Writers & Lovers

Writers & Lovers by Lily King, 324 pages

At 31 years old, Casey feels like she should be more solid in life. She's been working on her novel for six painstaking years in between shifts as a waitress, slowly attempting to pay off massive student loan debts while paying rent at the only place she can afford (a potting shed behind her brother's friend's massive house). Compounding those problems, she's also dealing with the unexpected death of her mother several months earlier and a love life that just keep turning up duds. Though the novel is set in 1997, so many of these issues echo through to the present day. While the writers Casey interacts with can be a bit hipstery, the story of a woman working her way through grief, panic, health scares, and a confusing love life are classic and wonderfully told.

A Gentleman in Moscow / Amor Towles, 462 pp.

It was a perfect pleasure to read this, Amor Towles' second novel following Rules of Civility, which I will request as soon as I have finished typing.

Count Alexander Rostov, with a long list of goofily elaborate honorifics after his name, becomes a Former Person (what a phrase!) following the Revolution and is placed under permanent house arrest in the lavish and sophisticated Metropol hotel.  There, like a hearty plant, he adapts and thrives in the rich soil of the hotel, among foreign diplomats, movie stars, Kremlin officials, and the hotel's humble but no less distinguished staff.  It is his relationships with Nina and Sofia, women born a generation apart, that set the course for the Count's life, and form the core of the story. 

A bit of spycraft, plenty of history, exquisite cuisine, charming banter, and loving friendships combine in a novel that displays a remarkable amount of erudition without ever losing its sense of fun.