Hannah Montana It Ain't
Mood:  crushed out
Now Playing: Towelhead: A Novel by Alicia Erian
Topic: Book Reviews
Towelhead: A Novel by Alicia Erian

My review

*sigh*

I picked up the book Towelhead: A novel because I was intrigued by the New York Times' review of the movie directed by Alan Ball (of Six Feet Under and American Beauty). I also picked it up, because I'm always interested in how authors' portray the burgeoning sexuality of preteen and teen girls especially now that teenagers seem more sexualized than ever. Towelhead did a good job of exploring 13-year-old Jasria's sexuality. The proof is by how uncomfortable I felt reading this book.

In order to truly understand Jasira's reasoning, one has to remember what it was like to be a teenager. As an adult, I can see the faulty decisions of my adolescence with 20/20 hindsight. Back then, the decisions seemed okay. Towelhead was so uncomfortable because so much of the confused sexual feelings and experimentation was familiar to me.

I couldn't stop reading this book, and completed it in just one day. I wanted to rush to the end to see if this girl would ever get her head on straight. (To say yea or nay would spoil the ending.) Although I could relate to Jasira's sexual naïveté, I did become disgusted by it. Even at 13-years-old, I knew the difference between a "good" touch and a "bad touch" even though I was taught, like Jasira, to be ashamed of even the good touches. But that was probably supposed to be a reflection on Jasira's parents’ lack of parenting.

*SIGH* With all that said, I can't say whether or not I liked the book. It was just too disturbing. Once I get over the shock of it, I'll come back and rate it.


View all my reviews.

Reading is Fundamental, You Suckas
Mood:  not sure
Now Playing: Tyrell by Coe Booth
Topic: Book Reviews
Tyrell by Coe Booth

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
As a Young Adult librarian, I inwardly (barely) frown upon any teenager's craving for the so-called street/hip-hop/urban fiction that has become a force to be reckoned with in the literary world. These books glorify an opportunisitic, materialistic, sexist, violent, and sometimes criminal world that teens live or wish to live. Lest you think me some suburb-rised cultural elitest, let me set you straight. I'm straight up 'hood born and 'hood raised. I've seen some of these stories close up in real life and there's nothing good about them, so I'm baffled by the embrace of them.

Tyrell, Coe Booth's debut novel, is urban/street/ghetto fiction taken to a higher level. It exposes the ugly side of project-life, hustling, and using sex as a tool. The protagonist, 15-year-old Tyrell, is trying to keep his family and life together as he is trying to escape homelessness. But he is constantly angered and frustrated by a trifling mom, an incarcerated dad, a mistrustful girlfriend, and a needy female pal. Yet, by the end of the story, Tyrell finds light at the end of the tunnel.

The ending doesn't pretend that the rest of Tyrell's life (or his little brother's, mother's, father's or friends') won't be a hard struggle, but it does give hope that Tyrell won't succumb to the vices (emotional and physical) that traps everyone around him. Tyrell is both sad and uplifting without being preachy. It is the perfect realistic fiction for today's teens.

View all my reviews.

The Joy of Summer Reading
Mood:  sharp
Now Playing: The Wallflower
Topic: Book Reviews
The Wallflower 1: Yamatonadeshiko Shichihenge by Tomoko Hayakawa

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Blood. Ghosts. Creatures of light! No, this isn’t a vampire-horror graphic novel. This is a wacky story about 4 hot guys with a mission to turn their landlady’s homely neice into a stunner, so they can get free rent. But when the poor thing looks like the girl from the movie The Ring, do the boys even have a chance? You’ll have to read the rest to find out. You’ll be laughing and cheering through out the whole series. 

Naptime Is the New Happy Hour: And Other Ways Toddlers Turn Your Life Upside Down by Stefanie Wilder-Taylor

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This laugh outloud book on how to survive toddlerhood needs to be read by every parent. The advice and anecdotes in this book will have you shelving your mommy-guilt, and feeling good about your parenting skills. It is a quick read, and you can start at any chapter. Warning there is a lot of cursing, but I don't mind it because my cursing quotient has gone up now that I have two little ones.

View all my reviews.

