If you are a faithful Great Thoughts reader, you know by now that summer is MY time! (If you aren’t a faithful Great Thoughts reader, get with the program!) I recently had the opportunity to review two books by two HUGE authors, both favorites of mine.
1. Escape by Barbara Delinsky- This book comes out this week and I suggest you run to download or purchase a hard copy. I anxiously awaited this book as I LOVED Delinsky’s last book, Not My Daughter. (If you haven’t read it and you have daughters, go read it! It is a scary proposition when several teenage girls take a pregnancy pact. The paperback just came out.)
Escape is equally good but covers different subject matter. The book starts with this, “Have you ever woken up in a cold sweat, thinking that you’ve taken a wrong turn and are stuck in a life you don’t want? Did you ever consider hitting the brakes, backing up and heading elsewhere?”
As only Delinsky can masterfully do, the plot unfolds in the first three pages of the book and you are hooked to see what happens to Emily, the 32 year old protagonist who is stuck in a rut. Emily and her husband are yuppie attorneys, working round the clock to support the brownstone they bought and living what they thought was their dream.
Emily realizes that the dream just isn’t working for her and literally leaves work and her husband to “Escape.” Delinsky makes Emily’s escape extremely believable. She doesn’t run away and have a romance. She runs away to friends she has neglected and must make amends. Her husband finds her and together they find a way back to each other.
I truly enjoyed this book and await the next Barbara Delinsky.
Doubleday provided a review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
2. Summer Friends by Holly Chamberlin- Chamberlin is another of my favorite authors. Her books are inevitable good reads. Summer Friends is no exception. It also covers an escape.
I LOVE the quote that starts this book:
“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Delphine and Maggie are friends as children, playing in the summers in Maine. Delphine is a local while Maggie is the privileged child whose family rents a summer house yearly. Delphine and Maggie go to college together and lose touch soon thereafter. Delphine goes back to work on the family farm while Maggie gets an MBA, marries a well to do attorney and has two kids and an upscale life.
Maggie returns to the island 20 years later. She tries to immediately rekindle her friendship with Delphine but finds that it will take time. Their lives are very different.
“She had been hoping for a light meal of chilled oysters on a restaurant patio overlooking the ocean. Instead, she was perched precariously on an ancient piece of outdoor furniture, being offered a sandwich the size of her head.”
I think everyone can relate to wanting to reconnect with a dear childhood friend and Chamberlin as always does a skillful job of telling the story!
Kensington Books provided a review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
What are you reading and where are you going?