Gail Paris Female, Married. Paris, France

In Red Hook, there are the locals, and then the "from aways". When John marries Becca two families become intertwined. But not in the way they expected. Just an hour later after a terrible car accident, the two families have to go on without John and Becca. A beautiful book about love and loss and going on...I hesitated reading this one - Waldman is the loud wife of Michel CHabon better known for her essays on being a "bad mother" but she actually writes well, captures detail of characters - especially the over bearing mother - wonder who was the model???

Being a bit of a cookbook fanatic myself, and especially after reading a wonderful recent short story of Goodman's in the New Yorker, I couldn't skip this one. Story of sisters (think Jane Austen) and the people in their lives - their men, their family, their jobs - diametrically opposite - Emily is driven, CEO of a dot com, and Jess is the permanent philosophy doctoral candidate, both living in silicon valley at the end of the dot com bubble. Funnily, reading this book was kind of like watching movies from the 80s where the clothes look wrong (how quickly we forget...) - the issues of the late 90s are so over - as we worry about keeping jobs, the environment. The love interest between Jess and the crochety (all of 39) George is the best part. A nice read but somehow more dated than the Austen it is based on...

A set of vignettes around a fictive English language newspaper in Rome. The author, a former writer for the herald tribune based in Rome, brings to life a bevy of characters from the very anal editor to the super ambitious female writer to the quirky owner and his offspring. You feel like a fly on the wall as you witness the paper go from a start-up to a major success to its demise. Good read!

Classic tale: happily married couple, 2 kids, house and oops hubby makes a one time mistake which opens the pandora's box on the marriage, the history, the "what ifs"... and the "who's fault"... Quite an in depth look at the effect of the "bomb". Each stage of Sarah's realization of what happened, why, how she has changed, why is analyzed ad nautum. Problem is that the tone is whiney - we get it - cheating doesn't happen in a vacuum. But Sarah and the reader have to go through all the stages in order to come to the conclusion that being married is tough, having kids makes it tougher, and if you don't work on it...it dies.

23 years have gone by (and for us not only is the first book (Presumed Innocent) a distant memory so is the Harrison Ford film) but Rusty is back. No longer a prosecutor, Rusty is now a well respected appelate court judge, celebrating his 60th birthday, but his lust and ability to make stupid decisions hasn't retired yet. No way to resist the incredibly charming, smart and beautiful clerk Anna and of course someone (this time Rusty's long suffering wife) turns up...dead.

A good whodunnit that will keep you up after hours but also a lovely story of father/son with some somber reflections on getting older, accepting our faults, paying for the sins of the past.
Don't know if they will be able to make a Innocent Again (or "3 times your out") - guess it will take place in a retirement community. Hope Harrison is eating his weaties...

How can a man with 4 wives and 28 children be lonely? Golden Richard should be a happy man - isn't this every man's fantasy? Bored with wife no. 1? Well there are 3 more to choose from! But Golden is not happy. A hoot of a story that throws you into a fascinating other-world of mormons, the Principle and polygamy. After loosing a child, Golden is slowly loosing the rest - with full consciousness but he just can't stop the wheels from turning. When he falls in love with his mobster boss' wife, all hell breaks loose; A touching story which is both funny and sad and that makes you rethink your own stereotypes. An amazon pick of the month -and actually very good - written by Brady Udall (Morris (former Pres candidate's grandson).

Lionel Shriver has a way with words - her works are dense and intense and you live the situation with the protagonist. I adored We need to talk about Kevin and the Post Birthday World (even though partially about the world of snooker). Here we are in the world of: everything goes wrong and life stinks... Shepard, who always had one goal: leave the rat race as we know it and go live elsewhere - after years of saving, planning and visitng africa, asia and belgium(?) (france was excluded as too socialist(,)), etc he is ready to go, with or without his wife and son. And then murphy's law - he announces his imminent departure to his wife, who listens and then informs him she has cancer. And then it is bleek bleek bleek. Everything goes from bad to worse. Relentlessly...

Tim is a happy man. Married, child, successful attorney. And then it hits again. A mysterious illness that makes him walk. Immediately and far in a kind of daze until he falls asleep, calls home and his wife picks him up. This mysterioius illness is the one thing that Tim can't control. He refuses to believe the cause is psychological and the doctors can't figure it out. Just when he thinks he has it licked and life can be normal again, tt comes back and Tim has to disappear. Sometimes not at very opportune moments (like trial prep?). The story is compelling, the characters likeable but the author can't quite decide what kind of story this is and how to take it to the end. A story about a family and life's curve balls? A mystery about a murder (Tim is a criminal lawyer)? Life on the road? It is a shame that Ferris couldn't quite decide where to go with this but definitely worth the read. Characters stick to you.

Tropper is so much fun. His themes are always pretty similar - normal middle class guy has to deal with something he never expected and this turns it all upside down. Here we have Zack King - except for the very traumatic car accident a few years ago everything is on track, 32, decent if boring job, perfect fiancé and then he sees blood in his urine; Just the idea that he could be sick puts everything into question. And as the world is turning upside down, his father who he hasn't seen in 15 years shows up. But it is funny, witty and touching. Feels like a screen play (which it is now), can't wait to see it but hope they don't use Tom Hanks...