Tag Archives: Friday Finds

Bookish Talk

Friday Finds: The Custom of the Country

6 Comments

The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton

Friday Finds is hosted by Should Be Reading

Here’s the blurb from the publisher:

First published in 1913, Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country is a scathing novel of ambition featuring one of the most ruthless heroines in literature. Undine Spragg is as unscrupulous as she is magnetically beautiful. Her rise to the top of New York’s high society from the nouveau riche provides a provocative commentary on the upwardly mobile and the aspirations that eventually cause their ruin. One of Wharton’s most acclaimed works, The Custom of the Country is a stunning indictment of materialism and misplaced values that is as powerful today for its astute observations about greed and power as when it was written nearly a century ago.

I really need to make notes when I come across books I want to read. I saw this one mentioned somewhere and got so excited that I added it to my Goodreads list and then promptly forgot where I saw it. If you recently mentioned this book, then thank you!

Doesn’t it look good? I wish I could just lock myself in a room for a year just so that I could read all the classics that I’ve been wanting to.

Bookish Talk

Friday Finds: The Irresistible Henry House

17 Comments

The Irresistible Henry House by Lisa Grunwald

Friday Finds is hosted by Should Be Reading

Here’s the blurb from the publisher:

It is the middle of the twentieth century, and in a home economics program at a prominent university, real babies are being used to teach mothering skills to young women. For a young man raised in these unlikely circumstances, finding real love and learning to trust will prove to be the work of a lifetime. In this captivating novel, bestselling author Lisa Grunwald gives us the sweeping tale of an irresistible hero and the many women who love him.

From his earliest days as a “practice baby” through his adult adventures in 1960s New York City, Disney’s Burbank studios, and the delirious world of the Beatles’ London, Henry remains handsome, charming, universally adored—and never entirely accessible to the many women he conquers but can never entirely trust.

Filled with unforgettable characters, settings, and action, The Irresistible Henry House portrays the cultural tumult of the mid-twentieth century even as it explores the inner tumult of a young man trying to transcend a damaged childhood. For it is not until Henry House comes face-to-face with the real truths of his past that he finds a chance for real love.

I saw this book mentioned somewhere (cannot remember where) and it struck me as such an odd story that I had to add it to my TBR list. It’s quite different than what I would normally pick up.

Sometimes, different is good.

By the way, when I was in high school I was in a play titled Irresistible Albert where all these women fall in love with plain-looking Albert. This book sort of made me think of that play.