April Reading List

Books Read in April

052 - 01 Hide in Plain Sight, by Marta Perry (4/1)
053 - 02 You Belong to Me, by Karen Rose (4/1)  AUDIOBOOK 
054 - 03 Copper Beach, by Jayne Ann Krentz (4/4) 
055 - 04 It Happened One Season, by Laurens, Balogh, D'Alessandro, and Hern (4/6)

056 - 05 The Surgeon, by Tess Gerritsen (4/10)  
057 - 06 The Bright Forever, by Lee Martin (4/11)
058 - 07 The Bone Garden, by Tess Gerritsen (4/12) AUDIOBOOK
059 - 08 Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant,  by Anne Tayler (4/14)
060 - 09 Irresistible Forces, by Brenda Jackson (4/15) 
061 - 10 A  Very Special Delivery, by Linda Goodnight (4/15) 
062 - 11 Married by Mistake, by Abby Gaines (4/16) 
063 - 12 The Bride's Baby, by Liz Fielding (4/16)
064 - 13 Code Triage, by Candace Calvert (4/18)
065 - 14 The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern (4/18)
066 - 15 Body of Evidence, by Tess Gerritsen  (4/21)
067 - 16 Baby Bonanza, by Maureen Child (4/25) 
068 - 17 Vanish, by Tess Gerritsen (4/26) 
069 - 18 Double Dare, by Rhonda Nelson (4/26)
070 - 19 A Bride for Tom, by Ruth Ann Nordin (4/26)
071 - 20 The Billionaire Wins the Game, by Melody Anne (4/27)
072 - 21 A Husband for Margaret, by Ruth Ann Nordin (4/29) 
073 - 22 Edith, by Mirriam Smyth (4/29)

I was really bothered by Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. Most of the time when you read a story about a dysfunctional family, you think tend to think either that "at least they're amusing" or "thank goodness my family isn't as bad as all that." With this book, all I could think was "please, we're not anything like that, I hope." It wasn't until I read the Reader's Guide, with A Conversation with Anne Tyler, that I figured out why the book bothered me  so much. It was the theme of the story: 

In a sense, I think we're all doomed. We can repeat our parents' mistakes or we can bend over backwards not to repeat them and end up making mistakes of contrariness; but either way, we're still under their influence. (Tyler, Anne. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. New York: Ballentine Books, 1982. )

Unfortunately, I think that Anne Tyler may be right, and our families doom us to our future.