Catch-22 on TV, Conclave by Robert Harris, The Clockwork Scarab, The Spiritglass Charade and The Chess Queen Enigma by Colleen Gleason and Tippy Toe Murder by Leslie Meier

I read Catch 22 in high school, and really enjoyed (I was a cynical teenager) the sarcasm and sly humor of the novel, as well as it's anti war theme. It will be an interesting series to watch.

TV: Catch-22

Oscar-nominated Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini (Swept Away) has joined

the cast of George Clooney's TV series Catch-22

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz37120763,

"which is set to start shooting in Sardinia this week," Variety

reported. Giannini will play Marcello, the owner of a Rome brothel who

is "weathered and once handsome but still debonair," according to the

producers.

The series, which marks Clooney's first regular TV role since NBC's ER,

also stars Christopher Abbott as Capt. John Yossarian, Hugh Laurie as

Major de Coverley and Kyle Chandler as Colonel Cathcart. Clooney has a

small role as training commander Scheisskopf.

The six-part adaptation of Joseph Heller's anti-war classic novel is

scheduled to air in 2019 on Hulu in the U.S. Variety noted that Giannini

is "the only Italian talent announced so far in the Catch-22 cast,

though about 300 Sardinian extras were recently recruited for scenes

involving military activity on the Italian island, where Clooney--who is

co-directing as well as starring and producing--has set up camp in a

villa on its Emerald Coast."

Conclave by Robert Harris is the thriller that my library book group is reading for June. It is not a novel I would have read on my own, as I'm not generally a fan of the political thriller, or of novels that are religious and political (the other two categories that I tend to eschew are horror and military history). I wanted to find out how, though, an author could take a subject as static and boring as the selection of the new pope, head of the Catholic Church, and make it into a page-turning, edge-of-your-seat thriller. It didn't seem possible to me. Imagine my shock when I started reading this book and found it not only well written, but plotted in an exciting, fast-paced manner, with characters that I could identify with, though they're all old male priests. It took me only a couple of days to read, and even then, I would have finished it sooner if I wouldn't have been reading a couple of other novels at the same time. I am still stunned at the twists and turns things took, and that Harris doesn't waste one word, one sentence, or one paragraph. His prose is as lean and smart as his protagonist, Cardinal Lomeli. I am still reeling from the ending. Here's the blurb:

The pope is dead. Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, one hundred and eighteen cardinals from all over the globe will cast their votes in the world's most secretive election. They are holy men. But they have ambition. And they have rivals. Over the next seventy-two hours one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on Earth.

The politics of pope-picking clearly captivates Harris, a former political reporter, as it indubitably captivates many of us. The book is filled with procedural and historical detail—from the rules of the Apostolic Constitution to the rituals around voting and the dormlike building in which the cardinals are housed for the duration of the vote…Harris has done his research, and it shows, though he is also careful to situate his story in the contemporary world. That tension adds to the ambience…The story moves forward vote after vote with so much momentum it's easy to forget that faith of a deep and visceral kind is involved…Harris has written a gripping, smart book.The New York Times Book Review - Vanessa Friedman 

I agree with Ms Friedman, this is a gripping tale and one that shines a light on an area of the world and of religion that is shrouded in secrecy. Lomeli is such a compelling character in such a difficult situation, as the secrets and sins of his fellow cardinals unfold, that you can't help but appreciate him as a man of God and a human being, doing the best that he can in a situation fraught with scandal. I can't really go into more detail without spoiling the book, which I am loathe to do. So I will just say that I'd give this book an A with a recommendation to anyone who is interested in Rome and in political/religious intrigue. 

 

The Clockwork Scarab, The Spiritglass Charade and The Chess Queen Enigma by Colleen Gleason are the first three books in her Stoker and Holmes YA series, set in Steampunk Victorian London, England. Finely tuned prose and fascinating characters (including several side characters that become almost more interesting than the protagonists, ie Pix) propel  these swift plots to solve mysteries with the intellect of Mina Holmes (Sherlock's niece, Mycroft's daughter) and the ninja vampire hunter actions of Evaline Stoker (Bram's sister), who are working for Irene Adler under the direction of a member of the royal family. Here are the blurbs, in order of first book to third: Evaline Stoker and Mina Holmes never meant to get into the family business. But when you're the sister of Bram and the niece of Sherlock, vampire hunting and mystery solving are in your blood, so to speak. And when two young society girls disappear—one dead, one missing—there's no one more qualified to investigate. Now fierce Evaline and logical Mina must resolve their rivalry, navigate the advances of not just one but three mysterious gentlemen, and solve a murder with only one clue: a strange Egyptian scarab. The pressure is on and the stakes are high—if Stoker and Holmes don't figure out why London's finest sixteen-year-old women are in danger, they'll become the next victims.

