Sunday Salon ~ my current book list

Book I just completed

Alternate Side ~ by Anna Quindlen, 2018, fiction (New York), 8/10

"Don't be cynical," Charlie said.
"I'm a New Yorker," said Nora.  "Cynicism is my religion" (p. 209).

"So how are you, really?" Rachel said.  "And that's not a rhetorical question."
"I take a lot of pleasure in having children who know what a rhetorical question is," Nora said, carrying coffee mugs to the dining table as her daughter followed (p. 267).

"People go through life thinking they're making decisions, when they're really just making plans, which is not the same thing at all" (p. 280).

Book I'm reading now

Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake ~ by Anna Quindlen, 2012, memoir

Quindlen writes about a woman’s life, from childhood memories to manic motherhood to middle age, using the events of her life to illuminate ours.  Considering and celebrating everything from marriage, girlfriends, our mothers, parenting, faith, and loss, to all the stuff in our closets, Quindlen says for us here what we may wish we could have said ourselves.  As she did in her beloved New York Times columns and in A Short Guide to a Happy Life (2000), Quindlen uses her own past, present, and future to explore what matters most to women at different ages.

Book I plan to read next

The President Is Missing ~ by Bill Clinton and James Patterson, 2018, fiction

This novel confronts a threat so huge that it jeopardizes not just Pennsylvania Avenue and Wall Street, but all of America.  Uncertainty and fear grip the nation.  There are whispers of cyberterror and espionage and a traitor in the Cabinet.  Even the President himself becomes a suspect, and then he disappears from public view.  Set over the course of three days, The President Is Missing sheds a stunning light upon the inner workings and vulnerabilities of our nation.  Filled with information that only a former Commander-in-Chief could know, this is the most authentic, terrifying novel to come along in many years.

At 513 pages, this one is a chunkster!  Melvin donated it to our little Crown Center library, after he finished reading it, but our shelves are full.  So I brought it home to read before shelving it.

This photo is from three years ago, when we were purging old books from the shelves to make more room.  Those shelves are now crammed full.  Working that day were Judy, Donna, and Nancy (left to right) and a very young volunteer sitting on the floor.