Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney. I had heard much hubbub about this book when it came out a couple of years ago, and I must say, the hubbub was very much deserved. The main character, Frances, is 21 and a college student in Dublin. She and her ex-partner, but still current collaborator, Bobbi, meet Melissa and Nick, an author and actor married couple when Melissa is doing an article on Frances and Bobbi’s spoken word poetry performances. I thought I wouldn’t find the book very interesting, not being hugely invested in the conversations and inner monologue of 21 year olds, but it was so well done! And charming and wry. Rooney does such a good job with Frances, and even if she is a flawed and self-centered person in the way that everyone is at 21, it was a really interesting book. I recommend.
The Honeymoon by Dinitia Smith. This is a historical novel recreating the life of George Eliot. It begins with her “second” marriage when she was sixty to a much younger man, John Cross, concentrating on their honeymoon in Venice when Cross apparently tried to commit suicide by jumping from a balcony into a canal! I had not known about that tidbit of info: apparently it was written about in Venice newspapers but the connection to Eliot the writer was pretty well masked. Anyway, the chapters go back and forth from the honeymoon to Eliot’s entire life, and it was an interesting read. She was so smart and successful, and really had to fight her way to the life she achieved.
The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds With Common Birds by Julie Zickefoose. Julie Zickefoose is a bird artist, a writer, and a songbird rehabilitator. In this book she writes of all the different birds she has interacted with over the years – many of whom were giving to her as fledglings in distress. She nurses them, raises them, and then in most cases sets them free. The drawings were beautiful and the stories fascinating. I read it slowly over months and enjoyed it very much.
The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell. This was a great read! I highly recommend. Lucy is a down and out mother of two, living a somewhat homeless existence in the south of France. The book switches between her and Henry, her brother, a very unreliable narrator who tells the story of their childhood, when their once wealthy socialite parents welcomed into their home a man who became a kind of mini cult leader. Meanwhile, another main character, Libby Jones, has just discovered that she has inherited a mansion in Chelsea where all the events described by Henry took place years ago. It’s a fun and very fast-paced thriller.
Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America by Michael Ruhlman. This is a book about grocery stores in the US, how they have changed over the years, and what the business is like now. He focuses in particular on Heinen’s, a small grocery chain in Ohio. It was interesting, at times, although Ruhlman loves a list and used way too many of them. On the whole, an essay about this topic would have been enough for me.
