Tag Archives: American Girl

Hollywood is Like High School with Money by Zoey Dean

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Synopsis:
Taylor’s lucky break landing a job as an assistant at a major film studio turns into a disaster, until she enlists the help of her boss’s alpha girl high school daughter to help her navigate the social landscape.

Review:
Hollywood is Like High School With Money is not the most original book to come down the pike, but it’s a quick and relaxing read. There’s some good insider-y stuff, which I found amusing because I was a “creative associate” for a film producer once upon a time. The dish could’ve gone deeper, and the plot could’ve been less predictable, but it moves along and has a certain charm about it.

The Sinful Life of Lucy Burns by Elizabeth Leiknes

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Synopsis:
Lucy only wanted to save her sister after a accident, but a lifetime escorting souls to hell wasn’t quite the price she had in mind, and now she wants out.

Review:
The Sinful Life of Lucy Burns was a quick, breezy read. Elizabeth Leikness has imagination to spare when it comes to her plotting, and I never quite guessed what was coming next. She has a wonderfully satirical wit, but her book isn’t superficial at all.

Lucy’s job is to wrangle the truly wicked and send them to hell, and has been paid handsomely for it. In addition to her sister’s life being saved, Lucy has a perfect body and all the worldly goods she wants. However, she’s estranged from her family and prevented from falling in love. She wants a normal life desperately, but afraid she’ll end up transferred to the (very hot) Main Office.

The theological underpinnings of the book aren’t exactly orthodox–they’re more Gnostic than anything else–but that didn’t detract from the pleasures of the book. Sure, this Faustian tale won’t cut the Reformed or Catholic muster, but the voice that Leiknes creates for Lucy is a lot of fun to experience.

B As In Beauty by Alberto Ferraras

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Synopsis:
Overweight B hates her life, but when she’s adopted by a fairy godmother running a most unorthodox service, she gets in touch with her outer beauty but runs the risk of losing the inner beauty she’s had all along.

Review:
I really enjoyed B as in Beauty, despite the rather tawdry story elements. Alberto Ferraras has created a winning heroine and set her against some well-imagined set pieces that are titillating but never sleazy–or, at least, B never comes off as sleazy. I really loved her voice as she takes us through her journey, and was rooting for her the whole way. The book is a light, easy, carefree read and I enjoyed spending time with it.

One little nitpick–can we have a moratorium on chick lit heroines who trip and fall and/or rip their clothes at inopportune work moments? I’m so over the clutz thing and the public embarrassment thing. You can earn sympathy for a heroine without resorting to overused devices, ‘mkay?

The Addict by Michael Stein

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Synopsis:
One year in the treatment of a Vicodin addict, as told by the internist who treated her with medication.

Review:
Dr. Michael Stein is an internist specializing in prescribing a drug that blocks the effect of painkillers on a patient. In The Addict, subtitled One Patient, One Doctor, One Year, Stein recounts his journey treating Lucy, a promising young woman whose life has been stunted by an addiction to prescription medication. Lucy is meant to be an Everywoman; a college graduate, she’s a far cry from the stereotypical lower-income addict–unless, of course, you watch “Intervention” on A&E. If you do, you’ll know that Lucy’s story is quite common.

As an internist, Stein uses conversation as a means of diagnosis, not treatment as he would if he were a psychologist. He prescribes a strictly managed drug regimen meant to help Lucy restore her life. In doing so, he spends time talking with her as she describes the life she’d been living and how treatment is changing her.

As a narrative, The Addict was a little thin. In many ways, it’s a suitable companion to “Intervention,” showing what happens after the addict enters treatment. Yet Lucy’s story didn’t feel completely realistic, and I questioned at many points whether or not she was a composite of several of Stein’s patients.

Of course, the story is building to the “why.” What would turn a college-educated young woman into an addict? I don’t want to give it away, but I have to say that I found the story to be perplexing, even fishy. Either someone was covering up a crime or Lucy’s memory of the events was inaccurate. It was very strange to me.

