We Play Ourselves

 We Play Ourselves by Jen Silverman 322 pages --- I got through 290.

Summary from Goodreads: Not too long ago, Cass was a promising young playwright in New York, hailed as "a fierce new voice" and "queer, feminist, and ready to spill the tea." But at the height of all this attention, Cass finds herself at the center of a searing public shaming, and flees to Los Angeles to escape--and reinvent herself. There she meets her next-door neighbor Caroline, a magnetic filmmaker on the rise, as well as the pack of teenage girls who hang around her house. They are the subjects of Caroline's next semidocumentary movie, which follows the girls' clandestine after-school activity: a Fight Club inspired by the violent classic.

As Cass is drawn into the film's orbit, she is awed by Caroline's drive and confidence. But over time, she becomes troubled by how deeply Caroline is manipulating the teens in the name of art--especially as the consequences become increasingly disturbing. With her past proving hard to shake and her future one she's no longer sure she wants, Cass is forced to reckon with her own ambitions and confront what she has come to believe about the steep price of success. 

And here's what I thought: I really didn't like this book and only made it to the point I did because I really, really wanted to know what happened to the main character that was so scandalous that she had to move to L.A.  Do you want to know? Here's the spoiler -- she gets drunk at a party, and deliberately pokes someone in the eye with her finger. Yes, absolutely incredibly scandalous.  So then, after I got to that point, I tried reading a little more --- but I am not the reader for this book, let's put it that way. I didn't like the main character and found her to be so annoying that I constantly irritated by her. The neighbor is a jerk, the girls being filmed aren't much better. I kept wondering just how Cass was continuing to make it work, sponging off her friend and not working at all (which annoys me to no end, at any rate) to contribute anything to her friend's household.  This character wrote one play, which wasn't even that big of a deal -- so how is the money thing working?  I also felt that Cass is an overwrought kind of character - the constant descriptions of what it means to be a playwright, to be seriously involved in the theatre, the mindset, the culture, the all-encompassing art of it all. It felt to me like the author is writing herself as the main character, immersing herself in this all as the most fascinating character.  Blergh.

Biloxi: A novel

Biloxi: A Novel by Mary Miller   254 pages  I read a galley - book is due out May of 2019

Louis McDonald, Jr. is 63 years old. His wife of 37 years has left him, he's not close to his daughter, and his father has just passed, possibly leaving Louis a large inheritance. In anticipation of this inheritance, Louis has retired from his job, staying at home watching reality TV, avoiding his ex-wife and daughter, and drinking beer.  One day, he impulsively stops at a house advertising free dogs and meets mixed-breed Layla.  Unexpectedly, he takes her, even though he doesn't know anything about dogs. Soon, it's all dog parks, bologna and extra hamburgers as Louis navigates his life with Layla by his side.

I'm just going to say it: I am not the reader for this book. I'm sure other people will love this book, finding it droll or amusing, but I just didn't get it. I felt like it was a lot of stream-of-consciousness from a character that I neither liked nor found particularly interesting.  I kept reading because I kept expecting something to happen. However, what happened was less than I had hoped and by the time I reached the end, I felt completely secure in my feeling that this book just isn't something that resonated with me. 

I will say that the author creates characters you can easily envision, and the narrative rolls along (to me, much like a 1982 Buick Regal with no air conditioning and cloth seats that smell like old fast food. It's not overly pleasant, but at least you make some progress going down the road). 

Scruples

Scruples by Judith Krantz  478 pages

"Scruples is the novel that created publishing history, the first-and widely acknowledged to be the very best-novel ever written about the staggeringly luxurious life of a Beverly Hills boutique and the people who work in it. Scruples was translated into twenty languages and made Rodeo Drive famous around the world. The New York Post said that "Scruples was born to be a smash bestseller. . . It has more inside information about the worlds of high fashion and  Hollywood than you'd find in a dozen manuals." With Scruples, Judith Krantz earned her reputation as a blazingly talented and original storyteller. She takes her readers behind the scenes of wealthy and fame to show them the real people and the real emotions that exist at the core of even the most high-powered lives. Scruples is the leader of her #1 best-selling novels."   (per Goodreads)

