I received an e-ARC of A Window Opens
and it looked like a book I'd want to read on a nice summer weekend. I picked it up when I was needing a nice light read. It's a slightly more grown up version of The Devil Wears Prada, with a lot more believability. It was fairly predictable, but it was still a great light read.My rating: 3.5 stars.
Summary from goodreads:
For fans of I Don’t Know How She Does It and Where’d You Go, Bernadette?.
In A Window Opens, beloved books editor at Glamour magazine, Elisabeth Egan, brings us Alice Pearse, a compulsively honest, longing-to-have-it-all, sandwich generation heroine for our social-media-obsessed, lean in (or opt out) age.
Like her fictional forebears Kate Reddy and Bridget Jones, Alice plays many roles (which she never refers to as “wearing many hats” and wishes you wouldn’t, either). She is a mostly-happily married mother of three, an attentive daughter, an ambivalent dog-owner, a part-time editor, a loyal neighbor and a Zen commuter. She is not: a cook, a craftswoman, a decorator, an active PTA member, a natural caretaker or the breadwinner. But when her husband makes a radical career change, Alice is ready to lean in—and she knows exactly how lucky she is to land a job at Scroll, a hip young start-up which promises to be the future of reading, with its chain of chic literary lounges and dedication to beloved classics. The Holy Grail of working mothers―an intellectually satisfying job and a happy personal life―seems suddenly within reach.
Despite the disapproval of her best friend, who owns the local bookstore, Alice is proud of her new “balancing act” (which is more like a three-ring circus) until her dad gets sick, her marriage flounders, her babysitter gets fed up, her kids start to grow up and her work takes an unexpected turn. Readers will cheer as Alice realizes the question is not whether it’s possible to have it all, but what does she―Alice Pearse―really want?
. I was surprised once I started listening to it, because it was actually a book chrnoicling his research on all things relationship. So I actually learned things. Whoa. Great read/listen.
is one of the most unique books I have ever read. It has already cropped up on many Mock Printz lists, and I was lucky enough to get an e-ARC of it to review prior to its publication, but I didn't get a chance before it expired. So I picked up the audiobook version of it. I have no doubt the audio will get accolades of some sort for the narration of the tale, but I don't know if I'd recommend listening to it on audiobook on the first read. That's right, this is one of those books that surely needs 2-3 reads to truly "get". So plan to read it the first time, listen the second, and then choose away for the third go through. I will be re-reading this closer to the Printz, but as of right now, I wouldn't be surprised if it won an honor at the very least.
