What An Experience

 

Published:  September 3rd, 2013

Are You Experienced?

By: Jordan Sonnenblick

Feiwel & Friends

ISBN-13:  9781250025647

 

Rich is fifteen and plays guitar. When his girlfriend asks him to perform at protest rally, he jumps at the chance. Unfortunately, the police show up, and so does Rich’s dad. He’s in big trouble. Again. To make matters worse, this happens near the anniversary of his uncle’s death from a drug overdose years ago. Rich’s dad always gets depressed this time of year, but whenever Rich asks questions about his late uncle, his dad shuts down.

Frustrated by his dad’s silence, Rich sneaks into his office and breaks into a locked cabinet that holds his dad’s prized possession: an electric guitar signed by Jimi Hendrix. Before he knows it, Rich is transported to the side of a road in Upstate New York with a beautiful girl bending over him. It will take him a while to realize it’s 1969, he’s at Woodstock, and the girl’s band of friends includes his fifteen-year-old dad and his uncle, who’s still alive. What Rich learns, who he meets, and what he does could change his life forever.

 

Review

 

     Rich is fifteen and loves playing his guitar.  This time is gets him in trouble, when he plays at a rally not realizing it's for the legalization of marijuana and he gets himself arrested.  His Mom and Dad are a lot older that any of his friend's parents and Rich's Dad is especially hard on him, because his brother (Rich's Uncle) died of a drug overdose when they were teenagers.  After a really horrible fight, Rich breaks into his Dad's office and finds a signed guitar from Jimi Hendrix.  When he plays it he's electrocuted and transported to a road in New York.  Picked up by his Dad, his Uncle and his Uncle's girlfriend, Rich goes to Woodstock with them for the concert of a lifetime.  But is there anything that Rich can even do to change the past and prevent a tragic end?  Or will things still happen the exact same way?

     Anyone who reads this blog knows that I have an extremely unholy addiction to books dealing with time travel!  And as someone who is more into folk and 60s rock than any other music (besides 90s pop/rock - it's a weakness!), Woodstock appeals to my inner mellowed-out hippie.  I liked that Jordan started out the book with the flashbacks so we could see how Rich even got to Woodstock and the family dynamic leading up to his decisions.  The relationship between Rich and his Father was especially difficult, because Rich wants to connect with him more than anything.  But he feels like his Dad is living in the past and holding too tightly to the leftover hurt from his brother overdosing.  Rich feels like he's getting smothered as a result.  Further into the book we learn the reasoning for a lot of the life choices and personality traits of Rich's Dad (a major one being his own really fucked up home life and parents), which lets us really understand just how hard it is for him to relax and let Rich make his own mistakes.

     Rich starts off the novel being kind of spoiled and sheltered without realizing it on the level it actually exists on.  The relationships that he builds over the weekend at Woodstock with his Uncle Michael, Willow (Mike's girl) and David (his Dad) were really in depth for being as sudden as they were.  Being picked up naked on the side of the road and thrown into a completely different subculture definitely gives Rich a different perspective.  There are some lighter moments and Rich's inadvertent experience with drugs definitely shakes up the narrative of the book a little bit.  The music is really a major driving force behind the plot though and the meeting with Janis Joplin was pretty cool.  Really the major one though was the life-changing conversations that Rich has with Jimi Hendrix about drugs, life and legacy.  The destruction of heroin use is shown in this book, without being overly graphic.  I liked the revelation about why Mike ended up dead and what he was trying to avoid.  I won't say anything else cause I don't want to give it away, but it made my heart hurt.  All in all, the fantasy elements get a little out of control at times but this was a really well written book that I highly enjoyed.  Definitely interesting to see a teenager get the chance to become best friends with his own Dad when he was a teen.  The conclusion of the book was slightly clichéd but it was a nice ending and made sense for it.  If you're into music, time travel and history (in that order) I'd recommend reading it.  As much as I liked it, the connection I felt wasn't all that personal and that's why the rating is what it is.

 

VERDICT:  3.75/5 Stars

 

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley.  No money or favors were exchanged for this review.  This book was published on September 3rd, 2013.*

Ever Capable Dodger

Published:  September 13th, 2012

Dodger

By: Terry Pratchett

HarperCollins Publishers

ISBN-13:  9780062009494

A storm. Rain-lashed city streets. A flash of lightning. A scruffy lad sees a girl leap desperately from a horse-drawn carriage in a vain attempt to escape her captors. Can the lad stand by and let her be caught again? Of course not, because he's . . . Dodger.

Seventeen-year-old Dodger may be a street urchin, but he gleans a living from London's sewers, and he knows a jewel when he sees one. He's not about to let anything happen to the unknown girl—not even if her fate impacts some of the most powerful people in England.

From Dodger's encounter with the mad barber Sweeney Todd to his meetings with the great writer Charles Dickens and the calculating politician Benjamin Disraeli, history and fantasy intertwine in a breathtaking account of adventure and mystery.

