Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen

I started off the year with the newest book by Anna Quindlen, one of my favorite authors. A critic writing about Quindlen's former column in the New York Times commented that she was the sort of author you liked even when you did not agree with her. I've always liked that comment about her columns, and have read all of her novels as well.

Certain of her novels (e.g., Black and Blue, and One True Thing) have gotten a lot of press but my favorite has always been her first novel, Object Lessons. In fact, Object Lessons is one of my all-time favorites, along with Starring Sally J. Freedman by Judy Blume and A Tree Grown in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. All Bildungsromans about lonely girls that felt like my life just taking place at a different place or time.

What I loved about Object Lessons, and what I have not quite found in any of her more recent books, was certain passages of writing were just plain perfect. For example, "He realized that she was the closest he would ever get to not being alone. His parents would die, and the children would change and leave, and there the two of them would be, in their living room, perspiring and talking in fragments."

Rise and Shine did not have those small perfect passages, but it was a good book. It followed the story of sisters, one of whom worked in a homeless shelter and other of whom was a morning show personality. The morning show sister accidentally says something terrible on air and this changes her life pretty drastically. I thought it had some good commentary on the role the media plays in our lives, although I like that Quindlen is moving away from "issue" novels and towards good stories. It was definitely a book that kept my attention. But please, Anna, Please, write me something as good as Object Lessons.