bookishjen Book Marks, Uncategorized

Book Marks

Five publishers join lawsuit to thwart Iowa book banning bill.

Crazy Rich Asians being turned into a Broadway musical.

Great books about reading.

Author James Patterson thinks we’re overreacting to book bans.

John Legend’s Get Lifted Books aims to uplift marginalized creators.

bookishjen Book Reviews, Books, Family, Fiction, Hollywood, Kelly Sather, Relationships, Sex, Short Stories, Show Business, Small In Real Life, Uncategorized

Book Review: Small in Real Life-Stories by Kelly Sather

Warm, sunny weather, sandy beaches, and the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. These may be a few things you conjure up when you think of Southern California. But in Kelly Sather’s award-winning collection of stories, Small in Real Life, she tells tales that show a much more gritty reality of the Golden State. Some of the characters in Small in Real Life work in show business, and others are wannabes drawn to the promise of fame and fortune of Hollywood. And other characters are living lives far from those tired, yet true tropes of California. And all of them are an interesting narrative to tell.

Small in Real Life starts out strong with The Spaniard. Jenny is just about to turn sixteen when she gets sick at school. Nobody is able to reach her parents, so she is given bus fare and goes back home via the RTD. Yes, Los Angeles has public transportation. When Jenny gets home a strange man is there with her mother. Due to this man’s European accent, Jenny deems him The Spaniard. Why is this man in their house? Why is Jenny’s mother being so coy? Is The Spaniard and her mother having an affair? Jenny infers that they are, and she believes she can blackmail her mother into buying her a car for her upcoming 16th birthday, and if not, Jenny will tattle to her father about her mother’s dalliance with The Spaniard. But Jenny’s mother remains unfazed. Will this transgression be the end of Jenny’s parents’ marriage?

Betrayal is also a theme in Handbag Parade. Stephanie and Carol often meet at the home of their mutual friend, Gia. Gia is in the last throes of ALS; her tragic death is imminent. All three of them met early in their careers working low-level jobs at a Hollywood agency. Not one of them became an agent, but Gia found the most success of them all, and now she’s trapped in a frozen body. Stephanie begins to steal Gia’s collection of high end designer hand bags, and thusly, blames Gia’s nurse, Esme, for the thievery, putting Esme’s vocation on the line. Stephanie betrays a friend and bears false witness against an innocent woman. Handbag Parade show truly conveys how friendship can tragically lead to heartbreak and disloyalty.

In God’s Work an LA judge somehow ends up on a date with a failed actress turned make-up artist. The way this judge describes this woman you can tell he thinks she’s beneath him. He speaks disdainfully of her low-cut sweater and clumped up mascara. But is this an actual date or something quite else when the judge makes a startling confession, and somehow thinks him being a judge may be in her favor. But will it?

So many of the stories that make up Small In Real Life are gripping portraying people from all walks of life going through their day to day activities in the Golden State. Some get close to the glittering images Hollywood promises, but never quite grab that brass ring. Others are in the gallows. And then there are those who revel in the underbelly.

Small In Real Life made me think of the Hollywood sign. It looms over the land in large capital letters. It seems to promise fame and fortune and glamour. But closer and you’ll probably see decay, graffiti, and litter strewn about showing the true messiness and disappointment of real life.

bookishjen Uncategorized, Book Reviews, Books, Millenials, Health and Wellness, Fiction, Relationships, Workplace and Careers, PR and Public Relations, Class Issues, Social Media, Publicity, The Glow, Jessie Gaynor

Book Review: The Glow by Jessie Gaynor

In Jessie Gaynor’s novel, The Glow, protagonist Jane Dorner is in a funk; her life seems to be going nowhere. Though Jane had aspirations of being a poet, she ended up dropping out of her grad program, and is now working in public relations for a New York City firm. Working in public relations may sound glamorous and lucrative, but Jane can barely care about her work and her output is slipshod at best.

And on top of her less than exciting job, Jane is now without a boyfriend after a break up and due to an emergency surgery, Jane is now drowning in medical debt (something I bet a lot of my fellow Americans can relate to). Jane is trying to hold onto her job so she can pay off her nearly six figure medical debt.

Needing a boost to her career, Jane seeks out something to inspire her so she can publicize it and perhaps save her job. And Jane thinks she’s found the perfect thing when she discovers Fort Path, a wellness retreat. At the helm of Fort Path, is Cass. Cass is beautiful, ethereal, and has a huge following on social media. Her Instagram passages promise wellness, healing, and the ultimate journey of self-fulfillment. Jane is drawn to both Fort Path and Cass, and she believes if she can connect with both of them, she will find not only a higher state of being, she will also amplify her career and keep her job.

Jane makes a sojourn to Fort Path. At first she has a hard time fitting in with the retreat’s strict diet and weird rituals, which includes group masturbation and refraining from showering. But still, Jane can’t help but be drawn to Cass. Cass just radiates self-confidence, wholeness, and true enlightenment. Perhaps if Jane follows Cass and Fort Path’s strict guideline, she, too, will achieve these lofty goals.

Whereas Cass may be the face and inspiration for Fort Path, it is her husband, Tom, who handles the business side of running the retreat. Jane gets closer to Cass and Tom, and often wonders about their marriage, especially since Tom doesn’t exactly seem 100% straight. Is it true love or a marriage of convenience. And once Jane loses her PR job, and finagles her way into a job with Fort Path, she finds out more and more about Cass and Tom’s marriage and the behind the scenes of running Fort Path.

