What is Laura Dave reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Laura Dave, author of Eight Hundred Grapes: A Novel.

Her entry begins:

The Rocks, by Peter Nichols

Romantic, heartbreaking and generously told, Peter Nichols The Rocks is a love story that spans six decades, affecting not just the torn-apart lovers, but also their families and those they care about. And if the drama isn’t enough to get you digging in, the novel is set against the backdrop of a seaside community. I keep stealing time to read this novel, which reminds me of another of my favorite love stories...[read on]

About Eight Hundred Grapes, from the publisher:

A breakout novel from an author who “positively shines with wisdom and intelligence” (Jonathan Tropper, This Is Where I leave You). “Laura Dave writes with humor and insight about relationships in all their complexity, whether she's describing siblings or fiancés or a couple long-married. Eight Hundred Grapes is a captivating story about the power of family, the limitations of love, and what becomes of a life’s work” (J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine).

There are secrets you share, and secrets you hide…

Growing up on her family’s Sonoma vineyard, Georgia Ford learned some important secrets. The secret number of grapes it takes to make a bottle of wine: eight hundred. The secret ingredient in her mother’s lasagna: chocolate. The secret behind ending a fight: hold hands.

But just a week before her wedding, thirty-year-old Georgia discovers her beloved fiancé has been keeping a secret so explosive, it will change their lives forever.

Georgia does what she’s always done: she returns to the family vineyard, expecting the comfort of her long-married parents, and her brothers, and everything familiar. But it turns out her fiancé is not the only one who’s been keeping secrets…

Bestselling author Laura Dave has been dubbed “a wry observer of modern love” (USA TODAY), a “decadent storyteller” (Marie Claire), and “compulsively readable” (Woman’s Day). Set in the lush backdrop of Sonoma’s wine country, Eight Hundred Grapes is a heartbreaking, funny, and deeply evocative novel about love, marriage, family, wine, and the treacherous terrain in which they all intersect.

Visit Laura Dave's website.

Writers Read: Laura Dave.

--Marshal Zeringue