Pop Culture Nerd – Page 29 – Pop Culture Nerd

First Impressions 7.27.12

I hope you all have had a good week. I was out of town, though not on vacation, and in a mostly no-Wi-Fi area. It’s good to unplug once in a while, but it’s also nice to be back.

A bunch of books were waiting for me upon my return, and these three openers passed the test of not containing long descriptions of weather or scenery or people doing boring things.

The Other Woman’s House by Sophie Hannah (out now, Penguin paperback original)

Saturday 24 July 2010

I’m going to be killed because of a family called the Gilpatricks.

There are four of them: mother, father, son and daughter. Elise, Donal, Riordan and Tilly. Kit tells me their first names, as if I’m keen to dispense with the formalities and get to know them better, when all I want is to run screaming from the room. Riordan’s seven, he says. Tilly’s five.

Shut up, I want to yell in his face, but I’m too scared to open my mouth. It’s as if someone’s clamped and locked it; no more words will come out, not ever.

I discovered Hannah last year, and really liked her style of combining wit and gut-wrenching drama. Can’t wait to dive into this one.

A Wanted Man by Lee Child (September 11, Delacorte)

The eyewitness said he didn’t actually see it happen. But how else could it have gone down? Not long after midnight a man in a green winter coat had gone into a small concrete bunker through its only door. Two men in black suits had followed him in. There had been a short pause. The two men in the black suits had come out again.

The man in the green winter coat had not come out again.

Did you even need to read that opening? You probably already have this on your TBR list, right?

Say You’re Sorry by Michael Robotham (October 2, Mulholland Books)

My name is Piper Hadley and I went missing on the last Saturday of the summer holidays three years ago. I didn’t disappear completely and I didn’t run away, which is what a lot of people thought (those who didn’t believe I was dead). And despite what you may have heard or read, I didn’t get into a stranger’s car or run off with some sleazy paedo I met online. I wasn’t sold to Egyptian slave traders or forced to become a prostitute by a gang of Albanians or trafficked to Asia on a luxury yacht.

I’m almost done with this book and it’s another good one from Robotham. If you’re not already reading him, I recommend you start.

Any of these pique your interest? What are you reading?

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Book Review: THE PRISONER OF HEAVEN by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

I originally reviewed this for Shelf Awareness for Readers, and am reprinting it here with permission.

Fans of Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s Cemetery of Forgotten Books series finally have another installment to enjoy with The Prisoner of Heaven, which begins right before Christmas in 1957 Barcelona. A mysterious man with missing fingers comes into Sempere & Sons, the bookstore where Daniel (The Shadow of the Wind’s protagonist) works, and buys an expensive edition of The Count of Monte Cristo. He leaves it at the store with a cryptic message inside for Fermín, Daniel’s best friend and coworker. When Daniel presses for the meaning of the inscription, Fermín tells him the awful truth, including the real reason Daniel’s mother died.

Fermín’s sense of humor helps readers through some of the more horrific incidents when he talks about his prison stint in 1939-1940, when he met the writer David Martín (from The Angel’s Game). Daniel’s mother, Isabella, also makes an impression as David’s friend, who tirelessly lobbies to get him out.

Part of the intrigue of these three books is to see how all the characters and pieces fit together (even if some details don’t match what was disclosed at the end of Game), and as a note says at the beginning of this novel, they can be read in any order.

The Prisoner of Heaven doesn’t quite capture the magic of Shadow, but is more engrossing than Game. Like them, this is a tale about—and for—people who are passionate about books and the art of writing. It contains Zafón’s usual wit and eye for period detail, and ends with a cliffhanger indicating that Daniel’s journey down a dark path is just beginning.

Nerd verdict: Engrossing Heaven, if a bit in Shadow‘s shadow

Can’t get enough of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books? You can read about its origins in a free short story by Zafón that HarperCollins has made available here.

Buy Prisoner now from Amazon| Buy it from an indie bookstore

This blog will be quiet for about a week, as I’ll be out of town for a family emergency. I wish you all happy reading until we meet again.

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How Much Do Book Covers Matter?

I saw this beautiful cover for Michael Frayn’s book, Skios, this morning and was immediately attracted to it.

My trip to the Greek islands remains my favorite so far, and I have fond memories of the gorgeous vistas there. So when I saw this cover, I wanted to know more about the book. But when I went to Amazon to check synopsis and reviews, I saw this:

Wha? Turns out the pretty one was the UK cover, and we’re getting the ugly one in the US. I suddenly lost all desire to read it, despite knowing it’s not fair to the author, since he had no control over this. It’s the equivalent of losing my appetite when I see an otherwise delicious dish served in an unappealing way.

