nomadreader

The backstory: Lucy Knisley is one of my favorite comics artists. My reviews of her earlier books: French Milk , Relish , An Age of License , and Displacement . The basics:  "DIY maven Lucy Knisley was fascinated by American wedding culture . . . but also sort of horrified by it. So she set out to plan and execute the adorable DIY wedding to end all adorable DIY weddings. And she succeeded."--publisher My thoughts: Lucy Knisley and I share a love of food and travel. After reading Something New , it's clear we also share complicated views about weddings and the associated traditions. I still love to talk about my wedding. I still think fondly of my wedding. And I loved revisiting so many of the conversations I had about my wedding while reading about Knisley's. At the time, it felt like I was constantly justifying and defending my decisions (no engagement ring, matching simple wedding bands, not wearing white, walking down the aisle with Mike, etc.) But this r...

The backstory: Last year, I read Maggie Shipstead's second novel, Astonish Me . I enjoyed it so much, I wanted to read her debut novel, Seating Arrangements,  too. Seating Arrangements  won the 2012 Dylan Thomas Prize  and was shortlisted for the 2012 Flaherty-Dunnan Prize . The basics: Set over one wedding weekend at their New England island house, Seating Arrangements is the story of the Van Meter family. Patriarch Winn is obsessed with joining a prestigious club on the island, his wife Biddy has planned the wedding with immense detail, his daughter Daphne is getting married while very pregnant, and his daughter Livia is still reeling from the break-up with her boyfriend Teddy, the son of Winn's college girlfriend and current nemesis. My thoughts: When I read Astonish Me , I called Shipstead's prose "astonishingly good" and having "so much interior insight." I can easily say the same about Seating Arrangements . In the early pages, this descripti...

The basics: Save the Date , the debut memoir from Jen Doll, chronicles her life as a frequent wedding guest and bridesmaid. My thoughts: I've been a fan of Jen Doll for years as she's written for The Atlantic, New York , and The Village Voice  (among many others.) I've always found her writing strong and insightful, yet given the title and cover, I expected this memoir to be filled with more humorous anecdotes than insight. I was pleasantly surprised, as Save the Date  isn't the memoir I expected, but it's still one I enjoyed immensely. There is plenty of humor throughout Save the Date , but over all the tone was much more thoughtful, and it's often both: "You should give him a chance."  "You think?" This was not the first time I'd been given this advice. There were plenty of paired-up couples in my life who seemed to see me as a hard-hearted ballbuster who never opened up, who refused to even consider  anyone less than some id...

Last April, I had the joy of reading Katie Fforde's novel Wedding Season  (thank you, interlibrary loan). Last week, Wedding Season finally made its U.S. debut with a lovely new cover. I'm reposting my review because it's been a year. If you're a fan of British chick lit, you must read Fforde. Enjoy! I am a huge fan of Katie Fforde, and I'm in the midst of planning a wedding, so I eagerly awaited my copy of  Wedding Season  to arrive from interlibrary loan. As usual, Katie did not disappoint. Wedding Season  followed three friends: Sarah, a wedding planner whose secretly pregnant sister and a major U.S. movie star have decided to get married on the same day with only a few months notice; Bron, a hairstylist in an unhappy relationship; and Elsa, a talented dressmaker. The three consider themselves friends and co-workers of sorts, as they often work the same weddings. It was refreshing to have three main characters, and thus three romances going on. Katie  ...

Despite the best of intentions of scheduling blog posts before leaving town to get married and quasi-honeymoon, it just didn't happen. Also despite my best intentions, I didn't get much reading during my lovely, long wedding weekend, and I still haven't finished Committed   by Elizabeth Gilbert, which is perhaps one of the most perfect books to read the week before your wedding, especially if you're one of those people who did not dream of marriage and is still sometimes surprised to actually be married. I've discovered it's still a delightful book to read during the first week of one's marriage when you contemplate what exactly is different about married life than engaged life or pre-engagement life. What is different? So far, not much, but we also had four years, four states, and promises to live our lives together before we decided to let the government sanction our love. Regardless, we got married in a library, and it was wonderful. As soon as I find t...

I am one of the last people to read Nora Roberts. My soon-to-be mother-in-law loves her (as do many other people whose book taste I agree with), and I've been intending to read her for quite some time. When I heard about her wedding quartet series, I knew it would be the perfect introduction to her work. I've shied away from actual wedding planning books, but I have enjoyed many novels about wedding planning. The premise of the series is great: four lifelong friends have a wedding planning business. One is a photographer, one is a florist, one a pastry chef and one is the actual planner. Each book will be from a different point of view. Vision in White features Mac, the photographer. Photography is one career I think I would love but will never actually do, and I immediately connected with Mac. She does some annoying things throughout the book (seriously, she's a strong woman the entire novel, but she can't stand up to her mother, an annoyingly caricatured character) t...

As a bride-to-be, I'm doing the requisite reading (or skimming) of bridal books and magazines. So far, I've found it more sociologically fascinating than actually helpful, and I've enjoyed reading novels about weddings more than wedding handbooks, but Offbeat Bride was fabulous. It's more of a memoir than a wedding planning book, although I did get quite a few great tips from it. As it is more of a memoir of the author's journey planning an unconventional wedding, I would recommend it to those of you not planning a wedding. The book is certainly geared at those of us brides-to-be who may not embrace the ubiquitous white dress (I'm wearing blue because it's my favorite color and makes my eyes shine) or getting married in a church (I'm getting married in a library) or having someone walk you down the aisle ( nomadreaderboy likes this idea far more than I do, and he may elect to have his parents walk him down the aisle.) Regardless of what traditions you ...

I am a huge fan of Katie Fforde, and I'm in the midst of planning a wedding, so I eagerly awaited my copy of Wedding Season to arrive from interlibrary loan. As usual, Katie did not disappoint. Wedding Season followed three friends: Sarah, a wedding planner whose secretly pregnant sister and a major U.S. movie star have decided to get married on the same day with only a few months notice; Bron, a hairstylist in an unhappy relationship; and Elsa, a talented dressmaker. The three consider themselves friends and co-workers of sorts, as they often work the same weddings. It was refreshing to have three main characters, and thus three romances going on. Katie Fforde writes consistently delightful modern, British romantic comedy of manners novels. Her heroines always manage to be easy to relate to, yet inspiring and independent. It was refreshing to see these three learn to rely on one another and a few other helpful hands along the way. As a bride to be, I appreciated all of the labor...

When I leave two weeks worth of dirty laundry for Sunday at the laundromat, I treat myself with a Sunday New York Times to read while I wash and dry. I confess, the Sunday Styles section is one of my favorites. (Sidebar - did you read the cover feature about Digging for Truth ? I set my DVR immediately). I also confess to loving the wedding announcements. I don't always read them all, but I make a point to read the long ones. The tales of how our newlyweds came to find one another can produce bizarre stories. I once had the idea for a short story collection based solely on tales from the Times wedding announcements. I might still write those one day. Clearly, I'm not the only one with this bizarre fascination. Gawker has a delightful scoring system , Altarcations, for the level of WASPiness among newlyweds.