Evaline Stoker and Mina Holmes never meant to get into the family business. But when you're the sister of Bram and the niece of Sherlock, vampire hunting and mystery solving are in your blood, so to speak.
After the Affair of the Clockwork Scarab, Evaline Stoker and Mina Holmes are eager to help Princess Alix with a new case. Seventeen-year-old Willa Aston is obsessed with spiritual mediums, convinced she is speaking with her mother from beyond the grave. What seems like a case of spiritualist fraud quickly devolves into something far more menacing: someone is trying to make Willa appear lunatic using an innocent-looking spiritglass to control her. The list of clues piles up: an unexpected murder, a gang of pickpockets, and the return of vampires to London. But are these events connected?
As Uncle Sherlock would say, there are no coincidences. It will take all of Mina's wit and Evaline's muscle to keep London's sinister underground at bay.
Evaline Stoker and Mina Holmes have reluctantly agreed to act as social chaperones and undercover bodyguards for Princess Lurelia of Betrovia, who has arrived in London to deliver a letter that details the secret location of an ancient chess queen that's been missing for centuries. But when the letter—which will heal a centuries-old rift between England and the Betrovians—is stolen out from under Evaline and Mina's watchful eyes, the two girls are forced into a high-stakes race to ensure they find the chess queen before anyone else does.
Though I enjoyed the fast-paced mystery of all three books, I found myself enjoying the characters of Inspector Grayling, Pix, Dylan from the future and even Irene Adler more than the protagonists, who both seemed to have an excess of ego and hubris that regularly got in the way of their investigations. Mina is an arrogant, snotty know it all who has deep insecurities about being equal to her famous uncle Sherlock, and about being abandoned by her mother and neglected by her father. Evaline is reckless to the point of stupidity, as well as being a glutton for food and punishment, and being conceited about her looks and her heritage as vampire hunter, when she faints at the sight of blood and can't seem to fulfill her duty to kill the undead. She revels in being something of a mean snob, and if you don't want to slap her silly by the end of the first book, you are not paying attention.  The other irritating thing about the novels is the girls constant descriptions and discussions of their clothing and hats, and gloves, and corsets. If 19th century Steampunk fashion and fabrics aren't your thing, these constant interruptions to the plot will drive you bonkers. Other than that, the three books were a fun escape from reality, and an interesting use of famous historical figures/characters to bring about a new generation of sleuths. I would give this series a B, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys Gail Carrigers Finishing School series or her Custard Protocol books.

 

Tippy Toe Murder by Leslie Meier is a random paperback that I bought at the library book sale for a quarter. I note that because I am glad that I didn't spend more on this "Lucy Stone Mystery" that I wanted to actually tear up and toss into the garbage by the time I was halfway through it. The whole book is filled with sexist, misogynistic rubbish, not to mention men getting away with pedophilia, rape, murder, sexual harassment and domestic abuse. I was nauseated at the way that the women in this book, including the protagonist, were all stereotypes and cliches, all worried about being appealing to men above anything else, (even when pregnant, as the main character worries about her weight, instead of worrying about her health or the health of her 4th baby) and serving men as sexual and domestic slaves, even when they were being abused over and over. The main character, Lucy, does all the work of raising her children, because of course her entitled and sexist husband sees all the household jobs as being women's work, including dealing with all of his needs and desires (and mean moods), without any regard to her hardships being pregnant in the summer with another child that he helped conceive and that she doesn't really seem to want. Here's the blurb: With three kids underfoot, a fourth on the way, and an oppressive heat wave bearing down, homemaker Lucy Stone is hardly enjoying an idyllic summer. But her preoccupation with swelling ankles, Bavarian creme doughnut cravings, and sewing endless sequins on ballet recital tutus gives way to dread when Lucy learns that her waistline isn't the only thing that's recently vanished from Tinker's Cove. . .
The strange disappearance of a retired dance instructor has the tiny coastal town in a tizzy that turns to terror when a notoriously cantankerous shopkeeper is slain right on Main Street. Now Lucy's up to her bulging belly in local suspects and red herrings. Eluded by a cold-blooded killer, with her due-date looming and the thermometer soaring, Lucy figures something has to break soon. With any luck, it won't be her water. 

Though she's supposed to the the sleuth in this book, Lucy is pathetic at attempting to gather clues and interview witnesses, and she becomes all weak-kneed and wilting at the first sign of trouble. When inevitably confronted by the killer, she requires a man to save her, because she just ends up allowing the male killer to fondle her, nearly rape her and choke her to death because she can't seem to think of one way to defend herself...in this day and age! Not one! Ugh. What a ninny! The prose is simplistic and the plot plodding. I detest weak and stupid protagonists, especially if they are women, because that conforms to a sexist standard that is false and out of date. So I won't be reading any more mysteries with spineless Lucy Stone and her sexist, abusive husband. I'd give this book a D, and I honestly can't recommend it to anyone, because it's awful. There are a million "cozy"mysteries out there with better female protagonists (Maisie Dobbs, anyone?) that I would recommend readers try before they even think about picking up one of these putrid paperbacks. 

David Copperfield and How to Build a Girl Movies, Wodehouse Prize Withheld in 2018, Worlds of Ursula K. LeGuin, How to Marry a Werewolf by Gail Carriger, Tracking the Tempest by Nicole Peeler, The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin and This Is Me by Chrissy Metz

I am so excited for these movies to debut! They have great books and fascinating authors behind them, so I imagine they will be big hits!

Movies: The Personal History of David Copperfield

Armando Iannucci (Veep, In the Loop, The Death of Stalin) "is bulking up

the cast" for his upcoming film, The Personal History of David

Copperfield http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz36970986,

with the addition of Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who, The Thick of It), the

Hollywood Reporter wrote.

Capaldi, who joins a cast that includes Dev Patel, Tilda Swinton, Hugh

Laurie and Ben Wishaw, will play Mr. Micawber "in the fresh take on

Charles Dickens' autobiographical masterpiece," THR noted. Written by

Iannucci and Simon Blackwell, the project begins production in June in

the U.K.

Movies: How to Build a Girl

Beanie Feldstein (Lady Bird, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising) will star in

the film adaptation of Caitlin Moran's novel How to Build a Girl

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz37042307,

which was recently chosen for Emma Watson's feminist book club, Our

Shared Shelf. Deadline reported that the "comedic coming-of-age story

from U.K. producer Monumental Pictures will start shooting on location

in the U.K. from July. Director Coky Giedroyc, whose TV credits include

episodes of The Killing and BBC drama The Hour, will helm the feature

from the screenplay by U.K. broadcaster and author Moran." The producers

describe the lead character as "one of the great female literary icons

on a par with Elizabeth Bennet and Bridget Jones."

