Friday Reads: Seductive Poison

Happy Friday! This week, Dr. Stanley is reading a book about one of the most infamous events in modern history, the Jonestown tragedy. Read on for his thoughts about Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor’s Story of Life and Death in the Peoples Temple by Deborah Layton.

This is an interesting take on Jim Jones and the People’s Temple in Guyana. What type of hold does Jones have on his followers that could result in the suicides of 913 people? In this first-hand telling of her experiences with the People’s Temple, Deborah Layton explores how she became involved with the group and eventually escaped. She attempts to dissect Jones’ psyche to expose his deepening mental illness that led him to believe and act the way he did until his supposed paranoia completely took over. She also shares some stories of various members to help us understand how he could have such devout believers. One person’s story does not cover all aspects of what happened in Jonestown but I feel it certainly give an overall view of the dangers of falling under the spell of a person who promises a better life to those who feel marginalized and are looking for something better.

Friday Reads: The Kiss Quotient

We have another romance review for you this week, but no, the librarian reading it is not Kelly! Adam tells us about reading The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang.

Over the past few years, I've tried to make a deliberate effort to read more broadly, moving outside of my comfort zone and choosing fiction and non-fiction that I wouldn't normally read. For non-fiction, I've started a Dewey Decimal reading challenge, where I'll read one book from each of the 100 divisions of the Dewey Decimal Classification System, including topics related to philosophy, religion, language, and the natural sciences that I wouldn't usually read about. For my fiction reading, I've decided to try some genres that are new to me. First up, and just in time for Valentine's Day: contemporary romance. When I was younger, I think I was always dismissive of popular romance novels, and while my attitude has certainly changed over the years, I've still never taken the time to read in the genre, until now. I decided to go with a recent romance novel from our Fiction collection here at Reeves, Helen Hoang's The Kiss Quotient.

The novel is about thirty-year-old Stella Lane, an econometrician who loves her job creating algorithms for online retailers. Stella is on the autism spectrum, and her difficulties with touching and understanding other people have made her unsuccessful in the dating department. Deciding that she needs more practice, she hires male escort Michael Phan to help her overcome her inexperience and her issues with physical intimacy. Finding himself genuinely attracted to the gorgeous, smart, and intriguing Stella, Michael accepts her offer, but maybe their partnership will turn into something more.

I'm not far into the book, but I'm really enjoying it so far. The author has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, so I think she brings a genuine and possibly more unique perspective to the genre. Plus, it's pretty steamy, which is atypical for the novels I usually read. I feel like I've been reading a lot of end-of-the-world fiction since the pandemic began, and the last novel I read dealt with murder, police corruption, drug addiction, and family dysfunction, so The Kiss Quotient is a welcome change of pace.