Educated

Tara Westover went from living in a junkyard in southern Idaho to a Harvard-educated PhD. That's incredible in its own right; but, it's the story of Westover's abusive, troubling childhood that fills the pages of Educated. I've heard and read about this book for weeks, not quite sure if it would live up to the hype. What I found was a book I devoured in a flight across the country and even more questions about the childhood that should have swallowed her whole.

To call Tara Westover's parents eccentric doesn't do justice to the wild behaviors that dominated her chaotic childhood. She describes her dad as a violent, manipulative prepper who shields his children from the world - and, makes them work in a dangerous scrap heap to support the family. There are accidents everywhere, from near-deadly falls to one son, engulfed in flames. He berates them with theories about the end times and forbids them from attending school. Tara's mother, while not outwardly abusive, is no better, as she repeatedly fails to protect and advocate for her children. Add to the mix a horrible abusive brother and you wonder, page after page, how in the world anyone could make it out alive.

Yet, somehow, Tara escapes. Physically at first, in the form of dance classes. Then, she ends up teaching herself how to do complicated math so that she can pass the ACT and get out of the family's home forever. Yet it's when she enrolls in college that she realizes how trapped she really is by the past and the family that shaped her existence. You watch as Tara climbs out then falls back over and over and over. I found myself horribly frustrated that she can't get out of this cycle, only to be reminded that this horrific abuse and control is the only existence she's ever known.

There are other books like this - Glass Castle, the most famous. Still, Educated keeps you enthralled as you try to understand how families can treat each other this way. And as hard as you root for Tara, you realize that escaping such a past is not a linear process. 

Highly readable, Educated will open your eyes, no matter how badly you want to shut them at times. And, you'll cheer for the outside world to help Tara overcome what seems to be ingrained in her DNA. 

Exit West

Some writers pull you in from the very first sentence - and, not just because of urgent action in the opening paragraphs. Sometimes, you can just tell you're going to love a book by the sentence structure.

This is one of those books.

I somehow hadn't heard of Exit West, despite it being on quite  a few "best of" lists last year. It was one of Barack Obama's favorite books, or so my independent bookstore tells me. For whatever reason, I missed it. I'm glad the cover caught my eye.

Exit West is about leaving your home land and rebuilding in a strange world. That changes not only those who migrate, but also the world they leave and the world they enter. In this story, a young couple leaves a war torn homeland, hoping to find safety and security in the unknown. There's no real urgent action here at all; it simply follows their journey and watches how it changes them.

Exit West offers a bit of science fiction as well, as magical doors allow migrants to go from one location to another. But, don't let that turn you off. It's really a minor part of the larger story. The story itself is about change and its impact not only on our own lives but on the world around us. 

The book is a quick read, it's simple, it's timely and it's powerful. Quietly powerful. The writing is beautiful. Barack Obama was onto something.

The Last Black Unicorn

I needed this.

After the last two books I read left me disappointed, I needed something that I knew for sure I would like. Enter, the hilarious Tiffany Haddish.

I read the nearly 300 pages of this book in a matter of hours and got so much more out of it than I expected. I knew it would be funny and irreverent, but didn't expect much more than that. I didn't expect to read so much about the darkness of Haddish's upbringing, which shed a lot of light on her comedy.

Haddish was the daughter of an absent father and a mother who became mentally ill and abuse after a car crash. Haddish became a foster child, beaten and left and feeling uncared for. Her grandmother eventually took her in, but the scars of that childhood are still just below the surface. It almost feels like classic comic cliche; the sad clown, hiding tears behind laughter. She doesn't make apologies for it - she rolls with it, acknowledging it's there, but not using any of it as an excuse.

Beyond her childhood, this woman has simply been through some shit. From a bunch of jackass boyfriends to an abusive husband to promoters who expected her to put out if she wanted to get on stage. This book takes you along for the journey in an honest, often hilarious way. It feels real and raw and really honest. It's probably even better if you listen to the audio book so you can hear it in her voice.

Case in point: the chapter in which she takes Will and Jada Smith on a swamp tour. It's funny as hell in the book, but it's even funnier to hear her tell it. If you like this, you'll like the book. It's that simple.

