fortune smiles. adam johnson. (312)

i picked up fortune smiles after seeing it on carrie brownstein's instagram and i am glad i did.  it's a wonderful collection of short stories, all heartwrenching yet witty.  i had never heard of johnson prior to this, even though he is a pulitzer winner. however, i now plan on reading his pulitzer-prize winning novel, the orphan master's son. this collection was that good.

johnson is an excellent storyteller, and though each story was enjoyable, my favorites were "interesting facts", "nirvana", and "dark meadows".

"interesting facts" was interesting because i wasn't sure if it was autobiographical. the novel opened with the narrator had a book reading and being obsessed with breast.  initially, you assume he was some pervert, but it turns out she was a woman that had lost her breast to breast cancer.  it is then revealed that the narrator's husband was a pulitzer prize winner for a novel about north korea, just like adam johnson! i had to google to see whether or not his wife battled cancer, it turned out she did.  i also discovered that johnson explained in an interview that this story was a "violation of his family".  and knowing that his wife had cancer made this story a little difficult to read.  the reason being that it's a little sixth sense, in the way that you realize that the narrator was a ghost. if written by johnson's wife, it would be a sad yet beautiful story that demonstrates the stress and worries a mother has when her death comes earlier than expected in the form of a disease like cancer.  however, written by johnson himself, it seems awkward for him to imagine her dead and then as a ghosts however, one can see it as an exercise in which he deals with the possibility of losing his wife and how he would move on yet still remain loyal to her.  a beautifully written story and my favorite of the collection.

in "interesting facts", the wife was angry because her husband stole a character that he helped developed for her novel and turned him into the narrator for his own story, "dark meadows". "dark meadows" was another favorite of mine, disturbing yet intriguing.  "dark meadows" was about mr. roses who reminded me of dexter.  he was filled with knowledge of computers and child pornography. though he didn't out right destroy sexual predators, he did help a cop figure out a way to track down people that downloaded child pornography.  he also helped protected his neighbors, two young girls, from a peeping tom, though he also had to safe them from himself.  though creepy, at his very essence, mr. roses was not a bad guy, he too was a victim, raped as a child by his sea scouts leader.  his child

pornography obsession fueled by the need to find photos that his rapist took of him.  this story was disturbing yet hopeful, kind of like watching an episode of law and order: svu, you are exposed to sick and twisted crimes, yet are hopeful that these people will be stopped.  mr. roses was a tragic character that i hope got help and started using his computer skills to help

stop child pornography.

in "dark meadows", there was this great moment when the girls sing themselves a lullaby, though mr. roses did not recognize it initially, i saw it was nirvana's "where did you sleep last night?"  this was kurt's second appearance, in this collection, his first came in the story, "nirvana".  in this story, a man's wife was suffering from guillain-barré syndrome, which left her bed ridden and immobile.  the only comfort she found was listening to nirvana and smoking pot.  the husband was plagued by a promise he made to help her commit suicide when it all got too much.  to help him cope worn this, he created an app, he reconstructed a recently assassinated president that could converse with him and was a hologram via an iprojector.  the hologram was able to talk via a library of speeches and interviews.  he then decided to create one of kurt cobain for his wife.  this technology seemed like the opening of pandora's box, though comforting, it would do more harm, in the long run. it's seems amazing to think that our love could live forever, but it's not really them, just the shell of the person they once were.  we are currently a society obsessed with recording our lives, but the technology in this story is too extreme for me.

all in all, this collection of stories was great and i highly recommend it.  and i definitely plan on reading more books recommended by carrie brownstein.

amy falls down. jincy willet. (294)

i saw amy falls down on lena dunham's instagram.  i figured since she was reading it, i should check it out.

i have to admit that after the premise, an author, amy, has an falls down in her backyard which then started a series of events that resulted in her career getting its second wind.  in all honesty, i was kind of iffy once i actually read the premise, and figured i would not enjoy it. it seemed like something that an actual writer (which lena is) would love, but the layman like me, would be bored.

however, i was surprised by how much i enjoyed this book.  it didn't change my life, but it was enjoyable.  

as the title explained, amy gallup, fell down one day in her backyard and hit her head on her birdbath.  instead of calling for help or going to the hospital, she decided to instead stay home and be interviewed by a local paper since she had it scheduled.

quick digression, there was a delightful explanation about how amy once didn't call for help while drowning as a child because she was so concern about her word choice.  i appreciated her need to best express herself even during an emergency.  

