Guest Blogger Charlotte: Carrie Fisher's The Princess Diarist

Since I can remember, Star Wars has been prevalent in my life. It was pretty much part of initiation into my family. I adored Princess Leia and her bravery, so when Carrie Fisher sadly passed late last year, I was devastated. One of the first things I did, other than have a movie marathon, was read The Princess Diarist, one of Carrie’s books of personal stories. I wouldn’t call it an autobiography, as it only covers a few incidents in her life while giving her perspective on some moments in time, but it is autobiographical in nature, and I looked forward to the chance to get to know her a little bit, in her own words. The cover describes it as “a sort-of memoir”, which is exactly right.

 I was extremely excited when I set aside a day to read it. I was grasping for pieces of Princess Leia and Carrie Fisher in any way possible. However, by the time I finished, I was conflicted between my love for an actress and my feeling for the book.

          The book is essentially a recount of stories from Carrie Fisher’s life, mainly focusing on her time filming Star Wars. I was ecstatic about learning more details about behind the scenes; that’s not what this book is. It felt like the entire book had been dictated in an unorganized, stream-of-consciousness style. I had trouble following thoughts and events occurring. Some of the stories dragged on for chapters trying to prove things that didn’t need to be proven, and it felt, overall, like a last effort of someone to set the record straight. It also seemed like she expected the reader to be familiar with the tabloid rumors of her time filming Star Wars, like she thought the world had been sitting around judging her this whole time. Maybe it’s just because I’m young that I wasn’t sure what she was referencing some of the time. I was surprised there wasn’t a little more background information considering how many Star Wars fans were not around during the first wave of Star Wars films.

Although the writing itself was not the greatest, I did get an insight into Carrie Fisher's life, which I greatly appreciated. Stories of her experience on set, interactions with others, and especially her struggle with body image made me glad for reading the book. Being around the same age she was when her adventure began, I was thrilled to learn that we had some things in common. I feel it was also really important that body image kept appearing in the book, as it showed that it isn’t something ‘famous people’ are shielded from and that everyone kind of struggles with body positivity at some point in their life.

At the same time, some of the anecdotes were really boring and didn’t seem to go anywhere. It almost felt like when you’re at a party and someone traps you in a corner telling you a story, and when you don’t laugh they just keep telling it and telling it thinking that once you understand how funny it is, you’ll laugh and you’ll like them. For example, she refers to signing autographs as “lap dances” because you’re selling yourself. That’s the whole joke, but it goes on for pages and pages and pages. It doesn’t get funnier, you just feel bad for her, which seems to be the last thing she wants.

In the end, would I reread this memoir? The answer, to my dismay, is no. It feels like the leftover stories that didn’t make the cut for another book. But I do not regret reading it. Although the writing is not fantastic, we, as an audience, were still given a window into parts of Carrie Fisher life, a choice that was entirely optional. Carrie Fisher is one of the most amazing actresses I have ever watched and Princess Leia has had a lifelong impact on me. She was absolutely brilliant and will be greatly missed and I hope she will rest in peace.

Guest Blogger Charlotte: Go Ask Alice

Hey!

Okay, I'm going to start with the summary of my review. Go Ask Alice is amazing. Why? Because it's so incredibly bad.

Go Ask Alice was published in 1971. It claims to be the true story of a teenage girl's drug use that has been edited by a group of editors, and I started reading it under this impression. The cover says it's written by "Anonymous", and the inside cover mentions that it is a true diary.

I will admit that at the beginning of the book, I thought it felt slightly formal and the language didn't sound like any teenager I know or have ever met, but I thought that may be because it was written in the 1960s. After all, I certainly wouldn't be excited to wear a white pantsuit to a party, or bring a Jell-O salad, or set my hair by curling it on orange juice cans, but my parents assured me that these things (which are all mentioned in the book) are actual things that teenagers might have done. (Is this how my hypothetical kids will feel about things I do now? Maybe they'll think eating sushi and writing book reviews is unfathomable.)

