The Midnight Library

Have you ever put a book on hold in the library, but it wasn’t available right away?

Well, fun fact, when you put a book on hold, forget about it, and then when it is ready they just add it to the stack for when check out your next round of books. So, while I had expected to just pick up two books from the library to read, Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library ended up in my hands from the library. I tried not to be instantly intimidated with the idea of trying to read all three books in the span of my short library checkout time.

Luckily, I would say of the three—The Midnight Library was the “longest” but I actually was able to read the quickest in only two days.

In One Sentence: Nora decides to live.

Favorite Line: “She had thought… that solitude was the problem. But that was because it hadn’t been true solitude. The lonely mind in the busy city years for connection because it thinks human-to-human connection is the point of everything. But amid pure nature (or on the ‘tonic of wildness’ as Thoreau called it) solitude took on a different character. It became in itself a kind of connection. A connection between herself and the world. And between her and herself.” – pg. 126

Review: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig is a fantasy fiction about reassessing the value of a life with so much unfulfilled dreams. How do our regrets shape our senses of self? Alternatively, are we an amalgamation of the things we achieve or the people that care for us? In this novel, the protagonist Nora starts from the bottom (parents gone, loses job, cat dies, issues with friendships, relationships, etc… she might even have spilt some coffee on her shirt that day) and through the second chance of a magical library is able to discover all the different ways her life could’ve gone differently. From living like a rock star to the edges of the Artic, Nora consumes alternative existences like eating Pringles. Overall, the book moves quickly through worlds which is a nice balance to the philosophical and theoretical ideas Haig plants throughout each section. From Henry David Thoreau to different quantum theories of the multiverse, it’s interesting to have a book where the reader also contemplates theories of existence as Nora debates whether to keep hers. Naturally, the reader is drawn into Nora’s journey and with the help of a plucky, chess-playing imaginary librarian watched Nora learns lessons that we all could use a reminder of now and then. This is a really solid choice for most book clubs with great opportunities for hardy discussion. In terms of the content, the narrative reminded me most closely of Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho with the webbing of theory and anecdotes alongside Nora’s journey. The writing is dialogue heavy and often punches up sections with short chapters, but that helped make the story feel like it was moving quickly for me. I could easily see this adapted for television, with potentially a little sharpening of the end as it felt like some moments wrapped up too quickly. ALSO, doubly appreciate the takeaway from the librarian: that being a pawn on a chessboard is enough for us all.

This Book Would End a Lot Sooner If: Nora had stuck with the Olympic swimmer life; that one didn’t seem too bad!

“Walking” by Henry David Thoreau

In the novel, Henry David Thoreau is a central source of inspiration and hope for Nora. Here is a link to one of his famous essays, later published in The Atlantic. Why not go for a walk today and appreciate that which is all around you?

Saint Anything

Did you ever want to go back in time to your younger reader self? When I was a teenager, one of my favorite authors was Sarah Dessen. I would stay up late reading her books, rushing to read the next chapter. I’d exchange different copies of The Truth About Forever and Just Listen with friends after school.

There is just something about the dreaminess of first love fused with the insecurity of growing up and general anxiety of finding out who you are as an adult. There are other YA writers that also capture this well, but I will always be nostalgic for Sarah Dessen.

So, when I saw there were a few books of hers that had come out in the last few years, I decided that a bit of nostalgia would be a great way to kick off summer reading for 2021 with Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen from the public library!

In One Sentence: High school teen Sydney Stanford makes friends (and finds love) with kids at public school while her parents focus their attention on her older brother in prison.

Favorite Line: “My mom was already in bed, my dad shut away in his office on a call. I’d done the right thing. I always did. It just would have been nice if someone had noticed.” – p. 61

Review: The structure of Saint Anything works in typical Sarah Dessen fashion: the focus on a female protagonist in suburbia with conflict in her family (in this case: an older golden-boy brother who fell hard into a life of addiction and prison) and who discovers a bonus family/confidants in new friends. In Saint Anything, Sydney follows the formula, sometimes meeting the genre expectations as she falls for quiet, good looking Mac and “rebels” against her parents, and other times things fall a little flat—we’ll get into that. What I loved most about this book was the relationship between Sydney and Layla, a friend she makes at a pizza place and then later at her new school. As I’ve gotten older, I appreciate so much more the value of female friendships and there are so many moments where you see how important these two are to each other, and how external forces (new romances, parent rules, etc) get in the way of those relationships without ever truly breaking them.

