Whenever Good Will Hunting or Pretty Woman is on TV, I will stop and watch. Without fail, I will, for the rest of my life, love to eat M&M's (plain, not peanut). And just like movies that I love to indulge in time and time again, there are books that I will never tire of reading. I call them my "old faithfuls"; the books that never get old, never stop making me happy, and always come through with an ending I can count on.
Several of Emily Giffin's books fall into this category. To date, I've read her debut novel (which landed on the New York Times' bestseller list!) Something Borrowed a half dozen times. And despite the number of times I've read the story of "good girl" Rachel who, after a night of too many drinks, finds herself in bed with her best friend's fiance, each time I crack it open, I find something new, something I'd missed before, an insight that I'd overlooked. So for me, re-reading Something Borrowed and many of Giffin's others (like Heart of the Matter, a new favorite that I've now read twice) is often like the first time.
The Divorce Party by Laura Dave is another novel I will never tire of. Just looking at the cover makes me giddy with excitement as I anticipate diving in while simultaneously thinking of eating a piece of red velvet cake (an integral part of the story). It's the beautifully written story of Gwyn Huntington and Maggie Mackenzie, two women at opposite ends of marriage who have found themselves at a crossroads. Gwyn is planning her divorce party—commemorating the end of her thirty-five year marriage, although she still can't bring herself to believe her marriage is really over. And on the same day of the divorce party, Maggie is preparing to meet her fiance's parents for the first time. Her trip to meet them dredges up feelings she's spent her entire life trying to avoid. I love how Laura Dave tells this story from the alternating points of view of Gwyn and her future daughter-in-law, Maggie, as they look inside themselves to answer questions that will define their lives from this moment on. Laura's writing style is unique and I think that's part of the reason why I often feel when I'm rereading her books that I'm reading them for the first time. Her debut novel, London Is The Best City in America, has the same effect on me. She also has a new book coming out in May of 2011, The First Husband, that I'm sure I'll be adding to my "old faithful" list.
Now I have to take a left turn from women's fiction and talk about a memoir that I've come back to time and time again over the years. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert is one of my all-time favorite books in which I love to double, triple, even quadruple dip! I think I've read it four times at this point, maybe more. For me, this was a book I read during an especially difficult time in my life and I think that's why I so strongly connected with it. By now, everyone's at least heard of it because of the movie (which I saw and liked, but did not think was as good as the book), or because it's been on the New York Times bestseller list for a gazillion weeks. But I recommend if you haven't yet read it, to pick up a copy and indulge. You'll follow Elizabeth as she travels through Italy, India and Indonesia after her painful divorce. For me, it's her encounters with others and her self awareness and reflection that make the book so powerful. I could never do it justice other than to say: she gets what it's like to suffer heartbreak and the importance of picking yourself up and moving forward at all costs no matter how hard it is. I haven't yet read her latest, Committed. But I can promise you that I am committed to the idea of reading it.
What are your "old faithfuls"?
Lisa Steinke, along with her best friend Liz Fenton, co-authored the chick lit novel I’ll Have Who She’s Having and co-created the popular Chick Lit blog, Chick Lit is Not Dead.
