Having celebrated my own birthday last week, Ive spent the past few days reflecting on my accomplishments thus far (or lack thereofgulp), my future plans, and some slightly less important things such as how long a run I need to go for in order to burn off those six macaroons and two miniature cakes from Laurent
Glancing over my bookshelves, it occurred to me that birthdays are a reasonably common feature across a range of literature genres. Perhaps this is because of the fact that birthdays offer an opportunity to reflect and reminisce and, much like the first day of school or moving home scenario, represent a point at which a person can start over.
Below is a brief list of books that take a range of different approaches to the birthday idea. (As an aside, if you need something warm to sip on whilst thinking about your past birthday cakes and sweet treats, why not check out our list of books for coffee-lovers, too)
As always, the list is in no way complete, so if you have a recommendation, feel free to leave a comment or send us an email.
29: a novel by Adena Halpern (see our review)
Blurb: Ellie Jerome is a young-at-heart seventy-five-year-old who feels she has more in common with her twenty-nine-year-old granddaughter, Lucy, than her fifty-five-year-old daughter, Barbara. Ellies done everything she can to stay young, and the last thing she wants is to celebrate another birthday. So when she finds herself confronted with a cake full of candles, Ellie wishes more than anything that she could be twenty-nine again, just for one day. But who expects a wish like that to come true?
29 is the story of three generations of women and how one magical day shakes up everything they know about each other. While Ellie finds that the life of a twenty-something is not as carefree as she expected, the sheer joy of being young again prompts her to consider living her life all over. Does she dare stay young for more than this day, even if it means leaving everyone she loves behind?
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Blurb: Kayla McHenry's sweet sixteen sucks! Her dad left, her grades dropped, and her BFF is dating the boy Kayla's secretly loved for years. Blowing out her candles, Kayla thinks:'I wish my birthday wishes actually came true. Because they never freakin' do.
Kayla wakes the next day to a life-sized, bright pink My Little Pony outside her window. Then a year's supply of gumballs arrives. A boy named Ken with a disturbing resemblance to the doll of the same name stalks her. As the ghosts of Kayla's wishes-past appear, they take her on a wild ride . . . but they MUST STOP. Because when she was fifteen? She wished Ben Mackenzie would kiss her. And Ben is her best friend's boyfriend.
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Fast Forward by Juliet Madison (see our interview with Juliet)
Aspiring supermodel Kelli Crawford seems destined to marry her hotshot boyfriend, but on her twenty-fifth birthday she wakes in the future as a fifty-year-old suburban housewife married to the now middle-aged high school nerd.
Trapped in the opposite life of the one she wanted, Kelli is forced to re-evaluate her life and discover what is really important to her. Will she overcome the hilarious and heartbreaking challenges presented to her and get back to the body of her younger self? Or will she be stuck in the nightmare of hot flushes, demanding children, raunchy advances from her husband and hideous support underwear forever?
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Birthday Girls by Annabel Giles
Blurb: Its the same small world; it just depends who you are and how you see it BIRTHDAY GIRLS is Annabel Giles sparklingly compulsive debut. Set on six different birthdays, and dealing with six different women who are all connected to each other, though they dont all realise it, the story opens with Scarlett, on her 10th birthday, and closes with Constance, on her 60th birthday. Funny, tragic and engrossing, BIRTHDAY GIRLS is a must-read book from a major new voice in womens fiction.
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Blurb: Teagan Phillipss sweet sixteen is the event of the season. Other parties have been chill, sure, but no one at Rosewood Prep throws a bash as extravagant, exclusive, or over-the-top expensive as Teagan. No one is as obnoxious, either. But that doesnt stop everyone from wanting to see and be seen at her birthday.'Luckily, Teagans in for a rude (and rather ungraceful) awakening. On the big night she falls stilettos-over-tiara into the country club wine cellar and blacks out. When she comes to, there is a strange woman standing at the foot of the stairs.
No, Teagan, this mystery woman is not one of the help. She is here to take you on a ride, to bring you back through time and show you some very unpretty realities. And if youre lucky, she just might put the sweet back in sixteen.
