i took Save Your Own by Elisabeth Brinks with me to my brother’s wedding this past weekend, thinking i might crack it open on the plane, but knowing i would likely be too tired to bother and wouldn’t have time to read it during the rest of the busy weekend.  little did i know that i would seriously injure my back friday morning, thus getting lots of painful down time to read when i should have been doing other more active things.  i was really glad to have Save Your Own with me, and it saved me multiple times.  my boyfriend asked what the book was about and when i told him he said it didn’t seem like my kind of book…and maybe it wasn’t…but i ended up really liking it just the same.  

Save Your Own is basically the story of a strange looking woman named Gillian (four foot nine, looks like a 12 year old boy) that is a 26 year old virgin (that’s probably one of the reasons i picked it up) that is about to graduate from Harvard and is working on her dissertation.  she ends up going to work in a halfway house as research and the story just kind of ebbs and flows from there.  i’m not really sure why i liked it so much, but i did.  i found the ending to be a little frustrating as she wrapped things up very throughly (too throughly for me) but other than that it was just a really flawless enjoyable read.  many times i convinced myself i was reading Brinks memoir, i think solely because she did so well with her main character…she really embraced her so that there was no separation between the two.  it was quite amazing.  Brinks did an excellent job of getting me into all of her characters lives actually.  i genuinely cared about them and was anxious to return to them when i was separated from the book.  maybe it is just the beauty of a well written book, that the subject matter doesn’t have to be something that you’re already predisposed to be interested in, because if it is well written then that will shine through regardless. 

i picked Save Your Own up at The Strand the last time i was there (the time that some employee that made me check my Virgin bag stole my new $50 headphones that i had just splurged on – i haven’t been back since).  anyway, it was definitely on sale when i bought it, but it got picked up for passing the three “kelly book buying rules” (which have rarely let me down).  those rules are as follows: 

1.  i am drawn to the cover (you really can judge a book by its cover most times, i swear)

2.  i am drawn to the title (people underestimate how important this is)

3.  i read and loved the first line of the first chapter (if you can’t write a great first line then what is the chance i will like the rest of your book?)

this technique has brought me some amazing books that i don’t know how i would have otherwise found.  however, on occasion it does fail me i.e. this technique would not have stopped me from buying and reading Soon I Will Be Invincible – as i loved the title, cover, and not just the first line, but the whole first page, so it doesn’t always work, but works with enough success (maybe 80%?) that i’m sticking with it. 

one problem about Save Your Own is that it doesn’t really seem to be staying with me.  i was quite involved while reading it, which is great, but as soon as i finished i didn’t think about it again (until writing this of course).  for that i suppose i have to dock it half a point.  still i would recommend it to anyone looking for a nice piece of writing.

Save Your Own by Elisabeth Brinks, Fiction.  3.5 stars.

i guess i have to go back to Consider The Lobster now…*sigh*…