Reading to Reels: The Commitments

Back in 1991, charming Irish film was released. It was called The Commitments. Based on the 1987 novel of the same name by Roddy Doyle, The Commitments was about a band trying to make it the gritty and struggling city of Dublin, Ireland.

Meet Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins). Jimmy is on the dole and lives with his parents on the northside of Dublin. But that doesn’t mean he’s a total slacker who lacks ambition. He wants to manage a band, an no, this band won’t follow in the footsteps of their fellow Irish citizens like U2 or Sinead O’Connor (RIP). Instead, Jimmy wants the band to follow the 1960s’ soulful musical stylings of Black American singers and musicians.

At first, Jimmy puts an ad in the local newspaper asking for aspiring singers and musicians. He holds auditions in his parents’ parlor. Unfortunately, these auditions are not fruitful. Nobody can fill Jimmy’s soulful aspirations. Jimmy then looks to his friends to make the band, which includes lead singer Deco Cuffe (Andrew Strong), keyboardist Steven Clifford (Michael Aherne), bassist Derek Scully (Kenneth McCluskey), lead guitarist Outspan Foster (Glen Hansard), sax player Dean Fay (Felim Gormley), and drummer Billy Mooney (Dick Massey). Three local girls, Bernie McGloughlin (Bronagh Gallagher), Natalie Murphy (Maria Doyle), and Imelda Quirke (Angeline Ball) are brought onboard to be back-up singers. Jimmy soon meets an older man by the name of Joey “The Lips” Fagan (Johnny Murphy). Johnny has been playing music for decades and boasts about meeting many musical legends.

It is Jay who comes up with the band’s name The Commitments. But it is a long road before hit records and sold-out shows at famous arenas through out the world. The Commitments have a lot of work to do to reach musical greatness.

First the band has to procure musical instruments. Steven’s grandmother sells them a drum kit and a piano. And Duffy procures the rest of the instruments through some rather dodgy maneuvers. The Commitments find a rehearsal place to hone their musical stylings. The Commitments get their first gig at a local church’s community center. The band claims its a benefit to combat drug addiction (heroin was a huge problem in 1980s Ireland).

The Commitments draw a sizable crowd, but the gig doesn’t quite go as well as planned. Equipment malfunctions causing a power outage. And it doesn’t exactly help matters when Deco accidentally beams Derek with his microphone stand. Oops.

Though the Commitments are tight on stage, things aren’t exactly harmonious behind the scenes. Deco becomes an out-of-control diva. After one brawl between Deco and Billy, Mickah Wallace (Dave Finnegan), who had been acting as security for the band, takes over on the drums. Billy has had enough. And then there is also a scuffle when Jimmy is confronted about paying for the instruments he procured for the band. Mickah beats up Duffy, who is then escorted out of the gig. Meanwhile, Joey manages to woo and bed Bernie, Natalie, and Imelda. No, not at the same time. It’s not that kind of movie. But how do you think Joey “The Lips” Fagan got his nickname? Wink, wink.

However, despite all the backstage chaos and romantic shenanigans, The Commitments are gaining a considerable following and more and more gigs. They are local musical heroes. Then Joey tells them some interesting news when the band gets yet another gig. Joey tells his bandmates that the Wilson Pickett will be in Dublin for a concert, and because he and Joey are tight, Wilson can join The Commitments for a performance. Jimmy is so excited, he tells some local journalists this juicy tidbit and convinces them to come to this gig. It will be major. Will Wilson show up? Things do look doubtful, and Deco and Jimmy get into a row. And this also causes quite a bit of of protest amongst the audience, but they are placated once the band plays the Wilson Pickett classic, “In the Midnight Hour.” Things don’t go very well for the band after the gig. Big fights break out and thus, it looks like The Commitments are over when they are just beginning.

