The Neighbor’s Secret
Here’s why this book — so different than what I normally read — caught my eye. The Neighbor’s Secret by L. Alison Heller was featured as a recent NYT Group Text “book club” pick, and I was taken in because a neighborhood book club acts as the grounding “institution” for the subtly catty yet loud and proud I-just-want-to-raise-good-and-kind-humans crowd of mamas. (🥴) I suspected some blink-or-you’ll-miss-it sarcasm would abound...and I was right.
Here’s a sappy exchange between characters that Heller was no doubt quite intentional about:
** “I think you’re my reading soul mate,” Annie said.
“I don’t know what I’d do without books,” Lena said. Her voice, quiet and a little sad, made something pulse quickly in Annie’s heart.
“Readers are the best people,” Annie said. “Think about it: our hobby is putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes.” **
Oh, please spare me. And also: Ha, I love it. The Neighbor’s Secret is, I think, typical suspense/thriller (lots of #SecretsInSuburbia), but the book club as well as members’ thoughts on books and reading are what make it. The author also throws lots of shade on the mommy-loves-her-wine trope, which, THANK YOU, L. Alison Heller.
Speaking of books about books and/or reading, I’d like to get to these in 2022:
* What We Talk About When We Talk About Books, by Leah Price
* Everything and Less: The Novel in the Age of Amazon, by Mark McGurl
Anyone read either of those?
originally published on instagram