Rules of Civility, by A. Towles

Wow.  This was such a wonderfully-written book. 

A quick summary: Katey and her friend Eve are out one New Year’s Eve and they meet Tinker, a “handsome banker.”  The book is then the story of what happened that year (1938), told from Katey’s point of view.

I really enjoyed this book.  Once I started, I had a very hard time stopping.  As I said, it was very well-written.  The plot is interesting as well – there were certainly twists and turns I was not expecting.  Upon finishing the book, I realize that to me, this was a story of regrets, of thinking about the choices you made and how they affected you.  It was a story of looking back and wondering what could have been.  Though it made me sad, it was a beautiful book, and did a wonderful job of representing these ideas.  Haven’t we all, at some point, looked back and wondered what could have been?