So… the downsides. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m reading this as an adult that I’m more frustrated by how the adults are portrayed. A key plot thread, and element that was generally a page turner, is a character named Ames who was Sydney’s brother’s friend who he met in Narcotics Anonymous and is now, for some reason, her parents BFF. Every single scene he is in, he is being creepy. He might as well twirl a mustache in every scene, because it is absurd how creepy he is. Which, relatable to be creeped out by someone and I was probably more invested in finding out what he would do next than Sydney’s love story. I was so frustrated with how the parents 1) were fine with this behavior and 2) put so much trust in someone who in no way, shape, or form proved to be a good influence on anyone. By the end of the novel, it still felt like a lot wasn’t said about what happened with that man and it was a missed opportunity not to show how to really have open conversations about people who are parasites.

Overall, this book was a quick read, definitely had a strong beginning, and I’d recommend to anyone that is looking for that nostalgia scratch. Is it the best Sarah Dessen? Not by a long shot, but it serves enough feels on female friendships, life as an overlooked sibling, and a bit of fun with food to still make it a nice treat.

This Book Would End a Lot Sooner If: “Mom, the ex-drug addict man you let babysit me won’t stop hitting on me.”

Top Sarah Dessen Books: Okay, so if you are new to Sarah Dessen, or if you read this book and enjoyed it—wondering what to dive into next? Here are my top three Sarah Dessen books of all time:

3. Along for the Ride

Goodreads Summary: It’s been so long since Auden slept at night. Ever since her parents’ divorce—or since the fighting started. Now she has the chance to spend a carefree summer with her dad and his new family in the charming beach town where they live. A job in a clothes boutique introduces Auden to the world of girls: their talk, their friendship, their crushes. She missed out on all that, too busy being the perfect daughter to her demanding mother. Then she meets Eli, an intriguing loner and a fellow insomniac who becomes her guide to the nocturnal world of the town. Together they embark on parallel quests: for Auden, to experience the carefree teenage life she’s been denied; for Eli, to come to terms with the guilt he feels for the death of a friend.

Why It’s Great: WOW, talk about a book being better than it’s cover. Probably one of my favorite unexpected romances.

2. Just Listen

Goodreads Summary: Last year, Annabel was “the girl who has everything” — at least that’s the part she played in the television commercial for Kopf’s Department Store. This year, she’s the girl who has nothing: no best friend because mean-but-exciting Sophie dropped her, no peace at home since her older sister became anorexic, and no one to sit with at lunch. Until she meets Owen Armstrong. Tall, dark, and music-obsessed, Owen is a reformed bad boy with a commitment to truth-telling. With Owen’s help, maybe Annabel can face what happened the night she and Sophie stopped being friends.

Why It’s Great: One of my favorite modern day “Say Anything” moments in book form.

1. The Truth About Forever

Goodreads Summary: That’s what Macy has to look forward to while her boyfriend, Jason, is away at Brain Camp. Days will be spent at a boring job in the library, evenings will be filled with vocabulary drills for the SATs, and spare time will be passed with her mother, the two of them sharing a silent grief at the traumatic loss of Macy’s father. But sometimes, unexpected things can happen—things such as the catering job at Wish, with its fun-loving, chaotic crew. Or her sister’s project of renovating the neglected beach house, awakening long-buried memories. Things such as meeting Wes, a boy with a past, a taste for Truth-telling, and an amazing artistic talent, the kind of boy who could turn any girl’s world upside down. As Macy ventures out of her shell, she begins to question her sheltered life.

Why It’s Great: It has *chef’s kiss* the best romance buildup, with some stellar discoveries of personal identity in the face of grief.

The Ballad of Black Tom

This was a very exciting book for me, mainly because this is the first book I checked out curbside pickup from the library in the middle of a pandemic. WOW! A return to normalcy of some form is much appreciated as we now enter month seven of quarantine.