Wonder Valley

This book started off strong, full of promise. More specifically, it starts with a naked man running down the freeway in L.A. morning traffic. Bizarre enough, made even more strange by a man who puts his car in park and chases after him. You know, at some point, their stories will intertwine. You hope it's worth the wait.

Then, it's really not.

This is a tricky one for me, as I was interested enough in this book to get through it in just a couple of days. I wanted to see how all these stories came together. But, as the pages wore on, I had a feeling I would be disappointed. 

Wonder Valley jumps from character to character, from one time frame to another. It's easy to follow and the writing is good. The storylines are interesting enough: a rich white girl who screws up and leaves her life, only to end up in a cult-ish compound in the desert; a young black man, recently released from jail, who came west to LA to find his mom; a pair of wandering criminals who only have each other; that naked guy, who is the son of the man who leads that desert cult; and, the guy who runs after him in traffic, trying to escape the mundane day-to-day that is his life.

They're all connected - loosely. They all have pasts from which they can't escape. They're all running away from something and to something. But, it takes too long to make those connections. And, their backstories - more interested than their present, in my opinion - are too quickly glossed over to give the characters any depth.

It feels like there's a good story in here in each of the characters, but combining them did a disservice to them all.

You know what it reminds me of? Those Garry Marshall movies that have come out in recent years, Valentine's Day and Mother's Day. Because he's Garry freaking Marshall, he gets these amazing superstars to be in his movies, then he jumbles them all together into a blockbuster movie. The actors are fantastic, but the movies fall flat. No offense to Garry Marshall. 

Like those movies, I still made it through this book. But, I don't see it as the "classic LA novel" it's made out to be.

Maybe it needed more naked guy.

Manhattan Beach

This is less of a book review and more of a cautionary tale. It's a tale of what happens when you break your own rules and live with the consequences. I broke my rule and lost a week of my life because of it.

That's a little dramatic, I grant you.

But, I made a rule years ago not to finish a book I don't like. I'm not in college anymore, I don't have to finish the books that I start. No one is grading me on this. It's a good rule. I have a full-time job and a husband and kids and shit to do. Why waste any of my "free" time doing something that doesn't make me happy? Well, I broke the rule with this book and I'm really mad at myself for it.

I was so excited to read this book, as I loved Egan's Visit From the Goon Squad years ago. I got the notice from the library that it was available less than 24 hours before getting on a flight. Kismet, I thought. And, on that short flight to Vegas, I didn't even pay for the in-flight Wifi. I burned through 125 pages thinking good things were ahead. Still, I had no idea where it was going. When I closed the book after the final page (400+), I still didn't know what it was about. I felt less than "meh." 

The book tells the story of a family during the World War II. Through the eyes of a young woman determined to prove herself (kinda), you read of life in NYC during that desperate time. Her father vanishes, her crippled sister yearns for life... Christ, I can't even fake this. This book meandered to nowhere and you should only read it if you're content wandering down the street with nowhere to go and nothing interesting to look at.

Harsh? Maybe. But, this book is too long and written by too talented of a writer to leave me so dissatisfied. 

Oh, and I'm also about 5 episodes into a podcast that's going nowhere, so if you know where I can find a little inspiration, hit me up.

Finishing what you started is overrated anyway.

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley

"We are the sum total of the choices we have made." - Eleanor Roosevelt

If what old Eleanor says is true, what does that mean for all of us? Does every choice we make lead to some inevitable conclusion? Are there no mistakes that can be erased? Can we truly not outrun our past?

Those questions - the last one in particular - are the cornerstone of Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley. That's the plot. But the heart of the book is the relationship between a single dad and his daughter. It's a rough story at times - at others, it's sweet. And, it moved fast enough to read in a weekend.

The story flashes from present day to the dark corners of Hawley's life. We know from the beginning he's a man of scars, both literal and figurative. The flashback chapters each tell the story of one of the bullets Hawley's taken, slowly revealing the past he can never quite escape.

We learn of a two-person family who lives life on the run. It's a man trying to keep his daughter safe and a child who doesn't quite understand what's putting them in danger. It's about what happens when a man with a past tries to build a future and the wounds that never quite heal.

