2011 – Page 11 – Pop Culture Nerd

AMERICAN IDOL S10: Top 9 Rock Out

This post is by guest blogger Poncho, an expert on AI and many things pop culture.—PCN

Even with the theme being “Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” the episode had little rock and less roll. Some of the choices were weird, most of the songs were performed (mostly better) in previous seasons, and the whole thing was more boring than last week. So let’s get rolling:

I just figured out who Jacob Lusk reminds me of. His weird dance moves in the second half of “Man in the Mirror” immediately made me think of Juan Gabriel! Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing; JG is a very successful recording artist…in Mexico. Anyway, the vocals were kind of good, but what’s with him thrusting the backup singer? And what’s with the backup-bots waving boringly? Besides, I’m fed up with his overly theatrical skanky diva faces. The judges loved the performance; I say meh.

I told PCN last week I was on board Haley Scarnatto Grrrreinhart’s bandwagon, and after hearing her cover Erma Franklin/Janis Joplin, I say the girrrrrrl took another “Piece of My Heart.” She wasn’t as good as last week, but she’s growing as an artist, picking songs that fit her grrrowl, improving the phrasing, looking gorgeous on stage, commanding more presence and, in general, looking less awkward. On the downside, she’s still got lots to grrrrrow.

Casey Abrams brought an upright bass! I couldn’t care less for his performance, even though “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” is one of my favorite songs ever. The upright bass upstaged Casey but it might still be me hating him for what he did to Nirvana.

I’ll say it about Lauren Alaina: NOBODY has made that girl feel like a “Natural Woman.” I’m not advocating underage sexin’, just saying you can master the technical aspects of a song as hard as “Natural Woman,” make changes to the phrasing and intonation of the verses (I hated the runs in the first ones, liked the softness in the middle), but if you have no connection, there’s no point. And that’s it—she sang pretty but sold nothing.

One thing we learned (or re-discovered) about James Durbin is that he has serious trouble with his lower register. And I mean serious. It’s a good thing Steven gave him props for “weeping” like his guitar because it was the only good thing about the performance. The pitch problems throughout the song made all guitars around the world need tissues.

This was the first time Scotty McCheesy actually really entertained me. It’s no secret I like his voice and believe he’s got a real chance in country music, but this was the first time he looked like a contender. He raised the tempo and he’s starting to pull the cheese factor back. Weird thing—the cheese he brought kinda worked.

I had a headache watching Pia Toscano. She sang uptempo (more like mid-tempo in my book, but whateva) and even with a few pitch problems here and there, managed to sound amazing. But then, the visuals were all wrong. First, the dress was a fashion no-no (hear it from a straight guy); second, she walked around the stage and her walk was very, very boring. If you close your eyes, you hear a great “uptempo” song. If you mute the TV/VCR/PC, you see someone singing a ballad. Guess she’s still Pia Tosca-bore.

If anyone was really a bore, it was Stefano Langone. Three words: Kick him out.

Finally, Paul McDonald was real fun to watch. It wasn’t the greatest performance, but his voice actually fitted the song and the arrangement. He brought his spastic-chicken dance to the stage, even while playing his guitar (I think the other guys beside him had ants in their pants, too, because they danced very weirdly as well). But somehow it all worked. It was fun, a little underwhelming, but fun nonetheless.

What did you think?

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Authors’ Bios as Marketing Tool

When deciding which books to read, I usually ask myself some of the following:

Is it by someone whose work I’ve enjoyed in the past?
Does the plot seem interesting?
Is the concept unique?
Does the lead character sound like someone I can root for?
Is it by someone who has been compared to an author I like?
Does it take place somewhere I’d like to visit?
Is it about a topic I don’t know much about but find fascinating?
Is the cover art pretty? (What? I like pretty.)

But in the last month, I received two novels that made me immediately want to read them based mostly on the authors’ bios, something that has never happened before. The first was The Informationist by Taylor Stevens and the second was Spycatcher (William Morrow, 8/9/11) by Matthew Dunn. Both are debut novels.

