Category: women’s fiction

Book Related Topics, Fiction, Historical, LGBT, literary fiction, Memoirs, romance, women's fiction

3 for 1 Book Reviews

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It’s been a minute, so figured I’d do a three-fer before the year runs out. The reviews features a beloved author, a memoir and a Booker Prize winner.

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid: If you have been a long time reader of the blog then you know how much I love me some TJR, in fact I ranked all her books here. I was excited to read this one but it pains me to say that it didn’t hit the way the other books did. One of the things I like about TJR as an author is how versatile she is and how she doesn’t have a formulaic writing style. This one centered around Joan who is an astronaut. Based in the 80’s it showed how she had to fight to be recognized in her field but it was also a book about Joan’s sexuality at a time when she couldn’t necessarily be loud and proud. In hindsight, seeing how much praise this book has received, I am wondering if I’m the problem. Now don’t get me wrong, the book was not bad at all but I do think it was all over the place. There were so many storylines and timelines and didn’t seem well put together as is typical of TJR. It took me a minute to get all the characters right and remember their respective timelines. It also felt like I was being forced or told what to feel and I’d rather it be organic.

Flesh by Davis Szalay: FOMO got the best of me, and I had to see what all the fuss was about and even after reading it, I still don’t get it. Listen y’all, I am trying to get used to this new wave of abstract writing. The book follows Istvan from when he was a teenager in Hungary where he experiences something traumatic and then we follow him to London as he gets older and lives a completely different life, almost as if the incident never happened. As he gets older and has all these different experiences, I keep thinking they would have some connection to each other but the more there didn’t seem to be one, the more confused I got about what the point was. I do think it is a very character driven book (which aren’t usually my favorite) so that could be the explanation for that but if the character didn’t seem to be processing all the things that were happening to him and doesn’t seem to care, it’s very hard for us the readers to be invested and care as well. The ending felt like walking into a glass door because I didn’t realize that was the end. It was very abrupt. Someone needs to explain to me why this was the winner of the prize.

Accidentally on Purpose by Kristen Kish: Kristen from Top Chef fame wrote a memoir and she is such a lovely person (and a hottie) and that was probably most people’s motivations for reading this book and unfortunately it was just okay. I know everyone wants to write a memoir but if you are not willing to be VERY open or share salacious details then it’s okay to just leave it in your journal. Kristen does the thing where you share but you aren’t really sharing anything. Even when she gets to certain points, she doesn’t name names. You do get the sentiment of the title where it feels like everything just fell into place for her in her career, even though she has the talent, there was still a great deal of luck on her side, and I appreciate her owning that because sometimes successful people feel like admitting luck diminishes their hard work. I also liked how she admitted not having a desire to find her bio parents (she is adopted) and not really looking into her Korean roots until later in life. Kristen does share her deep love for her wife, and you can see it come through. There is a point in the book where she is talking about her and we hear sniffles and honestly, it felt put on (don’t hate me!). I don’t think there should be one formula for a chef’s memoir, but I will say that there wasn’t that deeeeeep passion for food that you usually hear from other chefs, and it just seemed like something that’s part of her life. It felt like there was more of a passion for hosting (and that’s okay). I listened to this on audio. Overall, I don’t think it was terrible, but I don’t think it was very good either.

So there you have it. Have you read any of this? What did you think? Do you want to check out any of this after reading these reviews? Let me know!

Taynement

Chick-Lit, Fiction, romance, women's fiction

Book Review: Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

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“It occurs to me then that in my effort to be positive, optimistic, and understanding, I might’ve made myself into an unreliable narrator of sorts, someone who can’t easily be trusted not to sugarcoat things.”

Alice Scott is an eternal optimist who is trying to get a big break in her writing career. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning writer who wrote the biography of a very famous singer dying of cancer and is now the most sought after biography writer in the world. Margaret Ives used to be a famous tabloid star born into one of the most storied and scandalous families of the 20th century who ended up marrying a very famous rock star and then disappearing from the limelight after his death. Margaret invites Alice and Hayden for a one-month trial period at Little Crescent Island to compete to write her story after which, she will choose the person who’ll tell her story.