I picked this book out from the Stacks because I was down there looking for something else and walked past Krantz' books . . . and then remembered reading this book a long time ago (felt like a lifetime ago, actually).  While I had remembered parts of the story and some of the characters, I found myself thinking more about the writing and some of the details in a more critical way.  I admit it: I read this book when I was too young to be reading it.  It was published in 1978 and I remember reading it in the early 1980s  --- and it's got some pretty steamy parts to it.  I was really surprised to read the Goodreads summary which says this is "the very best-novel ever written about the staggeringly luxurious life . . . "   Um . . . well, maybe that held up in 1978, but in 2019, I found a lot of the book to be kind of lacking. The one thing that kept striking me was the descriptions of details of Rodeo Drive felt a lot more like the 1980s than the 1970s --- and the descriptions of the main character's style didn't feel like 1960s to me at all.  Admittedly, I wound up skimming parts of the book, especially toward the end because I felt like the story dragged on way too long.  This was an interesting experiment in nostalgia, but I don't think I'll revisit her books again.

My Husband's Wife

My Husband's Wife by Jane Corry    373 pages

"When young lawyer Lily marries Ed, she’s determined to make a fresh start and leave the secrets of the past behind. But then she takes on her first murder case and meets Joe, a convicted murderer to whom Lily is strangely drawn—and for whom she will soon be willing to risk almost anything.

But Lily is not the only one with secrets. Her next-door neighbor Carla may be only nine, but she has already learned that secrets are powerful things. That they can get her whatever she wants.

When Lily finds Carla on her doorstep twelve years later, a chain of events is set in motion that can end only one way."  summary courtesy of Goodreads

“If you loved Gone Girl and The Talented Mr. Ripley, you’ll love My Husband’s Wife. It’s got every thriller’s trifecta: love, marriage, and murder.” —Parade

So, if you read the summary and that blurb, this sounds like a pretty exciting book, yes?  I found it to be, in one word, "meh."  The plot is well thought-out, but I found the characters to be mostly predictable and, once in a while, annoying and unsympathetic.  The most interesting character for me was Carla when she was a child because I had some sympathy for her but also found her deviousness (and what came off as a lack of morals or empathy on her part) to be interesting.  However, Lily bored me most of the time and Ed?  Ed's pretty meh -- I couldn't figure out why Lily married him. I also found the plot to drag at times --- with better editing, this could have moved along much better.  Not a memorable read for me.

Fat Girl Walking

Fat Girl Walking: Sex, Food, Love, and Being Comfortable in Your Skin...Every Inch of It
by Brittany Gibbons    240 pages

"First of all, thanks for picking up this copy of my first book. I hope you buy it—and not just because each purchase gets me one step closer to buying the leather pants of my dreams.

I hope you buy Fat Girl Walking because I want to start a conversation. Or continue a conversation, one I inadvertently started a while ago when I took my clothes off on a stage in front of 700 people. A lot of people thought I was awesome for doing that. A lot of others thought a size 18 woman had absolutely no business showing off her body. Unfortunately for them, I've made it my personal mission on my blog, in social media, on television, and now in this amazing book you're holding, to destroy the ridiculous myth that every woman who is overweight hates her body and herself. I, Brittany Gibbons, and the Curvy Girls I speak to every day on the internet, beg to differ. We love our bodies. We love fashion. We are in loving relationships, having lots of sex. We aren't just a fetish, we're normal women. Sure, sometimes we doubt ourselves, we're not robots, but not anymore than EVERY OTHER WOMAN ON THE PLANET. See, Fat Girls aren't freaks of nature. We're just like you. Maybe we are you."

That's part of the summary from the publisher/Goodreads.  In this series of essays, Brittany Gibbons writes about her life, from childhood to the present. Honestly, I don't remember why I placed a hold on this book.  While I found parts of it interesting (and some of it funny but cringeworthy), I mostly came away feeling like I wanted to like it more than I did.  Gibbons' title mentions feeling comfortable in your skin, but she clearly isn't most of the time.  I kept reading out of curiosity, but not because I was really loving the book.  

No Kidding

No Kidding: Women Writers on Bypassing Parenthood edited by Henriette Mantel    248 pages

This collection of essays by various writers tackles the topic of not having children. Whether their reasons have to do with courage, health issues, apathy or something else, each essay gives insights into each woman's decision.

