How to Be a Heroine, or, What I've Learned From Reading Too Much by Samantha Ellis (2015)

I love this book so much I can barely write coherently about it. Hence, much love and little rational explanation. It's just one of the best books on books and reading ever.

Samantha Ellis is a British playwright who as part of her own writing spends some time thinking about how the literary heroines that she loved through her lifetime as a reader have influenced her life and her writing. 

From Anne Shirley to Scarlett O'Hara, Franny Glass and the Dolls of Valley of the Dolls, (oh, and Lucy Honeychurch!) this book is filled with so much love for reading and with a deliciously full bibliography for each chapter. 

I love her rethinking of her youthful love for Wuthering Heights and her disdain for Jane Eyre, and especially that she uses Gilbert and Gubar's feminist literary criticism classic The Madwoman in the Attic as a source. (I studied that up and down when writing my senior paper on Jane Austen's Emma.) And I love her love for Cold Comfort Farm. 

This is very meta, but bear with me. Ellis is writing about Flora Poste in Cold Comfort Farm and quotes from the novel:

"Her writing inspiration is Austen, who she thinks was just like her: 'She liked everything to be tidy and pleasant and comfortable about her, and so do I. You see ... unless everything is tidy and pleasant and comfortable all around one, people cannot even begin to enjoy life. I cannot endure messes.'"

Delicious!

Confessions of a Prairie Bitch by Alison Arngrim (2010)

Subtitled: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated. If you looked at the cover of this, with its four shots of Nellie Oleson (who Arngrim played on Little House on the Prairie), and thought, what does she have to write a memoir about ….Let me tell you. Far more than you might ever think.

From complicated family relationships involving secrets and abuse, life as a child actor and beyond, and her years on the beloved family show Little House on the Prairie, Arngrim has a hell of a story to tell. 

Every bit of the story is infused with utter hilarity, while still being unbelievably realistic and clear-sighted and honest. Amazing. Hilarious and delightful and poignant.

So That Happened by Jon Cryer (2015)

Really, really liked this memoir of Cryer's experience in Hollywood. SO funny. 

Many laugh-out-loud moments as well as a great amount of humility and behind the scenes dish and insight into what life is like as a Hollywood actor and theater actor as well. Fabulously fun. SO many funny parts. For example:

 "Beginnings are easy. See how I did that? I began the chapter with a statement about beginnings. This book has layers! Being an author is a cinch! In your face, Herman Melville." (p. 111)

My Sunshine Away by M.O. Walsh (2015)

Engaging novel about a man looking back at his youth and a traumatic event that occurred to his beloved neighbor girl, and how he became a suspect. 

Walsh does a gorgeous job of encapsulating what it's like to be a child and have limited information and also to look back as an adult and see what you missed. 

Lovely, lyrical (but not in love with itself) writing.

Oh! You Pretty Things by Shanna Mahin (2015)

Jess is third-generation Hollywood and deeply immersed in the culture, from her failed actress/stage mother to her friends in the industry. She gets a job as a personal assistant to an agoraphobic composer, then gets stolen away by an A-list actress, who is also best friend to one of her best friends. 

I love all the wit in this novel--I love Jess's sense of humor. This is one of those novels where I could quote my favorite lines on about every page. The plot itself is less compelling, with a romantic prospect that keeps popping up in the unlikeliest places, and a seriousness that comes out of left field at the end. But the characters are great, the friendships are realistic and truthful, and it was delightful summer reading.

Because I can't recreate the entire book, here's a tiny bit is from when Jess is working as a barista:

"I consider charging him an extra dollar because he made me strain to hear the word "coconut," but I've already hit my limit on groundless irritation for the day." (p. 4)

Groundless irritation!  Love it!

The Voices by F.R. Tallis (2014)

Really interesting haunted house novel, set in the 1970s in London, about a composer, his wife, and their young daughter, who move to a stately home in Hampstead Heath where they start to hear mysterious voices. The wife hears them through the baby monitor, he picks up voices through his recording equipment. This starts them on a mysterious journey of finding out who may have lived in the house and where the voices came from. 

It's hard to say anything else without spoiling the mystery, so I'm not going to. Quite suspenseful and chilling, and extremely atmospheric. Surprising and haunting.

Hugo & Rose by Bridget Foley (2015)

Rose has been having the same dream every night since she was a child, about a beautiful island and adventures she shares with Hugo. As a married mother of three, her life changes irrevocably when she sees a man working at a fast food restaurant who looks just like Hugo, and who recognizes her as well.  

Fascinating blend of fantasy and realistic fiction that reminded me of the British movie Paperhouse. Intriguing and original, and perfect for anyone who ever woke up from a dream and wanted to get right back into it.

How To Be Black by Baratunde Thurston (2012)

This book is awesome. I loved it immediately from the introduction ("Thanks for Celebrating Black History Month by Acquiring This Book"), which tells us that "this is a book about the ideas of blackness, how those ideas are changing, and how they differ from the popular ideas promoted in mainstream media and often in the black community." And Thurston discusses all of this with insight and utter hilarity.

Chapters include: "How Black Are You", "How to Be the Black Friend", "How to Speak for All Black People", "How to Be the Black Employee", and "How's That Post-Racial Thing Working Out For Ya?"  

In addition to his own thoughts, Thurston brings in his "Black Panel," including W. Kamau Bell, other interesting writers on race, and even one white guy (Christian Lander from Stuff White People Like) to provide even more insight and perspective on the issues he discusses.

I love this quote from Damali Ayo: 

"There's only so much we can say to white people anymore about this, because we've been saying the same things to white people for generations, decades upon decades. It is now really up to them. I've done workshops where I have literally taken all of the people of color out and left the white people and said, 'Your job is to end racism and I'll be back in twenty minutes. You set it up. Take it down.'" (p. 216)  

Also, Thurston's commentary on Cheryl Contee's discussion of the new Harmlem Renaissance and African American culture impacting larger culture: 

"all of these are part of this more global, collaborative resurgence of black culture and thought, and when it comes from the bottom up like this, it challenges the prevailing and limited images of blackness peddled by our major media but also the limited expectations of many black people themselves." (p. 223)

Fabulous, funny, thoughtful and important.

Scrumptious by Amanda Usen (2011)

Pretty adorable romance novel about a chef and the hotshot new chef that her friend hires to come in and fix her ailing restaurant. 

There's a less interesting subplot about someone sabotaging the restaurant, but the romance itself is pretty adorable. It's fun to read a romance about grown-ups--two people who aren't afraid to get busy, but aren't so sure about commitment. Good characters, well-done and spicy sex scenes.

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty (2014)

Subtitled: And Other Lessons from the Crematory.  I utterly LOVED this book.  

Doughty, after graduating with a degree in medieval history, gets a job at a crematorium and learns a LOT. This book is beautifully written, so readable and yet she integrates an amazing amount of anthropological research into her writing. 

I love her advocacy for death acceptance and the "good death.' This is totally a buy for me. I love how she talks about the real truth of death in America and how divorced we are from the reality of death. Beautifully written, and I wholeheartedly support her cause. Wonderfully said. Rave, rave, rave. 

Also, don't miss her Order of the Good Death page on Facebook. She posts the most fascinating articles and links.