#quick read

Social Creature

by Tara Isabella Burton

I did not want to love this book.  Maybe it’s the cover. Maybe it’s the Talented Mr. Ripley tripe. Maybe I want to be the type of reader who exclusively loves Pulitzer-Prize projects that contain a minimum of a dozen words I have to look up and archaic references I’m not old enough to understand. But I guess I’m not that reader. A page-turner is a page-turner, no matter the genre. And I simply could not put this down.  It is guilty pleasure reading at its best: quick, gritty and dangerous, an up-all-night feast that actually leaves you full rather than hung over.

A 36-hour read, Social Creature was the most satisfyingly salacious book I’ve picked up in a while. Meet Louise and Lavinia, young writers on opposite ends of the financial spectrum. In New York. And if we’ve learned anything from Shakespeare and Downtown Abbey, it never ends well for someone named Lavinia.

It’s a book for hot summer nights and cold boxed wine, over-priced mixed drinks followed by late-night leftovers.  Yes, it is tagged as a “Talented Mr. Ripley” for a new age, but what is more fascinating is that it is a “Talented Mr. Ripley” for the new-age-New-York-minute-digitally-depraved-diaspora. You might not have to look up any archaic references, but you may reconsider your friend list on Facebook. #chooseyourfriendswisely #MorePoetry!!!

*Thank you @doubledaybooks for providing B3 with an ARC.

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

Should you eat chocolate cake? Maybe not. Is it extremely satisfying when you do? Of course. The Couple Next Door provides your sugar fix. Is it going to provide you nutrition? Probably not. But it is so satisfying you may just want another helping.  

I got this book as part of my Book of the Month trial last night. I finished it this afternoon. Need I say more? 

Quintessential suspense at its best, with all the twists and turns of a classic who-dun-it, The Couple Next Door profiles Anne and Marco, newbie parents who leave their infant sleeping at home while they attend a dinner party next door. Can you guess where this is going? I tried at several turns, but there was always another curve in the road. 

I did the classic “I’ll just finish this chapter” move, but then my eyes would start scanning the next page.  300 pages later…Lapena kept this taut novel pinging until the final sentence. Will there be a sequel? If so, I’ll definitely be reading it.   If not, she wrote a killer ending. 

The Kitchen House
By Kathleen Grissom
 
I didn’t want to read The Kitchen House.  I loathed the idea of spending any time in a fictionalized world built around slavery and southern plantation living. But reader after reader praised the novel, so I downloaded the “preview” before splurging the $1.99 on a title I was determined not to like.
 
By the time I tore through the first few chapters, the limited time sale was over and the book was $11.99. I didn’t care. I bought it immediately so I wouldn’t have to stop.

The Kitchen House follows the story of Lavinia, an Irish immigrant suppressing a terrible past at the tender age of 7. Purchased by a Virginian plantation owner, she works and lives in the Kitchen House, the slave quarters that serves the “Big House.” With a name like Lavinia, I was concerned for her well-being from the get-go. (See Titus Andronicus; Season 2 of Downton Abbey).  But Lavinia turns out to be plucky, curious and extremely loving.
 
Lavinia has a unique perspective as both an indentured servant to the Big House and as a white girl in the south.  While the Kitchen House inhabitants become her family, the Big House tenants also have their eyes on her.  And though she crosses many of the divides established as a result of slavery over her lifetime, in a way, she is the most isolated of all the characters. She doesn’t truly belong anywhere.
 
What’s interesting in my reluctance to read the book is that it directly mirrors Grissom’s reluctance to write it. While restoring a plantation tavern in Virginia, she happened upon a location in the plans called “Negro Hill.” It haunted her so much that one day journaling, a fictional story about its legacy poured onto her paper. Even Grissom herself was disturbed by the tale, but it, like the book’s heroine, was stubborn, and would not be altered.
 
The Kitchen House has heart smeared across every page. It’s laden with tears and tragedy, buoyed by stubborn determination and an inextinguishable need to survive. It hurts right below the sternum, like a punch to the gut that allows you to take bigger, fresher breaths.
 
The reluctant reader of a reluctant writer, it strikes me that perhaps the stories we avoid writing are the ones that most need to be written; and the stories we avoid reading may be the very ones we need to read the most.

Invisible by James Patterson & David Ellis

Hello.

My name is brennanbookblog.

And it’s been two days since my last James Patterson paperback.

I don’t really think I have a problem. I mean, this is the first time I’ve even read a Patterson paperback. I just know that rampant reading of Patterson runs in my family - my Dad’s side - and I wanted to curtail the unhealthy behavior before it became an issue.

Until last weekend, I hadn’t even considered reading a Patterson. (I was reading a Booker Man Prize Finalist at this time last month for God’s sake.) There was something too best-seller-y about Patterson, something for people who wanted a cheap high. I normally don’t even consider mass market publications as options. But I was stuck in the Philadelphia airport and I finished my Shonda Rhimes book on the incoming flight;  I thought this one wouldn’t hurt. I could stop myself if I wanted.

I have never really had a problem with Patterson before. I have shopped in stores that sell Patterson novels. I have been around them socially. I even have a copy of The Zoo on my shelf which I never opened.

I recognize the symptoms though, so I thought it’d be best to face this thing head on. My hands shake in anticipation of tattered Patterson novels at half price books. I “accidentally” take detours that bring me to the shelves and shelves of Patterson in the bookstore. I scrolled through his iBooks author page until the sixth reload and then realized that I had felt this feeling before.  I knew what I was doing.

I exhibited this behavior with Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series - pre-ordering, marking my calendar for the next release date, for the next fix.  I had been addicted to fierce heroines before. I read books overnight in Michael Grant’s Gone Series, sometimes not leaving the house for days at a time; I purchased the entire series on Amazon in the middle of the night just so I wouldn’t run dry the next day.  And Jasper Fford’s Thursday Next Series - let’s face it: the signs were there.

There are a lot of scenarios that could play out with a serial killer/ cop-considered-crazy/ guarded-heart-gone-awry melting pot.

So, I know it’s gonna be hard. In a quick tally of Patterson titles, I numbered about 150. One hundred fifty. And there are stand-alones, sure, but I know that series are my weakness.

I vow here that I will not alienate my loved ones in favor of a quick read; I will not neglect my work just to cram in a few more chapters. I’m totally in control. I know my limitations. So I’ll be fine if I just read…. one ….more.