Speed-Reading Book Nerd Reviews

You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and Their Impact On A Generation

By Susannah Gora.

As an 80's dork, I was quite pleased to be gifted with this by another 80's dork. It's an enjoyable trip through the creation of John Hughes's most influential movies (Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, retty In Pink, Some Kind Of Wonderful, Ferris Bueller's Day Off), St. Elmo's Fire as the origin of the "Brat Pack" label, and covering Say Anything as the successor/last gasp to the 80's teen movies after John Hughes quit doing them. It seems like almost everyone involved in the movies (except for the disappearing Michael Schoffeling and the deceased John Hughes) was interviewed for this, so it's very comprehensive.

Especially memorable bits:

(a) How John Hughes was really just this giant teenager who really really liked bonding with his muse Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall, and how he got totally butthurt when they said they'd like to do movies with other people too and basically never spoke to them again. He was also disappointed that it didn't quite go the same on Ferris Bueller (what with them being older) and kind of sulked off.

(b) John Hughes is, I'm sorry to say, VERY EASILY BUTTHURT. He is constantly being BFF's with people, and any time they so much as slightly disagree with him, he cuts them off forever. Except for director Howie Deutch, who somehow manages to grovel enough to get into his good graces again. Later, John Hughes gets high on his own success, becomes a real dick and does stuff like Curly Sue, then realized he was becoming a dick and quit the business.

(c) I felt very sorry for the whole Brat Pack after reading the story of how they were all just having a great time hanging out together during the filming of St. Elmo's Fire, until Emilio Estevez got the bright idea to invite the guy writing a profile of him along while they all went drinking. The guy didn't find any of them particularly appealing on that night, and the label basically ruined the friendships of all of them forever. Which is really sad, especially what Judd Nelson said about it. "Once there became this derogatory term, it was never the same. I haven't really seen them in many years. And that is a shame. Because I thought I was going to be friends with these people my whole life."

(d) I enjoyed reading the controversies behind Pretty in Pink and Some Kind Of Wonderful. Probably because I am biased and never was a fan of Duckie-- he kind of came off as a stalker-ish dude to me, but also he ah... well, between the casting of Jon Cryer who always seems kind of prissy and seems about 50 percent gay in normal clothes, and then putting him in clothing described as "zany", well... first time I watched it I thought, "uh, isn't he gay?" I have never stopped thinking that it just seemed wrong to claim the guy was heterosexual, and that's why the moviemakers wanting Andie to end up with Duckie would not have worked for me. Jon Cryer is kind of ticked about it, Molly Ringwald is all, "It would have worked if it had Robert Downey Jr." I concur. As for the Some Kind Of Wonderful, that was due to a lot of cast changes, including the director being in and out of the movie a few times. Amusingly enough, I liked how you eventually find out that the winning director had a crush on Lea Thompson and got to marry her. Aw!

Very enjoyable for 80's nerds.
Four stars.

The Hidden Goddess

By M.K. Hobson.

I loved The Native Star, had no idea the sequel was out. Much to my sadness, it's only a duology. Darn it.

To avoid spoiling the first book, this is going below the cut. But it's a four star review.

Un-Veiled

By Eileen Rendahl.

Ginger Zimmerman is one of the infamous Zimmerman women-- also known as the "Spice Girls" because guess what they're all named after-- of Santa Bonita, California. The Zimmerman women are known for being women of easy virtue and getting knocked up out of wedlock-- so far Ginger's the only adult one that hasn't, but even her career counselor at junior college expects her to do. Ever since Ginger's twin Cinnamon got knocked up in high school, she's put her life on hold to co-single mom with her and run a beauty parlor, Do It Up. (Note that many businesses in Santa Bonita seem to have this sort of naming: Do It Up, Put It On, Flush It Down...) Ginger isn't the hair genius that Cinnamon is, and is attending junior college in hopes of moving on to doing a college program anywhere else but Santa Bonita. If she can ever leave her family responsibilities, that is.

Anyway, Do It Up does wedding hairdos every weekend, which puts Ginger in the know about plenty of drama, such as famous hometown actress Courtney Day bugging her ex-boyfriend for the naked photos of her he took in high school, and a bride that's pregnant before the wedding. But the entire book is about secrets, most of which Ginger finds or figures out and a few that shock the hell out of everybody. One secret in particular is significant to the family. When Craig Exposito, cousin to a groom, comes into the salon, Cinnamon is totally flabbergasted. Likewise, the groom is flabbergasted to meet Ginger later. The family resemblance seems to mean...something...enough to throw off Ginger's romance with Craig, but what?

