Looking for your next great read? We suggest scanning the New York Times Bestseller list to find a variety of new book releases. Picking the #1 book is a way too obvious choice; instead, look for the 20th or the 57th book, something obscure. Way down in the list is where you’ll find some real gems, including Room, The Goldfinch, The Girl on the Train, Gone Girl, Water for Elephants, and so much more (2018 NYT List).
All of the aforementioned books have been made into feature films (at the time of publication, The Goldfinch was in the works) – but none of these books were famous then. They were buried in obscurity as far as the media was concerned. The same can be said for Big Little Liars by Liane Moriarty. I found Liane Moriarty by total mistake, but it’s one of the best mistakes I’ve made to date (book-wise).
Big Little Lies book description: Pirriwee Public School’s annual Trivia Night has ended in a shocking riot. One parent is dead. The school principal is horrified. As police investigate what appears to have been a tragic accident, signs indicate that this devastating death might have been cold-blooded murder. A murder…A tragic accident…Or just parents behaving badly? What’s indisputable is that someone is dead.
Big Little Lies follows three women, each at a crossroads. Madeline is dealing with her ex-husband and his yogi new wife and their daughter, who is now in the same kindergarten class as her own daughter. While Celeste is a gorgeous housewife and a mother of rambunctious twin boys, and married to the fatally passionate Perry. Single mom Jane, the youngest of everyone, is battling a sadness beyond her years and harbors secret doubts about her son. But why? While Madeline and Celeste soon take Jane under their wing, none of them realizes how the arrival of Jane and her inscrutable little boy will affect them all.
Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on marriages, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandals, and the dangerous not-so-little lies we tell ourselves to survive.
In this little Australian town that Moriarty created, people’s lives get thrown amok by the secrets they (try to) keep. What’s done in the dark comes to light and there is no shortness of dark or light in her novels. The novel was so good it was turned into an award-winning HBO series starring Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern, Zoë Kravitz, Shailene Woodley, Alexander Skarsgard, and Adam Scott. Meryl Streep joined the cast for the explosive return of Season 2 in June 2019.
Is Big Little Lies coming back for a Season 3? Tragically no. The series will not return for Season 3 due to the untimely death of the show’s director and executive producer, Jean-Marc Vallée in 2021.
If by chance, Big Little Lies were to return, we fans will be watching. In the meantime, it is worth checking out both seasons, as they are well-acted and unravels an exhilarating and harrowing plot. Compliments to Moriarty for her beautiful and original work.