Review

     One night when Dodger is out and about, he witnesses a young woman throw herself from a carriage to escape her kidnappers.  Determined to help her, he beats up the men and sends them on their way.  Then Charles Dickens and Henry Mayhew happen along the scene, taking the young woman to Mayhew's home to recover (with Dodger coming along to supervise).  But keeping her alive will take more effort than this, when it becomes obvious that people in high places would prefer for her to be dead.  So Dodger sets off on a mission to find out who ordered the kidnapping and to save the young woman from them once and for all.  Along the way as Dodger rises from the sewers to become a gentleman, he crosses paths with Benjamin Disraeli, Sweeney Todd, Robert Peel, and other famous faces.  Will Dodger, Charlie and the rest of their friends be able to forge a new life for the young woman in question, or will her past catch up with her in a lethal way?  This is actually my first Terry Pratchett book ever.  Not that I have never heard of the many wonders of Discworld!  I do happen to know that he is lauded for his fantasy writings and that this book is one of his few stand alones not part of that particular series.  I thought it was a very interesting concept, almost like a Dickens novel, but with a specific brand of humor and characterization that seemed to be unique to the author alone.  As much as I liked Dodger and found him amusing, I felt like he wasn't quite extraordinary enough to be the main focus.  It was like Pratchett tried to make him that way, but fell just a little bit short.  Also, to be completely honest, the politics of Victorian era London weren't exactly thrilling and keeping me on the edge of my seat.  Honestly, a fun book but not the best one that I've read this year.  My favorite part was Dodger's encounter with Sweeney Todd.  I do plan on picking up another Terry Pratchett book in the future and I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll like his fantasy better than his historical fiction attempt.  I would recommend this to established fans of Pratchett, fans of Dickens and reluctant boy readers in middle school and high school.  

VERDICT:  3.75/5  Stars

**No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book is now available in stores, online, or maybe even at your local library.**

The Dead Celebrity Cookbook Presents: Christmas in Tinseltown

Published:  October 1st, 2012

The Dead Celebrity Cookbook Presents: Christmas in Tinseltown

By: Frank DeCaro, Virginia Bell

Health Communications

ISBN-13: 9780757317002

Now you can put some gam in your holiday ham with The Dead Celebrity Christmas Cookbook. When it comes to holiday fun, the stars of Hollywood's Golden Age knew how to make merry – on stage, on screen, and especially on the dinner table. With The Dead Celebrity Christmas Cookbook – the follow-up to his international sensation The Dead Celebrity Cookbook – Frank DeCaro shows how to put the kitsch into your holiday kitchen as he salutes a quirky collection of celebrities who are gone, but fondly remembered every year at Christmastime.

Filled with pop culture ruminations and genuine (and genuinely delicious) recipes of the stars, The Dead Celebrity Christmas Cookbook hails such movie classics as It's a Wonderful Life and White Christmas, gives three cheers for such time-honored animated gems as Frosty the Snowman and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and puts such offbeat offerings as The Star Wars Holiday Special in their rightful place – the dining room! (summary courtesy of Amazon.com)

Review

     I have a confession to make:  I never read the original Dead Celebrity Cookbook.  But I saw this one available on Netgalley and it looked like just the sort of thing that was right up my alley as a reader.  Granted, Christmas is not my favorite holiday (AT ALL),  but I figured maybe I could get a couple of recipes to use year-round from this thing and some fun anecdotes to read about in regards to famous actors/actresses since gone.  A lot of this cookbook was genuinely fun to read and I could tell that Mr. DeCaro was very passionate about what he was doing.  That said, I sometimes felt like the background info of the specific films (versus the specific stars) overshadowed the actual recipes and only served as filler to create more pages.  Plus, it never even touched on the fact that not EVERY dead celebrity was a Christian that celebrated Christmas.  Some of them had to have been Jewish right?  So where was the Hanukkah section?  I wouldn't have minded that, especially as a reader who isn't Jewish and is always looking to try new things.  But it didn't exist in this particular book.  The chapter names and the puns they created made me smile while I was reading, but overall I felt like this wasn't the cookbook for me or the actor trivia book for me either.  It split too much between trying to be both and didn't really succeed at being one or the other.  A fun book, but not one I would read again.

VERDICT:  3/5  Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book was published October 1st, 2012.*

American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee

Published: March 13th, 2012 (Paperback)
American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee
By: Karen Abbott
Random House
ISBN-13:  9781400066919

America in the Roaring Twenties. Vaudeville was king. Talking pictures were only a distant flicker. Speakeasies beckoned beyond dimly lit doorways; money flowed fast and free. But then, almost overnight, the Great Depression leveled everything. When the dust settled, Americans were primed for a star who could distract them from grim reality and excite them in new, unexpected ways. Enter Gypsy Rose Lee, a strutting, bawdy, erudite stripper who possessed a preternatural gift for delivering exactly what America needed.