Interestingly enough, the romances in this book don't go in a standard fashion. I will say no more until the spoiler cut, but be forewarned.

I did enjoy this book, though in all honesty it really goes to the point of farce at the end. Not that it wasn't fun, but it made me feel like I was suddenly in the third act of a melodrama. I'll talk more about that below the spoiler cut. The ending also kind of takes "the truth will set you free" to a quick conclusion.

It's not without some flaws, but a fun read. Three and a half stars.

Hope Was Here

By Joan Bauer.

I sort of wonder if Joan Bauer has a formula that she writes to. Admittedly, I've only read three of her books so far, but they have all kind of gone along the lines of: Teenage girl who's really super good at her job and has parental abandonment issues acquires older female mentor, older male mentor, boyfriend who works in her same field, and then she gets involved with fighting corruption. Well, it might be formulaic if you think of it like that, but darned if it doesn't WORK for a satisfying read.

Anyhoo: Hope Yancey got abandoned by her flaky mom pretty much right after birth, being turned over to her aunt Addie. Addie is a great cook and manager who apparently chooses to work for bad people--or at least, that's why Hope's moved around a lot as a kid and learned how to be a waitress since age 14. Their most recent restaurant went out of business after Addie's co-owner stole all of their money and ran off, and Addie's taken a new job cooking and managing a diner in Wisconsin. Considering that they were living in New York before, Hope is not terribly thrilled with this. But Wisconsin turns out to be more interesting than she thought. Their new boss, G.T. Stoop, has been fighting cancer. But that's not the big surprise he's been planning-- he's hired Addie to take over the diner because he's going for a new job. Mayor. Running against the powerful and conspicuously corrupt incumbent Eli Millstone. Whether he's dying or not, G.T. is gonna do the right thing. And it's awesome. Hope gets involved in the guerrilla campaign for G.T., despite the scary behavior of Millstone's men. It's got ups, it's got downs, it's got heartwarming moments, it even made blackhearted bitch me cry a little.

Five stars.

Spirit Dances

By C.E. Murphy.

I'm not sure how to describe the latest Walker Papers (previous book here). Joanne gets free tickets to a Native American dance show and *cough* takes her boss Morrison as her date. The show is very magical and wonderful--a bit too much, as Joanne finds herself doing some inadvertent partial shapeshifting after the first act. But that's nothing compared to the ending, when the lead dancer's life is snuffed out instantly. Someone's stalking the troupe for their magic, leading Joanne to offer to protect them during the show. She also goes the hell home to learn how to shapeshift properly in case it accidentally happens again. Much like most of Joanne's powers, this comes on unexpectedly easily and strong, but she doesn't seem to have control over what's going on exactly. Such as ah...turning someone else into a giant wolf, somehow. OOPS. Anyway, Joanne goes back and forth between the dancers, shapeshifting practice, and investigating what's happened to some homeless people. She also does a good deed that goes not as well as she'd thought, and copes with having to shoot someone to save Billy's life.

This one ends with a whopper of a cliffhanger for this series, one that will make fans both happy and pissed and also be going, "What the hell? Why is this so sudden and when did that happen?!" Just to warn ya.

Three and a half stars.

I Shall Not Want

By Julia Spencer-Fleming.

A few months after the events of All Mortal Flesh, everyone is still kind of reeling and not talking to each other afterwards. Russ and Clare have been avoiding each other, and Clare's gone back into the National Guard to figure out what the nature of her calling is. Clare, being her usual impulsive self, joins a cool and friendly nun in trying to help the illegal immigrants of their area of the world. Russ's sister Janet hires some folks she thinks are legal to work at her new farm, but things get kind of blown to hell when she finds out that most of them are not legal after all. One worker who's actually legal, Amado, switches ID's with his younger brother Octavio, who ends up injured and working as a temporary sexton at the church until his arm heals. Out at the farm, the original Amado falls in love with Isabel Christie, the sane sister in a family of scary-ass abusive rednecks that live nearby. Given what her relatives are like, that is not a good idea. And then corpses start popping up, and people think there's a serial killer in the area targeting Latinos. And someone's after Octavio/Amado...leading to a really awesome scene for Clare.

In addition to Isabel and Amado, a new forbidden love situation is introduced for Miller's Kill's youngest cop Kevin Flynn, who falls head over heels for new single mom cop Hadley Knox. Hadley just doesn't know what to do with him, which is kind of adorable.

I'll admit that I wasn't as into the case this time, even though it did lead to a sweet scene with Clare and a later scene where everybody there is... well, I won't spoil it, but it's so silly. Mostly it seemed a bit cutthroat for this world, somehow, and that seemed a bit off for me. What really makes this book are the love stories, both new and old, and the impending changes towards the end of the book. Very sweet.

