by Anne Bronte

I wish the middle had been much, much shorter. Very repetitive, and the protagonists were each over-the-top good or over-the-top bad. I was drawn in by the beginning section; it felt like it was going to be a slightly humorous family light comic novel. Bait & switch! It’s PAMELA/CLARISSA all over again. But I’d try another Bronte.

by Katherine May

Winter as a metaphor for hard times in your life.

“We like to imagine that it’s possible for life to be one eternal summer & that we have uniquely failed to achieve that for ourselves.” That’s why I recommend the anti-gratitude journal.

“Have we really got so far into the realm of electric light and central heating that the rhythm of the year is irrelevant to us…” That was me when I lived in the city. All I cared about was how heavy a jacket to wear. Or maybe it was because I was young. I have such a yearly rhythm now, though.

“Misery is not an option [sarcasm]. We must carry on looking jolly for the sake of the crowd.” Ha. I always hated the mandate to be happy.

Regarding someone with bouts of mania and depression, a GP changed her life by saying, “This isn’t about you getting better. This is about you living the best life you can with the parameters that you have.” Isn’t that what it’s about for all of us?

by Michael Cunningham

This was a good story and a realistic depiction of middle age – a realistic middle-aged marriage, realistic middle-aged sex, realistic middle-aged insomnia. I loved that he woke up at 3 am every night and I love that he took pills for it. AND vodka.

by Delia Owens

Spoiler at the bottom.

Pros:
I like to read about strong independent women. I liked that she had a calling that involved both art and science.

Cons:
I had a bad reaction to an early scene. The young child Kya is hungry, and she gets a chance to go to school and have hot chicken pie for lunch. At lunchtime some kids make fun of her. So she doesn’t eat her pie. She stuffs it into her milk carton and brings it home – and feeds it to gulls. This reminds me of a scene in A LITTLE PRINCESS where the hungry girl Sara Crewe is given a penny by a pitying little boy – and she doesn’t use it to buy a loaf of bread, she “bore a hole in it” to wear around her neck. These authors know nothing about hunger.

And second, I saw the ending immediately. SPOILER IS HERE. This is chick lit. Of course she killed the guy and of course it was because he sexually assaulted her. It’s always like that in chick lit. If it’s not secret parentage and secret pregnancies, it’s secret sexual assault.