Please Read: SAVE YOURSELF

Patrick Cusimano is a young man alone. His brother and father have turned against him after he turned in his father for a drunken hit and run in which he killed a small child. The town has turned against him because it took him 24 hours before he could turn him in. He works the late shift at a convenience store, and has fallen in love with his brother’s girlfriend. 

Verna Elshere is a freshman in high school, the daughter of fundamentalist parents. She is the victim of school bullies because her father led the charge to have a popular teacher fired over teaching sex ed. She falls in with her sister’s friends, a collection of Goths who have dark plans for her. 

Patrick and Verna are tied together by Verna’s sister Layla, a beautiful Goth girl who develops a strange fascination with Patrick. As he spends more time with her, she unknowingly puts both him and Verna on a path towards finding their inner peace, but not before they become involved in a dangerous plan. 

Save Yourself is the third book from Kelly Braffet and it’s as dark and twisty as a great thriller and as compelling and rich as the best dramas. I picked it up to read a few months back for work, and wasn’t sure what to expect. This book enthralled me almost instantly. The characters resonate with emotional honesty and you can’t help but feel their pain as they struggle on their way. 

I don’t know if this book will get wide reviews or huge publicity. But it should. This is the kind of book that deserves to be on a lot o year end top ten lists. It will be on mine. 

Finding the words

Trying to write on here is a bit of a struggle as late. I could blame a sick dog or work or a general busy-ness of life that’s stopping me, but that would be a cheat. 

Truth is am a huge procrastinator and this past week offered me a ton of great distractions. Plus, I just have had a bit of a difficult time getting back into the writing groove. I feel ideas percolating in my head but when it comes to putting the words down on paper they come out stiff and wooden. No life to them. 

So I will be taking things slowly on here. Finding the words takes time. 

In the meantime some quick hits:

FUN FILM I SAW: I watched PITCH PERFECT on dvd this past week. It’s not normally the type of film I would watch but the word of mouth was so great, I had to check it out. I was so glad I did. Sure the story of the all girl acapella group versus the all boy acapella group was predictable, but it had so much energy and humor to it that you can’t help but get sucked in. Anna Kendrick is really charming in the lead. If you don’t start singing along in the final performance, you have no soul.

FUN BOOK I AM READING: If you ever told me I would be reading a book that featured a chapter about Scritti Politti, I would probably tell you to get out of here with some swearing in the middle. But that is just what I am reading in RIP IT UP AND START AGAIN, a history of post punk music. Author Simon Reynolds is one of the best natural writers of music I have ever read and his way of describing a band’s music is vibrant and engrossing. My list of music to download has grown thanks to him. 

This Week's Book Report

Now that my sales conference over, I can read a few books for myself.

BLANKETS by Craig Thompson – One of the finest graphic novels I have read in a long time. I know I am a little late to the game on this one. But better late than never. Thompson’s autobiographical novel is the story of teenager Craig, struggling with his family, his small town schoolmates, and his own Christian faith. At a religious camp, he meets Raina, and their slowly developing relationship is the core of the book. After the camp, the two correspond until Craig spends two weeks with her and her family. The two fall in love, but once Craig returns home, he is forced to grow up and choose his own path in life. Thompson’s tale avoids the usual trappings of many coming of age tales, focusing on the spiritual and emotional impact of their relationship on Craig. Craig’s search for understanding, for his own place in the world, connects to us all. Thompson’s art captures the tender realism of the relationship as well as the surreal qualities of Craig’s internal struggle. Simple, intelligent, and heartfelt, Blankets captures a universal tale with grace and honesty.

STORM FRONT by Jim Butcher – The first book in Butcher’s Dresden Files series, combining fantasy and hardboiled mystery. Harry Dresden is a wizard for hire in Chicago, solving cases for clients while also working as a consultant for the police. In Storm Front, he tries to solve the mystery of a missing husband while helping the police uncover who savagely murdered two people through magic. The problem is, Harry’s the only local wizard powerful enough to have committed the crime, putting himself in the crosshairs of the Wizard’s Council. Butcher balances the mystery and fantasy elements very well, but it’s Dresden that makes the book a worthwhile read. He is an appealing character, funny, compassionate, tough, and carrying a dark past. As the series progresses, Butcher throws in a longer conspiracy / fantasy war subplot that carries through much of the series, but in the first book, he lays the groundwork for a strong series that anyone can pick up and enjoy. I definitely will read the next installment.

Going To The Dark Side

When I was a bookseller, and a customer would come in asking me just for a great thriller, I would always hit them with A Simple Plan, by Scott Smith.

