A Book PREview

Today, I was so excited to have this book in my hands that you might have thought Joey Kramer himself was going to ring me up at the bookstore.

He doesn't seem to share my enthusiasm...
Hit Hard: A Story of Hitting Rock Bottom at the Top by Joey Kramer
I've been looking forward to reading this book since I learned of its release (not long ago, actually - how was I so out of the loop?!) I absolutely love Joey Kramer. I used to have a silly fan page for him on Geocities back when I was 14-16. Thank god THAT'S gone! (Strangely enough, my Aerosmith site is still up... and it's way more embarrassing...)

As much as I think Steven Tyler is the biggest and best rock star in history, and as hot as Joe Perry is, I've always been drawn to the LI3 (Less Interesting Three, as they dubbed themselves). Brad's a great guitarist, Tom is absolutely hilarious, and Joey- I'm not sure exactly what drew me to Joey. My secret desire to be a drummer? He's a goof, and he seems very real. I loved how silly yet serious he'd act in the Aerosmith documentaries.

When I saw Aerosmith back on 12/4/02, I was lucky enough to have a spot at the catwalk. The band played three opening songs on a little platform at the end of the catwalk, then went to the main stage. As they were walking, everyone was trying to touch them. No band members touched back except Steven, who was eating it up. Then Joey Kramer walks by, AND GIVES ME FIVE! I shit you not. I was the only person he touched. Sure, it might have been because I was the tallest girl around, and was able to practically lay across the catwalk until someone noticed me. But the whole night, even when Steven took my hat, even when I "jacked off" his ankle (what my bf at the time called it, anyway), even when I was blatantly ignored by Joe, all I could think was "Joey Kramer high-fived me!"

The book is supposed to be a very open and honest account about his depression. I can't wait to find out what makes this man tick!

Her

Her by Laura Zigman is an interesting read. As much as I/girls try to play it cool, I think we are often overanalyzing things and being jealous over the pettiest things that don’t actually matter. So it’s refreshing to read something that tells you No, you’re not the only one who thinks this way.

It was a bit heavy on the stalking and marriage talk. I wasn’t really connected with the main character. I know it’s harder in first person to know the narrator by name, since it’s not stated every other line like it might be in third person, but I only learned Elise’s name in the first part of the book, and was reminded of it once in the 2nd half. I’m not saying I don’t do that - I think it’s strange that I love writing first person because it’s so intimate, yet when it’s workshopped, most people don’t feel like they’re in the character’s head. That’s how I felt about Elise, and since I could identify that problem, I tried to learn from it and think of how I’d fix it.

I came up blank. Oh well. I guess I need to work on my first person intimacy...

It was a fun read though, and easy to get into once I could sit down and give it my full attention. Zigman has a fantastic way of ending the chapter on a cliffhanger without seeming overly dramatic. I read this book on my lunch breaks, and I’d be ready to close the book and get back to work when my eyes would flit over and see the next line of the next chapter. If the chapter endings were cliffhangers, the first sentence of the next chapters were even more intense. She’s very skilled with language, and can draw you in so completely it’s a rude awakening to come back.

The last few lines of the book are worth it alone; apparently I’m going to spoil it here, because I must share.
"Love, trust, faith - they are not equipped with radar devices,
sonar devices, night-vision devices, lifetime guarantees.
They are blind as bats.
But they are all we have.”

The Pearl

Of Mice and Men was one of my favorite required reading books in high school - I can count how many I enjoyed on two hands. Each time I saw a Steinbeck novel at the library bookstore, I'd pick it up for a dime or so.

I decided I'd finally read them this summer. The Pearl caught my eye first, and I was not disappointed. Steinbeck has this great style - very matter-of-fact, but beautiful at the same time. Steinbeck is exploring a Mexican folk tale on a more personal level, relating it to Kino's quest for riches and success: "It is not a good thing to want too much. It sometimes drives the luck away. You must want it just enough, and you must be very tactful with God or the gods."