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Molly Foxs Birthday by Deirdre Madden
Blurb: Dublin. Midsummer. While absent in New York, the celebrated actor Molly Fox has loaned her house to a playwright friend, who is struggling to write a new work. Over the course of this, the longest day of the year, the playwright reflects upon her own life, Mollys, and that of their mutual friend Andrew, whom she has known since university. Why does Molly never celebrate her own birthday, which falls upon this day? What does it mean to be a playwright or an actor? How have their relationships evolved over the course of many years? Molly Foxs Birthday calls into question the ideas that we hold about who we are; and shows how the past informs the present in ways we might never have imagined.
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Birthday Vicious by Melissa de la Cruz
Blurb: Ashley spencer considers her birthday to be the most important event next to well, okay, its just the most important event, period. Hello.
So when the invite list is cast and the custom embossed invitations are sent, its a whos-who list of San Franciscos best tweens. If people dont yet know whether they are in or out, this party is sure to draw the lines of coolness in the most permanent of inks. 'Ashley intends to prove that theres a reason shes been at the top of the social food chain her entire life, and shes not about to be unseated by some lame website ranking. Shed also like to solve the problem of losing her boyfriend. Will all her birthday wishes come true? Or is it more like its her party and shell freak if she wants to?
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Birthday Party Murder by Leslie Meier
Blurb: The whole town of Tinkers Cove is looking forward to the celebration marking former librarian Julia Ward Howe Tilleys ninetieth birthday. Lucy Stone, Miss Tilleys closest friend, dreamed up the party idea-at about the same time she decided shes not getting old without a fight.
That sounds like a plan-until Lucy realizes her daughters fourteenth birthday bash, a coed sleepover, may turn her hair white overnight. What was she thinking when she agreed to let Sara have the party? On her mind, instead, was the shocking death of Sherman Cobb, the towns oldest attorney, an apparent suicide. His law partner, however, thinks Sherman was murdered.
Poking about in Shermans papers, Lucy turns up an intriguing tie between the dead man and Miss Tilley. Meanwhile Miss Tilleys own past has come back to haunt her in the form of a mysterious niece named Shirley and a biker great nephew named Snake. Soon no one can get to see the elderly librarian because the brash, bossy Shirley says shes failing. Now, as a killers ruthless plan rushes toward a conclusion, Lucy needs answers fast-or else she and Miss Tilley wont live long enough to make a wish and blow out the candles on this years birthday cake
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Birthday Stories: Selected and Introduced by Haruki Murakami
Blurb: This is a collection of 12 birthday stories from some of the most distinguished authors of recent years. The stories have been selected and introduced by Haruki Murakami.This is a collection of 12 birthday stories from some of the most distinguished authors of recent years. The stories have been selected and introduced by Haruki Murakami.
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Blurb: On an island off the coast of Maine, the Miller family reunites to celebrate the fathers seventy-fifth birthday. Each of the adult children is expecting his or her own first child. The eldest, Daniel, grapples with the fact that his wife had to be artificially inseminated. Jake, the middle child, discovers that his wife is carrying twins after many trying years of infertility treatments. Hilary the free-spirited youngest daughter arrives in Maine five months pregnant with no identifiable father in sight. Their coming together sets off a series of fireworks, and, after the weekend, none of the Millers will emerge the same. The Birthdays explores the myriad ways of seeking sustenance after disappointment and loss.
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Blurb: Abigail, Maddie, and Chris were childhood friends who celebrated birthdays together, sharing laughter and tears and dreams. Now, as they near the age of 50, each woman has achieved success, but each harbors a secret, and each is haunted by the passage of time. Somehow, the women must try to help each other make their wishes come true.
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Bittersweet Sixteen by Carrie Karasyov and Jill Kargman
Blurb: Balloons and streamers? Carvel cake? Those might be standard fair for your average birthday party, but Whitney Blake and Sophie Mitchum are anything but average.
Im Laura Finnegan thrift store junkie and scholarship student at Tate, our posh all-girls high school in Manhattan. Im not like Whit or Soph, but that doesnt stop us from being BFFs. But then they started tuning in to the all-Sweet Sixteen, all-the-time channel. Now tempers are flaring, Prada bags are flying, and guys are being tossed around in vicious tug-of-war battles. Whose Sweet Sixteen will reign supreme?
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