Review: A Touch of Stardust by Kate Alcott

Being a huge fan of Gone with the Wind, I felt like I would either love or hate this book - which takes place largely on the set of the movie and involves the lives of those who put this masterpiece together.

Well, turns out, I loved this book. I'd recommend this to anyone who loves Gone With the Wind or old movies and stories about old Hollywood.  I couldn't put it down.  Last night, I went to bed after reading a little bit, couldn't stop thinking about the book, and got up and read until 6 a.m.

This is a novelization about the making of Gone With the Wind, told from the perspective of Julie, a young woman from Indiana who moves to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of being a screen writer. The book begins as she's doing one of her first jobs in Hollywood, delivering a message to David O. Selznick on the day he's burning Atlanta (as big GWTW fans know, this was the first scene shot, even before the part of Scarlett had been cast.)

Soon after, Julie's hired as Carole Lombard's assistant - because keeping Carole happy would keep Clark Gable happy.  Lombard plays quite a big role in the book, acting as Julie's mentor and serving as the sort of woman Julie wants to be - fierce and independent and not afraid to go after what she wants.  Julie's a wonderful character, as she struggles to make it in a world dominated by men without compromising herself.  There's also a really nice romance happening in this book, as Julie falls for Andy - one of Selznick's top men (though I'm not sure of his exact title, but it's mentioned he's very important to Selznick).  Andy's keeping her at a distance, worried she's too young and fragile and that Hollywood will destroy her - like it has done to so many other people.  He's also not certain she can handle the pressure of being with a Jewish man as the world watches what is happening across the ocean on the verge of what would become World War II.  Julie has to prove to Andy - as well as herself - that she does have what it takes to withstand the cruel fiction of Hollywood, as well as love someone as complicated as Andy.

This book reads like a really great classic romance movie, complete with interesting side characters, and a dramatic setting, intertwined with social issues and of course, what I consider a must in my favorite stories - a woman who finally figures out what she wants out of life and goes after it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, didn't want it to end.  I highly recommend it.

I received a review copy via Net Galley.

Review: Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble by H.P. Mallory

This is the first book in the Jolie Wilkins series.  The ebook is available for free on amazon, which is how I ended up with it.

I thought I'd like this book.  I usually enjoy stories about witches.  It started out well enough, but the fact that it took me more than a week to read it doesn't bode well for the story.  Lately, I've been flying through everything I read.

With this book though, I felt like I'd been reading a lot, only to realize I wasn't very far into the story at all.  After a while, I just sort of lost interest and didn't care all that much about what happened to Jolie.

She's a psychic in Los Angeles who attracts the interest of a handsome warlock.  He hires her to go back in time and discovers she has amazing powers.  Also he's attracted to her and she's attracted to him, but they spend the whole book hot and cold for each other, and after a while it gets boring. 

Jolie describes herself as being very plain, but every man she meets can't seem to resist her.  There's the warlock, the leader of a pack of werewolves, a sexy vampire and the king of the fairies. Everyone wants Jolie in their bed and they're very up front about it. 

And yet, she claims she doesn't date -- well, she says that at one point, says she's only had sex once, back in tenth grade, I think.  But then several times she mentions she hasn't had a date in six months.  I found that confusing.  If she doesn't date -- not at all -- then why keep saying she hasn't had a date in six months.  Did she date six months ago? 

I never quite understood why everyone was so drawn to her.  It's never revealed what is so attractive about her.  How has she gone her whole life -- or six months -- without dating and now all of a sudden everyone wants her?  Maybe she has some quality that only attracts supernatural beings.

Also, after a while I got tired of Jolie crying over everything.  Seems like every scene resulted in her crying for some reason.  I just didn't care about her or her tears.

I was under the impression this was a fun and light-hearted story, and it's written in a very casual way - but then we have all these near death battles.  Such drama didn't fit with the style.  Or maybe I'm just picky.

While I didn't hate the story, and I was amused by the Bon Jovi mention -- Living in Sin is played during a party, following a waltz -- there are much better witch stories out there.   

