Today was a very very long but delightful day, and I really want to get back to my book, so here we go.
The Girls in the Picture was exactly the kind of thing I love to read. I have a serious fondness for Old Hollywood novels. Two great female main characters, great writing. This left me wanting to know a lot more about Mary Pickford; in the afterword she hints that there was a lot more to the story! This is the third book I’ve read by Melanie Benjamin and I haven’t been disappointed.
I have seen a whole lot of buzz about An American Marriage. Happy to say, it definitely lives up to it. I didn’t know anything at all about it, so the opening was especially ominous. This had a very good plot and very good storytelling. It’s going to stick with me. There was one weird little bit where one character is making a really enormously big deal about not wanting to use condoms and it started to lose me a little bit there, but it bounced back from that to a really killer ending. No spoilers, but I love it when love stories end the way this one did, and it was extra awesome for me that I finished it on Valentine’s Day.
I have recently realized that I have read almost no Shirley Jackson, and I am really missing out. Until this week, the only thing I’d ever read by her was The Lottery! Clearly I have some catching up to do, and I started with We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Holy shit, this book. I CAN’T BELIEVE I NEVER READ THIS UNTIL THIS WEEK. I’m usually immune to FOMO, but this has me wondering what else I’ve been missing out on all these years. I know everyone but me already knew this, but this book is awesome and I’m going to have to read all the Shirley Jackson books immediately.
Another one everyone’s talking about is The Power. I’ve been patiently waiting for this one for quite a while and I’m pretty excited to finally have my hands on a copy. So far it is not at all what I was expecting, but I still love it and can’t wait to see where it’s going to go. I’m loving everything this week! Must be something to this whole Valentine thing after all.
