Photo: Studio D

Unfinished Business
By Lee Kravitz
224 pages; Bloomsbury

Slow Love
By Dominique Browning
250 pages; Atlas

At a time when millions of Americans are losing their jobs, it's hard to drum up much sympathy for a couple of highly paid executives who got kicked off the fast track and into their own (well-tended) backyards. Good thing, then, that neither Dominique Browning, the former editor of the now defunct House & Garden magazine, nor Lee Kravitz, who ran Parade, is asking for your sympathy. In their memoirs, Slow Love and Unfinished Business, respectively, both authors manage to tell their stories with minimal self-pity. Ashamed of his workaholism, Kravitz makes amends by visiting relatives and spending some time in a monastery. Browning ends a dysfunctional relationship, prepares to sell her house, and masters the art of patience. Both conclude their first unemployed year happier—though practical readers are left with unanswered questions: What happens when the severance stops and the bills don't? And when these authors find out, will they let us know?

• Get the reading group guide for Unfinished Business

• Get the reading group guide for Slow Love

• How to find your own identity when the people around you are losing theirs