I was a bit hesitant to begin this one because I had come across criticism about how this one isn’t as good as the other ones, so I went into it with trepidation. A lot of people think this book should not be sold as romance but as women’s fiction because they think the romance was not the point of the book. I actually agree with them, but I also think this is why this book worked for me so much. I really enjoyed Margaret’s story a lot. I loved listening to her family’s history, how the tabloid fame came about, her sister’s story and her love life. I think balancing her story with Alice and Hayden’s interactions on the island worked for me. The mystery of why they both were selected made this book compelling to read.

Alice is the typical manic pixie optimistic female characters that we are so used to in romance books while Hayden is the typical smart and grumpy yet soft for the female, protagonist male character that we are so used to in romance books. Did I still enjoy them? Yes. But I think I enjoyed them because they were barely on the page. I enjoyed the forced proximity, the small-town temporary living, the hometown visit, and the baring their souls to each other in order to fall in love tropes. Also, Alice falls in love too quickly with Hayden and if I had to read more of their romance than what Henry gives us, I think I would have been annoyed.

Emily Henry releases a book every year and I think it might be time for her to slow down. I enjoyed this one, but I think if it was purely romance as all her other books have been, I wouldn’t have. Also, there really isn’t much to say about this book but I’m reviewing it because I have reviewed all her other books and want to stay a completist. All in all, I gave this one 3 stars on Goodreads.

Leggy

african author, african stories, Black Authors, Fiction, literary fiction, romance, We Chit Chat, women's fiction

We Chit Chat: My Parents’ Marriage by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond

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Leggy – I’d never heard of this book before you asked for us to read this together. Also, I thought it was a nonfiction book about the author’s parents’ marriage, and I went into it without knowing anything about it.

Taynement – Yeah, I saw it on Instagram from a follower, and it looked interesting. I love me an African family drama plot. I found it quite interesting, not necessarily because of the writing but more from the human psychology aspect.

Leggy – I ended up finding it deeply fascinating. Also, this book is compulsively readable.

Taynement – Yes! I found it to be such an easy read.

Leggy – I started it yesterday and finished it in 24 hours. It’s hard to put down.

Taynement – The author kept it simple and didn’t overwrite it which I think you would expect because of the complexity of the subject matter. To break it down – the book centers around Mawuli Nuga and how his sexual indiscipline affected his many families, but the story is told through one of his children – Kokui and how her quest to beat the cycle of her father’s actions landed her into a different kind of cycle.

Leggy – Yes, she kept it simple and actually showed you the story, the family and the men without having to spell it out to the readers. She didn’t hit you over the head with any agenda.

Taynement – The book does start with a family tree which means nothing to you before you read the book but makes all the sense when you’re in it.

Leggy – Yeah, I skipped that family tree. It’s just like fantasy books that start with a map. I never study those. I think that if you do your job well, then I’ll know what is in the family tree or in the map after I’ve read your book.

Taynement – Like I always say when we do this, I always wonder how non-Africans ingest a book like this because it makes sense to us, but it must seem so strange and bizarre to them. Mawuli kept making babies and swapping wives like underwear with nary a thought of how they felt. We see the different ways the wives/mothers handled it with Kokui’s mother choosing to go back to her home country but choosing to still stay a legal wife for her children.

Leggy – And then accepting him as a husband once a year when he comes down with the kids for Christmas.

Taynement – While the current wife chose to ignore his indiscretions with the hope of getting his assets upon his death. Thing is, it’s so common for Africans to find out they have outside siblings that I can see how Mawuli didn’t bat an eyelid.

Leggy – Nothing about their dad even fazed me.

Taynement – Children are a sign of success.

Leggy – And he accepted and trained every single child, even the older Antony guy who he disowned. He still paid his way to London and paid his fees till he dropped out.

Taynement – The main fascination of this book was Kokui. Before we get into her, I did wonder why the author chose to make her sister a side character and not do a side by side.