another time word choice was brought up was about how reviews are written and words like compelling are meaningless.  she also mentioned how difficult it is to review a book that you like, which i totally agree with, books i hate are always easier to write about.  

so the interview, amy remembered nothing about it but she came off as eccentric and had bunch of great quotes.  my favorite was "feelings are not news" which spun by the other reporter was true.  i always had an issue with oprah because i once watched when she had a family with a schizophrenic daughter that had been diagnosed at a young age, "how does it feel to deal with the disease?" i always saw it as insensitive of her and this book made me realized that its because it demonstrated how she was unable to empathize with them.  when we read the news, we need just facts, anyone should be able to understand how that person felt during the crisis or disaster.

i have to add that this book is filled with little gems like this about the book industry, writing, even why we read.  as demonstrated in amy's first panel, amy demonstrated the silliness in people wanting to know the writing rituals of. authors.  i attend a lot of author readings and this question always comes up and always bores me, i mean because it's usually the same kind of answer or super specific to the author.  also i loved how she addressed the whole, "how do authors' ideas come to them" at the convention.  i recently attended a judy blume talk and she had this question asked in various forms and each time, she was like i don't know, they just come to me.  

back to the interview, so it created a lot of buzz about amy going out which thankfully got her living and writing again.  as we learn throughout the novel, she married her best friend, max, who was gay, to stop him from being drafted.  they were happy, but he died from AIDS.  after a bad and rushed second marriage and divorce, amy became a recluse and stopped writing.  so this accident was a blessing because it got her to live again.regrettably, she wasted a lot of years but thankfully found herself again. 

an enjoyable novel, and if you are an avid reader or a writer, a work you should definitely check out.  i have to add that    i also loved reading about her stories and wish i could really read them. 

dept. of speculation. jenny offill. (278)

i requested jenny offill's depart. of speculation after seeing it on bj novak's instagram.  he called the novel, "funny and heartbreaking", and this is the perfect description.

a short novel, it is written like random thoughts but end up giving us a complete story of marriage that has had it ups and down. the story was told from the perspective of the wife (we never learn anyone's name) and she oftenreferred to herself and her husband in simple terms of wife/husband,and woman/man.  she was a writer and like every woman struggled with being a mother, a wife, and also an artist.  it's a honest portrayal of how tough it is for women, everyone assume motherhood comes naturally, it doesn't.  it also addressed the internal agony women face when choosing to put their family first and their work second, demonstrating it is okay to want to put your work first.

there is an affair.  her husband cheated on her.  his affair foreshadowed by an anecdote about carl sagan and his wife, ann druyan and how he asked him to marry her while they working on "the golden record" project for nasa.  however, i like the intern, was confused because carl was married and ann was engaged.  my heart broke when he explained the other girl was easier and of course when he used pronoun.  

i like every situation for cheating, want the woman to leave.  but they went to therapy or what they called "the little theater of hurt feelings."  she confronted the girl which i think she deserved and completely freaked out.  in the end, the moved to the country and the things got better.  however, i felt bad for the daughter being so isolated.

a beautiful and honest tale about marriage.  also, offill is a wonderful writer. some of my favorite instances were:

that one was so beautiful i used to watch him sleep.  if i had to sum up what he did to me, i'd say it was this:  he made me sing along to all the bad songs in the radio.  both when he loved me and when he didn't.

we applied our muzzy intellects to a theory of light. that all are born radiating light but this light diminished slowly (if one was lucky) or abruptly (if one was not.) the most charismatic people--the poets, the mystics, the explorers--were that eat because they had somehow managed to keep a but of this king that was meant to have been dimmed.  but the shocking thing, the unbearable thing it seemed, was that the natural order was for this light to vanish.  it hung on sometimes through the twenties, a glint here or there in the thirties, and the almost always the eyes went dark.

i decided to make my class read creation myths.  the idea is to go back to the beginning.  in some, god is portrayed as a father, in others, as a mother.  when god is a father, he is said to be elsewhere.  when god is a mother, she is said to be everywhere.

(this novel is filled with random facts that shed light on the narrator's life. however, when i related to this to myself, it rings true for those raised by a single mother.)

my very educated mother just served us noodles.  this is the mnemonic they give her to remember the left of the planets.

(i can't recall how i learned this, but i love subtle dig at gender roles!)

researchers looked at magnetic resonance images of the brain of people who described themselves as newly in love.  they were shown a photograph of their beliefs while their brains were scanned for activity.  the scan showed the same reward systems being activated as in the brains of addicts given a drug.

