Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King.

This book is: bright and sharp.
Other elements: teenage love, not wanting to repeat your family’s mistakes, what it means to be responsible, dealing with your baggage.
Read it:if you enjoy crisp writing and a good story.
Overall rating: 8.5/10

This book is unexpectedly excellent. It’s not that I ever thought it would be bad, it’s just that I didn’t know it would be quite this good. I came to it after a friend recommended a different book by this author and this was the closest thing my library had available.

Vera Dietz is a girl who’s just trying to keep her head down and make it through high school un-impregnated and un-addicted to anything so that she can avoid ending up like her mother and father. It’s not that she hates her family, but rather that she’s been raised (solo, since her mom left) with the guiding principle that she must avoid her parents’ mistakes. Her best friend, Charlie, is also trying to avoid becoming his parents while dealing with a host of other problems at the same time.

The trick is remembering that change is as easy as you make it. The trick is remembering that you are the boss of you. – Page 28

The book opens at Charlie’s funeral. The reader learns, instantly, that something went terribly wrong in the lives of these two teens that led to one of their deaths. We then learn that, when he died, erstwhile best friends Charlie and Vera weren’t even speaking to each other.

The story unfolds from there, jumping back and forth in time as we see the evolution of Charlie and Vera’s friendship interspersed with flashes of the events that led to Charlie’s death and pieces of the present as Vera unravels under the shock of what has happened.

Vera’s a fascinating narrator. She lets just the right amount of herself show through; every time I thought I understood her perfectly, there was a still a little bit more to find out. The other characters – particularly Vera’s yoga-practicing, parsimonious, recovering alcoholic of a father – are complex and interesting as well.

The story occasionally allows the reader a window into other characters’ points of view: Charlie, Vera’s father, and even the pagoda, a local landmark at which many central events take place. The inclusion of the pagoda’s observations could have been stupid but instead it’s one of my elements. The pagoda, a failed novelty resort too large and colorful to fit into its small town location, shows us that even inanimate objects bear the burden of other people’s expectations.

There are kids in my class who can’t locate Florida on a map and they’re going to get the same diploma I’m going to get. They’re going to get accepted to college and become physical therapists or kindergarten teachers or financial analysts and they still won’t be able to locate Florida on a map. – Page 71

Vera’s struggle to find her way in the wake of tragedy and the way that hardship affects her relationship to herself and her family is one that anyone can relate to. She’s smart, sarcastic, floundering, and fascinating. King excels at telling the reader just the perfect amount of detail; I never felt uninformed but I always wanted to know more.

I’d recommend this book to anyone who likes a good story, especially anyone who can relate to a fractured family and a strong girl trying to find her way when she feels lost and alone.

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

This book is: entertaining in a made-for-tv-movie way.
Other elements: hidden agendas, infidelity, seduction, sex with inappropriate people, poison, snow.
Read it: if you want a sordid, easy read.
Overall rating: 6.25/10

Oh, this book. I think I almost bought it an airport once, and so I recognized the name when I saw it at the library. “A book I once considered buying in an airport” actually tells you most of what you need to know about A Reliable Wife.

The description claims that this novel has “echoes of “Wuthering Heights” and “Rebecca.” I did not find that to be the case, except in that there was a large house and bleak rural landscapes.

This book tells a dramatic, PG-13 story in a perfectly acceptable way. There are family betrayals, countesses turned prostitute who may or may not have been murdered after birthing sons bent on revenge, oysters, champagne, drugs, gardens, caged pet birds that sing. I wasn’t rushing home to read it, but I enjoyed the brain vacation each time I sat down with it. Pairs decently with a glass of wine at the end of a stressful workday.

There’s a fair amount of sex, but not very graphic, for the most part. The characters also spend a whole lot of time thinking about their desire to have sex. Especially the hero, who is prone to having flashbacks to dalliances he had in the past. The main characters are also all fascinated by tragedy. They perform a daily ritual of scanning the newspaper for reports of murder, arson, reports of people losing their marbles. I think it’s mostly foreshadowing, but it’s an interesting character trait.

There was one part to this book that I actively disliked. At one point there is a rape, and I thought the author handled it badly. It is sort of glossed over, as if the attacking character had done something rude and the other characters – including the woman who is raped and her husband, who walks in on it – seem sort of offended and then go on with their lives.

If you feel like reading this book, you might as well. If you pick another book in the airport bookstore instead, you’re not missing all that much.