Has this ever happened to you? How much do covers matter to you?

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First Impressions: PULP INK 2 Anthology

Cover by Eric Beetner

I thought I’d do something different this week. Instead of featuring three openers from three books, I decided to post the openers of three short stories from a recently released crime fiction anthology called Pulp Ink 2.

I want to spotlight this because co-editor Nigel Bird (with Chris Rhatigan) says in his introduction that all proceeds from the book go to an organization called Place2Be, which offers counseling sessions in schools to students, their families, and teachers to resolve any issues that might get in the way of the children’s progress and hurt their self-esteem.

So, here’s a taste of three of the stories:

“Kidnapped” by Mike Miner

Kids can spot crazy. Just like you and me. Maybe better. Eleven-year-old Bobby knew his dad’s new girlfriend was crazy. He could see it in her eyes, hear it in her voice, feel it in his guts.

But kids don’t realize how dangerous crazy can be. Bobby didn’t know she was dangerous. Not yet.

“My Life with Butcher Girl” by Heath Lowrance

I want to tell you about her eyes, but I lack the poetry of spirit. They were green, but not just green. They were the green of a wild animal, or an innocent alien visitor from another planet. They were wild and hungry, and a sort of sweet, glorious death lingered in them.

You could see a million worlds in those eyes, even if you only saw them on TV, on the news, that clip they always showed of her hurrying through the courthouse hall, body half-hidden by her attorneys after she’d been convicted of triple murder.

“Rats” by W.D. County

The scurrying rats within the walls of her apartment kept Jane awake wondering what sort of lives could be led by such pitiful creatures, trapped within a world of dark and narrow confines. The rag stuffed in her mouth wasn’t conducive to sleep either, but by now she’d pretty much gotten used to the gag, the handcuffs, and the worn kitchen linoleum sticking to her bare skin. Sometimes she felt as though she could send her mind out of her body, away from the pain, even without the injections that Mumbles gave.

Interested in reading more? eBooks can be purchased for Kindle and Nook; a paperback copy is available through Amazon. Go forth and help the children!

What do you have on tap for this weekend?

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First Impressions: Flashback Edition

Couldn’t find three hard-hitting openers among the ARCs I received this week, so I thought I’d take a look back at some older favorites. I wanted to feature authors whose work you may not have read but might consider doing so after seeing these.

The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie (yes, that Hugh Laurie)

Imagine that you have to break someone’s arm.

Right or left, doesn’t matter. The point is that you have to break it, because if you don’t…well, that doesn’t matter either. Let’s just say bad things will happen if you don’t.

Now, my question goes like this: do you break the arm quickly—snap, whoops, sorry, here let me help you with that improvised splint—or do you drag the whole business out for a good eight minutes, every now and then increasing the pressure in the tiniest of increments, until the pain becomes pink and green and hot and cold and altogether howlingly unbearable?

Well exactly. Of course. The right thing to do, the only thing to do, is to get it over with as quickly as possible. Break the arm, ply the brandy, be a good citizen. There can be no other answer.

Unless.

He got you, didn’t he? “Unless” what?? This book is hilarious, and I’ve been waiting for a looooong time for his second novel. The Paper Soldier was supposed to be released years ago, but was indefinitely delayed due to Laurie’s busy schedule. Now that House, M.D. is over, maybe he’ll have more time for writing.

Where the Truth Lies by Rupert Holmes (yes, the Piña Colada man)

In the seventies, I had three unrelated lunches with three different men, each of whom might have done A Terrible Thing. The nature of their varying “things” ranged from obscene to unspeakable to unutterable, and you will surely understand if, as a writer, I was rather hoping that each had. (Done their particular Terrible Thing.)

In the case of my lunch with the first man, I knew by the time he rested his gold Carte Blance card upon the meal’s sizable check that my hopes were abundantly justified.

Ignore the fact this book was made into a movie that’s not very good (despite Colin Firth’s presence). It’s a sexy, twisty mystery that made me snap up Holmes’s second mystery novel, Swing, which was even better.

Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston

My feet hurt. The nightmare still in my head, I walk across the cold wood floor, shuffling my feet in the light grit. I’m half-drunk and I have to pee. I’m not sure which woke me, the piss or the nightmare.

My john is just a bit smaller than the average port-o-potty. I sit on the pot and rest my forehead against the opposite wall. I have a pee hard-on and if I try to take a leak standing up, I’ll end up hosing the whole can. I know this from experience. Plus my feet still hurt.