(ke$ha was right, your love is a drug.)

this novel is filled with little facts that have deeper meaning for the story, which i adored.  i really enjoyed this novel and highly recommend it.  it reminded me of one of my favorite novels, the lover's dictionary.

find it in everying. photographs by drew barrymore. (222)

i had heard about drew barrymore taking pictures of hearts that she randomly comes across from my friend tiffany.  she had told her friend sama to enter drew's instagram contest because sama always finds hearts in things too.  i had no idea drew turn her photos into a book, but she did.  i saw it at the beale library and decided to check it out.

the book is photos of drew barrymore finding hearts in everything.  here are my favorites:

in a friend's tee.

in her cup of tea.

i think this is from the restaurant a-frame.  i texted my friend larry for confirmation.  we both agree that the bowl is definitely from a-frame, but neither one of us can identify the dish.  he also thinks the wood is too light but i think it's just that the light is on in the restaurant.  it's normally dark in there.  

sidenote:  larry and i have seen drew barrymore dining there one night, so it could be a-frame.

in chicken patties?  i am assuming these are chicken patties.

and on her tee while brushing her teeth.

it's a sweet little book.  it would make a nice gift for someone.  and i guess i will now be on the lookout for finding it in everything.

the fun parts: stories. sam lipsyte (195)

this cover is too dark for a good picture. i'm sorry.  i picked up sam lipsyte's the fun parts because bj novak endorsed it on his instagram.  though i am heartbroken that he no longer follows me on there, i will continue to read the books that he recommends via it.  

i hadn't heard of lipyste prior to bj's post, but i learned from the front cover that he is a writer for time magazine and has written for the new yorker, the paris review and playboy.  a nice variety and make sense because his work is witty and very tongue-in-cheek.

the stories were very interesting and twisted.  i enjoyed "deniers", the story of a daughter of a holocaust survivor that wanted to connect with her father who refused to tell her about it.  in the end, she ended up dating an ex-nazi, in an attempt to help reform him. i enjoyed the premise of "the republic of empathy", it demonstrated six degrees of separation, how we are linked in life, though i didn't get the ending.  or maybe i just wasn't intelligent enough, maybe it's supposed to be that all humans are connected but in the end it doesn't save mankind, it just an odd series of coincidences.  so that story was actually very deep as well.  i liked the idea of the male doula and imagined morgan from the mindy project as the doulo.  i also enjoyed snacks and exploration of how shitty it is to be fat.  also it demonstrated of how violence and hate is really just self-hate.  

the rest of the stories were well written but not my cup of tea.  lipstye is a great writer as demonstrated by the list of publications he worked for.  i enjoyed his references post pop culture and literary.  my favorite one was from "the republic of empathy", "she has nice, soft-looking hair, which is a tell-me-about-the-rabbits-george thing to say, but what can you do?"  lol.  well played!

enjoyable read, didn't completely wow me, but since this is the year of the short story, glad that i read these.

adé: a love story. rebecca walker. (152)

i discovered "adé: a love story" via madonna's instagram:

and in the grand tradition of reading books endorsed on the instagrams of celebrities, i decided to check it out.  i mean it is madge, her recommendations have to be stellar.  or maybe not . . .

i love madonna but i didn't love this book. "adé: a love story" was beautifully written but being my usual the-grinch-that-stole-love self, i didn't believe in farida and adé's love.  their love felt too rushed.  walker tried to set up the idea of their love being desting by farida discussing the cosmic pull to adé before the reader meets him and adé saying it but i was buying it.

first, farida was too young.  she was 19 years old and just out of college.  she didn't have enough life experience to know what true love was.  and i know romeo and juliet were young but juliet wasn't a rich ivy leaguer and romeo from a third world country.  i hate to be classist but it just did not make sense.  as i read i couldn't not phantom how farida was fine with such drastic of a life change even if "love" was the reason.  she went from being in the lap of luxury in america to having to use a hole as a bathroom in africa.  and i am not saying that all americans are princess that can not survive third world conditions but farida came from money, she could afford to travel to africa (her father gave her a credit card, he also got her a seat on a plane out of a no-fly zone), she was privileged yet she quickly adjusted to adé's life.  it is one thing to manage because you are on vacation it is quite another to have it be your new life.  regardless of how open minded one is, there needs to be come inital culture shock and i know farida had difficulty adjusting but it still seemed a little too seamless of a transition.  