With her superb narrative skills and eye for compelling detail, Karen Abbott brings to vivid life an era of ambition, glamour, struggle, and survival. Using exclusive interviews and never-before-published material, she vividly delves into Gypsy’s world, including her intensely dramatic triangle relationship with her sister, actress June Havoc, and their formidable mother, Rose, a petite but ferocious woman who seduced men and women alike and literally killed to get her daughters on the stage.

American Rose chronicles their story, as well as the story of the four scrappy and savvy showbiz brothers from New York City who would pave the way for Gypsy Rose Lee’s brand of burlesque. Modeling their shows after the glitzy, daring reviews staged in the theaters of Paris, the Minsky brothers relied on grit, determination, and a few tricks that fell just outside the law—and they would shape, and ultimately transform, the landscape of American entertainment.

With a supporting cast of such Jazz- and Depression-era heavyweights as Lucky Luciano, Harry Houdini, FDR, and Fanny Brice, Karen Abbott weaves a rich narrative of a woman who defied all odds to become a legend—and whose sensational tale of tragedy and triumph embodies the American Dream.

Review

   Gypsy Rose Lee was a stripper, a burlesque dancer during a time that alcohol was outlawed, underground speakeasies were King and flappers ran wild with gangsters.  She was able to distract the public from their weariness and the troubles the Great Depression had brought them.  A great deal of this biography is spent in Gypsy's complex relationships with her mother Rose and her sister June.  This was not my usual read by any stretch of the imagination.  I do love to learn more about history and biographies/memoirs are wonderful things to read if they're well done.  I did feel like the book was far more about the myth of Gypsy Rose Lee than the realities of her.  I enjoyed all of the ancedotes and the detail the author goes into.  I love the time period that was focused on, the Roaring Twenties onward through the wartorn Forties.  I loved the glamour and harshness of Prohibition and the unimaginable way it coexisted with the Great Depression.  It was easy to imagine being taken in by the beauty and mystery of a burlesque dancer and very big personality like Gypsy Rose Lee.  The book relies largely on imformation already in the public consiousness, interviews with Gypsy's sister June that give sometimes vague information, the words of actress June Havoc, and the recollections of her son Erik Preminger.  Who knows if we as curiosity seekers will ever get the truth behind the curtains?  Either way, it was a truly intriguing and fun book to read for one such as myself who had only heard Gypsy's name in passing and didn't really know anything about her.  Maybe not recommendable to true enthusiasts looking for new info, but for new readers who are meeting Gypsy for the first time.

VERDICT:  3/5  Stars

* I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book was published in paperback on March 13th, 2012.*

Melody, Please Burn to Death (Pretty PLEASE!!!)

Published: December 6th, 2011
Melody Burning
By: Whitley Strieber
Henry Holt and Co.
ISBN-13: 9780805093278


Beresford doesn’t remember much about his past or how he came to live in the chutes and crawl spaces of the posh high-rise that shares his name. But when rock star and teen sensation Melody McGrath moves to an apartment on the fiftieth floor, he knows he has to be near her. Although she doesn’t realize it, Melody is threatened by more dangerous forces than her manipulative stage mom and the pressures of life in the spotlight. The owner of the glamorous building has been hiding a fatal secret within its walls, and Beresford puts all his plans at risk. Will Beresford and Melody be able to escape with their lives (and love) intact?

Review

   The book starts off with a prologue of little Robbie and his Dad being held at gunpoint on a work elevator in an apartment building that's under construction.  Dad ends up dying and having his body dumped down the elevator shaft, while Robbie has to hide from the psycho named Luther, who has the gun.  Flash forward about ten or eleven years, where everything is all suddenly about teen pop star Melody McGrath, who has moved into the Beresford apartment complex.  She is almost certain that someone is inside the walls, spying on her.  Her Mom thinks she's having a psychotic break, but Melody is right.  Robbie is still in the walls, living in the vent/duct system and sneaking things necessary to his survival from people's apartments.  Only, he doesn't remember his name (so he calls himself Beresford) or how old he is, but he's figured out how to DVR the T.V. show Melody is on and is obsessed with her.   The owner of the complex wants a hit man to find and get rid of the boy, because he plans to burn down the place for the insurance money.  He even built it with code-breaking constructions so the fire would spread faster!  Melody discovers Beresford, but he gets taken away.  Without him there to protect her, will Melody survive?  This book had a promising prologue and I got interested at first.  Then it developed a split personality, unable to figure out who was the main character and what the plot was trying to accomplish.  I get sick inside when I think about how good this book could've been and wasn't, because Mr. Strieber unsuccessfully tried to write romance between a wild child, with the mind of a preschooler and a mature teenage girl.  It sickened me and I wished for the answers to the mystery to be fleshed out - I got crumbs instead of cornbread.  Don't read this unless you want to read something that NEVER should have made it past the press, onto the shelves.  Waste of ink, sadly enough.

VERDICT:  1/5  Stars and my true revulsion at it's lack of realistic decency (this from someone who used to LOVE Flowers In The Attic as a teenager, which I think says a lot!)

*No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book is now available in stores and online.*