Love the one you're ...with?

"If you can't be with the one you love...love the one you're with!" Lyrics from an old Stephen Sills song play in my head, and also must have played in the author's as she selected the title for her recent best-seller. Catchy sure, but if you stop and think about it, kind of well, wrong. At least if you're married that is.

Such sticky themes is why I generally stay away from the bright pink and green bookstands that beckon "Beach reads" but might as well say "Women Only." It's kind of like shopping at Victoria's Secret there. Instead I gravitate towards the more unisex Gap:
mystery, suspense, thriller, conspiracy...usually with some romance (or just a hook-up) injected in there, sandwiched between the violent scenes of course. Usually the protagonists are males, confident, problem-solvers, and yes womanizers. But they are almost always single, so you don't feel sorry for them when they are dumped at the end, or one of them gets shot, or turned in for espionage -- my personal favorite. Not that I am immune to girl-y drama,* but I prefer my escapism to come from action. Maybe because I miss working for the CIA? Even though it's fiction, the spy-novels are usually dead-on with respect to characterization. Stereotypes aside, all spies are extroverted, danger-junkies, flirts (at best), and somehow endearing despite it all. So, if their world is the polar opposite of mine, than that makes a great read=escape for me.

But I digress. Sometimes I do stray and choose a fiction drama/romance that is full of nuances, complexities and all the emotions of women. The tidal pull of the beach read can be powerful, and Giffin's book doesn't disappoint in that way. Without giving it away, it is the classic bad-boy v. good guy dilemma. Do nice guys finish last? Or are they winners before the race begins?? Hmm, one for the ages. And in this particular case, instead of a "rite of passage" novel, it is a dilemma for a married woman. At first, it just seems like harmless fiction. But much like watching Diane Lane in "Unfaithful" it is more than a little questioning too.
So the verdict. Usually it is black or white for me...but this one brings in shades of gray, in what is usually a pink or green kind of read. I guess it just depends on the color you are into.

*Remember I am a General Hospital junkie.

MMNO

Mohter's Day came and I dragged my husband to see Maid of Honor. I was prepared for pre-packaged chick flik drama (my usual). In a series of mix-ups we did a 180 and ended up seeing What Happens in Vegas. Dan's usual.

I am not a huge fan of the dumb-fun* genre by Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz. At least lately. I mean did anyone actually see "Miss Guided?"

So, the theaters had pulled a switcheroo, I was wasting my only MMNO**, the seat was sticky, and some teenager's hat was blocking my view to a movie I didn't even want to see. I didn't even like Vegas when I when I went myself!....This was going to be dumb.

But from the moment the movie started until the second it ended I was laughing. Out loud. So what if the movie was conceived by the Las Vegas Visitors Convention. Of course it was dumb but also very, very FUN. I think I could even give Vegas a second shot.***


*I do like Diaz but pretty much only in Something about Mary and In Her Shoes. I also feel like Kutcher was funnier in That Seventies Show. So Vegas was a total surprise hit for me.
**Mom's Movie Night Out. This was the first one in 1.5 years. So you can see why I didn't want to waste it.
***I went to Vegas for work in 2001. I put together a trade show for 48 hrs at the LVCC Hilton and came home.