ELLE's Lettres September 2016 Readers' Prize
'How to Party With an Infant' by Kaui Hart Hemmings
Kaui Hart Hemmings deftly skewers the so-called mommy wars in this novel about single mother Mele, who's still recovering from the shock of telling her boyfriend she was pregnant (with their now-toddler daughter) only to find out that he was engaged to another woman. Mele's navigating the world of upper-crust San Francisco parenting: everything from keeping up with the Joneses to playground politics and searching for the perfect preschool, all while trying to find a playgroup for her daughter that doesn't involve spending time with the parents whom Mele despises. -Louise Hilton, Los Angeles
Don't read this unless you want to laugh. And don't be fooled by the title, either. While parents will certainly relate to protagonist Mele's dilemmas, everyone can appreciate her love life dramas and hilarious friendships. -Natalie Saar, West Hollywood, CA
This is a hysterical, spot-on view of all the moms you meet once you have a child. From the mom who is sure illegal immigrants are responsible for pushing her child off a slide to the moms who bake pot brownies, Kaui Hart Hemmings skewers them all. I recommend this book to all moms deep in the trenches of raising kids. -Sarah R., Brookfield, WI
In Hemmings' delightful new novel, we learn the story of Mele as she dictates her narrative in response to questions posed in a cookbook competition held by the local mothers' club. -Stephanie Polley
How to Party With an Infant had some clarifying truths and insights into child-raising that were packed with laughs and funny social commentary. The book had this reader giggling and reminiscing about the antics of parents and their children from my own experiences as a mother on the playground bench. The story is cleverly interwoven around food and menus designed to capture the personal stories and circumstances of the characters. Fun read! -Michelle Rosen-Hatcher, Santa Fe, NM
Hilarious and politically incorrect! -Colleen Falke, Bakersfield, CA
The writing is witty and engaging and kept my attention. However, the stories of the individual characters that make up the protagonist's circle of friends were hit or miss in their appeal. -Nickie Shah, Edison, NJ
How to Party With an Infant shows the many sides of parenting, and Hemmings' greatest success is that each of her engaging characters is relatable in a unique way. Parent or not, readers will find themselves transported into Hemmings' dynamic world, which isn't that different from each of our own. -Maggie Malach, New York, NY
'Harmony' by Carolyn Parkhurst
"She's yours and you're hers, and you don't have endless time. If you can't find a way to help your daughter, your lovely fire-bright girl who thrills and confounds you, who spells every swearword perfectly...well. If you can't do that, then you've failed at the most important task you've ever been given." So says Alexandra Hammond, mother to 11-year-old Iris and 13-year-old Tilly, who falls somewhere on the autism spectrum. After Tilly is expelled from school multiple times, the Hammonds take the drastic measure of selling all their possessions and moving out of state to start Camp Harmony with child behavior expert Scott Bean. The story, told alternately from the perspectives of Iris, Tilly, and Alexandra, is an examination of a family desperate to carve a space in society for Tilly. This book is beautifully written and suspenseful, and stayed with me long after I put it down. -Sarah R.
Parkhurst creates a compelling patchwork of points of view without making this reader have to stop to admire her "style." -Colleen Falke
With Harmony, Parkhurst has authored a moving and perspicacious piece of literature on a very timely issue. -Stephanie Polley, Evans, GA
Tilly is both brilliant and difficult. Her behavior motivates the family to make a life-changing decision that throws them all into a precarious situation ending in a surprising and unexpected way. The characters are well drawn and the author clearly knows what she's talking about. Great, engrossing read with a few twists and turns that will keep the reader absorbed. -Michelle Rosen-Hatcher
Harmony is a compelling, original read that explores the lengths to which parents will go to help their children, even at the seeming loss of reason and logic. -Louise Hilton
Suspenseful, haunting, and filled with memorable characters: It was impossible to put this book down, and the story stayed with me long after I read the last words. Especially beguiling were the gorgeously expressed metaphors throughout, but specifically at the end where, in an extended allegory, the mother manifests her daughter's condition in the guise of unique and beautiful wings that require special care in a world not built for flight. -Nickie Shah
'The Book That Matters Most' by Ann Hood
Ava, a fortysomething mother of two, has faced many losses in her life, from her sister's and mother's deaths in the 1970s to the recent collapse of her marriage and her daughter's drug problems. In the midst of her grief, she joins a book club, where each month a member chooses the book that matters the most to her. This book is a love letter to all books and a study on the ways grief and loss affect us all. There were a couple of ancillary plots that did not add to the story, and one of the major character's plot lines just seemed to fall off, while the book's mystery was a little too tidily solved. -Sarah R.
Any book lover will extol the power of a good read, but Ann Hood's The Book That Matters Most captures how literature can both mirror and change our lives. Through switching narratives that jump between time and place, Hood tells a story of family that will cut to your core, while also making you want to revisit that one story that changed your life. -Maggie Malach
What a wonderful author. This is a book I could not even begin to put down. -Sarah Bauman, Forney, Texas
The main character, Ava, recovering from a marriage gone bust, struggles to put her life back together. Her daughter struggles with bad choices and drug addiction overseas. Yet the story seems implausible and stretched to integrate lost family, lost dreams, and lost love. Even though I hung on till the last page, the author "lost" me on this read. -Michelle Rosen-Hatcher
Readers love books about books, and that's what sets this story in motion. Ava joins a book club and uses a book that helped her through her younger years as she deals with a divorce and her adult children. The limited POVs from Ava and her daughter Maggie leave the story a bit lacking, but overall it's a good read. -Natalie Saar
While the narratives of each character seem divergent early on, they all come together nicely as the year ends. -Deidra MacLeod-Richardson, Farmingham, MA
Ann Hood's latest novel touches on the important social issue of heroin abuse with one of its protagonists, Maggie. However, instead of giving this matter the appropriate attention it deserves, Hood dismisses it with a blasé tone one would reserve for far less critical affairs. -Stephanie Polley
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