So I tried to get lost in the story, but I just found it so unbelievable that I started reading about the book instead of reading the book itself. As it turns out, it's not only fiction, but fiction thought to have been written by a Mormon counselor as a way to present the dangers of drug use. Maybe I'm the last person to know this.

But now things started to make sense. Moments in the plot that seemed outrageous and unbelievable (and that frankly would have succeeded in shocking me if they'd been real) made sense as the wild fear-mongering of someone who seemed to have no idea what drug use is like. Admittedly I don't either, but I'm pretty sure most people don't accidentally swallow LSD in a Coke at a party and end up casually shooting heroin a day later. The narrator so quickly and so casually goes from worrying about a B on a paper to living as a homeless prostitute. Even weirder, she seems to hesitate between the two with seemingly no transition!

She's also so straightforward in what's happened that it doesn't sound like a diary at all. Fresh from reading The Diary of Anne Frank, I found that I kept asking, "Is this really supposed to be a diary?"

This is basically what the book sounds like:

Dear Diary,

Today was so terrible! I accidentally snagged a fingernail on my bed, and mother will be so frustrated with me! It makes me wish I was dead! Maybe instead I'll find some cocaine and sniff it and then shoot more drugs into my veins and ruin my life. I think it would be super-fun! I will try to do that as long as it won't make me miss the Sock Hop on Saturday, because I long to wear my velvet dress with the lace collar - it's peachy! But if I have to prostitute myself or sell my family to get the extra-fun drugs, I'll do it, because drugs have lured me in and ruined my life even though I'm a great girl with parents who love me. Oh Diary!

Once you know that this book is written by an adult pretending to write the true story of a teenage girl, it's actually amazing to read. And if you didn't know from this review, or by the story overall, you'd know from sentences like this one:

“Adolescents have a very rocky insecure time. Grown-ups treat them like children and yet expect them to act like adults. They give them orders like little animals, then expect them to react like mature, and always rational, self-assured persons of legal stature. It is a difficult, lost, vacillating time.”

Oh yes, that's a real line from the book. A real line that this author wanted us to think a teenager wrote in her private journal. Although this made me very much want a tee shirt that says "Adolescents have a very rocky insecure time", (haha) I can't imagine how this line made the cut. Who knows. Maybe it was a difficult, lost, vacillating time for the editor.

- Charlotte 

I'm Out! Maternity Leave and My TBR Pile

A Saturday post? WHAT?!?

I may mentioned this, but I'm pregnant! Yay! (You are now saying to yourself, "So that's why she's posted on the birthing books as of late!") I'm also due tomorrow. Now, in all fairness, I do tend to save up posts, so I am unsure right now if I have actually given birth or not, but I will take the time to let you all know when that happens. I am, after all, a proud mama of a future reader. 

Don't worry, I have my amazing guest blogger, Charlotte, taking over while I'm gone. The goal is to come back in October after I've spent the summer with my bundle of joy and gotten the semester started up again in September. I just need some time to adjust to my new role as working mom. I also hope to pop back in for Sassy Peach's sixth birthday in July. 

Thankfully I have the greatest husband a girl could ask for, and I have more than enough books to get me through the first three months of breast feeding.

Behold, my TBR pile. I would like you to know that this picture was taken from my breastfeeding glider. So when I finish one book, my husband can bring me another. As you do. 

Also note, this is before BEA 2017, so I am sure I will have added 20-30 books to the pile by then. 

Happy reading everyone, and I'll see you in the fall! 

Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way

This is the second book that we were assigned to read for our childbirth class: Susan McCutcheon's Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way. As my birth has gotten closer and we feel more prepared (for an event that you can never really be prepared for anyway), I definitely feel more confident about having a natural birth than I did six months ago. This book helped in some ways and was super duper crunchy anti-medicine on the other, but I think it was a very good guide to prepping for a natural birth. 

One thing I have learned over the course of our preparation is that you don't just have a natural birth because you say you want one. It requires a great deal of preparation -- labor practice, communication with your partner about wants and needs during each stage of labor, making sure your partner is prepared to take over the check in process at the hospital, working with a doula (highly recommended) to prepare, having the proper tools at home (snacks, drinks, props, etc.). It's a great deal of work, and I think Walter and I have at least come close to nailing it. The caveat here is that birth is unpredictable, so no matter how hard you prep, other factors can easily get in the way and foul the best laid plans of mice and men. 