In the end, The Commitments don’t reach the musical heights they had hoped for, and the film ends with a montage narrated by Jimmy of where the band members are post-The Commitments. Imelda gets married and is forbidden to sing by her husband, but Natalie becomes a successful solo singer and Bernie is in a country band. Steven is now doctor. Outspan and Derek are street buskers. Dean formed a jazz band. Joey claims on a postcard to his mother that he’s touring with Joe Tex. Too bad Joe Tex is dead. Mickah is the singer of a punk band. And as for Deco, well, he got a record deal and is still a diva and a royal pain in the arse.

Directed by Alan Parker (who also directed the original Fame movie released in 1980), The Commitments wasn’t necessarily a huge hit when it was initially released in 1991. But since then, has become a beloved cult classic. The movie spawned two soundtracks that were big hits and introduced iconic soulful songs and sounds to a new generation. And the cast is still involved in acting and/or music. Glen Hansard is probably the best known. He was in another Irish charmer, Once, and one an Oscar for the song “Falling Slowly.”

I loved The Commitments. The cast has incredible chemistry, the music is fabulous, and Parker truly captures the grittiness of Dublin back in the day. The Colm Meaney nearly steals the show as Jimmy’s Elvis-loving father. The Commitments is a delight!

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: Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner

In Jennifer Weiners expansive novel Mrs. Everything, she tells the intricate tale of two very different sisters and their lives change, diverge, and merge together from the staid and sober 1950s through the upheaval of the 1960s and 1970s and onto the modern day.

Meet the Kaufman sisters, Josette (Jo) and Elizabeth (Bethie). Despite being related, Joe and Bethie couldn’t be any more dissimilar. Jo is a tomboy who loves to tell wild tales and dreams of travel and adventure. Bethie is pretty and charming. She loves singing and acting in both school and temple productions, and seems destined to be the proper wife and mother.

But as they grow older and come of age, Jo and Bethie’s lives take completely contradictory paths. Jo gets married, has three girls, and tries to be the proper and contented suburban housewife. Meanwhile, Bethie goes off the rails, gets involved in the counterculture, and ends up living in a commune.

Jo and Bethie’s story begins in the 1950s where they are being raised by their widowed mother in Detroit. Both have deep, dark secrets. Jo is a lesbian and she is trying desperately to keep this hidden. And Bethie is being molested by a very sleazy uncle.

It’s when both girls go to college their lives take unexpected twists and turns. Jo has an affair with the love of her life, Shelly, who later breaks Jo’s heart when she marries a man. Jo gets involved in the civil rights movement and other social issues. After graduation, she wants to be a world traveler. Bethie, on the other hand, finds flirting and having a boyfriend more important than studying and getting good grades. And she becomes quite the campus party girl.

But tragedy hits Bethie when she is brutally raped and ends up pregnant. Jo, who is now traveling overseas, cuts her vacation short, comes back to the States, and helps Bethie procure an illegal abortion. This becomes a secret that must remain only with the sisters.

As the 1960s turn into the 1970s, the Kaufman sisters’ live take on more disparate turns. Despite being gay, Jo marries a man, has three daughters, and struggles to find contentment in suburbia. Bethie is fully entrenched in the counterculture, belongs to a commune, but finds success selling homemade jam.

The go-go yuppie 1980s arrive, and both Jo and Bethie discover they have an entrepreneurial spirit. Jo has started teaching the neighborhood ladies fitness routines and aerobics. Bethie goes from the counterculture to boss babe when her jam making business takes off.

Jo and Bethie’s personal lives also go through some changes. Jo finds out her husband is cheating on her with one of her (former) best friends, and goes through a very messy divorce. And Bethie finally settles down with an old high school friend. However, she and her husband do face some hostility due to Bethie being white and Jewish, and her husband being Black and the son of a preacher.

As the 1990s and the 21st century come around, the Kaufman sisters are still facing challenges but all come to grips with their lives and the women they have become. Jo may even find love again with someone from her past, and Bethie’s marriage is in it for the long haul.

For the most part, I appreciated how Weiner captured the changing lives of women from the 1950s to the modern age through the lives of Jo and Bethie. However, I do have one quibble. The section that takes place when both sisters are at college was really off. I wasn’t around in 1962, but I hardly think boys back then were wearing their hair past their shoulders, girls were adorned in hippie-like outfits, people were protesting the Vietnam War, and hard drugs ran rampant. These scenarios seemed more out of the late 1960s, than the early 1960s. This was a glaring misstep on Weiner’s part.

