I don't know why I do this to myself

As with relationships, I - on occasion - succumb to books I think I should read. I know better. I rarely agree with the hype.

First book I thought I should read

Back When You Were Easier to Love hooked me with the title. I'm a sucker for a story that sounds like there will be love hijinks.

In the book, a guy dumps the narrator for college and she drives across the country to him to get closure. Oh and she is roadtripping with his best friend. I already know what's going to happen and I haven't cracked the spine.

Amazon told me Smith's writing is "original and insightful, quirky and crushing."

Here are the first lines: "Over the summer my best friend, Mattia, and I were the token teenage patrons of Haven Public Library. I guess all the other kids figured that since we were out of school, it mean we were exempt from 'required reading' which, in their minds, meant any reading at all."

So the book is written by an obvious English major. Got it. Pass. And I was an English major.

Second book I thought I should read

You Know When the Men Are Gone appealed to me because I've watched enough The Unit to know that what goes on with military significant others is complicated and dramatic.

Unfortunately, after reading the first two pages, all I saw was gossiping about new neighbors. It was like military Desperate Housewives. No thanks.

Even The New York Times told me Fallon wrote "gripping, straight-up, no-nonsense stories about American soldiers and their families."

Lies:

"Their fate depended on whether Carla walked out of the room or stood next to her husband. She bit her lip and wondered if this was the sum of a marriage: wordless recriminations or reconciliations, every breath either striving against or toward the other person, each second a decision to exert or abdicate the self."

If I wanted husband wife drama, I'd go re-read Revolutionary Road or Madam Bovary or Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf or all my other favorites. They don't mess around.

“I'm only interested in stories that are about the crushing of the human heart.”
Yates