The super crunchy hippy parts of this book make it clear how BAD modern medicine is and that you should avoid it at all costs or you and definitely your baby will be ruined forever. Of course I don't buy into this; plenty of women in the last few decades have given birth with pain relief and everyone has turned out just fine. My desires for a natural birth are purely selfish and my own; I'm not worried about ruining my baby. 

That all being said, this book was a very important read otherwise in prep for the early and active labor stages. Now that we are due any moment, we do need to go through and re-read them, but I really felt educated after reading these chapters and we both felt very comfortable using this as a basis for our process, whatever that might look like. The pictures were very helpful to understand exactly what birth looks like, as we live in a world where we are conditioned to fear the birth process as opposed to celebrate it. Seeing other women give birth, if only in pictures, was a very useful exercise. 

This book is on our nightstand with another that I will review after my self-imposed maternity leave. I have no doubt we will reference this in the early stages of labor as we go through this at home. 

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth

My partner and I hired a doula for many reasons, most of which are too much for this, a book blog, and she recommended a local childbirth class for us that focused on the Bradley method. I have been very upfront on my belief that I am open to an epidural if I feel I need it, but once I got into the idea of the Bradley method, I realized this is a great way to work on laboring. My hope is to labor at home as long as possible and to go to the hospital when I reach the 3-1-1 phase in order to avoid unnecessary medication and timeouts. Of course, this isn't up to me. This kid will make his decisions and I will just have to follow them. 

For our childbirth class, the first book that we were assigned to read was Ina May Gaskin's Ina May's Guide to Childbirth. It was quite interesting, for both my partner and myself. I think he was most fascinated by the birthing stories, while I was most interested in learning how to give birth mindfully. One of the best things I took out of this book is a recognition that if I go into birth worried about how painful it will be, I will most likely only be focused on the pain as opposed to what I need to do to give birth. Let's be clear -- it's going to hurt like a m@$/&*%#er. But my focus needs to be on giving my baby life, not a worry on how much it will hurt. 

One thing we laughed about with my OB is how anti-medicine Ina May is. I'm not quite that anti-drugs. I see where she is coming from, but I also know that I have moved heaven and earth to be able to stay with the OB practice that I love and trust. I love a balance, and my doctors are all supportive of my bringing a doula and the desire to try a natural birth, but they will also be the first to say, "Ok," when I ask for pain meds. I appreciate that balance in them that I don't think Ina May has. 

I am a little suspicious of the birth orgasm for one, although I don't doubt that woman have had them. I'm just not planning on that one. I was already against an episiotomy as well as only laboring on my back per physician instructions. (My amazing OB's don't do either of these things, btw.) So Ina May and I are in the same page here. I would have loved a home birth, but my doctors don't do that. I would, however, recommend Ina May for pregnant mothers who are looking for just a little more information to add to their birth-prep arsenal. I feel much better about and more willing to explore a natural birth after reading this book, even if I didn't buy into absolutely everything she said. I definitely think it was worth a read. 

One to Ten: Squirrel's Bad Day

One to Ten: Squirrel's Bad Day by Carole P. Roman is about Squirrel, who, in a rush, loses all of his acorns down a stream. His friend Rabbit teaches him to rate his problems so he can put it into perspective, and that rating scale goes from (you guessed it!) one to ten. It helps Squirrel properly rate how bothered he should be by the problem so that he can find a solution much easier. He does, and he learns a valuable lesson in perspective.

This is a positively adorable book that starts out with few words and ends with a lot. Squirrel and Rabbit go through a range of problems as examples for how to rate problems, and it's not only adorable but also useful in teaching a very abstract skill that young kids don't have. In education circles, we understand that little kids = little problems, and that's only sort of true. To a young child, every problem is a big problem whether it's hunger or it's dropping a toy on the ground. It's nice to have a book like this to relate back to when speaking about whether or not problems are big or small. 

