1. What are you currently reading? Every 15 Minutes by Lisa Scottoline. Dr. Eric Parrish isn't happy. His wife is divorcing him and selling the house. He only gets to see his beloved 7-year-old daughter a couple times a week. It's a good thing, then, that his career is going well. He runs a highly-rated hospital psych unit. His papers have been published by respected journals. His private practice is profitable.
Since this is Lisa Scottoline, someone's got to get dead. The murder victim is a popular high school student. The person of interest is Eric's newest patient, a teenager with OCD who must complete a simple ritual every 15 minutes. What's Eric's loyalty to his patient? What's his responsibility to the dead girl? And who is the unidentified sociopath who provides narration at the beginning of each chapter? Is someone manipulating the situation to destroy Eric?
This one is keeping me tense and has me guessing. I think I know who our deranged narrator is, but I'm not sure. And I've come to like Eric, which ups the stakes ... and my involvement.
2. What did you just finish reading? Judy and I by Sid Luft. This is the story of Judy Garland's third -- and longest -- marriage to entrepreneur and producer, Sid Luft. It's a harrowing tale because Judy was ill, an addict, at a time when little was known about addiction. Looking back on his life with her, Sid admits he enabled her, trying to monitor her pill intake, naively believing he could stop it from escalating. Of course he couldn't. They divorced in 1965. By 1969, she'd had two more husbands and was dead of an overdose.
The Judy that comes through on these pages was funny, driven, and very aware of the power her prodigious talent gave her. This was a revelation because Garland is so often portrayed as a victim. She was a victim of addiction, that's true, but she was also tough, willful, and very smart. I was happy to see that side of her. Remember, Dorothy was strong enough to get over the rainbow to Oz and back again. Good to know that Judy herself was a formidable character, too.
3. What will you read next? I don't have anything selected yet.
