Wow!

I happened to pick up Indiscretion by Charles Dubow.  I had seen it written up and the reviews were good so I decided to dig in and read it.  I had no idea what I was in for.

Indiscretion is about a group of friends.  At the core of the group is Harry Winslow, a best-selling author, his wife Maddy, Maddy's best friend Walter (who narrates the story) and Claire, a young woman the friends meet one summer.

It is when they meet Claire that their lives will be forever changed.  It is a gripping story and you don't want to put it down.  The story is based in the Hamptons, New York City, Paris and Rome.

I don't want to give away the story but the end is so good that I was reading on the treadmill and felt my knees buckle.  I had goosebumps all over my body.

If you are looking for a good book with lots of great characters, this is it.  This a bookclub book for sure.  The characters are all multi-dimensional and the conversations would be very interesting.

The List-Skip it!

I was looking for something to read that wasn't too intense and had seen The List mentioned in one of the newsletters I subscribe to.  I decided to pick it up.  It is about a young woman (Adrienne Brown) that leaves her position as a writer for Town & Country's style section in New York, to return to her childhood home in Virginia and work for a political magazine in DC.

While the story was funny at times, I couldn't get into the characters.  There really wasn't one I can say I truly liked.  Adrienne annoyed me.  I found her to be a bit pathetic and needy.  I was very turned off by her desire for a married man.  I don't want to give too much away, in case you do want to read it, but I would strongly urge you to find another book.  This one was a real waste of time (and money).

The Aviator's Wife

I recently finished reading Melanie Benjamin's The Aviator's Wife  The book, while a novel, is based on Anne and Charles Lindbergh's lives.  While reading, I was thinking about having read The Paris Wife and Loving Frank.  These are also books based on real people but are fictional.  The later being my favorite of the three.

The Aviator's Wife tells the story from Anne Morrow Lindbergh's point of view.  The book begins with them meeting for the first time and ends when Charles dies.  What comes in between is quite interesting.  These people led a very public life, not by choice, but public nonetheless.  The similarities to their challenges with the media and paparazzi, rivals today's stars.  When their firstborn is kidnapped, their lives lives and their relationship changes forever.

While I liked this book, I couldn't stand Charles Lindbergh!  I thought he was a selfish man and really wonder how much is actually fiction and how much is true.  I now find myself wanting to research more about both Charles and Anne.