For those who haven’t read it or seen the movie, the book follows three ordinary men out in the woods who stumble upon a place crash with no survivors and a bag full of money. Two of the men are broke and need the money desperately, and manage to convince the third to keep the cash. Thus begins a very Treasure of the Sierra Madre type thriller as the trio turn against each other just as the law seems to be inching closer to them.

What I truly loved about the book is the almost instantaneous change within the main character, Hank Mitchell. At the start he is a shop owner expecting his first child with his wife. But almost immediately after finding the money, which he is reluctant to keep at the beginning, he kills to protect himself and the money. As the novel goes on, Hank slowly gives in to darker and more cold blooded impulses, but whether it is to stay out of prison or if it is to keep the money is open for interpretation.

Ultimately the book becomes about a man embracing the darkness that lies within, but once he does, it begins to take over and ultimately he is left with less than he started with. It’s a story that has stuck with me over the years.

Now, the reason I bring this up isn’t to just recommend a great book, but because I was struck by the similarities when I watched the first season of Breaking Bad a few weeks ago.

At first glance, Breaking Bad seems to be the latest in the trend of cable shows about darker lead characters like The Shield, Dexter, and The Sopranos. But Breaking Bad flips the script in many ways, because rather than discovering these antiheroes (and I use that term loosely) fully formed, here we watch just how a normal person can quickly be seduced by the dark side of the soul.

Walter White (yeah it’s not a subtle name) is a high school chemistry teacher working two jobs to support his pregnant wife and handicapped son. When he is diagnosed with lung cancer and given two years to live, he becomes obsessed about providing for his family after he is gone. To this end, he decides to make and sell crystal meth.

As the series progresses (and as of this writing, I have only seen the first season, not the second), Walter’s decision leads him down the moral slippery slope. By the end of the first episode, he has already killed one person in a blind survival instinct panic. But soon he commits a more calculated murder. By the end of the season, he is threatening drug dealers and building a criminal empire.

Of course some of these crimes are committed under the pretense of providing for his family, but as it progresses, we see that Walter is beginning to enjoy the criminal life. In one episode, he begins to feel up his wife during a parent teacher meeting, leading to them rushing out to have sex in the back of their car. When his wife asked why it was so amazing, he simply replies “Because it was illegal.”

That’s the beauty of this show; we can so easily identify with Walter. Who hasn’t felt that thrill of breaking a rule and getting away with it, that tingle when we do something we know we shouldn’t? It’s played out on a much more dramatic scale here, but as opposed to shows like The Sopranos or The Shield, where we are more consciously aware of the differences between us and them, here we feel a little closer to this teacher turned dealer, because he is an everyman. He is just like us, struggling to do what he feels he has to for his family. It’s uncomfortable and yet familiar.

Ultimately all of us have that dark side within us. Most of us choose to keep it in check, to try and be good people. But even good people will get that devil on our shoulder from time to time. No one is perfect. Who hasn’t thought from time to time about just how far you would go?

Working out some thoughts about books

I have a bit of a quandary. I love books.
No, that isn’t the problem.
I am just stuck a little on how to talk about them on this blog.
Because I love to read, I love books, all kinds of books, and I want to share that love here. My mom loves to tell me that I learned to read at about 3 years old. Apparently at bedtime, she would try to read me a story and I would grab the book out of her hands because I want to read it myself. Which perfectly showcases both my love of books at an early age and my own independent streak.
But it truly was the start of a passion of mine. I tend to read anything and will be willing to try most every kind of book. Mysteries, fantasies, chick lit, romances, graphic novels, biographies, histories, current events, science, the list goes on and on.
My apartment is filled with books. I have two bookcases full and stacks littered throughout the place. Stacks that I haven’t even read yet. Sometimes it feels there is just too much to read.
The problem stems from my job, which is a sales rep for a major publisher. I won’t say which one; the people that I am close too know which one. But that makes it a little harder to always talk openly. I guess I don’t want to be thought of as a shill for my company, but I also don’t feel totally comfortable trashing a book we publish. And if I don’t feel comfortable doing that, then it’s hardly fair for me to trash a book from another publisher.
This kind of leaves me with only discussing books I really enjoy. Not that that is a bad thing. I like spreading the words about a great book. But it does leave me feeling a bit like a cheerleader.
Not even sure why I am worrying about this now. I have so much to read for work this week; it’s kind of hard to think about reading for pleasure. But I will be getting back to that soon enough and I am really looking forward to talking about what I am reading. Plus I keep staring at my shelves and thinking about diving in between the covers.
Sigh.
Well I guess I will have to pick up my pom poms and be a book cheerleader then. Worse things to be in this world.