Admittedly, when I picked this up, it was because the title made me curious.  I didn't realize that the women writers would mostly be writers in the field of comedy. After a few essays, I felt like this wasn't quite the book I had been hoping for, and most of the time, I didn't find the essays that funny. Some of them were more interesting than others, but I felt there was some repetition and I wish there had been more variety in the authors.

Small Hours

Small Hours by Jennifer Kitses.  288 pages

Tom and Helen have left New York for a new life in a former mill town, thinking they could ride out their economic downturn and raise their two daughters in a nice place. Two years later, their fragile domestic life has started to spin out of control. Helen, feeling overwhelmed by work and demands of her family, starts to have anger management issues. Tom is struggling to keep afloat at his job, while also juggling a pretty hefty secret: a second life.

I thought this book was okay, but found it made me cranky. While it wouldn't have made for much of a story, most of the issues faced by Tom and Helen could have been solved if they ever had an honest conversation with each other. Instead, they keep things to themselves, hiding their problems and issues.  Things come to a head over the course of one day, when Helen has an unpleasant encounter with some teens at a playground and Tom is tested by having to face up to all of the secrets he's been keeping (as well as the fact that he increasingly tunes out in a lot of situations).

I finished the book, mostly out of curiosity. The ending leaves things pretty open, so you wonder what these two people are going to do, now that they have to face each other and face up to what they've been doing. However, I'm more than happy to move on to my next read and leave these two behind.

The Darkness Within

The Darkness Within by Lisa Stone     384 pages.   Due out in September, 2017 - I read a galley

When Jacob Wilson gets a heart transplant, he and his parents feel like their prayers have been answered. However, it quickly becomes apparent that Jacob's not quite himself. In fact, he's acting like a completely different person. When a terrible crime is committed, Jacob's parents are forced to confront their fears about Jacob and wonder if his new heart is to blame.

This was an okay book, and I kept reading it up to the end, but I felt it was predictable.  The story begins with a different man, Shane, who is pretty awful. He beats his girlfriend, steals from people, and is generally a rotten person. When he dies in a car accident, his organs are donated --- so you guessed it: Jacob gets Shane's heart.  It's apparent immediately that Shane's heart is carrying out his entire personality now in Jacob. While the reader knows this, Jacob's parents, of course, have no idea. I found I was basically reading to find when they figure out that it's the transplanted heart that's turned Jacob into an awful person. One of the kickers is that Jacob meets Rosie, Shane's old girlfriend, and starts living with her. Of course, Jacob doesn't know it's Shane's old girlfriend, and Rosie doesn't recognize Shane in Jacob (although she really does seem to have bad taste in men).

This reminded me of the Dead End episode from Angel (where Lindsey gets a hand transplant. An evil hand transplant). Personally, the story was too predictable and I kept reading just to see 1) how long it would take people around Jacob to figure out the whole bad-heart-transplant thing and 2) to see how the story would be resolved. However, I wouldn't really suggest this as a good read to anyone.

Borderline

Borderline by Mishell Baker    400 pages

After Millie recovers from a failed suicide attempt which has left her an amputee, she gets an amazing second chance at life when the Arcadia Project reaches out to her.  A secret organization that polices the traffic in and out of a parallel reality that connects to faery, the Arcadia Project promises to be challenge for Millie.  For her first assignment, she's assigned to track down a missing movie star.  However, it soon becomes clear that this is no easy task, and as Millie starts to learn about the people connected to his disappearance, an entire conspiracy is revealed.

I admit it: this isn't the book for me.  I've read a fair amount of urban fantasy, and while this certainly has common elements of good urban fantasy, it just didn't really connect with me.  I found Millie to be an interesting character . . . but not all of the time. The supporting characters had potential, but frankly, I found I didn't understand them most of the time, and wound up just not really caring about them.  I appreciate that most of the characters were deeply flawed, and completely unapologetic about that, which was refreshing.  However, I just never felt a connection to them or to the story.

I can see where some readers would really enjoy this book, and how some of the characters would definitely resonate with some readers.  However, it just didn't resonate with me.

Season to Taste

Season to Taste by Natalie Young.  Made it to 80 pages before stopping.

"Meet Lizzie Prain. She is an ordinary housewife and lives with her lovely dog and her husband, who is a bit of a difficult fellow, in a quiet cottage in British country side...

