Katie's Books

Rosie is the first of the three "Rosie" books and the last one I read. I already loved the characters and knew some of the plot, as it was referenced in the subsequent books. What I noticed more in this book than the others was the domesticity and female-focus that was present all the way through. We know all the delicious meals Elizabeth makes; someone more knowledgable around a bar will also appreciate all she drinks. We know what music she listens to, what books she reads. I love staying home at my house and I loved being in Elizabeth's house. Elizabeth is often referenced throughout the three novels as someone who doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. But readers see her doing careful, impactful, and, for many, very relatable things on nearly every page. She gardens, she cooks, she cleans, she daydreams and worries. Elizabeth may be fictional but she's also a real woman and I liked getting to know her. Getting to know Elizabeth's "real life...

Imperfect Birds is the third book in the "Rosie" series and one I appreciated for its tension. Rosie and her parents are having two very different experiences for most of the book and it's not clear who is right and who is wrong. Rosie is a good kid, but she's also making some dangerous choices. Elizabeth and James love her and want her to thrive, but their efforts sometimes miss the mark. I admired how we were kept in the middle; there was no clear winner in all their conflicts. Sometimes Rosie is right, sometimes her parents are right, and that push and pull is what being a teenager, and raising a teenager, is about in so many ways.  It's because I loved that the reader gets to see the best and worst of each character that I had a strong aversion to the ending. I think the ending suggests someone was right and someone was wrong and I disagree. Imperfect Birds is where we see Rosie most grown up, Elizabeth and James most a team; I wanted to end our time together ...

Anne Lamott is a writer I discovered in college and immediately loved so I'll read anything she writes. Crooked Little Heart is the middle book of the "Rosie" series but the first one I read. I loved the inner life of the characters; we get equal glimpses into both Elizabeth and Rosie's life. Anne Lamott often gives her characters her own biography to some degree: like Anne Lamott, the Fergusons live in the East Bay, alcoholism and church play formative roles in their lives. I'm unsure if Anne Lamott is a tennis pro, but Rosie is and there are long descriptions of important tennis matches that even I, someone with zero knowledge of tennis, could follow and enjoy.  I read a criticism of Crooked Little Heart that complained "nothing happens." This is sort of true. But this book is about adolescence and in adolescence, nothing needs to happen for a lot to happen. Rosie changes and grows in major ways without major changes to her fairly stable life. There is...