The Girl She Used To Be by David Cristofano

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Synopsis:
Hidden in the witness protection program since she was a child, Melody wishes for the chance to be herself, and unwisely starts to fall for one of the gangster’s she’s hiding from.

Review:
The Girl She Used To Be by David Cristofano is a straightforward, enjoyable, affecting story about a young woman in an awful predicament. I really found myself trusting Jonathan, the young mafioso who recognizes Melody, and believing she’d be safe with him, despite all evidence to the contrary. The female voice was quite convincing coming from a male author, which impressed me. This is one that I’ll pick up again as a fun comfort read.

Jane Austen Ruined My Life by Beth Patillo

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Synopsis:
Jane Austen scholar Emma hunts Austen’s lost love letters in the hopes of restoring her besmirched academic name and to prove to the world that Austen was wrong about happy endings.

Review:
I came to Jane Austen relatively late in life. We were assigned Pride and Prejudice as summer reading in ninth grade. Honestly? It bored me to tears. For this sole reason I eschewed majoring in English in college in favor of a theater/American Studies combo just so that I could avoid British literature in general and Austen in particular.

In my late 20s I got it in my head that I wanted to “do the classics,” and picked up Sense and Sensibility. I absolutely loved it. I tore through the rest of her works, thoroughly enjoying myself. For the record, Mansfield Park is my favorite.

All this to say that I don’t quite get the Austen-mania that fuels heroines in books like Jane Austen Ruined My Life. I mean, I get being enthralled by books–that’s a phenomenon I’ve experienced–but there’s no one book or author around which I’ve shaped my life. But I certainly don’t begrudge women like Emma their infatuation with Austen, because if anyone’s worth it, she is.

Jane Austen Ruined My Life is a charming read that takes readers on a journey through Austen’s England, and, by extension, her life. In reading the book I gained a greater appreciation for her achievements, and got very excited to reread her books. Author Beth Patillo has crafted a Da Vinci Code-esque puzzle for Emma to unravel, and to her credit makes it completely plausible. While the love story isn’t going to shake the earth, I did have great sympathy for Emma’s disenchantment with romance after the failure of her marriage.

I was glad that Patillo left out some of the chick lit cliches like the meet-cute and the requisite “heroine falling down the stairs/out of a cab/into a swimming pool” clumsiness. Emma is wounded, but thoroughly capable, and that was a refreshing change from the spawn of Bridget Jones. (Not that I don’t love Bridget Jones’s Diary, I’m just tired of ersatz Bridget.)

The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez by Alan Lawrence Sitomer

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Synopsis:
The only daughter in a big family of Mexican immigrants, Sonia has to take care of everyone but herself, and she’s finding it hard to achieve her goal of graduating from high school.

Review:
I love a good Cinderella story, and The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez hits all the right notes, with funny and appealing Mexican flair. Because her pregnant ama is on bed rest with twins, Sonia has to take care of her three brothers, her 3-job father, and her “drunkle,” who seems to think he’s about to enjoy certain privileges. Not only does she do all the cooking and cleaning, but she has to endure the taunts of her obese Tia Luna, and take off of school to do things like hand make a zillion tamales for her drunkle’s birthday. Sonia is determined to graduate, but her familia is standing in her way.

I really liked the voice that Alan Lawrence Sitomer developed for Sonia. She was witty and fresh and very appealing. He was not quite as successful with his plotting. The love story felt a bit tacked on, and there were some characters that got short shrift. I wish he had spent more time with Sonia with her abuelita and cousins in Mexico, but my quibbles won’t stop me from recommending this book to my friends who like YA.

Revelations by Melissa de la Cruz (Blue Bloods 3)

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Synopsis:
Half-vampire Schuyler learns more about her lineage and has a secret love affair with the twin of her nemesis, as the war between the vampire Blue Bloods and Lucifer’s army of Silver Bloods escalates.