Leggy – I’m glad we just focused on one person. I think a side by side might have made the book more bloated, but I also think she just wanted us to follow one person and see if the person can break the cycle.

Taynement – That’s fair. It was just a floating thought.

Leggy – It’s so easy to run your mouth about all the ways your parents are doing life wrong until you’re having to make those same choices.

Taynement – Kokui was so determined to not be her mum and thought her mum was basically an idiot which I understand, but what I didn’t understand was the swiftness in which she wanted to marry her husband. It was so immature and… idiotic?

Leggy – I actually didn’t think her mum was an idiot. I understand why her mum stayed. Her mum thought her staying would secure her children’s inheritance. Their mother told them that their dad promised her that one of the two of her girls would be appointed to run his company. She felt like she had made a shitty choice in marrying him and was trying to salvage it as best as she could. But yes, I found Kokui to be such a dumb and stupid character. I also went from not liking Boris to being as irritated as him about Kokui’s decisions and naivete.

Taynement – I think she was immature and tunnel visioned. You have to remember that she was privileged. A privileged kid who didn’t seem to realize how privileged she was. She thought her father’s indiscretions gave her a ticket to say she had a hard life. Which part annoyed you the most?

Leggy – The way she kept saying she wanted a job that would give her a spark. Like girl, you are working in New York illegally. Where would you get that job?

Taynement – Lol. Again, naive. What did you think of Boris in the NYC days?

Leggy – I understood him completely. He was being realistic about their lives. They needed to save. Also, he made the right decision not to rent an apartment for those first 6 months before they left for school but to stay on Sammy’s couch. That’s how they saved so much money. Also, Kokui staying and helping out with babysitting was always the logical thing to do.

Taynement – So even before they left for New York, I think there was an underbelly to Boris. He wanted the benefits of her dad but was uncomfortable with it.

Leggy – I felt that from the second they met. That’s why I was so annoyed by her being so fascinated with him. You could tell there was an anger at her for having an easier life. Also, her desperation to marry him and to have a better marriage than her parents was insane. I would think the more logical thing would be not to marry at all. Why did she not dread getting married? Why did she run so fast towards it?

Taynement – Indoctrination. She thinks she’s so above it all but could not fathom rebelling against the norm by just not getting married. Another aspect I found fascinating is they both disagreed on a lot of things but were on the same page when it came to kids.

Leggy – That was such a relief that they were on the same page with kids and even birth control. Imagine bringing a kid into that and overcomplicating the relationship before you’ve had a chance to figure out how it’s all supposed to work. Also, at least Boris was hardworking and smart. Honestly, my fear was that he would become abusive. That’s also why I liked this book so much. It wasn’t cliche in the way I was expecting.

Taynement – Yes, exactly. His deference to Sammy annoyed me.

Leggy – I think he was just grateful to how much Sammy helped them those first 6 months in New York City. Do you think Kokui succeeded in having a marriage better than her parents?

Taynement – I think it was too soon to tell and another tick for the author for me. I like how she didn’t make Boris bad or good and truly showed the complexities of a relationship. I was fully with Kokui wanting to leave but then her seeing that he was ambitious and was there for her through the big thing that happened, it wasn’t so clear cut. I honestly didn’t consider her parents’ marriage a marriage. It was an arrangement. At least Kokui and Boris cared for each other.

Leggy – I think it was a marriage. Remember they were together for 12 long years before the big reveal which then led to the rift that we see in the book. I agree with you about Kokui and Boris’ marriage. I like that it wasn’t black and white, it was very complex. And nobody is ever going to give you that perfect marriage. There are things that should be deal breakers and then you should just try to live with the ones that are not.

Taynement – I actually think they can make it work. They need time, maturity and money.

Leggy – Yes, I think their marriage is going to be fine. It won’t be the fairytale marriage she envisioned but it will have the messiness of what a real life actually consists of.

Taynement – Were there aspects of the book you didn’t like?

Leggy – Honestly when I started this book, I was so annoyed by the characters but after finishing it, I just felt like there was no misplaced word. All the things I thought I did not like from the beginning became a piece to the puzzle that we could not do without. I didn’t think it was the best written book ever, but it told a very simple story in a compelling way.

