books 2005: Happy All The Time, by Laurie Colwin

[supercheesegirl]

Last night I finished Happy All the Time, a book that Amy L had lent to me. She said it was one of her favorite books ever, and I had never heard of it. Now that I've read it, I can understand why (why she liked it, not why I hadn't read it before)--it's not going to be one of my own all-time favorites, but it was really, really good, and I can totally see why it appeals to her. It was really simple in terms of plot: there's these two guys who are cousins and best friends, one of them meets a girl and falls in love, then the other one meets a girl and falls in love. No huge exciting plot twists, no cliffhanger endings. It was the book equivalent of a nice dinner out or snuggling on the couch, rather than the book equivalent of rappelling down a mountain. It was a good story, and you got to really care about the characters and--not so much *want* for them to be happy, because there wasn't a lot of doubt about that, but--you were *glad* that they were happy, and you knew at the end that the four of them were going to have a really happy life. It was a nice book.

Next stop: a few fantasy novels I couldn't stop myself from buying at Pandemonium last night. But right now Jorn has a new iRiver, and he can't freakin' wait to play with it.

Comments

[pancom.livejournal.com]

Dood! I wanna read that!

Everybody else around here seems to think it's not an interesting read unless someone's having the worst day of her life. Knowhatimean? Frikken prosers...

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

It was a really nice book. I liked it a lot. Sometimes you get tired of all the character-in-crisis stuff. Ursula LeGuin is also good for that--at least in her recent stuff, there's still a significant plot, but there seems like a lot more tendency to just have some really interesting characters and just let them talk a bunch. Sea Road was like that, short stories.

It's good to see you around again. Miss you.

[pancom.livejournal.com]

Miss you too. Are you buried in snpwe?
*warm cozy hug*

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, pretty much. Didn't have to go to work today, and you know it takes a heck of a storm to make MA declare a state of emergency. But hey, I'm not shoveling it, and I don't have to go anywhere in it until tomorrow. Did Greensboro get any snpwe this weekend? I know an inch or two of snpwe down there would result in the same amount of city-wide incapacitation we're experiencing with two feet' worth up here. :)

[pancom.livejournal.com]

greesnboro got precisely zero snpwe. we did get just enough ice to leave a very treacherous invisible glaze on the sidewalks saturday. i stopped into casa to photocopy some stuff and promptly fell on my ass on the way out. but all it really affected was the saturday-night bar business.

but we sure are making up for all those spring-like temperatures! *b-b-brrrrrr!*

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

What, is it down to, like, 40 degrees there? Horrors!

[pancom.livejournal.com]

it actually got into the single digits, thank you very much.

...fahrenheit, even!