Guily Pleasures

Emily Barr's books are guilty pleasures for me. I first came across her writing when traveling in London in 2001 and it seemed every other woman riding on the tube was reading Backpack. You could hardly blame anyone wanting to read a book with a beach on the cover in the middle of February.



Over the years, I've read most of Barr's books. It was helpful that they were being published here, but the more recent ones have not been.



Barr's latest book, The Life you Want, picks up the story of Tansy, the main character in Backpack. Travel-lover Tansy is living a life she never expected, an ordinary existence, mothering two boys, wife to a man who works late, lusting after her son's teacher, and drinking too much to get through the day. Tansy hears from an old friend in India who needs her help and lucky girl that she is, she is off. After spending a few days alone, Tansy travels to see her friend. Soon, she is spending her days enmeshed in life at the 'center' where her friend lives. But all is not as it should be and Tansy finds herself in the middle of big mess.

I would probably classify Emily Barr's books as chick lit with a twist. She generally writes of women with a secret or as here, women who get in over their head. Some heavy topics, but written with a light and humorous hand. The Life You Want is a fun, escapist read. I could see where the story was going but that didn't spoil any of the fun for me since I was curious to see how Tansy would sort things out. Lots of implausibility in the story, but heck, it's all in good fun.

If you haven't read Emily Barr I certainly do recommend her books.

I probably won't be around again until sometime next week . I have a visitor coming from Florida - good thing I caught him in time to tell him to unpack his shorts, and ask him if he owns any long sleve shirts. I broke down yesterday and turned on the heat. Is that a record?