Three and a half stars.

 

 

 

All Mortal Flesh

By Julia Spencer-Fleming.

Previous review of the first book in the series, this is book 5. Yes, I skipped ahead. I suspect this one spoils the previous book, so I'll put stuff below the cut.

It's a four star review, though. Just to let you know.

Welcome to Bordertown

By a bunch of people.

I love the Bordertown series, (note: link has more stories and awesome bonuses, go look) a shared world universe from the 80's or so. (I should look around for my other books in this world for review here, the only one I could find that I've mentioned here already was Elsewhere, see below.) The conceit is that magic erupted and took over some city somewhere, leading to the place known as Bordertown. Bordertown is a rough-and-tumble place where electricity works sometimes and magic works sometimes. Humans, Truebloods (elves), and halfies (half-elf, half-human) mingle together, with varying degrees of cooperation. There's lots of art, lots of partying, lots of gangs... it's a crazy life if you live there.

Anyway, Bordertown recently went through a 13-day period where nobody was able to go out to the (human) World if they wanted to, but when the way opens... well, it's been 13 years on the human side since then, and there's a lot of people who want back in. Now Bordertown is overrun with noobs with cell phones who want Internet access, and humans living in B-town now realize that they haven't aged, but everyone they used to know has...

Here's a rundown of everything individually:

