A Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas

A beautifully written memoir. Thomas’ husband, Rich, was hit by a car and suffered traumatic brain injury. After surgeries, etc., his condition became such that Thomas couldn’t care for him at home and placed him in a long-term facility. The book is less about Rich’s troubles as it is about Thomas adjusting to a life on her own, an unexpected turn of events for a couple who married late in life. She still visits Rich. She even moves upstate to be near him and the hospital but Rich is not the same and never will be and Thomas has to learn to live her life without him. At times heartbreaking and other times laugh-out-loud funny, this book can be devoured in one sitting. Eat up.

A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon

Think your family is a train wreck? Get a load of the Halls. George, a distant father, husband and colleague, is newly retired and suddenly consumed by his own mortality when he finds a “lesion” on his hip that he is convinced is cancer (it’s hardly that) and begins to come unglued. His wife, Jean, is carrying on with George’s former co-worker, the smoothie David Symmonds. Daughter Katie has already gone through a bad marriage and is now engaged to Ray, a good guy who loves her and her son, Jacob, but the Halls disapprove because they deem him too ordinary for their smarter, French-speaking daughter. She might be marrying Ray and she might not; either way, she’s a mess. Son Jamie is involved with Tony but is self-involved enough that the relationship is really more an on-going play date than a real relationship. While a very different book from his brilliant debut, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime¸ Haddon maintains a similar light touch as this family careens out of control while learning what it means to really love someone else.