I am passionate about in-depth character development because it’s something I strive for in my own writing. Humans are very complex creatures who are capable of a full range of responses on any given day, moment, or set of circumstances. Offering readers an opportunity to consider what motivates characters to behave in the ways they do makes a story worth sinking your teeth into. I think making these kinds of considerations about characters who are not real also opens up our collective ability to exercise our empathy muscles in real life. These days, we need that more than ever.
I love the strong, authentic female voice and the sheer craft of Shreve’s writing style. Honestly, I felt like I’d just eaten a piece of cake when I finished reading this book the first time, and I’ve definitely gone back for seconds and thirds. Each time I’ve reread this book, I find another beautiful facet to appreciate.
The pacing of the storytelling is exceptional, and Shreve doesn’t flinch from describing visceral scenes that are essential to the story. I love how much you need all five of your senses to read this story. This book was my first introduction to this writer, and I’ve read everything of hers that I can get my hands on.
Set 100 years ago in Boston, Fortune's Rocks is a classic of literary and romantic storytelling. Fourteen-year-old Olympic Biddeford is spending the summer with her parents at their seasonal house at Fortune's Rocks. Her father handles her education himself and is in fact a publisher of mildly liberal literature. One author he admires, who also practises as a physician, comes to visit the house. 40 years old, married with four children, he still embarks on an affair with the adolescent girl. They have a swift, passionate summer, torn apart when they are discovered together during Olympic's fifteenth birthday party. She…
I cannot say enough about this book. I’m a huge fan of anything written by Buck, but this is probably my favorite, primarily for the empowering feminist themes. I love how Buck allows the characters in this story to interact with one another in ways that are subtle but powerful.
This book invites readers to come along with the main character, Madame Wu, as she challenges a rigid set of societal expectations with a clarity that is as unapologetic as it is downright refreshing. Humans are complex creatures, capable of a full range of desires and thinking, and I love it when writers explore this deeply.
The Year Mrs. Cooper Got Out More
by
Meredith Marple,
The coastal tourist town of Great Wharf, Maine, boasts a crime rate so low you might suspect someone’s lying.
Nevertheless, jobless empty nester Mallory Cooper has become increasingly reclusive and fearful. Careful to keep the red wine handy and loath to leave the house, Mallory misses her happier self—and so…
I just love this book, and frankly, everything Anne Tyler writes. Her stories are always driven by characters who are just delicious in their complexity.
Being drawn into these characters as their complex relationships evolve is what I find most satisfying about all of Tyler’s work. The characters are quirky, but believable; complicated, but lovable. Tyler is a master at character development.
Discover a beautiful story of what it is to be human from Pulitzer prize-winning Sunday Times bestselling Anne Tyler
How does a man addicted to routine - a man who flosses his teeth before love-making - cope with the chaos of everyday life?
With the loss of his son, the departure of his wife and the arrival of Muriel, a dog trainer from the Meow-Bow dog clinic, Macon's attempts at ordinary life are tragically and comically undone.
**ANNE TYLER HAS SOLD OVER 1 MILLION BOOKS WORLDWIDE**
The masculine voice in this novel is absolutely masterful. It’s tender, nuanced, earnest, and intelligent. Stegner offers a sweeping, unflinching story about friendships, marriage, the human ego, and the passage of time with a set of characters who are flawed, fragile, and therefore, very believable.
I’ve read this book more than once, and discover something new and lovely each time. This book honors a reader’s intelligence and heart. Again, the complexity in the characters and how they relate to one another gets me every time.
A novel of the friendships and woes of two couples, which tells the story of their lives in lyrical, evocative prose by one of the finest American writers of the late 20th century.
When two young couples meet for the first time during the Great Depression, they quickly find they have much in common: Charity Lang and Sally Morgan are both pregnant, while their husbands Sid and Larry both have jobs in the English department at the University of Wisconsin. Immediately a lifelong friendship is born, which becomes increasingly complex as they share decades of love, loyalty, vulnerability and conflict.…
Tina Edwards loved her childhood and creating fairy houses, a passion shared with her father, a world-renowned architect. But at nine years old, she found him dead at his desk and is haunted by this memory. Tina's mother abruptly moved away, leaving Tina with feelings of abandonment and suspicion.
I pulled this book off the shelf for the first time as a young mother who had far more choices and liberties than the story’s main character. Chopin was a writer ahead of her time, and she actually paid a heavy professional price when this story was published.
The world just wasn’t ready to consider a female character whose inner dialogue and view of her place in the world were so raw and honest. It wasn’t until many years later that she was rediscovered and the feminist themes were more palatable, that a broader audience had the chance to appreciate Chopin’s gorgeous prose and nuanced language.
She also had the ability to capture subtle changes in each character’s awareness masterfully. This is an even bigger treat if you listen to it as an audiobook.
The Awakening, originally titled A Solitary Soul, is a novel by Kate Chopin, first published in 1899. Set in New Orleans and the Southern Louisiana coast at the end of the nineteenth century, the plot centers on Edna Pontellier and her struggle to reconcile her increasingly unorthodox views on femininity and motherhood with the prevailing social attitudes of the turn-of-the-century American South. It is one of the earliest American novels that focuses on women's issues without condescension. It is also widely seen as a landmark work of early feminism, generating mixed reaction from contemporary readers and criticism.The novel's blend of…
Mary Kline wants food and lots of it, but as she becomes a young woman, she craves something far more delicious—a child of her own. When Pearl Davis turns up pregnant, Mary and her parents swoop in, taking in Pearl and her baby, Elizabeth. It’s a disastrous move.
As a teen, Elizabeth rebuffs Mary’s smothering, needy brand of affection and winds up pregnant. Mary insists on an abortion. Later on, as Elizabeth’s third pregnancy ends in miscarriage and the twisted truths that bind her to Mary Kline begin to unravel, this unlikely mother and daughter duo must reckon with one another and those close to them who have been navigating a story of trauma that spans three generations.
