Buzz Girl Books

Reading Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema is like becoming ensconced in an comfy, cozy couch on a rainy Sunday, channel surfing until you find one of those movies you’ve already seen but you’re like, “I could watch this again.” Then settling in for the rewatch with your funniest friend who picks apart the plot holes and character flaws you never noticed before—and makes you laugh your ass off in the process.

A hilariously outspoken writer, comedian and activist, West is probably best known from her 2016 memoir Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman and/or its small-screen adaptation Shrill, which premiered on Hulu in 2019. She uses her real-life experience as a writer and executive producer on Shrill and former movie critic, as well as being a certified cinephile and pop culture addict, to take a second—sarcastic and just-the-right-amount of critical—look at more than 20 contemporary movie “classics.”

From Face/Off, Garden State and Titanic to Harry Potter, Reality Bites and Shawshank Redemption (oh, yes, she did!), West skewers them one by one. And thanks to her, I’ll never look at any of them the same way again.

THE FINAL WORD: There are two kinds of people who will truly appreciate this book: 1) people who are already fans of West and her humor; and 2) anyone who saw Titanic and screamed at the screen as the old lady casually tossed the “The Heart of the Ocean” INTO the actual ocean knowing the guy from Twister and one of those astronaut movies dedicated his life to finding it but never did because she had it the WHOLE TIME—but not after making him listen to, like, three hours of her Titanic story first.

And let’s not even get started with whether or not that door could have held poor Jack, too.

I woke up this morning and thought, “Let me just read for, like, 15 minutes before I get out of bed. So I rolled over and grabbed American Dirt. Fast forward three hours, and I had finished the entire book.

Jeanine Cummins’ vivid and stunning story follows a Mexican family who are rocked by narcos violence and the survivors’ arduous journey to cross the border into the U.S. It’s eye-opening, suspenseful and totally engrossing. Suffice it to say, Oprah’s Book Club does it again.

THE FINAL WORD: You know when someone says a book was so good, they couldn’t put it down? This is one of those books. In other words, don’t pick it up if you don’t have three hours to spare.

For me, a good beach read is either a light, sunny story that requires very little of my overtaxed brain except to enjoy the escape; OR a mystery thriller that puts my mind into overdrive trying to unravel the whodunit, completely absorbing my brain and blocking out the real world.

For me, A Good Marriage was the latter, and it was totally absorbing. It’s a legal thriller/murder mystery by Kimberly McCreight (I’m a huge fan of her previous book Reconstructing Amelia).

At the core of the story is a brutal murder that happens in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, a neighborhood which looks picture perfect. But much like on Instagram, the images projected are often covering up real life—where seemingly flawless families and couples have plenty of secrets hidden behind the posts. Take for example, the murder takes place the night of the neighborhood’s annual “key party.” After the sweet, pretty wife of a tech millionaire is found dead at the foot of the stairs of their mansion, her husband, being held at Rikers Island prison, contacts his former law school colleague Lizzie to help prove his innocence. From there, his secrets, his wife’s secrets, the neighbors’ secrets and Lizzie’s secrets come to light with twists and turns that remind us you never know what is REALLY happening behind closed doors.

THE FINAL WORD: For me, A Good Marriage was the perfect summer read, a true page-turner that kept me engaged from beginning to end. It’s like HBO’s Big Little Lies and The Night Of and Netflix’s The Staircase had book baby.

Hollywood Park is a memoir by Mikel Jollet, who some of you may know as the lead singer of The Airborne Toxic Event (the band has been around since 2008, but their haunting name could not be more appropriate than it is in 2020). Only 46 years old when he wrote the book, Jollet had already endured lifetimes of pain and misfortune as he navigated through experiences I can only describe as jaw-dropping (and not in a good way).

For starters, Jollet is born into the controversial Synanon cult that lived just below the Hollywood Sign in the ’60s and ’70s). He manages to survive, but life after the cult is difficult and dangerous in its own way.

Surrounded by addiction and poverty, Jollett lives with his mentally-ill mother who has a loose grasp on reality and highly questionable taste in men, not to mention having to contend with his own lingering questions and pain from his early days in the cult. As you can imagine, it’s a hard story to digest, especially knowing the book is a memoir, but his words and writing are so magical, it’s worth any feelings of discomfort.

As a reader, I was intensely waiting and cheering for Jollett to get to the crossroads where his life takes finally a turn for the better. I plowed through the book, and as soon as I put it down, I immediately downloaded some Airborne Toxic Event music. I wanted to continue to enjoy his hauntingly beautiful prose, especially after gaining a unique insight into the songs’ themes and lyrics.

THE FINAL WORD: You don’t have to be a fan of indie rock or post-punk revival (or even know what they are, for that matter) to be drawn in by Hollywood Park. If you like superbly-written memoirs and stories of survival (like another favorite of mine Educated), you, too will give this book two thumbs up.

A special shout out to my beloved “word dealer” Ron Block for sending this remarkable book my way.

In times like this, I think for me reading helps keeps me sane and my mind open. And, it’s a brief mental respite. You know how in Mary Poppins, Mary, the kids+Bert jumped into the chalk sidewalk painting and were immersed in another world? That’s the sensation I felt reading The Margot Affair – from the first page I felt like I lived inside the character’s world. It comes out next week but I was lucky emough to snag an ARC from #netgalley. Sanae Lemoine paints just beautiful word pictures – you can practically hear the clinking of spoons hitting saucers at an outdoor cafe and smell the baguettes baking on the Parisian streets where the titular character, teenage Margot, lives with her Mom, famed stage actress Anouk. The story of Margot, the illegitimate daughter of Anouk and a rising French politician (married) and the fall out of what happens when Margot takes extreme action to expose herself to the public and finally get recognized as his second family and to prove she and her mother were the one he loved the best. It’s a touching story, and the underlying theme of someone feeling invisible and urgently needing to be heard and seen weren’t lost on me right now. I also really loved the descriptions of Paris landmarks, the food…everything really comes to life almost as if you’re there. Almost. I loved this book and can’t wait to read the author’s second book. It left me crazing more – and craving fresh French bread with creamy real butter and homemade pear jam.