Short Stories and a Classic

My commute into work has been so LONG lately. Thank goodness I have had some good audio books to keep me entertained. Otherwise, there might have been some major cases of road rage.

The first is The Guy Not Taken by Jennifer Weiner. This is a compilation of 5 short stories with Weiner's typical chick-lit flair. I'm not a huge fan of short stories because they just don't give me enough. I always end up wanting more. And although that was still the case with these, I really enjoyed the stories and getting to know the characters.

Jennifer Weiner's talent shines like never before in this collection of short stories, following the tender, often hilarious, progress of love and relationships over the course of a lifetime.

We meet Marlie Davidow, home alone with her new baby late one night, when she wanders onto her ex's online wedding registry and wonders what if she had wound up with the guy not taken. We find Jessica Norton listing her beloved river-view apartment in the hope of winning her broker's heart. And we follow an unlikely friendship between two very different new mothers, and the choices that bring them together — and pull them apart.

The Guy Not Taken demonstrates Weiner's amazing ability to create characters who "feel like they could be your best friend" (Janet Maslin) and to find hope and humor, longing and love in the hidden corners of our common experiences.

The second book is one of my favorite classics...The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I have read this book several times and seen the movie several times as well. It never gets old. NEVER.

On the grounds of Misselthwaite, her Uncle Archibald's estate near the Yorkshire moors, nine-year-old Mary Lennox finds a walled-in garden that has been locked securely for years. With the help of Dickon Sowerby, a young local boy who can charm animals, Mary cultivates the garden, an experiences that both improves her health and raises her spirits. Ultimately, the secret garden proves beneficial not only to to Mary, but to her sickly cousin Colin, whom her estranged uncle has locked away in solitude following the death of his beloved wife, Colin's mother. Nurtured with love and tenderness, the secret garden proves it has the power to heal the heart.

First published in 1911, Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden is a much-loved classic of children's literature.