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle was also a recommendation for a monthly book club, and I immediately was excited to dive into a horror novella. Horror is my thing. Novellas are the perfect time commitment. Win-win. The only thing I knew about the book was that it was a twist on a famous H.P. Lovecraft story “The Horror at Red Hook” and it was published by Tor.com, a great lit pub that generally promotes work I like. So, with that in mind, let’s dive in!

In One Sentence: A burgeoning cult leader and seasoned detective are overpowered by a man (and cosmic force) which society had forgotten.

Favorite Line: “What was indifference compared to malice? Indifference would be such a relief.” – p. 66

Review: I will admit I know nothing, and still know very little, about H.P. Lovecraft. For context on the novella, I did read the summary of the original story and often referred back to it to see if I could have a better understanding. Overall, I discovered that the general premise of Lovecraftian horror, with its emphasis on the cosmic unknown, is not a genre I fully appreciate. There is just something about writing about humanity’s insignificance that makes the stakes seem low. Though, I do like the author’s ability to create a new layer of conversation to existing material. This is one of my favorite ways to use a loose adaptation; to show a response and growth from societal stereotypes. The world and character-building are all successful, and I loved the pacing. We quickly moved through the story and still got enough information to know what was going on, without always seeing the full picture of that great, cosmic unknown. So, do I recommend it? For better or worse, this is a novella that is only fully appreciated with deeper dives into Lovecraft as well as the Supreme Alphabet, created by the Five-Percent Nation in the 1960s… which is a whole other terrain to investigate. Once I learned more about this connection, I ended up down a literary and musical wormhole that I’ve yet to get out of. There is a LOT MORE going on in this novella than even the author reveals in interviews. This book is for those interested and curious in the cosmic unknown because it definitely expands beyond typical Lovecraft theories. If you don’t quite have the time, this may not be the novella to speed through.

The Book Would End A Lot Sooner If: Tom never got invited to the cult party.

Spotlight on the Publisher: Tor.com

Tor.com is an online magazine and community site that covers science fiction, fantasy, and all the many related subjects that interest us as readers.

They regularly publish new original short fiction from voices both new and legendary (and on very special occasions, both at once), as well as daily commentary on science fiction, fantasy, and related subjects from a wide range of writers from all corners of the field. Their aim is to explore, encourage, and enable interesting and rewarding conversations with and between readers.

I love that this book was published by Tor.com, a unique digital pub turned publisher and an advocate for indie publishings and bookstores. Check out their website for quick bites of short form sci-fi and fantasy!

Coreyography: A Memoir

If you haven’t watched the A&E TV series The Two Coreys, then what are you doing right now? Though short lived, the series was an entry point for my interest to two iconic ’80s actors. It was also a show that expanded and twisted out of the grips of the original vision for the series. What started as an attempt to create a semi-scripted, sitcom style series to relaunch the careers of Corey Feldman and Corey Haim resulted in an unraveling of Hollywood secrets ignited by trauma and resentment simmering for decades.

Years after the show had ended and Corey Haim had died of pneumonia, I discovered Coreyography in a thrift bin at a Santa Cruz book store. What I knew of Corey Feldman at the time, even with the knowledge of the show, was still limited to a persona created by films like The Lost Boys and later VH1 shows like The Surreal Life. In reading the book’s summary, I knew I was in for a ride of learning more about someone who had too often been written off as the child star, the side guy, a has-been who dabbled with redefining his image as a rock star Hugh Hefner all while he was launching a crusade to fight child abuse in Hollywood.

In One Sentence: Corey Feldman rises to fame at a young age, and so begins a life of adults using and abusing him until he ages out of popularity.

Favorite Line: “Plucking children out of school and exploiting them for profit isn’t healthy; neither is turning your five- year-old into the family breadwinner, or living out dreams of celebrity vicariously through your kids. Is it really all that surprising that so many child actors have problems later in life? Since Nightline is a reputable program, I thought maybe I could do some good by throwing in my two cents. ‘If you’re interested in hearing that perspective, then I’ll agree to do the interview,’ I had told them. ‘But if you want to hear that Hollywood is a great place for children, you might want to talk to somebody else.'”

