Tag: setting

Books with Wedding Themes or Settings

- Stephanie Leave a comment

I don’t know about you, but I go to many weddings in the summer! According to a survey done by The Knot, weddings hit peak season when the weather is more favorable. In European countries, late summer (August/September) is most popular. In the US, October is the top month. No matter when you have your wedding, there is practically guaranteed to be downtime for the guests at some point. If you’re like me, you never travel without a book, so having a wedding-themed book with you AT a wedding seems very fitting!

Below is a list of new and forthcoming books with wedding themes or settings that you can find at the Davenport Public Library. Descriptions have been provided by the publisher and/or author.

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Best Men by Sidney Karger

Max Moody thought he had everything figured out. He’s trying to live his best life in New York City and has the best friend a gay guy could ask for: Paige. She and Max grew up next door to each other in the suburbs of Chicago. She can light up any party. She finishes his sentences. She’s always a reliable splunch (they don’t like to use the word brunch) partner. But then Max’s whole world is turned upside down when Paige suddenly announces some huge news: she’s engaged and wants Max to be her man of honor. Max was always the romantic one who imagined he would get married before the unpredictable Paige and is shocked to hear she’s ready to settle down. But it turns out there’s not just one new man in Paige’s life—there are two.

There’s the groom, Austin, who’s a perfectly nice guy. Then there’s his charming, fun and ridiculously handsome gay younger brother, Chasten, who is Austin’s best man. As Paige’s wedding draws closer, Max, the introverted Midwesterner, and Chasten, the social butterfly East Coaster, realize they’re like oil and water. Yet they still have to figure out how to coexist in Paige’s life while not making her wedding festivities all about them. But can the tiny romantic spark between these two very different guys transform their best man supporting roles into the leading best men in each other’s lives?

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Jana Goes Wild by Farah Heron

Jana Suleiman has never really fit in—everyone always sees her as too aloof, too cool, too perfect. The one time she stepped out of her comfort zone she ended up with a broken heart and a baby on the way. Aaaand lesson learned. Now she’s a bridesmaid for a destination wedding in Serengeti National Park, and almost everyone she knows will be there. Her five-year-old daughter. Her mom. Her friends. Even her potential new boss. And of course (because who doesn’t love surprises!) her gorgeous-but-not-to-be-trusted ex.

Fortunately, Anil Malek is a great dad, even if Jana hasn’t quite forgiven him for lying to her all those years ago. Determined to show he has no effect on her whatsoever, she and the bridesmaids concoct a go-wild list to get Jana through the week. Sing karaoke? Sure. Perform their high school dance routine in front of strangers? Okay. But the more she lets down her guard, the less protection she has against her attraction to Anil. And Jana soon realizes it’s one thing to walk on the wild side . . . and quite another to fall for her ex all over again.

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Big Gay Wedding by Byron Lane

Barnett Durang has a secret. No, not THAT secret. His widowed mother has long known he’s gay. The secret is Barnett is getting married. At his mother’s farm. In their small Louisiana town. She just doesn’t know it yet.

It’ll be an intimate affair. Just two hundred or so of the most fabulous folks Barnett is shipping in from the “heathen coasts,” as Mom likes to call them, turning her quiet rescue farm for misfit animals into a most unlikely wedding venue.

But there are forces, both within this modern new family and in the town itself, that really don’t want to see this handsome couple march down the aisle. It’ll be the biggest, gayest event in the town’s history if they can pull it off, and after a glitter-filled week, nothing will ever be the same. Big Gay Wedding is an uplifting book about the power of family and the unconditional love of a mother for her son.

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Love at First Set by Jennifer Dugan

The gym is Lizzie’s life—it’s her passion, her job, and the only place that’s ever felt like home. Unfortunately, her bosses consider her a glorified check-in girl at best, and the gym punching bag at worst.

When their son, Lizzie’s best friend, James, begs her to be his plus one at his perfect sister Cara’s wedding, things go wrong immediately, and culminate in Lizzie giving a drunken pep talk to a hot stranger in the women’s bathroom—except that stranger is actually the bride-to-be, and Lizzie has accidentally convinced her to ditch her groom.

Now, newly directionless Cara is on a quest to find herself, and Lizzie—desperate to make sure her bosses never find out her role in this fiasco—gets strong-armed by James into “entertaining” her. Cara doesn’t have to know it’s a setup; it’ll just be a quick fling before she sobers up and goes back to her real life. After all, how could someone like Cara fall for someone like Lizzie, with no career and no future?

But the more Lizzie gets to know Cara, the more she likes her, and the bigger the potential disaster if any of her rapidly multiplying secrets get out. Because now it’s not just Lizzie’s job and entire future on the line, but also the girl of her dreams.

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The Plus One by Mazey Eddings

Some facts are indisputable. The sun rises in the east, sets in the west. Gravity exists. Indira doesn’t like Jude. Jude doesn’t like Indira. But what happens when these childhood enemies find the only thing they can rely on is each other?