This opening started my love affair with Huston’s work eight years ago. I wanted to know why this guy’s feet hurt. Well, his day is about to get much worse, and by the end of this book, his feet aren’t the only things that hurt.

What do you think? Interested in any of these? What are you reading? Happy second Friday this week!

[Note about the covers: These are from the first editions I read. The current editions all have different covers but I prefer these.]

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Movie Review: SAVAGES

If you’ve seen Oliver Stone’s U-Turn or Natural Born Killers, and/or have read the Don Winslow novel on which this movie is based, Savages is pretty much what you’d expect it to be—violent, in your face, with strong acting, dark humor, and overly saturated sun-soaked images.

Stone’s style is a good match for the story of pot growers/dealers Ben (Aaron Johnson) and Chon (Taylor Kitsch), living the high life in Laguna Beach, CA, with their mutual girlfriend O (short for Ophelia, played by Blake Lively). Things get ugly when a Mexican cartel led by the ruthless Elena (Salma Hayek) wants a piece of their business and kidnaps O to make sure the guys cooperate. But instead of rolling over and playing nice, Ben and Chon get mad and risk everything to get O back.

The three leads do an adequate job—Lively is most effective in captivity when her face is scrubbed clean of makeup and she shows her vulnerable side—but they can’t hold a candle to the veteran supporting cast. Hayek is fierce as the cartel’s leader, and just as convincing as a mother desperately trying to connect with her daughter. Benicio Del Toro seems to have really enjoyed playing Elena’s enforcer, Lado, managing to get some laughs despite his character being terrifying (think Javier Bardem’s Anton Chiguhr in No Country for Old Men). As a dirty DEA agent, John Travolta sinks his teeth into his role and chews up the scenery, too.

A couple things were less successful. First was the voice-over narration done by Lively in languid, SoCal mode; Winslow’s language is snappy and kinetic in the book. The second thing…

**SPOILER AHEAD IF YOU’VE READ THE BOOK; SAFE IF YOU HAVEN’T**

…was the ending was changed. It’s still in the movie, but it’s not the same. What made the novel memorable were its beginning and ending; the revision here is too safe, taking the claws out of something called Savages. Next to me in the theater, though, was a woman who had not read the book (based on her reactions) and she seemed to prefer the movie’s conclusion, so I guess it was altered for viewers like her.

**END OF SPOILER**

Moviegoers attracted to Savages because of Stone and the cast will enjoy a solid thriller. For fans of the novel—Winslow co-wrote the screenplay with Stone and Shane Salerno—it’s a kick seeing it on screen until it gets compromised, which is ironic since Ben and Chon are all about not compromising.

Nerd verdict: Faithful Savages ’til the end

Photos: Universal

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Book Review: THE KINGS OF COOL by Don Winslow

My review appeared in Shelf Awareness for Readers last week and is reprinted here with permission.

After Savages became a breakout hit and Hollywood movie (directed by Oliver Stone, out July 6), Don Winslow is back with the origin stories for his renegade pot growers Ben and Chon and their friend O, including how the latter two met and how Chon got his nickname. Winslow delves into their parents’ backstories, giving dimensions to O’s mom, previously known only as Paqu—Passive Aggressive Queen of the Universe—and showing how the boys were almost fated to do what they ended up doing. It’s about choosing your family, but this is no warm and fuzzy (drug) trip into the past. Bullets fly and people die, as Ben and Chon discover that they “make up a collective pacifist. Ben is the paci Chon is the fist.”

As with Savages, this novel has a profane two-word first chapter, and unfolds in a combination of prose, free verse, and screenplay format. This might have resulted in a disjointed mess, but Winslow already proved with the previous book (which can be read before or after this one) that he’s a master storyteller who knows how to use whatever style best serves each scene. He keeps his dialogue hip and his prose lean, landing each word like one of Chon’s roundhouse kicks. Throw in his trademark wit, blistering violence, razor-sharp social commentary, and cameos from characters from his non-Savages-related novels, and this is one summer read that’s as scorching hot as it is cool.

Nerd verdict: A Cool read for the hot days of summer

Buy it now from Amazon| Buy from an indie bookstore

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Book Review: THE NIGHTMARE by Lars Kepler

Because I was light on posts last week, it probably looked like I was slacking off, but I was actually experiencing pop culture overload. I did a marathon of the entire first season of Homeland (SO good), saw Savages the movie (review later this week), and was glued to the tube for the Olympic trials (what was going on with Nastia Liukin??).