• Welcome to Bordertown: When he was 6 years old, Jimmy's teenage sister Trish was desperate to get out of their small redneck town. When she didn't get into Harvard as she always wanted to, she decided to run off to Bordertown instead. When Jimmy is 19, they get a postcard from her in the mail saying she's just arrived. Jimmy packs up his tools and his dog and goes to bring her back home. But Trish isn't easy to find, and he ends up finding a place for himself in B-town because he's got a knack with working with the in-between-ness of magic and technology. It's adorable. Meanwhile, new arrival Trish is feeling all kinds of weirded out and wondering if she's made a giant mistake. She meets Anush, a Harvard man who's attempting to study the sexual habits of Truebloods (and naturally he's disturbed to find out he's lost 13 years and probably his funding). This, alas, goes a lot more differently than he anticipated when he finds someone willing to ah, "talk" with him about it. It's a sweet story about people finding their place, in one way or another.
• Shannon's Law. (note: online for free already) I normally am just not into this author's writing for some reason, but I really super liked this one. It's the story of how the extremely enterprising Shannon Klod ran to Bordertown the second the place opened up again (land rush!) and managed to set up Internet access in B-town, however creatively. However, the real challenge he's after is communication between B-town and the Realm... His halfie employee/girlfriend Jetfuel has a Trueblood geeky sister who's totally up for giving this a go. While the ending is about as ambiguous as you'd figure given the subject matter, it's really cool to hear how the Realm works and why people have the communication issues that they have about it.
• Cruel Sister: Poem about opposite sisters, kind of reminiscent of changeling stories.
• A Voice Like A Hole: I like how this one points out that if you run away at the age of sixteen, that's the "proper age" for it and that's when the happy fairy tale stuff happens. Alas for Fig, she had a homicidal stepmother and was forced to run away at age fifteen, so.... She's currently living the runaway's life in Sacramento, unhappily so, and meets a girl who truly believes in Bordertown. When that girl runs into trouble and is dying, Fig uses her title voice to... well... I'll just say it's a cool story, and also introduces the Ye Olde Unicorn Trolley. Heh.
• Stairs In Her Hair: Poem about a girl with nothing to lose, or so much to lose. (My apologies for the shortness of the poetry reviews, I'm not sure what to say about 'em.)
• Incunabulum: From what I recall of other Bordertown stories, some Truebloods that get thrown out of the Realm for their crimes are given a whopping case of amnesia when they're booted into Bordertown. This is another one of those cases, a fellow who ends up calling himself Page (because he's a blank one). He soon figures out why he's here, and that he used to be an asshole. But in B-town, maybe he can change.
• Run Back Across The Border: a scary song for those who don't belong.
• A Prince of Thirteen Days: This takes place during the thirteen days (or years) that B-town was closed off from the World. Peja's mom and grandma ran off to Bordertown when she was a baby-- her grandfather was abusive and while her dad was good, her mom was 14 at the time. (Years later, she's still pining for her lost man.) Peja's halfie aunt Rabbit is a strange sort of girl, who has a prediction that Peja will fall in love and lose her virginity in thirteen days. But the only guy Peja's interested in is a mysterious statue of a prince in the park. The prince, inside his stone, is still pining for his lost beloved who made him (and died). Peja and Rabbit figure out how to communicate with him, and they try to figure out the magic to make true love happen. But this has a surprise twist to it, involving graffiti and time. I liked how it ended--not how you'd expect, but it works well.
• The Sages of Elsewhere: It's another Wolfboy story! Wolfboy, owner of Elsewhere Books, gets offered a valuable book called "The Secrets of Seven Sages." After his girlfriend Sparks sees a house she likes, Wolfboy gets the idea that once the Sages book sells, he'll buy that house for her. But when a rival bookstore owner tries to steal the book, and is tricking/cursing Wolfboy to boot, things get surprising. Especially when the book he tries to make off with TALKS. Which is fun. The ending is nice, albeit a bit surprising in that I wondered how they came up with the solution to the problem. Maybe I just missed something there? I don't know, but it was fun. Good seeing Wolfboy again, as well as Orient (another favorite of mine).
• Soulja Grrrl: A Long Line Rap: This was my favorite of the poems/songs, retelling Tam Lin and Janet in a rap. Delightfully different. Even more delightful is that the rap gets referenced in the next story!
• Crossings: Two teenage girls decide to make for Bordertown after the narrator, Miranda, is getting booted out of the U.S. for being illegal. They ah... like werewolves and vampires, so they go looking for some. Miranda's embarrassed upon meeting Wolfboy and finding out he's already taken. Analise, on the other hand, has a much worse time of it when she finds B-town's equivalent of vampires. This is a good story, but is one of those ones that annoys me because it ends too soon. (I hate short stories sometimes.) I wanted it to go for longer. I also want to see if it ties in with Elf Blood below. 
• Fair Trade: A comic drawn story. Features a teenage girl whose dad went to jail and she's going to get in trouble soon for not having a mom around to go live with. Her dad tells her her mom is in Bordertown, so she goes to look. I'm conflicted on this one. While I like the artist as an artist (I love her previous work), and it's way fun to actually see the scenes of B-town (oh, look, there's Wolfboy!), there's... one problem with this: it needs to be more clear as to who's an elf, who's a human, and who's a halfie in the drawings. Because let's just say I was quite confused as to who was what in this story, AND it's crucial to know that information. This is also a story that ends too soon for my preference, which is frustrating. 
• Night Song For A Halfie: "Translator's note: This night song is clearly modeled after some of the human lullabies that threaten rather than console howling children." This is disturbing and awesome. 
• Our Stars, Our Selves: Allie Land is a star in the making, gone to Bordertown to get some interesting street cred for her career. She meets a Trueblood named Alaunus who comes on to her, and is EXTREMELY FREAKING DISAPPOINTED AND DISTURBED that Allie is a lesbian and just plain isn't feeling it for him. And he won't let it go, either. Then she meets Bordertown's local astrologer, who notes that anyone born on an equinox--such as herself, Allie, and Alaunus-- get a special wish on a star. Which is why Al has the problem he has... I liked the twists of this one, I enjoyed that there was an astrologer in it (makes you wonder how this works in B-town). But this is another one where I wished there wasn't a giant loose ending hanging. Let's just say that Shannon would be very interested in the results of that... But we'll never know, darn it.
• Elf Blood: Lizzie ran into some trouble back in the World, which altered her appearance to be more elf-ish and ... well, she's got another problem. (Let's just say she and Analise would relate.) She thinks that maybe going to Bordertown and finding an elf might be the solution to it, and chases after a hot Trueblood guy she develops a crush on. But it's his mysterious and nerdy brother who figures out her problem and how to fix it. I liked how this one went, AND I desperately want a followup story that overlaps with "Crossings." I love how B-town stories have these overlaps...
• Ours Is The Prettiest: Damiana is a motherly-ish lesbian trying to keep the peace between her kinda-insane best friend/ex Gladstone and Gladstone's new girlfriend, Beti. Damiana just thinks she's got relationship drama to worry about, but there's more to Beti than meets the eye. How on earth, for example, does that girl's cell phone work in B-town? Turns out that there's something else we've never heard of, and Beti may not be staying here for very long. I'd like to hear more about how THAT works. Also interesting is how Damiana ended up in B-town in the first place... it seems to have picked her. Interesting...
• The Wall: Interesting description poem of how the Wall looks to everyone.
• We Do Not Come In Peace: This is probably my least favorite in the collection, not because the story is so bad, but because the ending just made me go "HUH?" Marius is a 21-year-old longtime B-town resident, a musician whose musical ability seems to have died off during the thirteen days/years of Bordertown closing. He picks up and dates Alek, a noob. But Alek gets involved with a group of Bordertown rebels and the relationship ends. When they meet again... well... honestly, the ending didn't work for me. If Marius disapproves of what Alek is getting up to, then why on earth does that magically solve Marius's problems? That seems to be what the ending is implying, and I just plain do not get this. Am I supposed to be rooting for them to get back together after what Alek does? I'd rather see Alek get out of the headspace he's in than the ending going the way that it does. Argh.
• A Borderland Jump-Rope Rhyme: Just as perverse as "Night Song." Coolness. 
• The Rowan Gentleman: This takes place at the Magic Lantern, B-town's lone movie theater. Since the movies tend to conk out, they stage the movies on the floor Rocky Horror-style. Our narrator, actress Ashley, is interested in the theater's Trueblood owner, Alain, but isn't sure how dedicated he is to his pursuit of her. And then someone turns up dead at the theater, talking about "the Rowan Gentleman," a Scarlet Pimpernel-esque figure that seems to be tied to the theater. I like this story, particularly regarding Alain's character development.
• The Song of the Song: What would a song sing about itself?
• A Tangle of Green Men: This one's a heart-tugger, and doesn't even take place in Bordertown for most of it. After Joey Green (hah) gets out of juvie, he goes straight and goes to live with his uncle. While setting up FaerieCon, he meets a lovely faerie-loving girl named Juliana and they are totally adorable together and make a great life for themselves (her dad is a Green Man, part of a troupe of them, hence the title). But... well, things change enough that Joey decides that he needs to seek out B-town. I won't get into more of it, but this is a very cool story. 

