I’m back with another tiny book stack. I’ve decided if I can read two books and a short story per month this summer, I’ll be doing pretty well!
Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom by Sylvia Plath
This one came out earlier this year, but was written by Plath when she was a college student in 1952. It felt very Shirley Jackson-ish, like a Twilight Zone episode. You know Mary is on a train trip to somewhere and it slowly becomes apparent that she is going to an ominous place. I loved it, but you know I love a good, dark short story.
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
I tried to love this book. I loved The Great Gatsby. I enjoy books about women with mental health issues who are being cared for by their doctor/husband. (Hello, “Yellow Wallpaper!”) I enjoy books about affairs and beach vacations and lots of drinking. This book had it all, but seriously…it was the worst. I really wanted something juicy to happen at the end (perhaps a drunk car crash off a cliff?) but sadly, that didn’t happen. (If you liked this book, I’d love to know why! I feel like my entire book club and I must be missing something! It was the lowest rated book in a long time!)
To Bed with Grand Music by Marghanita Laski
The book starts with married couple, Deborah and Graham in bed, Deborah promising fidelity while Graham is gone to war. Graham isn’t making any promises (because he’s a man, obviously…) I just knew I was going to love this wife and all of the trouble she gets into. Deborah has many, many, many escapades and she works the system and is able to create quite a rich life for herself while her husband is gone to war. Her standards get lower and lower as the book goes on, and her justifications get more wild. I had such a good time reading this book, which was written in 1946 and in some ways explores how different wartime expectations were for women compared to men. I love that Deborah is “bad.” She definitely made this book a different kind of wartime novel. The descriptions of the cocktails and the dinners and the gifts were also amazing and really just made this a great read! It was good to enjoy something after that book club book…
kimberly ah 