Stevens, from her site

I’m finishing up Informationist and plan to review it sometime in the next week so I’ll touch more on Stevens’s past then. In the meantime, here’s what it says on her website:

In an alternate universe, I spent my formative years living with parents and siblings, showing up for school and getting acquainted with HBO, Michael Jackson, neon clothes and big hair. In reality, childhood and adolescence were spent begging on city streets from Zurich to Tokyo, preparing food and washing laundry for hundreds of people, and otherwise trying to survive dreary life as a worker bee child in a communal apocalyptic cult. My innocence and scholastic education stopped completely when I was twelve-years-old.

Cut off from personal family, at times under the care of sadistic individuals and without access to books or television from the outside world, imagination became a survival mechanism. As a young teenager, I secretly entertained commune children with fantastic stories that took us through time and space, until these sins were discovered by cult leaders. Several laboriously hand-written books were confiscated and burned and I was ordered on pain of–well, a whole lot of pain–never to write again.

The nomadic culture of the cult became an adolescent’s journey across four continents and nearly two dozen countries culminating in four years living in East and West-Central Africa–this the primary setting for THE INFORMATIONIST…

…I was in my twenties when I broke free, and leaving everything I knew brought with the fear, a fresh beginning. Refusing to go to my grave with regrets, “what ifs,” or tears over the lost years, I set out to take back what was taken from me. Through trial and error and observing the masters I taught myself the craft, and gradually the gift of storytelling returned. Learning basics that many take for granted has been a journey to be sure, but on the flip side, if I ever need to make breakfast for 150 people, I’ve already got that covered.

How can someone who has experienced all that not have incredible stories to tell? And without knowing more about the book, I knew this before starting it: Stevens’s heroine would be a survivor.

The other novel, Spycatcher, came with this author bio:

Photo by Adam Scourfield

As an MI6 field operative, Matthew Dunn recruited and ran agents, coordinated and participated in special operations, and acted in deep-cover roles throughout the world. He operated in highly hostile environments where, if compromised and captured, he would have been executed. Dunn was trained in all aspects of intelligence collection, deep-cover deployments, small arms, explosives, military unarmed combat, surveillance, and infiltration.

Medals are never awarded to modern MI6 officers, but Dunn was the recipient of a very rare personal commendation from the secretary of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs for work he did on one mission, which was deemed so significant that it directly influenced the successful conclusion of a major international incident.

During his time in MI6, Dunn conducted approximately seventy missions. All of them were successful.

The back cover also mentions he’s “one of the first in modern memory to write novels under his own name.”

After reading this, I immediately cracked it open and went straight to the first chapter without even glancing at the plot synopsis. How could I resist? That bio says, “This guy’s got balls and he’s a real-life Bond.” And yup, the first chapter is pretty good.

Now, I’m not suggesting every author use their personal stories in their marketing campaigns; I’d guess that few have a background as extraordinary as Stevens and Dunn’s. Reading about how someone toiled in a cubicle for years before selling their first book just isn’t as exciting. Ultimately, it’s the writing and the fictional story within the pages that will hold readers’ interest anyway.

But I couldn’t help but think: When an author’s life is as riveting as any thriller you’ve read, should it be spotlighted more in the marketing campaign? If you attend a signing of such an author, would you want them to share tales from their past or discuss the book only? If their personal stories are highlighted to sell books, is it exploitation? Discuss!

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Beverly Hills Film Festival

Smith and Bowen

L.A. folks, did you know the Beverly Hills Film Festival starts today and runs through this Sunday, April 10th? The festival showcases independent films and tonight has the West Coast premiere of Conception, which was just named “Best of the Fest” at the Palm Beach Film Festival. Check out this cast: Julie Bowen, Connie Britton, Alan Tudyk, David Arquette, Jonathan Silverman, Sarah Hyland, Pamela Adlon, Gregory Smith and more. It’s a romantic dramedy featuring nine couples at different stages of their relationships on the night they conceive a baby. I hope to post a review of this later this week.