Overall, I loooooove this collection. Bordertown makes me happy and the shared worldbuilding is wonderful. I love it when characters overlap, I love it when plot details bleed over like it was all done by one author, and even the weirder stories are very well written.

Five stars.

Deadline

By Mira Grant.

Because the beginning of this one spoils the ending of the previous book, this review will go below the spoiler cut. And then after THAT there's going to be LAYERS of spoiler space because HOLY COW THIS BOOK...

Five stars.

Added bonus: if you'd like to read some short vignettes that take place during the actual Rising, the author has posted them here. And I found a few similar things the other day that I found amusing.

Nell Gwynne's Secret Spy

By Kage Baker.

Like Not Less Than Gods, this book takes place around the same time in the Company series. I believe it's also known as "The Women of Nell Gwynne's" in earlier publication. The first main story is called "The Women of Nell Gwynne's."

Nell Gwynne's, an exclusive whorehouse/secret sister spy organization to the Gentlemen's Speculative Society, is mentioned in the above book. This is a too-short book featuring one lady of the house, the scarlet-wearing Lady Beatrice. Lady B is a plucky sort of girl: after her soldier dad that she took after died and she gets raped, she kills her rapists and gets the hell out of there to get home, only to get thrown out. Naturally, she takes up the one profession that she can under those circumstances, performing well even though mentally she's just not in her body at all. Then after running into a well-connected friend of her dad's, she gets an invitation to join Nell Gwynne's, run by the stealthy Elizabeth Corvey. Mrs. Corvey is blind, except for the GSS providing her with nifty mechanical eyes behind the goggles she always has on. Lady B joins the house, where there's a few specialists (the lady who dresses like a man, the two kinkier ones), and three other "normal"-ish girls, sisters who have been known to work in tandem. I'm not exactly sure what Lady Beatrice's specialty is supposed to be, or why she's the heroine compared to everyone else.

Anyhoo, Lady B, the three sisters, and Mrs. Corvey take a mission to (a) look for a missing Society member (Mrs. Corvey's job) and (b) investigate how a rich wastrel sort is suddenly coming up with nifty inventions that he'd like to sell off to a prominent bidder. Booked for the evening, the ladies contend with a levitating cake, a murder, and coming across a species that fans of the series will recognize, if you know what I mean.

There's an even shorter story in the same vein at the back, "The Bohemian Astrobleme," that doesn't really feature anyone else at Nell's but Lady Beatrice, and even she doesn't get to do anything particularly unique or interesting in it. They're chasing after a source of tektite, which seems to come from a haunted mine.

I was excited for this series, because I love the idea of whore-spies. And Mrs. Corvey is awesome. But... once again, short stories suffer from being too damn short. Now, this comes from the period of time right before the author's death, I think, so I doubt she was up to making this a whole big ol' book of the ladies' adventures. But while the worldbuilding and setup are cool, I never felt like I got to know anybody particularly well. I enjoy Lady B when it comes to her backstory, but why she's the star of the house compared to everyone else, I don't know. In action, she stands out less (especially in the second story). So it fell kind of flatter than Company stories usually do to me.

Three stars.