Kino is very in tune with the Earth, the village, and his family. Everything gave off a song to Kino - good or evil: "...This was part of the family song too. It was all part. Sometimes it rose to an aching chord that caught the throat, saying this is safety, this is warmth, this is the Whole."

When Kino's infant son, Coyotito, is bit by a scorpion, he and his wife immediately set out for the nearest doctor, who never sees the poor people from the village. Kino's family takes their boat out to go pearl diving, in hopes of finding enough quality pearls to afford a doctor's visit.

Kino does find a pearl - the biggest, most beautiful pearl anyone in the village has ever seen. But when he tries to sell it, the buyers want to rip him off. He refuses their offer and returns home, but now all the villagers are filled with greed and want the pearl. They try to steal it, they beat Kino and burn his house. The village, once peaceful, is now unsettled, and so is Kino and the music in his head: "'Who do you fear?'
     Kino searched for a true answer, and at last he said, 'Everyone.' And he could feel a shell of hardness drawing over him."

Kino and his family decide to leave the village - to try and sell the pearl in a richer area as well as to escape all who are trying to harm them. Juana keeps noticing changes in her husband's demeanor - he has become crazed and violent, but she still loved him: "He had said 'I am a man,' and that meant certain things to Juana. It meant that he was half insane and half god. It meant that Kino would drive his strength against a mountain and plunge his strength against the sea. Juana, in her woman's soul, knew that the mountain would stand while the man broke himself; that the sea would surge while the man drowned in it."

Overall, it's the typical warning of how greed will spoil you and ruin your life, things you have are more important than what you want, etc etc. But it's well-written and enjoyable, and makes me eager to get to the rest of my Steinbecks.

Dramarama

I'll admit, when I first started Dramarama by E. Lockhart, I groaned "Oh no, theater kids?!" I never got the theater kids in high school, so I figured I'd hate the characters in this book. Instead, Lockhart really shows the personalities and insecurities of a small group of characters, and especially gets into the head of the main character, Sadye.

"In Brenton, Ohio, where I'm from, committing suicide would be redundant.
It's a nothing town, as lacking in character as Cream of Wheat."
I was rooting for Sadye all the way. She was so real, so easy to identify with, that I knew she just had to floor them at her audition and make it into the summer drama camp. Which she did. Sadye, who had been plain ol' "Sarah" back in Ohio, decided to reinvent herself for the summer acting camp she was attending. She wasn't being fake, she just saw an opportunity to let her true self shine, since her small Ohio town didn't have room for her "bigness." But once she was there, things didn't get any easier. There was just enough conflict, just enough realism to make this book memorable.

If you don't know anything about the musicals they were performing, you can download a playlist of the songs on E. Lockhart's website. It's a fun way to interact with the book, and listening as you read helps you imagine the dances and rehearsals Demi and Sadye are focused on all summer.

A section I especially liked:
     "It wasn't about my height - though I'm five foot ten. It was like I was this supersonic, hydrophonic, gigantic person - only no one could see it. Like I had an undiscovered superpower. Like I was in a chrysalis, and when I popped out everyone would be shocked at my beauty and the breadth of my wings. Like there was a sound track to my life, and it was always blasting. But everyone in the world was deaf, except me.
     I know that doesn't make sense. What I'm trying to say is that sometimes I felt like the extra five inches I had on most girls was a symptom of the bigness inside me."

Makes perfect sense to me, Sadye. Reminds me of myself in high school. I think everyone feels that "bigness." Some can channel it, some keep searching.

The ending was a little ambiguous. I'm torn on that issue - in short stories, I think an indefinite ending is fine, and usually expected and accepted. In a novel, however, there is more room to explore, more to wrap up, and I usually think that it needs to be resolved to a certain extent. There wasn't much resolution here, but I think it works in this case. I won't spoil the ending, but it seems real-life enough to work; there is some resolution, but also room to expand. And, in the case of a bunch of YA novels, expansion is the purpose. I'm behind the times with E. Lockhart, this being my first, so there may be a sequel - I'll have to look into that.

