Surrounded by Darkness

Sometimes I am just drawn to the dark stories.

At any one time, I am reading multiple books, so it tends to even out, but right now, I am surrounded by misunderstanding, lies, death and deceit. 

Not 5 minutes ago, I finished my latest audio book, Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. 

I don't often listen to murder stories in my car, especially by authors unknown to me.  There is something vulnerable about being read to, all alone, as I drive the 45 minute commute to and from work.  For some reason, this story about murdered little girls and a woman who cuts words into her skin beckoned. 
Perhaps I was curious about the words she picked and placed such as "wicked" above her hipbone and "harmful" on her wrist, which made me want to delve into this darkness.    Whatever the reason, I am glad I heard the story, but will be haunted by it for a long time.

Camille is a reporter who lives in Chicago, but grew up in a tiny go-nowhere-town in Tennessee called Wind Gap.  The first of three daughters to a spoiled, rich heiress, Camille grew up around politeness so thick you could cut it with the pig slaughtering knife that had made her family its money.  Camille and her mother don't speak too much, and when they do, nothing much is said.  Her middle sister died when she was only 13 and her younger sister is about 15 years her junior.  Sometimes Camille doesn't even remember that she exists.

When two girls are murdered in this tiny town, Camille's editor orders her to go home and get the scoop.  She doesn't want to go.  Too many memories of a cold, loveless childhood and the ghost of her dead sister.  She goes anyway.

What follows is a really messed up story about sick family dynamics and jealousy.  Who has killed these little girls?  Why were their teeth removed?  How did her sister really die?  Delving deep into the subjects of alcoholism, cutting, Munchhausen Syndrome, and denial, the book kept me rapt until the very end.  I sat in my car in the driveway to finish it up.  Although my mind had run through the list of suspects throughout the whole story, the ending was still a shocker.  When I looked up the website for the book, http://gillian-flynn.com/sharp-objects/, I saw that the first review had been written by Stephen King.  Figures. 

The other book I am into right now is called Newes from the Dead, a young adult novel by Mary Hooper.  One of my 8th graders requested I order a copy for our library.  I got two.  Gave one to her, and started the other myself.  Based on the true story of servant girl, Anne Green, the story takes place in 1651, when a young woman was hanged for the murder of her stillborn child.  Having been impregnated and betrayed by the uncouth heir of the estate where she is employed, she has not a chance.  Anne is hung and her body is taken to be dissected in front of an audience of doctors (and the young man's grandfather), and yet she is still alive. 

I haven't finished the book yet, as I read bits at a time during my short lunch period which is constantly being interrupted.  I have two weeks left of school, and had better make reading this sad and intriguing book a priority.  Maybe I'll let you know how it ends, or maybe you'll just have to find out for yourself.

Today I stopped by my local library to return the movie "Dinner for Schmucks", which was pretty funny, and thought I'd just pick up a new audio, knowing I was at the end of Sharp Objects.  What do you know?  A Stephen King novella that I had not read/heard yet.  I guess the gruesome still beckons me.  Not a surprise.  Thanks for listening. 

Girlfriends . . . 15 Years Later

One of my favorite books of all times is Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan.  It is one of the few books that was made into an equally awesome movie.  I have watched it more times than I care to count.  A week or so ago I was trolling the newly-built and breathtakingly awesome Fallbrook Library and found a sequal in the audiobook section.  It is entitled Getting To Happy.  You know I had to snatch it up and give it a listen.

I was a tiny bit apprehensive, as I didn't know what to expect.  Well, it was wonderful.

Read by four different actresses, the main characters Savannah (the outspoken and smart tv producer), Gloria (the overweight, single-mom-finally-found-love salon owner), Bernice (the gourmet chef, mom, and divorced-because-her-man-cheated-on-her) and Robin (the shop-a-holic, promiscuous, impulsive and gullible insurance underwriter) were brilliantly portrayed.  (The only voice my mind had a hard time accepting was Savannah's, who was played by Whitney Houston in the movie and the voice actress was a bit gruff and crass sounding.) 

It is 15 years later.  All the women are single, save for Gloria, who is still married to Marvin, the ideal man.  Robin was pregnant when we last saw her.  Now her daughter, Sparrow, is a precocious and creatively mismatched high schooler.  Savannah is bored with her marriage to a carpenter and finds out some dirty secrets about him on his computer and decides to end it.  Bernie has been two-timed again and is barely coping (with the aid of some pills).  The girlfriends are as close as ever, even though they don't hang out as much as they used to.

This book made me laugh a lot and cry more than any other audiobook has.  I will not ruin the storyline for anyone who is interested in getting caught up on the ladies and their drama-filled lives.  But trust me.  It's worth it.  It's awesome.  McMillan couldn't have done a better job if she had tried. 

My thoughts went out to my own girlfriends.  We call each other when we want to go out, when we need to vent, when we're bored, and just to check up on each other.  We leave each other boxes of tissues and chocolates when we most need some extra love.  I am blessed to have them in my lives.  Here's to girlfriends!    Thanks for listening. 

Bloody with a Touch of Angst

Since becoming a Middle/High School Library Media Technician three years ago, I have dived whole-heartedly into fiction geared toward these younger readers.  Beside an occasional Stephen King or Alice Hoffman novel, I find my fiction selections based entirely on what's right in front of me.  The Hunger Games Series, all 12 of the Cirque du Freak stories, The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, Skellig, to name just a few of the books I have enjoyed while chomping down my lunch, sitting at my desk, happy to eat and read in relative peace. 

