The Husband’s Secret
This story about three Australian women whose lives intersect in unexpected ways is packed full of secrets. Moriarty addressed dark topics here, but her tone remains light and witty, and she manages to weave in interesting notes—the Berlin wall, the myth of Pandora, the Snow White fairy tale. I loved this on audio: the Australian accent was delightful.
More info →Big Little Lies
Moriarty’s particular talent is to write novels that read like the fluffiest fluff … but have a depth that will stay with you long after you turn the last page, thanks to her sharp insights into human nature. This story follows three moms who have children in the same kindergarten class in an idyllic Australian seaside community. Parents behaving badly provide plenty of fodder for wicked humor. This is Moriarty at her finest, right up there with What Alice Forgot. Darkly comic: this is summer reading with an edge.
More info →The Last Anniversary
I love Liane Moriarty, and I decided to read this for a previous year's Reading Challenge! (A book in the backlist of a favorite author.) Publishers Weekly calls this "a stunner several shades darker than typical chick lit... Moriarty's prose turns from funny through poignant to frightening in an artful snap."
More info →Three Wishes
This story about three triplets was light and breezy and a little bit slapstick. It was fun to read about other people's dysfunctional families. The publisher calls this New York Times bestseller "the funny, heartwarming and completely charming first novel from Liane Moriarty. Lyn, Cat, and Gemma Kettle, beautiful thirty-three-year-old triplets, seem to attract attention everywhere they go. Together, laughter, drama, and mayhem seem to follow them. But apart, each is dealing with her own share of ups and downs."
More info →The Hypnotist’s Love Story
In this follow-up to What Alice Forgot, Kirkus says Moriarty "has managed to combine an infectiously lighthearted romance about a Sydney hypnotherapist with a potentially upsetting examination of a stalker’s interior life....Amazingly, the effervescent comedy and troubling melodrama combine to create a satisfying beach read, escapist but not unintelligent."
More info →What Alice Forgot
This novel had me pinned to the couch for two days (or it might have been just one). It reads like the breeziest chick lit, but has a surprising depth that makes me love it even more.
More info →Truly Madly Guilty
The Australian author has been on a hot streak: her last 3 novels have been top bestsellers, praised by everyone from Stephen King to Anne Lamott, and her fans are on pins and needles for the next. Her new summer release focuses on a friendly neighborhood barbecue gone awry, and the ramifications of the disaster (or near-disaster? the blurbs sure do make it hard to tell!) have everyone examining what's simmering beneath the surface of their seemingly ordinary lives.
More info →Nine Perfect Strangers
Nine strangers. Ten days. From the publisher: "Could ten days at a health resort really change you forever? Nine perfect strangers are about to find out... Amidst all of the luxury and pampering, the mindfulness and meditation, they know these ten days might involve some real work. But none of them could imagine just how challenging the next ten days are going to be. Frances Welty arrives at Tranquillum House nursing a bad back, a broken heart, and an exquisitely painful paper cut. She’s immediately intrigued by her fellow guests. Should Frances put aside her doubts and immerse herself in everything Tranquillum House has to offer – or should she run while she still can? For anyone looking for wickedly smart, page-turning fiction that will make you laugh and gasp, Liane Moriarty’s Nine Perfect Strangers once again shows why she is a master of her craft."
More info →Apples Never Fall
From the publisher: "If your mother was missing, would you tell the police? Even if the most obvious suspect was your father? This is the dilemma facing the four grown Delaney siblings. Two of the Delaney children think their father is innocent, two are not so sure—but as the two sides square off against each other in perhaps their biggest match ever, all of the Delaneys will start to reexamine their shared family history in a very new light."
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