farida's conversion to islam and adopting of her new name, farida, was also done too quickly.  one thing was that farida was a feminist and i am not saying that there is no room for feminism in islam but  farida quickly became submissive in her relationship with adé.  i mean he renamed her.  i found nothing romantic about her renaming.  i saw it as a display of his power and dominance. i was disappointed that she gave in so quickly. feminism to me means not following gender roles and gender stereotypes and being an equal within relationships.  adé was the dominant partner, he defined how their relationship would work and she went along with it.  and though farida was not good at it, she quickly gave into the gender roles of adé's culture.  i understand that there was a reversal of gender roles in which adé ran the household but there was no reversal on with farida because she did not contributing outside of the home either.  she went from being an individual attempting to broaden her horizons by seeing the world to submissive housewife.

furthermore, i found it unbelievable how prudish (for lack of a better word) she was in the initial stages of relationship with adé.  i mean the beginning of the book is dripping with sex (so much that i almost considered not reading it.) the story opened with her discussing miriam, her quasi-lesbian lover.  then, there was the threesome.  fast forward to meeting adé and she is okay with their g-rated dates around his village?  really? she went from initiating sex with people still in the room at a party to secret handholding. i didn't buy it.

i understand that love makes you do crazy things and also changes people but it should not force you to be a completely different person.  i didn't believe in adé and farida's love because i felt like farida gave up too much of herself for their love.  and maybe it's just me, maybe i am too stubborn but i could have never done all she did for adé yet alone love.  and i get that farida was in a time of a self discovery but she wasn't really redefining herself but allowing adé too.

i believe her farida was a lost person looking for a home and she did all she could to try to find it in africa.  she justify her completely abandonment of her identity and culture by calling it love.  she realized the error of her ways and explained "i had done what i swore i would not do:  i had romanticized africa.  i had accepted adé's life before i realized what it might mean for my own."  so there was no love.  

in the end, farida's love is of a gratitude for adé's devotion yet it was not capital t true love.  in that sense, the subtitle of a love story is not a misnomer because there are so many definitions of love.  furthermore, i guess this is not a story of true love but rather more a of true story of love.  it's story of delusional love in which we see what want versus what is there.

harriet the spy. louise fitzhugh (151)

i never read harriet the spy as a kid.  i promise i read as a kid but now i am starting to realize i read kid fluff ie the babysisters' club and goosebumps and sadly never the classics.  even more odd, i was also around for the resurgence of harriet the spy when the movie was made in 96 with michelle trachtenburg.  i remember my sister had a copy and i contemplated reading it but i never did.

however, once again thanks to mindy kaling instagram:

i decided to buckle down and read it.

i hate to admit this but i have mixed feelings about harriet the spy.  i enjoyed following harriet on her spy adventures and i loved reading her musing on life but  i felt like she had some serious character flaws.  i found myself frustrated with her behavior at times so didn't love her as much as i thought i was going to.  come to think of it, i loved her for creativity and thoughts but hated how she treated others, so in a way my feelings must be similar to sport's feelings about harriet.  i did love her just wish she was a better person/friend at times.  

to be honest, being an adult and readinf this, i was a bit harsher on harriet than the child me would have been.  the child me would have excited about her spying (i at times found it a bit creepy).  but something adult me and child me would have agreed on is her musings in her spy book were quite thought provoking!  we both would have loved her little bursts of wisdom:  

harriet's musings:

"what is too old to have fun?"

"i'm glad i'm not perfect--i'd be bored to death." 

(i second this!)

" . . . in washington they've already got a little tube with a spoonful of something in it that will blow up the whole world? maybe the whole universe.  what would happen?  would we fly through the air? in spade you just float around.  i would be lonely."

"life is a great mystery. is everybody a different person when they are with someone else?"

(as an adult i have come to realize that we do wear different hats and assume different personas in life.)

"either we each have a brain and they look alike or we each have a special brain that looks like the inside of each of our heads."

"i wonder if when you dream about somebody they dream about you."  

(this last one is something i always thought about as a kid especially when i would dream of my crushes!  at let's be honest, i still wonder about this as an adult!)

i absolutely adored harriet for cleverness but was disappointed by her anger.  child me would have understood her anger but adult me expected better behavior.  i was sadden by her need for revenge.  i was absolutely appalled by the gossip she printed in her column (and outraged that the school allowed it).  my disappointment came from that fact that harriet was such a great character that to see her with poor behavior it broke my heart a bit.  

i understand that harriet's poor behavior was became her life seemed to be crumbling apart.  but i felt ole golly raised her to be a better person.  and i am not completely heartless, i did think that harriet did get a bum wrap when her friends turned on her because of the spy book.   i didn't think harriet was a bad person for writing what she wrote about her friends.  i mean we all pass judgement on everyone, only it was just unfortunate that she got caught being too honest.  but thankfully she learned her lesson about little white lies because kids should be honest but polite honest which means sometimes lying to spare someone's feelings.  

