Hi,
Thanks for your query. I can suggest the following books:
"The Gates of Paradise" Cravens Gwyneth
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Cravens's fascinating novel is an honest portrayal of one long day in
the life of the Reverend Melpomene Gilman and her husband, James. They
both suppress the desire to be reunited with former lovers, only to
discover to their anguish that they both want the same thing.
"The Wedding" by Nicholas Sparks
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Wilson and Jane have raised three children and lived a satisfying and
prosperous life in the bucolic town of New Bern, N.C. After forgetting
his anniversary, Wilson realizes that the passion and romance have
gone out of his marriage and fears his wife no longer loves him.
"When the Women Come Out to Dance" by Elmore Leonard
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When the Women Come Out to Dance, is a collection of short sketches
that feature strong female characters in trouble. "Sparks" describes a
flirtation between an insurance investigator and a widow who has
apparently burned down her own mansion in the Hollywood hills. The
riveting title piece involves a rich Pakistani surgeon's wife, a
former stripper who's terrified that her playboy husband will have her
killed once he gets bored with her. Hoping to knock him off first, she
hires as a maid a Colombian woman rumored to have murdered her own
abusive husband.
"A Woman Scorned" by Malcolm MacDonald
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Certainly Judith Carty, middle-class friend to the aristocratic
Bellingham family, is not one to suffer scorn or any other adversity;
it is she who saves Rick Belling-ham's life by throwing herself on one
of the assassins who invade a birthday celebration and kill patriarch
Col. Bellingham as the novel opens in 1881. Six years later, Judith
returns to Castle Moore, the Bellingham family estate, as a rich young
woman; her father has made his fortune as an inventor in Dublin. She
finds Rick's sister Henrietta unhappily married to an officer
stationed in India, and engaged in a passionate affair with an old
friend.
"The Starter Wife" by Gigi Levangie Grazer
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Gracie Pollock should have suspected that her movie executive husband,
Kenny, was cheating on her when he began to wear the earring. But she
missed the clues, and at the age of 41 -- which makes her, as a
Hollywood woman, almost assisted-living-ready -- Kenny dumps her via
cell phone, weeks before their pre-nup would have expired.
"After Moondog" by Jane Shapiro
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The knowing and ironic narrative spans 25 years, opening with a
prologue in which narrator Joanne Green meets William, the man she
will marry. It is 1965; they are both talking to Moondog, the New York
street character who wore a Viking helmet and stood on the corner of
54th Street and the Avenue of the Americas for many years. Recalling
the moment, Joanne says, "I was 20 . . . still easily, routinely
stunned by the beauty of the known world." The 17 chapters that follow
work as connected but discrete stories that take Joanne and William
from the chaos and concentrated anger of the Vietnam era to the
cynicism and emptiness of the Reagan years. Out of a marriage built on
"supervening inordinate love" come two appealing children and a
suburban life supported by William's law practice. But infidelities
poison the air, and a divorce becomes sadly inevitable.
"Animal Acts" by Lerman Rhoda
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Linda Morris feels trapped by her life as a Long Island suburban
housewife with a lover tucked away in Ireland. When she impulsively
leaves her husband one night, Linda is astonished to discover that
she's acquired a rather odd traveling companion: an elderly, asthmatic
gorilla. Unfortunately, the gorilla kills a man while she watches.
What follows is an unusual plot that alternates between Linda's
introspective search for her primordial self and a fast-paced action
novel. Linda tries to save the gorilla, Moses, from death at the hands
of a number of adversaries. Readers must pay close attention to
narration that moves imperceptibly between reality and Linda's
imagination, as when she conjures up scenarios for her husband's
funeral.
"As Good as It Gets" Greger Judith
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The author follows Ted and Hallie Bennett through 40 years of
marriage, during which both partners make compromises as they raise
children, deal with their separate careers, and relocate across the
country. When a major midlife crisis prompts Ted to have a brief
affair, the couple consider divorce. They ultimately affirm their
strong commitment to the marriage, but this positive, hopeful
conclusion is achieved only after much serious soul-searching. The
characters come alive in this fast-paced modern novel.
"Brilliant Divorces" Singer June
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Beautiful, affectionate Nora Hall rises from the pubs of World War II
London to a position of power in Hollywood in this fluffy but readable
novel. Nora, who is married and widowed or divorced several times, is
always searching futilely for the kind of true love she herself has to
offer.
"By the Book" Malone Susan Mary
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Malone's first novel tells the story of Nettie Rhodes, a housewife who
is abused by her husband and subjugated into submission by her
religion. Her only friend is her sister, a liberated member of NOW. By
listening to her sister, Nettie undergoes a gradual transformation
from a timid housewife into a self-aware, enlightened individual. Her
story is interesting, but, unfortunately, not quite believable. After
17 years telling her how to clean the house and beating her for
imagined slights, her husband hardly says a word when she finally
leaves him.
"Double Fault" Shriver Lionel
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A marriage wrecked on the shoals of ambition is the theme of Shriver's
intriguing sixth novel (The Female of the Species, LJ 2/15/87). When
23-year-old Willy Novinsky meets and marries Eric Oberdorfer, she's a
rising professional tennis star and he's a Princeton graduate who just
plays for the love of the game. As Eric's tennis prowess increases and
his ranking in the men's professional circuit rises, Willy suffers an
injury and then a loss of confidence, both of which cause her rankings
to plummet. Willy must decide whether her love for her husband is
greater than her desire for a number-one ranking in women's tennis and
how much she will sacrifice to achieve her goal.
"The Flaming Corsage" Kennedy William
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This novel focuses on the troubled marriage between Edward Daugherty,
an ambitious playwright born of Irish working-class parents, and
Katrina Taylor, the strong-willed daughter of an Albany aristocrat.
Social backgrounds aside, there simmers constantly within and beneath
these two an even greater struggle-the one that pits passion against
propriety. As we discover, it is a battle that can and often does
destroy the soul.
Reviews and titles can be found here:
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http://www.amazon.com
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ or http://www.bn.com |