For more info on the festival and other films being screened, click here.

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Strong Female Protags in THE KILLING & BODY OF PROOF

I’ve had my nose buried in the grindstone on a couple of fun projects but wanted to pop in here for a few minutes to discuss two new TV shows I found worth watching. The first is AMC’s The Killing, an adaptation of a Danish series about a young murdered girl who may be linked somehow to the campaign of a city councilman running for mayor. Each hour represents a day in the investigation and so far, the first two days have been pretty intriguing. (There are 13 episodes total.)

Mireille Enos, as lead detective Sarah Linden, pops against the gray Vancouver palette that stands in for the show’s Seattle, not just because of her strawberry blonde hair and pale skin, but because she can hold your attention by simply standing still and showing you everything she’s thinking through her translucent blue eyes. I’ve always enjoyed Billy Campbell’s work so it’s good to see him as the councilman who may or may not be involved in the girl’s death. There have been lots of comparisons to Twin Peaks, which could be good or bad depending on how you felt about that show (I loved the first season). So far, I don’t think Killing is as weird—no mentions of dwarfs or log ladies yet—but I’ll be spending Sunday nights wondering, Who killed Rosie Larsen?

The other new show I’ve been following is Body of Proof, starring Dana Delany as a nut-busting coroner who always seems smarter than everyone else in the room. Her Dr. Megan Hunt often behaves inappropriately—she tags along when the police questions suspects and then commandeers the situation—but Delany’s charisma and confidence make us not only accept it but root for her. She also looks amazing, sexier than her overly nip-tucked peers and women half her age.

There are a couple issues, though, that have kept this show from being great for me so far. First, Megan cries way too much. She’s estranged from her teenage daughter and every time she talks to her, she gets all teary. I let that slide since it’s a tough situation. But then in the second episode, Megan cries when she’s telling the parents of a murdered girl how she was killed. C’mon! I know it’s tragic but if she’s going to cry every time she breaks bad news to people, she won’t last long in the job. And she’s supposed to be the best.

Another thing is how her partner Peter (Nicholas Bishop) is always giving her unsolicited parenting advice, including what kind of birthday present she should buy her kid. He doesn’t just make his point and move on, he sometimes lectures her. I find it hard to believe a tough independent-minded woman like Megan wouldn’t tell him to butt out.

Have you watched either of these shows? What do you think? If you missed them, you can watch The Killing without commercials here and Body of Proof here.

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Ask PCN

From time to time, I’d get emails asking me questions about pop culture and random things I cover here. I usually answer privately but thought I’d try running a collection of questions that amused me. I here present the first “Ask PCN” column.

Q: I want to break into reality TV and get on a show like The Bachelor or America’s Got Talent or maybe Project Runway. Any ideas on how to make my audition video stand out?

PCN: It might help if you have a better idea of the kind of show you’d excel on. Ask yourself: Am I handsome but slightly smarmy? Can I juggle baby koalas while clogging? Can I spot polyester from two hundred yards away? If the answer is all of the above, you should try to get your own talk show on Fox.

Q: My next book club meeting is tomorrow night but I’ve barely started this month’s selection, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I see you’ve reviewed the entire trilogy here. Can you give me some spoilers so I’ll sound like I’ve read it?

PCN: Sure. Lisbeth falls in love with a boy named Romeo but when her parents forbid her to see him, she runs away and joins a fight club, where she meets a limping guy named Keyser Soze and starts seeing dead people. At the very end, she reveals she’s a man. Hope that helps!

Q: Do you know when David Hasselhoff’s next album is coming out?

PCN: Any day now. He’s working hard on an album that’s a mix of hip-hop, polka, and Pat Boone. Look for it soon from street vendors in Thailand.

Q: My boss wants to be friends with me on Facebook but I often post pictures of me and my girlfriends doing…fun stuff on vacation. Do you think I should confirm his friend request? I’m afraid if I don’t, he’ll get offended.

PCN: You should definitely friend your boss and then immediately upload not only photos but videos of your weekend activities. Then you should go into “settings” and make everything visible to everyone, not just your Facebook friends. This will surely get you a promotion. Good luck!