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

It was the cover and the title that drew me to this book.  I noticed it while wandering around a bookstore one day.  It sounded interesting.  Rose takes a bite of lemon cake one day and can feel the emotions of the person who baked the cake.  Luckily, I didn't buy the book and instead waited until it was available at the library. 

As much as I was looking forward to reading this, I was quite let down by the actual experience of reading it.

The story had potential.  Rose has a rather bizarre ability.  But it felt like three fourths of the book just described this curse and how she coped.  It was described in such a way that it began to not make any sense at all.  I can understand a feeling of sadness or anger.  But the author goes on and on about how she can tell the exact location of where the cheese was made, where the cows were born, if the factory workers had a fight with their spouse.  It got ridiculous.  Maybe I'm just having a bit of trouble suspending belief, but if this sense, curse, or whatever it was, really affected the way something tasted, after a while wouldn't a person simply become accustomed to it? 

Another thing that bothered me about the book is that Rose is almost nine years old when she discovers this, but she understands it at the same level as an adult would.  I tend to not like books about young children who are presented as adults.  I spend much of my life with teenagers and while I do view them as fairly intelligent and knowledgeable about many things, I can't imagine them examining feelings in such a way, so I certainly can't imagine a nine year old doing so.  Nothing else in the book indicated that she was especially intelligent.

Her brother though is described as a genius, and yet, he can't get into any of the schools he wants to attend.  Her brother seems to suffer from some rather severe anti-social issues.  And yet, he has a mother who adores him, and a father that always tries to do what is best for his family.  The brother's issue is never fully explained, and in the end it's all just very, very confusing.

I'm generally a fan of magical realism.  But in this case, it didn't quite work for me.  Everything else was so simple and normal, and throwing in these bits of surrealism felt awkward.  I wasn't able to suspend my belief enough to accept this story.  I kept thinking maybe the supernatural abilities mentioned were a metaphor of some sort, but if that was the case I never quite figured it out.  I kept reading, waiting for the big reveal, the deep, dark secret that must be triggered all these bizarre experiences, but again, never happened.

There wasn't much action in the story.  The characters, despite their odd abilities, lived very dull lives.  I kept waiting for the story to begin, for the action to happen.  It never did.  And in the end I was very disappointed because none of it made sense.

The characters are sad and confused, but they do nothing to try and improve their situation.  They remain very childlike in the lack of knowledge that life gets better as a person gets older, that a person doesn't have to remain crushed by the weight of their parents' experiences, that the opportunity to move on a create a life of one's own is available.  That rant there comes from the ending of the book, when Rose tries to justify her brother's behavior.  Life had become too much.  But why?  There's never an explanation.

I found the story frustrating.  I needed more of an explanation as to why things happened.  I think this story could have been interesting, but wasn't.

I really don't recommend this book.  Despite the pretty cover, with the delicious looking piece of cake, the story was rather bland and lacking flavor.

Paint it Black by Janet Fitch

This book is thoroughly depressing, but so very well written that I quite willingly stepped into Fitch's carefully cultivated world of misery.

My primary goal in reading fiction is the element of escapism, and I judge the quality of writing by the ease into which I can slip into an existence other than my own. While iced in on a cold, rainy Saturday, I felt transported to LA, circa 1980, immersed in the decadent of punk rock / art scene.

Josie Tyrell came to LA with nothing but a desire to escape the tow yard in Bakersfield and her white trash family. While working as an art model, she met Michael, an art student and Harvard drop-out with famous, wealthy parents who wanted to live in the "true world". He wants to be part of Josie's world, one in which people take care of themselves, one in which he's not controlled by his parents and their history, he wants to be his own person for the first time in his life. Michael though, despite his desires, suffers from depression, more severe than he or Josie or his mother, Meredith, can understand.

One day he tells Josie he's going to his mother's house to paint and a few days later Josie receives a phone call informing her that he's been found dead in a hotel room, a gunshot to the head in an apparent suicide.

That's how the story begins. The rest of the novel is Josie's attempts to understand what happened, what went wrong, the signs she might have missed, a place to lay the blame. But instead she discovers more secrets and lies and confusion, and more questions than she will ever find answers.