Review: Corey Feldman frames the story of his fame around his relationship and the final days of Corey Haim. It’s an effective narrative tool, as Feldman embraces how Haim’s legacy is a direct reflection of his own. In many ways, their rise to fame had a lot of similar stopping points for better or worse and Feldman just happened to be the lucky one to not succumb to a life of addiction resulting in a slightly longer lasting post-child star career. This memoir gives fans an insider view into Feldman’s issues with his family, life at school, balancing a career at a young age, and ultimately struggling with drugs while enduring and witnessing ongoing sexual abuse. Feldman doesn’t name names, but it’s not too difficult to figure out who he is referring to and putting together clues as to the abusers. Overall, this is an interesting read for fans of the Coreys as well as those looking for more insight into the troubled times of getting into an exploitative business at a young age. Does he hold back at times? Sure. It would even be fair to say that Corey’s honesty still includes blind spots as he recounts the friendship of Michael Jackson without total awareness of what is insinuated in Michael’s later fear of Corey Feldman’s story. What’s more fascinating than this singular book is the ongoing projects Corey Feldman has signed up for in order to tell the story of his late best friend, Corey Haim. From Lifetime movies, documentaries, speaking out in interview after interview: Corey Feldman is no longer comfortable with complacency. If for nothing else, he deserves respect for that alone. I recommend this book for those interested in the entertainment industry, and specifically the trajectory of child stars. If you were a fan of either Coreys, this is a must read.

The Book Would End a Lot Sooner If: Stephen Spielberg never made films starring children.

Chocolate Pairing:  a Peanut Butter Twix chocolate bar, which replaces the sweet caramel filling of the original Twix with a more savory peanut butter flavor—reflecting Corey’s loss of childhood. In addition, generally, Twix are packaged with two bars in one wrapper.

The Story Continues: Corey has continued to lobby for legislation protecting child victims of sexual abuse. In 2020, he released My Truth: The Rape of Two Coreys. The documentary was supposed to first be streamed online ten years to the day since the death of Corey Haim.

Sorcery of Thorns

I did it! I finally did it! In this new year, new decade, road to self-improvement… I got a library card. Something I had been avoiding for fear of overdue late fees, the government knowing where I live, and a general intimidation from years ago when libraries ran on the Dewey Decimal system. (Maybe they still do? I’m new here!)

In 2020, I really do want to be more thoughtful about acquiring new books on my bookshelf before getting a chance to read what I already have. Even as a bargain shopper, books cost money. Sure, if you run into late fees, the library isn’t free either. However, it is a service I’m already paying for anyway just by paying taxes — so why not use it?

I’m responsible enough to avoid late fees, right?

The good thing about a deadline is that I finished a book within two weeks of receiving it. Huzzah! Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson was my first check-out, and since it is a relatively new book (less than a year old) and it’s about a girl who is RAISED in a library, the library was the perfect bargain price tag for it.

In One Sentence: A girl raised by a magical library must protect the world from evil.

Favorite Line: “It is impossible to know how many years a human will live, or in what matter they will die. Life is like the oil within a lamp. It can be measured, but the pace at which is burns depends upon how the dial is turned day by day, how bright and fierce the flame. And there is no predicting whether the lamp might be knocked to the ground and shatter, when it could have blazed on a great while longer. Such is the unpredictability of life.” – p. 330

Review: Fantasy YA is not my typical genre. I found myself debating whether this is the type of book I would read without it being required reading. In my high school days, I did enjoy Harry Potter but that’s as far as I really went with magic and dragons telling my friends I didn’t care for fantasy fiction. However, I did love the Meg Cabot’s Mediator series and Marianne Curley’s Old Magic. So sometimes it works for me, sometimes it doesn’t. Fantasy’s biggest strength (and hurdle for me as a reader) is the world-building.  For others, it’s an adventure — for me, it’s tedious. Sorcery of Thorns has a nice balance of introducing information as it becomes important. The novel follows Elizabeth Scrivener,who is isolated in her world of the library protecting magic books until she ventures outside. Once outside, the world is new to her and so she learns to understand the world along with the reader. (Probably why Harry Potter works as well, since Harry is new to the wizarding world). The novel is well-paced, some great descriptive writing giving you a strong sense of character and place, and a character/demon that is complex, compelling, and steals the show. Does the villain easily get distracted from his goal because of a duel? Yes. Did I get a little annoyed at how often the word “grimoire” was used? Sure. Did it have a message about overcoming prejudice? Surprisingly, yes. Overall, I’d recommend it to any fantasy or fantasy-lite YA fans, especially since it work wells as a stand alone.

