The Seattle small town setting was brought to life through the wonderful descriptions from the cozy fall weather to the locales that Eloise & Austin visit across the chapters - I loved the small town vibes of this + the romcom energy making it a book I could NOT PUT DOWN. This was a book that was clearly a labour of love for the author whose endnote explained her motivations in writing this book. For that, I applaud her. What an incredible effort to put into words a very vulnerable aspect of herself.

The day before was nothing special. It was special only because of how unspecial it was, or perhaps by how unspecial it would very soon become. Things were always stranger in retrospect, which was a funny little consequence of time. Mother-daughter relationships are featured prominently throughout Alone With You. In many instances, the daughter ends up behaving more like a mother figure. Compare these relationships in two or more stories. What do they share, and how are they different? I hit play on one of my newest playlists, full of loud, angry perfection, as I head home. We live between Greenwood and Ballard, in an old neighborhood with equally old houses. Although half have been remodeled into weirdly vertical, modern town houses. Nothing is uglier than a house built in 1920 beside an all-angles town house with solar panels, but here we are. Marisa Silver's protagonists reflect on a variety of life issues--divorce, grandparenthood, depression--from a uniquely not-quite-middle-aged female perspective. The writing is predominantly excellent, with a lovely subtlety to it; Silver can extend a theme without hitting the reader over the head with it. The themes of sex, love and death have universal appeal. The abrupt endings with their notes of commencement feel so deliberately crafted as to make me think the author has really studied the American Short Story, but at least the conclusions aren't predictable, and each tale leaves the reader with something to think about. I even have some friends on RotR. No one I know in real life, but people in Unarmed Rage, my guild, who I play with several times a week. Online, I’m less awkward. Online, I have control over who I interact with, and I always have an escape route. Unlike in real life.

Like most guidance counselors, Ms. Holiday is preppy and cheerful, and most of her office is either pink or covered in glitter. Sometimes both. There’s even one of those kitten-hanging-from-a-branch posters on the wall to my left, which I thought only existed in corny nineties movies. But she doesn’t bother hiding her sigh of annoyance as studies me from the other side of her desk.

The intricacies of the stories in Alone With You, seemingly easily put together, are also a testament to the acuity of the author’s perception. She is as skilled an observer as she is a writer, and the two combine to create these incredible adventures into the darker side of human nature while managing at the same time to remain delightfully lighthearted. The father who hit his son in anger; the friend who sleeps with her roommate’s boyfriend; the mentally challenged young woman impregnated by Down syndrome patient: these actions are treated like burdens to be carried rather than over-the-top melodramatic events. In an era of sensationalism, it��s quite refreshing. The street that runs in front of Evanston has bumper-to-bumper traffic since the elementary school is down the road, and I hit the crosswalk button with my elbow. Seattle drivers are notoriously passive-aggressive. Meaning they’ll go out of their way to break traffic laws in the name of being nice, which inevitably causes traffic jams, which then causes people to lay on their horns or run red lights. It’s chaos. It’s the same with a character in a story. I start with a tiny shred of information about a character, then I write scenes, give her words, decide if those words feel right. Once I’ve found her language, the way she speaks, then I’m beginning to know her better. I throw action in her way so she has to respond, to behave, and then I learn even more. And all the while, I’m shaping and reshaping the character so that she becomes palpable. I always remember that there is no objective “truth” about any character. A person might have a mythology about him or herself that serves a certain emotional need. And characters are often revealed through other’s perspectives, and those perspectives are filtered through the emotions and desires of that other person. It’s complicated! In the title story, “Alone With You,” Marie feels the need to leave those she loves in the face of her illness. Why is she so against letting her family care for her? Do you agree with her thought that “It was only that they had discovered that they needed to look away from one another to find their futures,” (p. 164)?I don’t think I worry so much about living up to others’ expectations as I think about making sure that my writing is developing, that I am integrating what I am learning through my own work, through reading, and through generally living so that each book represents some kind of step forward for me personally and artistically. I want my writing to reflect the fact that as I live, I think more carefully and hopefully more deeply about what writing can be and about what being alive is.

The dynamics between Austin and Eloise were PERFECT. Reverse grumpy x sunshine at its finest. I loved the way they balanced each other out and the way they went from strangers to friends to having a relationship was so sweet. Filled with some teenage drama and a little bit of angst, I thought it was great for the YA category (and there’s only kisses!). I never base characters on particular people, although I sometimes use small details from people I know or people I’ve observed. I don’t think my friends would talk to me anymore if they knew they might be fodder for my work!The more films I made, the more I began to recognize that the kinds of stories I wanted to tell and the ways in which I wanted to tell those stories would not be supported easily in the medium of film. In general, film works with broader strokes and I’m interested in all the little in between moments, the tiny gestures and notions that are the smallest atoms of human interaction. Writing gives me the opportunity to find the large meaning in the small instances. And it also gives me the opportunity to spend a lot of time by myself. Which I quite like! These are very lovely short stories, haunting and tinged with melancholy, though never despairing or maudlin in any way. We watch as the various characters come to see themselves more fully, as unexpected events bring life into sharper, sometimes startling focus. Each story is separate and yet similar in theme, as the beautifully and well-named title reveals. This collection is about the ways in which couples and families connect and the circumstances and character flaws that keep them from connecting more deeply. She took the empty yogurt cup and spoon to the kitchen area. He walked out of the bathroom, adjusting his jeans. Regan’s art exhibit was so cliché that I couldn’t believe it. Really? We’re going in this direction? This is the big finale? How basic! This book was set up to be so much more than that— so much edgier than that— what happened?! How did we end up in Live, Laugh, Love territory? His face was anguished for a moment, as if he thought that this other couple were, at that very moment, being granted the child he’d hoped would be his. Of course this was not the way it worked, but perhaps the man didn’t know that.

You really think community service”—I don’t bother hiding the derision in my voice—“will help my application stand out?” I stare at the handout so intently, I’m amazed it doesn’t burst into flames. But these beautifully weaved tales of surprising introspective quality turn these situations into occasions to reflect on human nature, be it our own or others’. They also will leave you feeling uplifted as the characters, of all ages and both genders, display a sense of strength as they go through mundane, day to day hardships of life without losing the ability to reflect and grow from their experiences. Gary’s perfection hurt Burton in a physical way. He felt as he did when he watched a theorem unfold seamlessly, the sheer elegance of it almost painful to witness because is presence in the world threw into high relief the incomprehensible mess of his life. someone said this book felt like seeing god and they’re completely right. it felt like i was in heaven and hell at the same time too. This book was an incoherent mess (intentional I know) that deserves an incoherent mess of a review. Here we go.

As for Marianne, she’s an absolute icon and I loved her dearly. I’ll take no criticism of Marianne, please and thank you. For some reason, she believed him. She was sure that he had all the information: perhaps his wife had had enough of his meanness; perhaps she had a lover; maybe she didn’t like the fact that he was the kind of man who cared about fashion. Vivian believed that he understood the facts, but that, still, he didn’t know. Pond” examines a father’s conflicted feelings about his twenty-something daughter who is autistic and little more than a child herself when she gets pregnant during an unsupervised moment at her day care facility. The grandchild, who is completely healthy and normal, makes his affection for Martha more complicated. Burton’s relationship with Martha and with his grandson reveals itself as something more than he had supposed in the wake of a near disaster. My first book from this author and I absolutely loved it! It is very easy to read, super cute interactions with characters and a very relatable main character. Book Genre: Adult, Adult Fiction, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, Fantasy, Fiction, Health, Literary Fiction, Mental Health, Novels, Romance