Jane comes up with a plan. She figures with her public relations experience, she feels she can sell Fort Path on a grander scale (even if she herself, isn’t a true believer of Fort Path’s mission and practices). If Jane can put Fort Path on the wellness map and make Cass a major health guru on par with Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop. And to do this, Jane does some rather nefarious and less than savory things that are more about making the big bucks and exploiting Cass, Tom, and Fort Path than actually doing something positive for the the two of them, the retreat, and its clients. Will Jane make Fort Path a health and wellness a huge success and become a huge success herself? Or will everything tumble like a house of Tarot cards?

The Glow is a fascinating look at the rarified world of wellness and the people involved even though some of these people aren’t exactly good people. Sure, Cass and Tom may have an odd marriage. And I’m not a fan of Cass’s dietary and hygienic habits, but for the most part these are two well-meaning characters who are sympathetic.

However, Jane is a walking red flag. Though I empathize with her work and money troubles, I found her behavior towards Cass and Tom, and Fort Path to be appalling. Her exploitation is truly offensive. But I wondered is she truly an awful person or is her behavior due to the huge pressures, challenges, and set backs she has dealt. And I also questioned if our seeking out of enlightenment and a better life via a wellness retreat, a yoga class, or a candle smelling like Gwyneth Paltrow’s vagina is a panacea for the true systematic obstacles problems we face in modern society. The Glow prompts us to think a bit about those things.

bookishjen Aging, Book Reviews, Books, Caitlin Moran, Feminism, Friendship, Manosphere, Men, Non-Fiction, Relationships, Sex, Uncategorized, What About Men, Women

Book Review: What About Men?-A Feminist Answers the Question by Caitlin Moran

Journalist, novelist, a former teen-age music critic, Caitlin Moran has been writing about the female experience for years. A self-described feminist, Moran has covered all things girls and women in both her novels and books of collected essays. However, there is one question Moran has been asked by her mostly female audience. That question? “What about men?” For the longest time, Moran has put off answering the question. It wasn’t until her daughters were asking the very same question that Moran was inspired to ask “what about men?’ herself and she decided to do some homework resulting into her latest book, What About Men: A Feminist Answers the Question.

In several unique chapters, Moran covers men and various topics. These include everything from men as young boys to old age. She takes a look at the bodies of men (including their private parts), men’s clothing, the conversations amongst men, and how they view sex and porn. She also looks at the way men talk to women and friendships amongst men. She looks at men through the lens of fatherhood and how men deal with illness. And she also goes down a treacherous path of men and misogyny in the scary world of the on-line manosphere.

To find out the inner-workings of all things men, Moran first turned to her inner-circle, including her husband, Pete. Now, these men are not exactly a diverse group. Like Moran herself, they are mainly white, cis, heterosexual, middle-aged, and middle class. But you’ve got to start somewhere, right?

She asks these men about growing up, what they talk about (or don’t talk about) when they chat amongst in a men-only group, their attitudes about sex and pornography, and their opinions on everything from the clothes they wear to why they neglect their health. And she gets some very interesting answers. For instance, she finds out why men don’t talk about their penises whereas some women will wax on about their vaginas post-birth.

One frightening aspect of the world of men today, is the world of the manosphere. For the uninitiated, the manosphere (which can be found all over the internet) is a cesspool of misogynistic men who see women as servants and cum dumpsters. They are truly threatened by any woman assets herself, is educated, and lives for anything that isn’t in service of a man. Probably the most famous of these knuckle-draggers, is MMA fighter, Andrew Tate. Tate has horrifying views on women, rape, and relationships. And he’s currently under investigation for sex trafficking. However, Tate does have a huge following, especially amongst very confused Gen Z men. Moran, too, is horrified by Tate, but tries to get an inkling of why some young men might be drawn to such a divisive figure. And on a personal note, Tate isn’t exactly the tough guy he purports to be. He actually blocked me on Twitter for saying he has no chin. But let’s go further.

On the issue of men and pornography, a young man shares his tale with Moran of his addiction to porn and how it negatively affected him when it came to dating and relationships. This could be a good warning that not all porn is completely harmless. Your heart breaks for this young man, and you will be comforted that he’s on the path towards healing.

But not is all lost when it comes to men. Yes, there are horrible examples of toxic masculinity like the aforementioned Andrew Tate. Moran looks into men who are admired for positive masculinity and comes up with names like Keanu Reeves and President Barack Obama. For me, I’d like to add names like the late Paul Newman and professor Neil Shyminsky who I follow on TikTok, and always has excellent counter-arguments to the toxicity of the manosphere.

And just as women are imprisoned by what makes a true woman, men are also locked into tropes of what it makes a true man, and how both men and women need to look past these clichés to be true to oneself. At this point, we’re not really talking about the difficulties of being a man in the 21st century in a way that doesn’t bash women and feminism. These things need to change.

Now admittedly, Moran does not go in very deep in What About Men? She is not an academic or a researcher. If you’re looking for a book that goes more in depth on the topic of men, I highly recommend Susan Faludi’s Stiffed: The Betrayal of American Men. Yes, Faludi, the feminist who wrote the classic Backlash: The War Against Women. And at times, Moran can be a wee bit too snarky and UK-oriented. However, I do commend Moran for actually giving a shit about men and their issues. What About Men? isn’t a perfect book, but it is a start. And I hope it can open up a dialogue about men, what they’re going through, and how we can find understanding and empathy between the sexes.