Little Deaths: A Novel

I picked up Emma Flint's Little Deaths at Book Expo last year and have been very excited to read it. Then the publish date came and went and I lost track of time. I picked it up last week and boy, was I glad I did. 

Ruth Malone is a soon-to-be divorcee in Queens in 1965 when she wakes up one morning to find both of her children missing from their beds. She had locked them in that night -- where could they have gone? Hours later her young son's body is found, and days later her daughter's as well. Ruth is the obvious suspect; after all, what right does a young mother have to drink that much, wear such tight skirts, and flirt with men the way she does? Pete Wonike is a two bit journalist who picks up the scent of the case and will stop at nothing to prove that Ruth is innocent. The problem is -- he is the only one who truly believes that. 

This novel is of a true case from the time period, and while I'm blanking on the exact name, a quick search could easily bring it up. I was impressed with the prose of this novel and the ease with which the story flowers from Flint's fingers to my eyes. There was something thick about this, like a strong, rich homemade pudding. Nothing light and fluffy about it, and every bite savor rd for the deliciousness that you know you can't repeat in your own kitchen. It was really an astounding story told for readers who love language and depth in their stories. 

I loved the side story of the reporter, Pete, which added dimension to the story so that it was so much more than a whodunit. The ending will surprise you, even if you do suspect it just a little. The callous nature of the truth was shocking in a way that is hard to describe, but well worth your time to discover. 

Book Expo 2017 Round Up

I had fully intended to blog each day of Book Expo -- hence why there were no book reviews this week -- but plans changed pretty quickly. First, they shortened the show floor hours to two days (as opposed to 2.5 in the past), and then my full scale exhaustion from being almost 38 weeks pregnant and a lunatic for trying to do the door full out led to me pretty much not moving when I got home both afternoons.

That being said, it was a really great two days on the floor. I severely limited myself this year to titles that I either planned ahead for or that I desperately wanted after talking to publicists about. I still ended up with more than my self-imposed limit, but I can rest easy knowing that I will read them all, and fairly quickly at that. 

This is what Thursday looked like: 

 

   

As you can imagine, I was beside myself to get the newest Max book and the new Jesmyn Ward novel. To be able to tell her for a second time what Men We Reaped meant to me was everything. She told me it was the hardest book she ever had to write, and I told her it was beautiful and necessary. That book should be required reading for anyone in high school. I hope to find a way to add it to my own curriculum someday. In fact, in the entry line on Friday I met a librarian with whom I was gushing about Jesmyn (she was also a huge fan), and she commented on how Men was an unsung piece that was Between the World and Me before that one was ever released. I had never thought of that, but it was a great descriptor. 

The Mo Willems book brought me to tears, as it was the perfect book for this moment as we are just days away from welcoming our own little one home. 

I had to leave at 3pm. I was in so much pain and could barely hobble out the door. I pushed way too hard, but I don't regret a thing. The final pic from Thursday: 

I'm excited about Unraveling Oliver and The  Immortalists as well. Like I said -- a great haul overall. 

Friday was also great, and o paced myself more. A LOT more sitting, even while in line. I was still hurting when I got home, but it wasn't as bad. 

This book excited me because I am a SCOTUS junkie and one of my nearest and dearest is a SCOTUS scholar. I got it to read then pass on to him. I may actually just send him a fresh copy. 

   

You may recall my deep and abiding love of Gwenda Bond's Lois Lane series, and I almost peed myself when I spoke with the lovely people at Capstone who told me they would be doing a giveaway. I was the second person in line. I was also pumped about the examination of emojis as language in The Emoji Code, and Celeste Ng's new book was a no brainier. I was willing to sacrifice one other book drop to get her new one. I think it will be worth it. The Rapunzel book was inscribed to this little boy of ours:

 

How sweet is that? 

See this? I told John Grisham that I have read almost his while cannon so I'm going to need him to type faster. He laughed and said he has two books coming out this year -- this one and a legal thriller in the fall. 

 

I also saw a conversation with Senator Al Franken. It was funny and smart and wonderful. 

 

The final count. So much for it being a slow day on Friday: