Ugh, I didn’t enjoy this book in the slightest, which I guess makes sense since it fills the Not My Wheelhouse square for Bingo. The Vacationers is the story of a family from New York that goes on vacation to Mallorca, along with their oldest son’s girlfriend, and the best friend of the wife and his husband. I would use names here to help distinguish between characters but I’ve honestly forgotten half of them already. Man, I just. . . I really hated this book. […]
A highly enjoyable holiday from hell
I thoroughly enjoyed Straub’s debut novel, Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures, and feel we should gloss over the embarrassingly long time it took me to clock that she is daughter of Peter Straub. So when The Vacationers came along and seemed to be setting itself up to be everything Seating Arrangements should have been but wasn’t, I was sold. The blurb tells you it’s “an irresistible, deftly observed novel about the secrets, joys, and jealousies that rise to the surface over the course of an American family’s two-week stay in Mallorca” […]
Family Vacations: Are They Ever Fun?
This is another one of the books I picked up to take on vacation. I mean, while on vacation with ones family, what better to read about than…a family on vacation? Thankfully, mine doesn’t have nearly as many issues as the Post family does. Franny and Jim are celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary, while trying to recover from Jim’s affair with a much younger woman. Not only might it cost him his marriage, but it cost him his job. Sylvia has just graduated high school […]
It wasn’t a horror novel like I thought, but a family vacation can be very scary.
I had no idea who Emma Straub was until I picked this off of the new release table at the library last week. I assumed that maybe she was Peter Straub’s daughter, and thought I was getting myself a fun horror story for the end of the summer. Well. I don’t know if she is actually related to Peter. Maybe? And this was actually a pretty fun book. I’d compare her writing toJonathan Tropper — telling a difficult story with humor and wit. And while I […]