Staff Choices

Summer is wedding season and Tif Marcelo’s book The Key To Happily Ever After is the perfect book to give you an inside look into wedding planning.

This lighthearted family drama is about three sisters who own a wedding planning business and discover love around the same time. Set in Washington, D.C. the de la Rosa sisters, Marisol, Jane and Pearl find that working together comes with its challenges. There is some family conflict and a little bit of drama, but overall it shows the closeness sisters share even when they are fighting.

This charming, fun, and, at times, genuinely moving, trip down the aisle(s) is full of romance, family drama and unexpected twists.

The Key To Happily Ever After is a perfect one to add to your summer reading list to enjoy on the beach or while sipping lemonade on your front porch.

My love of food memoirs started when I read Ruth Reichl’s “Tender at the Bone” many years ago. In the years since, I have devoured all of Reichl’s books as well as many other memoirs by food writers, restaurant critics and chefs. Save Me the Plums is about her tenure as the Editor-in-Chief of ‘Gourmet’ magazine for 10 years, and its subsequent closing.

Reichl takes us through the endless machinations Conde` Nast used to woo her, as well as the behind the scenes world of magazine publishing. As the NY Times points out, Ruth was shocked at the perks “Apparently they pay for everything,” Reichl informed her husband. “Country clubs … hairdressers, travel. You name it.” With humor and detail she outlines what it takes to publish a magazine with the  history of Gourmet. The politics, the hierarchy, the eccentricities and the constant topic of money take up enormous amounts of time, not to mention all the creativity to breathe life back into this icon.

As with all of her books, her writing flows easily, but it’s all about the food. She talks about food, she thinks about food, she eats food and she cooks food. Thankfully, there are recipes.

Humorous, informative and simply delicious, Save Me the Plums is a great summer read.

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Told in the style of an oral history, Daisy Jones & the Six chronicles the tumultuous relationships behind the music of a famed '70s rock band. Real-life drama, fame and fortune, tabloid gossip, drugs and addiction - everything you want in a music biography, this book has them in spades. Inspired by VH1’s Behind the Music series, Taylor Jenkins Reid shares the band’s untold fictional story in a way that makes it feel like nonfiction.

Daisy Jones & the Six gives you a backstage view of the epic rise, and agonizing fall, of one beloved rock band. 

Since there is no narrator in this story, you are hearing everything from the characters themselves and that gives it a sense of authenticity. The fact that I wanted this to be a real band and even Googled them says a lot about the charisma of these characters and the rich, vivid detail. I devoured this book in 2 days! I was thrilled to learn that Reece Witherspoon is producing a TV miniseries based on the book that is set to consist of thirteen episodes and will air on Amazon Video. For those of you who loved the recent movies A Star is Born and Bohemian Rhapsody get this book immediately!

An American Marriage heartbreakingly depicts racial injustice in modern America. Up and coming in their careers, and newly married, Roy and Celestials lives are thrown into chaos one fateful night when Roy is arrested for a crime he did not commit. Tayari Jones likens it to the Odyssey. Odysseus embarks on a challenging journey, hoping to find his faithful wife waiting for him.

The challenge of maintaining the marriage affects the couple as well as their parents, families and friends. Jones wanted people to understand that for black Americans, "Injustice in the criminal justice system — it's just in the air. Like hurricanes if you live on the East Coast or earthquakes if you live out West. It's just something that is." The possibility of being snapped up into the system is always there, hovering.

The story is beautifully written. Jones is a remarkable writer. Using alternate voices helps the reader to see the circumstances and viewpoints through each narrator. If you enjoy character-driven, compelling stories, this will be a great addition to your reading list.