The Marriage Plot by Jeffery Eugenides

★★★★★

"Every letter was a love letter.  Of course, as love letters went, this one could have been better.  It was not very promising, for instance, that Madeleine claimed not to want to see him for the next half century."

"She'd become an English major for the purest and dullest of reasons because she loved to read."

"The way of true love never works out except at the end of the English novel."

It's the late 1980s and college student Madeleine is writing her senior thesis on Jane Austen and George Eliot and the "marriage plot" that is the basis for all great English novels.  Suddenly she finds herself caught in a modern-day marriage plot of her own and is forced to make decisions that will decide how her life will play out.

I read Eugenides "Middlesex" many years ago and was couldn't wait to read his new novel!  I really enjoyed how the author intertwines ideas of old English literature into a completely new and easy to relate to story.

This book was #8 on my top ten list of 2012.

Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close

★★★★★

"In college, twenty-nine had seemed impossibly old.  By now, she'd thought, she'd be married and have kids.  But as each year went by, she didn't feel much different than she bad before.  Time kept going by and she was just here, the same."

"Ken was Mary's new boyfriend, a nice guy who made all their friend's comment, 'Oh, there he is.  That's what she's been waiting for,' as if finding your perfect match was a guaranty as long as you were patient enough."

This book tells the story of three women venturing out into the "adult world" and growing up after college graduation.  Struggling with careers, family, and new love these women must endure all of this while suffering through endless rounds of wedding and bridal showers when "everyone they know" is moving on with their lives and getting married.

I don't read too many "chick-lit" novels, they're usually a little too romantic and on the predictable side for me, but it's a good change every once and a while.  That being said, I LOVED this book!  The writing was hilarious (my mom had to ask me more then once why I was laughing...) and extremely relatable.  It was the perfect novel to read at that time in your life when everyone you know seems to have it all figured out and you're just hoping to make it through the week!

This book was #4 on my top ten list of 2012.

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

★★★

"Isn't it pretty to think so?"

Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks

★★★★★

"When I looked at my hands and wrists, marred by the marks of small burns from cook pots and flying embers, every red weal or white pucker brings to my mind's eye that eternal fire and the writhing masses of the damned, among whom I must expect to spend eternity."

Knit Two by Kate Jacobs

★★★

"It's all about getting the hang of things...You'll figure everything out in time.  But for right now, just keep trying.  Pay attention and avoid the temptation to go further than you're ready.  Talk less.  And listen more."