Taynement – Yes, the bones of the story were good enough to get away with such simple writing. Would you recommend this to someone?

Leggy – Yes but honestly probably just to other Africans.

Taynement – Ha. If we do have any non-African readers, I’d love to know your thoughts on this book.

Black Authors, Chick-Lit, Fiction, literary fiction, race, romance, women's fiction

Book Review: Can’t Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan

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“The world isn’t designed for women like me. Women who’d rather be single literally for years than settle for a partner not worthy of her”

The third of the Skyland series, this story focuses on Hendrix Barry. Hendrix is a great friend, a good daughter, thriving in her career in the entertainment industry and is also happily single with no interest in having kids. Everything is going well until her mom is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. As Hendrix is trying to adjust to this new reality she meets Maverick Bell.

Maverick Bell is a tech billionaire fresh off a public breakup from a relationship that ended because he doesn’t want any more kids. He is also still grieving the loss of his grandfather to Alzheimer’s as well. The two meet at a party hosted by his ex-girlfriend and it’s an instant connection and attraction. Seems easy but one catch is Maverick’s ex-girlfriend, Zeze have a budding friendship and is Hendrix’s business partner for an upcoming TV show. Does Hendrix stay loyal to a new friend or pursue this once in a lifetime connection? (spoiler alert: she chooses the man)

“Last night, was Maverick asking me to give up my dreams? Or asking to run with me while I chase them?”

I like Kennedy Ryan’s writing and this was no different. Ryan finds a way to infuse real life into romance with a sprinkling of steamy and a dash of fantasy living and this book is no different. As someone who doesn’t really read romance, she serves it in a way that I can digest. We get to read the book from both Maverick and Hendrix’s view point and it was good to know what the other was thinking. Ryan made sure to let us know that she had first hand experience with Alzheimer’s and I think she did a good job of showing how much this disease affects a family both from the person who has it and the caretakers involved. I appreciated how much care she took with the subject matter.

“You said being whole means acknowledging all our parts. And that there were parts of me that wanted to be held, want to be needed and loved.”

Ryan has always been consistent with her characters cherishing strong friendships where the women are always there for each other and encourage each other and I appreciate it. Another thing she did in this book was provide representation for curvy women who are confident in their body and a man who appreciated it. Hendrix is also a woman who was not opposed to being partnered and lived a full life and I liked how it was okay for her to pursue that when she met someone she considered a partner. Her choice to not have children was also good to remind people that it is possible to have that choice.

“I want you to believe that. Every love isn’t forever. We can love people along the way. Relationships can begin and then end.”

Now I liked this book and as a stand alone it is good but I think I’ll say this was the weakest of the trilogy as it was formulaic for me. I am not knocking Ryan for finding a formula that works – Protagonist meets man, there is mucho attraction, they overcome obstacles and decide to jump in, they have hot sex, there is usually an illness/death (which I know she draws from personal experience) and then they live happily ever after with lots of hot, steamy sex. But not without the love and support of good family and good friends – but by the third book the novelty has worn off for me and I know what to expect.

As with most romance novels, I think you have to suspend disbelief for certain things for the story to move along. Some may consider dating the ex of an associate a little messy but maybe the whole point was sometimes you have to be selfish and go for what you want. Overall, it’s a book with a lil’ something for everyone and it works. It’s just that I wanted to love it but only ended up liking it enough.

Taynement

Fiction, literary fiction, women's fiction

Book Review – You Will Never Be Me by Jesse Q. Sutanto

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“What’s in a name? Well. A name is the beginning of your brand, so, what’s in a name?”

Meredith is a mid-level influencer who meets Aspen at a party. A newbie who is trying to break into the music business. Meredith takes her under her wing, gives her a makeover and tips and the two become best friends. Aspen meets Ben, they get married, have three kids including “instagrammable” twins and Aspen finds her niche as a momfluencer and surpasses Meredith as an influencer. The two have a falling out, Meredith finds one of Aspen’s kids iPad that has her schedule and proceeds to sabotage Aspen. Aspen has no idea all this is happening and is wondering why her life is falling apart. Meredith goes missing and it opens up a well of secrets.

