Novel Thoughts

I've been bad. Haven't blogged. But I'm back. First, with some book recommendations.
In the epistolary tradition, two novels who tell their stories through letters:

Dear American Airlines by Jonathon Miles "a scathingly funny, deeply moving story of a stranded airline passenger, whose enraged letter of complaint transforms into a lament for a life gone awry."
Bennie Ford, the protagonist, is a 53-year old failed poet turned translator who manages to leaven the dark disappointments in his life (failed marriages, estrangement from his daughter, alcoholism) with searing bits of wit. In short, he's a character you won't mind spending hours with at the airport bar, just to hear his biting, poignant story. I felt I was there at his elbow, listening, buying him another round.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society is told entirely in letters-- between a group of post-WWII correspondents. Warm, tender, and despite the tragic period of history it touches on, optimistic. The kind of novel your book group will agree is "charming."