Nothing blew me away about this book. The writing was good, but wasn't trying too hard to feel philosophical. The characters were well drawn out. The journey it takes is compelling enough that you want to read it quickly to see where it ends. And, clearly, it was interesting enough to burn through in a matter of a holiday weekend. The ending felt a little tidy to me, compared to the chaos that preceded it.

Bottom line: I liked it. I'm glad I read it. But, it wasn't among the best I've read in recent months.

Turn Around Bright Eyes

Buy the book.

Don’t even read the rest of this review. Just go buy it immediately. While you’re at it, buy all of Rob Sheffield’s books, too. Just give him your money and let him write beautiful words and tell your friends about them. You won’t regret it.

This is the second of Sheffield’s books that I’ve read (here's the first one) and as soon as this plane lands, I’m buying the other one. I have to; I literally started this book when my plane took off from Spokane. By the time I landed in Denver, I had skipped out on a planned nap and burned through 180 pages. Less than an hour into this leg of my flight, it’s done and sitting beside me like a baby bird* that I want to protect and cherish (*that’s not a good analogy for me. I don’t like birds. Maybe a baby lamb. Mmm… lamb…)

Sheffield is a music guy. He writes for Rolling Stone and you can feel through his words that music seeps out of every pore. The first book I read broke my heart over and over again. Love is a Mixed Tape tells the story of Rob and his wife. They married young and lived a young couple’s dream, punctuated by music and mixed tapes (youngsters: I’m sorry you missed out on mixed tapes. Mixed tapes are not spotify playlists. Mixed tapes aren’t even mixed cd’s. Mixed tapes are EVERYTHING.) Their love story comes to a gut-wrenching halt when she dies – at 31- from a pulmonary embolism. Their love – and, their music – remain. But, everything sounds different now.

This book picks up years later, as Sheffield himself is coming back to life. It’s about meeting the next great love of his life and finding the happiness he thought he’d never again achieve. The book is also about his other true love: karaoke. And, how karaoke got him out of his spotless apartment and back into the world.

Now, we’re getting somewhere.

You can scoff at karaoke and pass it off as corny. But, guess what? That’s the freaking point! Of course karaoke is corny and often terrible and also the most fun you’ll ever have in your life. And, love it or hate it (you love it, you know it), this book will have you seeing the whole thing differently. You’ll appreciate so much more the value of putting away every inhibition and, even for just a few minutes, being a damn rock star.

I’m a bit of a karaoke early adopter. A ham since birth who happens to really enjoy the sound of my own voice, I had a karaoke machine in my room in middle school. Two tape players, so I could get the next song cued up. And, I would freaking JAM. No cheesy hairbrush lip-sycning for this girl. I would pick up that real (plastic) microphone and BELT THAT SHIT OUT. In high school, we’d sing karaoke on Jessica Willis’s laser disc karaoke machine. We would all sing along until, about an hour in, all my friends would be sitting on the couch staring blankly as I proudly declared “I’m gonna do one more!”

Even now at 39, I’ll turn up some serious Pat Benatar at Karaoke. Really feeling it? Grab a Kleenex, y’all, because End of the Road is about be all up in your face. Just a few months ago, a group of highly-skilled, highly-respected broadcast professionals and I found ourselves in the basement of a dingy bar in DC’s Adams Morgan neighborhood, cranking out hit after hit in a private karaoke room. Music – preferably a bit off-key – is the great equalizer.

And, that’s what so much of this book is all about. How karaoke can turn off all those inhibitions and make us stars. About how we find ourselves rooting for tone-deaf strangers and providing the background vocals for old men. He also subtly drops his love of the often-ignored TLC slow jam “Red Light Special.” He had me at T-Boz.

Sheffield is the music geek in all of us who happens to have a gift for eloquent writing. Is it a love story about his new wife and how singing karaoke has helped define their relationship? Or a love story about how it feels to sing Neil Diamond? It’s never just one thing. And, that’s why I love it.

I learned about music here, as I did with Sheffield’s other book. I learned about family. I learned about finding love. And, I learned that you can’t call karaoke a guilty pleasure if you don’t feel guilty about it to begin with.