The Big Love by Sarah Dunn

Just finished this today. I hate chick lit. Well, not quite. I like stuff that encourages women to read. And if they like chick lit, than yay chick lit! This would be a chick lit book (pink cover, 20-35 year old female protagonist , has opinionated girlfriends, various men in her life). But it's well written, so I forgive it for being chick lit.

The Observations by Jane Harris

Only on the first chapter. Young, Irish woman shows up an English manor and becomes a maid for the young woman who lives there. The mistress is strange and does things like measure the maid for clothes but also measures the distance between her ear and her nose. She's also prone to strange outbursts. Gorgeous cover. Look at the hands.

Sparkle Life by Kara Lindstrom

I began reading this today on the bus. Three 30-plus women, Liv, Joy and Sara, who work in the film industry. Relationships, insecurities and sex. Good fun. Lindstrom has a very straight forward style that isn't as cotton candy as the subject might suggest. Another great cover.

I am officially in love with this writer named Curtis Sittenfeld. Earlier in the year, I read Man of my Dreams and I thought it was funny and very truthful, about a woman in her 20s. And now reading Prep (her first novel) has sealed the deal. Prep is about a lower class girl named Lee at a prestigious New England boarding school. Sittenfeld really understands the awkwardness and insecurities of adolescence without ever being condescending or letting her characters wallow in self-indulgence. Lee is so frustrating at times, the way she distances herself from experiences but I really liked her (possibly because there is a lot of me in Lee). This book rings true. Plus, Sittenfeld is freaking hysterical.

For instance, as a junior, Lee is failing math and gets tutored by a rather tiny freshman named Aubrey, who is awkward and quiet. When she graduates a year later, he gives her an envelope and told her to read it later. When she opens it later, the graduation card that said :

"I would like to express that I have very strong feelings of love for you. I do not expect anything to happen and you don't have to write back, but I wanted to say it. Good luck with your life. You are extremely attractive."

Perfection.

The Painted Kiss by Elizabeth Hickey
-about Gustav Klimt and his relationship with Emilie Floge (that's her portrait). Art in turn-of-last century Vienna. Beautiful book.

The Changeling of Finnistuath by Kate Horsley
-about a girl named Grey raised as a boy in 14th century Ireland. Religion, plague, identity crisis. And sex. Lot's of sex. A strange book, but I read it in a day.

The Last of her Kind by Sigrid Nunez
- haven't really gotten into this one yet. About roommates from different classes in the '60s. I picked it up for the cover art.

Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld.

-not quite into this one yet either. But I read her last book a month ago and thought it was quite funny, in an ironic way.

Being unemployed truly sucks. The lack of money and the embarassment of telling people when they ask you what you do. Having days open to do nothing but read uninspiring job listings, work, then re-work your resume and begin to question the purpose of your life. Going to job interviews and knowing that you could do these jobs with your hand tied behind your back and you still don't get it. Being told that they were intrigued but are going with another candidate or in another direction (meaning not any direction towards you. In fact, in the complete opposite direction. At a run) . Having a degree from a prestigious university and realizing that nobody gives a shit. That having an arts degree makes some employers think you are incapable of answering a phone or typing or using a computer (because clearly I never used those skills in four years of school). Listings for data entry jobs that want 5-7 years experience (who wants to enter data for 5-7 years?) Alternately looking for the perfect career-type position and settling for anything that pays (short of waste disposal plant and employee at an abbatoire). And one of life's biggest cul de sacs: they want you to be experienced to employ you but how do you get experience without employment?

The book I just finished called Pounding the Pavement by Jennifer Van Der Kwast is about all those things, meaning the lows and the lowers of being sans emplois. It's well-written and truthful but I found the characters quite shallow and the main character Sarah a bit annoying. She does somthing really stupid about 2/3 of the way through the book and I really wasn't all that surprised when it blew up in her face. For better or for worse, I saw a lot of myself in Sarah. We both have liberal arts degrees from nice Unis and we are in many ways our own worst enemies. I just hope I'm not that annoying.