Q: How do I break into acting?

PCN: See above answer. Break a leg!

Q: I love James Patterson’s books. Can you recommend similar books I might enjoy?

PCN: You need more help than I can possibly provide. Please call the nearest urgent care facility.

Q: How did the term “douche bag” enter our vernacular as a slang for jerks? What does one have to do with the other?

PCN: I think it’s because if you say to a jerk “Hey, Summer’s Eve!” it just wouldn’t have the same punch.

*As you may have guessed by now, this entire column is an April Fools’ joke. But I do occasionally get questions so if you’d like me to include yours in a real “Ask PCN” column, use this contact form to send them to me. Happy Friday!

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AMERICAN IDOL S10: Top 11 Perform Elton John Songs

I haven’t been posting American Idol recaps this year because I haven’t been home most nights the show is on. Finally found myself with a little free time yesterday evening so I tuned in, though I wasn’t thrilled about the theme being Elton John songs. He and Bernie Taupin have written some great tunes but their catalog is ballad-heavy and I just wasn’t in the mood. I wish we could have Springsteen or U2 night. Hell, I’d take Bryan Adams, Eagles, Bob Seger. We need some rock ‘n’ roll and I don’t mean what James Durbin is doing.

This isn’t a full recap, just the highlights. Let’s jump straight to the surprising best performance of the evening: Haley covering “Bennie and the Jets.” I’ve liked her husky voice in the past but she always picks the wrong songs and tries too hard to be vampy on stage. I thought it was going to be more of the same when she started out reclining seductively on the piano but man, she burned it up. Though she still does that throat-clearing type of singing too often for my taste, the song allowed her to growl, belt, and slink through different octaves, opening up my eyes and making me say “Yowza.” Check out the clip below if you missed it.

Elsewhere, Casey did a nice job with “Your Song” but he’s had better performances. Pia was pitch-perfect as usual but still lacked a warmth of feeling. The best singers are also the best interpreters, taking lyrics beyond words and into emotional territory. For some reason, Pia hasn’t learned to do that yet. Plus, her song, “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” is a drag.

Lauren had a personal best with “Candle in the Wind” though I’d be thrilled if I never hear that overexposed saccharine ballad again. The judges were too harsh on Naima because I liked her groovy reggae version of “I’m Still Standing.” Jacob was good but wasn’t in the top 3 for me. I still dig Paul‘s funkiness; Steven Tyler said it perfectly when he told Paul if he started hitting all the notes, he’d become boring. I fast-forwarded through Scotty‘s performance as I normally do because he’s just too corny for me. “I love you, Grandma!” in the middle of the song? Puh-leeze.

Who stood out and who are you rooting for?

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Winners of Kate Atkinson Prize Packages

I’m happy to announce my 5 winners of Kate Atkinson prize packages. Each set includes the four Jackson Brodie books: Case Histories (trade), One Good Turn (trade), When Will There Be Good News? (trade) and a hardcover of her just-released Started Early, Took My Dog.

Please use this contact form to let me know where Hachette can send the packages. Winners who don’t respond by Saturday, April 2, 9 a.m. PST will be replaced by alternate winner(s).

Thanks for entering, everyone. I’ll have another great giveaway in the next two weeks!

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Book Review: Manuel Muñoz’s WHAT YOU SEE IN THE DARK

You know this book is unusual when it begins by drawing you in with a second person narrative. Right away, you’re in Bakersfield, CA in 1959 as the tragic love affair between locals Teresa and Dan unfolds, intertwined with a fictional account of Janet Leigh (called only the Actress) and Alfred Hitchcock (the Director) coming to town to scout locations, including the perfect Bates motel, for Psycho. Through these and other characters, you explore what it was like to have dreams in a small town, to have them turn out differently than planned, or to know you’ve missed your chance at fulfilling your dreams altogether.

