The more I think about this book the less I like it. Today Will Be Different is the story of a single day in the life of Eleanor Flood. Eleanor is trying to be the best version of herself. She has plans to make this day perfect. She is going to be present. She is going to be a better mom, a better wife, a better friend. Eleanor is not a bad person, she’s just a bit of a mess. But her plan begins to […]
A great book for a VERY niche audience (of which I am not technically a part).
The title of this book is a bit misleading, so let’s spend this review focusing on what exactly this book is and is not. It is not: A crash course on how to go about practicing Natural Family Planning (widely misunderstood to be “the rhythm method”) in accordance with Catholic teaching. NFP is generally used to avoid pregnancies. I suppose you could technically use it to achieve one, but most often when you’re talking about NFP you’re talking about using it to space pregnancies. This […]
[Uncomfortable Downward Glance Because a Couple Is Fighting in Front of You]
How in the world do I rate this book? On one hand, there is a lot of truth in it (“They say if you just let babies cry, they will eventually cry themselves out. This is not true. Not only will babies not cry themselves out, but the act of crying actually slows down time itself—the more you let them cry, the slower time goes.”) There is also comedy (“Having a rent-controlled apartment in New York is like living in medieval Europe and having spices.”) […]
Best of Wives and Best of Women
I’m not a huge fan of literary fiction. I find it depressing, usually. Why are the characters always so desperate, and desperately unhappy? Why do they always have such depressing, gross sex lives, and why, WHY must books of literary fiction always contain a description of just how unappealing the protagonist’s body is? I mean, I live in a human body. I’m aware that most human bodies are very flawed. Do I have to read about Lotto’s stomach flab, and the way Mathilde’s finger can […]
Furiously Ambitious
I know there are some legitimate issues with this book, but I’m giving it five stars for its pure ambition and energetic writing. I was quite reluctant to read this, actually, because I couldn’t get through Groff’s first novel, The Monsters of Templeton (I should mention that I started it when I was 36 weeks pregnant, so my attention span was not tip top). After seeing this one so consistently on the must-read lists for 2015, I picked it up at the library and couldn’t put […]
Five minutes looking in his eyes, we all knew he was broken pretty bad
Reading an Anne Tyler book is like snuggling into your warm bed when it’s raining and you have nowhere to be. There are no Big Bads, no scary, suspenseful moments, and no dramatic confrontations. Her books feel like a snapshot of the characters’ lives, which are mostly very ordinary. I adore them. The Accidental Tourist is the story of Macon Leary, a middle-aged man who writes travel guides for businessmen (and since it was written in 1985, they are indeed guides for businessmen, not businesspeople). His son Ethan was […]
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