June snuck up on me this year — can I blame climate change for my confusion? — so this post is hitting your screens just a bit later than intended. Then again, as with New Year’s resolutions and most things in life, it’s no good letting a late start stop you from getting started!
If summertime happens to be when you feel a yearning for some new reading material, feel free to reflect on our previous book recommendations (December 2020, June 2021) or join my quest to read these books over the next few months:
Kept: An American Househusband in India by Gregory E. Buford
A new-to-Delhi embassy wife recently recommended this to me — it’s set in Chennai about 20 years ago, but based on my quick skim so far, seems to include several anecdotes that could . I was also pleased to note that he published this book years after his experiences, which gives me and others hope that our procrastination will pay off. (Hey, there’s an argument to be made for waiting a safe geographic, professional, and personal distance before sharing certain types of trailing spouse stories publicly.) P.S. There’s also a sequel coming: Kept: An American Househusband in Paris.
The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama
Political persuasions aside, former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama shines as a role model for trailing spouses, especially those who have navigated domestic shifts rather than crossed international borders. (Often an overlooked segment, though as I’ve noted before, a “driving distance” relocation can be harder than an expat experience, depending on your Gupte Scale ranking.) Also, if you loved Becoming, this seems to be a worthy sequel.
Better Half of Diplomacy by Lekha Sreenivasan
This posthumous memoir came to my attention recently through my former colleague Sree Srinivasan (the author is his mother, wife of Indian ambassador T.P. Sreenivasan). Having read Brigid Keenan’s books about her unpredictable life as a European ambassador’s wife, I am looking forward to comparing and contrasting those with Lekha’s experiences (similar generation but presumably different in many other ways).
And for those who prefer to relax with a novel rather than nonfiction:
The Tea Planter’s Wife by Dinah Jefferies
I liberated a like-new copy of this novel from my sister-in-law’s overburdened bookshelves in Cambridge, England last week. She’s a trailing-turned-towing spouse with a voracious literary appetite, but said the setting (1920s Sri Lanka) and writing style weren’t her cup of… chai? In any case, I’m now one-third through this period piece, about a young British woman who relocates to Sri Lankan after marrying a mysteriously widowed tea plantation owner, and so far it’s making for a solidly escapist summer read.
What’s on your shelf… or mind?
Got a book to recommend for or by a trailing spouse? Working on one yourself? Let us know and we’ll share it in a future post!