“I learned long ago to stop apologizing so much for everything”

Sometimes, a book doesn’t have to be on all of the lists and have all the bells and whistles that make it complicated. It could just be a simple thriller with all the right components and that’s what this book was for me. I am notorious for saying that most thrillers don’t thrill me but I was thrilled by this. I liked that it was centered around the culturally relevant world of social media/influencing and the pressures of keeping up appearances that come with it. Sutanto painted a clear picture of the behind the scenes of being an influencer and curating a perfect life.

“The only reason crazy bitches exist is because there’s always some asshole gaslighting us into losing our shit”

Sutanto also does a good job of streamlining so many topics so it didn’t feel convoluted. She made sure to get to the point and didn’t drag out plot points. This was one of the rare times where the pain of unlikeable characters didn’t overshadow the book. I was able to enjoy the book even though the characters were terrible people. It was also great to read a book where the lead characters were Asian and their race was not made to be a central point. The characters were allowed to breathe and just be human beings.

“America is obsessed with beautiful missing women.”

There is a twist in the book that some may call predictable but I wasn’t expecting it and I actually gasped. After the twist, everything felt like a speed chase but a fun one. There are other mini storylines and I enjoyed that the chapters alternated between both women’s POV. This is my first book by Sutanto and she definitely left a great impression on me. I definitely recommend.

Taynement

Fiction, literary fiction, women's fiction

Book Review: Here One Moment by Lianne Moriarty

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“I have noticed that even people who claim everything is predestined and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road”

It was supposed to be a short, domestic, uneventful flight from Hobart to Sydney. We meet the passengers boarding the plance and get a short description of various characters. All of a sudden mid-flight, an older lady starts walking through the aisles, pointing at passengers and telling them their cause of death and the age at which they will die.

Some had long life predictions (we’re talking over a 100) and some had predictions that were round the corner. No one was spared because even the little baby got a drowning prediction in a few years. It was all a joke to everyone as the woman seemed to be in a dream like state and when she got back to her seat and asked for water, it seemed like a case of dehydration till a few month later, the first prediction comes true…exactly as she said it.

“You won’t necessarily win against fate, but you should at least put up a fight”

Once the lady, whose name is Cherry by the way, started giving the predictions, my anxiety shot all the way up because I imagined being trapped in the air and someone giving me unsolicited information about how and when I will die but once the first prediction happened, I was hooked. And was hooked to the very end. In the Moriarty books I’ve read, it usually takes her a while to get us to the point so having the premise from the get go was a welcome pleasant surprise.

“Everyone loves a particular version of you, and when that person is gone, that version goes with them.”

Moriarty did her big one here because the development of the story was great. We go back in and learn about Cherry, who is the main character and we learn about her upbringing and her life till the moment on the plane. Her mother being a clairvoyant was definitely an interesting tid bit. At the same time, we get to know a couple of characters who were also on the plane. We get to know more about their life and to make it even sweeter, Moriarty drops little easter eggs here and there that show connections among the characters.

“La vita va veloce: this life goes fast, much faster than time”

Part of getting to know the other characters involves how they react once the predictions start coming true. It was interesting to see how some were still cavalier about the whole thing while others took it very seriously and went over the edge convincing themselves that they could control their fate. I liked the balance of light and breezy and thought provoking because some story lines explore what could have been with certain life choices chosen or not chosen.

I always say Moriarty is an overrated writer and I can’t believe it but I enjoyed thisone and I would recommend. Because it’s quite intriguing, the pages go by fast. If you have read this one, what did you think?

Taynement

Black Authors, literary fiction, race, women's fiction

Book Review: Hold My Girl by Charlene Carr

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Tess and Katherine are two women who could not be any more different but they have one thing in common, they both desperately want to have a child. Katherine is married and has spent most of her life trying to be perfect, obsessing over her home and family looking perfect. The one thing that’s missing is a child. Tess is recently divorced, estranged from her family and generally unhappy. Both women underwent IVF a year ago at the same hospital. Katherine’s resulted in a baby girl, while Tess had a stillborn.