Scar Tissue

I'm going to start posting some book reviews here, to work on my "professional" review-writing (still with a fair amount of raving...) to see what I can do with that in the near-ish future. Maybe analyzing the books I read will help with my writing, too, and at least I'll be writing something. We start with:

Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis
(and ghostwriter Larry Sloman)
This book has been on my To Read list since it came out, but our library never got it, so I waited for the paperback before I bought it. I started it last summer, but wasn't in the mood for an autobio, so I put it down and just picked it back up last week.

My brother introduced me to a lot of great music when I was about nine years old, like Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, Seven Mary Three, and ... the Chili Peppers! They're a band I've always loved, but have never been obsessive about. (Only a select few reach that level of psychosis devotion.) I can't tell you their former band members, their middle names, or their birthdays, but I know a huge chunk of their catalog and history. I wanted to know what went on behind the songwriting, since Kiedis has a very unique style and also, admit it, he's a total dish so of course I wanted to nose into his life.

I got more than I bargained for. I became so entranced with his story that each time he relapsed (oops, spoilers for those who lived under a rock!) I fell right into that hole with him, getting frustrated because he had been doing so well, hating the girls who pushed him over the edge.

It was a really interesting read that I couldn't put down. I read long after the sun set (this was the weekend without power) and past my lunch hour at work. Kiedis led an interesting life, and he's a complex, compelling man. I never felt like he was trying to name-drop or bad mouth anyone. I never felt like he was making up a good story for the money or trying to sound cool for a pat on the back. I honestly still don't care that much about the line-up changes (but oh how I fell for Hillel, even though I already knew his fate) and birthdays (though Kiedis is big on his, so I'll probably always remember 11/1/62), but I did learn a lot about the songs and the man behind the lyrics, which is exactly what I set out to do.

The quote on the front cover says "A frank, unsparing, meticulous account of a life lived entirely on impulse, for pleasure, and for kicks." - Time. I read that as a dis and found it kinda hilarious that the publishers featured it on the cover.

Summer Reading

Since I haven't been reading as much as I wanted this year, and since I completely slacked off with my "Month in Review" posts, I'm combining my April and May books into one post, and promising to start back up with things at the end of June.


+ The Song is You by Arthur Phillips. LOVED this one. I write a mini-rave/review here, but basically I would recommend it to anyone. I haven't had a chance to read any of Phillips' other novels, but I definitely plan to. And I can't wait til next year, when I get to read this one again.
+ Animal Husbandry by Laura Zigman. My favorite by her.
+ Beloved by Toni Morrison. Required reading for school - the only times I have ever read Morrison. I actually really liked the book this time around, compared to high school, when I could hardly understand it.
+ Dating Big Bird by Laura Zigman. I will never, ever understand the extreme drive some women have to produce offspring.
+ Her by Laura Zigman. I have a review written to post about this one later. (EDIT: Here.)
+ King of the World by Merrill Joan Gerber. A cheap-o found at the library book store, but actually really interesting. A different take (to me) on the abusive relationship.
+ Piece of Work by Laura Zigman. I remember the baby in the book, and I remember the woman's job. I don't remember the point or the resolution though. Whoops.
+ I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max. A re-read. Another I will probably read every summer, because it is the perfect mood-setter for hot weather and lack of class (school-class I mean, of course!). I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone I didn't know personally, though. It's very crass, crude, stupid, and immature. I recommended it to my brother, who loved it, and so did some players on his team. My boss, however, is not a fan. He saw me reading it and mentioned hearing about it and the movie, and talked about how he wanted to read it, so I agreed to loan it to him. He didn't even finish the first story before getting grossed out and disgusted with the stupidity. I told him to at least read the Texas stories before he returned it, and he said he would, but it's been three weeks now, so I don't see that happening.

Don't get any of these confused with Books That Changed My Life, however. That post is in the making.