Inheritance by Dani Shapiro

I heard Dani Shapiro interviewed in the NY Times Book podcast and just HAD to read the book. Actually, I took it out as an audio book and was able to hear it read by Dani herself.

This is a fascinating memoir about a woman, the author herself, a early 50's married author with one son, a Sephardic Jew with a long line of Jews in her lineage.  She decides, on a whim, to do a DNA test (Ancestry.com or one of those) and finds out her father is not really her father.

Such a shock to her, but in the back of her mind, she has always felt that something is "not right." She is a blond-haired, blue-eyed girl with no a single relative she resembles in any way.

I will not reveal what she learns, and what she learns about herself, through this revelation, but it's a fabulous book and a gripping memoir.

I highly recommend it!

From GoodReads:

The acclaimed and beloved author of Hourglass now gives us a new memoir about identity, paternity, and family secrets—a real-time exploration of the staggering discovery she recently made about her father, and her struggle to piece together the hidden story of her own life

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Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Heard a lot about this book and was very excited to read it. I have to say that I started out lukewarm about it. I kept at it, however, and am SO glad that I did.  The final part of the book really nailed it all and put the whole thing in perspective.
This is a book about the challenges of marriage, the challenges of being female in a male world and the challenges of being human and a product of our upbringing.
The book was funny but also very poignant and touching, especially the final part (the shortest part, but the most challenging to read.  Each sentence held such insight and meaning. I want to meet and talk to Taffy. She is brilliant!