Envy by Kathryn Harrison

I'm not sure where to begin. With the plot?  It is difficult to describe the plot without it sounding convoluted.  I’m not saying Envy is convoluted, but that my description of it would it be.  It is a complicated story, at the center of which is Will, a man in his mid to late forties.  He is married to Carole and father to Samantha and Luke.  Will has a nearly identical twin brother, nearly identical because Mitch has a birthmark covering 60 percent of his face.  The twins haven't spoken to one another in 15 years and Will isn't sure why that is.  There is a lost child, a lost brother, and the possible discovery of a previously unknown a child.

In a strange way, the details of the plot don’t matter.  Envy is about more than a series of events.  It is a psychological family drama involving sexual tension and competition, obsession, betrayal, and profound loss.  It is crazy and disturbing...and its enthralling.  Envy is the fourth book I’ve read by Kathryn Harrison.  Her other books include Exposure, The Kiss (a memoir), and Thicker Than Water.  When I finished Envy I went and looked at my old book journals to see what I wrote and found that I was just as captivated by Harrison’s writing then as I am now.  Her books tend to veer into  uncomfortable territory, so be warned.  It can be rough journey, but it is such a good one.

Also recommended: Exposure and The Kiss
I'm not not recommending Thicker Than Water, but to be honest I don't remember much about it, whereas these other two books I remember very clearly.
 

Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz

Witches of East End is the first book (excluding the prequel) in a series about three witches living in the small Long Island town of North Hampton.  The three witches in question are sisters Freya and Ingrid Beauchamp, and their mother Joanna.  For centuries they have lived as ordinary human beings, forbidden from practicing witchcraft.  But the day comes when the three Beauchamp women decide to stop concealing who and what they really are.  Revealing their true selves has consequences, good and bad. 

I picked this up after watching the first episode of the new Lifetime series that is inspired by this book series.  Figuring that the book is usually better than the movie, or in this case the tv show, I figured I would give the books a try. 

The first three-quarters of the story is pretty good.  This is the first book I have read by de la Cruz and I can see why she has sold so many books.  The three main characters were intriguing.  I wanted to know more about their histories and how they handled having to suppress their powers for so long.  Where it began to fall apart for me was when the other supernaturals decided to join the party.  First there was talk of zombies.  Next the vampires came to town.  Then came Loki, some gods from Asgard, and a bunch of other characters from Norse mythology.  It was a bit too much.  I wish de la Cruz had stuck with the witches and explored that more.  Freya (love that name), Ingrid and Joanna were interesting enough without all of the other supernaturals thrown in.  Not that there couldn’t be a universe with all sorts of supernaturals.  Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire / True Blood series does this quite well in fact.  But Harris didn’t introduce them all in one book.  Adding in all these other characters and mythologies at once without exploring any of them in depth made them all seem a bit dull, and vampires and witches should never be dull.

So far only one episode of the television series has aired and I have only read this first book in the series.  Right now it is a toss up as to which version I'm going to like better, but I'm intrigued enough to keep watching and reading both.

Killing Me Softly by Nicci French

  Killing Me Softly is an intense psychological thriller.  It all starts with Alice.  Alice Loudon has a pretty great life.  She has a job that she likes and is good at.  She has friends, good friends that she spends time with often.  Alice's best friend is her boyfriend's sister.  Speaking of which, Alice has a great boyfriend called Jake.  They live together.  They haven't exactly said it out loud yet but eventually they'll probably get married, have 2.5 kids and a dog.  Alice's life is on track for a happy ever after ending, or as close as one can expect to get.  That all changes when she meets Adam Tallis.

Alice and Adam meet randomly on a London street.  The attraction is instantaneous.  They end up in bed together so quickly, it is almost comedic.  At first Alice feels guilty about her indiscretion and vows never to see Adam again.  She goes back to Jake and their perfect life together, but it's no use.  Adam is a famous mountaineer who has scaled a bunch of mountains and has been hailed as a hero after saving a bunch of people who nearly died trying to scale one such mountain.  Everyone who meets Adam seems to fall under some sort of spell.  People—men and women—can't help but adore him.  Even Alice's seemingly perfect and fulfilling life cannot save her from Adam's intoxicating presence.  It isn't long before Alice leaves Jake and marries Adam.

The full title of title of this book is Killing Me Softly: A Novel of Obsession.  Alice and Adam are indeed obsessed with each other.  Adam's obsession is possessive and hurtful.  He repeated tells Alice that he doesn't want to injure her, he just wants to hurt her.  Nevertheless, Alice is hopelessly in love with her husband.  Adam adores her and Alice loves that.  She loves the attention.  She loves feeling so very wanted.

