November's Best Books

Get lost, get inspired and celebrate with this month's new books by Caroline Leavitt


The Parent Trip: From High Heels and Parties to Highchairs and Potties
by Jenna McCarthy
Bella Luna
McCarthy never wanted kids, but then, after marrying, the overwhelming urge hit. Hilariously funny and whip-smart, McCarthy ebulliently writes about the rollercoaster that is motherhood, fashioning a book that's fresh, surprising and startlingly true. Best of all, she includes handy fill-in-the blank quizzes (When no one is looking, I sneak in the kitchen and eat____¦) It doesn't matter whether you are already a parent, contemplating having a baby or you'd rather have root canal, read this little pearl for the portrait of a woman in delicious flux.

Success Stories
by David A. Taylor
Washington Writers Publishing House
In 14 brilliant short stories, Taylor unpeels the lives and loves of ordinary people to reveal nuggets of extraordinary truths. In “May Day," a man realizes he has deliberately been living his life in a world away from others.  In “Counterfeit," a seemingly adventurous vacation veers into nightmare, and in “Electrolysis,"an affair with a hair removal expert transforms so much more than skin. Deceptively spare and absolutely unforgettable.

Getting Along Famously: A Celebration of Friendship
by Melissa Hellstern
Dutton
You call her at three in the morning. She'd rather die than divulge your secrets.  Female (and male) friends deserve a tribute, and this fabulous book, full of photographs and quotes, is a Valentine, showcasing the surprising bonds of celebrated chums. Lauren Bacall eulogizes her 50-year friendship with Katharine Hepburn, Carrie Fisher talks about how she and her mother fused together, and when he was alive, Marlon Brando revealed how he kept the ashes of his friend Wally Cox in his house.  Snap this one up and give it to your friends.

Cancer is a Bitch (or I'd Rather be Having a Midlife Crisis)
by Gail Konop Baker
Da Capo Press
Runner, wife, mother and Prevention Magazine junkie, 46-year-old Baker was looking forward to worrying about neck wrinkles when she was blindsided with a diagnosis of breast cancer. Over the course of a year, she chronicles how she kept her humor even as the peaceful midlife and happy marriage she had envisioned earthquaked into rockier terrain. Full of humor, grit and hope, Baker's book is both heartbreakingly honest and undeniably healing.  It's also full of heart: some of the proceeds go to national Breast Coalition and the Wisconsin Well Woman Program.

How Far is the Ocean From Here 
by Amy Shearn
Shaye Areheart Books
A young surrogate mother vanishes to an isolated hotel days before her delivery date in this haunting debut novel.  As the adoptive parents race to track her down, she forms a ragtag community with the other lost souls at the hotel, even as she struggles to explore and explain her shocking decision. A little uneven, (the ending is a tad forced), but so well written, and filled with such wonderfully quirky characters, that it's more than worth the ride.

Shout out:

Winging It: Dispatches from an (Almost) Empty Nest
by Catherine Goldhammer
Hudson Street Press
For anyone quaking because her beloved child is all grown up and ready to fly the coop, this smart, moving memoir about the unexpected way life can open up is powerful, moving and a balm for any parent.

 

Caroline Leavitt is working on her 10th novel, even as the financial mess makes her stubbornly refuse to open her Morgan Stanley statements. She can be reached at http://www.carolineleavitt.com.

 
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