Blast from the Past: The Key to Creativity

When pianist Emily Solomon breaks her wrist, her career seems over before it's begun.  But that was more than a decade ago, when Emily was young and foolish and let her passion for music and bandmate Rob rule her life.  Or so she tells herself as a now-respectable therapist and doctor's wife dedicated to helping others.  Then something happens to threaten the new life she's so carefully curated, forcing her to ask herself if it's more painful to hold on to the past or a facade of perfection.

That's the gist of Jill Santopolo's Everything After.  Steeped in the same strong emotions that make The Light We Lost so moving, this unforgettable story hinges on excerpts from Emily's college journal.  No-holds-barred and heartbreaking, this deeply personal narrative invites us to share Emily's dreams as well as her despair when they begin to crumble.  Through it, we come to understand Emily's polar opposite present -- and the chink that spreads in her well-earned armor when the ghosts of her old life come back to haunt her.

Poignant and bittersweet, Everything After examines what it means to be honest, both with ourselves and the people we love.  

Because we can't begin to know where we're going until we face the music of where we've been.   

The Amore Way: Love, Italian Style

When I settled in with Jill Santopolo's Stars in an Italian Sky, I knew it would be wonderful.  I'd enjoyed her haunting The Light We Lost and her moving More Than Words, so her latest, which is historical fiction, was bound to be just as heartfelt.  And it was.  Perhaps even more so.

When Vincenzo walks into Giovanna's father's tailor shop, Italy is still recovering from World War II.  But Vincenzo and Giovanna see only each other.  Even if Vincenzo belongs to a nobility losing its hold on an increasingly democratic Genoa, and Giovanna is just a shopkeeper's daughter.  Their attraction is so strong that not even Giovanna's sister's warnings can keep them apart, and soon Vincenzo, a talented but frustrated artist, arranges to meet with Giovanna in secret to paint her.  

Meanwhile, in modern-day New York City, another passionate couple grapples with family tension.  Cassandra and Luca are newly engaged but have different dreams when it comes to their wedding.  Then something happens to further complicate things, making them question whether they're destined or doomed.

Embroidered with a whimsical wardrobe (not only is Giovanna a dressmaker, but Cass is a fashion exec), Stars in an Italian Sky is a love letter to love and family and how the latter binds (and, yes, sometimes constricts), even as it endures through the decades.  Nostalgic and bittersweet, it celebrates the best things in life -- as well as the risks that make it worth living.   

War of the Words: Love Language Anguish

When speechwriter Nina Gregory's beloved hotel mogul father dies, she's heartbroken.  Whenever Nina told him, "I love you," he always responded, "More than words."  But as she begins to sift through his affairs, she learns that he wasn't the paragon he purported to be -- and that maybe she isn't who she thought she was either.

Jill Santopolo's More Than Words is a sympathetic look at a woman who communicates professionally but has trouble sharing her truth with loved ones.  One of the most symbolic stops on Nina's journey is a shopping spree to update her monochrome wardrobe:

"Nina loved the new her (too).  In these clothes, she felt confident and powerful.  Like someone worth noticing.  Like someone who would make bold choices, whatever they were." (244)

As Nina grows more vocal, she also grows stronger -- even when it means moving on from a career and relationship that once defined her.  

Because knowing herself means knowing peace.

And that's worth more than words. 

Untamed Twin Flames: A Love Story

Everyone remembers where they were on September 11.  I was a sophomore in college trying to decide what to wear to my first Science, Ethics, and Technology class (sorry not sorry if I've said this before in my many years of shameless self promotion).  In case you're wondering, I went with a hot pink floral cami and midi skirt from Fashion Bug, which was where I worked every summer.  Also, it turns out that I was in the wrong class, although the prof let me stay.  But that's my (perhaps inappropriately lighthearted) anecdote.  In Jill Santopolo's The Light We Lost, which was my mom's latest book club pick, things are much more complicated.

When Columbia seniors Lucy Carter and Gabe Samson sit down for their first Shakespeare seminar, they don't know each other or what that day will bring.  Hours later they watch the Twin Towers tumble.  Their bond is instant but their timing is wrong, a theme that defines their next decade.  Both grow to be storytellers, Lucy as a children's television producer and Gabe as a photojournalist.  Yet although they're different in irreconcilable ways, they share a passion for making a difference.

Santopolo writes The Light We Lost as Lucy's letter to Gabe, making it achingly personal even as it reveals the universal nature of love, loss, and fate.  Which is my senior seminar way of saying that it tears out your heart.  

I loved it.