i have to add, i understood why harriet's life fell apart when ole golly left her because mine would have fell apart if ole golly left me!  i loved ole golly with her literary quotes and words of wisdom.  in fact, i would have preferred a book about ole golly growing up instead of harriet.  (this should seriously be a prequel).  

i really wish i would have read "harriet the spy" as a child because child me would have received some  great life lessons via ole golly (adult me sure did!):

". . . there is as many ways to live as there are people on the earth and [you] shouldn't go round with binders but you should see every way [you] can.  then [you'll] know what way [you] want to live and not just life like [your] family."

". . . find out everything you can cause life is hard enough even if you know a lot."

"people who love their work love life."

when harriet was crying about her leaving:  "tears won't bring me back. remember that:  tears never bring anything back.  life is a struggle and a good spy gets in there and fights."

though i love math, i found this clever: "math did for them that only want to count everything,  it's them that wants to know what they're counting that matter."

and from her letter:

"little lies that make people feel better see not bad, like thanking someone for a meal they made even if you hated it, or telling a sick person they look better when they don't, or someone with a hideous new had that its lovely."

"but to yourself you must always tell the truth."

"gone is gone. i never miss anything or anyone because it all becomes a lovely memory.  i guard my memories and love them but i don't get in them and lie down."

ole golly!  what a great nanny!!!

this was an adorable book with little pearls of wisdom.  i guess in the end, i did love harriet.  i loved her like you would a best friend, you love them regardless even with their flaws!  

i have to add, i want to start doing literary costumes for halloween and as i read, i realized that harriet's spy outfit would be cute as a costume!  you might see it next year for halloween!

love, dishonor, marry, die, cherish, perish. david rakoff (150)

since i already read books based on celebrities emma roberts, and mindy kaling's instagram.  i decided to throw another celebrity into the mix, b.j. novak.

(quick digression:  i didn't think much of him on the office looks-wise until he got the glasses, than swoon!!)

b.j. novak posted this:  

so i decided to check out david rakoff's love, dishonor, marry, die, cherish, perish.  based on novak's pic and on the  fact that the cover was really cool.

quick addition, i have to give a shout out to my friend fabian for being in the know and beating novak to posting this.  i even liked fabian's photo but didn't think about checking it out until novak's post.  damn my pop culture media obeying brain!!!

here is fabian's post:  

since i based picking this book up based on b.j. novak's good looks and an interesting cover, i had no idea what this book was about.  i had never read anything by rakoff prior to this nor have i listened to this american life which he contributed to.  i also had no idea that rakoff passed away in august of 2012 due to cancer, and this book was published posthumously.  i had expected a normal size book and was shocked by how thin it was when i picked it up from the library.  but most surprising of all, was that the entire book is written in verse!  yes, verse!  its like dr. seuss for adults! and rakoff was a genius because he made it work with some impressive rhymes!

for example:

news-aperçus 

adolescence-phosphorescence

eyesore-mysore 

bon vivant-confidant

cantilever-fever 

(i could go on and on)

one of my favorite couplets was about the conservative blanche tilly who attacked clifford's gay comics:

"how i wish you would stop up that bile-spewing spigot,

you use when you speak, you rebarbative bigot."  

cruel and articulate!

but as my SAT scores will show you, vocabulary is not my forte, so the dictionary was out to help me with some of the words that rakoff used.

paresis:  slight or partial paralysis

frond:  large leaf

malfeasance:  wrong doing or misconduct 

aperçu:  a brief survey or sketch

bon vivant:  a person having cultivated, refined, and sociable tastes especially with respect to food and drink

(i really need to start a word-a-day program for myself.)

though love, dishonor, marry, die, cherish, perish is written in verse which has a lightheaded feel to it, rakoff's characters stories are quite heavy.  the novel opens with the story of a baby, margaret, born into pitiful conditions, as the midwife saw it, red haired and without a father (he was trampled by horses) and a mother without a family.  and the midwife was right, margaret ends up being raped by her mother's second husband.  luckily, she runs away to california and finds a better life.

margaret's tragic story was a lot to digest especially being the opening story.  but as the reader is introduced to other characters in the novel, suffering is just a fact of life.  mother, lost the glamour life of her youth when her father gambled it away.  clifford, an artist, gay and found freedom in san francisco, and sadly contracted and died from AIDS.  hannah, suffered from dementia and a cruel daughter-in-law.  and josh, who lost is family and ended up finding a picture that connects the all characters in the end, a six degrees of seperation. 

