Book Review: The Nineties-A Book by Chuck Klosterman
Between the falling of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the falling of the World Trade Center in 2001 was a decade called the 1990s. The nineties gave the United States its first Baby Boomer President, Bill Clinton, and we saw the rise of the internet. Generation X was finally noticed (the oldest already in their twenties) with the advent of Grunge and a little sitcom called “Friends.” Princess Diana died in a horrific car crash in a Paris tunnel, and OJ Simpson went from football hero to a accused murderous villain. We gossiped about Kato Kaelin, Lorena Bobbit, and Monica Lewinsky. We began the nineties completely unaware of email and ended it checking our AOL email accounts for messages from our families and friends.
The nineties seem so long ago, and at the same time, it seems so recent. Has it really been nearly thirty years since Kurt Cobain left this mortal coil? I feel like I just heard the news of his suicide. Apparently, I’m not the only one who feels like this. Writer Chuck Klosterman also has thoughts about the nineties. And he discusses this decade in his book The Nineties.
In essays both short and long, Klosterman examines the politics, media, sports, and pop culture that shaped the nineties. He examines the scientific developments that gave us the aforementioned internet to the cloning, including Dolly the sheep. He examines major political events like Clarence Thomas Supreme Court hearings and Anita Hill, Bill Clinton’s election ,and a certain political disrupter named Ross Perot, and South Africa electing Nelson Mandela after he had been a political prisoner.
Klosterman speaks of tragedies like the Oklahoma City bombing of the Murrah Federal Building and the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado, which we are still talking about today. But he also writes about things that I had forgotten like the cult Heaven’s Gate mass suicide and the simulated Earth Biosphere 2.
Being a Generation X-er himself, Klosterman (born in 1972), can’t help but write about the insurgence of Generation X. Caught between the more attention grabbing Baby Boomers and the Millennials, Generation X had a brief moment in the spotlight. Douglas Coupland’s novel Generation X was a best-seller. Grunge music and the Seattle scene took over music. Countless movies like “Reality Bites” and “Singles” examined the ennui and struggles of the MTV generation, And speaking of MTV, it was still showing music videos, but reality TV had taken hold with a new show called “The Real World.” Now, thirty years later MTV shows nothing but reality television shows. My younger self would have been so pissed if MTV was broadcasting “Teen Mom” back in 1990.
Where was I? Yes, Generation X and pop culture. We made Thursdays “must-see TV” on NBC with shows like “Friends” and “Seinfeld.” Streaming was more than a decade away, and cable was just starting to make quality television programs (“The Sopranos” and “Sex and the City”), so network television still ruled our viewing habits. Today, “Friends” and “Seinfeld” would be streamed on Netflix or Max, and nudity and cursing would be involved. So instead of Ross from “Friends” saying to Rachel, “We were on a break!” he’d probably say, “We were on a fucking break!” and Rachel would probably be topless.
I really enjoyed reading The Nineties. Klosterman covered so many topics (his take on the Billy Ray Cyrus cheeseball hit “Achy Breaky Heart” cracked me up, and remember a clear cola called Crystal Pepsi?), and he must of had fun walking down memory lane and researching all the people, places, and things that made the nineties the nineties. Those of us who remember this decade will read this book with a sense of both happy and sad nostalgia. And younger generations will get primer on what old people are talking about when they talk about the nineties.
Book Review: Momfluenced-Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencer Culture by Sara Petersen
As a childfree woman, I’m not exactly the target market for mom influencers. Yet, I’m very aware of the power these women wield via their blogs, YouTube channels, Tik Tok, and various forms of social media (especially Instagram). Probably the first well-known mom influencers was Heather Armstrong, better known as Dooce. Armstrong was very honest about the gritty reality and challenges of motherhood. I believe she suffered from severe post-partum depression. Over the past few year, Armstrong’s fame lessened. And sadly, Armstrong took her life last year.
Today, mom influencers are a different breed. These women bathe motherhood in a golden light. Their children are adorable cherubs who never throw tantrums or make messes. These womens homes are beautifully curated and decorated. These mother’s are never frazzled. Most of them are thin, stylish, and yes, mostly white.