Still, Mrs. Everything is a very engrossing read with two very fascinating characters.

Book Review: Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen

Meet Maeve Murray. In Michelle Gallen’s novel Factory Girls, it is 1994 and Maeve lives in a small town in Northern Ireland. She has just graduated from high school, and is anxiously awaiting her exam results. Maeve has big dreams to escape her small town, move to London, and study journalism at university.

But before she can do all that, Maeve needs to find a job. She, along with her best mates, Caroline and Aoife, gets a summer job at the local shirt factory. Maeve’s job is hardly glamorous, and it’s a million miles away from a career in journalism. Maeve is going to be ironing shirts at the factory all day. But she’s happy to make some money, and soon she and Caroline get their very own flat.

At the helm of the shirt factory is the very posh Andy Strawbridge. You know he’s posh because he drives a fancy Jag. Being Irish and Catholic, Maeve is a bit leery of the British and Protestant Andy. Plus, Andy has a bit of a reputation for being a total letch.

Andy seems to find some promise in Maeve, or maybe he’s just trying to get into her knickers. He does gift her with the Dale Carnegie classic book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Maeve takes the book. Maybe Andy wants to mentor her. But at the same time she wonders if he has lasciviousness designs on her.

Working at the shirt factory is the first time Maeve finds herself working and conversing with Protestants. She has always lived among Catholics and went to Catholic schools. Protestants might as well have been from Mars according to Maeve. Remember. This is 1990s Northern Ireland. The Troubles were still brewing, and Catholics and Protestants often kept among themselves. And violence was a regular occurrence. So one can’t blame Maeve for being a bit wary of her Protestant co-workers. Though it isn’t long before Maeve realizes she has more in common with these Protestants than she originally thought, and they may have to join forces when things come a bit upended at the shirt factory.

And then there is the Murray family. Maeve and her family are still mourning the tragic death of Deidre, Maeve’s older sister who committed suicide. Deeply saddened, Maeve’s Mam (mother) and Da (father) are also racked by a serious lack of money, and they aren’t exactly supportive of Maeve’s ambition.

During this summer, Maeve starts to grow up a bit and she starts to see there is a lot o grey when it comes to the strict black and white between Catholics and Protestants, and the Irish and the English. She begins the notices the class differences between herself and her friend, Aoife, who comes from a much more well to do family. Maeve deals with family strife, unrequited love, and workplace shenanigans. quite a lot for someone who is still a teenager.

And then there is Maeve’s eagerly awaited exam results. Will her results be favorable and she’ll end up at university? Or will her results me dismal and she’ll be stuck in her small town working a shite job with no future. Scary how so much is dependent on these exam results.

Maeve Murray is an interesting lass with a lot of layers. One moment she’s a partying teenager, drinking to much and cussing up a storm. And then she’s a struggling young woman who seems to have the whole world on her shoulders. But still she’s a protagonist one roots for.

Now one warning. There is a lot of Irish slang is this book that I wasn’t too familiar with. So thanks to O’Lord McGoogle, I was able to look up some Irish slang. FYI-craic means “a good time,” Prods are Protestants and Taigs are Catholics, and weans are children. Also, if you’re not familiar of the Troubles, I highly recommend doing so research.

Factory Girls takes place in 1994, but I can’t help but wonder where Maeve Murray and her mates are nearly thirty years later. Is Maeve a globe-trotting journalist? Is she still friends with Caroline and Aoife? Is Maeve married? Does she have children? I do think a sequel is necessary.

Book Review: Black, White, and Gray All Over-A Black Man’s Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement by Frederick Douglass Reynolds

Despite having a friend who was once married to a cop and watching many episodes of various Law and Order shows, my grasp of what it’s truly like to be a police officer was quite limited. But now that I’ve read Frederick Douglass Reynold’s memoir Black, White and Gray All Over: A Black Man’s Odyssey In Life and Law Enforcement, my eyes have been opened.

