Thursday, April 23, 2020

Books from the Backlog - Cheerful Money


Today I'm linking up with Carole from Carole's Random Life of Books for Books from the Backlog.  I really enjoy the chance to feature a book that's been hiding in the piles of books for far too long!


Goodreads:  Cheerful Money: Me, My Family, and the Last Days of WASP Splendor by Tad Friend

Blurb:  Tad Friend's family is nothing if not illustrious: his father was president of Swarthmore College, and at Smith his mother came in second in a poetry contest judged by W.H. Auden--to Sylvia Plath. For centuries, Wasps like his ancestors dominated American life. But then, in the '60s, their fortunes began to fall. As a young man, Tad noticed that his family tree, for all its glories, was full of alcoholics, depressives, and reckless eccentrics. Yet his identity had already been shaped by the family's age-old traditions and expectations. Part memoir, part family history, and part cultural study of the long swoon of the American Wasp, Cheerful Money is a captivating examination of a cultural crack-up and a man trying to escape its wreckage.

Why It Needs to Come Off the Shelf:  I wanted to buy this when I first saw it right after it came out but didn't but then I stumbled on it used and thought it looked so interesting but of course that was years ago and I still haven't read it!

7 comments:

  1. This does sound interesting and it is completely new to me. I think you were meant to read it since you wanted it new but waited and stumbled on a new copy! I hope you enjoy it when you get the chance to read it!

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  2. I love finding neglected books! This one does look interesting. Thanks for sharing.

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  3. The fate of many a book! Hope you get to it soon!

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  4. I have way too many that have been vegetating for over three years on my physical bookshelves!

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  5. Oh, how interesting. And I agree with Carole, it seems this book was meant for you.

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  6. This does sound interesting, Katherine. I hope you enjoy it when you read it.

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  7. This sounds really interesting! 👍✨

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