Anne Tyler is a good writer and clearly emphatic towards her characters. This book (really a novella) takes place across 3 days in June and centers around the marriage of Gail Baines daughter. Gail may have just lost her job when her ex-husband shows up at her doorstep with a cat, to stay over the weekend for their daughter's wedding. A bad thing about the daughter's husband is revealed. The wedding goes ahead. No more spoilers.
The book is light-weight. This would not be my first or even my 3rd recommendation for someone starting out on Anne Tyler. Her last book, French Braid was much better and her back-list has truly wonderful novels.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I am such a huge Anne Tyler fan! This book was right up my alley. I devoured it in 24 hours. There are no zombies, no war stories, no giant athletic feats, or even huge emotional development. Just everyday flawed people living their quiet lives making decisions that directly affect their long term happiness. No preaching, but a lot of showing. Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Three Days in June is quintessential Anne Tyler—a beautifully crafted, intimate look at the small but pivotal moments in ordinary lives that somehow feel extraordinary. In this quick, cozy read, Tyler introduces us to Gail Baines, who is navigating a whirlwind weekend filled with personal crises and unexpected guests. As her daughter Debbie's wedding approaches, Gail juggles a work crisis, her ex-husband Max reappearing at her doorstep (foster cat in tow), and the strain of feeling disconnected from the pre-wedding excitement.

Tyler’s prose is sharp and insightful in this cozy read, capturing the subtle, sometimes awkward dynamics of family life. Through Gail's journey, we see a delicate exploration of her past decisions, her evolving relationships, and her contemplation of what the future might hold.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

What a joy! How does Anne Tyler do it? Her characters are so ordinary and so complicated at the same time. The main character, Gail, was just told she has no people skills at the age of 61! This as she launches into a weekend with her daughter getting married to a meh sort of guy. The long weekend of the wedding gives Gail the opportunity to consider her life and the choices she has made. Her exhusband appears as does the man she was dating when she met the husband 40 years before. It was a fast read and just excellent - makes you think about the important things in life. Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy. Much appreciated!

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 1/2

Knopf
Pub Date: 2-11-25

Thank you @netgalley and @aaknopf for this eARC.

A story told in three parts, over three days. Gail and Max are preparing for their daughter's wedding. Amicably divorced, Max - and the cat he is fostering - stay in Gail's guest room over this three day period.

Part Three is the heart of the story. What happened to end their marriage and what does the future hold for Gail and Max?

My first Anne Tyler, this was a quick and enjoyable read at under 200 pages. Easy to read in one sitting on a relaxing weekend.

"What was I supposed to do with the rest of my life? I’m too young for this, I thought. Not too old, as you might expect, but too young, too inept, too uninformed. How come there weren’t any grownups around? Why did everyone just assume I knew what I was doing?'

#threedaysinjune #annetyler #aborzoibook #netgalley

When's the last time you read a book from start to finish without putting it down?

And then gave 5 stars??

Thank you, @netgalley , for the eARC of Three Days in June & the best reading experience I've had in quite some time! There I was, climbing into bed to dutifully return to my Icelandic albatross, Independent People, (sorry, Deirdre!) when I decided to just *peek* at the new Anne Tyler. Just a Quick Look.

A few hours later, smiling & teary, I laid down my kindle with a sigh of complete & total satisfaction.

I don't know where you stand with Anne Tyler. I worshipped her back in the day, in the Breathing Lessons & Accidental Tourist & The Amateur Marriage & Digging to America era. She's continued to write her Baltimore tales of quirkily engaging people all these years since, and I have read and enjoyed most all of them. They had become a bit too familiar, though. Nothing surprising, like comfort food or a favorite, much-viewed movie.

This slim little story, only 176 pages & set during a 3-day time period, hit different. Oh, it's still vintage Tyler: bittersweet, slightly peculiar but relatable characters, real-life situations, heartfelt, human nature on full display. But it also reminded me of the work of a beloved author, Elizabeth Strout, for two reasons. First, so much said in so few pages. Essentially the story of a marriage & a family, encapsulated in a wedding weekend as experienced by Gail Banes, mother of the bride. And second, Gail herself, prickly & awkward, unfiltered & endearing, reminded me of Strout's marvelous creation, Olive Kittridge, in all the best ways.

