Sponsored by The Fixed Stars by Molly Wizenberg, published by Abrams Press.
At age 36, while serving on a jury, author Molly Wizenberg found herself drawn to a female attorney. Married to a man for nearly a decade and mother to a toddler, Wizenberg tried to return to her life as she knew it, but something inside her had changed irredeemably. Instead, she would discover that the trajectory of our lives is rarely as smooth or as logical as we’d like to believe. The Fixed Stars is a memoir exploring questions about desire, identity, and family in honest and searing prose, from the bestselling author of Delancey and A Homemade Life.
Happy Tuesday and welcome to new book day, aka the best day of the week. I admit, I totally have been dreaming of a t-shirt that says, “On Tuesdays, we go to the bookstore,” a la Mean Girls, and if someone makes that happen, I would buy one in every color.
Some books I’m excited about this week include Body Talk, edited by Book Riot Editor Kelly Jensen and containing some essays from fellow Rioters Eric Smith and Patricia Elzie-Tuttle, Betty by Veronica McDonald, and Vicious Spirits by Kat Cho. Make sure you check out today’s episode of All the Books, where Liberty and I chat about tons of new releases this week!
The London Restoration by Rachel McMillan
This is a post-World War II book about a married couple who have found that their respective war years have done a number on their marriage, for a variety of reasons. Diana Somerville’s expertise in London architecture and her work as a codebreaker at Bletchley Park separated her from her husband, and thanks to the Official Secrets Act, she can’t tell Brent, a professor as Kings College, about her war years. Brent is dealing with his own trauma from working as a stretcher bearer in the war, and he’s frustrated at Diana’s obvious lies and evasion. If the two are going to save their marriage, they must find a way to rebuild trust and their lives.
Dating Makes Perfect by Pintip Dunn
Winnie is a high schooler whose very strict Thai parents never let her older sisters date before graduation–but when those sisters turn the tables on their parents and refuse to entertain getting engaged for a long time, her parents come up with a fake dating scenario for Winnie to “practice” dating, all in the hopes that she’ll be more likely to find a husband quickly after graduation. Winnie isn’t pleased at the meddling–and she’s even more annoyed when the guy her parents pick for her to practice being in a relationship with is none other than her arch nemesis, Mat Songsomboon.
Stealing Mt. Rushmore by Daphne Kalmar
Nellie is a thirteen-year-old with some big shoes to fill. First off, she’s the only girl in a family of three boys, and she knows her dad is disappointed that he wasn’t able to have four sons named after the presidents on Mt. Rushmore. Second, her mom has left the family without a word, and as the girl, Nellie is expected to cook, clean, and take care of her little brother. But when financial problems put a strain on the family, Nellie is determined to figure out a way to help the family stay afloat, and bring them together–even if it is unfair that she’s the one everyone relies on. This is a great nostalgic book about the 1970s and a family in crisis against the backdrop of the Watergate scandal.
Happy reading!
Tirzah