"We could not be more excited for Johanna Morrigan to burst onto the big

screen," said Alison Owen (Suffragette), who is producing with Debra

Hayward (Les Miserables). "We searched high and low for a girl who could

match the boundless wit, sparkle and big heart of Caitlin's

super-heroine and feel incredibly lucky to have found her in the

effervescent Beanie Feldstein."

"How to Build a Girl will be outrageously funny and utterly affecting,

even heart-breaking," added Hayward. "With Coky Giedroyc at the helm of

Caitlin's swashbuckling script, we are blessed to have a director who

can deliver all this in spades."

 

I was surprised that this Prize wasn't given out this year, but I am gladto know that tehre will be an even bigger bottle of bubbly and a bigger pig that will go to the lucky author, LOL.

No Laughing Matter: 2018 Wodehouse Prize Withheld 

For the first time in its history, the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse

Prize for Comic Fiction http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz37045764,

which has been awarded annually since 2000 to a novel "deemed to best

capture the comic spirit of the late P.G. Wodehouse," will not name a

winner. The Guardian reported that the prize judges had "not found a

book they felt worthy 'to join the heady comedic ranks of P.G.

Wodehouse' or of previous winners such as Marina Lewycka or Alexander

McCall Smith."

"My fellow judges and I have decided to withhold the prize this year to

maintain the extremely high standards of comic fiction that the... prize

represents," according to judge David Campbell, publisher of Everyman's

Library. "Despite the submitted books producing many a wry smile amongst

the panel during the judging process, we did not feel than any of the

books we read this year incited the level of unanimous laughter we have

come to expect. We look forward to awarding a larger rollover prize next

year to a hilariously funny book."

The winner usually receives a case of champagne and a rare breed pig

named after the winning novel at the annual Hay literary festival. "Next

year's bumper prize will include a Methuselah of bubbly and a

particularly large pig," the Guardian wrote.

Campbell conceded that writing a genuinely funny novel is a difficult

task: "Wodehouse is so incredibly great, he really does make you laugh

out loud. But that's not an easy thing to do at all. There were lots of

very good novels, but nothing outstandingly funny.... There were a lot

of witty submissions, bloody good novels, but they weren't comic novels.

The alchemy was not there."

I am looknig forward to this documentary, as well

Movies: Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin

A trailer has been released for Arwen Curry's documentary, Worlds of

Ursula K. Le Guin http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz37069103.

Curry kickstarted the film in 2016 "and has been working on the project

ever since. Earlier this week, she released a trailer for the

documentary, which will use archival footage and recent interviews with

Le Guin to examine her life and the impact of her career," The Verge

reported. Le Guin died in January.

Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin also features interviews with other writers,

including Margaret Atwood and Neil Gaiman, as well as Theodora Goss,

author of a forthcoming critical volume on Le Guin, who says in the

trailer: "She's being recognized not just as one of our great science

fiction and fantasy writers, but as one of our great American writers."

Science fiction podcast Imaginary Worlds

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz37069105 recently

interviewed Curry about her work on the documentary, which will appear

at film festivals later this fall and debut on PBS American Masters in

2019.

How to Marry a Werewolf by Gail Carriger is a "claw and courtship novella" that will hook you in from the first page and keep you reading right to the end. Delicious steampunk paranormal fantasy/romance hybrid that it is, this book has something for nearly everyone, including Carriger's trademark wit and strong female protagonist, in this case, an American sent by her horrible family to seek alliance with a werewolf of London. Here's the blurb:

WEREWOLVES: The monsters left Faith ruined in the eyes of society, so now they’re her only option. Rejected by her family, Faith crosses the Atlantic, looking for a marriage of convenience and revenge.
But things are done differently in London. Werewolves are civilized. At least they pretend to be.
AMERICANS: Backward heathens with no culture, Major Channing has never had time for any of them. But there’s something special about Faith. Channing finds himself fighting to prove himself and defend his species. But this werewolf has good reason not to trust human women.
Even if they learn to love, can either of them forgive?
From the New York Times bestselling author of the Parasol Protectorate series comes a stand alone romance set in the same universe. Look out for appearances from favorite characters and the serious consequences of unwarranted geology.
A Note On Chronology
The Claw & Courtship novellas can be read in any order. This book can be enjoyed without having read any of Gail’s other works.
Set in the spring of 1895 this story occurs after events chronicled in Romancing the Werewolf and Competence. Channing is first introduced to readers in Changeless. He appears throughout the Parasol Protectorate series and briefly in Romancing the Inventor.

While they note that you don't have to read any of Carriger's other works to read this saucy novella, I've read 98 percent of her books, and I can honestly say that it makes reading this particular installment that much richer an experience if you read the Parasol Protectorate series and her other books, which are excellent, BTW. "How To Marry.." was written in Carriger's strong and beautifully British prose, which glides along the stalwart plot like couples at a waltz. Faith and Channing were both well written characters and I was glad to see Channing finally being vulnerable and giving in to his softer side. A resounding A for this charming novella, with a recommendation to anyone who enjoys Victorian-era steampunk romance.