RIF Join the Challenge
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: Book Reviews

The Five Minute Lit List
Mood:  flirty
Now Playing: Books I'm Reading/Borrowing from the Library
Topic: Book Reviews

Although it has been only week since I've finished maternity leave and returned to work at the library, I've already managed to check out a large number of books that I plan on reading. It doesn't matter that I have three books at home that I want to read. I decided to share my my current reading list for you. I'll post reviews later when I'm actually done reading them. So get your library card and get to borrowing!

1.The 5 Minute Face: The Quick and Easy Makeup Guide for Every Woman by Carmindy: TLC's What Not To Wear's makeup artist Carmindy shares her philosophy and tips on make-up application for women of all colors and complexions.

2. Anyone But You by Jennifer Crusie: a 40-year-old divorcee finds romance with a hot 30-year-old doctor with the help of her sadsack of a dog, Fred.

3. The Makeover Book: Simple Ideas for Effortless Style by Jacqui Ripley: Fashion and Beauty writer Jacqui Ripley helps us to boost our style with simple and easy-to-follow directions.

4. Closet Smarts: Flatter Your Figure with the Clothes You Already Have by Emily Neill: Emily Neill uses real life female models to help readers to analyze their body shapes and dress them to their best.

5. What Shall We Do With The Boo Hoo Baby? Board Book (Board book) by Cressida Cowell: Any new mom, like myself, will enjoy the antics of a group of animals trying to stop a baby from crying.

The Three Books I Have At Home Waiting For Me Are:

Three Junes by Julia Glass

The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem

Sure of You (Tales from the City, v. 6) by Armistead Maupin-- in anticipation of reading the don't call it a sequel sequel, Michael Tolliver Lives.

All That and A Bag of Chips
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: How to Be a Budget Fashionista : The Ultimate Guide to Looking Fabulous for Less
Topic: Book Reviews
The Budget Fashionista has released a wonderful style, fashion, and shopping book. Aside from the The Pocket Stylist, Kathryn Finney's debut guide, How to Be a Budget Fashionista:The Ultimate Guide to Looking Fabulous for Less, is the best fashion and shopping book out there. Kathryn takes the wit and humor that made her website famous and turns it into a very helpful book. She takes you through the steps of getting your finances straight to defining your style and where to get the best look for less. Folks, this is the most thorough book you're going to find on how to look great and how to shop. What's best is that it isn't a weight read filled with fashion and style jargon that goes way over the readers' head. It also enlightens the new fashionista to the tricks of the trade in the fashion and retail industry relating to vanity sizes to the true definition of a sale to how to spot a fake designer bag. It also has the quality that makes fashion magazines helpful: quizzes! This quick five minute questionnaires help you to define your style, and they are surprisingly reliable. There also homework assignments that help you with making smart style choices. How to be a Budget Fashionista gives readers lots of opportunities to highlight important facts and make notes inside the margins. Since it is quite a small and lightweight book, you can stuff it into your purse and take it to the mall with you. You will fly through the incredible easy read in about a week, and find yourself going back to it as an important reference. My favorite chapter is the one developing a proper underwear wardrobe. She lists wonderful stores and websites to fill all your underwear needs no matter if you're as flat as a board or your breasts make Pamela Anderson look like a 12-year-old boy. Many of my womankind brethren, especially the older ones, are in a serious need of a bra makeover. Girls, your breasts can be separate from your stomach!!!

I'm A International Reader
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: Blackhair Magazine by Haversham Publications
Topic: Book Reviews
I discovered the UK magazine, Blackhair at my local library. I devoured the latest three issues. As a Black woman, Blackhair is the beauty magazine I've been longing for. Each issue is divided into three sections--beauty, fashion, and hair. There are plenty of stories on how to care for all types and Black complexioins of skin, as well as hair from weaves to braids to relaxers to natural styles. Most United States Black hair magazines seem to forget about natural styles or attach a story that seems tacked on at the end.

Blackhair also offers a glossary of chemicals and ingredients featured in most beauty and hair products. This gives women a chance to figure out if they're using the right products based on their needs. There are also plenty of advice columns that answers readers' questions. I really love the fact that they use real-looking models and dark-skinned models as the norm, and not as an afterthought. If a subscription wasn't $79 US, I would certainly plunk down money for one.
I love Blackhair magazine and I hope my library keeps carrying it.