Debut novelist Manuel Muñoz’s voice, which switches to third person for most of the book, is an atmospheric, nostalgic one. I normally don’t care for a lot of descriptive prose but his evocations of another time are so hypnotic that I didn’t mind. Witness the way he sets up the following scene so you can watch Teresa, a Mexican girl abandoned by her mother, and Dan, the most coveted boy in town, as they have lunch:

They were eating in the café located on one of the choice corners on a better stretch of Union Avenue, the café that still had the plate-glass windows all the way down to the sidewalk…You could see the entire booth through those windows: the table, the red vinyl, their dishes, the waitress’s white shoes when she came by to check on them, how the girl crossed her feet and rocked them nervously. She was not dressed as crisply as he was. Even if her clothes looked clean and pressed, you could tell right off that the day she began wearing nice things around town was the day the two of them had done more than talk and have lunch.

And with that, the author has turned you into a voyeur and town gossip.

Teresa and Dan’s story—and that of his mother, Arlene—is rife with loneliness and hope, with observations both subtle and heartbreaking. Muñoz also pulls off getting inside Janet Leigh’s head as she struggles with self-doubt while preparing for what would turn out to be her iconic role. The author writes in meticulous detail about how the famous shower scene was shot, how exacting Hitchcock was, and how Leigh tried to bring sympathetic dimensions to a character who was a thief and adulterer. The result is a mesmerizing combination of behind-the-scenes movie lore and noirish mystery.

But while the Actress only has to deal with fake blood, Teresa and Dan’s relationship erupts in real violence. Muñoz provides some details of the crime but doesn’t give a definitive account of what goes down, asking you to speculate on events as the locals do. It’s different from mystery novels that end with a “here’s what happened” scene but is effective nonetheless, because Muñoz wants you to use your imagination to fill in what you think you saw in the dark.

Nerd verdict: Hypnotic, noirish Dark

What You See in the Dark at Amazon| B&N| Indie Bookstores

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It Gets Better

Last week saw the release of the book version of It Gets Better, the outreach project spearheaded by Dan Savage and Terry Miller as a reaction to news of bullied youths killing themselves. Many of the stories target LGBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered) teens but the message that life gets better beyond adolescence is the same for anyone who’s ever been bullied. That includes me.

I was picked on for being different, one of the few Asian kids in my school and an undersized one. In seventh grade, I weighed only about 10 ounces more than a newborn. I wore glasses, spoke with an accent, and was no good in sports. I was called names I didn’t understand and the kids laughed at my clothes.

One kid, Tom, would wait until I got my lunch after standing in the cafeteria line for a while and he’d come over and just take it away from me. There was no attempt at being sneaky; he would grab the tray right out of my hand. “What are you going to do about it?” he’d smirk. What, indeed. He was popular and bigger than I.

I was miserable, not to mention hungry. One day, after the lunch-snatching had gone on for about a week, I decided I wasn’t going to take it anymore. When Tom came up to steal my lunch, I said loudly, “Why are you so mean to me?” Suddenly the cafeteria went still. All the chatting and clattering of silverware were suspended as eyes turned to us, but more to Tom, awaiting his response.

We stood there for a long moment, with me unsure if he’d pound me. Regardless, I really wanted an answer. But he didn’t have one. He finally shrugged, said, “Fine, you can have your lunch back,” and handed over my tray but not before licking several of my french fries first. He never bothered me again.

I had other incidents with other bullies but they all taught me that I have a voice—I just have to use it. There are many ways of speaking out and it pains me to think of bullied kids who feel they don’t matter. Even more tragic are the ones who think it doesn’t get better. Tom, the guy who tormented me? He apologized several years later on our high school graduation day and even became my friend afterward. He explained the bullying wasn’t about me—he had his own issues. If only he’d spoken up about them.

Do you have a bullying story to share? Doesn’t have to be firsthand experience; it can be something that happened to someone you know. I’d love to hear how it got better.

Buy It Gets Better from Amazon| B&N| Indie Bookstores

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Nerd Chat with Author Brett Battles

Brett Battles’s fourth Jonathan Quinn thriller, The Silenced (Dell, 4/5/11), is about to drop so I invited him by to talk about it and the 237 other projects he has up his sleeve.

