I've been busy indulging in my most favorite pastimes - reading. I read Genevieve over the course of 3 days, and PREP over the course of 2 days.
Geneveive - apparently pronounced ZHAWN-vee-ev the french way - is by Eric Jerome Dickey. As I was reading this book I realized he is one of my favorite authors. One of my favorite books of all time is Liar's Game. He just does a great job in creating relatable, real characters; giving them real motives and hangups, etc.
Most of his books are like most pieces of popular black fiction: about relationships. This is one is no different. It centers on a man that has started an affair with his emotive-lacking wife, Geneveive. Only as I am reading, I realize that this book is like soft porn or erotica. My GOD, the man thought & talked about sex so much, it could have been ghost-written by Zane. But the parts that weren't focused on sex were good. There were little brilliant parts that shocked you; things that the author chose to relay to the audience in a way that let you know that the characters knew these facts, but wasn't supposed to. And the simple way the facts were exposed let you know that these things were just another part of the character's lives, just as they would be ours. In the end, the book had a GREAT TWIST and was worth the read. Dickey did it again! Yea!
The other book I read was PREP. This was my third foray into white-authored fiction. I usually don't do white fiction cause I just can't relate to the hunky blond-haired hero and mousy brunnette heroine. Earlier this year I picked up The Devil Wears Prada and The Nanny Diaries in preparation for the movies. I thought PREP was going to be simple chic lit like these other two. I was definitely wrong!
Prep was like.. literature. And I don't dabble into literature quite enough! The basic story is abotu a teenager from South Bend, IN who enrolls herself into a New England boarding school. Ya'll this book was so deep. I guess there are many similarities in going to a boarding school & going to college.. the same enclosed culture that surrounds you 24/7. And I think any person-especially woman- who has ever felt anguish, self-doubt, insecurity could relate to the character. The author was so right on... maybe because I have felt the very same anxious feelings in my life I was able to appreciate it more. But this book definitely deserves its best-seller ranking.
In other news, I am slowly getting an idea of what maybe I should do with my life. My problem is that I don't want to feel "maybe."