Let’s face it, police officers don’t always have the best reputation, especially in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of law enforcement. But the police also have one of the toughest jobs on the planet, and for that they deserve a lot of respect and understanding.

Reynolds was the son of two impoverished sharecroppers who moved to Detroit. His childhood was not easy, and there was a lot of tension between his parents. Despite being smart and showing a great deal of potential, Reynolds got caught up in a bad crowd and criminal behavior, something he does not sugar coat. He was going down a really bad path.

Joining the Marines was a means of escape for Reynolds, and proved he could be responsible and work hard, but still he faced challenges the four years he was in the Marines. When he tried to re-enlist he was denied because he had be reduced in rank two times. And despite working two jobs, Reynolds ended up homeless in Compton, living in his car, and often hanging out in all-night movie theaters.

However, things began to turn around for Reynolds when he got a job as an armed security office through the city of Compton. This led him to his career path as a police officer from 1985 through 2000, and he was later made a detective ultimately retiring in 2017.

When Reynolds joined the force, crack was beginning to destroy many in the black community, and he saw first hand its devastating effects on far too many people. Gang violence was also taking hold of Compton, and Reynolds speaks about the deadly battles between rival gangs naming such gangs as the Bloods and the Crips. He saw his fellow officers get gunned down. And he saw riots nearly destroy Compton. Reynolds witnessed things that I only knew through watching the news and by reading newspapers.

Reynolds’s fellow officers are also a potpourri of characters, some of which he speaks fondly and others, well, not so much. Some in law enforcement are principled and truly want to serve and protect the citizens of Compton. And sadly, there are some officials in law enforcement are quite corrupt.

Reynolds also discusses how his career in law enforcement also affected him personally with the break up of his first marriage to finding true love with his devoted second wife, Carolyn. He also is not hesitant to discuss his relationship with his children, which wasn’t always a smooth ride. In fact, he and Carolyn are raising his son Dominic’s child who has autism. Reynolds remains a man of conviction who wants to do the right thing no matter how difficult.

Black, White and Gray All Over is rich in detail, certitude, history, and information. While reading it, I figured Reynolds must have written down copious of his experiences working on the force. He really explains so many things that at times, it’s overwhelming.

In Black, White and Gray All Over, Reynolds proves law enforcement (like many professions) is filled with saints and sinners, and a lot of in-between. His books is a singular primer of what it’s like to be a police officer in one particular dangerous city.

Book Review: Love is a Mix Tape-Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

Just what is love? Philosophers, poets and song writers have been asking that question since the beginning of time. To music journalist Rob Sheffield, love is a mix tape. The author has chronicled the cross section of music and love in debut book called Love is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time.

Long before people downloaded music into their smart phones or other hand-held listening devices with their favorite music, they made mix tapes. Mix tapes were very personal. Not only did they reveal some of our favorite songs, they also revealed our hopes, desires and thoughts. Mix tapes were therapy on a magnetic strip.

Rob Sheffield is no different from every music obsessed Generation X-er. A total music geek, he found solace and a reason for being through his love of music. Starting as a young child, he DJ-ed at school dances, collected albums and tapes like baseball cards and debated the merits of different bands with his friends.

In the late 1980s, Sheffield met Renee. Renee couldn’t have been more different from Rob. He was tall; she was short. He was a shy geek from Boston. Renee was an extroverted Southerner. The only thing these two seemed to have in common was an intense love of music, and it seemed music was all they needed. The two soon fell in love and were married until Renee’s untimely death from a pulmonary embolism at the age of 31.

Sheffield deftly writes about his all too brief marriage to Renee and he does this with a catalog of different mix tapes he made. Each chapter starts with a different mix tape, complete with the names of songs and artists. Some tapes are for making out, some for dancing and some for falling asleep. Sheffield proves to be no music snob, mixing top-40 guilty pleasure pop with the alternative music of the 1980s and 1990s. Each lovingly crafted mix tape conveys an intricate detail of the sometimes loving, sometimes rocky, and all-too-human relationship between two very interesting and complex souls.

