Review: The Amateur Marriage

The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler

My new favorite novel by my longtime favorite author. This is the most beautifully written novel I have ever read in my whole life. Hands down. Anne Tyler is gifted in her ability to poetically tell the stories of ordinary people in normal lives, that don't necessarily have huge climactic moments that leave you on the edge of your seat.

To be honest, nothing monumental happened in this novel, but it was literally a story of two entire lives.

This story follows two people who met and married very young, lived their lives, raising kids, running the families grocery store, losing a kid as a runaway, reconnecting with the estranged daughters child but not the daughter, divorcing, one remarrying, and ultimately ones dying.

Pauline and Michael are my favorite on page couple, and they don't even get their happily ever after. The way Tyler wrote them is simply marvelous. I found myself laughing and crying all in one sentence.

This novel is pure poetry and I couldn't put it down.

Review: Lost in The Forest

Lost in The Forest by Sue Miller

This book surprised me. It was recommended to me based on my recent selections from the library app on my phone. I was impressed. I love how simple and sweet the writing is, truly expressing the beauty of ordinary life.

This book instantly starts with a tragic twist of events, forcing a father to take charge and take in his children temporarily. We start in the fathers point of view, and I am glad we did. He was a good lens in which to introduce this family and their life together.

I was instantly sucked in to the way Miller found the beauty in the ordinary. Then, something unexpected happened.

******SPOILER   DON'T CONTINUE IF YOU DON"T WANT TO KNOW A CRITICAL PLOT POINT*****

So I try not to put in spoilers but this one I just had to include. One of the children that we see first through the lens of the parents, takes center stage part of the way through the novel in a shocking turn of events. She is sucked into a physical affair with an older man, a much, much older man. One of her mother's best friends husbands to be exact.

I read this part very intently, unsure what to think. This was so real, and so sad. I am so glad that a author told this story and did it justice. Too often these stories go untold and they are sad and I think damaging to the teenagers involved. Beautiful job, Sue Miller, tackling a tough topic and shining.

Cheers! 

Review: Kissing The Maid of Honor

Kissing The Maid of Honor by Robin Bielman

I was getting ready to go to a rehearsal dinner when I found this book on a facebook group I am a part of. Now this wedding I was attending was huge, the kind of wedding that most of us think only happens in movies. The rehearsal dinner alone would have cost me a years salary. The groom is my husband's cousin, and his side of the family rented an entire ranch for us to stay at. I had a whole weekend to relax and enjoy it, sitting poolside and staring out at the rolling hills.  On this lovely weekend, I read this fun and perfectly fitting book.

It was a beautiful wedding weekend both on and off the page.

This book was sweet. Oh the troubles of high school crushes gone wrong. Being a woman who married the man that she kissed as a teenager (and it went terribly wrong), I can relate to this character. (This kiss, no joke, was why my now husband and I didn't get together then as opposed to nearly ten years later) I totally related. I loved how authentic this author wrote this fun little scenario.

Sela and Luke are characters that I instantly wanted to root for. I particularly LOVED seeing them take care of one another. To me, there is nothing more beautiful in a relationship that nurturing, and Bielman wrote it beautifully and truthfully.

The only problem is I found myself wanting more. I found myself in a few scenes saying "Wait, that's it? Tell me more! Tell me more!" This book could have been at least fifty to a hundred more pages in length and I would have been satisfied.

However, what she did include in this book was great. Fun and excited especially since I was so lucky to read it while relaxing on a ranch during a big crazy wedding weekend.

I recommend this book for anyone looking for a nice romance novel.

Cheers!