When I hit the public library, I find myself in the Young Adult section, seeing what they've got and occasionally grabbing from there as well, especially the audio books.  Blessed audio books.  Nothing makes a commute more enjoyable than a good story. 

True, sometimes the younger fiction can bog down in emotions or simplicity.  I have to admit the same can be true for a lot of adult books as well.  What I am continually encountering is, however, Darkness.  Sadness.  Loneliness.  Alienation.  Being misunderstood by family and friends.  Love.  Passion.  Need and Want.  Having to choose between what the heart craves and what seems to be the more acceptable choice. 

At school right now, I am reading Crescendo, the sequel to Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick.  Book one had all the "good girl drawn to the hot bad boy" that was found in the Twilight novels, but the sexual tension was turned up a notch, if that's possible.  High schooler Nora Gray is still reeling from the murder of her father when she is partnered with Patch, (the aforementioned hot bad boy) in Science class.  By the end of the book, she is in love with this fallen angel.  Literally.  He has the scars on his back to prove it.  In Crescendo, the drama continues and Nora thinks she sees her dead father all over town.  I haven't finished it yet, so I can't ruin the plot for you.  It's pretty good stuff, though.  Tasty over a bowl of soup during period 5 which is my blessed prep period and I am only interrupted about 3 times on average from my book and meal.

In my car today I just finished The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan.  Seriously, how could I resist a title and cover like that?!?  I hadn't even heard of it before I found it on the library audio book shelf.  Mary lives in a small village surrounded by chain-link fence.  She has never been beyond its boundaries because they are surrounded by a forest which is filled by "the Unconsecrated", (read Zombies) and one bite will turn you into one of them.  Her father has disappeared and her mother gets bit in chapter one.  Mary has not been "spoken for" by a male and must go live with the Sisters (who rule the village with religion and rules).  While learning their ways, Mary uncovers some very ugly secrets.  A childhood friend, Harry, steps forward and asks for her.  Even though Mary is in love with Harry's brother, Travis, she makes the choice to become betrothed, despite her broken heart (on so many levels) and her craving to leave the village to find the fabled ocean her mother used to tell her stories about.  Eventually, Mary, Harry, Travis and some others must escape their village as it has been breached by the Unconsecrated.  This has to be one of the saddest books I have ever read.  There is about 4 % happiness and 99 % blood, horror, gore and gristle.  (I know that math doesn't add up, but it's true.) The end is a bit of a cliffhanger.  I am hoping for a part two from this first time author.  I will put it on my wishlist for the school.  The teens will eat it up.  I do have to say, however, that I hope they get a different narrator.  The girl who read it used the same voice inflection for commas as for periods and I was constantly re-speaking it in my head.  Very distracting. 

Today when I went to the library to return my latest story, I perused the children's section of audios.  I picked up some slightly more wholesome stories, both for me and my boy, who loves to listen to sleep at night.  I picked up Peter Pan (unabridged, thank you very much) in memory of the recently seen movie about it's author, J.M. Barrie.  "Finding Neverland" was a great movie;  one I will watch more than once.  Starring Johnny Depp (purrrrrr), it is heartbreakingly beautiful.  I also got The Wind in the Willows.  It's been on my son's bookshelf since he was an infant and we never really got into it.  I will start disk one tomorrow.  Maybe I'll let you know how it is.  Thanks for listening.       

Under The Dome

I finished King's Under the Dome book last week.  It was pretty great.  Spoiler alert:  if you plan on reading it, stop reading this now!

I saw familiar King elements pulled together in this story about a small town that suddenly finds itself trapped under an invisible and barely oxygem-permeable dome.  King likes to set his stuff in Maine (duh) and, as usual, had some kick-a** female characters.  Instead of drawing in "the Dark Man" who often wreaks havoc and tragedy upon unsuspecting folks, he brought in his other favorite theory . . . aliens.

As in The Stand, one of the main characters is a man who is roaming around, trying to see where he might fit.  In The Stand, it is a deaf mute who is beaten up for no good reason, and is just trying to mind his own business when he has to deal with tragedy (like most of the world dropping dead from the Superflu).  Under the Dome's guy (Dale Barbara, or "Barbie" ) used to serve in the military and didn't like what he had to do over in Iraq.  Now he is a line cook who turns down the advances of a horny waitress.  She doesn't like being shunned and tells her boyfriend that Barbie forced her sexually.  He is jumped by 4 guys in the parking lot soon after.  Barbie is on his way out of town when the dome plops itself down on the town, trapping him inside with a bunch of good people and a bunch of nut cases, some of them homocidial.  As King says ( in the interview I have included as a link), "Why do people do what they do under stress?"  Their true natures come out, that's for sure.

Turns out, the dome was placed over the town via some sort of small device by some naughty alien children.  The analogy is of kids who tear the wings off bugs just because they can.  These kids trap a bunch of people just for the heck of it.  Meanwhile, the air is getting bad, the dome is getting filthy from built-up toxins, maniacs are trying to run the town, the local Meth operation is about to go kaboom and people are just trying to survive it all.  Very few of them do.

The book was huge and awesome.  I like it when there's a whole bunch of characters and you just have to keep reading to see what's going to happen next. 

Awhile ago, I requested the audio version through the library.  I am still on the waiting list and debated cancelling it because I know the story now and my commute is going to be non-existent due to the summer break, but you know what?  It was good enough to put on my ipod and listen to the story unfold again. 

Here's a link to a 4-minute author interview:
http://www.simonandschuster.com/multimedia?video=46697674001