Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Seven great reads for the seven deadly sins

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Ellen Wehle tagged seven "books for ... folks who commit the Seven Deadly Sins…and don’t regret a single moment of it," including:
Pride: You Should Have Known, by Jean Hanff Korelitz

What would you say if I told you a therapist had written a best-seller scolding women who choose lousy men? You’d think, “So how good is her marriage,” right? Grace, the therapist in question, is the poster child for Pride. She’s smart and successful and married to a brilliant doctor…in other words, ripe for a fall.

Korelitz has lots of fun setting up the disaster. Though Grace’s husband, Jonathan, is never home—we don’t see him for most of the book—she’s oblivious, telling herself he’s just busy saving lives. Clues mount that something is wrong, but Grace ignores them all. She tells her poor, hopeful patients the same message she writes in her best-seller: Your own fault, my dears, you chose the wrong man. Ouch! By the time Grace’s perfect life begins to teeter, she’s been smug for so long that we can’t help but enjoy the crash.
Read about the other entries on the list.

Also see: Jean Hanff Korelitz's six top books about failed marriages.

--Marshal Zeringue