Anonymous wrote:oooh Long Island Compromise was a good read!

Anonymous wrote:I'll see your Demon Copperhead and raise you a David Copperfield read side by side. A. maze. ing. cultural experience that is available to all!

Anonymous wrote:The Balkan and Levant Trilogies by Olivia Manning

Written in the 1960s-80s by a British author who lived and fled from Romania, Greece, and Egypt during WWII with her husband who was a professor. Autobiographical, but fiction. Starts kind of slow, but her writing changes and (in my opinion) improves throughout the six books which create one long story arc. A memorable reading experience.

Anonymous wrote:For fans of The Wedding People -- note: spoilers ahea

I'm the PP who picked this as my runner-up book of the year. I really liked Phoebe, plus I'm a sucker for the New England coastal wedding trope. But I'm still not sure I buy into the idea that she was just drifting through life aimlessly, living a life "contained", and that this led her to seriously consider suicide. Yes, of course, she hit a horrible trifecta of infertility, the pandemic, and Matt's infidelity, but there just seemed to be a disconnect between who she was before all that happened and who she was when we first encounter her checking into the Cornwall. Espach wants us to see Phoebe as someone who becomes aware of her needs and her power to take action to try to meet those needs. But does she? I mean, she decides to stay in RI and responds to the ad about being a winter keeper. But at a pivotal moment she doesn't reach out to Gary until it's almost too late. What am I missing?