Love the One You're With

Another audiobook. Took me forever to listen to it, and I think I owe the library a pretty penny in late fees.

Love the One You're With started out well. The reader's voice was very easy to listen to, and the subject matter was somewhat intriguing. Ellen is a photographer and is very happily married to Andy, a lawyer, who is also her college roommate's brother. She happens to run into an old college flame and begins to wonder what could have been. For me, both men were worth a chance. Ellen resists Leo (the flame) initially, and rightly so, but then begins to have her doubts about her marriage.

And then the book gets totally wishy-washy. Truly, I began to find Ellen completely spineless and weak. Nearing the end of the book, I realized that I didn't even care how it turned out. But since I got the abridged version and it was only four CDs, I pushed through. When Ellen finally makes her decision I literally said out loud while driving, "Oh, gimme a break."

I don't understand why authors always feel the need to tie up the ending in a neat little bow. For me, Emily Giffin landed right into that trap. This one really had the potential to take a cool twist and instead it landed flat.

...or maybe I'm just OVER chick lit...


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The Reader

So, am I the only one who had no idea what this book/movie was about? I was only tempted to read it because I never go to the movies, but I really love Kate Winslet. And when I picked up the book from our little borrowing library at work, it was only 218 pages. Even though short, I read The Reader in a record (for me at least) three day's time.

The beginning of the book was a little slow, but I told myself it was short and to push through. Then it got good. The Reader is about a 15-year old boy in Germany (where the book originated and is translated from) who happens to meet a much older woman and begins an affair. Theirs is a sensual, ritualistic relationship. And I thought I was smart to figure out that she was illiterate before the boy did! So I'm enjoying the plot as is, then BOOM. They break up and many years later he runs into her in a courtroom where she is under trial for being a concentration camp guard. I don't want to give away any more than that just in case there are a few other people out there that are unfamiliar with the plot written by Bernhard Schlink.

I actually liked the shortness of this book because there wasn't a whole lot of extra descriptions and it was very to-the-point. I think this was an intentional style to keep the reader uneasy throughout. And now I think I want to see the movie to learn how Kate earned the best actress Oscar.

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