#themiddlesteins

[spinesvines]

#spinetalk 📖 ⁣ #AllThisCouldBeYours by @jamiattenberg ⁣⁣ 🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷 Cheers ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ I always look forward to @starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte in the fall & a new Jami Attenberg book. HOLY CRAP— she’s done it again! It’s a no brainer read for me when it comes to Jami Attenberg. I had no idea what this book was about (avoided reviews or overviews) but it’s Jami so I knew it was going to entertain me to the fullest. I’ve been a fan since her debut novel #TheMiddlesteins in 2012. She just tells a good darn story...period! Especially dysfunctional family stories. ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ I paused all of my other books to read ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS. The patriarch of the family is dying and his wife & children, well let’s just say they don’t give a damn! The family has lived their lives in the grips of a toxic & abusive man. As Victor lies on his death bed his wife (Barbra), kids (Alex and Gary) and Gary’s wife Twyla journey through their memories of life with this horrible man. The drama in this book had me laughing and yelling expletives out loud! ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Attenberg is one of those authors who just makes me feel good & gets me out of any reading slump. I enjoy reading her stories. So let me leave with this— be nice to your family. You don’t want to end up like Victor! OMG 😱🤣 (I had to chuckle because I couldn’t believe it!)⁣⁣ 🎧📚🍷⁣⁣ .⁣⁣ .⁣⁣ .⁣⁣ #spinesvines #books #wine #booksandcoffee #pumpkinspicelatte #psl #jamiattenberg #bookrec #bookreview #bookrecommendation #audiobook (at Alexandria, Virginia) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4NtIwagkbN/?igshid=1c6z98luwoypp

[bluesbookclub]

#bookclub and work. #weekendreading #booksofinstagram #books #themiddlesteins #fallinginlovewithclosereading

[quotesnotebook]

Jami Attenburg, "The Middlesteins"

[lena-francesca]

The Middlesteins- Jami Attenburg

"Because food was a wonderful place to hide"

Managed to get some quality reading done while on holiday- finished the third book in Murukami's 1Q84, started Samuel Shem's House of God and the succulent meaty filling of this literary sandwich was Jami's Attenburg's newest book "The Middlesteins".

I enjoyed this book and I read it fairly quickly.  Jonathan Franzen's books gave me an appetite for reading about unhappy Midwestern families.  And in keeping with the old truth about all unhappy families being unique, the Middlesteins have their own catalyst for combustion, matriarch Edie is eating herself to death.  I've read books (and seen countless soap operas) where the characters destroy or are destroyed by drugs, alcohol, affairs and illness but I've not read a book this focused on the issues around eating since I graduated from the Teen Fiction section (Jacqueline Wilson's Girls series springs to mind).  Obviously within the family there are other long standing resentments and the "what shall we do about Edie?" panic brings these to the forefront.  Tense, topical and full of truth "The Middlesteins" is a refreshing, intelligent read for 2013.