Josie finds herself forming a bond with Michael's mother, the only other person who knew him. They cling to each other because no one else could possibly understand their shared pain. Josie is drawn into the world that destroyed Michael and is then faced with the decision to succumb or pull away.

Because of the superb writing, the characters in this story feel so real. Josie's memories of Michael's gradual slide into darkness, her fear and admiration of Meredith, and her struggle to continue a new life, one without the only person who ever made her feel real. Michael was the first person who didn't look at her as if she was trash, and yet, the more she learns about him, the more she begins to question what she believed was their love.

I suspect it could be the result of my own unstable mental state that I felt so connected to Josie. Not because I know anything about living in California or being an art model or having a boyfriend that committed suicide, but rather because I could relate to her determination to have something more, something better than her past told her she could have - even if that meant being left with nothing.

There's a scene near the end of the book when Josie's sitting in traffic wondering why she couldn't have been satisfied with something simple.

Pg. 345 - In an alternate universe, she would be going home from a day at the bank, the Auto Club, the State Farm office, thinking about her own kids and what she would make for dinner in her suburban kitchen in El Monte. Tuna casserole with potato chips crumbled on top. Her young husband picking them up at day care. What was so wrong about that? Something simple and basic, attainable. She wanted too much, that was her fault, not just Michael's love, but everything everything everything. Genius and wealth and culture, art and achievement...

I read that passage and immediately felt like I knew the character and understood everything she wanted. The burning a person feels when they escape a small town and yearn for something more, something so out of their reach. The easy way out is right there in front of you, but if you take that path, you know you'll never have a shot at what you really want. So you opt for nothingness rather than simple mediocrity.

Pg. 383: She liked the city, people close all around, crowds, the feel of something happening. Music, nightlife, being on the list, the girl everyone wanted to know – the possibility of more than dishes and diapers and the grocery store.

You hold onto that possibility as the world crumbles around you.

This is a story about people trying to pull away from that which controls them, without letting go, because they can't or they won't. This is about coming to terms with a past full of horror and degradation or allowing it to destroy you, actions and words that you can never take back, memories that you have to learn to live with, set them aside and move on. Most of all, this book is about trying desperately to find something beautiful in a world that is filled with ugliness. Josie didn't even know there was beauty in the world until she met Michael. But then Michael gave up his search, overwhelmed by the process, leaving Josie behind to continue looking on her own.

I really liked this book.

Die a Little by Megan Abbott

Die a Little by Megan Abbott sounded like an excellent book. Old L.A. film noir. I don't know that the book lived up to its billing though. Simply setting a story in that time period doesn't necessarily elevate it to classic crime noir.

The book was okay. It was a quick read. While it was plenty dark, containing an adequate amount of prostitution and drugs and blackmail, I felt like it only skimmed the surface. It gave you a peek at all the dark nastiness that was old L.A., but it didn't take you that close. The danger was very much there, but in the writing, it was quick, not quite scary enough. I thought this had a lot of potential. I wanted to know more. I wanted to gain a better understanding as to why the things that were happening were happening.

But before you think me too harsh with regard to this book, I should point out that I'm very particular about my crime novels. At this point in my life I only really like mysteries written by three different women (for the record, that would be P.D. James, Ruth Rendell - who also writes as Barbara Vine, and Minette Walters). I'm trying to branch out and the fact that I read this should serve as evidence of my attempts. But this book just made me long for my usual British settings.

I didn't hate the book. I believe it was the author's first novel, so there may be excellent stories in her future. This is a very good start for a debut novel.

I spent a rainy Friday night reading this by the lamplight. (Yeah, I go all out on my weekends...) It served its purpose. The ending was something of a disappointment. I just wanted more intensity, more grime. When I finished the book I was wishing for a more gruesome, violent resolution. As far as I was concerned the villain deserved much worse.

My recommendation: If you like fast-paced mysteries, give it a try. Makes for a very decent rainy night read. The 50's L.A. setting is quite enjoyable.