One of the most famous of these mom influencers is Hannah Neeleman, a Julliard-trained dancer who just had her eighth(!) child. She and her husband live on a huge farm. They seem to be the modern version of “Little House on the Prairie.” However, Hannah’s husband is the so of the founder of Jet Blue Airlines. These people are loaded! Hannah’s stove probably costs more than your car.
But I digress.
Though not a follower of influencers, I do have a weird interest in the whole influencer phenomenon. And so does writer and mother of three Sara Petersen. And she examines modern motherhood and the world of mom influencers in her book Momfluenced: Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencer Culture.
In Momfluenced, Peterson fully admits she has a love/hate relationship with mom influencers. She has an appetite for their content; she was even influenced to have a third child due to mom influencers. But Petersen is not blind to some of the problems with mom influencers, their content, and the audience that follows them. Petersen gives the reader a primer on the world of mom influencers. She also introduces and interviews some of the influencers she follows, allowing them to speak beyond their Instagram feeds.
Petersen often uses Momfluenced to compare her own journey as a mother and domestic life. Often she finds herself lacking. But I believe this has been the experience of mothers for eons. I bet a lot of mothers compared themselves to June Cleaver, Carol Brady, and Claire Huxtable. But these ladies are fictional. You only faced them once a week via their television shows. But now we can easily access our favorite influencers continuously by simply picking up our smart phones.
The mothers Petersen interviews talk about everything from getting branding deals for their social media to coming up with photos, posts and video reels. Some social media is as carefully curated as a movie or television show. Many of the mothers are quite honest that they do have issues that other mothers face and their not always living in domestic bliss.
Petersen mentions that the most well-known mom influencers are often white, cis, attractive, and very well-off. Influencing of all kinds is very whitewashed. So I really appreciated Petersen reaching out to mom influencers who do not fit into this narrow demographic.
However, Momfluenced does have its faults. At times, Petersen’s writing does come across like a teenager’s diary or burn book. She also comes across like a wannabe suck up when interviewing some of the mom influencers.
But there is one omission that to me, is pretty much unforgivable. Never once does Petersen questions and examine how mom influencers and their social media affects their children. Many of these children are being exploited and they have no say in how they are being portrayed online. We all know child actors can end up messed up and there are protections in place for them. There are no protections for the children on social media at this time. This alone, is too glaring of an omission to ignore, and that is why I cannot give Momfluenced a glowing critique.
Book Review: Until September by Harker Jones
The staid 1950s are rapidly evolving into the upheaval of the 1960s. Kyle Ryan Quinn is 18 years old. And before he matriculates at Princeton, he’s spending the summer after his senior year in high school at his family’s island vacation home. Kyle’s close friends are also with him. His friends are experimenting with drugs and sex, and those things are opening up, Kyle is holding onto a deep secret. Kyle is gay.
Kyle then meets Jack Averill. Jack is reserved and bookish and beautiful. Kyle is instantly smitten. And when these two privileged young men finally meet, they strike up a quick friendship. They fall in love and their ardor cannot be extinguished.
Kyle and Jack’s love affair is quite passionate and yes, clandestine. They can’t let anyone know about their relationship. Even though people are becoming more open-minded when it comes to sex and sexuality, being gay is still considered something to be ashamed of and hidden.
As Kyle and Jack’s relationship intensifies, they wonder how their friends will react if they find out about the two of them. Kyle’s friends, who he has known since he was a child, have their own issues. One of them impregnates a local girl and convinces her to get an abortion only for this brief interlude to end tragically. And another friends is holding amorous feelings for Kyle.
And then there are Kyle and Jack’s families. How will their parents react if they find out? Kyle’s older brother has recently died and the truth about his relationship with Jack may break his parents’ hearts.
Kyle and Jack are soon found out, and the reaction isn’t positive. And just as soon as Jack has entered Kyle’s life, he disappears. Kyle goes on a mad search seeking out Jack. Will he find him, his true love?
Until September is riveting and written with tenderness and care. You truly feel for Kyle and Jack, and want their love to flourish. Now, I will mention that Until September isn’t written with numbered or titled chapters. Instead, it is written is segments, some several pages long, some only a few paragraphs. At first I found this to be a bit jarring, but after I got into the story it didn’t really matter.
Until September proves that first loves don’t always end in happily ever after, but they are potent, memorable, and shape us forever.
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