Tracking the Tempest by Nicole Peeler is the second book in this paranormal mystery/romance series. Normally this kind of book, female protagonist who is a "halfling" or part magical creature dates a vampire and has to solve a mystery with the help of other magical creatures, would be right up my alley. Seanan McGuire's Toby Daye books are similar in scope, but her protagonist has the opposite problem of Peeler's Jane True, in that Toby is constantly sacrificing her own life in battling for others, (none of whom seem to be able to help her or protect her, as they all claim to want to do) while Jane can't seem to do anything right and has to be rescued from the bad guys in every other chapter. Her weakness and general idiocy is my main problem with this series, because I find main female characters who are obsessed with sex, but can' t really function well as anything but a bed mate terribly cliched and frustrating,not to mention a sexist stereotype.  Oh, and of course she's a caretaker for her bewildered elderly father, because isn't that the second thing women are good for? (that was said with a great deal of eye rolling and sarcasm). Here's the blurb:

Valentine's Day is fast approaching, and Ryu - Jane's bloodsucking boyfriend - can't let a major holiday go by without getting all gratuitous. An overwhelming dose of boyfriend interference and a last-minute ticket to Boston later, and Jane's life is thrown off course.
Ryu's well-intentioned plans create mayhem, and Jane winds up embroiled in an investigation involving a spree of gruesome killings. All the evidence points towards another Halfling, much to Jane's surprise...Publisher's Weekly: Snarky selkie halfling Jane True, introduced in 2009's Tempest Rising, plays hooky from learning how to control her paranormal abilities and heads to Boston for a scorching Valentine's weekend with her lover, Ryu, a vampire-like baobhan sith who spends most of his time solving supernatural mysteries. Before their sensual action can heat past simmer, they're attacked by another powerful halfling, this one an ifrit. Soon Jane's dodging fireballs and summoning sea power with her lover and friends. New to the supernatural scene, flighty Jane must grow into her powers to save them all. Peeler's chick lit tone adds sparkle to the most spine-tingling scenes with a style that never strikes a false note, and the seamless plot weaves together Jane's paranormal and personal growth while linking both to the swelling suspense.

Publisher's Weekly neglects to mention how many times Jane has to be rescued by the guys in her life because she can't seem to control her powers long enough to save anyone, least of all herself. She's weak, and a big crybaby, and her boyfriend is a controlling asshat who really only seems to want to use her as a ready source of blood and sex. Then there's the "dog" Anyan, who has helped raise Jane and who should see her as one does an adoptive daughter, not the least of which because he's centuries older than she is. Now, however, he somehow sees her as a potential bedmate/girl friend, which is just incestuous and nasty. Jane eventually starts seeing him the same way, and at that point I got way too grossed out to want to ever read another of Peelers books. I can't tolerate pedophiles, no matter how they're couched in fantasy as otherworldly creatures, and if I didn't know better, I would think that Nicole Peeler is actually a male author trying to normalize creepy illegal sexual relations between children and their parent-figures. Blech. I'd give this novel a D, and I can't actually recommend something I find so repugnant. 

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin is a very popular novel that I'd heard was a good read, so I got a copy from the library and set to. Initially this book reminded me of The Nest, another bestseller that everyone was talking about, and one that we tackled in my library book group. Unfortunately, most of my fellow book groupers really hated the NY siblings who were the focus of the book, because they were all greedy and stupid and weak, and there was no one to really root for or take an interest in, while the most evil sibling gets away with stealing the family fortune. This book wasn't quite so awful, fortunately, but the NY born siblings were still a fairly weak-minded lot who took the words of a "gypsy" Rom woman, as to the date of their deaths, to heart and dropped like flies exactly when they were supposed to. Though they're Jewish by birth, all the siblings seem to be very superstitious, and their points of view make their religion little more than a restrictive collection of old world folklore. Here's the blurb:

If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life?
It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children--four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness--sneak out to hear their fortunes.
The prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden-boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in '80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son Daniel seeks security as an army doctor post-9/11; and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality. A sweeping novel of remarkable ambition and depth, The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion, this world and the next. It is a deeply moving testament to the power of story, the nature of belief, and the unrelenting pull of familial bonds. 

Only one of the four Golds doesn't die young, and of course, is the only sibling wracked by survivor's guilt. Though the prose is clean and strong, and the plot moves swiftly along, I found each sibling's story to be depressing and pathetic. None of them seemed to be able to move on from their prophecy, and really live, and their weaknesses seemed to keep them from enjoying their time on earth or connecting with their family in any significant way. I'd give this book a C, and only recommend it to people who don't let books depress them, and who find NY stories set in the 60s through today, to be exciting and fulfilling. 

This is Me: Loving The Person You Are Today by Chrissy Metz is a kind of hybrid mix of autobiography and self help book with a little tell-all celebrity behind the scenes stuff thrown in for good measure. I must note right away that I am a HUGE fan of the television show "This Is Us" which has won several Emmys and is a big hit for the old school broadcast stations that have been losing audience numbers to streaming services like Netflix and Hulu for the past few years. The show is about a family, the Pearsons, and their three children, siblings Kate, Kevin and Randall, who is black, and was adopted as a baby when one of the triplets died at birth. Extremely well written, the show's actors manage to nail every emotional up and down of being part of a close-knit family who lose their beloved Patriarch before his time. Metz plays Kate Pearson, who is a very large woman, with sensitivity and wit and beauty, making her that rarest of character actors, a female going against type (blonde and skinny and flawless) in Hollywood. Here's the blurb:

