Disclaimer: I have never watched The Bachelor nor any of it's spin offs or specials. I never think to watch something unless another family member speDisclaimer: I have never watched The Bachelor nor any of it's spin offs or specials. I never think to watch something unless another family member specifically asks if I'd like to watch something with them. Otherwise I'm reading a book from my always-extensive pile in the other room. So I'm not going to talk about a series I haven't watched, I'm going to talk about the book.
And oh, what a fine book it is. Kaufman strikes a brilliant balance between reporting academic research on related topics, and a more personal Twitteresque recap of Bachelor-related adventures. There's a great deal about the making of the shows which is ugly and creepy and bad. There's a lot of behind-the-scenes detail from various cast and crew, and a lot of what comes after. There are short essays between chapters by various famous people about why they like to watch, which almost everyone considers a guilty pleasure. There's quite a bit about how the Bachelor reflects modern life: the Disney-induced princessification of all things female, the current state of marriage, dating, feminism, social-influencer advertising. It's all great social commentary stuff.
Mostly what I get out of it is a better understanding of why the shows are so popular. Now I understand.
Entertaining and informative: finest kind of nonfiction.
Edited to add: There's a whole thing about the cast women living together and their cycles synchronizing, and I know it is commonly believed but it is no more true than that more weird stuff happens on the full moon. It's not the kind of thing I would expect the author to fact check, and given the widespread belief in menstrual synchrony I'm really not surprised that the producers would believe in it and try to use it to manipulate the cast members, but it still isn't true. This doesn't really bear on the book except it is the kind of garbage that gets in my head and makes me crazy, so I had to vent.
Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writin - Jennifer Weiner I've enjoyed a couple of Weiner's books, but more than her storytelling, I reallyHungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writin - Jennifer Weiner I've enjoyed a couple of Weiner's books, but more than her storytelling, I really admire her activism. I lost patience with people ragging on women's writing and writing for women a couple of decades ago. And don't get me started on genre snobbery. I READ POPULAR BOOKS. And so does every highbrow apologist, because the only writings that have survived from previous centuries, let alone millennia, were POPULAR. And it is my belief that writers who worked for pay on deadline, with quick turnaround, are the best. So I remember many of Weiner's efforts to speak out against the quiet, systemic sexism that denigrates what women do as somehow less valuable than men's. Women young through old are responsible for most of the books read and sold in the U.S., but do they get the majority of the bylines, reviews, or awards? No, they don't even get half. VIDA's got the numbers and they're appalling, as is the fact that the worst offenders do not even have to apologize, because who cares? And the most prestige, the most coverage, the most work continues to go to het white men that no one enjoys reading. Anyway, Weiner is funiest when writing of the worst times of her life. Her family is screwed up in mostly charming ways. She is always clear that writing is a job, and for anyone interested in following her advice, she presents a refreshingly clear-eyed training plan. So that's all great. But I love the bits when she is actively fighting for justice: I hope she's proud of that work. I hope her daughters are, too. Library copy...more
Is there anything more passé than a steamy novel after sixty years? We read Valley of the Dolls and Flowers in the Attic back in the day, and it's reaIs there anything more passé than a steamy novel after sixty years? We read Valley of the Dolls and Flowers in the Attic back in the day, and it's really almost impossible to recall them without groaning a little. Or blushing. Or rolling your eyes. Possibly all of the above *and* a disclaimer about untutored youth. Peyton Place predates me, but it made enough of a ripple in the culture to get me to go back and give it a look. Just as I am someday going to do with Forever Amber. I thought it was okay, but no big deal. Then one day, I'm walking by the new books and I see this fabulously saucy cover (seriously, academic presses are not known for their fabulous covers), and I take a look, and by the time I've finished checking out the book jacket I am checking the book out of the library. This is a social history of a publishing phenomenon about which I previously knew nothing. And it is riveting. How the publisher got it, how Metalious wrote it, the true murder story that forms the plot, excerpts from the author's fan mail, and a bit about her life after she found fame and fortune. It is an amazing story, both entertaining and insightful. I feel like Cameron has explained a time and a culture in a way I've never understood before, and I am grateful for her tutelage (hers must be the most popular classes on campus). Great book, great cover, weird time in American history. I wish all academic writing were this fun to read.
Courtney Milan is a hell of an overachiever. She isn't content to write charming romances in which, as in Austen, the primary barriers to love are theCourtney Milan is a hell of an overachiever. She isn't content to write charming romances in which, as in Austen, the primary barriers to love are the uncontrolled aspects of multifaceted personalities. Milan also strives to remind the reader of how many different kinds of love there are, and that loving thy neighbor is hard, but worthwhile. She is Dickensian in her examination of class, but so much broader in scope. But also fun. They flirt with math. How adorably geeky and STEMy is that?
If they weren't so much fun, I might be tempted to call them uplifting. They are, often, deeply moving, because her characters have sometimes horrible, albeit too believable, backstories. Her happy endings are hard-earned.