A year later, Katherine is about to celebrate her daughter, Rose’s first birthday while Tess is still grieving her loss. Katherine, who is biracial (half black/half white) has been harboring a secret fear due to her daughter’s pale skin and bright blue eyes and her fear is confirmed when both women receive a call from the fertility clinic letting them know that their eggs were switched. This starts the story of one woman’s life falling apart while the other thinks it’s a start of a new life for her and Carr takes us on a journey for the battle for Rose.

This book had me thinking hard – in a good way! I really enjoyed it. For me, it was a unique story in that I haven’t read anything with this storyline and that in itself is surprising as it seems like a very likely thing to happen. There were so many layers to the story that I cannot give away without spoilers but I truly kept going back and forth on who has the right to Rose? What makes a mother? One person carried her to term and raised her for a year but the other is biologically her mother.

The author is a black Canadian woman and I expected more in terms of Katherine’s race and how it played into the battle – in court and within her husband’s family. I also wish we got as much of Katherine’s parents as we did of her husband’s family. That being said, Tess was fully developed and we definitely understood every facet of her life and what made her who she is today. Carr did a good job of navigating multiple narratives with multiple characters and also time spans without it feeling bogged down.

While I highly recommend this book, I do want to let you know that there are some trigger warnings with topics of rape and infertility. Ultimately the book is about motherhood. Being able to be one, the journey to being one, the longing to be one when your body betrays you and all the side effects it comes with. This book is definitely one that would be a great one to discuss with others.

Taynement

Chick-Lit, Fiction, romance, women's fiction

Book Review: Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan

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“When I’m quiet I can hear my heart yearning for impossible things. I want a perfectly pared-down home, and I want to hang on to every scrap of the past. I want a break from my kids without missing a single minute of their lives. I long for a partnership, and I long for freedom. I long to be enmeshed with someone without losing myself. I want all of it.”

Ali is trying to start living life again. It’s been two years since her mother died and one year since her husband left her. She has decided it’s time to take off her wedding ring, actually go through the divorce and start living life again. So, no one is more surprised than Ali when the first time she takes off her wedding ring, she meets someone. Ethan is completely taken by her after her dog pees on him at the dog park. After a weird ending to a first date, Ali discovers his identity and decides to have a fun summer with him and then move on. Everyone loves a summer romance: it’s always fun and ends just in time for no one to get their heart broken.

“It’s a lot easier to work through other people’s problems. I think I must be very attached to my own.”

Annabel Monaghan wrote one of my favorite romance books of 2022 – Nora Goes Off Script which we reviewed on the blog. Her follow up, Same Time Next Summer, I thought was not as good as her previous offerings. I reviewed it on Instagram when it came out last year (follow us on Instagram – nightstands2) and found it quite juvenile. I think with this her latest offering, she has returned to what I liked most about her writing in Nora Goes Off Script. I think Monaghan is at her best when her characters are matured and have lived life. She writes women who are leaving old love and meeting news ones very well. Also, she writes kids really well. The kids in her book are never annoying or obnoxious in a way that makes you wonder who is the kid and who is the parent.

“I am the architect of my own experience.”

Everyone knows romance novels follow the same formular. Two people meet, they fall in love, something happens in the last 20% of the book to drive them apart and then they resolve it and live happily ever after. One thing I liked about Summer Romance is that what is going to keep them apart is immediately obvious and not dumb at all. So, I never felt that dread of getting to about 80% of the book and suddenly a misunderstanding pop up and drives the couple apart. It’s a summer romance, we know it’s destined to end after the summer. Ethan the main character should have been more annoying to me, but I think I liked Ali way too much to be annoyed by him. I just wanted her to be happy and if she loved it, I loved it too.

“And now I can never unknow the truest true thing – the intensity of the love you feel will match the intensity of its loss. This is practically physics.”