What A Chick-Lit Novel Should Be
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: The Booster by Jennifer Solow
Topic: Book Reviews
The Booster is an excellent, page-turning and morally ambiguous debut novel by Jennifer Solow. Solow’s protagonist is a Jewish American Princess named Jillian Laurel Siegel—a mess of a woman who hides her inner turmoil by keeping a cold and distant demeanor. (A prescription for an anti-anxiety drug helps Jillian keep her distance from even those she loves.) Whenever she is forced to reveal anything about herself, Jillian lies. She not only tells white lies, but big whopping fibs. She doesn’t know how to be truthful, even to herself.

Jillian also has another problem. She’s a chronic shoplifter, a.k.a. a booster. Because of her upbringing as an indulged child by her rich uncle and his gay lover, Jillian walks around with deep sense of entitlement. It is a sense of entitlement that minorities in the United States believe that white people consciously or subconsciously have. At its least, it is an annoying trait. At its worst, it brings on severe feelings of contempt. Once the reader is drawn deeper into Jillian’s neurosis, we begin to sympathize with her. She is addicted to shoplifting as some people are addicted to alcohol or drugs. It narcotizes the pain that is felt from feeling unloved; being a disappointed to one's self; having low self-esteem; and sometimes from dealing with mental disorders such as depression and bi-polar disorder.

The imminent death of her beloved uncle and the loss of her job send Jillian into a downward spiral. She makes her first true friend, who lures her into a deeper life of crime. Jillian must now find the strength within her self to break free and move on with her life, but can she do it? Can Jillian find the help she needs and shake her armor of entitlement to make a sacrifice? I won’t spill the ending, which in true Chick-Lit fashion, wraps up pretty nicely.

The one downside of The Booster is the liberal use of Yiddish between Jillian and her family. Native New Yorkers will get most of the phrases, as we’ve adopted some of them in our own every day lexicon, but the non-Jewish reader will not know the difference from Shalom and Shabbat.
(For help with the Yiddish phrases, I recommend http://www.yiddishdictionaryonline.com/).

I'M STILL READING, DAMN YOU
Mood:  don't ask
Now Playing: Books on Fashion and Beauty
Topic: Book Reviews

So, I've been browsing in the 391 and 646 sections of my library's non-fiction section and indulging my senses with pictures and information about fashion and beauty. I'm almost an expert myself. Being an expert, I felt that it was in the best interest of others if I share my knowledge. Below is a list of my favorite fashion and style books. Enjoy!

For the sheer joy of the pictures, I LOVE Hot Shoes: One Hundred Years by Maureen Riley and Shoes: A Celebration of Pumps, Sandals, Slippers & More by Linda O'Keefe. I prefer the latter because it provides more of a history and goes into the terminology of shoes.

I have a fetish for 1940s Fashion, and I've read three books that have really fed into it. Miller's Collecting Fashion & Accessories is really a collector's guide but it is also a beautiful trip down the history of clothing. My favorite section is about the clothes being manufactured during the late 1930s and throughout the 1940s. I found out that French Cuffs, pant cuffs, and long hemlines were damn near outlaw to perserve material for the military's uniforms and supplies.

Fashions of a Decade: The 1940s by Patricia Baker provides wonderful pictures, illustrations and facts on all facets of American fashion from bobby socks to Dior's New Look. This volume is actually one in a set of 10 books (it begins with fashion in the 1900s and ends with the 1990s). It was written for middle-grade children, but it is an excellent primer on the decade's looks.

The most helpful fashion advice book I've borrowed from the library is The Pocket Stylist : Behind-the-Scenes Expertise From a Fashion Pro on Creating Your Own Unique Look by Kendall Farr. What's great about this book is it actually accomodates several different types of body shapes and sizes from the short and petite to the tall and plus-size. It explains in detail what are best styles for your shape. To my joy, it wasn't the typical plus-size fashion info!


