Amazing Grace Adams: The New York Times Bestseller and Read With Jenna Book Club Pick

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I listened to this as an audiobook and Claire Skinner does a fantastic job at capturing Grace and all she is going through. Grace is 45, the unhappiest age you can be, according to the Guardian. How does society erase women over 40? Why do you think that is? How does this story help you see the women in your life differently? Amazing Grace Adams tells the story of a life, a marriage, a family, set against a single north-London day. A rollercoaster ride of redemption and discovery, it's a powerful celebration of womanhood. What is the significance of the theme of the cake? How would you have responded in Grace’s shoes? Do you think it’s Grace’s make-or-break moment?

Readers will relish the letting loose of one woman's long-suppressed righteous rage . . . Spectacular Mail on SundaySpeaking to TODAY.com, author Littlewood says her intention with “Amazing Grace Adams” was to write the book she had been looking for in middle age.

Grace Adams is also the latest in a series of brilliant, beautiful and privileged protagonists (Amy Dunne, Bernadette Fox, Barbie) undone by the challenges of modern womanhood." — The New York Times Book Review In a way, that “really industrious day” encapsulates what Littlewood is trying to do in “Amazing Grace Adams”: Show that middle age can be a canvas for reinvention. For me this book was ok. I didn't love or hate it, it seemed a little chaotic at times with too much going on. The first half of the book could be confusing but by the end I did understand what has gone on. I had high expectations for this one because it was being compared to Elinor Oliphant which I adored but it just didn't live up to it. The sides of the car are closing in on her and she can smell burned plastic. How are they not moving yet? Sitting here like this it’s reminding her of something—a book, a TV show, a screenplay … she can’t remember. She can barely remember her own name these days. Slumping in the seat, she tries to bring to mind the things she hasn’t been able to recall recently. But, of course, she can’t. It would almost be funny if it wasn’t so terrifying. Like a part of her brain dropped out when she was looking the other way. Women in their 40s everywhere will be wondering 'how did she get into our heads?' Funny and moving The Midulthood

She doesn't scream or break something or cry or curl into a ball. She simply abandons her car in traffic and walks away. But not from her life - towards it. Towards the daughter who has banned her from the party. Towards the husband divorcing her. Towards the terrible thing that has blown their family apart . . .

A second narrative strand, covering the prior few months, unspools some of the incidents that have alienated mother and daughter. It’s a chilling but fairly clichéd tale of a teenage girl being lured into what may be a dangerous sexual relationship, getting bullied on social media, cutting classes, and refusing to talk to her mother or school authorities. Grace and her family feel brilliantly, dramatically real and believable, and she becomes a heroine to take to heart Apple Books Amazing Grace Adams follows Grace and her daughter, Lottie. Throughout the whole book, both of them are tested in some of the most heartbreaking ways. Grace is known to be chaotic, and I believe the author used this character's trait to further make the book chaotic.

But not from her life - towards it. To the daughter who won't live with her anymore and has banned her from the party. To the husband divorcing her. Towards the terrible thing that has blown their family apart . . . I highly recommend Amazing Grace Adams to readers who enjoy a blend of Family and Women's Fiction with a fierce, edgy, and memorable female main character! A gripping story of joy, grief, stress, worry, love at first sight, parenting...frank, nuanced, and evocative.” An absolute gut punch of a book that throbs with all the rage of a middle-aged woman who refuses to go quietly Red

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this Ebook in exchange for an honest review. In Grace, Littlewood says, she’s writing “the interesting and fun and funny, ambitious, nuanced woman” that reminds her of her “friends, sisters and the women (she) knows.”Though Grace Adams is, as the title suggests, amazing from the start. A polyglot who speaks five languages, Grace was once a TV personality before her unexpected pregnancy thwarted her course. It can be a real Renaissance time. This midlife time has so many challenges in some ways, set against a culture that prizes beauty and youth. But there are real positives. There can be a return to the authentic self. The pre-adolescent self,” she says. “I know women who are starting new ventures, doing new things.” That prose should ‘look like water, taste like gin’. This is from Andrew Motion, former poet laureate, who taught me for part of my MA in creative writing at Royal Holloway. He was all about weeding out the overwriting, which I very much needed since at the time I was a ‘why use one metaphor/ simile when you can use ten’ kind of writer. Also! I love doing descriptions, everyone is definitely gonna want to read ALL these descriptions.