No one has seen Lizzie's husband, Jacob, for a few days. That's because last Monday and Lizzie snapped and cracked him on the head with her garden shovel. No one quite misses Jacob though, and Lizzie surely didn't kill him on purpose. And now that she has the chance to live beyond his shadow, she won't neglect her good fortune. Over the course of the following month, with a body to get rid of and few fail-proof options at hand, Lizzie will channel her most practical instincts and do what she does best: she'll cook Jacob, and she'll eat him."


I don't usually use the Goodreads summary.  But I'm doing it here, because when I read it, I thought that I'd be getting an unusual, darkly humorous book.  However, I got to page 80 and just called it quits because 1) I didn't care about Lizzie, 2) the book wasn't funny (and I like dark humor ... but seriously, I wasn't even cracking an occasional wry smile here) and 3) I didn't really care about what was going to happen in the story. I felt like there was potential here, but there was no intrigue. I had expected the whole "eating the husband" to be a bit icky, but it felt grotesque.   This is a book with an interesting premise that isn't handled well enough to actually be a good story.

The Real Liddy James

The Real Liddy James by Anne-Marie Casey.  336 pages

Liddy James is one of New York's top divorce attorneys, a bestselling author and mother of two. What's her secret to having it all?  "I don't do guilt!"  Her ex-husband, however, isn't quite as happy.  He has a new partner, Rose, but the two of them are entangled with Liddy, seeing as he and Liddy share custody of one of their children. Their system seems to be working...however, when Rose announces she is pregnant and Liddy starts to have problem upon problem of her own, it becomes clear that Liddy's days as a guilt-free woman may be over.

I wanted to like this book more than I did.  The story could have been more interesting, but I found the characters to be uninspiring.  Overall, they seemed to take each other so much for granted that I found them unsympathetic.  Rose seems pretty nice, but when I got to the part where she was dumbstruck upon realizing that Liddy has been basically paying for all of Rose and Peter's bills (and all of the children's schooling), I didn't quite like her very much. I didn't really care for Liddy, and I also didn't care too much about what happened to her.  I stuck with the story, but by the end, was happy to move on to my next book.

The summary from the publisher says "Fun, fearless, and full of heart, The Real Liddy James takes a fresh look at the balancing act every family performs."  I didn't find this book fun, and while I appreciated some of the storyline, I didn't think this reflected the usual balancing act that families deal with.  Maybe it's just me, but I don't know anyone like Liddy, who relies on her ex-husband and her ex-husband's partner, to take care of most of her parenting responsibilities and seems to blithely just go through life without accepting any real responsibilities.  I believe there are readers who will enjoy this book; unfortunately, it's not the book for me.

The Past

The Past by Tessa Hadley.  310 pages.

This story focuses on three adult sisters and their brother, who meet up at their grandparents' country home for their annual holiday of three weeks.  This may the last summer they all have together in this house, as they may need to sell it.  Naturally, with even the closest of siblings, there are bound to be tensions.  

The summary of the book via Goodreads says, "With uncanny precision and extraordinary sympathy, Tessa Hadley charts the squalls of lust and envy disrupting this ill-assorted house party, as well as the consolations of memory and affection, the beauty of the natural world, the shifting of history under the social surface. From the first page the reader is absorbed and enthralled, watching a superb craftsperson unfold the lives of these unforgettable siblings."

Admittedly, I didn't love this book.  I kept turning the pages because I was curious if anything was really going to happen in the story (perhaps a startling revelation from one of the characters? A tragic secret?), but it was hard for me to care about any of the characters.  The writing style is interesting, but for me, the characters . . . weren't.   The sister who seems to have some kind of inner turmoil and secrets isn't that compelling, and the one sister who seems to always be dramatically saying this and that wasn't compelling to me, either.    There isn't much of a plot, so the book is basically just these people interacting with each other (although there is a middle section that is set in the past).

I can see where some readers really respond to this author's writing style, but I'm not one of them.

I'm Glad About You

I'm Glad About You by Theresa Rebeck.  369 pages.

This is the story of two people, Alison and Kyle, who meet in high school and fall in love . . but then go their separate ways.  Told over time, we see Alison moving to New York City and getting her lucky break as an actress, and Kyle staying in Ohio, and pursuing a career as a pediatrician.   The back of the book states, "I’m Glad About You is a glittering study of how far the compromises two people make will take them from the lives they were meant to live."