Alice's obsession starts out more innocently.  She simply wants to know everything about her new husband, his past, his adventures in the mountains, his family, his friends, basically who he is when he is not with her.  They relationship got so intense and so serious so quickly that they skipped over the getting to know and like each other stage of their relationship.  Adam, however, is of the opinion that nothing matters except his and Alice's life in the present.  He tells his wife that they are the kind of the people who don't care about each other's lives outside their house.  This does not work for Alice, who starts trying to learn all she can about her husband's past.  Her understandable desire to get to know the man she married turns into an obsession with finding out all she can about the women Adam dated before her.  It's here that the novel takes a very dark turn as Alice finds out some things she probably would have liked to have never known.  Digging into her husband's past forces Alice to think about just what kind of man it is she married and what that means for her future.

Killing Me Softly grabbed me from page one and didn't let go.  The relationship between Alice and Adam is passionate, but twisted.  Adam's reticence to talk about his past seems evasive.  Alice's investigation into her husband's past seems intrusive.  They clearly both have issues to deal with, but it isn't clear at first which one of them is to be trusted.  It was fun figuring that out.  I would definitely recommend this book for people who like mysteries and thrillers, especially those who like a little romantic suspense (if you can call it that) thrown in.

Fun fact, Killing Me Softly was made into a movie in 2002 starring Heather Graham and Joseph Fiennes. 

Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

  I have never quite understood terms like "beach read" or "summer read" because my reading choices are generally not determined by the seasons or the weather.  Further, when I go on vacation I like to bring one big, involved book (plus a second book because having backup book is necessary) rather than short, uncomplicated stories since if I planned the vacation I will likely plenty of uninterrupted reading time.  Notwithstanding my lack of a proper understanding of what a beach or summer read is, I imagine Someday, Someday, Maybe might be what people mean when they use those terms.

Someday, Someday, Maybe is the debut novel of actress Lauren Graham.  The story centers around an aspiring actress in New York named Frances (Franny) Banks.  She has given herself three years, the length of time it will take her college boyfriend to finish law school, to make it as an actress.  At the start of the novel, Franny is six months away from her self-imposed deadline and has no agent or acting jobs on the horizon. 

One of the things I liked is that the story doesn't end with everything wrapped up in a nice bow.  For every step forward, there seems to be a step or two backward, professionally and romantically.  She learns life lessons, forgets them, relearns them, kind of gets it, and slowly moves forward.  It is a light, funny, and quick read that I thoroughly enjoyed.

P.S. I can totally see this being made into a movie, at least a television movie.  

Recent Reads from the Library

I've been trying to buy less books this year, primarily because there is already a large pile of unread books sitting in the corner of my living room.  Buying less books is, among other things, suppose to help me focus on reading the books I already own. Still there are books I want to read to now but I don't want to buy now, so I visit my local library.  Here are a couple of the books I picked up this week while I was there.

Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier

I read Rebecca to satisfy the Gothic genre of the Literary Explorations.  I chose it because the host of The Readers (one of my two favorite bookish podcasts, the other being Books on the Nightstand) constantly raves about this book.  I have to admit, I didn't get why he loved it so much at first.  I found the first part a little slow and found myself getting annoyed with the timid narrator who seemed to be afraid of everything, including her own shadow.  But the second half of the novel made up for it, as the truth comes out about Rebecca.  It was suspenseful, dark and twisty.

Selected Poems of Langston Hughes

I don't read much poetry, but reading Sylvia Plath's Ariel last week inspired me to read a little more.  And so I picked up a collection of Langston Hughes' poems.  Langston Hughes is one of the few poets I have read before, at least a little.  He is part of one of my favorite literary-artistic-cultural periods, the Harlem Renaissance. 

I absolutely loved this collection!  I don't know much about Hughes but after reading this collection he seems like someone who would have been fun to hang out with —the kind of person who could come up with a funny poem on the spur of the moment if you were having a bad day.  Next to the funny poems about men and women and not making the rent, there are these intense poems about being Black in America, injustice, and freedom.  Hughes' poems span the emotional spectrum, from sadness, to anger and frustration, to hope and happiness.  This is an amazing collection of poetry.  I am amazed at how so much can be said in just a few lines. Thanks Langston, this was wonderful.

Mud, Sweat, and Tears by Bear Grylls

Earlier this summer I was traveling through the seemingly evergreen pacific northwest.  One night I switched on the tv in the hotel and came across two outdoor adventure shows.  The first was Naked and Afraid where two people, a man and a woman who don't know each other are cast off into the wilderness without food, clothes or shelter.  Their challenge was to survive for 21 days.  What they got at the end of it all, I don't know.  It was such a weird show.  I couldn't understand it and didn't make it through a full episode.  I did follow the Twitter commentary, which was hilarious.  The second show I came across was Get Out Alive with Bear Grylls.

