What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

One day during her usual intense spin cycle class, Alice falls off her bike and hits her head. When she wakes up, life as she knows it has completely changed. Alice thinks she's still twenty-nine, married to her long term boyfriend, and pregnant with her first child. Completely confused, Alice finds it difficult to believe that ten years have passed, in which time she's almost forty, is currently separated from her husband, and has three very unique children. Her life is in an utter state of chaos. Imagine her surprise when the doctors tell her that she must reconstruct the memories from the last decade. Not only does she have to try to remember her children, but she has to figure out why her sister will barely talk to her, what could have possibly happened to have her marriage crumble, and exactly why she's turned out to be the mom and wife she never wanted to be. Completely bewildered, Alice has her work cut out for her.

Covering a wide array of topics from divorce to infertility to death, Lianne Moriarty's What Alice Forgot does not shy away from these difficult topics, all while providing an often humorous look at life.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simson

Meet Don Tillman, a brilliant genetics professor at an Australian university. Within the first few pages, the reader realizes that Don isn't your ordinary person. He's a bit socially inept--he has few friends beside Gene (a fellow professor studying attraction to women of different decent, by, of course, sleeping with women from different countries) and Claudia, plans his daily schedule down to the minute, and calculates people's BMIs upon their first meeting. As the reader learns a bit more about Don, they realize that Don's social inadequacies have clearly hindered him from falling in love. Realizing that the perfect girl is the part missing from his life, Don takes it upon himself to create a questionnaire with crazy, detailed questions to find the most suitable female partner.

Enter Rosie, who is nothing like Don. She's constantly late, disorganized, and is in no way a suitable match for Don. When Don thinks that Rosie is a woman who filled out his questionnaire, he garners up enough courage to ask her to dinner. The first night Don and Rosie meet turns into a fiasco, in true Don fashion. As the two begin to talk about their lives, Rosie tells Don that she doesn't know who her father is. This piques the ear of Don, the genetics professor. It's then that the Father Project develops. Don agrees to use his love of academia and the study of genetics to help Rosie find her dad.

As the two of them work to find out who Rosie's dad is, it seems as if a chemistry is built. 

The Rosie Project will have you laughing until the very end, while constantly rooting for the socially awkward protagonist to find the love that he so desperately deserves.

The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane

An elderly woman, Ruth Field, lives alone in a remote area of Australia. Despite suffering from back pain, she is self-sufficient and content with her life. However she regularly dreams that there is a tiger in her house. Only when she discusses this with her son during their occasional phone calls does she realize it was only a dream. One day a woman named Frida arrives at her door. Frida says she has been sent by a government agency to help Ruth. Ruth allows her in and Frida, taking charge of the cooking and cleaning chores, does make Ruth’s life much easier. But is Frida actually a government health care worker? Sometimes she appears to be bullying Ruth or taking advantage of her. Is she really? Ruth is obviously suffering from dementia, or at the least confusion, and cannot always trust her memory of Frida’s mistreatment. Neither can the reader.  The Night Guest is an unusual novel of suspense and Fiona McFarlane expertly uses domestic events to create a sense of uneasiness.

Check out The Night Guest @ the library!

The Alphabet Sisters by Monica McInerney

Sisters Anna, Bett and Carrie used to be famous singing sisters called "The Alphabet Sisters". Now, estranged and called back for their grandmother's 80th birthday party in South Australia. Bett started a new life in London, England far from her ex-fiance, now married to her younger sister, Carrie. Anna is in Sydney, and is quick to get back home to remember better times. And Carrie is still there, wondering if she made the right choices.

Family drama starts to work its self out, as more drama starts to unfold. Each sister has her own worries, and each needs the other even though it's been three long years since they've seen each other. If you are looking for a beach read with a bit of weight, get lost in the world of Moncia McInerney's The Alphabet Sisters.

Check out The Alphabet Sisters by Monica McInerney @ the library!

Glitter and Glue by Kelly Corrigan

Kelly Corrigan is a young woman in her early 20s.  She longs for adventure, for a chance to have interesting new experiences that you can only have when you “leave the house.”   She and her college roommate decide to go on a round-the-world trip beginning in Taipei.  The two are on the road for two months before they run out of cash while in Sydney, Australia.  Corrigan pictured herself working in a bar or restaurant to save up money for the next leg of her trip; not playing nanny to two kids whose mother has recently died of cancer.   And she certainly never expected to travel more than half way around the world to connect with her mother, of all people.  But this book is all about difference between what you imagine and what is.  About what you think is important, and what actually is important.

Corrigan uses a lot of flashbacks to talk about the type of person her mother is.  She makes it very plain that she and her mother have virtually nothing in common.  Her mother is a practical woman.  One who doesn’t spoil her children and makes them follow her rules at all times.  Her father, however, was always a pleasant, outgoing guy who loved to spend time with his kids after work and called his only daughter “Lovie.”  But as her mother liked to remind her daughter, “Your father’s the glitter but I’m the glue.”  Corrigan relishes the opportunity to be living her own adventure away from her mother’s nagging but soon finds that her mother’s voice is the one constantly giving her advice on how to care for the Tanner children.  As the weeks tick by, Corrigan is struck by how the Tanner family learns to survive without a mother.  The harder she tries to help the children, the more she thinks about her own mother and slowly discovers that life’s true adventure is experiencing life within a family. 

Glitter and Glue is a quick read that is a different type of coming of age memoir.  It begins with a young woman’s quest for independence and excitement and ends with her deep feelings about the importance of family.  Glitter and Glue is available everywhereFebruary 4th, 2014.