The Book Would Have Ended a Lot Sooner If: the villain realized how terrible his plan was.

Dream Library: Lucas Research Library

Even though having a library card is great, I would still love to have a room large enough in my home to have my own library. Please enjoy my inspiration, the Lucas Research Library (George Lucas’s private library at Skywalker Ranch).

 

 

A Simple Favor

You’re going to think I’m crazy when I reveal this: this was a bargain book and I bought it at the airport. Not only that, but I bought it walking out of the airport. Compass Books at the San Francisco International Airport, Terminal 2 had a sale with about 20% off of paperback books. This was already a story I was interested in, based on the film of the same name, but hadn’t gotten around to seeing. I paid around $7 for this page-turner, and it was worth every penny and the shame of having no self-control.

In One Sentence: Two women ruin each other’s lives by helping each other. 

Favorite Line: “Something terrible has happened. She’s vanished. I have no idea where she is… Moms, does Emily sound like the kind of mother who would leave her child and disappear for two days and not text or call or answer my texts or calls? If nothing is wrong? Seriously?… Okay, got to run now. I smell chocolate-chip cookies burning in the oven.” — p 9.

Review: This is hilarious, shocking, well-written, and reminds me of a modern-day V.C. Andrews meets Gillian Flynn. The satire of mommy-bloggers is spot-on and the twists keep coming from chapter to chapter. Stephanie, a widowed-mother and mommy-blogger, starts a friendship with another mother, Emily, at her child’s school. When that mother disappears, Stephanie tries her best to find her and without spoilers finds a whole lot more than she bargained for. The book switches between perspectives, which allows the reader to sometimes know more than the characters and sometimes be led astray ourselves. This is at-once the perfect summer beach-read and the book you’ll read before going to bed that will keep you up at night with twists on twists. With that said, I watched the movie after… and almost had the exact same experience all over again as they changed the ending completely with even more twists!

The Book Would Have Ended a Lot Sooner If: Emily never needed a babysitter.

The Film Fashion: The best part of the film adaptation is Blake Lively’s (Emily’s) entire wardrobe. Kudos to costume designer Renée Ehrlich Kalfus for perfectly capturing why Emily is so intimidatingly seductive.

Read: A Simple Favor: Blake Lively’s Most Jaw-Dropping Fashion Moments, Explained

 

 

Book Festival: Bargain Book Haul

You know the best place to find books when you live in a big city? A Book Festival! In April, I was very jealous of my old stomping ground in Southern California celebrating another year of the L.A. Times Festival of Books. It’s the largest book festival in the United States, and I usually am standing in lines for author signings and attending panels on fiction, food, publishing, podcasts, you name it.

With that said, pretty much all the books there are full price. The cost of a booth for book stores or indie presses is high, so there doesn’t tend to be much of a discount on anything. The novelty is the atmosphere, and supporting the community through, well, paying for the books full price since the event itself is free.

I was not going to let jealousy get the best of me this year! In a quick online search, I discovered the Bay Area Book Festival in Berkeley, CA that took place May 4th – May 5th. While it didn’t quite have the same massive amounts of speakers and panels, it did have something a little different.

A focus on actual, physical books and filling your tote bag to the brim.

Mission accomplished.

Here’s my haul of what books I got and which booths!

Half Price Books Booth (Free)

Half Price Books was the first booth, with a great kick-off. They gave out free children’s books, with totes to carry. You could choose up to five. While my friend more responsibility chose books for her child, I selfishly chose YA titles for the teenager I sometimes feel like.

• This is What I Did: by Ann Dee Ellis
• The True Meaning of Cleavage by Mariah Fredericks
• Royal Wedding by Meg Cabot

Moe’s Books Booth ($9)

This was the fancy booth with the full MSRP sticker on their front table. Nearby, a cart featured used books for a price written in pencil on the inside cover. Since I had already gotten a few books for free, I didn’t feel guilty paying a little extra for a book of translated poems.