I wanted to like this book more than I actually did.  I think the idea is interesting, where you have two characters who go separate ways and then come together from time to time.  You see their lives independently, and then see them intersect, and what influence that has on the next part of their lives. However, I guess I just didn't really like the characters.   I found Alison got on my nerves (for example, she moves to New York and has no idea how expensive everything is.  She takes a job and then quits with no backup plan.  Personally, she grated on me).   I also didn't like Kyle too much.  He marries a woman (who also is not likable) seemingly on a whim, and then doesn't seem at all invested in his marriage or his relationship with his children.   Neither of the main characters seem to be very happy, but don't seem to take steps to change this, either.

Was I glad I read this book?  Meh.

Carthage

Carthage, by Joyce Carol Oates, 400 pages

Cressida Mayfield has gone missing, and all signs point to her sister's ex-fiancee, an Iraq war veteran recovering from some pretty serious physical and emotional traumas.  The story is really told through Cressida, a downright unlikable main character; her father, a man used to getting anything he wants who struggles with the realization that there are some things out of his control; and lesser amounts from Cressida's mother, sister, and the accused killer, himself.   This is one of those books you may like if you enjoy the constant rehashing and endless pages of people's thoughts, family dynamics where half of the family is detestable, or if you just really want to listen to an audiobook where when it is over, you find yourself calculating how many good movies you could have watched in that time, instead.  (Probably about 10)

I Don't Know What You Know Me From

I Don't Know What You Know Me From: Confessions of a Co-Star by Judy Greer, 235 pages

Even if you don't know it, you've probably seen Judy Greer in a movie or TV show. She's Hollywood's go-to best friend, assistant, secretary, sidekick...basically anybody but the leading lady. In this collection of essays, she reflects on her personal life, elements of her career, and her musings on things as random as making it in Hollywood to feeding stepchildren.

I hoped, from the title, that this would focus on Greer's career, but I felt that she didn't spend nearly enough time on it. Or at least not in the way I'd hoped. Anecdotes abound about peeing in the stall next to J.Lo and the awkwardness of accidentally ending up in the seat-filler bar at the Oscars. But the actual experiences of making Arrested Development, or Archer, or any of the gajillion romantic comedies listed on her IMDb page? Not so much.

Basically, this book lacked substance, and honestly, after reading/listening to it, I kind of like her less as an actress. Maybe it's just because I read two other much better memoirs during the time I was listening to this one, but Greer comes across as needy, whiny, immature, and vapid. Pass this one over for a better Hollywood autobiography, like Tina Fey's Bossypants, or Rachel Dratch's Girl Walks Into a Bar..., or Neil Patrick Harris' Choose Your Own Autobiography, or Rob Lowe's Stories I Only Tell My Friends. Basically, this was the bottom of the barrel when it comes to the Hollywood memoirs I've read.

P.S. This is my last blog post for the SLPL book challenge blog, and I really wish it was about a better book. If you really want to know what I'm reading in the future, check out the University City Public Library book challenge blog. I know I'll keep checking back here! It's been swell!

The Obsidian Blade

The Obsidian Blade, by Peter Hautman, 320 pages

Tucker Feye is a regular, mischievous young teen, but his world as he knows it starts to crumble when he first sees a mysterious disk of shimmering space in the air above his family's house.   His father disappears, a mysterious girl appears out of nowhere, his mother loses her mind, and Tucker begins the journey of a lifetime.

This is a science fiction work for young adults, but the science fiction was somewhat confusing to me (although, isn't that always the case with time travel books?).  Also, there are some elements of religion used frequently throughout the book that some people might be bothered by. 

Love Minus Eighty

Love Minus Eighty, by Will McIntosh, 432 pages

In the "not-that-distant" future, cryogenics has evolved in such a way that corpses can be frozen and revived, for a hefty amount of money.  For young, attractive women who died without freezing insurance, their bodies are frozen and preserved for a dating service, where wealthy men can court them and bring them back to life if they like what they see.  This is a notion that is so reprehensible, it doesn't seem that unrealistic.  There are a few intersecting story lines in this book, the main one being that of Rob, who accidentally kills a woman in a car accident and spends all of his money and time visiting her as penance.  I liked the idea of this story,which is what it originated as- a short story; but the execution fell flat for me.