Book Recommendations
- LawyerwithaFrenchie
- Apr 19, 2022
- 2 min read
Leave the Word Behind by Rumaan Alam: As a Long Islander, I thoroughly appreciate a book set out in the Hamptons. Amanda and Clay take their children out to what I think is supposed to be East Hampton for a week away from the bustle of Brooklyn. The story opens with comforting descriptions of poolside fun and the lovely sounds of nature surrounding the family’s vacation rental. Without warning, the owners of the home return and request to stay in the basement suite because of a mysterious blackout plaguing NYC.
Disturbingly loud noises begin to ring across the U.S., causing mysterious disease and society to unravel. Begrudgingly at first, the lessees and the lessors of the vacation home lean on each other in hopes of enduring the uncertainty. While this book was published pre-COVID, the nerves and suspense palpable to its readers mirrored the early stages of the pandemic. When schools, offices and restaurants first ceased normal operations, the world seemed to be ending. Leave the World Behind captures the simultaneous (and paradoxical) desires for isolationism and togetherness that surface when feelings of doomsday occur.
She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb: Wally Lamb takes us through Dolores Price’s life from young adulthood to her mid-thirties. To say the least, Dolores was dealt an unfair hand. Her absent father and mentally ill mother are in and out of her life, never truly giving her the unconditional love she needs.
Dolores’s rock becomes her loving but strict and close-minded grandmother. Dolores suffers one personal tragedy after another. Her protective shield is a witty sense of humor that will make you laugh out loud despite the sympathy you can’t help but feel for Dolores. She makes unusual friendships with the adults in her life and shows them compassion when others will not. Readers will feel as if they are growing up with Dolores and travelling with her through the various stages in her life, both happy and sad. Our words and actions have a profound impact on others, even when the recipient seems impervious to them. She’s Come Undone is not a story you will easily put down or forget.
The Club by Ellery Lloyd: Ned Groom has made his fortune designing Home, a network of exclusive and international celebrity social clubs with exorbitant entrance fees. Ned surrounds himself with whom he believes to be blindly loyal and dutiful assistants to help compensate for his erratic behavior.
The Club is set during the opening of Island Home, Home’s newest club built on a remote island, only accessible through a narrow strip of land during low tide. For all of his flaws, Ned’s eye for detail is impeccable. The vivid descriptions of the transformed island will take you on a mini-vacation from your living room. Don’t get too comfortable though, unimaginably intimate connections and resentment among the key players of Home result in multiple murders on the island. The Club provides its readers with access to a secret world of extravagance that most probably imagine exists only among the ultra-wealthy and connected. Although it might get you admittance to Home, money does not buy you happiness.
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