The Confession Club by Elizabeth Berg
This companion novel to The
Story of Arthur Truluv, is set in Mason Missouri where a group of women,
ranging in age from 20s through 80 something, will bare their souls to each
other as each makes a confession to a dinner club, confessions that startle,
amaze, and often don’t seem as terrible when spoken out loud. Cooking school
teacher Iris takes center stage as she helps recreate a cake seen in a play for
a woman who is less than a stellar cook; she finds herself befriending, and
being befriended by John, a homeless Vietnam War veteran who has lost his wife
and child, yet still manages to find hope in the most unexpected places, and
who personifies the need to forgive each other and oneself. Fans of Fannie Flagg will enjoy this slice of
life story with recurring characters, and will look forward to more visits to
Mason.
Twenty-One Truths About Love by Matthew Dicks
Dan Mayrock is struggling with many things: he hasn’t told
his wife Jill that the bookstore he quit his teaching job to open is sinking
fast; Jill, who still has her teaching job, wants to get pregnant, and
succeeds; Dan also feels he is competing against Peter, Jill’s deceased first
husband, though except for Christmas Eve (Peter’s birthday), Jill doesn’t
really bring him up a lot. Dan is also
estranged from the father who left him at nine-years-old, but who has been
reaching out to Dan, and whom Dan is ignoring.
How can Dan become a good father when he has no one to model himself
after? Deciding that the best way to get
some extra money in order to support his family, is to rob a bingo hall; he
knows this is not his brightest idea, but it is the best one he can come up
with, and he does make a friend in Bill, a 72-year-old Vietnam War veteran who
lost his wife to a carjacking and his son to cancer. Told in a series of almost
stream-of-conscious list, the plot moves along at a fast pace, and the
characters to not suffer from the format, surprisingly they are very
well-developed. This unique format makes
this an entertaining fast read with an enjoyable, neurotic character who has
more to offer than he realizes.
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