Quick Lit February 2018 Archives

The Good House

by Ann Leary

A friend with great taste specifically recommended the audio version of this to me and I could not listen to it fast enough—I folded so much laundry and got the kitchen sparkling clean so I could listen to just one more chapter, over and over again. Hildy Good has lived all her life in the small town of Wendover, Massachusetts. She's 60 years old, divorced, a successful realtor. And she drinks—a lot, and the situation is getting out of control. Only Hildy doesn't see it that way. A quiet drama with terrific, fleshed-out characters and an entertaining, thoroughly untrustworthy narrator.

Perennials

by Julie Cantrell

I love Julie Cantrell's work. In Cantrell's novel, two estranged sisters reunite near Oxford, Mississippi to celebrate their parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary. And then their mom drops a bombshell that forces them to reevaluate what they're doing with their lives. It's a Southern family saga about a complicated family. I get a lot of requests for inspirational, feel-good fiction with little to no sex and swearing. If that's what you're after, I highly recommend Julie Cantrell.

By the Book

by Julia Sonneborn

From the publisher: "An English professor in California, Anne Corey's determined to score a position on the coveted tenure track at her college. All she's got to do is get a book deal, snag a promotion, and boom! She's in. But then Adam Martinez—her first love and ex-fiancé—shows up as the college’s new president. Anne should be able to keep herself distracted. After all, she's got a book to write, an aging father to take care of, and a new romance developing with the college's insanely hot writer-in-residence. But no matter where she turns, there's Adam. Funny, smart, and full of heart, this modern ode to Jane Austen's classic Persuasion explores what happens when we run into our past."

Next Year in Havana

by Chanel Cleeton

After her beloved grandmother dies, a Cuban-American woman travels from Miami back to Havana and unearths a treasure trove of family secrets. If you love stories that go back and forth in time, this is for you. In 1958, 19-year-old Elisa falls in love for the first time—with a dangerous revolutionary. In 2017, Elisa's granddaughter Marisol travels to newly-open Cuba, ostensibly to write an article on tourism, but really to learn more about her grandmother and the complicated country she loved. I didn't know much about Cuba, then or now, before reading this, and really enjoyed the experience.

Chirp

Still Me

by Jojo Moyes

I wasn't thrilled when I found out Jojo Moyes's next book was going to continue the Louisa Clark story she began in Me Before You. But you know what? As a series closer, this one delivers. If you're invested in Lou's life and wants to know what happens to her in NYC with Ambulance Sam, definitely pick it up. (If you haven't read the first two, skip it.)

The Queen of Hearts

by Kimmery Martin

If you picked this book up because of the cover, I wouldn't blame you a bit. Zadie and Emma have been best friends since med school; now they're practicing physicians in Charlotte. But when an old colleague comes to town, he stirs up long-buried secrets from the past. If you love Gray's Anatomy, this one's for you. This novel had special appeal for me because it's set alternately in Charlotte, where I've spent some time, and Louisville, where I've lived for years.

Quick Lit February 2018