We had Hurricane Katrina; the UK had massive floods in the North of England. Novelist Sarah Hall, who grew up in the region, uses this natural disaster as the basis for a novel set in a near future devastated by global warming and climate change.
Democracy has been swept away by floodwaters that have displaced thousands; Great Britain is now a police state in which every woman is implanted with a contraceptive device. One woman dreams of escape to a legendary community of women called Carhullan, off the maps and beyond the reach of the ruling Authority.
Reminiscent of both 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale, Daughters of the North is a well-written, literary tale that is occasionally raw and provocative, and asks some very hard questions about gender roles, war and peace, and how much we are willing to risk for freedom - or sacrifice for security.
We may think we're a debauched society, but our Puritanical roots are showing in this funny, surprising and sometimes shocking expose of how prudish Americans really are and how we barely rate on the worldwide adultery scale.
Pamela Druckerman, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, started writing this book after being stationed in Latin America, where men hit on her constantly as a single woman.
It's not only a credit to her but also to her tolerant husband that she was able to continue her research after she was married, hopping flights to the Far East and various locations in Europe - not to mention the U.S. and Africa - to interview locals as to whether or not they sexually strayed.
The stories from Japan may disgust you. Many stereotypes will be shattered. But you'll come away from this book feeling upbeat about a topic that, if handled with less finesse, would have made for a much grimmer book.
As a rule, I avoid meeting famous people as they typically disappoint. But I'm willing to break that rule for Kathleen Turner.
With a little help from her friend, writer and activist Gloria Feldt, Turner has penned a memoir that is funny, honest, forthright, gutsy, and candid in revealing the demons that she's faced throughout her life as an actress, wife, mother, activist, recovering alcoholic, survivor of chronic illness, and thoroughly unique individual. She tells tales about the Hollywood glitterati that have made some nervous (including actor Nicholas Cage, who threatened a lawsuit when the book was released).
But all in all, Send Yourself Roses is less concerned with the external trappings of fame, and more concerned with the internal journey of a woman finding herself just as others spiral out of control in a so-called midlife crisis.
Turner knows what she wants and has taken even more risks as she's grown older, proving to herself and to the rest of us that aging isn't a crime, but an honor to those who know how to embrace experience and accept who they are. She's who I want to be when I grow up.
Enough about those Sex in the City girls already. It's easy to live the glamorous life when you're single, independent, and haven't given your life away to satisfy the demands of a husband and kids. But what might Carrie Bradshaw be like when 18 years down the road Mr. Big decides to trade up for the latest model?
You don't have to speculate - just pick up a copy of Still Hot and see how a couple of smart, attractive, yet cheated-on wives pick up the pieces after their respective husbands run emotionally amok and start to stray.
Yes, Virginia, there's life after divorce; but there's no pity in this short, page-turning read - just the kind of laughs that will have even your most fragile going-through-a-separation girlfriend snorting into the book as she recognizes every cliche that describes her errant soon-to-be ex.
Part stand-up routine and part tongue-in-cheek extended (and printed) vent, Still Hot is a survivor's guide that shows there's light at the end of the tunnel and that it's okay to giggle even though you feel like crying.
Since I can't imagine a scenario in which any man would buy this for a woman, it's up to you as a good friend to give it to the woman who needs it most.
This book was years in the making and it shows, because of all the selections, this one's the most lyrical, the most gorgeously crafted and the most heartfelt.
The book is a promise kept - an older sister's story about her beloved younger sister who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis in early childhood. Too young to pronounce her disease, Pammy Summerhayes called it 'sixtyfive roses' and lived beyond anyone's expectations, even when the good days were overshadowed by the bad.
As the memoir opens, Heather describes Pammy's last moments and her command to her older sister to "tell our story" and to tell the truth. The truth, as Heather conveyed it, is an intensely revealing look inside a family that held itself together despite extreme stretches of dysfunction and despair; perhaps because of a love that sustained them even in the worst of times.
This book is not an easy read, but it is a rewarding one. For every labored breath that Pammy fights for, you'll be aware of your own good health and how much you may be taking for granted.
Sixtyfive Roses is beautiful in the way fragile, impermanent things are beautiful; they remind us why it is good to be alive.
