Favorite Authors - Laura Dave

Now that I have a blog about books I read, I can inundate it with my favorite books and authors and stop annoying my friends. Though I actually rarely talk books with my friends which is sad and probably part of the reason I miss college. It was fun to sit around talking about what we were reading for hours at a time since we really had no other responsibilities apart from studying and going to class.

Since I am still in the middle of my current read, I thought I would go write a couple of blog posts over the next few days about my favorite authors. Today I want to introduce you to Laura Dave in case you haven't met her.

Her can read all about her at her website - http://www.lauradave.com/. How cool is it that she has her own name as a web address? It's the dream I think of most of us working on our first novels. Someday...

She has written three books, all of which I loved.

I read London is the Best City in America first. It may be my favorite of her books. The characters are likable even in their unlikeable moments. I especially loved the main character, Emmy. She is returning home for her brothers wedding after leaving life behind and living in a small fishing village for the last three years. Laura Dave writes you into the book, allowing me to escape my routine for the hours I was reading.



I then had to find her other book, The Divorce Party: A Novel. I don't usually read books about divorce, and this was when my parents were actually separated and moving toward their own divorce, but I read this one because I knew Laura Dave would create sympathetic characters not caricatures and she did. She doesn't take sides. She tells the stories behind the story in such a way that each character is understood, not always liked but understood.



I had to wait for her next book, The First Husband, to be published. It was worth the wait. This is the story of Annie who is happy with Nick until he leaves her. She falls in love with Griffin and marries him quickly. But life is not a fairy tale and happily ever after is complicated, especially when Nick returns. Annie is forced to deal with the life she had imagined and the life she is living. This book examines marriage and commitment. Dreams and reality. Happiness and peace.


You can't go wrong with any of them. Her characters become real and also make the people around you who are facing these situations feel more real.