An inspirational book about life and its lessons from the Golden Globe and Emmy nominated star of NBC’s This Is Us.
When This Is Us debuted in fall 2016, a divided America embraced a show that celebrates human connection. The critically acclaimed series became America’s most watched—and most talked about—network show, even building on its fan base in the drama’s second season. As Kate Pearson, Chrissy Metz presents a character that has never been seen on television, yet viewers see themselves in her, no matter what they look like or where they come from. Considered a role model just for being her authentic self, Chrissy found herself on magazine covers and talk shows, walking red carpets, and as the subject of endless conversations on social media “I don’t know what you’ve been through to play her,” she is often told by fans, “but it was something.”
In This is Me, Chrissy Metz shares her story with a raw honesty that will leave readers both surprised but also inspired. Infused with the same authenticity she brings to her starring role, Chrissy’s This is Me is so much more than your standard Hollywood memoir or collection of personal essays. She embraces the spirit of Shonda Rhimes’ Year of Yes, and shares how she has applied the lessons she learned from both setbacks and successes. A born entertainer, Chrissy finds light in even her darkest moments, and leaves the reader feeling they are spending time with a friend who gets it.
Chrissy Metz grew up in a large family, one that always seemed to be moving, and growing. Her father disappeared one day, leaving her mother to work a series of menial jobs and his children to learn to live with the threat of hunger and the electricity being cut off. When her mother remarried, Chrissy hoped for “normal” but instead experienced a form of mental pain that seemed crafted just for her. The boys who showed her attention did so with strings attached as well, and Chrissy accepted it, because for her, love always came with conditions.
When she set out for Los Angeles, it was the first time she had been away from her family and from Florida. And for years, she got barely an audition. So how does a woman with the deck stacked against her radiate such love, beauty and joy? This too is at the heart of This is Me.  

With chapters that alternate from autobiographical to instructional, Chrissy offers practical applications of her hard-won insights in a series of “Bee Mindful” interstitials. There she invites you to embrace gratitude in “Say Thank You” or to be honest with your partner and yourself in “The Shrouded Supreme.” Blending love and experience, Chrissy encourages us all to claim our rightful place in a world that may be trying to knock us down, find our own unique gifts, and pursue our dreams. 

Much of the advice in the book seems to have been cribbed from the "think positive" books of the 70s and the "gratitude" admonitions of Oprah Winfrey from the 90s until today (which I've always found a bit irritating, to be honest. I think it is easy for someone as extremely wealthy and successful as Oprah to be grateful that she's worked her way out of poverty, but it comes off as more than a bit "survivors guilt" to ask those of us who will never reach those heights of wealth or success or health to be grateful for being one step away from homelessness. Seriously, it's just not going to happen for most of us, no matter how many times we say we are 'grateful.') So if you've not been living under a rock for the past 30-40 years, you will have heard all of this 'think positive' stuff before, ad nausea um. However, when Metz talks about her horrible childhood and her terrible parents (I don't know how she can forgive her abusive horses ass of a stepfather, Trigger, for all that he did to her, let alone her weak and worthless mother who enables Trigger to abuse her and then throws Chrissy under the bus for the sake of having a home for her other children) she gets real, and shows by example how important it is for fat girls and women to learn to love themselves and be persistent,despite the prejudice, when it comes to your career.

Metz makes many good points about living on next to nothing when you're just starting out, and on learning from your mistakes. She also has a wonderful sense of humor and she really does make you laugh several times in the book.

The prose is light and clean, with the occaisional stumble when Metz adds hip hop slang that makes it sound like she's trying too hard to be hip. But otherwise the book moves along at a brisk pace, and makes the reader feel as if you're getting to know Metz as a person and an artist. While I love that she fights cruelty and trolls and harassment and prejudice with kindness, I know from my own life as a fat girl that kindness rarely works with bullies and trolls who are generally misogynists bent on your destruction. Most aren't sensitive enough to listen to reason. And while I realize that, as Metz says, "hurt people hurt others," that is no excuse for wounding or even killing other people whose size or skin color offends you.

Still, I'd give this non fiction book an A,and recommend it to all my fellow larger women and girls, because if you dig deeper and overlook the self help cliches, there really is some good advice here, and some great behind the scenes stories from the set of the hit TV show, This Is Us, long may it reign. 

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RIP Tom Wolfe, The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw, Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher, How To Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran, Puddin' by Julie Murphy and How To Stop Time by Matt Haig

Tom Wolfe was that rarest of beings, a writer's writer who could write non fiction that read like the greatest fiction, and fiction that was snappy, smart and a wonderful read. If you didn't love his amazing prose, you were losing out. I read my first Wolfe book in high school, The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, and I was transformed, transported by his glorious prose....I didn't know that non fiction could be so engaging. I immediately sought out everything he'd written, and read Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff, Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers and Bonfire of the Vanities. I loved his non fiction, which was brilliant, more than his fiction over the years, but I always admired his wit and sense of style. He was our 20th century Oscar Wilde, and the world will never see his like again. RIP Tom Wolfe,and thank you from a journalist whose career you inspired.

Tom Wolfe Dies: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/15/obituaries/tom-wolfe-pyrotechnic-nonfiction-writer-and-novelist-dies-at-88.html

Via Shelf Awareness:

Tom Wolfe

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz37042279,

a legendary journalist and novelist "whose technicolor, wildly

punctuated prose brought to life the worlds of California surfers, car

customizers, astronauts and Manhattan's moneyed status-seekers in works

like The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, The Right Stuff

and Bonfire of the Vanities," died May 14, the New York Times reported.

He was 88. Beginning in the 1960s, Wolfe's "use of novelistic techniques

in his nonfiction... helped create the enormously influential hybrid

known as the New Journalism."

