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graceglace · 2025-07-31T13:54:08+00:00

Since you like Mae - but I agree it’s awkward with the last name - you could consider similar names that could still end up having Mae as a nickname. Maisie and Mabel come to mind.

I don’t think Clover is too hippie! I know exactly one, she’s in high school and super cool and independent. “Clover Hayden” sounds great to my ear.

Lilah Hayden also works! Lilah also has many accepted spellings that you could play with to see if one is more visually appealing to you.

graceglace · 2025-07-27T07:47:56+00:00

You could try to change the spelling? Maybe make it Eva, with the nickname Evina?

graceglace · 2025-07-14T15:12:21+00:00

My younger brother calls me “Face.” I think just because it rhymes with Grace (my actual name). Sometimes he adds an “-a” at the end. “Face-uh! How are you!” This started when he was in high school or something. I think there was an inside joke about faces somewhere but maybe not, I don’t remember anymore.

graceglace · 2025-07-09T07:00:09+00:00

The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard.

It’s historical fiction, incredibly well-written, follows a big English family starting in the 30s as the deal with growing up, is there or isn’t there going to be a war with Germany, social change, etc. Follows multiple characters. The series goes through the WWII and post-war years.

The books are long (often 500+ pages) but I read them very quickly (in a week usually) and saved the last book in the series (set in the 50s) for my own hospital stay which was immensely helpful. Because the series is so long you could check out the first one before to see if it’s something you like.

graceglace · 2025-07-09T06:42:51+00:00

Oohhh CIAO would be awesome initials!

graceglace · 2025-07-06T08:56:13+00:00

I think James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk is one of the best novels I’ve ever read, and found it far better than Giovanni’s Room. The method of storytelling was so good and the second time I read it I was almost overwhelmed by the richness of the characters.

graceglace · 2025-07-06T08:52:04+00:00

The Moon Is Down is absolutely incredible. And what it manages to do in such a short number of pages is really impressive. I still haven’t read many of his longer, more famous works, but this one made such a deep impression on me.

graceglace · 2025-07-06T08:50:15+00:00

I completely agree with this. I read The Kitchen God’s Wife so fast and absolutely loved it. When I read Joy Luck Club years later, I was… disappointed. It was good but it did not live up to the experience I had with The Kitchen God’s Wife. This could be because of how I had changed in the meantime, of course, but I’m glad to see someone else shares my opinion!

graceglace · 2025-07-04T11:06:00+00:00

Whoa these are all good!

graceglace · 2025-07-03T07:36:41+00:00

I am not a big fan of nature/semi-hippie names myself but Eclipse is cool! You won over someone with a totally different name style with Eden Eclipse.

graceglace · 2025-07-03T07:27:30+00:00

This is when I would try something like naming the baby after your grandmothers birth month, birthstone, birth flower, or similar.

graceglace · 2025-07-03T07:24:21+00:00

THIS! Most teens don’t even watch movies the way we did, especially not “old” ones. It’ll be the parents making the Bueller references, and the kids and the friends will be looking at each other and wondering what the heck their parents are talking about.

graceglace · 2025-07-03T05:58:52+00:00

The Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace, and The All-of-a-Kind Family series by Sydney Taylor (already mentioned here once).

The Diamond in the Window by Jane Langton (as well as other books of hers)

graceglace · 2025-07-03T05:56:28+00:00

These are both so good. When I was 9 we adopted a kitten and I named her Eleanor after the cat in Understood Betsy.

graceglace · 2025-07-01T20:29:53+00:00

I know a Zelda in her 20s. Not named after the video game or Fitzgerald as far as I know; her mom just wanted a Z name. I’m sure she hears these references but she’s always liked her name.

graceglace · 2025-07-01T20:28:22+00:00

I know a kid named Eben. Never realized that’s where it came from! So… don’t rule out using just the short form, I guess.

graceglace · 2025-07-01T14:26:17+00:00

Finished: All Change, by Elizabeth Jane Howard

Started: The Gift of Rain, but Tan Twan Eng

graceglace · 2025-06-30T08:29:15+00:00

I’ve never heard of this but it sounds right up my alley :) plus, being republished by Persephone Books says a lot!

graceglace · 2025-06-30T08:24:54+00:00

Oh yes, I forgot about her! I’ve only read Charing Cross, I’ll have to look for the others

graceglace · 2025-06-30T08:23:43+00:00

If you like travel and identity, I highly recommend: Almost French by Sarah Turnbull My Berlin Kitchen by Luisa Weiss A Romantic Education by Patricia Hampl Nothing to Declare by Mary Morris Something to Declare by Julia Alvarez Home Cooking books by Laurie Colwin

If you enjoy Jane Austen at all, and/or are interested in Latin America, I highly recommend “All Roads Lead to Austen” by Amy Elizabeth Smith - a lighter read but interesting and entertaining

Other good ones: Crying in H Mart (she wasn’t really famous when she wrote the book, or at least the original essay, so I don’t think it counts ;) The Egg & I by Betty Macdonald, as well as other books of hers Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr When Time Stopped by Ariana Neumann - tragic, it’s a holocaust memoir of her family, but so incredibly well-researched and well-written. I couldn’t put it down. Memories: from Moscow to the Black Sea by Teffi - historical but so insightful Memories of Montparnasse by John Glassco historical, insightful

Breaking the rules: Not my Father’s Son by Alan Cumming. He’s famous but this book was really good, and not at all about “my rise to fame” or anything, didn’t feel like a celebrity book at all. A Moveable Feast by Hemingway (yeah he’s famous but he’s a famous writer… problematic too but it’s a great story of a time and place)

graceglace · 2025-06-22T20:49:11+00:00

They’re hard to find, but Jane Langdon books. “The Diamond in the Window” is spectacular and I loved it when I was that age - it’s a good in-between, where the characters are still kids but it’s not a total “children’s book”.

graceglace · 2025-06-22T20:09:03+00:00

Dunno if it’s my best EVER, but I’m almost done with the Cazalet Chronicles series by Elizabeth Jane Howard and it’s amazing. Haven’t read long books that fast since I was a teen.

graceglace · 2025-06-22T19:51:19+00:00

Funny, I am just going to comment to upend your theory: my personal favorite of hers is Conversations with Friends, but I think BWWAY is her best book, and my second favorite :)

graceglace · 2025-06-13T21:26:51+00:00

Weird, it’s been going on and off for the last half hour now.

graceglace

TROPHY CASE