Her relationship with her ex-husband and all the ways she let herself go in the marriage was fascinating to read. I really enjoyed those parts of the book. It is fascinating to see the many ways marriage is sustained by community and how it ultimately fell apart after Ali’s mother was no longer there to pick up the parts of the marriage that her ex-husband refused to be an equal partner of. Anyway, I quite enjoyed it. It’s an easy book to get through. It is well written and a good book to read during the summer. I gave this one 3 stars on Goodreads.

Leggy

Black Authors, celebrity memoir, Memoirs, race, women's fiction

Book Review: Leslie F*cking Jones by Leslie Jones

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“You are with yourself every day, all day, all night—might as well like yourself.”

Leslie Jones is a comedian who is best known for her role on SNL for a couple of years. This memoir describes her life – from her childhood growing up in the South with a military father, her early high school and college days playing basketball, her early stand-up days driving from gig to gig and living from paycheck to paycheck to being cast on SNL which came because of a Chris Rock recommendation. I did this book on audio and I’m going to be reviewing this book on audio because I’m pretty sure this book on audio is very different from the printed book. For context, the printed book is 288 pages, the audio is 17 hours of Leslie just telling you, her story. It’s a long podcast filled with streams of consciousness and sometimes she even says – “I don’t think this was in the book but let me tell you about that time when…”.

“My talent can take me anywhere I want to go. I’m not conceited or cocky. I’m just convinced.”

I knew nothing about Leslie before I picked up this book. I’ve never heard any of her comedy and I don’t even watch SNL. I just know her as a public figure who was on SNL. So, I definitely went into this one completely blind about her story. Leslie grew up in the South with very young parents. Her parents got married when they were 18 and tried to do the best they could with what they had. Leslie’s ability to keep moving forward no matter what happened to her is very inspiring to listen to. She talks about her coming to the realization that she was black and a dark-skinned black girl at that and always asking her father if she was beautiful. She talks about hoping that her success will convince people who look like her to just keep going and that it gets better on the other side of being a grown up.

“I remember hearing Diana Ross once say, “Know who you are because if you don’t, they will make you what they want.”

Leslie is a very complicated person. There are a lot of things that I didn’t agree with, but I respect the fact that Leslie was always herself. Win or lose, she was always going to do it her own way and that takes a lot of courage to decide that who you are is enough. Did I listen to some of the stories and think she overreacted? Yes. Do I also think that it’s problematic that I think a dark-skinned black woman needs to tone it down? Absolutely. There is a lot of things living in America makes you internalize, and Leslie has internalized none of that. She tells you story after story of her trying to navigate her career – the things she did wrong and the things she got right. Consistently calling people out who she felt disrespected her because she’s a woman or because she’s black.

“I knew I wasn’t going to have children as far back as when as I was twelve. I am not a pain person. You’re telling me you’re going to pull a whole human out of my pussy? (For a start, I’m going to need more than six weeks off.) We saw a film in health class called something like The Beauty of Childbirth—but all I saw was hideous shit. What’s beautiful about snatching a baby out of a woman’s ass? The fuck? My cousin Rhonda even delivered a baby in our house, and I remember that there was so much blood…
None of this was going to happen to me.”

Leslie talks about her decision to not have kids. The abortions she had before going into planned parenthood for some much-needed sex education so that she could prevent getting pregnant. She was with one of her partners for a very long time and he wanted kids, but she was sure that if she stayed with him, she would be stuck and not achieve her dreams. Also, his mother hated her, and she got tired of the disrespect and left him. But as soon as she got pregnant the first time, she knew she was never going to be a mother. She knows that her mother would be disappointed about her decision to never have kids especially now that she has the resources to actually afford them but it’s a decision she made with clear eyes and has never regretted.

“He’s a grown-ass man. If you don’t watch out, you’re both gonna die—you’re both gonna sink in that same boat.”