Describing him as an "unabashed contrarian," the Times wrote that Wolfe

"was almost as well known for his attire as his satire. He was instantly

recognizable as he strolled down Madison Avenue--a tall, slender,

blue-eyed, still boyish-looking man in his spotless three-piece vanilla

bespoke suit, pinstriped silk shirt with a starched white high collar,

bright handkerchief peeking from his breast pocket, watch on a fob, faux

spats and white shoes. Once asked to describe his get-up, Mr. Wolfe

replied brightly, 'Neo-pretentious.' "

From 1965 to 1981, Wolfe produced nine nonfiction books, including The

Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak

Catchers, while continuing "to turn out a stream of essays and magazine

pieces for New York, Harper's and Esquire. His theory of literature,

which he preached in print and in person and to anyone who would listen

was that journalism and nonfiction had 'wiped out the novel as American

literature's main event,' " the Times noted.

Bonfire of the Vanities, his first novel, was a runaway bestseller, but

"divided critics into two camps: those who praised its author as a

worthy heir of his fictional idols Balzac, Zola, Dickens and Dreiser,

and those who dismissed the book as clever journalism, a charge that

would dog him throughout his fictional career," the Times wrote. Wolfe

published three more novels: A Man in Full, I Am Charlotte Simmons and

Back to Blood.

"What I hope people know about him is that he was a sweet and generous

man http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz37042328'New-Journalist,'-dead-at-88"Michael Lewis told the Associated Press. "Not just a great writer but a

great soul. He didn't just help me to become a writer. He did it with

pleasure."

Gay Talese noted: "He was an incredible writer. And you couldn't imitate

him. When people tried it was a disaster. They should have gotten a job

at a butcher's shop."

  

I've been procrastinating on my reviews, so I have 5 books to get through in a short space.

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw is a surprisingly sophisticated YA paranormal romance. The book takes place in a small coastal town in Oregon, where, 200 years ago, three young women were drowned by the townspeople for being witches, mainly because they were beautiful and seduced many of the local men, married or not. They vowed vengeance, of course, and cursed the town, so that every year on June 1, the three sister's spirits would inhabit three young women in the town on June 1, and then the possessed young women would drown at least three boys from the town before releasing the girls bodies two weeks later and going back to their watery grave for another year. No one seems able to find out which women are possessed and stop them from killing innocent boys, so oddly enough, the town seems to have embraced this horrific event and turned it into a local festival called "Swan Season" after the Swan sisters. Tourism is brisk for this morbid fortnight, and the local young people hold a bonfire on the beach and dare all the young women into the water to see who will become inhabited by the sisters spirit. Utterly bizarre, but having visited Oregon more than once, not actually out of the realm of possibility.  Here's the blurb:

Hocus Pocus and Practical Magic meets the Salem Witch trials in this haunting story about three sisters on a quest for revenge—and how love may be the only thing powerful enough to stop them.
Welcome to the cursed town of Sparrow...
Where, two centuries ago, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchery. Stones were tied to their ankles and they were drowned in the deep waters surrounding the town.
Now, for a brief time each summer, the sisters return, stealing the bodies of three weak-hearted girls so that they may seek their revenge, luring boys into the harbor and pulling them under.
Like many locals, seventeen-year-old Penny Talbot has accepted the fate of the town. But this year, on the eve of the sisters’ return, a boy named Bo Carter arrives; unaware of the danger he has just stumbled into.
Mistrust and lies spread quickly through the salty, rain-soaked streets. The townspeople turn against one another. Penny and Bo suspect each other of hiding secrets. And death comes swiftly to those who cannot resist the call of the sisters.
But only Penny sees what others cannot. And she will be forced to choose: save Bo, or save herself.

This book should have been titled "Swan Season," because the Wicked Deep doesn't really give you an idea of the weirdness of the story or the depth of the excellent prose and the engrossing plot. I literally couldn't put this book down, and read it all in one day. That said, anyone who couldn't see the "plot twist" about Penny a mile away is an idiot. The love conquers all and ending the curse requires a sacrifice were also inevitable, though well-wrought here so as not to make the reader squirm with embarrassment. I'd give this YA novel that reads like a juicy folktale reboot an A, and recommend it to anyone with an interest in witches and curses and romantic ghost stories.

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher is another one of her slender, hilarious autobiographical books, this one detailing just a small segment of her very troubled, yet privileged life as an actress and daughter of Hollywood royalty, Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher. I picked it up at the library because Carrie Fisher recently passed away, just days after her mother's death, and after seeing her latest and last Star Wars movie, I was missing her zingy wit and "unsinkable" style. Here's the blurb:

Finally, after four hit novels, Carrie Fisher comes clean (well, sort of ) with the crazy truth that is her life in her first-ever memoir.
In Wishful Drinking, adapted from her one-woman stage show, Fisher reveals what it was really like to grow up a product of "Hollywood in-breeding," come of age on the set of a little movie called Star Wars, and become a cultural icon and bestselling action figure at the age of nineteen.
Intimate, hilarious, and sobering, Wishful Drinking is Fisher, looking at her life as she best remembers it (what do you expect after electroshock therapy?). It's an incredible tale: the child of Hollywood royalty — Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher — homewrecked by Elizabeth Taylor, marrying (then divorcing, then dating) Paul Simon, having her likeness merchandized on everything from Princess Leia shampoo to PEZ dispensers, learning the father of her daughter forgot to tell her he was gay, and ultimately waking up one morning and finding a friend dead beside her in bed.
Wishful Drinking, the show, has been a runaway success. Entertainment Weekly declared it "drolly hysterical" and the Los Angeles Times called it a "Beverly Hills yard sale of juicy anecdotes." This is Carrie Fisher at her best — revealing her worst. She tells her true and outrageous story of her bizarre reality with her inimitable wit, unabashed self-deprecation, and buoyant, infectious humor. There are more juicy confessions and outrageously funny observations packed in these honest pages than most celebrity bios twice the length...With acerbic precisions and brash humor, she writes of struggling with and enjoying aspects of her alcoholism, drug addiction and mental breakdowns. Her razor-sharp observations about celebrity, addiction and sexuality demand to be read aloud to friends." — Publishers Weekly

