It's a two for one book review day!! Book 1:
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides, author of
The Virgin Suicides and
Middlesex, tells the story of a love triangle between Madeleine, a Literature major, Leonard, her manic-depressive boyfriend, and Mitchell, the nice guy who finishes last. The whole book is about these three characters and what they each do after graduating from college. I could relate to Madeleine (minus the sleeping around and having two guys vying for her affection) because of her struggle to find herself, love, and a career. Overall, it was enjoyable, but a bit of a chore to get through. I was also jealous of the kind of college experience that was depicted in which students sat around and talked about books and language and theory.
On the downside, this book was long (400 pages), and I probably would have given up on it if I wasn't reading it to prepare for a book club through
Meet Up. I ended up being too sick to go on the day of the meet up and had to cancel. Then, I got this really snooty message about same-day cancellations and how I'm supposed to let them know as soon as I start feeling ill that I can't make it and that they only allow two same-day cancellations before you get booted from the group. What is this a job?! And even though the organizer said that she wasn't trying to discourage me from participating, that is exactly what she did. Luckily, I'm a member of an awesome book club on the southside of Atlanta, and the second book I read was for this book club.
First of all, don't judge a book by it's cover. Book 2:
Sheridan by Olivia J was a pretty fun read, but I had my doubts at first. We chose this book for our first selection because Olivia is a member of the club and mentioned that she is a published author, and then jokingly suggested that we read it, so we took her up on it. I was pleasantly surprised. This book about four best friends and their intertwined lives is well written (minus a few editing errors) including characters that are genuine and believable, and the story was filled with more drama than an episode of
Scandal. In fact, Sheridan is pretty much Olivia Pope with all of her connections, professionalism, and personal dilemmas. This story is pure heart and all about lifelong friendships, relationships, and sticking by each other through the ups and downs of life. It's definitely not what I was expecting from a self-published book, and it is definitely worth the read.
Kimberly