Woman travels to Italy for the destination wedding of her best friend, doesn't get along with the fiance's best friend; wedding 07 Jan 2005 01 May 2016
Woman travels to Italy for the destination wedding of her best friend, doesn't get along with the fiance's best friend; wedding plans go awry; wedding goes off, everyone lives happily ever after. The whole story, like the other Boy books, is told through texts, journal entries, etc.
I'm not freaking out over this cover, it's girly, but it does convey a humorous romance, so that's fine. But. This is the story of a woman who is a popular cartoonist, the Wondercat artist. Why wouldn't you put this supposedly internationally-recognized image on the book? Because this isn't just a job, it is also plot important.
***
29 March 2022
This particular copy came with a little extra piece from Cabot on the creation of the book, in which I learned that we were both 26 and married in the same year, two months apart. And neither of us were interested in planning our wedding; although our solutions were quite different. My mother made my dress, as well as the dresses of the best women, and my husband or mother or mother-in-law planned everything else. I picked out the cake though, because priorities. How many million brides2.3 million brides in the US in 1993. I wonder why that kind of coincidence, which is quite likely between any two Americans if one doesn't specify which coincidence in particular will do, makes us feel a connection to people we quite obviously have no connection to? And then too, people who are connected in some way will point to such coincidences as significant (my husband and I both wrote papers in high school on The Screwtape Letters which is probably not common, but again, if we don't specify first, there are going to be a large quantity of some kind of match. Hmm, I wonder if there is some minimum level of those coincidences that makes us feel in love? In which case, any two people at random will fall in love if only they can find enough things before something distracts them.
Random theories out of the ether, that's me.
Anyway, once again, when life gets really hard, Meg Cabot is such a comfort. She makes me feel well disposed toward the world when my inclination is otherwise.
Britney loses it all (pre-kids) and takes a real job, then has to solve a couple of murders
***
Wow. That was dismissive. Veronica was on a C21 Mar 2007
Britney loses it all (pre-kids) and takes a real job, then has to solve a couple of murders
***
Wow. That was dismissive. Veronica was on a Cabot binge, so I joined her in a buddy read. And this time it was worth 5 stars, not the three I gave it nine years ago. (Wow. Nine years!) The lead character is a former teen pop star, now working as one of the staff at a university just like NYU, but not. She's working for the university so that she can get free college. As a pop star she was young and skinny, now she's more like an actual adult. She's hard working, excellent with her coworkers (an appropriately diverse group) and she's much more clever than anyone gives her credit for. So clever that she knows a death is murder not accident, and eventually she solves the whole thing.
There's not so much about her weight per se, as there is about what she eats. Heather loves food. She has a deep connection with all the sensual pleasures of a good nosh. It's fun to read, unless you're hungry.
So, the Chickwashing is both for myself, for dismissing the book as I would a former pop star that I never liked. And also for the publisher. Because what does that dress have to do with anything? And that the stupid dress takes up so much space that they had to make the waist tinier than a Disney princess? Why not give it, oh, I don't know, maybe a MYSTERY cover? Alternatively, they might have run a picture of a young woman who actually is a size twelve, as a noirish kind of thing, or better yet: faux noir. Make the cover a riff on a typical mystery cover, that's fine. But I'm getting less tolerant of this kind of thing.
Nov 18, 2000 *** Jan 29, 2014 Definitely a good book to suit my mood. Not many novels focus on the aftermath of death, the technical details of funerals,Nov 18, 2000 *** Jan 29, 2014 Definitely a good book to suit my mood. Not many novels focus on the aftermath of death, the technical details of funerals, and executing wills, and all that business, so bonus points to Pilcher.
The reason this isn't one of my very favorite books is that the time frame feels much too compressed to me. I prefer the sweep of years one finds in The Shell Seekers and Coming Home to the compression of September and Winter Solstice. Of course, it still has all the marvelous food, and the detailed descriptions of real estate that I love. *** Dec 6, 2016 The strength of the book, the comfort of it, is the idea that one can get beyond grief, and disappointment, and unhappiness. All of these things get better with time, sure, but also with help from others, with acts of kindness, with making an effort on one’s own behalf. And then there is the house which I adore, and snow, and very traditional winter associations. It is the coziest of books.
Contrast that with the inherent classism. The good people, the upper class people, they’re all tall, and thin, and attractive, and kind (well, mostly). The working classes are represented by shorter, stouter, endlessly robust people, who talk funny. Affordable housing is a huge issue worldwide, but perhaps not best demonstrated with well-off white people who already own houses. Just saying. "Traditional Winter Associations" in the case would mean nothing but white people in Burberrys and Land Rovers. My mother and I both loved Pilcher books together, so there's a lot of nostalgia in a re-read now. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone without embarrassment, but I love it like an L L Bean Christmas catalog puppy.