Three Days explores a lot. How do we forgive ourselves for our mistakes? Why do we, to our detriment, slip back into old, familiar patterns of behavior, worries, disappointments? Is it possible to rewire, start again, take risks in the second chapter of our lives?

The book has no cliches but let me end on a few: I smiled, I laughed, I pondered, I cried. What more do you need from a reading experience?

This one publishes Feb 11 of next year & you're gonna want it!

✨I just loved this sweet story and its wonderfully quirky and flawed but lovable cast of characters. I love the way the author builds the story by giving us a peek into her characters’ lives by focusing on their everyday experiences. It’s this nuanced attention to otherwise typical moments that are so familiar to our own that build sentiment and emotion and ultimately draw the reader in. The ordinary becomes extraordinary – and that is truly the heart of this book.

✨Filled with yearning, gentle wisdom, humor and emotion. I loved it and highly recommend.

🌿Read if you like:
✨Stories of mothering adults
✨Narratives surrounding aging
✨Female main characters of a certain age
✨Wedding-centric stories
✨Pet love, particularly cats
✨Nostalgia

My thanks to @aaknopf and @netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book before its publication date.

This story shares the 3 days of Gail and Max's daughter's wedding. So much emotion as Max and Gail are divorced, Gail learns her job is being taken away, and Debbie (their daughter) has a moment where the wedding is almost cancelled. Gail struggles with being emotional and feels left out of the wedding planning. This story brings a lot of feelings, struggles and self-reflect. Don't miss out on reading this one. I received an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.

Loved this easy little read! It's a cute story about how life morphs and shapes us over time. Relationships eb and flow, circumstances change and sometime love comes back around, when it's meant to be. While topics about infedilty would make you think the book is sad, somehow it shows shows that love isn't always cut and dried. We love, we forgive, we move on. If it's meant to be, a lot can happen in 3 days!

Anne Tyler is masterful at conveying the nuances of relationships, particularly in families and marriages. This novel, shorter than many of her earlier books, succinctly demonstrates the myriad emotions involved in the institution of marriage, raising children, and communicating with adult children. Gail Baines, an administrator at a private school, hears from her superior that she is "not a people person" as she approaches her daughter Debbie's wedding weekend. I have always found this expression curious since it can be interpreted in several ways. Anne Tyler is the perfect author to delve into this comment through relatable characters. Gail is demoralized by the comment, especially since she has dedicated her successful career to working with people and must spend the next three days with people.

On the day before the wedding, when the rehearsal dinner is planned, Gail's ex-husband Max shows up at her home with a cat. He cannot stay with their daughter as planned since he learns that Debbie's fiance, Kenneth, is allergic to cats. At first, Gail is annoyed, but having Max stay with her results in a positive journey examining her interpersonal skills and navigating the parents-of-the-bride role. Hosting Max and the cat in her home is the perfect impetus for Gail to explore her failed marriage and attempt to shape her daughter's imminent experience as a wife.

Max and Gail attend the dinner the day before the wedding, interact with relatives, old friends, and Debbie's new in-laws at the wedding, and then spend the day after the wedding together. Readers learn about their relationship through thoughtful reminiscing, conversation, and gestures. Great insight is provided into the personalities and values of the main characters, and we can appreciate gender, class, and generational differences in love, trust, and cultural expectations.

I have read more than a dozen books by Anne Tyler, and it is an ultimate reading pleasure when I can share the sentiments with this mature, accomplished author as she continues to create characters that speak to me. I sympathized with Gail's worrying about and counseling her adult daughter at an age beyond when she could genuinely influence her decisions. But that is what motherhood is all about, and Anne Tyler knows that. She also understands married couples' conversations that occur in segments and continue for days. Even couples no longer married but brought together for a family occasion, such as Gail and Max, have typical and ongoing marital conversations. The characters in Three Days in June exemplify what it means to be human and require connection. I concluded that Gail was introspective and concerned about appropriate social interaction. Perhaps being a people person is an overrated asset.

