Items20The creator’s order
  1. 1How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water (2022)How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water (2022) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2022Cara Romero loses the factory job she expected to keep and must explain herself to a job counsellor in her mid-fifties. Her voice turns the indignities of seeking work into sharp, often funny conversation. Debt, family estrangement and neighbourhood change stay in the picture. Start here for…0
  2. 2Ladder of Years (1995)Ladder of Years (1995)Published 1 Jan 1995Forty-year-old Delia walks away from a family beach holiday and begins assembling a smaller life elsewhere. Tyler is interested in what follows the dramatic exit: paid work, a place to live and relationships that do not disappear because she has left. Choose it for a dryly funny examination of…0
  3. 3We All Live Here (2025)We All Live Here (2025) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2025As a relationship writer whose own marriage has collapsed, Lila has an awkward public identity to maintain. Two daughters, an ageing stepfather, a difficult house and a career still require attention. Domestic bustle supplies the humour, while the competing needs prevent her fresh start from…0i
  4. 4The Accidental Tourist (1985)The Accidental Tourist (1985) 7.1/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1985Travel writer Macon Leary responds to grief by making routines ever more elaborate. When his marriage and home arrangements change, even accepting help becomes a struggle. Tyler gives a new relationship practical friction instead of treating attraction as a cure. A humane, comic choice about…0
  5. 5Miss Benson's Beetle (2020)Miss Benson's Beetle (2020) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2020In 1950, a frustrated schoolteacher leaves her job to pursue a long-abandoned interest in a rare beetle. The expedition to New Caledonia is the list's more adventurous departure, but it demands work, endurance and dependence on an unlikely companion. Choose it for friendship and belated ambition,…0
  6. 6Less (2017)Less (2017) 7.5/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2017Professional insecurity is much harder for Arthur Less to leave behind than an ex. Approaching fifty, the novelist accepts a string of literary invitations to avoid a wedding, carrying his doubts from country to country. The farce makes room for a wry, queer reckoning with younger talent, former…0
  7. 7Second Honeymoon (2006)Second Honeymoon (2006)Published 1 Jan 2006Edie expects an empty house after her youngest child leaves; her husband expects their marriage to recover some space. Their adult children's problems make both plans less straightforward. Trollope gives money, work and the habits of parenthood a proper say in the couple's next chapter. A…0
  8. 8The Bookshop (1978)The Bookshop (1978) 7.3/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1978Florence Green opens a bookshop in a small East Anglian town and discovers that enthusiasm is a poor defence against established local power. Stock, premises and social influence matter as much as courage. Its dry humour and sharpness make this a valuable corrective to the comforting shop-opening…0
  9. 9The woman upstairs (2013)The woman upstairs (2013) 6.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2013Anger drives this account of a dependable teacher who has kept her artistic ambitions small. Nora Eldridge's friendship with a glamorous family seems to offer another way of being, while exposing what dutiful caring and secure employment have cost her. Messud takes the resentment seriously without…0
  10. 10Sorrow and Bliss (2021)Sorrow and Bliss (2021) 10.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2021At forty, Martha faces the breakdown of her marriage alongside a working life and family relationships that have become painfully constricted. Going back to her parents' home offers no clean reset. Its dark comedy lets affection, cruelty and dependence coexist. Read for an uneven attempt to live…0