Love is a Mix Tape had me riveted. Sheffield is an amazing writer, handling his love of music and his love of Renee with tender loving care. He gives an intimate glimpse into his marriage without revealing too many intimate details. The marriage of Rob and Renee is never conveyed in a way that is too saccharine or maudlin. These are two very real people who seemed to leap off the page. Often when men write about the women in their lives they do it more as a reflection of their own egos rather than writing about these women as three-dimensional human beings. Sheffield does not fall into this trap. I really felt I knew Renee. In fact, I wish I knew Renee. She was an Appalachian Auntie Mame who told her husband to “Live, live, live!” and tells the reader to do the same.

And even though I began reading Love is a Mix Tape knowing of Renee’s death, I was still very shocked when it happened. How could this ebullient soul not be cavorting somewhere on the planet? And Sheffield’s grief was so palpable I felt a dull ache in my heart as he described existing as a young widower.

I highly recommend Love is Mix Tape to anyone who considers music as vital as breathing and knows only too well the ecstasy and heartbreak true love can bring. Rob Sheffield has written an amazing book. I hope he has more books in him.

To learn more about Rob’s affiliation to write about love and music please check out my review of his book Turn Around Bright Eyes: The Rituals of Love and Karaoke.

Book Review: We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl®, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement by Andi Zeisler

I’ve always considered myself a feminist, ever since I was a little girl. I’ve seen feminism evolve over time, having most of my feminism honed by the third wave of feminism when my fellow Generation X-ers began to make their mark in the early 1990s. This was a time of Riot Grrrl, ‘zines, girls picking up instruments and kicking out the jams in bands like Bratmobile, Heavens to Betsy and Bikini Kill. Young women read books like Backlash and The Beauty Myth, and realized when it came to feminism, we still had a lot of work to do. A new teen magazine called Sassy celebrated feminism and soon two other magazines, both which can be found at any major bookstore in 2016, emerged. One magazine named Bust and the other named Bitch: A Feminist Response to Pop Culture.

And that brings us to Andi Zeisler’s latest book We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl®, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement. Zeisler is a founding member of Bitch. And boy (um, grrrrl) does she have a lot to say about the current state of feminism, and how it has evolved and devolved in the last twenty-odd years.

Yes, women today definitely have more rights than they had as little as a hundred years ago. We can vote, run for office, get an education, run a company, compete in a sport, get credit in our own names, make reproductive choices and so many other things our foremothers couldn’t even comprehend. But for all the rights feminism has gained, these hard won rights are being contested and chipped away on a daily basis, one being our access to proper reproductive health services. And still others scoff over our concerns regarding rape, sexual harassment, equal pay for equal work, and domestic violence. To make sure we don’t lose these rights we have a lot of nitty-gritty work to do, which includes everything from contacting our political representatives to raising funds for our favorite female-friendly causes.

And believe me, none of this is easy, fun or pretty. It’s a lot of hard work and can be very frustrating. So why worry about doing any of hard work of feminism when we can justify our feminist street cred by using market place feminism to become empowered women? And we become empowered not by voting or writing an op-ed in favor of feminism, but by purchasing the right yogurt, underpants or following celebrities via social media, many who seem to use feminism as a way to further publicize their “brand.”

We Were Feminists Once is divided into two wonderfully written and well-researched parts. Part One, The New Embrace, focuses on how feminism is seen through the lens of Hollywood, celebrity worship, the products we buy, and various forms of pop culture. Part Two, The Same Old Normal, revisits the waves of feminism and how all this market place empowerment is harming women in the long run even though it’s supposed to make feminism look fun and cool because apparently wearing a pair of panties with the word Feminist on them is more empowering than maintaining my access to birth control.

