2nd Half June Reads Borrows and Bought

The second half of the month capped off 2 books that were about as opposite as one might find aside from comparing reading a scientific journal to erotica.  I read them in parallel so it was a bit discombobulating  (what a great onomatopoeia!) 

Let's get the girly beach read out of the way first: Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin

I could denigrate the book as a fluff piece but its really as good (and better written) as most of late that attempt to describe the often complex relationships that form between women, particularly when formed in adolescence. The reality is that these friendships are more intimate than most marriages which means the good, the bad and the very ugly come into the relationship. They're usually more subtle than Margaret Atwood's portrayal in Cat's Eye and this is a decent description. So, for female psychology... sure, check it out. Here's your warning; the author, like the narrator, attempts to set-up the reader into a false dichotomy: either you love the vain, selfish, thoughtless but vivacious beauty, or you side with the loyal, smart, average and maligned narrator (best friend to the beauty). The truth is, they're both bitches. Of course the queen bee takes the cake and I dutifully hated and rooted against her, but the narrator is a spineless, passive-aggressive leech who doesn't learn a thing through her experience stealing the beau and never identifies what she wants. Dissatisfying to finish. The only reason I would want to read the sequel (which promises to be worse due to being from the point of view of the queen bee) is to hope for some actual growth in the characters to resolve my annoyance with this book.

Now on to the gritty crime noir epic....

The Cold Six Thousand by James Ellroy....pretty much 180degrees from Borrowed except perhaps for seeing every characters dark side (some of them don't have light sides) and disliking all of them. The 1960's tale starts (and never ends) with JFK's assassination in Dallas and continues along a reasonably explained trajectory of consequences for the cast of characters involved. It's impressive & overwhelming and I had to wonder if the frenetic prose is due to the author partaking of similar uppers as his characters.  I was grateful I'd seen "The Aviator" and some History Channel Mob pieces as well as read "Lies My Teacher Told Me" and even "The Help" because I would not have been able to track most of this otherwise (its like a Russian novel for #'s of characters and their nicknames). My generation wasn't taught the recent history of our parents so we're ignorant of the events of most of the 60's and I certainly didn't grow up with all the racial slurs spouted in these passages! This was a revealing, thought-provoking take on what might have been behind the very real events and motivations of the movers and shakers in the Kennedy, Vietnam and Civil Rights era(s). Warning: this is beyond Elmore Leonard for grit.... Leonard is a tourist's sampling of noir compared to the violence here that compounds one's horror with the sneaking suspicion that much of it must be true.

I broke my fast for new books big time towards the end of the month due to a lovely gift card I couldn't resist spending ... I'm very much looking forward to reading and gifting these (the parenting book is a gift I don't currently need myself though I LOVE the title The Three-Martini Playdate!) in the month(s)to come.