The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty (2013)

Liane Moriarty is quickly becoming one of my Adored Authors. 

Kirkus Reviews says: "Moriarty may be an edgier, more provocative and bolder successor to Maeve Binchy" and it's true.  I've long felt that Liane Moriarty and Maeve Binchy were long-lost sister writers, setting their stories in Australia and Ireland respectively, but sharing the same amazing characterization and beautifully written relationships, artfully weaving the lives of their characters together and creating wonderfully realistic and insightful novels.

In The Husband's Secret, Cecelia, perfect mother and wife, finds a letter in her attic from her husband saying "to be opened in the case of his death."  Sooooo .... Does she open it? 

In addition, we meet a number of other fascinating characters: Tess, whose husband just confessed to falling in love with Tess's cousin and closest friend, and Rachel, a mother and now grandmother who's still struggling with the murder of her daughter many years ago.  All three of these women's lives are intertwined in complex and delicate ways, and their stories unfold in a most compelling fashion.  Just a fabulous story, beautifully told.

Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper and Brian Bellmont (2011)

Subtitled: The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the 70s and 80s, this is a fun, alphabetical listing of pop culture memories from that time.  A former local girl, Fashingbauer Cooper writes the fabulous blog Pop Culture Junk Mail and brings an authentic love of pop culture to the table.

The descriptions in this book are so vivid, and so lightly snarky that I longed to smell Sun-In and Love's Baby Soft one more time, slick on a little Village Bath lip balm, play Pitfall, go to Burger Chef's condiment bar, and read Dynamite magazine--among many, many more.  Crazy side note?  This book is beautifully indexed, which always scores a point with your librarian.

Followed by the equally charming and evocative The Totally Sweet 90s, which is ideal vacation reading.  Perfect little page-long snappy snippets of fun, snarky remembrances of 1990s pop culture "From Clear Cola to Furby and Grunge to Whatever: the Toys, Tastes and Trends that Defined a Decade."  So fun, so delightfully nostalgic.

Meet Me At the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan (2013)

Back in the days when I couldn't pass up a British chick lit title, Jenny Colgan was one of my very favorite authors.  She'd been a bit off my radar for a few years, though apparently she'd kept writing--including a Doctor Who novelization, interestingly enough.

I happened upon her new title in our catalog and requested it for old times' sake.  Like the heroines of her books, Colgan has grown up.  It's just lovely to read a good, dishy novel about a woman in her thirties.

Issy Randal gets laid off from her office job, gets ditched by her ex-boss/secret lover, and decides to use her severance money to open a cupcake cafe in her charming neighborhood of Stoke Newington.  Issy loves to bake and was taught by her grandfather, who is growing senile in a nearby care facility.  Recipes sent to her by her grandfather are interspersed through the book (and look quite tempting). 

Colgan's great gift is her characterizations--every character is drawn beautifully, from her bossy nurse roommate Helena to her employee, single mother Pearl, to her baker grandfather and everyone in between.  And the inevitable romantic interest?  Surprisingly imperfect.  Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe is lightly and dryly funny, while at the same time very heartfelt and moving.  Just lovely. 

I've recommended this to tons of people, and I hate that the title sounds so twee.  It's much more substantial than it sounds, although it really is .... delicious.

The Wells Bequest by Polly Shulman (2013)

 

A very endearing young adult novel that follows the adventures of the pages who work at the New-York Circulating Library, a library that lends out magical items instead of books. We first met this library in the even-more-charming The Grimm Legacy. 

While researching robots, Leo discovers the New-York Circulating Library and the mysterious objects held within its walls.  Leo gets a job as a page at the library, mostly to be around the intriguing head page Jaya, but soon gets embroiled in time travel, death rays and other exciting developments.  Funny, adventurous and charming, and great fun for any fan of H.G. Wells. 

See also The Librarian's Note which explains how the librarian created call numbers for the mythical and magical objects in these two books.

Team Human by Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan (2012)

Very sweet and funny young adult novel about a town where humans and vampires live in (relative) peace. 

When a handsome vampire comes to her high school and falls in love with her best friend, Mel's world is turned upside down. Not to mention that her other best friend is still struggling with her father's decision to run away with a vampire. But Mel is not just going to sit back and let things happen. She investigates mysteries and is fiercely ready to protect her friends--even if they don't want to be protected. 

When she meets Kit, a human living with the vampires (and one of the most charming romantic interests ever), the plot thickens even more. Delightful.

An Inquiry into Love and Death by Simone St. James (2013)

This is the second of St. James's books that I've read and although this felt like a slower starter, it was ultimately just as satisfying as The Haunting of Maddy Clare. 

Like The Haunting of Maddy Clare, this novel is set in England after WWI. Jillian Leigh gets notification that her eccentric uncle has died and she has to go to the village where he was working as a ghost hunter to go through his things. 

