The Good Daughters

I finished my December book in about two days and read most of it on Christmas Day. We had a very relaxing Christmas this year...just how I like it!

Alex's parents gave me Joyce Maynard's The Good Daughters for Christmas. It was one of the three books I brought with me (the other two are non-ficiton).

Alex, who claims he doesn't read (but I know otherwise) actually read the bulk of this book over my shoulder. Which is amazing. Because he doesn't read fiction and this book didn't really fall into the chick-lit genre, but its audience was certainly female.


This book is hard to categorize...it is well written but it felt a bit like a beach book...you know, the kind that you read when you want to read a book, but don't necessarily want to think too hard.

When I read the jacket blurb, I thought I might have figured out the plot. Then after I read the first two chapters (that's how far I got the first night before I had to go to sleep), I knew I'd figured it out. And somewhere in the next couple of chapters, I thought maybe I'd figured out the twist. And it turned out that I did.

And sometimes that makes a book a not very good read (and apparently sometimes that makes my grammar horrible). But this was an enjoyable read even though I knew the end. What made it enjoyable what how the book got to the end. There were a few things that were a bit surprising and there were a few plot devices that were used in different ways than I thought they might be.

The book is written from the perspective of two women, Ruth and Dana, and the chapters alternate between the two voices and I really liked the format. The chapters were a good length...some were only a couple of pages, some much longer, and they were perfect for reading when there was a two year old around who needed attention.

Overall, I think I would recommend this book...especially if you're looking for something that's light on the brain work, but still well written and not fluff.