TLC's What Not To Wear Dress Your Best : the Complete Guide to Finding the Style That's Right for Your Body / Clinton Kelly and Stacy London. This book is for both men and women and their myriad of shapes. It uses pictures of actual people instead illustrations which gives you a better idea of fit. Unfortunately, once you find your category the other pages of the book becomes worthless.

The Lucky Shopping Manual : Building and Improving Your Wardrobe Piece by Piece / Kim France and Andrea Linett ; edited by Danielle Claro. This is still one of my favorit style and fashion books because it helps you to organize your closet and explains how to put outfits together. It doesn't really make account for size, but you can always get another book for that. 

After seeing him on the Tyra Banks Show, I borrowed designer Bradley Bayou's book, the Science of Sexy from the library. The basic premise is that each woman falls into a certain body shape and you have to dress it accordingly. Perhaps it is because I've poured of many style books and magazines, but I found the book neither more nor less helpful than the Pocket Stylist. I say this much: if this is the first style book you have ever picked up, then you don't really need another one. He will give you tips to dress your shape to enhance your looks and fashion sense. It is easy to follow and has wonderful pictures and illustrations.

Picturing Cameron Diaz as the Bitch Helped
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: In her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner
Topic: Book Reviews


About a month ago, I saw an ad online for the movie In her Shoes with Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette. This chick flick is based on the book of the same name by Jennifer Weiner. I read Jennifer's first book, Good in Bed, because it had a plus-sized protagonist. I ended up hating GIB, because the ending ended up reading like a cheesy soap opera plot. You could see the mistakes the main character was going to make a mile away. In Her Shoes seemed liked a better plot, so I picked it up about two years ago. I couldn't even get through the first chapter before I wretched. However, I judged the book too harshly.

Once I saw that they had made a movie out of IHS, I decided to give it another chance. Plus, imaging Cameron Diaz as the bitch sister helped immensely. At first, I found the 500-page book daunting but soon I was devouring the book like a pint of cookie dough ice cream.

Younger sister Maggie is a rebellious teenager stuck in a 28-year-old's body. She drinks and has sex recklessly, and is incredibly selfish. She often blames her learning disabilities for her actions. She actually just lacks self-esteem. Older sister Rose is the more responsible sister who feels compelled to take care of her screw-up of a sister although Maggie is never grateful. Rose is established in her career, smart, single-minded but heavyset. She makes herself invisible with dull clothes, makeup and hair. She too lacks a certain self-esteem.

Maggie's story is well thought out, and you can almost believe her character arc. Rose's story, no pun intended, is less fleshed out. You're never fully aware as to why she continues to help her sister besides familial obligation. Maggie and Rose also discover they have a long, lost grandmother in Florida. Her name is Ella. Ella brings the sisters together into a mutual and loving relationship, and rediscovers her family.

It is a wonderful story divided into three parts. Despite the length, I went through the book in about ten days. I was unable to put it down once I got past the third chapter. I was dying to know what came next. It didn't hurt that I got to imagine Cameron Diaz as the "dumb sister" who was the world class manipulator although she had "learning disabilities."

After reading the book, I am certainly excited to see the movie. I'm curious how mean they're going to let Cameron Diaz be as Maggie. Since her wonderful performance in Being John Malkovich, Diaz has only played the lovable kook. (I'm not counting that three hour bore Gangs of New York.)

Out of five stars, I give the book In Her Shoes three and a half stars. I give Good In Bed two stars.
----

Good in Bed is a painful book to read because the main character, Cannie, is so unpleasant. She is full of bitterness for the father who abandoned her, and the ex-boyfriend who writes about their relationship in a woman's magazine. She also loathes her mother's lesbian lover and is generally unaccepting of their relationship. (Which is odd because she longs for her size to be accepted by society.) You hardly want to root for her.
Cannie is a woman in need of good therapy and a hug. She's so full of self-loathing that she makes the most hideous decisions that you can see coming a mile away especially when it comes to her ex-boyfriend Bruce. Cannie hides her pain through jokes and sarcasm, but it wears thin.

Cannie is also a very physical woman, which real-life studies say should help her have a higher self-esteem. She turns to exercise like some women turn to comfort food. This was the best aspect of the book, because most plus-sized women are portrayed as couch potatoes.