I don't watch too many reality shows, especially ones involving competition.  In fact, there are only two or three such shows that I like - So You Think You Can Dance, The Next Food Network Star, and years ago, Project Runway.  Most competition shows are just too mean spirited for my taste.  Plus, if I am going to watch people compete I want to watch people do something they love and are good at, hence the dancing and cooking shows.   

Get Out Alive was a different sort of a competition show.  First off, there wasn't a whole lot of actual competition.  For most of the show everyone had to work together.  They were in the wilderness, hiking up mountains, crossing fast moving waters, building shelters in effort to survive cold nights, all while lugging backpacks that appeared to be the size and weight of a not so small child.  In short, there was no room for sabotage or name calling.  If one person got hurt, it could endanger everyone.  So they had to work together, and along the way the competitors, and the viewers, learned something about survival.  What was key, what intrigued me was that the survival lessons weren't just about technical or physical skills.  There was some of that, but the more important lessons had to do with strength of character, will, working together, and being mentally tough.

All of this is a long way of explaining of how I came across Bear Grylls.  Admittedly, I am late to the game as Grylls has done other shows, including Man vs Wild and Worst Case Scenario, neither of which I have ever seen.  He is also apparently the youngest British man to climb Mount Everest.  I knew none of this when I saw the first episode of Get Out Alive.  I didn't need to.  What intrigued about the show and its host was their adventurous spirit.  The show looked tough but fun, and at times disgusting.  (Seriously is it ever really necessary to drink urine or eat bugs?)  The criteria for getting kicked off the show or winning was vague.  Grylls would say things like how he was looking for the team of people who could dig deep in hard times and keep going, who good keep in good spirits even when the going got exponentially tough.  It was inspirational without being cheesy.  So I picked up Grylls autobiography, Mud, Sweat, and Tears, looking for more about this adventurous spirit.

Celebrity autobiographies are often a gamble.  This one delivered.  Grylls has had a lot of adventures and has no shortage of stories to tell.  In Mud he describes the rigorous training he went through to become a member of the SAS (something I had also never heard of but which is apparently world famous), about breaking his back while parachuting, and about climbing Mount Everest.  The stories are riveting (the short chapters help) but they are not the main reason why I liked this book.  More than the physical strength, what seems to have gotten Grylls through multiple life threatening situations is his mental and spiritual strength.  It takes a lot to be calm in a dangerous situation.  The importance of keeping calm, of self-confidence, and of faith is what I took away from Mud, Sweat, and Tears.  

Some books make you think, and this book has definitely made me think that I need to take more risks.  It is time for an adventure!

Reading Drama and Poetry

At the beginning of 2013 I decided to participate in the Literary Exploration Challenge (also see here).  The challenge is all about trying new genres.  Through this challenge I have been introduced to new genres and have revisited ones that I don't think I've read since college.  Drama and poetry fall into this category. 

For the drama category I chose Shakespeare's Macbeth.  This had actually been on my want-to-read list for awhile.  I have read other of Shakespeare's plays, including Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, King Lear, but somehow I made it through high school and college without reading Macbeth.  There are of course several different editions of the play.  I chose to read Sparknotes' No Fear edition of Macbeth.  This edition features the original text of the play on the left-hand page and a modern interpretation of the text on the right hand side.  Since I am not reading this in the context of an English class, I found this to be really helpful.

Macbeth is one of those classics that is readily referenced in a thousand other contexts, so I had a general idea of plot going into it.  I was surprised, and perhaps I shouldn't have been, at how modern the story is.  I get why it is so readily referenced in other contexts.  Now that I've read it I would like to see it.  One of the reasons I don't read drama all that much is because it is an art form that is really meant to be seen and heard or performed.  As glad as I am to have read Macbeth, something was missing from the page.  That something would probably be found on a stage.  Speaking of stage performances, I'm not the only one interested in Shakespeare.  I happen to be on the bus and reading this book when the woman sitting next to me asked if I was reading Macbeth for a class.  I told her no, I was reading Shakespeare on my own for fun.  She then pulled out two DVDs from her bag.  She had just watched two BBC versions of Macbeth and was on her way to return them to the library.  If I can't see Macbeth performed live, I guess I can watch them on DVD. 

For the poetry genre I chose Ariel by Sylvia Plath.  I read poetry even less than I read drama.  It isn't that I don't like poetry, I do.  Yet, the concept of a book a poetry seems odd to me, primarily because a book of poetry does not seem like something that should be read linearly.  I read Ariel in one sitting, one poem after another, and I kind of feel that I read it wrong.  Notwithstanding my uncertainty about how to read poetry, I did enjoy this collection, particularly the poems Morning Song, Sheep in Fog, Lady Lazarus, Cut and Kindness. 

When I picked up Ariel at the library, I also picked up a book of Langston Hughes' poems.  I have enjoyed his poems here and there but have never read a full book of his poems.  This time I will read the poems slower.