of all the stories in this novel, helen and nathan were the highlights for me.  

helen was clifford's cousin.  her mother was had quite the sharp tongue and would tease helen growing up, and the sarcasm, unfortunately went over helen's head.  but that ended up being the least of helen's problems though it was probably the source of her problems.  

helen's tale is a story told before, probably in amc's mad men (i haven't watched it), and sort of in billy wilder's the apartment (i actually imaged the office set up from this movie as i read).  boss has an affair with secretary.  helen's affair went on for about 5 years (i can't imagine that!) and ended with an abortion.  due to this, she got drunk and caused a scene at the holiday office party but fortunately was not fired (the affairs were quite commonplace so nothing worth being fired over.) but what i loved about helen was that though this occurred to her, she didn't play victim.  she still went to the holiday party every year, even wore her cocktail to work so to not have to go back and forth between home.  she knew people talked and in the end gave a big fuck you to her office tormentor.

nathan, i admired as well for giving his life tormentors a big fuck you too and on their wedding day.  he was caught in a love triangle between his best friend josh and josh's girlfriend, susan, and ended up the odd man when the other two married.  susan, being the bitch that she was, something her father also recognized, made sure nathan attended and gave a speech.  i really enjoyed nathan's speech, it was based on the fable about the tortoise that helped the scorpion get across the river.  in the fable, the scorpion ends up killing the tortoise and himself because it is his nature to stab.  it seemed an odd choice at first but he amazingly put it on content. 

he explained:

so what can we learn from their watery ends?

is there some lesson on how to be friends?

i think what it means is that central to living

a life that is good is a life that's forgiving.

we're creatures of contact, regardless of whether,

to kiss or to wound, we must still come together,

like in annie hall, we endure twists, bad torsions,

for food we don't like, in such tiny portions!

but, like hating a food but still asking for more,

it bears standing dry but so lonely on shore.

so we make ourselves open, while knowing full well

it's essentially saying, 'please come pierce my shell.'

love is does leave us open to pain but in the end it is worth it than being lonely.  (this coming from an old maid).  

however, nathan's speech did not end on this pleasant note but in the end, susan deserved the harsh speech.  and i love how in the end, susan's dad corrected nathan, letting him know that turtles swim not tortoises.

nathan's speech also demonstrated rakoff's cleverness.  another favorite passage of mine was clifford's mother talking about being trapped in the valley (san fernando valley for all you non-LA-ers).

"malibu's breezy.  hollywood's shady

but burbank? he might as well've brought us to hades!

i could yip when i think of the crime it,

was moving me out here was 'because of the climate."

the fan in her hand the scene's sole, languid motion,

"i once heard it said that there was an ocean

not terribly distrant from where we sit here,

but, i supoose that was just a bum steer.

escaping me now are the details specific,

but could it be named something like 'The Pacific'?"

i was in the valley when i read it.  and it was a hot day in october!  so the perfect setting for that passage.  plus i plan on stealing mother's little joke about the pacific!  

also aren't the illustrations great?  they were done by seth.  the ending illustration was especially cute:

an enjoyable read, i now plan on reading the rest of rakoff's works.

ps i saw on bj novak's instagram that the la times review was written all in verse.  here is a link.

interpreter of maladies. jhumpa lahiri.

i bought "interpreter of maladies" a while back at a $1 bookstore.  it had been sitting on my shelf but went on my to-read list when i saw this on mindy kaling's instagram:

and since i love mindy and think we could be BFF if we ever met, i decided to finally read "interpreter of maladies".

i must admit that at first i thought it was a novel, but then during the first story realized it was a collection of stories.  this disappointed me at first.  a book has to be a truly amazing collection of short stories for me to finish.  if there is a bad story, reading then becomes tedious and kind of ruins my attitude and ability with the rest of the book.  (see:  me reading the complete stories of flannery o'connor-  i will give her another try in the future.). but i didn't have to worry about that with this book because each story was truly amazing/beautiful.  i mean it did win the pulitzer so i should have known i was in for a treat.

every though the stories are short, you become invested in the characters and their lives.  each story was very emotional, i had to pause after each story to allow myself to process what i had read.  and though every story was different, they shared a theme of loneliness, longing, and love.  these stories demonstrated how we often suffer throughout life and the best option for us is not always the easiest but in the end we are better for taking the most challenging route.  many of the characters also learn that what they thought they wanted out of life is not what the needed.  each character has some void which they are trying to fill which regardless of what it may be is ultimately love.  