Still, Zeisler is quick to point out, marketplace feminism isn’t exactly something new. It’s been around since the advent of Madison Avenue and furthered sharpened by unfettered capitalism and neo-liberal thinking. Several decades ago market place feminism was expressed by Virginia Slim cigarettes telling us “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby” and perfume ads for Charlie and Enjoli. Today we have Dove soap’s “Real Beauty” ad campaigns, Sheryl Sandberg’s admonishments to “Lean-In” and Beyoncé, Emma Watson and Lena Dunham’s embracing feminism as the thing all the cool girls are doing,. Yea, it’s great so many celebrities identify as feminists, but feminism goes much deeper than the fame, wealth and privilege these ladies all share. Feminism also encompasses the intricacies of race, class, gender identity, sexual orientation none of which market place feminism examines.

Zeisler writes in a way that is audience-friendly, but not dumbed down. She writes in a way that is never preachy but explains in depth the harm of market place feminism and how it impedes the actual hard work of feminism. Zeisler doesn’t offer any clear cut solutions but recognizing there is a problem is a first step, and I’m sure I’m not the only person who read this book and said, “I thought I was the only one bothered by market place feminism!”

In the end We Were Feminists Once fully exposes how marketplace feminism is nothing but “you go, girl” advertisements, a collection of hashtags and sound bites, celebrity worship, pop culture slim pickings and more power at the cash register than at the voting booth. Feminism, women and society as a whole deserve so much more.

Shelf Discovery-The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading by Lizzie Skurnick

“We Must, We Must, We Must Increase Our Bust”

In her “Fine Lines” column on the website Jezebel, Lizzie Skurnick re-read many of the novels she loved as a young girl, looking at them through the eyes of an adult. Now many of these (somewhat altered) essays are in book form in Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading. Ms. Skurnick is no stranger to young adult books. Not only is she a reader but she’s also a writer of some of the Sweet Valley High books. She also brings along writers like Meg Cabot, Jennifer Weiner and Cecily von Ziegesar for the ride down memory lane.

Shelf Discovery does not cover the books we had to read for school, books by Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Eyre and Austen. No, this book covers the books that weren’t on any teacher-approved reading list. These are the books that kept us up long after our bed time or the books we hid behind our text books during social studies. These are the books we loaned to our friends only to get them back with tattered covers and dog-eared pages. Well, at least this happened to me when I loaned my copy of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by uber-goddess Judy Blume to all my friends in Miss Wilson’s fifth grade class.

Not surprisingly, Judy Blume’s books are reviewed in Shelf Discovery as are the Little House books. Skurnick also takes a look back at books like A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene, The Cat Ate My Gym Suit by Paula Danziger and I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier. Shelf Discovery covers books that were considered too old for us but we read them anyway like Jean Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear and VC Andrew’s My Sweet Audrina. And books that I thought only I had read like To All My Fans With Love, From Sylvie by Ellen Conford and To Take a Dare by Paul Zindel and Crescent Dragonwagon are also covered.

These essays are thoughtful, reflective and funny, and brought back a lot of memories. Not only of reading these books, but also how they made me feel and how they inspired talk among my gaggle of girlfriends. I loved reading the Little House books, feeling some cheesehead pride because Laura Ingalls Wilder was born in Wisconsin. And I was quite comforted to know I wasn’t only the one who found Laura’s sister Mary an insufferable prissy-pants though I never went as far as to call her a “fucking bitch” like Skurnick does.

And where would we be without Judy Blume? Sure, some people want to ban her books, but to most of us, we loved Judy Blume because she introduced us to characters we could actually relate to. These were characters who experienced divorce or the death of a parent. They dealt with sexism, favored siblings and peer pressue. They questioned religion. They also dealt with the difficulties of growing up, physically, mentally and emotionally. Blume did not hesitate to make her main characters somewhat unlikable such as the protagonist in Blubber, Jill, who bullies Linda for being fat. And then there was Tony from Then Again, Maybe I Won’t who spied on his friend’s hot sister with his binoculars. What a perv!!!

Long before Gossip Girl, the books covered in Shelf Discovery introduced us to the world of S.E.X! Forever proved a girl could have sex and not get pregnant the first time or become a raving lunatic. It also kept generations of women from naming their male offspring Ralph. Wifey totally had a dirty mind. Flowers in the Attic introduced us the idea of brother/sister sex long before the Jerry Springer Show. And Katy Perry may have thought she was so lesbian chic when she sang, “I Kissed a Girl” but Jaret and Peggy were getting it on thirty years earlier in Sandra Scoppetone’s Happy Endings Are All Alike.