• Rumi The Book of Love – Translations & Commentary by Coleman Barks

The Prison Literature Project Book ($2/book)

This was one of my favorite stopping points (and it shows with how many books I bought!). The booth was pretty simple: just a table full of books. Each book sold helped support their mission of supporting literacy and reading in prisons. This was a win-win. Plus, they had probably the highest caliber of author quality. I had to put books away in order to support the straps of my tote bag.

• Diary by Chuck Palahniuk
• The North China Lover by Marguerite Duras
• The Last Time I Wore a Dress by Daphne Scholinkski
• Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Alibris.com Booth (Free)

This was a random free tote / free book slush pile. The books didn’t really have any consistency in terms of theme, but I found a Michael Crichton that I thought someone else might like. Sure enough, it was picked off of my apartment shelf a few weeks later.

• Airframe by Michael Crichton

TOTAL COST: $19

TOTAL BOOKS: 10

AVG. COST PER BOOK: $1.90

The Couple Next Door

On my nightstand, I have a tidy stack of books I’m reading across genres. I’ve got classic literary fiction (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith), nonfiction (Complications by Atul Gawande), poetry (A Study of Hands by Edwin Bodney), and even my Kindle with a whole library of digital content. I think any passionate readers can relate to this problem though — even with an entire stack of books next to your bed, you still don’t feel like you have anything to read. 

Why? Because I was missing the page-turner! When I discovered The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena, the concept seemed simple enough — baby goes missing — and the marketing pull-quotes were just the right formula to convert me down the buying funnel: “razor-sharp”, “twisty”, “shocking”, “exquisitely tortuous tension.” The kind of reviews I would love to get as a writer myself.

Plus, it was half-off! Books Inc. (a bay-area based bookstore chain) has become one of my favorite go-to’s for sale books. They regularly switch out the shelves, and the offerings are almost all quality (I also picked up a Truman Capote book). The final price was $7.98, from the original mark-up of $16.00. The best part is I got to please both of my passions: bargain books and supporting independent book stores!

In one sentence: A couple’s baby is kidnapped, and then blame each other for losing it.

Favorite Line: “They will be judged, by the police and by everybody else. Serves them right, leaving their baby alone. She would think that, too, if it had happened to someone else. She knows how judgmental mothers are, how good it feels to sit in judgement of someone else.” — p. 11

Review: SERIOUSLY, WHERE IS THIS BABY? I absolutely loved how simple this story was. One of the reasons the novel is an effective thriller is because it takes a very simple premise, and allows it all to unravel through the character’s choices. The point of view shifts between the wife, husband, and detective–and each do an excellent job of bringing you a new perspective as alliances shift and the truth is revealed. My ONE grievance is the red herring which relies on vague mental health disorders to deliver some cheap thrills, but I’ll let you discover that for yourself. (That and there could have been a better title as the “couple next door” don’t quite serve at the heart of the tension, neither as characters or as a theme.) If you are looking for that book you can’t put down, and you enjoy a good mystery, this novel is for you.

This Book Would End a Lot Sooner If: the couple had one honest conversation with each other.

The Intersection of Marketing and Publishing:

It turns out the fact that I was sold by the packaging of this book is no coincidence.

Check out this article featured in Publishers Weekly all about how the packaging helped launch the book into the bestseller’s list: “Inside the Success of The Couple Next Door”.  

 

Star Wars: Darth Vader Vol #1

I’ve been on a graphic novel kick, as of late. Currently in my discount books queue is the series Maus and the memoir My Friend Dahmer. Their critical acclaim and genuine “heft” make me excited to jump in. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy a good comic, but I never spend that much time looking at single issue comics…

I’m not sure if anyone else has this problem, but often I’ll look at the sticker tag of a single issue of a comic or the first volume of a series and be partially put off by the thought of spending so much money on something I can sit down and read in 15 minutes. Plus, reading a comic is essentially the same as watching one episode of a TV show. Catharsis is limited in those 15 minutes.

However, in a half-off bookstore in Berkeley (literally called Half Price Books) I stumbled upon Marvel’s Star Wars: Darth Vader series, volume one. Practically a steal, a brand new edition for only $7.

