What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

When Alice Love wakes up at the hospital after collapsing, she doesn’t understand why her husband, Nick, isn’t at her bedside. After all, she’s twenty-nine years old and happily married, with a baby on the way.  That’s when her sister, Elisabeth, breaks the news to her: Alice has amnesia.  She is, in fact, thirty-nine, has three kids, and she and Nick are in the middle of a brutal divorce.  As Alice moves through her unfamiliar life, she is shocked by the person she’s become and wonders how in the world she doesn’t even recognize herself.

In novels popular books memory loss, the  main character is usually attempting to get trying to get their memory back, and of course, Alice tries as hard as she can to recall what she’s forgotten.  But as the book progresses, the reader’s feelings change.  I didn’t want Alice to remember what she’d forgotten.  She had the chance to rebuild her life, to right all of her mistakes, and this Alice seemed so much happier than the other Alice.  It was a crafty thing that Moriarty did, and it made it completely unique.- S. Krishna’s Books

           

I liked What Alice Forgot because it was not predictable. The author crafts a character that I could relate to. If we could go back in time would we really change anything we did?  Like many of us have one time or another, the main character struggles to understand who she is. - Lori

Unfinished Desires by Gail Godwin

 

The Chatters Book Club had a good discussion on Unfinished Desires.  The novel deals with a group of girls attending a Catholic girl's school.  Gail Godwin, author of 12 previous novels, involves women's friendships, family, and faith in this very human story.  The central setting of the story takes place when a group of 9th grade girls come together to perform a play; however, power struggles occur throughout between mothers and daughters, teachers and students. The author attended a Catholic day school and bases her story on her experiences.

    Our June selection and meeting TBA.