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Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing by Jennifer Weiner

Jennifer Weiner, most well-known for her popular chick-lit novels like Good In Bed, In Her Shoes, and Who Do You Love, takes a big jump into the world of non-fiction in this hilarious collection of essays. With no holds barred she takes raw, personal stuff from her own life and offers the reader a glimpse into her world. Starting with her lonely childhood, Weiner writes of the desertion she grappled with when her father left her family and just exactly what if felt like to be the "Lane Bryant outtake in an Abercrombie & Fitch photo shoot." Moving from her childhood to adolescence to life as a twenty-something, Weiner writes about her first job as a journalist to publishing her first novel Good In Bed to having her book adapted for a movie. Along the way, Weiner candidly writes about life as a wife, mother, and writer.

With candor and humility, Weiner's Hungry Heart doesn't stray from topics like feminism, sex, marriage (and divorce), body image, her mother's recent lesbianism, and everything in between. With parts that are literally laugh out loud funny and others that are extremely touching, it's easy to see Weiner's personality shining through this book like it does in her works of fiction.

The Toughest Indian In the World by Sherman Alexie

When one reads realistic fiction, you expect to see the many areas of life with which we all wrestle: love, lust, anger, fear, sadness, joy and so on.  This is why reading books of short stories can be so rewarding.  I felt each of these emotions in turn as I read: Saint Junior describes the love between a man a wife and what that love means as time ticks by.  Assimilation tells about an American Indian woman (Coeur d’Alene) married to a white man who wants to have sex with an Indian man.  Any Indian man. Class gives the reader the story of an Indian man married to “the tenth most beautiful white woman in the room” and how he processes the resentment of her affairs and the loss of their child.  The entirety of Sin Eaters is filled with a terror that steadily creeps along your skin as you read about a future in which American Indians are captured and forced to reproduce.  Indian Country tells of a successful writer who discovers that his long-distance lover has eloped with another man and finds himself in the middle of a tense dinner with mostly strangers. South by Southwest is about a man who holds up an IHOP and takes a hostage, hoping to discover love.  The collection’s final story, One Good Man, ticked all of these boxes while continually asking the question: What is an Indian?

Sherman Alexie’s The Toughest Indian in the World is a book of stories written by a Spokane/Coeur d’Alene man who has spent his life thinking and writing about being an American Indian. It is a heartfelt look at life and the many types of people who inhabit it. Alexie is also the author of many other books of short stories including The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and the acclaimed Young Adult novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Check out some of his fiction at the library today.

The Importance of Being Kennedy by Laurie Graham

Nora Brennan, an Irish immigrant to America, has accepted the position of nurserymaid to Joseph and Rose Kennedy's nine children. As their nurserymaid Nora witnesses old Joe Kennedy as he grooms his sons for political office and sees how Rose prides herself on raising well-rounded, respected Catholic daughters, who will one day make wonderful wives. While the picture may look perfect from the outside, Nora's account of life with the Kennedys' shows that is anything but the truth as there is always some sort of malarky going on.

Much emphasis is given on the older Kennedy children including Joe, Jr., Jack, Rosemary, and Kathleen often known as Kick. Nora's not afraid to say it like it is personality tells stories of Joe, Jr. trying his best to impress his father, often to no avail. She tells how Jack is often not well, and spends much of his time seeing doctors and in bed recuperating from some sort of ailment. Nora's tells the heartbreaking story of her favorite Kennedy daughter Rosemary. Unlike the rest of her siblings, Rosemary worked tirelessly to keep up with constant knowledge the Kennedys prided themselves on. Often falling short due to a mental handicapher father had her lobotomized in the hopes of reducing the emotional outbursts she suffered from. Sadly the procedure left Rosemary in a worse state. Nora is the first to say how unfair it was that Rosemary was sent to an institution in Wisconsin and all butforgotten about. And finally, Nora freely discusses the rift that happened in the Kennedy family, when devout Catholic Kick married an English Protestant, resulting in Rose rarely speaking to her own daughter.

Though Nora Brennan is fictional, Graham's The Importance of Being Kennedy tells many true Kennedy stories with wit, charm, and humor in this book. For avid historical fiction fans or those fascinated by the Kennedy's this book is sure to be a wonderful read.