Bright Young Things

Bright Young Things, by Anna Godbersen.

New York was the capital of commerce and joy, and young people sought us from every direction. They came in droves, to join the kind of party only a great metropolis can host. They came from wealthy families and farming families, from the north and south and west. They came to avoid kitchens and marriages, to a place where they could reasonably claim to be eighteen forever. Or for the foreseeable future, anyway, which seemed to us the same thing. They came, mostly, for the fun - especially the young things, especially the girls.
...
That is what I want to tell you about: the girls with their short skirts and bright eyes and big-city dreams.

The girls of 1929.

I really like Anna Godbersen's series "The Luxe," and so when I heard that she had started a new series, "Bright Young Things," I wanted to read the book, and it did not disappoint. While "The Luxe" was set in the turn of the century (late 1800s), this book is set in 1929, when Prohibition is still on and the world is changing quickly. Letty and Cordelia, two friends, decide to escape from their small town in Ohio and pursue their dreams in New York; Cordelia, however, is keeping a secret from Letty, which will be revealed when they arrive in the city.

The book was pretty good and I am looking forward to the next book in the series, Beautiful Days, of which apparently Godbersen has just finished a draft.

4 stars out of 5.

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The DUFF

The DUFF (Designated Ugly Fat Friend), by Kody Keplinger.

Before crawling under my sheets, I took a glance at the full-length mirror across the room. I searched my reflection with new eyes, with new knowledge. Uncontrollable wavy auburn hair. A long nose. Big thighs. Small boobs. Yep. Definitely Duff material. How had I not known?

I mean, I'd never considered myself particularly attractive, and it wasn't hard to see that Casey and Jessica, both thin and blond, were gorgeous, but still. The fact that I played the role of the ugly girl to their luscious duo hadn't occurred to me. Thanks to Wesley Rush, I could see it now.

Sometimes it's better to be clueless.

This was one of the best YA books I've read in a while, and the 19-year-old author (who was 18 when she wrote and published it) puts my lazy 24-year-old creative writing self to shame in terms of productiveness. I saw the book in a bookstore a while back, but because books are expensive (and I read them far too quickly) I put a hold on it at the library and it finally came in for me this week.

The book follows Bianca, who hangs out with Casey and Jessica, both of whom are very pretty. One day when she and her friends are out at a dance club, Wesley, the school hottie (but also manwhore) comes up to her and starts talking to her, since he wants to eventually sleep with one of her friends. He calls her a DUFF and when she learns what it means, she is not happy, to say the least. Bianca is having a lot of family problems at home, too, and Wesley keeps talking to her, so one day she basically throws herself at him; the real fun starts, however, when he kisses her back.

I read a lot of YA books but I liked how "real" Bianca felt. We've all felt like the DUFF at some point in our lives, I'm sure, but she really took the word to heart, and it was only later that she confronted Wesley about it, since he calls her "Duffy" throughout the whole novel.

I look forward to Keplinger's next novel, Luststruck, which will be released this fall, according to her blog.

4 stars out of 5.

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The Confession

The Confession, by John Grisham.

Now we're getting somewhere, Keith thought. The burden of unconfessed sin. The shame of buried guilt. "It would be helpful if you told me about these bad things. Confession is the best place to start."

"And this is confidential?"

"For the most part, yes, but there are exceptions."

"What exceptions?"

"If you confide in me and I believe you're a danger to yourself or to someone else, then the confidentiality is waived. I can take reasonable steps to protect you or the other person. In other words, I can go get help."

"Sounds complicated."

"Not really."

"Look, Pastor, I've done some terrible things, but this one has nagged at me for many years now. I gotta talk to someone, and I got no place else to go. If I told you about a terrible crime that I committed years ago, you can't tell anyone?"

John Grisham is one of my favorite storytellers, especially for legal thrillers, and he does not disappoint in this novel. I can definitely see this being made into a movie, as the writing is so taut and exciting.

Travis Boyette just got out of jail and is living in a halfway house in Kansas. He has an inoperable brain tumor and expects to die within the year. Back in 1998, nine years ago, he killed and raped a girl in Texas, and the wrong man was arrested for the crime, to which the man confessed. Now, that man - Donte Drumm - is awaiting his execution on death row in a few days. Travis goes to a pastor, Keith, in Kansas, and confesses this to him, and later Keith agrees to drive him to Texas - technically breaking Travis's parole conditions - so he can confess and try to stop the execution.

As with all of John Grisham's books, this one was very well done, and you can tell that he used to be a lawyer because of all the technical terms and knowledge displayed in the book. Although the book is a length 400 pages or so, I flew through it in about two days, because it was so good, and I hope that they DO option it as a movie sometime soon.

