You know, sometimes there are books you really like and enjoy, but that take a long time to finish. Books you want to finish because they're too good to dump, that really are intriguing. But somehow you keep going forever! For me, the reason for this is mostly that I'm not big on carrying around hardcovers when I already have to carry all the things I need for university.
The books I'm talking about are:
Best Intentions
by Emily Listfield
After tossing and turning all night, thirty-nine-year-old Lisa Barkley wakes up well before her alarm sounds. With two daughters about to start another year at their elite Upper East Side private school and her own career hitting a wall, the effort of trying to stay afloat in that priviledged world of six-story town houses and European jaunts has become increasingly difficult, especially as Manhattan descends into an economic freefall.
As Lisa looks over at her sleeping husband, Sam, she can't help but feel that their fifteen-year marriage is in a funk that she isn't able to place. She tries to shake it off and tells herself that the strain must be due to their mounting financial pressures. But later that morning, as her family eats breakfast in the next room, Lisa finds herself checking Sam's voicemail and hears a whispered phone call from a woman he is to meet that night. Is he having an affair?
When Lisa shares her suspicion with her best friend, Deirdre, at their weekly breakfast, Deirdre claims it can't be true. But how can Lisa fully trust her opinion when Deirdre is still single and mired in an obsessive affair with a glamorous photographer even as it hovers on the edge of danger?
When Deirdre's former college flame, Jack, comes to town and the two couples meet to celebrate his fortieth birthday, the stage is set for an explosive series of discoveries with devastating consequences.
Filles with suspence and provocative questions about the relationships we value most, Best Intentions is a tightly woven drama of love, friendship and betrayal.
Tightrope: Six Centuries of a Jewish Dynasty
by Michael Karpin
In 1350, a column of wagons crawled east across Europe from Germany to the Carpathian Mountains. Its passengers were the latest Jewish family forced to undertake this arduous journey to escape the horrors of the bubonic plague and the merciless persecution of Jews that accompanied it. Though they couldn't know it at the time, they were living through the first chapter of a sweeping family saga that has spanned more than six centuries and dozens of generations and includes some of the most important events in Jewish history.
In Tightrope, journalist Michael Karpin tells the incredible true story of the Backenroths, who, though swept by the tides of history into strange lands, complex situations, repeatedly demonstrated remarkable resourcefulness, tenacity, and talent in their struggle to survive - and they would need them all.
Drawing on nearly twenty years of research that includes accounts from official records, personal diaries, fading newspaper stories, and interviews with Backenroth descendents around the world, Karpin narrates this riveting tale from the moment when, not welcome in the town of Drohobych in Galicia, where their fellow Jews were wary of newcomers, the Backenroths moved a short distance away and built their own village. In the shtetly they called Schodnica, they established a public house and maintained a family seat for the next six centuries. From Schodnica, the Backenroths would take part in and witness such momentous events as the birth of the Hasidic movement; the vicious pogroms of 1648-1649; the discovery of oil in Galicia, which transformed them from hard-working innkeepers to one of the wealthiest families in the area; and the rise of Zionism. Through the centuries, their string belief in Judaism and family kept them wedded to their community in times of prosperity and destitution, power and peril.
As happened with so many Jewish families, the Backenroths were nearly wiped out in the Holocaust. Those few who survived showed astounding wit, courage, and determination as they not only saved themselves and other family members, but contributed to the battle against the Nazis in many different ways. The stories of the wartime exploits of Naftali Backenroth, Ullo Kahane, and others are among the most compelling and inspiring Holocaust survival tales you will ever read.
The Backenroths were extraordinary in many ways, but their precarious existence in a land where they were sometimes welcome and often despised mirrors that of millions of Eastern European Jews over the centuries. Tightrope is more than the incredible tale of a single family; is it a portal into a lost world that still plays a powerful role in Jewish tradition, culture, and aspiration.
The Late, Lamented Molly Marx
by Sally Koslow
The circumstances of Molly Marx's death may be suspicious, but she hasn't lost her joie de vivre. Newly arrived in the hereafter, aka the Duration, Molly, thirty-five years old, is delighted to discover that she can still keep tabs on those left behind: Annabel, her beloved four-year-old daughter; Lucy, her combustible twin sister; Kitty, her piece-of-work mother-in-law; Brie, her beautiful and steadfast best friend; and, of course, her husband, Barry, a plastic surgeon with more than a professional interest in many of his female patients. As a bonus, Molly quickly realizes that the afterlife comes with a finely tuned bullshit detector.
As Molly looks on, her loved ones try to discern whether her death was an accident, suicide, or murder. She was last seen alive leaving for a bike ride through New York City's Riverside Park; her body was found lying on the bank of the Hudson River. Did a stranger lure Molly to danger? Did she plan to meet someone she thought she could trust? Could she have ended her own life for mysterious reasons, or did she simply lose control of her bike? As the police question her circle of intimates, Molly relives the years and days that led up to her sudden end: her marriage, troubled yet tender; her charmed work life as a magazine decorating editor; and the irresistible colleague to whom she was drawn
More than anything, Molly finds herself watching over Annabel - and realizing how motherhood helped to bring out her very best self. As the investigation into her death proceeds, Molly will relive her most precious moments - and take responsibility for the choices in her life.
Exploring the bonds of fidelity, family, and friendship, and narrated by a memorable and endearing character, The Late, Lamented Molly Marx is a hilarious, deeply moving, and thought-provoking novel that is part mystery, part love story, and all heart.
These are simply wonderful (and rather diverse) books and I have every intention of finishing them! But I would be the last to hide from you that I hate that it takes me so long to do so. I feel guilty and sad for taking so long, and I can only recommend each and every one of them! (Yes, I dare say so before turning the last page, because trust me, I would not still work on them if I felt they didn't deserve my time!)
by Andrew Davidson in the book club section. I would be glad if you joined us!