Okay, okay, I know I should be grabbing the Princess Leia series–women power/ Carrie Fisher/ and all that. BUT Anakin Skywalker, in my millennial-minded perspective, is truly the one character of the series that changes the most and has the most tragic, redemptive arcs in the space opera epic. 

In One Sentence: Darth Vader is sad, but don’t tell him or he will kill you.

Favorite Lines: 

Review: This was AMAZING. Obviously, Star Wars works really well in comic book form where it can primarily focus on the visuals and hyper-details of different species and characters. My one “But….” is only that it’s so hard to distill this story into one volume, and reading “Vader” was much like watching a really good pilot episode. The story is to establish relationships and stakes–the real catharsis will come much later. The part that was surprising was how much humor was well balanced with the darkness. Darth Vader has always been a naturally humorless character on screen. It was fun seeing how characters played off of Darth Vader’s stiffness, and on the other hand how Darth Vader could hold his own with the sass. At the same time, it was never trite or heavy handed with making moments funny instead of important (see: every Marvel movie after The Avengers). I also loved that it wove in the films’ narratives and visuals as part of the canon, but just as with The Clone Wars series–it offers another dimension the films are unable to express to the complexity that is the character of Anakin Skywalker. Who, to me, has always had some of his creator’s image once Lucas made the creative decision on who Vader really was behind the mask.

This Book Would End a Lot Sooner If: Darth Vader had made different choices in Revenge of the Sith. Then again, a lot of things would’ve ended sooner in that case.

Here’s to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opening at Disneyland in 2019!

Son of Rosemary

I’ve been going through a horror binge faze, one that probably started about 15 years ago.  But in the past few months, even more so. I sat in theaters on the edge of my seat for Annabelle: Creation and It. I had movie nights at home hiding under a blanket with Ouija: Origin of Evil and Lights Out. At a summer pool party, a friend noted that I had mentioned horror stories at least three different times in the course of an hour. 

So, when I was shopping around The Last Bookstore in Downtown Los Angeles, I spent the most time in the horror section. The Last Bookstore is a noted literary treasure in LA. It has a mix of new and used books, all together spine-by-spine. The first thing I look for in any large independent book store?

IRA. FREAKING. LEVIN.

I bought three Ira Levin books, including the sequel to my all time favorite Rosemary’s Baby — Son of Rosemary. (Side note: This Perfect Day is now the only novel I’m missing in my Levin collection. Christmas is coming…)

In One Sentence: Rosemary wakes up in 1999, after an almost 30 year coma, to realize her son of Satan has become a more powerful and richer Jesus figure.

Favorite Line: ““Andy,” she asked him, holding on to one of his gilt buttons, “have you been totally honest with me?”

His hazel eyes—which were nice, now that she was getting used to them—gazed earnestly, unswervingly into hers. “I swear I have, Mom,” he said. “I know I lied when I was little. And I do now—plenty. But never again to you, Mom. Never. I owe you too much, I love you too much. Believe me.” …

They pecked, and she watched him go out with the cooler on his shoulder. She closed the door, frowning.” – Ch. 4

Review*: I actually knew this was going to be bad. It’s Ira Levin’s last novel, written late in his life, an apparent cash grab, and possible love letter to Mia Farrow? Plus, the Goodreads reviews speak for themselves. It still has his signature sparseness, focusing on the external to communicate the internal. My favorite line is actually “She closed the door, frowning.” because it’s simple yet shows a building tension right from the start of Rosemary and her son Andy’s new relationship. I’ll probably steal that trick for my own writing. But outside of that, the novel is mehhh. The entire plot is driven around whether or not people will LIGHT CANDLES. (Oh, and incest, lots of incest because I think in the editing process someone realized lighting candles was not enough so someone else pitched incense and Ira Levin heard incest). I’m still glad I read it, in that way Sandra Bullock fans bought tickets to Speed 2. However, no one else needs to read it. Watch Damien: Omen II instead.

The Book Would Have Ended a Lot Sooner If: Rosemary had died in the coma.

Something That Will Actually Give You Nightmares:

The short film “Lights Out” from David F. Sandberg that inspired the 2016 feature film.

*Note: Ira Levin is still one of my favorite authors. I encourage everyone to read Ira Levin.