Wall of Inspiration

Well, the L.A. Times Festival of Books has come and gone.  Every year, as we descend on it, the team of organizers at Book Soup looks at one another with weary eyes and wonders if it's all worth it.  Then we get there, and we see everyone running around getting excited about books and we answer our own doubts...of course it's worth it.  Everyone who goes and gets excited about reading, whether you're reading Danielle Steel or David Foster Wallace, we do the work for you.  We love that you love books.  

I am definitely someone who has been guilty of bitching that no one reads in L.A. (which, according to statistics is very far from the truth).  And every year, the last weekend in April proves me so wrong, so so wrong, that I have a kind of revitalization in thought, a refreshing of my own personal web page. 

My favorite thing, by far, at the Festival this year was the graffiti wall of 'What Are You Reading?'  I found it poignant and inspiring and just amazing.  By the end of the weekend the wall was nearly black, writing over writing, a few huge titles protruded along the top.  The sheer volume and variety of books was overwhelming to say the least. Not shockingly, or maybe very shockingly, the most written title was Twilight (and/or any number of books in the series).  

So now, I have to say thank you to Stephenie Meyer.  We definitely felt the Twilight effect this weekend as every single young adult panel sold out (and we didn't skimp on books).  I might be giving her too much credit, but young people in Twilight shirts (and bags, and buttons, and necklaces, and wristbands) made quite a showing at the festival.  And I must say, I was glad to see them.  Say what you will about Twilight as a series, as a movie, as a philosophy (and believe me, I have my problems with it), but between Meyer and J.K. Rowling kids are reading, and we're happy to have them in the club.

Thanks to all who came and all who wished they would come.  We do it for you.  

Happy Reading,

Julia

Something To Write Home About

I discovered emo, or what I later found out was called emo during my senior year in high school. I had mellowed from my days of getting elbowed in the face and kicked in the head in the mosh pits of the Bay Area and embraced a sensitive side of myself that only I had known existed.

I distinctly remember listening to The Get Up Kids album Something to Write Home About approximately 47 million times as I contemplated leaving home and friends and comfort and going off to college where, presumably, everything would be different. I also distinctly remember asking a friend of mine, who was much better versed in this new (to me) genre of music, this emo, to take me to Streetlight Records and give me an emo tutorial. This was when we still didn't really know how to use the internet to look up every single thing we could possibly want to know so I had to rely on my friends for coveted information like this.

So, now nearly 10 years later, when I saw Leslie Simon's Wish You Were Here my first reaction was insane jealousy. People who randomly discovered what is now known as second wave emo, had this amazing source available to them. And a source that was not so dull as a wikipedia site, but that contained the local flavor of each of the indie/emo scenes that so influenced my young adult life.

Of course, I'm a grown-up (sometimes) and got over my jealousy pretty fast, cracked open the book and learned some stuff. Anything from which labels were born of which city, to the dos and don'ts of christian rock, quizzes on whether or not I'm alcholic enough to front a Twin Cities band, to what exactly a Freegan is (it's ridiculous, I'm warning you), Simon has managed to capture the flavor and give a surprisingly in depth history of this often mocked, but hugely popular scene.

From Chris Carrabba to The New Amsterdams, NOFX to The Replacements, 924 Gilman to The Cha Cha Lounge, anything you ever wanted to know is contained in these paper bound pages...plus there are some pretty awesome illustrations.

Happy Reading,
Julia

P.S. Click that little orange button and sign up for the podcast to listen to me interview Leslie. Click it. Right now. I mean it.

Columbine

I'll admit, I found it hard to open the first page of David Cullen's Columbine. I was a sophomore in High School the year those students were shot at their own high school. I was loathe to relive the shock we all felt, whether or not we as too cool high school students deigned to admit it at the time, loathe to relive the sadness, the fear. At the time, it was the single most earth-shattering moment of my relatively young life, and I absolutely did not want to read it. Still, it taunted me. The bleak grey cover with stark white lettering whispered from its place on my office shelf, 'read me.'

