#penguinaudio

The Female Persuasion A satisfying novel of a young woman trying to figure out who she is, and who she is supposed to be in the world.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

SUMMARY Greer Kadetsky is a shy college freshman at Ryland College. She’s there because her parents could not fill out the financial aid forms that would have yielded her entry into Yale. This isn’t where she wanted to be. While at Ryland, she meets Faith Frank for the first time. Faith, 63, is a feminist icon and has been a central player in the women’s movement for decades. Faith can carry a room with her knowledge and wit, and her suede boots were enviable. Greer is captivated by Faith, and after graduation goes to work for her, interviewing women for their stories and writing speeches. Her relationship with Faith as her mentor becomes complicated.

Greer and Cory had been a couple since high school.They had planned on going to college together, but that didn’t happen. Cory was accepted at Yale, while Greer was relegated to Ryland college. Though hundreds of miles apart their relationship survived, and they made plans for after graduation. But once again things didn’t work out as planned for either Greer or Cory. Greer’s best friend, Zee who’s is gay, is also struggling to make a difference in the world. She too wanted to work for Faith Frank.

“I think there are two kinds of feminist. The famous ones, and everyone else. Everyone else, all the people who just quietly go and do what they’re supposed to do, and don’t get a lot of credit for it, and don’t have someone out there every day telling them they’re doing an awesome job.”

REVIEW THE FEMALE PERSUASION is a novel about a young woman who is trying to find her place in the world. It about a woman trying to figure out who she is supposed to be and who she is suppose to be with. It’s about the obstacles in her life that prevented her from achieving the things she thought she was supposed to be doing. While the writing was great I found reading it to be a struggle at times, and my interest sometimes faltered. The story was long but interestingly raised a variety of social issues that played significant role in the narrative: privilege, personal/professional ethics, and family responsibility to name just a few. The modern day feminism aspect of the book left a little to be desired.

The people in Greer’s life, her best-friend, Zee, her boyfriend, Cory and her mentor, Faith, all played pivotal roles in guiding Greer’s decisions and impacting her life. Greer’s character was at times frustrating, she left me waiting for her to evolve into a stronger, bolder character. All characters were well developed and I particularly liked Cory, and how he handled the difficulties he faced after graduation.

MEG WOLITZER is a New York Times best selling author of The Interestings, The Uncoupling, The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, The Wife and Sleepwalking. I listened to the audio version of the book, which was narrated by Rebecca Lowman. Publisher Penguin Random House Audio. Publication Date April 3, 2018.

RULES OF CIVILITY Amor Towles

MY RATING ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️▫️ PUBLISHER Penguin Audio PUBLISHED July 26, 2011

An captivating and elegantly written novel of a determined and dynamic young single woman and her new circle of friends in New York City in 1938.

SUMMARY RULES OF CIVILITY tells the story of a pivotal year for 25-year-old Katey Kontent. She is smart, witty and determined to find her way among the the upper crust of New York society. Katey‘s story opens on New Year’s eve in a Greenwich Village jazz bar where Katey and her friend Eve meet a handsome banker, Tinker Grey. Both Katey and Eve are smitten with the blue eyed well-dressed gentleman in a cashmere coat. This chance encounter reshapes Katey’s future, providing her access to a new career in the elite publishing offices of Condé Nast, and a glamorous new social circle. It is through Tinker that Katey’s meet several other friends that will play a major role in her life in 1938 and beyond. Within this circle, Katey has the opportunity to experience the trappings of wealth and class, and learn how momentary decisions may forever shape your life.

REVIEW RULES of CIVILITY is a poignant, thoughtful and moving novel, set at a time full of hopes and dreams. In 1938 the depression is coming to an end and the US has yet to become embroiled in the war overseas. For Katey Kontent however, 1938 is a year of transformation, sparked by a new circle of friends.

The writing is elegant, the characters well drawn and the setting is picture perfect. AMOR TOWLES touchingly chronicles Katey’s life in 1938, and also gives us brief glimpses of both her past and her future. For it is in 1966, at the Museum of Modern Art, that Katey and her husband see two photographs of Tinker Grey from earlier days that brings back the memories that form the story of this extraordinary novel. Reading a Amor Towles novel, whether it’s Rules of Civility or A Gentleman in Moscow, is like stepping back in time to a more elegant and well-read era. In both novels great literature is not only referenced throughout, but plays somewhat of key role in the story.

Mix a martini, add some olives and enjoy this masterful story of a young woman earning her place in society, though her intelligence, her grace and the decisions she makes.

“In our twenties, when there is still so much time ahead of us, time that seems ample for a hundred indecisions, for a hundred visions and revisions—we draw a card, we must decide right then and there whether to keep that card and discard the next, or discard the first card and keep the second. And before we know it, the deck has been played out and decisions we have just made will shape our lives for decades to come.”