Enjoyable Reading: Happens Every Day

The Professor e-mailed me the other day with another book selection. This man and I only dated for about six weeks, but we'll be friends forever. He has a sixth sense for the songs and books that interest me and is quick to send me suggestions. This one hit the mark, totally!

The book is Isabel Gillies' "Happens Every Day," a memoir of the life and death of her marriage. Much of the action takes place in Oberlin, Ohio, a sweet small college town where it seems nothing could go wrong. Or quite this wrong. The book opens with Gillies' husband hanging dozens of family pictures in the bathroom, which immediately got me thinking about the downstairs powder room in my house and how I could give it some character.

I tend to lose myself in books. I love reading books and watching movies that are set in places I know. Tyler and I visited Oberlin when he was college-shopping but, as I remember, he felt it would be Interlochen South and wanted to break out of that mode. Plus Youngstown wanted him badly and made him an offer I couldn't refuse. But I digress.

I've dated plenty of men who, I joke, had "Scoundrel" tattooed on their foreheads. Gillies' former husband, Josiah, is just such a man, a man with no ethics or moral fiber. The Professor, in giving me his take on the book, referred to him as a "world class narcissistic coward." Powerful words.

I'm about halfway through "Happens Every Day," and loving every word Gillies has written. I hope she will write more, as I like her style and feel it is similar to my [blog-]writing style.

As I was doing a Google search to find out more about her, I noticed that her book was listed on NPR's Fresh Air's Top Ten Books. I will definitely have to explore that list some more, if all those books are of this caliber.


What are you reading?