Leslie talks about the complicated relationship she had with her father who wanted so bad for them to make something of themselves. She talks about her now deceased brother who was deep into selling crack during the crack epidemic in California. One of her regrets is that none of her family is here to reap the benefits of her success. As she describes her father, you get the feeling that she is hoping that her audience doesn’t judge him too harshly. She talks about how great he was when she was young and how he always told her she was gorgeous but also told her that she is a woman and black and she would have to fight hard to get anything in this world. You can tell that Leslie feels guilty that she chose herself unlike her brother who was stuck trying to take care of an alcoholic father. She was single minded in the pursuit of her career.

“The world’s not going to stop for that shit. This doesn’t define who you are. Don’t make this the focus of your life. There’s always going to be hurt before you get to the right place.”

All in all, I loved listening to this book, and it made me actually laugh out loud. So many times, I would stop and send Tayne a voicemail of something that I found incredibly funny. Like Leslie asking her therapist if she’s promiscuous because she was sexually abused when she was young and her therapist asking her if she’s considered that maybe she’s just a slut. It made me laugh so much because Leslie was like – you know what? you’re right. Anyway, I recommend this book and wish Leslie Jones continued success in all her endeavors. I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads.

Leggy

Chick-Lit, dystopian, Fantasy, literary fiction, Magical Realism, romance, women's fiction

Book Review: The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

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“You can’t stay married to someone forever just because they climb out of your attic one afternoon.”

Lauren returns to her flat in London late one night to be greeted by her husband, Michael. There is only one problem – she’s not married. She’s never seen Michael in her life. But according to her neighbors, friends and family, this is her husband, they’ve been together for years. As Lauren tries to make sense of this situation, Michael goes up the attic to change the bulb. In his place, a new man emerges from the attic and a slightly altered life re-forms around her. Realizing that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands, Lauren has to decide what truly matters to her in a man. How do you decide to stick with what you currently have if there is a chance that better could be coming down from the attic? When do you stop trying to get better?

“She has always thought of her willingness to go along with things, her outsourcing of decisions to friends and circumstance, as passivity, not courage. But observed and described by this man she likes so much, she can almost believe in herself as someone with an audacious spirit.”

This book was my pick for Book of the Month in April and the description intrigued me. When I finally picked it up, it was a fast but exhausting read. Reading Lauren continuously go through man after man was insane. It tired me out. I can’t even begin to imagine what Lauren felt living it. I think Gramazio achieved what she set out to do with this book. I also found the attic to be a metaphor for dating apps or dating in general, when do you decide to settle with good enough? Is there always going to be better? When do you make a decision and stick to it and see how far that decision takes you and your partner until it ends, or it doesn’t? If you can switch out men for eternity, what determines when you stop?

“In the years before the first husband emerged from the attic, she had felt the burden of long singleness lying upon her. Being happy to be single had felt obligatory, a statement of feminism or autonomy or just a way to head off coupled friends who she didn’t want feeling sorry for her. The weight of that requirement had made it difficult, sometimes, to figure out how she really felt.”

Another thing I loved that Gramazio demonstrated was the autonomy of the other person to also decide to not be with you. Even though, Lauren sent man after man back into attic, there were men that she thought she could be with who unknowingly went back to the attic and out came a completely new person. In the end, it wasn’t just up to Lauren to make a decision, you can make a decision and the other person can decide that they don’t want you or life happens, and the relationship just doesn’t work out. Even when Lauren decides to stop exchanging the men, the men had to make the decision to also stick with her and also the attic kept luring them back in.

“She’s chosen her husband. She hasn’t met him, but she’s chosen him. And if he’s not right, she’ll get out of it the old-fashioned way: an immense pile of onerous legal chores that wear her down over the course of many months, and a determination to keep it cordial that ultimately collapses over a missing vase that they both fixate on as a metaphor for their mutual failings.”

Ultimately, this book ended the best way it could have possibly ended. I understood the choice the author made to end it in the way that she did, and I quite appreciated the ending. By the time I got to the end though, I was so tired of reading this book because I was worn down by the many, many men and how quickly they came and went. We never got to know any intimately. All in all, I enjoyed this book and recommend it. I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads.

Have you read this book? Did you enjoy it? Let me know in the comments.

Leggy