Half in Love

Half in Love: Surviving the Legacy of Suicide by Linda Gray Sexton

Linda, daughter of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Anne Sexton, writes an affecting story about growing up with her mother's mental illness. She then details the mental illness that struck her after her mother's mental illness--an illness with which she still battles. It's a page-turner, as enthralling as a novel.

The Paris Wife

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

I was in tears twice during this book which speaks for not only the compelling subject matter, but for the nuanced writing that offers a powerful look at an intense marriage. At one point, Hadley loads a suitcase full of three years of Hemingway's work to bring to him because she is certain it is the most loving thing she can do, but the suitcase is stolen. The pain of both Hadley and Ernest in this scene is just devastating--and it's this type of intensity that surrounds their five year marriage. To be sure, McClain has added the emotions to Ernest Hemingway's first marriage, but it is a marriage that could belong to anyone who has ever loved with all his being, only to wonder how to keep such an almighty love afloat.

At the end of the novel, "Hem" calls Hadley while writing his memoir "A Moveable Feast," a time of his life in which she is a central figure, the support that buoys his early writing career.
"Tell me, do you think we wanted too much from each other?" he asks.
"Oh, I don't know. It's possible."
"Maybe that's it. We were too hooked into each other. We loved each other too much."
"Can you love someone too much?"

McClain sprinkles other literary figures from 1920's Paris into the story including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, and James Joyce. She says she tried to stay as true to the facts as she could, which makes this book all the more intriguing.

The Paris Wife is incredible-- one of the very best books I've ever read.

Dating Memoirs: Three decent choices

I went on a dating memoir binge and found three pretty decent ones. (That is to say, most of this variety are bland). Here are some good prospects for Valentine's reads.

Straight Up and Dirty by Stephanie Klein

Klein married young and got divorced in her twenties. Her memoir explores her time with the "wasbund" and the dating she dove into a month after the divorce. She ultimately discovers (with a therapist's help) that she has much to learn about herself before she can truly be in a healthy relationship. It's a common tale told with a light-hearted and often funny voice.


I Don't Care About Your Band: What I Learned from Indie Rockers, Trust Funders, Pornographers, Faux Sensitive Hipsters, Felons, and Other Guys I've Dated by Julie Klausner


Klausner, a writer for VH1's Best Week Ever, is in her thirties and she's dated all kinds (as the sub-title suggests). She's not completely jaded, though, she declares at the beginning that she "love(s) men like it is my job.”





Dating Amy: 50 True Confessions of a Serial Dater by Amy DeZellar

Another thirty-something navigating the dating scene, an unemployed DeZellar moves to Seattle and begins a blog about all the dates she goes on throughout a year. She doesn't see 50 different men (some stick around for more than one date), but this one's a silly and quick read about just how easy it is to suffer a really, really bad date with what had been a promising prospect.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

After starting and stopping this novel no less than four times, I finally finished it. It took about 100 pages for me to actually get involved with the characters simply because there are SO MANY characters. Being the first book of a series, I understand why so much is presented so early, but it was still frustrating and confusing for me. The financial scandal and the journalism issues weren't really that interesting to me, despite my interest in journalism. The mystery, the disappearance of a young girl in the 1960's is what's interesting, and once that story line becomes the focus, it's a race to the finish. I'm not sure I'm interested in Lisbeth Salander to continue the series, but I may pick it back up. I'm hoping there's another cool mystery--if there's not and I discover that after 100 pages, I'm done!

Tangled

Tangled by Carolyn Mackler


A girl-next-door with normal self-esteem problems, an Upper East Side princess with a professional modeling and acting career, a popular jock, and a computer nerd--a Breakfast Club collection of teenagers whose lives become "tangled" after a Caribbean vacation. Mackler was fantastic with The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, but her latest isn't up to par. The characters are all cookie cutter and the big issues--Depression and death, are handled as lightly as if they were well, not actual matters of life and death.

Perhaps I'm too harsh on YA fiction. (And perhaps I'm too old to be reading it.)

The Year of Magical Thinking

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion


This one has been on my list for years simply because Joan Didion is so celebrated and this is her most personal collection of essays. Focused on the year after her husband dies and in which her only daughter fights death in hospital beds, Didion not only shares her own experience with grief but she shares psychological research on grief. It's clear that Didion shared a great love with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and this memoir was probably written as therapy--they had been married for 40 years. This book is best suited to those who have experienced such grief and trauma, but will most likely prove powerful to other readers, too.

The Husbands and Wives Club

The Husbands and Wives Club: A Year in the Life of a Couples Therapy Group by Laurie Abraham


This book is as engrossing as non-fiction comes. A blurb on the cover from Tom Perrotta likens it to a novel because of the strong characters and suspense and he is so right. Abraham, a journalist, chronicles a year of a couples therapy group (six couples) while interspersing her observations with research from top marriage and couples counseling pyschologists. From the beginning, you know there are bigger reasons for why each couple is there--they aren't all just having communication problems, but we don't find out until the story builds and I was engrossed to the last page. 100% recommended.