i know i have used the adjective alot in this post but these stories are beautiful.  i would rehash them here but you should pick it up for yourself and read it.

i will say the stories that i enjoyed the most were:

"the third and final continent" (i loved mrs. croft)

"a temporary matter" (it was only 20 pages but quite the emotional roller coaster, it had me teary-eyed in the end. which is a testament to lahiri's great writing)

"mrs. sen's" (partially due to her inability to drive")

"a real durwan" (which demonstrated that "you don't know what you've got til it's gone")

a truly beautiful (yes that adjective again) read.  please pick it up and enjoy.

flimsy little plastic miracles. ron currie jr. (98)

"flimsy little plastic miracles" is another book i came across via emma robert's instagram. the cover definitely enticed me with its books in a bookshelf. it's actually quite clever because the titles used for the books on the cover are reference to events, people, and themes in the story. the author also used one book to namedrop his debut which was a nice spin on "author of". i also noticed there was a book on the bottom shelf that reminded me of "a million little pieces" which i think was a sly reference given the premise of the novel.

"flimsy little plastic miracles" is a novel within a novel. one needs to get into a charlie kaufman frame of mind for a reading. so the book is a book written by ron currie jr. (which is also the name of the author) and his supposed to be the truth about his faked suicide. confused? you should be. another similarity between the author and hid character is that both their father are dead.

so what happens is that the author in the story, ron currie jr., tried to commit suicide and survived but decided to fake his death. the book that he was working on was published and out of nowhere the book becomes a huge success (partially due to his suicide letter going viral). due to it's success, it was then turned into a movie. (btw: i would have never read that book, you know me and the media hype.) then of course it is discovered he is alive. so he writes the book that we are reading "flimsy little plastic miracles" to come clean.

(this is why i noticed the cover that looked like "a million little pieces" because the author of that book, james frey, turned out to be a liar. his book was supposed to be memoir but it was discovered that he made most of it up. and it was an oprah book so the alot of the public was tricked. i picked it up for $1 but then heard it was a lie so never read it. but imagine the backlash especially from mama oprah!)

so this whole book within a book got me googling but the real ron currie jr. never faked his death. so the book was not true in that sense. but it doesn't mean that it wasn't capital T truth in general. all novels has to have a bit of the author's real life in it and contain some capital T truth because if not people would not be able to relate to characters.

currie addresses this opposite the title page. he starred "true" in true story:

it is true though all novels are based on real events. inspiration has to come from somewhere.

he also has a clever blurb about epigraphs. i personally love them but they have become cliché. in high school, one of my favorite books "girl" by blake nelson quoted "breaking the girl" by the red hot chili peppers. once i read that i knew i would love it and i did. so i started trusting epigraphs. one of my recent favorites is the sandra cisneros quote that junot diaz used in "this is how you lose her". but yeah epigraphs are great if used correctly.

another thing that i loved about this book was the format. there were no chapters. instead each time a new idea or story was presented a new page was started. so some pages were only a paragraph.

the story bounces back and forth between four topics: currie's side of his story, the love of his life, emma (who is also the reason he got caught up in his mess), his dealings with his father's death and singularity (when machines take over because they are more perfect than us).

i don't want to give too much but will
say that ron currie jr. in the story was a coward when it came to love but once he was caught reacted with heart and did the right thing. there was one occurrence in the story that broke my heart. i had no idea that it was going to happen. it made me sad because it shouldn't have happened to that character.

i also have to add that i was weirded out by ron and emma's love. not the violent aspect of it but the fact that they first met when they were in jr. high. i am skeptical when people fall in love so young.

last but not least, singularity was a topic discussed. but it's a future i hope that is never achieved. who wants perfection? life is life because of its mistakes. perfection would mean boredom while our errors and imperfections is what gives life it's color. as we see in "flimsy little plastic miracles", it's the errors in life that helps is grow as a person.

the love song of johnny valentine. teddy wayne (98)

i can't remember where i first read about "the love song of johnny valentine" but the cover definitely caught my eye. you know me and shiny things. also the title reminded me of one of my favorite killers' song "the ballad of michael valentine". however, i quickly lost interest when they referenced justin beiber.

but when i saw it on emma robert's instagram, i decided to give it a chance. and though emma was spot on for "where'd you go bernedette?. she was way off based on this one. but maybe her celeb-status, resulted in it being a good laugh for her.

