arts&culture
LITERARYScene By Ryan G. Van Cleave
A QUIRKY SOUTHERN NOVEL, A FUN DATING-GONE-WRONG NOVEL, AND A HISTORICAL COMING-OF-AGE NOVEL ARE A TERRIFIC WAY TO CLOSE OUT THE SUMMER!
EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES: A NOVEL by Daniel Wallace First, a confession—I’m fond of stories about quirky Southern characters, and I’m super fond of Daniel Wallace’s novel Big Fish (yes, the novel, not the movie!). So it’s no shocker then that his newest novel, Extraordinary Adventures, grabbed me from the first sentence: “Bronfman won a prize.” And indeed that’s the premise—Edsel Bronfman, a junior executive shipping clerk for a Korean flatware importer—has won a seven-day vacation at a beachfront condo in Destin, Florida. The only hiccup? It’s one of those timeshare pitch deals for a couple, not a single. And poor Bronfman doesn’t have much in his life beyond work, home, and his mom’s house. So how’s he supposed to take advantage of this intriguing opportunity—in no less than 79 days—without someone to bring with him? Sure, Bronfman is a bit socially awkward, but is this the kick in the relationship pants that he’s needed? This is a kind-hearted book about making the shift to living life from letting life live you. As Operator 61217 says when she offers him the trip, “Anything could happen in 79 days...” and in this story, it does. Sidenote—if they make a movie out of this, I could see a younger Bill Murray playing the lead (Edsel is 34). In short, I found this book to be charming, clever, and deceptively deep at times. Wallace’s signature wit and story pacing is again in play and will likely propel this book to the bestseller charts.
SINGLE-MINDED: A NOVEL by Lisa Daily You know Lisa Daily—she’s a Siesta Key Beach resident who’s also the love and relationships expert on the morning TV show Daytime, and she’s the author of numerous dating how-to books as well as two novels, Beauty and Fifteen Minutes of Shame. She’s at it again with a new novel that’s centered around the world she knows best—dating, romance, and love. It all starts with a seemingly perfect marriage (Alex met her husband at the Play-Doh table in kindergarten!) with a big house on the bay and great careers, but he has a secret and it blows everything up. Now she’s back on the dating scene with a plethora of advice from unlikely (and wacky) sources, like a masochistic yogi, a foul-talking political consultant, and a weed-loving octogenarian. For Alex, the world of modern dating seems fraught with booby traps and emotionally perilous situations. Clearly Daily knows a thing or two about how to tell compelling stories because this breezy book will have readers chuckling, cheering, and charging through the pages as they root for Alex to find that sometimes-elusive second chance at love.
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www.DanielWallace.org
www.lisadaily.tv
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SCENE | AUGUST 2017