Love and Houses

RATING: (3.7)

I recently re-read this book, which I picked up randomly from the shelves of the public library almost 15 years ago. I think I probably thought the cover was cute. But I remembered it and bought it a while back off Amazon since I’d really enjoyed it the first time around. It’s hard to explain why it appeals to me so much, except that I just find it to be a very charming little book about struggling through love and relationships and getting through it in the end.

Our narrator is Meg Howe, and she is pregnant, she’s paying off two mortgages because one is on the market, and her husband, Andy, who is kind of a loveable idiot, has left her. She’s a writer and he’s a bookstore owner who likes to restore old books as a hobby on the side. I’m not sure why exactly this book would have appealed to me when I was in high school, but there’s something really endearing and funny about it as Meg struggles through her pregnancy and figuring out what to do about her relationship with her husband (potentially to be ex-husband), and getting through the days in general.

The narration is faced-paced and wry, but also caring, good-humored and frustrated all at once. It’s a book where none of the characters are perfect people, not even towards each other, but you root for all of them anyway since they all have that little bit of heart that seems to make them worth cheering for.

Anyway, as for why I am now reviewing this here, I guess I just like this book and very few people know about it. It’s like that Maya Angelou quote: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel” — I guess I just liked how this book made me feel. So maybe someone will come across this and decide to pick it up.

Guest review contributed by The Bibliofile. This blogger includes outside research to work as a compliment to her book reviews, expanding the view outside of just one source of input.