I've added a new shelf in honor of this book, whose name was changed despite the author's objections. From "newswhore" to "shutterbabe" is definitely I've added a new shelf in honor of this book, whose name was changed despite the author's objections. From "newswhore" to "shutterbabe" is definitely a step in the chick-ification....more
This is now my favorite of Dessen's books. There are familiar elements: conflict with parents, conflict with sisters, high-achieving academic girl disThis is now my favorite of Dessen's books. There are familiar elements: conflict with parents, conflict with sisters, high-achieving academic girl discovering how well she can do other things through a job, the importance of friends. But there's some new stuff here, too. A central issue is education. The oldest sister, Margot, has been to college and come back home, brimming with ideas for improving the family business. The middle sister isn't bookish, she's going to beauty school to learn how to do hair. And Emaline, encouraged by her distant father, has applied to Columbia and been accepted, and then the father didn't have the money, and it was too late to apply for financial aid, and now she's going to the state university that offered her a free ride. To her mother and the step-dad who raised her, this is a perfectly good choice. It's a good school and she won't graduate in debt. But to the biological father, himself a well-educated, privileged, big-city boy, her not being able to go to the Ivy is a huge let down. The assumption that everyone needs to attend college, and earn the most prestigious degree possible, regardless of cost in all senses, has become so pervasive, and yet, for most US high school students, the cost of college is an enormous barrier. It's nice to see it getting some play.
Then there's the whole art thing: an award-winning filmmaker and assistant down from NYC to shoot a documentary on a local artist; the value of art; the meaning of art; how to reconcile one's artistic inclination with the sort of life one wants to lead. Whether or not it was intentional, I couldn't help but associate the artist Clyde with the writer, teacher, mentor, and NC publisher, Clyde Edgerton, who had a huge influence on the Southern literary community, not least by enabling writers to stay at home and have successful careers.
And also, I like that the romance wasn't the Best Ever, and that maybe high school relationships, like summer romances, don't continue afterwards, but that doesn't make them any less real, intense, or important. This is a mature, clear-eyed, accepting sort of novel. It is tremendously respectful of all the different kinds of work that people do, and the different kinds of lives we can lead. It reminds me of Maeve Binchy and Rosamunde Pilcher, whose audiences are significantly older that the average YA reader. Although the story is firmly focused on 18 year old Emaline, I think this book will have crossover appeal.
The "chickwashing" shelf, by the bye, is for the cover. Emaline is a cut-offs and tank kind of gal, not a swirly pink skirt one, and that background isn't to be found in her small Outer Banks town. If the author was Sam Dessen, they'd have used a stock photo of a trunk in a dorm room, probably. I don't hate the cover, I just hate the generic "girl" quality of it, which wouldn't encourage guys or older readers to give it a try.
Based on the covers of any of these editions you'd be forgiven for mistaking the title for "Sappy's Angel". They're all rather preciSeptember 11, 2010
Based on the covers of any of these editions you'd be forgiven for mistaking the title for "Sappy's Angel". They're all rather precious. The title itself was a bit off-putting for me: I was afraid it was going to being something cloyingly religious, with perhaps, a good lesson about character through suffering. Not hardly.
Thankfully, the book it most reminds me of is The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy.* Both are stories about four siblings, with one old enough for crushes, and one quite young. Both have an old-fashioned episodic style, although the characters themselves are quite modern, secular, and eccentric. Both have loving but distracted parents who largely leave the kids up to their own devices because they have their own things to do. Both have intimidating rich women. Both are about the importance of family who are actually loving, if negligent in appearances.
This one has a herd of guinea pigs in lieu of Hound, and lots and lots of art as craft and career, which is interesting and in keeping with the overall bohemian feel. And I'm sure it doesn't tell you anything about me that the mother is a crappy cook.
*Saffy's Angel is several years the elder, but alas, I came to it later.
The historical romance genre is not universally known for being progressive or socially conscious. Which is odd, because from the first novels lookingThe historical romance genre is not universally known for being progressive or socially conscious. Which is odd, because from the first novels looking at marriage prospects from a female point of view, they've all of them pushed the boundaries in little ways and big. Pride and Prejudice waged war with inheritence laws that women still suffer under in the UK today. Those many novels of governesses demonstrated the dangers of depriving girls of education, money, and the ability to seek employment. It may not be beside the point of the books, but it's there, authors observing and commenting upon the lives of women, and suggesting better ways (albeit, on a personal, rather than a political or social justice level).
So I shouldn't be surprised to read a novel set in 1833 that addresses poverty, free education, infectious outbreaks, and lack of medical care, one that in addition questions church positions of the time. But I was surprised. And delighted. It's refreshing to see a character performing missionary work among people she values.
And also, it's great fun to see the hero of the piece trying to find ways to show he's worthy of her love other than just bashing bad guys about the place (although that aspect is there, too, for glorious comic effect). No man has wooed so hard since Darcy.
What I don't understand is why the cover doesn't in some way refer to the primary setting of the Shetland Isles, or to the time frame. The font, the bouquet, it all suggests something contemporary and frothy which is at odds with the text itself.
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