Since getting involved with the book club through my local Air Force spouses group, I’ve read so many books that I might not have picked up on my own, and I love that.
Of course, since I’m one of the leaders of the book club, I do have some say in which books were a part of the poll, but our members voted on the top picks, and we ended up with a few that I wasn’t so sure about.
One of these books in particular was What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty.
This was our November book club pick. I have to admit that I thought this would be another silly chick-lit book that I’d end up getting bored with halfway through & have pretentious feelings about. But, as it turns out, I was wrong.
What Alice Forgot was a bit of a quick read once I got into it, but in a good way – I didn’t want to put this book down! I found myself thinking about it when I was at work and really looking forward to reading it. I had been in a bit of a reading funk beforehand, where I just never felt like picking up a book instead of watching another YouTube video or episode of something-or-other on Netflix. I freaking love reading, but sometimes I find it hard to focus on or devote my time to a book that I’m not totally in love with.
Quick reads with a hint of mystery are a great cure for that reading funk, and I found just the right dosage with What Alice Forgot.
Without giving too much away, here’s a little blurb from the back of the book:
Alice Love is twenty-nine, crazy about her husband, Nick, and pregnant with their first child.
So imagine Alice’s surprise when she comes to on the floor of a gym (a gym! she HATES the gym!) and is whisked off to the hospital, where she discovers the honeymoon is truly over: She is actually thirty-nine years old, has three kids, and is getting divorced.
How can you say no to THAT immediate plot twist??
While the book was pretty slow moving at the start, and felt a little longer than necessary, I thought that overall, it was a clever, silly, heartfelt, emotional, uplifting & thought-provoking book. (yeah, that’s a lot of adjectives.)
It made me think about how relationships can change so seemingly slowly over time, but when you look back, it seems hard to understand how such drastic changes could have happened. It made me feel grateful for a loving husband who is right along side me, consciously working on our marriage every day. And most importantly, it made me think about how to live my life so that I will look back on these moments in ten years and feel proud of how I’ve changed. #feelings
If you don’t like books that jump around from character to character, or from first person narrative to letter-writing at the drop of a hat, then this may not be the book for you. That kind of writing style keeps me on my toes in a refreshing way that I appreciate sometimes, but I understand how it could be hard to follow.
If you need a bit of a reading pick-me-up, I’d definitely suggest What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty.
I’ve heard good things about many of her other books as well, and am hoping to read a few next year! My to-read list on Goodreads just keeps growing and growing and growing…
Now tell me – what was the last book you read? Have you read any of Liane Moriarty’s novels?