On paper, Indira has everything together. An amazing job, a boyfriend, and a car. What more could a late twenty-something ask for? But when she walks in on her boyfriend in an amorous embrace with a stranger, that perfect on paper image goes up in flames.

Jude has nothing together. A doctor that’s spent the last three years traveling the world to treat emergencies and humanitarian crises, a quick trip home for his best friend’s wedding has him struggling to readjust.

Thrust into an elaborate (and ridiculously drawn out) wedding event that’s stressing Jude beyond belief and has Indira seeing her ex and his new girlfriend far more frequently than any human should endure, the duo strike a bargain to be each other’s fake dates to this wedding from hell. The only problem is, their forced proximity and fake displays of affection are starting to feel a bit…real, and both are left grappling with the idea that a situation that couldn’t be worse, is made a little better with the other around.

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Want some more books with wedding themes or settings? Try these:

Do you have a favorite book with a wedding theme or set at a wedding? Let us know in the comments.

 

 

Edinburgh, San Francisco, Dublin: Classic Novels of Place

- Callen Leave a comment

When life has me stressed, there are a lot of books I can’t read. Anything emotionally intense will only make me feel worse – which means my options for reading material narrow down a lot. Lately I  find myself taking a very particular prescription at times like these: what I think of as “novels of place”. These are books centered in one particular city or region, where the goal is to give a glimpse into the everyday lives of many people who live there. I love the opportunity to see how different people navigate their daily routines, and I like the immersion into a city I’ve never been to. Best of all, there’s not enough violence, romance, or angst to be intrusive. If you want to try this genre, here are a few of my favorites and why they work (for me).

44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall-Smith launched a popular series, with the latest installment published in 2017. Set in Edinburgh, Scotland, the novel centers on the residents of the apartment building located at (you guessed it) 44 Scotland Street. The book opens when Pat, a twenty-year-old on her second gap year, moves out of her parents’ house and into a shared apartment in Scotland Street. Hijinks ensue as she meets her roommate Bruce, neighbor Domenica, and the family downstairs including 5-year-old prodigy Bertie. I like this book because it immerses you into all the good and bad things about living in Scotland, introduces you to realistic but quirky characters, and is liberally sprinkled with insightful comments on life, parenthood, attraction, and art. Most fascinating for me was the moral ambiguity of characters like Bruce the narcissist and Irene the pushy mother. I didn’t root for them, but I am intrigued enough to want to know what happens to them, and they make me think about self-awareness and what kind of person I want to be.

Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin is very similar to the Scotland Street series: it started as a serialized novel (published in installments in the newspaper), launched a popular series, and is centered on the residents of an apartment building. In this case, however, the setting is 1970s San Francisco, and the apartment building is 28 Barbary Lane. Also like Scotland Street, the book starts when a young woman moves into the building: Mary Ann Singleton, a young secretary from Ohio. This is where the similarity ends, however: Tales of the City leans fully into the bohemian diversity of the San Francisco scene, and the domestic dramas involve less art and politics and more intrigue and debauchery. This book has been on my to-read list for a long time, partly because of its unapologetic diversity, and partly because its soap-opera storylines are perfect escapist reading!

Scarlet Feather by Maeve Binchy is a favorite of both mine and my mother’s. Set in Dublin,  Ireland in the early 2000s, it follows Cathy Scarlet and Tom Feather as they open a catering business together and it completely transforms their lives. This book has more of a cohesive plot than some of the others, along with a good mix of warmth, humor, and domestic drama. While this isn’t part of a series, like the others, if you can’t get enough of Binchy’s Dublin, you can also read its companion novel featuring some of the same characters: Quentins. The best thing about Maeve Binchy’s work, as evident in these books as well as many of her others, is that despite the unfortunate things that happen to her characters – the doomed relationships and betrayals – there’s an equal measure of friendship, true love, and hope to balance out the scales. And isn’t that what we all want to know?

I think that’s the main draw of all these novels for me – the wholesomeness, the strong sense of community and friendship, and the sense that the world keeps turning through all the petty, inconvenient, or unpleasant things that happen. Life goes on, and given time people grow, change, and heal. Oftentimes healing and growth happens because of the people who walk alongside us: friends, neighbors, and even strangers. In some cases, we’re helped by animals, which leads me to my last recommendation: All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot.

Originally published in 1972, this is a true classic, but a perfect gentle read for the stressful times in life, especially for when you’re feeling lost. This biographical work tells the story of a young veterinarian who moves to the Yorkshire region of England to join a new practice. This rural, rugged region of England is full of unique characters, challenging terrain, and many animals. The young vet must treat livestock and pets alike while struggling to earn the respect of the locals. Despite the enormous challenges faced, the book shines with hope, humor, and deep love for animal life. If you’re an animal lover, this book (and its sequels) is a great choice.