4.5 stars out of 5.

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Hearts on a String

Hearts on a String, by Kris Radish.

None of these women are from Florida. Four of them live in places where winter claims the most days. Places where it often snows in April and people cry in the morning when they open the window and see yet another gray skyline. Cities that literally rejoice when the temperature jumps past thirty or forty degrees. Towns where wool is always in high fashion. In Milwaukee, where Margo lives, it's not uncommon to see people walking toward the grocery store in shorts the moment it's one degree past forty-three. In San Jose, where Patti leaves her bag when she's not traveling, the California sun is often obscured by car exhaust, fog, and smog, and clouds that have a tendency to move in and never leave. Cathy's hometown of Denver is a freezing snow bowl that often closes freeways.

Paradise for each one of these women is suddenly right outside the long balcony that caresses the three sides of their lovely suite.

This book was kind of cheesy in parts but the premise was interesting: five women meet in a bathroom at an airport, where they help one of the women whose iPhone has fell in the toilet. When all flights are canceled due to storms around the country, they decide to share a suite together at a hotel where one of the women was staying. They are stranded there for about four to five days, and within that time they learn everyone's secrets, and find that they all have more in common than they thought.

4 stars out of 5.

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The Carrie Diaries

The Carrie Diaries, by Candace Bushnell.

I've had boyfriends before, and frankly, each one was a disappointment.

There was nothing horribly wrong with these boys. It was my fault. I'm kind of a snob when it comes to guys.

So far, the biggest problem with the boys I've dated is that they weren't too smart. And eventually I ended up hating myself for being with them. It scared me, trying to pretend I was something I wasn't. I could see how easily it could be done, and it made me realize that was what most of the other girls were doing as well - pretending. If you were a girl, you could start pretending in high school and go on pretending your whole life, until, I suppose, you imploded and had a nervous breakdown, which is something that's happened to a few of the mothers around here. All of a sudden, one day something snaps and they don't get out of bed for three years.

But I digress ...

I am a big fan of the TV show "Sex and the City" but I didn't start watching it until my senior year of college (2 years ago), when it was being syndicated on TBS. I checked out the book of the same name, by Candace Bushnell, and was very disappointed - it contained vignettes of which Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte were only featured slightly, and I got through about 1/4 of the book before deciding to stop reading it. This novel, however, I liked a lot, as its a prequel of sorts to Sex and the City, and features Carrie in her high school years. The ending made me smile, as it basically sets up the entire TV series, and I liked reading about how Carrie was in her teenage years, since I already know what she was like in her 20s and 30s thanks to the TV show.

4 stars out of 5.

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Mini Shopaholic

Mini Shopaholic, by Sophie Kinsella.

I feel totally inadequate as I scroll through pictures of smiley girls with long shiny hair cooking vegetable risottos, bouncing balls in the garden, or dressed up in judo kit. No wonder Minnie has tantrums. It's because no one's doing martial arts or making sushi with her. All this time I've totally deprived her. Suddenly, making jam tarts in the kitchen with Mum seems totally lame. We don't even make the pastry ourselves; we get it out of a packet. We have to hire an Ultimate Nanny, as soon as possible.

This is the newest "Shopaholic" book by author Sophie Kinsella, of whom I've been a fan for a long time. Her books are hilarious and Becky, the protagonist of them, has such a strong "voice" that the books are a pleasure to read (and can also be read rather quickly). In this installment, her daughter Minnie is now two years old, and Becky wants to throw a surprise party for Luke, her husband. The Bank of London has just gone bankrupt, however, and no one is really spending any money, so she has to be thrifty about it - not one of her strong suits.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

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The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, by Aimee Bender.

He pressed the mute button, and the room filled with sound. Horns, voice-overs, snatches of songs. It was like we were exchanging codes, on how to be a father and a daughter, like we'd read about it in a manual, translated from another language, and were doing our best with what we could understand.

This book is about Rose, a young girl who has a unique talent: she can taste people's feelings in the food that they make. The first time this happens to her, when she is nine, she can taste desperation and unhappiness in her mother's cooking; and from then on, she is unable to eat it. She eventually learns ways to make eating more pleasurable for herself (mostly eating junk food that is made at plants where no humans touch it), but as the years go on, she must figure out what to do with the information she receives this way about others.

The book was interesting, although there is a side plot with her brother that was a bit confusing to me. Rose's talent is definitely not one I would like to have, and I found it interesting when she actually cooked for herself one time; she did not like eating her own food at all either, as it revealed to her what emotions she was feeling.

3.5 stars out of 5.

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