3 Novels to Devour Over a Long Weekend (Plus 4 Other Entrancing Reads)
We found the juiciest, most
page-turning stories out there, just in time for the beginning of fall.
(P.S. They go perfectly with a midnight piece of apple pie.)
3 of 7
All We Had
By Annie Weatherwax
272 pages;
Scribner
Fat River, a small town with a "thinnish
stream," a gas station and a Walmart, has plenty of eccentric characters,
such as a transgender waitress and a disabled Russian gymnast to name a few. When
13-year-old Ruthie and her mother, Rita, pull off the highway for a quick stop,
their only plan is to refuel, steal doughnuts from the local gas station and
keep driving. Instead, they stay and try to go straight for the first
time—no men, no cons—which
means buying a broken-down house with the help of a less-than-reputable mortgage
broker. Part commentary on the subprime crisis past, comic novel All We Had keeps
you reading for its small observations, such as why mothers apply lipstick when
upset ("There was something about the act of moving the stock of color
across her lips that soothed"), as well as its larger, scarier questions
about the path to adulthood after a childhood spent simply trying to survive.
— Leigh Newman
Published 08/15/2014