A New Tyler Classic

The latest Anne Tyler book has an unusual three part format for each day in June. In the very beginning, we meet Gail Baines, a talented teacher, who is on the brink of losing her job. Or maybe she did lose her job after demonstrating her anger at not being promoted. She feels she is more than qualified at the top, but her sarcasm and lack of compassion bombards her speech.

She is the ex-wife of Max who has arrived, without notice, to stay at her home for the three day duration of their only child’s marriage. They have a beautiful daughter, Debbie, who is marrying Kenneth, who tells her parents she is distraught about a possible lack of fidelity of the husband-to-be. This is Tyler’s brilliant technique to introduce the reader to the futile mistakes in Gail’s relationship with Max.

It's a short book. However, we “attend” the wedding and meet the in-laws and Gail’s mother who sees the world differently than her daughter. Debbie is a multi-faceted young woman, looking to her father for security and understanding. Gail is not quirky enough to hide her feelings but she encounters insight into her own marital mistakes and accepts her destiny.

Tyler remains sensitive to the foibles and heartbreaks of family life. My gratitude to NetGalley and Random House for this pre-published book. All opinions expressed are my own.

I am glad I jumped on the chance to read an advance copy of this book thru NetGalley. I love Anne Tyler’s writing and this book did not disappoint. You become very invested in the lives of the main characters during the wedding weekend and the best part is that it’s a simple celebration for the couple getting married. I will say I feel like it’s a novella and I finished it in one day

Cracking open a new book by Anne Tyler is like sitting down with an old friend. I've been reading her for 40 years, and she's never let me down, even if the material is, like here, familiar ground. Three days with a wedding on the middle one, haunting memories from the past generated by current events, a shift in the character's universe. We've been here before, but Tyler makes it seem fresh and manages to find new avenues to explore.

Thank you to NetGalley for this book, it’s a quick read and I was able to get through it in a few hours. I will say I was expecting something else with all of the high reviews and I’m not the age demographic for this book. The main character is also blatantly negative throughout the entire book it’s hard to relate to any of the characters, more so her the most.

It uses the word “hussies”, “bedside phone book” it’s just very dated and it reminds me of a cookie cutter, older type Hallmark channel. If I would have known this I wouldn’t have read it.

I adored reading this book. I saw myself in Gail, an older version of myself. You really get to understand the main character, and if you are an introvert who has had the same life experiences, you can easily relate. It was a pleasant reading experience.

With her inimitable wry point of view, Anne Tyler once again describes the everyday grace that can come to those wiling to accept it. A wedding, divorced parents of the bride, and a homeless cat come together in a gentle tale that will surely bring a wry smile to your lips.

"𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰."

Tyler has always had a knack for not writing literature, but writing life. As it is. Plopping yourself down with a Tyler feels right as a library loan on a weekday when you miss your family too much, so much so that the whirlwinds of constant conversations and talking heads spur laughter in recollection for you.

Remembering. Misremembering. The little quirks and stories, and why we remember them. In a tight-knit family with a tight-knit story do we get Tyler at her best in a story rich with the love and drama that naturally exists in family. The characters feel right there with you, part of the family.

A delightful charming book where the pages turn themselves. Cancel your plans, call in sick and prepare for a light hearted romp through the 3 days surrounding the marriage of Gail's daughter, Deb. Though the details are fraught with the mundane aspects of life, once you start reading the only key to freedom is the last page. Bottom line- A refreshing and engaging book that deals with human emotions and connections.

After reading so many long and dark books this year, I needed to read something light. And Three Days in June fit that bill. A story about Gail a divorced women and her ex husband Max, whose daughter is getting married. A cute story about coming together for a celebration.and their stories, the bride the groom, the in laws and even a cute cat that is brought from a shelter by Max.
This is one book that I will be sharing with my book club. Lots of scenarios to talk about. Get this book, you won’t be sorry.

I have always been a fan of Ann Taylor’s writing, so I was happy to see this book. It was a quick read, but full of beautiful character development. The story is told by the main character during the course of three days surrounding her daughter’s wedding. Gail is socially awkward and aware of it. We are treated to her thoughts of feeling inept. I’d love to say that I have never felt that way, but her thought process felt so real. I think that is Ann Taylor’s biggest strength, making people’s foibles and insecurities acceptable. I enjoyed this gentle book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sharing it. I am voluntarily reviewing.