The book does become soap opera-ish when she becomes best buds with a thin movie starlet and nearly loses her baby. I forgive this because it's fiction. But do yourself a favor, and borrow this audio book from the library.

I Can Read Damnit!!
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: What My Mother Doesn't Know in the Clearcut
Topic: Book Reviews
Today I started and finished a wonderful young adult (a.k.a. teen) novel called “What My Mother Doesn’t Know” by Sonya Sones. This book has two distinctive features: it was one of the most challenged books (books that people try to ban from schools and public libraries) of 2004 and it was written in a poetry format.

I picked up the book to read in honor of Banned Books Week(September 24-October 1st). I am also trying to re-read Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s/Sorcerer’s Stone. At the library, we are planning a 4 hour and 51 minute read-a-thon of banned/challenged books (based on the list compiled by the American Library Association). I picked up Sones’ book expecting something depressing, overtly sexual, or sensational. It turned out to be a sweet and uplifting tale. The book is subtle. The main character, Sophia, deals with anti-Semitism, her parents’ rocky marriage, and her burgeoning love life without hitting the reader over the head. The simple and innocent language that Sones’ has her character speak with makes her story much more powerful. You get the feeling that a teenager actually wrote this, and not an adult pretending what a teen of the 21st century might say or do.

And since we’re on the topic of books, let me also recommend the very adult novel Clearcut by Nina Shengold. I am only a quarter of the way through this book, but I’m already completely engrossed. This is, so far, a sexy story about Pacific Northwest woodsman, Earley Ritter, and his lust for a Greek tree planter named Zan. The downside is that Zan is the girlfriend of Reed, the hippie college dropout Earley employs as a partner in cutting tree stumps. The story takes place in the 1970s when sex seemed much easier to have and had fewer consequences. I can’t wait to see where this story goes. I’m already casting the movie in my head. Earley is large, broad, unkempt man in his late 20s that two women find sexy. What man in Hollywood is fairly tall and can be sexy will being unkempt? I’m thinking Viggo Mortensen (although he may be too old)
or Heath Ledger.

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things--The Book, Not Me
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: Carolyn Mackler's Young Adult Tour De Force
Topic: Book Reviews
As a former undernourished-looking child and a current plus-sized 213-lb woman, I loved The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler. Don’t take a look at the title and lump this book into the Teen Bridget Jones-Chick Lit category. Although it resembles one of those books of the ever fast growing genre, The Earth…is remarkably insightful, introspective, multi-layered, and well written. Carolyn creates a wonderfully multi-dimensional character in the form of Virginia Shreves.

Virginia is a blond-haired and overweight 15-year old who does not fit in with her over-achieving, athletic, slim, and brown-haired family. Virginia is not only an outsider at school, but an outsider at home as well. Like her mindless eating and magazine reading, she encourages the isolation as shield. If no one can notice her, no one can criticize or tease her about her weight. Virginia even dabbles in self-mutilation to deal with the pain she feels about being a fat girl in world where being thin is in.

Unlike other plus-size heroines, Virginia has a grasp of her sexuality and takes a firmer grasp of it as the novel progresses. Virginia makes out with her unofficial boyfriend, and enjoys it even when the size of her body makes her nervous. She also masturbates and is not ashamed feeling arousal towards boys. Mackler writes these scenes, there are a few but not too many, with careful wording. It is never vulgar or sappy. It is plain and unobtrusive.

A tragedy in Virginia’s family forces her to take charge of her mental, physical, emotional, and social health. By the end of the novel, which I read in little over a day, you’re feeling as energized and as unstoppable as Virginia. The best thing about the book is that Virginia’s boost in attitude has absolutely nothing to do with her weight. (I won’t spoil the ending by tell you whether or not she slims down.)

This is the best book featuring a plus-sized teen girl since Life in the Fat Lane by Cherie Bennett. I recommend it to all teens, regardless of size, struggling with body image and self esteem issues. I also think this book, like Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, would make an excellent choice for a Mothers-Daughters Book Club.

Posted by Kiki Shoes at 11:23 PM EDT | Post Comment | Permalink
Updated: August 10, 2005 11:25 PM EDT