Loved itthis is a book i read last year and really enjoyed
Review 1 of 2
Cassandra at the wedding (1962)
Others: Positive Cassandra Edwards is a graduate student at Berkeley: gay, brilliant, nerve-wracked, miserable. At the beginning of this novel, she drives back to her family ranch in the foothills of the Sierras to attend the wedding of her identical twin, Judith, to a nice young doctor from Connecticut. Cassandra, however, is hell-bent on sabotaging the wedding. Dorothy Baker's entrancing tragicomic novella follows an unpredictable course of events in which her heroine appears variously as conniving, self-aware, pitiful, frenzied, absurd, and heartbroken—at once utterly impossible and tremendously sympathetic. Cassandra reckons with her complicated feelings about the sister who she feels owes it to her to be her alter ego; with her father, a brandy-soaked retired professor of philosophy; and with the ghost of her dead mother, as she struggles to come to terms with the only life she has. First published in 1962, Cassandra at the Wedding is a book of enduring freshness, insight, and verve. Like the fiction of Jeffrey Eugenides and Jhumpa Lahiri, it is the work of a master stylist with a profound understanding of the complexities of the heart and mind.
- ISBN:
- 9781590171127
- Length:
- 226 pages
Lists: …
Similar books
1 of 6
Trouble
Lex Croucher
2023 · 336 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveThere's a new governess at Fairmont House, and she's going to be nothing but trouble. Emily Laurence is a liar. She is not polite, she's not polished, and she has never taught a child in her life. This position was meant to be her sister's––brilliant, kind Amy, who isn't perpetually angry, dangerously reckless, and who does (inexplicably) like children. But Amy is unwell and needs a doctor, their father is gone and their mother is useless, so here Emily is, pretending to be something she's not. If she can get away with her deception for long enough to earn a few month's wages and slip some expensive trinkets into her pockets along the way, perhaps they'll be all right. That is, as long as she doesn't get involved with the Edwards family's dramas. Emily refuses to care about her charges - Grace, who talks too much and loves too hard, and Aster, who is frankly terrifying but might just be the wittiest sixteen-year-old Emily has ever met - or the servants, who insist on acting as if they're each other's family. And she certainly hasn't noticed her employer, the brooding, taciturn Captain Edwards, no matter how good he might look without a shirt on . . . As Fairmont House draws her in, Emily's lies start to come undone. Can she fix her mistakes before it's too late?
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Books and Things loved both61%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations39%Breakfast at Tiffany's
Truman Capote
1956 · 160 pages · 4 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positivePublished with three short stories this novella cemented Capote’s position at the forefront of American literature. It is the story of a friendship between New York neighbours, good time girl Holly Golightly and the unnamed male narrator.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Books and Things loved both64%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations36%The Color Purple
Alice Walker
1976 · 264 pages · 8 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveThe Color Purple is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. The novel has been the frequent target of censors and appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2000–2009 at number seventeenth because of the sometimes explicit content, particularly in terms of violence. In 2003, the book was listed on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's "best-loved novels."
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Books and Things loved both66%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations34%Dandelion Wine
Ray Bradbury
1946 · 200 pages · 5 reviews
Others: Mostly positiveThe summer of '28 was a vintage season for a growing boy. A summer of green apple trees, mowed lawns, and new sneakers. Of half-burnt firecrackers, of gathering dandelions, of Grandma's belly-busting dinner. It was a summer of sorrows and marvels and gold-fuzzed bees. A magical, timeless summer in the life of a twelve-year-old boy named Douglas Spaulding—remembered forever by the incomparable Ray Bradbury. Dandelion Wine is unique amongst the works of the popular author Ray Bradbury, in that it provides us with perhaps the clearest insight into the thoughts and feelings of the author. The book was published in 1957, perhaps over twenty years after the era which it is about, thus providing an inevitable theme of nostalgia throughout the book. The principal character, Douglas Spalding, and his brother Tom, encounter a series of adventures which are described in a crafted and distinguished manner to provide a philosophical tone throughout the book. The narrative is enriched by the experiences of individuals such as Leo Auffman, who attempts (unsuccessfully) to construct a 'Happiness machine'. Overall, the book provides a nostalgic sense of childhood and an understanding of the beauty of the world and all its features; in this way, it appears to be Bradbury himself reminiscing on his past. Douglas has similar traits to those Bradbury has later in life identified in himself, strengthening this interpretation.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Books and Things loved both68%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations32%I Capture the Castle
Dodie Smith
1948 · 353 pages · 8 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveCassandra, the 17-year-old narrator, lives an eccentric existence in a crumbling castle in the English countryside in the 1930s. Her father is a former bestselling novelist now suffering from a chronic case of writer's block and her glamorous but bohemian stepmother Topaz is a sometime artist model. Money is in short supply but Cassandra and her discontented older sister Rose are forced to make the best of things - until some young, wealthy American neighbours arrive and Rose sees an opportunity for them all to escape their impoverished existence. Even when she is encountering the difficulties of first love and first heartbreak, Cassandra remains a wonderfully likable heroine, with a strong narrative voice and a distinctive sense of humour. Whimsical, charming and beautifully written, this engaging classic novel will appeal equally to both adult and young adult readers.
You Let Me In
Camilla Bruce
2020 · 288 pages · 4 reviews
Others: PositiveYou Let Me In delivers a stunning tale from debut author Camilla Bruce, combining the sinister domestic atmosphere of Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects with the otherwordly thrills of Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Cassandra Tipp is dead...or is she? After all, the notorious recluse and eccentric bestselling novelist has always been prone to flights of fancy--everyone in town remembers the shocking events leading up to Cassie's infamous trial (she may have been acquitted, but the insanity defense only stretches so far). Cassandra Tipp has left behind no body--just her massive fortune, and one final manuscript. Then again, there are enough bodies in her past--her husband Tommy Tipp, whose mysterious disembowelment has never been solved, and a few years later, the shocking murder-suicide of her father and brother. Cassandra Tipp will tell you a story--but it will come with a terrible price. What really happened, out there in the woods--and who has Cassie been protecting all along? Read on, if you dare...
Loved it