This morning it finally happened. Spurred on by a colleagues decision to read what is sure to be the definitive book on an American tragedy, I cracked the paperback proof that I had grabbed from our stacks of free galleys so many weeks ago. Much to my surprise, this wasn't the trying read that I had first envisioned it to be, but a gripping account of two boys and thirteen victims brutally cut down in the prime of their lives, not to mention the mourning and psychological effects on countless others.

Cullen shows us with utter grace and compassion that these boys were not the social outcasts they were made out to be; they were not advised by KMFDM to murder their fellow students, but two deeply troubled young men (Harris more so than Klebold) who committed the ultimate act of brutality against innocent and unsuspecting students.

Even as the book meanders toward the fateful day, giving in depth description and background on the town, the boys, the victims, the ammunitions suppliers, a dark cloud looms over the horizon of the narrative. Cullen somehow manages to make a suspenseful non-fiction out of a story we know too well. This book is absolutely astonishing in the attention to detail and the in depth journalistic reporting (how we miss you journalists). Even with the intense subject matter, I found myself unable to put the book down, and unwilling to be pried away.

Happy Reading,
Julia

Secret Lives

What is it about adolescence that fascinates us so thoroughly?  Is it that we all still bear scars from that painful period?  That we'd like to romanticize it to take some of the sting out of those years?  Or is it just that as painful as adolescence is, it's also exhilarating and we never really feel that same exhilaration again?

Whatever the case may be, I definitely count myself in the group that loves teen movies and T.V. shows, that loves reading young adult novels, and can't stop watching Stand By Me.  But I try to stay rooted in fiction, perhaps so that I don't actually have to deal with the real pain of adolescence, like somehow if it's buried under humor, it will be easier to digest.  (That seems obvious, but think about it).  That is, until I read The Secret Lives of Boys by Malina Saval.

Now, if you haven't guessed by the name that signs off on each of these posts, I'm a girl.  So like most girls, I'm not privy to the inner workings of the adolescent male, seeing as when I was an adolescent I had no freaking clue what the adolescent male was thinking or doing.  But holy crap, there's a lot going on there.  The Secret Lives of Boys delves in to the lives of a group of individual boys who, on the surface, seem like they should have nothing in common.  Everyone from the Teenage Dad to the Hearing Impaired Republican Gay Vegan share many of the same hopes and fears, and the same emotions...yeah that's right, teenage boys actually feel emotion.  Shocking, I know!  

Jesting aside, I've found myself near tears multiple times while riding the bus to work as the boys in this book share the same hopes, dreams, obstacles and fears that every adolescent faces, no matter what their gender.  And rediscovering those feelings that are so far in the past for most people, is not nearly as painful as you might think.  I find myself hopeful that all is not lost, that 'kids today' are just as driven and motivated and confused and worried as they were ten, twenty or thirty years ago.  They just have a few different obstacles to overcome.  

Happy Reading,

Julia

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Holy Crap!  Has a cooler book come out in the past few years?  I will admit I wasn't fully on board the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies bandwagon when I first heard about this book.  'What has this man done to my beloved Jane?' I asked myself.  But the more I heard the more intrigued I was by this notion.  More and more, I was curious about how this would play out.  Could you really turn the ultimate romantic novel into a zombie novel with romance?  Could Shaun of the Dead really turn out to be akin to Jane Austin?

After last night's reading, I'll admit, I'm completely convinced.  What would make Elizabeth Bennett a better heroine than she already is?  Um, make her the best damn zombie, oh I'm sorry, unmentionable, fighter the world has known.  What would make the scene where Lady Catherine and Elizabeth face off over Darcy, even more tense?  A fight to the death between these two seasoned fighters.  Yes, you all can guess what I'll be doing on my days off this week, and it has something to do with Pride, Prejudice and Zombies.

Happy Reading,

Julia