilot who survives every mission and comes home to marry his childhood sweetheart, Nancy. Atkinson tells Teddy's story going back and forth between the past and the present, and also from various perspectives, like that of his daughter Viola. These are all richly developed, deeply real characters and I just couldn't put the book down (although I admit to skimming a bit through the more detailed bombing raids of the war).

While not as innovative as Life After Life, this is a beautifully written book that does have a surprise or two up its sleeve. I definitely recommend it.

A God in Ruins

The Dream Lover

That's kind of an odd title for a novel that is a fictionalized account of the life of George Sand (born Aurore Dupin). But it fits with Elizabeth Berg's depiction of George as always searching for - and never finding - that perfect lover one has in dreams.

I started the novel knowing basically nothing about George Sand except that she was a French female author who changed her name to a man's name, liked to dress in men's clothing, and had an affair with Chopin. I've never read anything she's written, and honestly this book didn't make me want to read her complete works. But it's an intriguing look at a person who was at the heart of the mid-nineteenth century French arts scene, hanging out with people like Delacroix and Victor Hugo, and who was very controversial for the time (smoking tobacco in public - the horror!).

Berg is a very good writer who paints beautiful scenes and develops strong characters. I particularly enjoyed her depictions of George Sand, Marie Dorval, and Frederic Chopin. Berg does a good job of taking one or two known characteristics of historical figures and making a fully developed person out of them. I really enjoyed this novel.

The Dream Lover

A Couple of Great Reads

Wow, I have just been totally off the grid, haven't I? I have been reading, I guess just nothing I felt worth posting about until now.

Last week my husband and I went on vacation to Key West (if you haven't been, GO - it is awesome). So I read two books last week and I loved both of them. The first was The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin. It's a fictionalized account of the life of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, and it was just fascinating. Benjamin obviously did tons of research and she made me feel like she was telling the true story of the Lindberghs. All the characters are very well developed and the ending was quite a shocker. I highly recommend it.

The second novel I read was Longbourn by Jo Baker. A must-read for all you Jane Austen fans, it covers the period of time in Pride and Prejudice from the servants' point of view... sort of Downton Abbey-like. Baker develops the characters of all the named servants in Pride and Prejudice, as well as some who aren't named, and gives them interesting personalities and backstories. I literally could not put this book down. I just adored it. I especially liked the interactions between the characters of P&P and the characters of Longbourn, because we are shown a rather different side to the characters we love so much.

The Aviator's Wife

Longbourn

Empire of Deception

If you read my blog then you know I am not a big reader of non-fiction, but this book was a gift. I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it, it was simply fascinating. It's the story of Leo Koretz, a Chicago lawyer who had a longer running and more successful Ponzi scheme than Ponzi himself.

The author, Dean Jobb, did a lot of research and methodically and clearly lays out the story of how Leo lured his family and friends to invest in his non-existent Bayano River timber forest - where he soon struck non-existent oil - and kept them happily reinvesting their earnings without ever being the wiser, for nearly 20 years. Leo is a really interesting character who seems to be able to charm just about everyone, and Jobb does a nice job of bringing him to life. And the end of the story was an absolute surprise.

I actually handed this book over to my husband, Mike, thinking he might enjoy it. That almost never happens with the novels I read.

Empire of Deception

Fates and Furies

I found this novel a bit challenging to get into at first, but once I was in I was hooked. It's the story of the relationship between Lotto and Mathilde, from their love-at-first-sight meeting through the course of their marriage. What makes this an interesting and innovative novel is in the way it's written and the perspectives the author, Lauren Groff, gives the reader.

Groff will often tell of the same incident from Lotto's and Mathilde's perspective - or even from the perspective of one of their friends or family members. And she jumps around in time as well, telling of Lotto's childhood at one point, but waiting several chapters to clue the reader in about Mathilde's childhood. This style of writing sort of mimics what relationships really are - I mean, very few relationships follow linear paths, people get to know one another from various starting points and various perspectives.

One of the most interesting things about the book for me is that I really didn't find any of the characters to be thoroughly likable and sympathetic. Most novels have clear cut "good guys" and "bad guys," but Groff sort of makes it clear that everyone has good and bad parts, and everyone does good and bad things.

The book won or was nominated for all sorts of awards, and it's worth a read. I found it fascinating.

Fates and Furies