First, the description for Silenced:

Quinn has a new client and an odd job: find and remove the remains of a body hidden twenty-five years ago inside a London building now scheduled for demolition.

But Quinn, his deadly and beautiful girlfriend Orlando, and their uniquely talented colleague Nate are being watched. Suddenly caught in the crossfire between two dangerous rivals who demand the remains, Quinn and his team must learn who the dead man was and why he’s still so important. Because a plot stretching from London to Hong Kong to the former Soviet Union is rapidly unraveling. And Quinn hasn’t just been hired to tie up loose ends—he is one.

Pop Culture Nerd: The launch party is this Saturday, 3/26, at Book Soup. Can you confirm if there will be cake and acrobatic chimps?

Brett Battles: While the acrobatic chimps are confirmed, I’ll have to work on the cake. Any preferences? [Ed. note: Banana nut ice cream cake!] I am very excited that The Silenced is finally coming out. I think it’s the best Quinn yet.

PCN: What did you do to him?

BB: I get into Quinn’s past, who he was before he was Jonathan Quinn. And I make his past get tangled with his present. That was a lot of fun! For me, but probably not for him.

PCN: Oh, good, I like tanglediness. Silenced isn’t the only new release you have. You just e-published two short stories and another thriller, Little Girl Gone. Only one of these has Quinn. Want to elaborate?

BB: One of the short stories, “Just Another Job,” is a Quinn. It’s from when he was a younger cleaner and still working with his mentor, Durrie. The novel, Little Girl Gone, is the first of a new series featuring Logan Harper. All three should be available at the Kindle store and other places where e-books are sold, such as smashwords.com.

PCN: Who’s Logan Harper and why did you decide to start another series with him?

BB: Logan is a former soldier who went into security work at a defense contractor after he finished college. While he was working there, something bad happened that got him fired and caused his wife to leave him. That’s all backstory, of course; Little Girl Gone opens two years later. Logan has moved back to his hometown of Cambria, California, and is working at an auto-repair garage owned by his almost 80-year-old father. He’s there because keeping life simple is the only thing that helps him move on from the past, a past he blames himself for but shouldn’t.

I wanted to write a series about a guy who isn’t a professional like Quinn, but who is resourceful and gets drawn into helping others. His father and his father’s group of friends are going to play a large part in finding people who need Logan’s help, whether he wants them to do that or not.

PCN: Also on deck is a YA, your 359th book this year. What inspired you to write that?

BB: Definitely my kids. I wanted to write an adventure I thought they might enjoy. It’s called Here Comes Mr. Trouble and should be out mid-April.

PCN: Can you reveal a little of its plot?

BB: A little, perhaps. Thirteen-year-old Eric Morrison thinks he might be going crazy. His whole life has suddenly turned upside down. Among other things, he’s forgetting homework, unable to get to his classes on time, and constantly getting bullied on his way home from school. Not to mention the fact that his mom is missing and his father doesn’t seem to notice. Dazed by this whirlwind of chaos, Eric finds an ad in a phone book that seems to be tailored just for him, a service for kids who are in trouble. He calls the number, but if he thought things were weird before, they were nothing compared to what’s about to happen when Mr. Trouble and the Trouble family arrive to help him.

PCN: I want to read that and I’m wayyy past being a YA. You’ve gone the traditional publishing route and now doing some e-publishing. How do you compare the two experiences?

BB: Well, I’m still very new to the whole e-publishing world, but probably the biggest difference is that instead of having to wait a year to a year and a half for my books to come out after I finish writing them, there is only a month or two, which is spent copy editing, getting a cover made, etc. I enjoy being in control of the cover design. When you’re with a publisher, they often just present you with a cover and say, “Don’t you love it?” and you’re expected to say yes.