Review:
When I signed up to review Revelations, I didn’t realize it was book 3 in a series, and I really had a hard time catching up with all of the vampire lore and the history between the characters. From what I gathered, vampires were fallen angels who mutinied against Lucifer during the war with heaven. They couldn’t be fully redeemed but were given life on earth in exchange for turning to the light. They reincarnate throughout the centuries, and each vampire has to find his or her “bond” in each cycle, so that they can re-bond in a ceremony that unleashes their powers. It’s a pretty cool mythology with a lot of potential, but since I didn’t have the backstory I had trouble wrapping my brain around the idea of “good” fallen angels–especially when they’re acting treacherously.

The main character is Schuyler, a half-vampire without a bond. She’s having a torrid affair with Jack Force, the twin and bond to Mimi, her arch-nemesis. She’s hoping that Jack will sever his bond with Mimi and choose to bond with her. Meanwhile, her best friend Bliss is having blackouts and bizarre visions of a man in a white suite. She thinks she’s going crazy and doesn’t know who to turn to. Behind all of this is the rising threat of the Silver Bloods, those fallen angels who stayed loyal to Lucifer and who want to destroy the Blue Bloods once and for all.

I had to giggle upon realizing that Schuyler and Bliss are fashion models by profession–there’s something just so perfectly decadent about that choice. The tone of the book is Gossip Girls by way of Lestat, and it’s a lot of fun.

Cycler by Lauren McLaughlin

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Synopsis:
High school senior Jill is “all girl”–except for 4 days out of the month, when she turns into Jack, who happens to be in love with her best friend.

Review:
Cycler has quite the premise, with Jill literally transforming from girl to boy once a month, right after her period ends. Girly girl Jill wants nothing to do with horny boy’s boy Jack, and has an elaborate ritual to keep memories of his four days at bay. Her mom loathes Jack as well, and basically keeps him locked up in Jill’s bedroom, sated by pornography.

Jill is fine with this arrangement, but Jack is growing increasingly impatient with his life of isolation, especially because he’s realizing that he’s in love with Ramie, Jill’s best friend. The stronger his passions grow, the less able Jill is to keep Jack from intruding into her day to day life. She wishes he would just go away and leave her alone. He wishes she would let him out of his cage.

Cycler does a fine job exploring gender, but I wish the book had gone a little deeper into the emotional side of things. It’s as if having sex is the answer to all of Jill/Jack’s problems, but they’re both pretty unlikable, Jill more than Jack. I just feel like the book could’ve done a lot more with the premise than just hookups. The book ends on a maddeningly ambiguous note that made it seem lke the author didn’t want to engage with the provocative ideas she raised.

Two Books on Breastfeeding Issues

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Milk, Money, and Madness by Naomi Baumslag and Dia L. Michels
Mother’s Milk by Bernice Hausman

I’m researching an essay on breastfeeding practices and ended up reading these two dense and serious tomes that delve into America’s abysmally low breastfeeding rates. The American Association of Pediatrics recommends breastfeeding for at least a year, and the World Health Organization recommends at least two. Yet many women opt out of trying, or give up at some point well before a year.

Milk, Money and Madness examines the myriad ways in which formula overtook breastmilk as the food doctors recommended for babies. She also shows the tactics used by formula companies to undermine breastfeeding, practices that can prove deadly for babies born in areas without easy access to clean water and to parents who lack the material resources to finance formula. She also spends a great deal of time explaining why breastmilk is the optimal food for babies and toddlers. It’s a hardcore lactivism advocacy read.

Mother’s Milk is more academic, exploring the discourse of breastfeeding in America. So much food for thought, particularly her insights into race and class. The book reminded me of the wonderful article Watch Your Language.

You may be seeing a lot more breastfeeding books on here because I’m starting the process to become a La Leche League leader–yay!