I am about halfway through “Trust” by Hernan Diaz. Pulitzer winning novel. Excellent. Per the publisher:
Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth—all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds , a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit.
Hernan Diaz’s TRUST elegantly puts these competing narratives into conversation with one another—and in tension with the perspective of one woman bent on disentangling fact from fiction. The result is a novel that spans over a century and becomes more exhilarating with each new revelation.
At once an immersive story and a brilliant literary puzzle, TRUST engages the reader in a quest for the truth while confronting the deceptions that often live at the heart of personal relationships, the reality-warping force of capital, and the ease with which power can manipulate facts.
Was Hello Beautiful by Ann Napoli…..(can’t remember how to spell it) a book club book here?
I’m just finishing it up and it’s a 4.5+ book for me so I’d love to read through a discussion of it if it was. (I could post on the book club thread too I guess but don’t want to stray off the current discussion! )
I finished reading Molly Jong-Fast’s newest memoir-- How I Lost My Mother. Jong-Fast is the the daughter of Erica Jong, whose 1973 novel Fear of Flying (one of the first novels to deal with a married women’s pursuit of casual sex) sold millions of copies. The memoir is primarily about Jong-Fast’s dysfunctional relationship with her mother. It’s brutally honest, but also humorous. The novel focuses on the year Jong-Fast discovered her mother was suffering from dementia and her step-father (Jong’s fourth husband) had Parkinson’s. At the same time, Jong-Fast’s husband learns he has pancreatic cancer. It’s a brutally honest story, if not a bit repetitive.
It was probably on my kindle as a monthly Prime free book (or maybe cheap deal?). I see it is $5.99 on Amazon - cheaper than some, but also probably shorter. It was a quick, engaging read for me, though only 3.5 stars on Good Reads.
Thank you @Mary13 ! Is it perfect? No. Did I love it anyway. Yes. :). Funny because two friends I value via reading read it and rated it on Goodreads. One gave it a 5 and one gave it a 1! So clearly it is received in various ways!
I read Hello Beautiful and my menopause brain can’t even remember what the story was. It must not have resonated strongly with me.
I got the idea on CC to get a library card at a 2nd library. A few years ago our library system had a break up and the two libraries I used became no longer under the same card. I had the choice at the time to pick one or the other. I went with the library I frequently more. This morning I was able to get an ECard from the other library using my office mailing address. I now have expanded my number of holds on Libby and the range of available books.
I know there were references to Little Women but for some reason from the beginning I kind of let that idea slide. So I did not equate the characters with the LW characters
Last year I listened to Hello Beautiful as an audiobook (while exercising, gardening etc). I enjoyed it but did not make the Little Women association. Then again, I was never especially keen on LW.