I’m not familiar with all of the books featured in Shelf-Discovery, but many of you might be. And I’m also not a fan of some of the books I did read. I wanted to fling Go Ask Alice across my teen-age bedroom. Even back then I knew it was a load of shite, and Go Ask Alice, which was allegedly based on the real diary of a teen girl messed up on drugs, was debunked several years ago.

I was also amazed to find out that many of the books we enjoyed as kids are now being enjoyed by today’s kids. Sure, kids have their Harry Potter and their Twilight books, but Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret also resonates with them. While visiting Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, Meg Cabot sheepishly tells the girls she is re-reading the Judy Blume classic. She expected blank stares from the students, but instead she got thunderous applause and cheers. Even though these girls live half a world away from suburban New Jersey, they totally adore Margaret. I still adore Margaret.

Reading Shelf Discovery reminded me why books always meant so much to me growing up (and still do). How fun was Sally J Freedman? And was I the only one who though Rosemary from Sister of the Bride was way too young to get married? But at least my mom and dad never sent me off to boarding school to die like the awful parents in The Grounding of Group 6. If you’re looking for a literary walk down memory lane and more than “seven minutes in heaven” you can’t go wrong with Shelf Discovery.

Book Review: Girls to the Front-The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution by Sara Marcus

Mention the term “riot grrrl” and you’ll probably get a lot of different responses. ‘Zines, Doc Martens, punk bands, feminism, baby barrettes, Kathleen Hanna, and writing “slut” on one’s stomach are just a few words that may come to mind. But to write a history of the riot grrrl movement and how it shaped a generation is one hell of an intimidating task. Thankfully, writer Sara Marcus has the ovaries to do just that in her book Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution.

Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s young women and girls were sick and tired of the sexism they found in their beloved punk music scene. Girls were to be seen, not heard. They were also furious about a country that seemed to be eroding the rights their feminist foremothers fought for. But instead of withdrawing, these brave women and girls decided to fight back through music, activism, ‘zines and support groups. And they called themselves riot grrrls.

In Girls to the Front, Marcus writes how the riot grrrl movement got its start in the Pacific Northwest and the Washington, DC area and soon grew throughout the country uniting like-minded girls (and some guys, too). Some of them of these riot grrrls became well-known names and were considered the leaders of the riot grrrl movement.

But many were just young girls who finally found something they could believe in, themselves.

Marcus doesn’t solely focus on riot grrls as a whole movement; she focuses mostly on the grrrls themselves the most famous probably being Kathleen Hanna, Tobi Vail and Erin Smith. She describes in vivid detail how a lot of young women formed their own bands and many produced their own zines. And there were riot grrrl meetings where budding young feminists discussed abusive families, rape and the sexism they dealt with on a daily basis, often for the very first time.

Though the riot grrrl movement turned out to be a positive thing for most involved, it did have its share of problems, and Marcus isn’t afraid to discuss them. The riot grrrl movement was often looked upon as too white and middle-class. The sexism the bands had to deal with at shows was beyond appalling. When the mainstream press finally decided to examine the riot grrrl movement, it simplified it to a bunch of silly girls in vintage frocks and Doc Martens, writing slogans on their bellies and boobs.

But most disheartening was the infighting among the women in the riot grrrl movement. I must admit I cringed when Marcus described how Bratmobile broke up at a gig while playing on stage. And sadly, by the mid -1990s the riot grrrl movement as it was known splintered and imploded.

However, in a follow-up, Marcus tells us what the women profiled in the book are doing with their lives. Some continue to play music. Some are professors, writers and artists. Many are activists. As short-lived as the riot grrrl movement may have been, it turned out to have a long lasting effect on countless women.

Girls to the Front is tirelessly researched, empathetic to its core and brutally honest. At times it can be a daunting read, but it’s also empowering and enlightening whether you were a riot grrrl or not.

