Liane Moriarty’s 5 Loves and a Dud

It’s a party! We’re so excited the fabulous Liane Moriarty is our guest on CLIND! Cue the streamers, balloons and the big band! We’ve been a fan of this international best-selling author since we read her novel, Three Wishes. And we are majorly in love with her latest, What Alice Forgot, a story about what happens when you’re visited by your younger self and get a chance at a do-over. How many of us would love that?!

Here’s the skinny on What Alice Forgot:

Alice Love is twenty-nine years old, madly in love with her husband, and pregnant with their first child. So imagine her surprise when, after a fall, she comes to on the floor of a gym (a gym! she HATES the gym!) and discovers that she’s actually thirty-nine, has three children, and is in the midst of an acrimonious divorce.

A knock on the head has misplaced ten years of her life, and Alice isn’t sure she likes who she’s become. It turns out, though, that forgetting might be the most memorable thing that has ever happened to Alice.

Sounds fabulous right? If you leave a comment, you’ll be entered to win one of five copies. We’ll randomly select the winners after 6pm EST on Monday, September 12.

CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS…LIANE MORIARTY’S 5 LOVES AND A DUD

Am I meant to be writing about my relationship history here? In which case, I would need to change it to:  25 Duds and FINALLY, just when I was about to give up, a Love.  But perhaps ‘loves’ can mean whatever I want it to mean?  I’ve got that panicky exam question feeling, as if I’m about to miss the whole point. I may be overthinking this.  I’m the eldest child. We like to get things right.  Well, here goes:

LOVES

1.     Books, books, books.  From the musty-smelling classics with yellowing, delicate pages at Grandma’s house to the chunky, racy, paperbacks in my Dad’s study, I’ve always loved them with an obsessive passion.   The only time I’ve ever opened a gift and literally screamed with delight was when my sister gave me a new Anne Tyler book for Christmas and I didn’t even know she had a new one out.

2.     That first glorious hit of caffeine.   Fellow coffee addicts will understand. I guess I wouldn’t kill for my morning cup of coffee. I might steal. I’d definitely lie.

3.     Readers who write to me. I don’t know why I still haven’t written to any of my favourite authors now I know how wonderful it is to receive letters and emails from readers.  When I finish a book I love, I just greedily reach for the next one, whereas some people take the time to write and say what a book meant to them.  It’s the ultimate in good manners, and I’ll never take it for granted.      

4.     Google.  How in the world did we live without Google? I just Googled that question and wasted half an hour discovering that no-one knows how we lived without Google.  The other day a bird flew into my house and got trapped in the living room. I was panicking. The bird was panicking. His friends gathered at the windows, tapping their beaks against the glass, chirping, GET OUT, GET OUT! My children were thrilled, running about, flapping their arms. What did I do? I googled, ‘bird trapped in house’ and within seconds, I had a solution. (Google it if you want to know.)

5.     Listening to my children make each other laugh.  I had a lot of trouble getting and staying pregnant, and for many years I thought I might have to accept that I wouldn’t ever be a mother.  Now I have a 3 year old son and an eighteen month old daughter, and their wicked laughter is the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard. I wish I could send it back through time with a message to myself, “Listen to this.  It’s all going to be worth it.” Maybe the message got through and I heard them laughing in my dreams.   (Lucky I didn’t send back the sound of their tantrums.)

… and a DUD

This whole horrible aging business.  From what I understand, every day that goes by, I’m going to look and feel just a tiny bit worse.  Shouldn’t someone write a letter of complaint about that? Why haven’t we lobbied and legislated against it? (Yes, yes, I know the alternative is worse.)

That seemed like a really depressing note on which to end, so I turned to trusty Google and found this quote:

“I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming…suddenly you find – at the age of 50 say, – that a whole new life has opened before you.” Agatha Christie.

So maybe aging won’t be such a dud after all.  Thank you, Agatha, and I sure hope you’re right.

Thanks, Liane! xoxo, Liz & Lisa

To find out more about the lovely and talented Liane Moriarty, visit her website.

Tagged as: 5 Loves and a Dud, Best Women's Fiction of 2011, Chick Lit, International bestselling author, Liane Moriarty, Three Wishes, What Alice Forgot, women's fiction