María Amparo Escandón

L.A. Weather is a fun, fast-paced story of an affluent Mexican American couple who announce their impending divorce after nearly forty years of marriage, forcing their three grown daughters to take a hard look at their own disjointed relationships. L.A. is parched, dry as a bone, and all Oscar, the weather-obsessed patriarch of the Alvarado family, desperately wants is a little rain. He’s harboring a costly secret that distracts him from everything else. His wife, Keila, desperate for a life with a little more intimacy and a little less Weather Channel, feels she has no choice but to end their marriage. Their three daughters—Claudia, a television chef with a hard-hearted attitude; Olivia, a successful architect who suffers from gentrification guilt; and Patricia, a social media wizard who has an uncanny knack for connecting with audiences but not with her lovers—are blindsided and left questioning everything they know. Each will have to take a critical look at her own relationships and make some tough decisions along the way. With quick-wit and humor, Maria Amparo Escandón follows the Alvarado family as they wrestle with impending evacuations, secrets, deception, and betrayal, and their toughest decision yet: whether to stick together or burn it all down.

L.A. Weather

Okay story about a family with a myriad of individual problems. No clear resolution at the end of the book (intentional). Overall just alright. 

Paige Paul

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK “There’s a 100% chance you’ll be paging through this book to uncover the secrets and deception that could potentially burn everything down!” — Reese Witherspoon “This is by far one of the most endearing L.A. novels in recent memory.”— Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) "A capacious book, chock-full of human drama...Escandón’s narrative voice is often witty and warm, and her meditations on Los Angeles are lush and lyrical...A lively and ambitious family novel." — New York Times Book Review Storm clouds are on the horizon in L.A. Weather, a fun, fast-paced novel of a Mexican-American family from the author of the #1 Los Angeles Times bestseller Esperanza’s Box of Saints L.A. is parched, dry as a bone, and all Oscar, the weather-obsessed patriarch of the Alvarado family, desperately wants is a little rain. He’s harboring a costly secret that distracts him from everything else. His wife, Keila, desperate for a life with a little more intimacy and a little less Weather Channel, feels she has no choice but to end their marriage. Their three daughters—Claudia, a television chef with a hard-hearted attitude; Olivia, a successful architect who suffers from gentrification guilt; and Patricia, a social media wizard who has an uncanny knack for connecting with audiences but not with her lovers—are blindsided and left questioning everything they know. Each will have to take a critical look at her own relationships and make some tough decisions along the way. With quick wit and humor, Maria Amparo Escandón follows the Alvarado family as they wrestle with impending evacuations, secrets, deception, and betrayal, and their toughest decision yet: whether to stick together or burn it all down.

A Novel

Cheri McElroy

Hmm…a family drama for sure. Lots of unlikeable characters doing ridiculous and stupid things. That said, it was enjoyable enough, if you like the occasional soap opera.

I dropped this book. I was about 100-120 pages in and I still wasn't into it. I just wasn’t connected to this one. 

Lindsey Talley

Julia

Lauren Attaway

I feel like I was invited to spend a year with the Alvarado family and now I have been sent home. Funny, sad, interesting, and unputdownable. A great story about sisters.

Sharon Steinman

I picked this book up because it was Reese's selection for September. I do tend to find their selections hit or miss but decided to see if I could get the book from the library and give it a try. I was able to borrow from the library really quickly.

The book is about the Alvardo family. Keila's husband Oscar seems obsessed with the weather and it's the only thing on his mind so much so that the backyard has become neglected and the swimming pool is disgusting in the backyard. Unfortunately the neglect in the backyard bring on a horrific accident where Alvardo's granddaughters go missing and are found at the bottom of this algae infested filthy pool and have to be rushed to the hospital. Fortunately the girls survive.

Eventually as we read further along we begin to understand Oscar's obsession with the weather.

I enjoyed this book, it's one of the better Reese's picks. It's a story about family, about our environment and a bit of the history of California. The story kept me captivated throughout and it was decently paced. The story really is about family.

L.A. Weather

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