June

Clutch by Emily Nemens, 2026

A story of five college friends gathering to celebrate their 40th birthdays, Clutch seemed to be the natural book to read as I got ready to meet up with my friends from college for our annual trip.

Bella and Carson live in NYC. Bella is an attorney striving for partnership, married to another NYC attorney striver. Carson is a writer who still lives with roommates.

Gregg is a former actress turned politican as a state representative in Austin, TX where she has married a striving and harsh billionaire. Zeke owns a company making rockets to travel to space; intensity and quirkiness a la Elon Musk.

Hillary is a surgeon, struggling with her marriage to a fellow surgical resident who has become an addict. Her residency bought her to Chicago.

Reba is a former management consultant, traveling and focused on her career throughout her 30s. She has now retired and undergoing feritlity treatment with her ex-military husband Terrence.

Each chapter begins with a text, reminiscent of the group chats that my friends from college have. There are many feelings from my friend group that is captured in Clutch.

It was challenging keeping track of the women. I had to refer to the "In the Group Chat" summary page at the beginning of the novel often.

It was also hard to get invested into the characters. There was only a fleeting glimpse of things from their point of view and the rest were summarized by another character.

Many elements of the writing rung true. The challenges Bella faced at her law firm where she was the only one in her starting class who had not left or made partner resonates, as well as the judgement of Carson still living with roomates.

The friendship and experiences the women were going through resonated with me enough though, that I wanted to know what happened to them.

Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake: A Memoir by Anna Quindlen, 2012

I have never read anything by Anna Quindlen yet have heard so much about her. Her memoir is a collection of shorts (she is a columnist) about being in her 50s. 

With a great title and apropros topic, I thought this book would be perfect as I reflect on entering my 50s and starting the next phase of my life.

Quindlen is a beautiful writer. She captures emotions so well. One of the many quotes that resonated with me: 

"They [her kids] forced me to relearn the catechism of self: instead of focusing all the time on how they ought to behave, whot they ought to be, I tried to focus on who the really were. In the process, I finally got a handle on who I really was."

I loved her writing so much, that I reserved one of her fiction books from the library.