nomadreader

The backstory: State of Happiness  was longlisted for the 2004 Orange Prize . The basics:  "Cindy Frier, author of a popular treatise on maps called Dis-location, meets Jack Stratton, a successful British news producer, at a party in New York City. Shortly after they become a couple, Jack receives a career-making promotion that takes him and Cindy to the beachy environs of Los Angeles."--publisher My thoughts: This book captured my attention right away. The book opens at a dinner party, and the characters and setting felt so alive. Cindy and her friendship with Kelly are beautifully real. Their friendship was so interesting to me that I was initially sad when Jack became the primary focus of Cindy's attention. But this isn't a novel about female friendship. It isn't even really a novel about Jack and Cindy's relationship. For awhile, I thought it was a novel about the rich metaphors of mapping and cartographer. Cindy 's work fascinated me. It'...

narrated by Kate Rudd The basics: The Fault in Our Stars  is the story of the romance of Hazel and Augustus, teenagers who meet at a cancer support group. My thoughts: I don't read a lot of young adult fiction, but it's been impossible to ignore the acclaim of this novel, particularly it's impressive performance in the 2013 Tournament of Books . I opted to listen to it on audio, and Kate Rudd's narration captured a delightful tone for the novel. There are moments of levity, seriousness and relative normalcy, and Rudd moves between them deftly. The subject matter of this novel is dark: teenagers with cancer, but the novel is rarely dark. While this tone makes it more entertaining read, it also functioned to keep me from becoming as emotionally invested in the characters as I would have liked to be. The Fault in Our Stars  is the first young adult novel I've read since I became pregnant, and it was a somewhat jarring experience for me to feel more connection...