I've read a couple of her other books, like the famous Postcards from the Edge, which was made into a movie with Meryl Streep, and even her fiction was really thinly disguised autobiography, which is sometimes a good thing and sometimes seems almost pathetic, as if she has a pathological need to complain about her lonely childhood and her narcissistic parents. It made me wonder if Carrie Fisher had been born into a "regular" family, if she still would have become an alcoholic and drug addict, and if she would have become the iconic Princess Leia in the famous Star Wars film franchise. Yet underneath the wit and humor is an ocean of pathos and depression, sadness and yearning for something real, something that isn't all glitter and make-believe. I don't know if she ever found it, but I wish her peace in her final soul's rest. This slender volume deserves an A, and a recommendation to anyone who thinks being famous will bring them happiness. 

I've tried to read Caitlin Moran's  How To Be A Woman a couple of times in the past, and I just couldn't get into it. That's surprising because witty feminist memoirs are something I usually enjoy. But for some reason, the Welsh Moran and her grubby childhood and struggles to become a music journalist didn't engage me the first two times I tried to read it. I gave away my first copy and sent the second back to the library unread. However, third time's the charm, and last week I read through the book in two days. Moran's prose is darkly amusing, sort of old-school Goth, and I found that you have to be willing to wade into the grimy bits to get to the good stuff when you read this autobiographical treatise. Here's the blurb, via Publisher's Weekly: Part memoir, part postmodern feminist rant, this award-winning British TV critic and celebrity writer brings her ingeniously funny views to the States. Moran’s journey into womanhood begins on her 13th birthday when boys throw rocks at her 182-pound body, and her only friend, her sister Caz, hands her a homemade card reminding her to please turn 18 or die soon so Caz can inherit her bedroom. Always resourceful—as the eldest of eight children from Wolverhampton—the author embarrasses herself often enough to become an authority on how to masturbate; name one’s breasts; and forgo a Brazilian bikini wax. She doesn’t politicize feminism; she humanizes it. Everyone, she writes, is automatically an F-word if they own a vagina and want “to be in charge of it.” Empowering women is as easy as saying—without reservation—the word “fat” and filling our handbags with necessities like a safety pin, biscuit, and “something that can absorb huge amounts of liquid.” Beneath the laugh-out-loud humor is genuine insight about the blessings of having—or not having—children. With brutal honesty, she explains why she chose to have an abortion after birthing two healthy daughters with her longtime husband, Pete. Her story is as touching as it is timely. In her brilliant, original voice, Moran successfully entertains and enlightens her audience with hard-won wisdom and wit.

Moran's prose is funny, but in an acidic and gritty way, as if she can't keep herself from attempting to shock the reader with coarse language and dirty references. That said, once you get past the rough childhood bits, the book moves at a swift pace. While I agreed with most of what Moran says about fighting misogyny and sexism, her account of how she handled sexual harassment in the workplace was disappointing at best. She seemed to think it was inevitable but allowable because all men are stupid and can't help themselves. The Me,Too movement has put paid to a lot of sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace for women, and while that is taking place now, long after this book was written, from all her other ballsy moves in the book, I expected more boundary setting and whistleblowing from Moran, to pave the way for the women who came after her, so their struggles wouldn't be as difficult. Still, I'd give the book a solid B, and recommend it to anyone who wonders what feminism "across the pond" looks like. 

Puddin' by Julie Murphy is the sequel to her famed novel Dumplin' which is being made into a movie. I read and loved Dumplin' which was about a fat teenager in Texas named Willowdean who entered a beauty contest with her band of misfit friends and changed the rules for the entire pageant. I reviewed it, so if you want more, you can do a search under the title on my blog. At any rate, this novel takes on the story of the runner up in the pageant, Millie, who is a fat girl with style and a very optimistic, naive nature. Here's the blurb:

The irresistible companion to the #1 New York Times bestseller Dumplin’, soon to be a major motion picture starring Danielle Macdonald and Jennifer Aniston!
Millie Michalchuk has gone to fat camp every year since she was a little girl. Not this year. This year she has new plans to chase her secret dream of being a newscaster—and to kiss the boy she’s crushing on.
Callie Reyes is the pretty girl who is next in line for dance team captain and has the popular boyfriend. But when it comes to other girls, she’s more frenemy than friend.
When circumstances bring the girls together over the course of a semester, they surprise everyone (especially themselves) by realizing that they might have more in common than they ever imagined. Publisher's Weekly:Clover City High School in Texas has a clear social hierarchy: football on top, dance team members next, then everyone else. Junior Millie Michalchuk, who also appeared in Murphy’s Dumplin’, may be a lifer at fat camp, but that doesn’t mean she buys into how the world sees her. Callie Reyes dates a football player and is on course to become dance team captain. The girls’ paths rarely cross. Then the dance team loses its funder, a gym owned by Millie’s uncle, and its members break in and trash the business. When a sulky Callie starts working at the gym, Millie models not just friendship and forgiveness, but also tough-love examples of how to treat people. Through the girls’ alternating perspectives, Murphy develops their aspirations and struggles: Millie isn’t sure how to pursue her dream of being a TV anchor; Mexican-American Callie experiences stereotyping and yearns for friends, not frenemies. Murphy convincingly and satisfyingly portrays how their one-step-forward-two-steps-back bonding process helps them go for what they want rather than what others think is possible.

