Book Club: The Receptionist

Image: here

Happy Monday!

Before I really get into this post, can I just comment on how fast this semester has flown by?! In just 2 weeks I will be heading back home for Thanksgiving and then 2 weeks later I will be taking finals. This is nuts! I really need this break too. I need to go back to my own people and sleep in my own bed (quoting one of the guys on my floor)

Anyway, after I finished reading two novels for my cultural anthropology class I was able to get back into recreational reading. I went back and took a look at this book list on laurenconrad.com and got The Receptionist by Janet Groth out of the library on my Kindle. I had thought that the book would be more of a narrative story, rather it is about the author's time spent at The New Yorker through the '60s. Actually, it seemed to me it was more about the romantic relationships that the author developed during her time as a receptionist at the magazine. While the book is a little heavy on the relationships, I did appreciate the author's explanation of the lessons learned from each. I did really like the ending (not trying to get smart!) it was, in my opinion, the best written and most poignant part of the novel.

Overall, I think I would recommend this book. At least you won't be going into it thinking it's something else when it's really a collection of stories outlining the relationships she had during her time at The New Yorker.

<3 Ashley

Are you going to try reading The Receptionist? Have you read it already; what did you think?

Book Club: Beautiful Ruins

photo above contains small excerpt from 'Someday, Someday Maybe' by Lauren Graham. Check out my post on that one here.

A few weeks ago, I was going through the vast space that is the internet and rediscovered Lauren Conrad’s Summer Reading post. I scrolled through all of the book options, adding each one to my Amazon wishlist. One that I was able to get on my Kindle through the library was Jess Walter's “Beautiful Ruins.” Boy did I love this book!

Image: here

Overall, it is a love story that takes place on an Italian coastal port. The characters are a mix of fictional and real (actor Richard Burton has a substantial role and Liz Taylor is mentioned over and over.) The story is set in the 1960s during the time that the film Cleopatra--starring both Burton and Taylor--is in production in Rome. Another actress from the film, Dee Moray, is sent away to a village on the coast while she is recovering from an illness (this is a huge conflict itself in the book, but I won’t ruin it for you!) There she spends a few days in the Hotel Adequate View owned by a young man named Pasquale who cannot help but fall for her beauty. Her stay, however, doesn’t last very long due to some very Hollywood scandals.

In this novel, the time period and setting are constantly changing from chapter to chapter--most take place in Italy in 1962 and present day Los Angeles where Pasquale has traveled all these years later to find Dee Moray. This changing is not a bad thing, I found. I think it allowed the author to really cover all her bases with character backstories and allow the audience to really learn about what all these characters have had to go through over time and what makes them the way they are. I thought that despite all the time travel, the book still maintained fluidity and made perfect sense to me. I would definitely recommend “Beautiful Ruins” by Jess Walter.

<3 Ashley

Will you read “Beautiful Ruins?” What books are on your reading list?