How To Build Girl by Caitlin Moran

Being a teenage girl can really suck, and doesn’t Johanna Morrigan know it. In the opening of British columnist Caitlin Moran’s debut novel How to Build a Girl, it is 1990 and Johanna Morrigan is 14-years-old and living in a council estate (what Americans might call public housing) in Wolverhampton, England. Her family includes her would-be rock star dad who’s on disability, a mother who is suffering from post-partum depression after giving birth to twins, and her brothers, older brother Krissi and younger brother Lupin. The Morrigans struggle to survive on benefits and face a bleak future in an economically depressed England.

And if these issues aren’t enough, young Johanna has to also deal with being a fat, horny and insecure teenager with few friends and zilch romantic possibilities. A chance interview on a TV show causes Johanna to conduct herself in a rather embarrassing manner, and she is humiliated and mortified. Johanna is now desperate to change her life, but how?

By giving herself a make-over and renaming herself Dolly Wilde after Oscar Wilde’s lesbian niece, of course! She doffs a top hat, heavy eyeliner and cultivates an edgy and provocative alter ego. She starts taking out CDs from the local library, reads the best in rock and roll journalism, and fully immerses herself in a new-found musical education. Knowing she needs to make some money to help her struggling family, Johanna/Dolly somehow talks herself into writing record reviews for the rock magazine Disc & Music Echo despite having limited writing experience. However, what she lacks experience she makes up in talent and ambition.

Johanna/Dolly’s magazine colleagues sometimes treat her as an irritating kid sister, but she soon proves herself to be quite formidable as a music journalist. She attends rock concerts, gigs and parties, and ingratiates herself to musicians hoping to get the big scoop and write attention-getting features. Her record reviews are filled with witty observations and cutting opinions. Throughout How to Build a Girl Johanna/Dolly names all the top musicians of the 1990s—U2, Nirvana, Blur, Teenage Fan Club, the Stone Roses, Lush, Happy Mondays, Blur and James.

Soon Johanna/Dolly is fully immersed in the world of rock and roll. She hastily drops out of high school so she can fully focus on her budding journalistic career. Professionally, Johanna/Dolly impresses her colleagues and gets more assignments. Personally, Johanna/Dolly goes a bit crazy. She starts smoking, drinking and experimenting with drugs. She also cozies up a bit too much to some of her colleagues and the musicians she interviews in a desperate attempt to lose her virginity. Finally, Johanna/Dolly’s “V-Card” is punched and she is utterly elated. Somebody wants to have sex with her!

And soon lots of “somebodies” want to have sex with Johanna/Dolly, and she’s all-to-willing to comply. It seems she just recently had her first kiss, and now she’s compiling quite a huge list of lovers.

It is t this point of How to Build a Girl, Moran could have become a moralizing shrew and had Johanna/Dolly suffer some horrible tragedy for conducting herself like the town trollop. She could have had Johanna/Dolly suffer a brutal rape, get a rather annoying STD (or even worse, AIDS) or gotten knocked up. To my delight, Moran eschews these literary clichés, and allows Johanna/Dolly to embrace her sexuality, make mistakes that nobody would judge if she were a guy, and keeps on going while trying to mature in a world that often looks down on young women who don’t quite live up to middle class respectability.

But you know what? To hell with middle class respectability! The more I read about Johanna/Dolly’s adventures and journey to adulthood the more I liked her. Sure, she has her obnoxious moments—what teen girl doesn’t? But I cheered her on as she immersed herself into the intoxicating world of rock and roll, got her writing gig with Disc & Music Echo, met up with her favorite musicians, didn’t shy from expressing her musical opinions, admitted to being as horny as any boy, and somehow stayed devoted to her messed up family. I also felt deep compassion for her when she admitted to moments of crushing low self-esteem, family strife, embarrassing encounters of all kinds, and her struggles to connect with others.

How to Build a Girl’s Johanna Morrigan/Dolly Wilde is a vividly drawn character, both over-the-top bon vivant and down-to-earth geek. I’ve long admired Caitlin Moran as a columnist, and now I admire her as a novelist. How to Build a Girl is a literary rock star!