Though we do get to hang out with Willowdean and the others from Dumplin, the book revolves around Millie and her relationship with Callie and her budding romance with Malik. Millie is almost a cliche of the "happy go lucky," sweet and optimistic fat girl who seems oblivious to the sexism, racism and cruelty all around her. (Callie is also a cliche of the cheerleader/drill team pretty popular girl who is cruel and sexually manipulates her wealthy popular boyfriend). Having experienced constant bullying and harassment in junior high and high school, I know what it feels like to be the preyed upon for being fat and different. That said, I don't believe for one moment, even 40 years after my high school years, that it's possible to stop a bully from making "oinking" noises and hurling insults and jokes about weight at you by simply turning toward him, as Millie does, and saying "Good Morning! How are you? Have a great day!" Any bully (or group of bullies, as I was usually subjected to in high school) worth his salt would have relished the opportunity to throw spitballs (or just spit) at me, continue to make fat jokes or hurl insults and invective, and, in my day, shoving or tossing apple cores or gum into my hair, kicking or hitting me were ways to get roars of approval and laughter from the crowd that were not to be missed. Merely attempting to be nice and polite would not have 'thrown' them at all, nor would it have stopped them from harassing me. I can't believe things are any better in today's school environment, especially now that there are computers and cell phones so that bullies can cyber-stalk and humiliate their victims for days on end. But here,Millie manages to make kindness and courtesy prevail, as she shows callous Callie how to be a friend, (and how not to be a shallow b*tch), Malik how to be a boyfriend and her mother how to be accepting of who you are and who your daughter has become, a confident fat girl who wants to be a TV anchor/journalist,despite the prejudice inherent in a business that hires it's talking heads for looks, not for journalistic chops. Millie shames the dean of students into letting her into a broadcast journalism summer camp, and while I laud her for being persistent, having had a husband who worked as a behind the camera journalist at a local TV station, I can tell you that the General Manager of said station told me outright that there are beauty clauses in every anchor/weather person/on air reporter's contract. These contracts force them to remain a certain size, and pays for them to have dental work, plastic surgery, wardrobes, hair color/cuts, etc, so that they will look good enough to present the news or weather on air.The contracts are specifically more draconian for the women at the station, as they're not supposed to show signs of aging at all. Many are fired or put in positions behind the camera once they hit middle age, while the male anchors are allowed to show some gray hair and even gain a little weight. They still have to look "good" though, and they can't have any handicaps that come with aging, so if they develop a hearing problem, it's bye-bye anchor job. But I appreciate Murphy's hopeful attitude about changing the television news environment to be more representative of real women, who come in all shapes and sizes. That hopeful attitude, plus the bright prose and zippy plot make me want to give this book an A, with the recommendation that any teenage girl who is fat or different take a gander at this novel. It will fill you with hope and inspiration.

How To Stop Time by Matt Haig (the illustrated edition) took over a month to get to my mailbox, for some odd reason, but after picking it up, I found it was well worth the wait. I'd assumed it was going to be a kind of "Benjamin Button" novel (which I read and watched the movie with Brad Pitt), but this book actually went deep, and moved beyond the physical aging/not aging problems into the questions of what makes life, any life, worth living? the prose is stalwart and strong, and the plot veers left when you think it will go right. The illustrations are beautiful and creepy, and keep the atmosphere of the book timeless. Here's the blurb: 

 “She smiled a soft, troubled smile and I felt the whole world slipping away, and I wanted to slip with it, to go wherever she was going… I had existed whole years without her, but that was all it had been. An existence. A book with no words.”

Tom Hazard has just moved back his to London, his old home, to settle down and become a high school history teacher. And on his first day at school, he meets a captivating French teacher at his school who seems fascinated by him. But Tom has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he's been alive for centuries. Tom has lived history--performing with Shakespeare, exploring the high seas with Captain Cook, and sharing cocktails with Fitzgerald. Now, he just wants an ordinary life.
Unfortunately for Tom, the Albatross Society, the secretive group which protects people like Tom, has one rule: Never fall in love. As painful memories of his past and the erratic behavior of the Society's watchful leader threaten to derail his new life and romance, the one thing he can't have just happens to be the one thing that might save him. Tom will have to decide once and for all whether to remain stuck in the past, or finally begin living in the present.
How to Stop Time tells a love story across the ages - and for the ages - about a man lost in time, the woman who could save him, and the lifetimes it can take to learn how to live. It is a bighearted, wildly original novel about losing and finding yourself, the inevitability of change, and how with enough time to learn, we just might find happiness. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

What the blurb doesn't mention is that the Albatross Society CEO (who is older than anyone and obviously insane) demands that Tom get all immortals to join the society, and if they do not, he's required to kill them so that the world will not find out about the immortals and those willing to experiment on them to uncover their secrets. What is interesting about the immortals in the book is that they really aren't immortal, just very long lived. They can get to be around a thousand years old, before they expire naturally from old age and a body that is worn out. They can also be killed by accidents or guns or fire or anything that isn't bacterial or viral, which they're immune to. So while regular humans, called "Mayflies" by the Albas, age each year, the Albas age only every 15-25 years, and then only slightly. What this book boils down to, in the end, is love is the only thing worth living, or dying for. The rest is all noise. I can't say I disagree with that, either. I'd give this book an A,and recommend it to fans of Neil Gaiman and Alice Hoffman. Also, fans of history will enjoy the flashbacks to what history was really like for those who lived it.