the novel is the tale of 11 year-old, johnny valentine who is a pop sensation was discovered via youtube and has great hair plus a fake romance with a famous latina tween actress (see: justin beiber). his mother is his manager, she loves to party, screws guys in the tour crew and i guess has a coke habit (see: lindsay lohan's mom). johnny's dad went AWOL when he was a kid, but what might be him pops up on random message boards (see: deadbeat dads that want in on the action.)

the book is the supposed to be a coming of age story. johnny's maturity comes via his search for his father. however, just like johnny lacked any depth, so did this novel. as a 30-year-old woman, i really shouldn't identify with 11-year-old boys, but this character was too shallow, naive and just plain stupid for anyone to sympathize for, let alone identify with.

i really have no idea how i finished it. i was intrigued about his father's message board posts because i was sure it was a child molester posting. but that story line wasn't enough to make this book interesting. johnny's life was so sad and boring, the most exciting parts of his days included passing levels on a video game and masturbating. maybe that was the point? to prove how depressing celeb's lives really are? but who wants to read about insanely rich first world problems? also it didn't provide any provocative insight on the music industry. thanks to behind the music, reality tv shows and entertainment magazines/tabloids, we know how the music industry is just screwing everyone over. they have also shown us how shitty celebrities are.

i guess i also kept on reading because the cover touted the author as the winner of some award. and the writing wasn't bad, it was just that context wasn't good. i mean he did have some random interesting insight and the hipster in me loved the latchkeys. but other than that the book was lame and i'm not sure how i finished. i'm actually getting annoyed that i wasted time reading it. it was so bad, i am going to stop here because i don't want to waste anymore time on this book.

where'd you go bernadette? maria semple. (97)

of course with a cute cover like that, "where'd you go bernadette?" caught my eye while browsing amazon. however, i didn't give it much thought until i saw it on emma roberts' instagram:

really emma roberts?!?! i haven't seen any of her tween movies but loved her in "it's kind of a funny story" and "celeste and jesse forever". and i know it sounds silly but girl is literary. she is always posting pics of books she is reading so i started to follow her instagram. and yes i plan on reading the books she posts. (ps she also has really good fashion sense, i purchased a pair of rhinestone cat ears because she posted similar headbands on instagram. i know i need help.)

but seriously i have nothing to be embarrassed about because this first book i read because of emma roberts was amazing!

to start the book was written by maria semple who wrote for "arrested development". and of course, anything associated with the show has to be brillant. i am not sure how important of a writer semple is/was (i'm a fan but not a fanatic). but i could totally see bernadette as a character on the show. bernadette would be an architect michael hired to redesign the homes.

anyway back to the story. so the title best summarizes the story. bernadette fox has disappeared and her daughter bee branch (real name: balakrishna, because she was born with a heart condition and was blue when she was born) is determined to find her. the book is actually a book written by bee and is a complication of emails, letters, and other paperwork bee hopes lead her to her mom..

there are a bunch of subplots that lead up to bernadette's disappearance. first, is the family trip to antarctica that bernadette and her husband, elgin branch, promised bee based on her grades. due to this, there is the virtual indian assistant that bernadette hired to help with organizing the trip; bernadette is a recluse (the story explains why, it's quite sad and broke my heart when i found out). there is bernadette's feud with the gnats (what she falls the moms at her daughter's
school), especially audrey griffin, who is one of those self-righteous my child can do no wrong that i absolutely hated at first. last there is soo-lin, audrey's BFF and elgin's assistant, and who by the end i hated though she was quite pitiful. all of their lives crash into one another and results in bernadette's disappearance. (i don't want to give too much away because i want you to read it!)

all in all, bernadette is such a delightful character, she is a bit of mess but that is part of her charm. i really want to be her best friend. she seemed like a great person to get coffee with and talk shit about what is wrong with the world. se goes on these random rants which annoyed her husband but i found hilarious. she is also this amazing architect that was green and a dumpster diver before it was cool! her best piece was "the twenty mile house" in which she had a plot of land and the house and the furnishings were made up of items that were found within a twenty mile radius and all the materials had to be source locally. what a cool idea! she won a genius award for it!

also she wasn't the only genius of the family. her husband worked for microsoft and had this super famous TED talk. his project is a robot and i won't give you details because the TED talk was one of my favorite parts.

i can't express how much i enjoyed this book. so many great pop cultural references in it too. it will have you smiling and laughing to yourself. if there is one book you read this year because of this blog, this is it! i absolutely loved and am sure you will too!