Meanwhile, there's a ghost to catch and her uncle's murder to solve, and a handsome but unreliable Scotland Yard inspector to help out. St. James's novels are dark and melancholy and romantic and give a lovely feel of the time after WWI. And the ghost stories really are scary. All so good!

Thirty Rooms to Hide In: Insanity, Addiction, and Rock 'n' roll in the Shadow of the Mayo Clinic by Luke Longstreet Sullivan (2012)

LOVED. This is a memoir about a prominent surgeon at the Mayo Clinic, his descent into alcoholism and insanity and the effect that it had on his six sons and wife. 

A fairly grim tale, but this book (and this family) is so full of dark humor that it makes the story incredibly compelling. Sullivan, an advertising man, writes wonderfully--compact and perfectly hilarious. It's also a really interesting look at domestic life in the 60s and a fascinating look at troubled family life. Many, many laugh-out loud, 'I can't believe he wrote that' moments. There's so much packed into this book: growing up as a nerd, growing up with older and younger brothers, growing up in the 60s--not to mention the complicated relationship with his father, his parents' relationship, and his father's relationship with alcohol and so much more.

This book is eminently quotable--the kind of book I'd like to buy just to highlight my favorite lines (if I was the kind of person who wrote freely in books). I love what Sullivan writes about how people of talent often get a free pass to be obnoxious alcoholics, musing that it's probably been that way since caveman times:   

"Some mead-guzzling schmuck named Thog probably did a great cave drawing and then spent the rest of his life barfing on the saber-toothed tiger rug and crying, "Village not understand Thog." (p. 242) 

And on scaring little brothers:

"At the top of the food chain was our oldest brother, Kip. He was an Eagle Scout. And given his proficiency at scaring the bejesus out of me, he must have had a merit badge somewhere, one embroidered with the icon of a fifth grader and Jesus bursting out of his chest." (p. 150)

And for a book that starts off with the main character dead, the ending still packs a punch. Interspersed with Sullivan's own remembrances are snippets from his brother's diaries, his mother's letters, and records from his father's doctors. Even the occasional photographs are carefully chosen and interspersed beautifully. Just wonderful.

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (2013)

Just LOVED this young adult novel about two misfits falling in love in high school in 1986. 

Beautifully told in alternating chapters both by Eleanor: red-haired, not petite, living in poverty with her brothers and sisters, creepy stepfather and ineffective mom; and Park: half Korean and a fairly normal kid, at least from the outside.

Loved them falling in love and the complexity of their characters and their lives. I adored the portrayal of the parents, who are complicated and realistic. I also loved how very much of the 1980s it was, and yet without being gimmicky in any way. 

Just a very beautifully told young adult novel and a lovely romance. What else can be said? At least without using the word "love" again?

Impossible by Nancy Werlin (2008)

Sometimes you find the strangest books just by searching the library catalog. I was looking for something else and ended up requesting this because it's based on the ballad Scarborough Fair (made popular by Simon & Garfunkel, of course).

Lucy is seventeen when she discovers that the women in her family are under a curse by an elf king that causes each of the women to be pregnant at 17, and requires them to perform three impossible tasks. If they can't complete those tasks, they go insane. Lucy has seen the proof of this in her estranged mother, who periodically shows up, crazy and pushing a shopping cart and embarrassing her at school.

What set this book apart from so many young adult novels that I've read is that when Lucy goes to her family to tell them of the curse, they believe her. There's no argument that "there's no such thing as magic or elf kings--you must be crazy", they just believe in her and work with her to help her try to complete the impossible tasks. And they give an excellent explanation that maybe it's true and maybe it's not, but she believes so strongly in it, they need to work with her. 

The novel itself is an odd blend--there's a lovely romance with Zach, the boy next door--but it also contains genuine peril, including rape and mental illness. But due to the excellent characterization and the unusually and well-constructed plot, it works very well. This would definitely go on my list of favorite fairy tale/ballad adaptations along with Pamela Dean's Tam Lin and Beauty by Robin McKinley.

The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James (2012)

This is a lovely ghost story/love story/historical novel.

Sarah Piper is a lonely soul, working in London in the years after the first World War when she gets an unexpected assignment from her temporary agency--to assist an author and ghost hunter. They travel to a small village to track down the ghost of Maddy Clare and both love and mystery ensues.

The haunting itself is quite dark and violent and she writes quite unsparingly about the emotionally turbulent years after the war.  The story is excellent and the romance is lovely. Fun fact for Downton Abbey fans: the ghost hunter Alastair is a dead ringer for Matthew Crawley and if you squint a bit, his assistant Matthew could be mistaken for a slightly more broken Mr. Bates.

Quite lovely.