Anna Quindlen
A Short Guide to a Happy Life

A Short Guide to a Happy Life

Author:

From the publisher: "In this treasure of a book, Anna Quindlen, the bestselling novelist and columnist, reflects on what it takes to 'get a life'—to live deeply every day and from your own unique self, rather than merely to exist through your days. 'Knowledge of our own mortality is the greatest gift God ever gives us,' Quindlen writes, 'because unless you know the clock is ticking, it is so easy to waste our days, our lives.' Her mother died when Quindlen was nineteen: 'It was the dividing line between seeing the world in black and white, and in Technicolor. The lights came on for the darkest possible reason. . . . I learned something enduring, in a very short period of time, about life. And that was that it was glorious, and that you had no business taking it for granted.' But how to live from that perspective, to fully engage in our days? In A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Quindlen guides us with an understanding that comes from knowing how to see the view, the richness in living."

More info →
Buy from Amazon Kindle
Buy from Amazon
Buy from Audible.com
Miller’s Valley: A Novel

Miller’s Valley: A Novel

This story of a young girl growing up in a rural community during a time when the community itself is facing a tremendous change. This was wise, reflective, and easy to read, and strongly reminiscent of Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior.

More info →
Buy from Amazon Kindle
Buy from Amazon
Buy from Audible.com
Buy from IndieBound
Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake: A Memoir of a Woman’s Life

Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake: A Memoir of a Woman’s Life

Booklist calls this "pithy." NPR says, "What Nora Ephron does for body image and Anne Lamott for spiritual neuroses, Quindlen achieves on the home front."

More info →
Buy from Amazon Kindle
Buy from Amazon
Buy from Audible.com
Buy from Libro.fm
Buy from Barnes and Noble
Buy from IndieBound
Alternate Side

Alternate Side

I've developed an appreciate for Quindlen's work, and loved her last novel Miller's Valley, set in an insular community in rural Pennsylvania. Her new novel centers on another unique community: a well-to-do corner of the Upper West Side, noteworthy as the only cul-de-sac in Manhattan, and an act of violence that disrupts the easy status quo the residents have (on multiple levels) reached. I appreciated the way Quindlen probed questions of marriage, family, complacency, and class issues, but it was darker than I was expecting. The tone and content reminded me a lot of Emma Straub's Modern Lovers, but with a lot less sex.

More info →
Buy from Amazon Kindle
Buy from Amazon
Buy from Audible.com
Buy from Barnes and Noble
Rise and Shine: A Novel

Rise and Shine: A Novel

Author:

From the publisher: "It’s an otherwise ordinary Monday when Meghan Fitzmaurice's perfect life hits a wall. A household name as the host of Rise and Shine, the country's highest-rated morning talk show, Meghan cuts to a commercial break–but not before she mutters two forbidden words into her open mike. The effect of Meghan's on-air truth telling reverberates through both their lives, affecting Meghan's son, husband, friends, and fans, as well as Bridget’s perception of her sister, their complex childhood, and herself. What follows is a story about how, in very different ways, the Fitzmaurice women adapt, survive, and manage to bring the whole teeming world of New York to heel by dint of their smart mouths, quick wits, and the powerful connection between them that even the worst tragedy cannot shatter."

More info →
Buy from Amazon Kindle
Buy from Amazon
Buy from Audible.com
How Reading Changed My Life

How Reading Changed My Life

Author:

This is a book for book-lovers, by a book lover, and such a great read to cozy up with in the wintertime. Don't miss the book lists in the back, like 10 Big Thick Books That Could Take You a Whole Summer to Read (but Aren't Beach Books), The 10 Books I Would Save in a Fire (If I Could Save Only 10), and 10 Modern Novels That Made Me Proud to Be a Writer.

More info →
Buy from Amazon
Blessings

Blessings

Author:

From the publisher: "This powerful new novel by the best selling author Anna Quindlen begins when a teenage couple drives up, late at night, headlights out, to Blessings, the estate owned by Lydia Blessing. They leave a box and drive away, and in this instant, the world of Blessings is changed forever. Richly written, deeply moving, beautifully crafted, Blessings tells the story of Skip Cuddy, caretaker of the estate, who finds a baby asleep in that box and decides he wants to keep her, and of matriarch Lydia Blessing, who, for her own reasons, decides to help him."

More info →
Buy from Amazon Kindle
Buy from Amazon
Buy from Audible.com