The big thing legacy publishing has going for it is the distribution of printed books, but with fewer and fewer bookstores, and more and more people buying e-readers, that’s becoming less important. Oh, and before, if I wrote a book my agent or publisher didn’t want to bring out, I’d have to stuff it in a drawer. Now I can write what I want, throw it out there, and if it finds an audience, great! If not, no problem either.

PCN: The Romantic Times Booklovers Convention comes to L.A. next month. After narrowly losing the Mr. Romance title last year despite running around with no pants, how do you plan to campaign for it this year?

BB: I’ve made a special DVD that will be in each of the attendees’ bags. Inside five of the DVD sleeves there will be a golden ticket. Those five lucky winners will get…well, best not go into it here.

PCN: I agree. Based on what I saw on the DVD, what you have planned has been illegal in the U.S. and Mexico since 1973. Looks fun, though. Thanks for chatting, Brett!

L.A. folks, the Book Soup launch is 4 p.m. this Saturday; click here for more info about the store. Hope to see you there!

Buy The Silenced from Amazon| B&N| Indie Bookstores

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Elizabeth Taylor 1932-2011

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Book Review + Giveaway: Kate Atkinson’s STARTED EARLY, TOOK MY DOG

Though Started Early, Took My Dog is Kate Atkinson’s fourth book featuring private eye Jackson Brodie, it’s the first one I’ve read so I actually started late. But late is better than never and I’m happy to have finally met the investigator introduced in Case Histories.

Brodie is only one of the main characters in Started Early, with the others being a retired policewoman named Tracy Waterhouse who instinctively buys a four-year-old child from a woman she believes is abusing the little girl, and an older soap actress named Tilly who’s slowly losing her memory. The story moves between their separate points of view and different time frames—it begins in 1975 and alternates between then and the present—until the characters’ paths finally converge. The buildup is a little slow—Tracy’s backstory is important while Tilly’s past could have been abbreviated—but the pace accelerates once their storylines finally intersect.

Brodie, tracking down the biological roots of a client who had been adopted, is an immensely likable companion as he takes the reader through the countryside with him and his dog, which Brodie rescues from an abusive owner. How can you resist a dog described thusly?

[Jackson] spent some time drilling his new recruit on the beach—sit, stay, heel, come. The dog was pretty good. At sit its haunches dropped as if its back legs had been taken from beneath it. When Jackson said stay and walked away the dog might as well have been glued to the sand, its whole body quivering with the effort of not hurtling after Jackson. And when Jackson found a stick of driftwood and held it above the dog’s head, the dog not only stood on its hind legs but even walked a few steps. What next? Talking?

Atkinson’s wit is matched by her ability to squeeze the reader’s heart with observations like the following, as Tracy warns the little girl to watch out for people who might want to snatch her back:

“Keep an eye out for a gray car,” [Tracy] said to Courtney. Did kids her age know all the colors? Could the kid sing the whole rainbow? “Do you know what color gray is?”

“It’s the color of the sky,” Courtney offered.

Tracy sighed. Therapist would have a field day with this kid.

And Courtney’s not the only child in peril in this book. “Started early” isn’t just part of the title, it could be a comment on how early we can encounter misery in life, or how far back into the past we have to delve in order to understand our present. Though Atkinson leaves a few questions unanswered, this is a novel full of sharp observations about human nature and how it’s never too late to do the right thing.

I’m definitely going to read the other Brodie books now and you can, too,* since the generous folks at Hachette are letting me give away five sets of the Brodie titles. Each prize package will include:

Case Histories (Trade)
One Good Turn (Trade)
When Will There be Good News (Trade)
Started Early, Took my Dog (Hardcover)

How cool is that? To enter:

leave a comment telling me what habit you started at an early age (mine is reading)
be a U.S./Canada resident (no P.O. boxes, per Hachette’s request)

Giveaway ends next Wednesday, March 30 at 5 p.m. PST. Five winners will be randomly selected via random.org then announced here, on Twitter and Facebook. Winners will have 48 hours to claim prizes before alternate name(s) are chosen so make sure you check back!

* I never felt lost reading this book but have a feeling it contains minor spoilers from previous cases.

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