I also finished a couple of books and reviews, including this one for Lars Kepler’s The Nightmare (translated by Laura A. Wideburg, out July 3), the follow-up to The Hypnotist, one of my top five 2011 reads.

This novel opens with a woman found dead on an abandoned boat. Cause of death is drowning but her clothes are dry. Meanwhile, the body of a government official is discovered hanging in his home. Even Detective Joona Linna thinks the latter case is suicide…or is it? What drove the man to do it, and how might his death be related to the young woman’s on the boat? As Linna delves deeper, he crosses paths with a professional killer and a sadistic businessman involved in a scheme that would have horrific consequences on an international scale.

Whereas Hypnotist is a tense psychological thriller, this is more political commentary, something I don’t enjoy in my entertainment. There are psychological elements, but the characters remain elusive. The story sometimes wanders off on odd tangents—such as one involving a talk-show host playing a strange game—that don’t help propel it forward. The plot also relies on the coincidence of several people knowing classical music well, including a government official who provides an important key to a puzzle because he happens to be a musical prodigy.

When I mentioned the political angle to a friend, she said she had a Swedish neighbor who read this book in its original language and liked it better than The Hypnotist. The reason was that Nightmare dares to use names of real-life politicians in Sweden, and pulls no punches in its criticism. Perhaps, then, my inability to enjoy it as much is just a cultural thing, but I think something was lost in translation.

Nerd verdict: No goosebumps in Nightmare

Buy it now from Amazon| Buy from an indie bookstore

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Musical Memories

A couple weeks ago, I discovered this cool new iPad and iPhone app called Songza. When you log in, it knows what day and time it is and what you might be doing, and it offers musical options for those activities. For example, if you sign in Monday morning, you can choose a song list for working out, while you make breakfast, or to sing along to in the shower. If you sign in on a Friday evening, it’ll give you music to help you unwind after a long week, or party with your friends. Best part? It’s free.

Anyway, I chose the unwinding-music option one day last week, and it gave me several song lists to choose from. I think I picked ’80s hits or soft rock or something like that, and Air Supply came on with “Lost in Love.” When I heard the opening notes, I thought, “What song is this? It’s so familiar…”

Next thing I knew, I was not only singing along (and knowing all the words), but rushed back into a memory of my teenage self with feathered-back hair listening to this song on a Sunday afternoon as Casey Kasem counted down the week’s top 40. I was in the living room of my parents’ house, a house that no longer exists, and the music was streaming from a stereo system that had a turntable and dual cassette player. Every Sunday afternoon, I’d have my ears glued to that stereo, hoping my favorite songs made it into Casey’s top 10.

The next song that popped up on the list was “Xanadu” by Olivia Newton-John. I was hit by another visceral memory of going to see the movie on opening day for I idolized “Livvie” back then. Well, the movie was seventeen kinds of dreadful (though it made for a hilarious live parody many years later) but I loved the music, bought the soundtrack, danced to it in leg warmers and terry-cloth gym shorts.

As the song list continued, more memories kept waking up. I cannot hear Boz Scaggs’s “Look What You’ve Done to Me” without thinking of the first slow dance I ever had, at music camp with a boy who had tear-inducing body odor. (The first line is “Hope they never end this song” and I was thinking, “Oh, please, I hope it ends before I pass out.”) And Wham!’s “Careless Whisper” made me recall standing in the corner at a dance when a boy I was crushing on walked over and asked…the girl next to me to dance. These are the reasons I love listening to these songs, no matter how cheesy they are. They’re reminders of the person I once was, the moments that might have caused me distress once upon a time but only make me smile now.

What songs from your past bring back strong memories?

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First Impressions 6.22.12

Today sees the return of my featuring three openers from new or upcoming books for you to determine which make(s) you want to keep reading. Intros with long descriptions of weather and/or scenery are immediately disqualified.

This week’s selections:

The Last Kind Words by Tom Piccirilli, Bantam, available now

I’d come five years and two thousand miles to stand in the rain while they prepared my brother for his own murder.

He had two weeks to go before they strapped him down and injected poison into his heart. I knew Collie would be divided about it, the way he was divided about everything. A part of him would look forward to stepping off the big ledge. He’d been looking over it his whole life in one way or another.

I moved this book up my TBR pile based on this tweet from Piccirilli last week: “I knocked down a cripple, threw the book at his head, and took $25 out of his wallet. #howtosell” If he can entertain me with fewer than 140 characters, what can he do with a whole book?

Midwinter Blood by Mons Kallentoft, Emily Bestler Books/Atria, available now

Prologue

Östergötland, Tuesday, January 31

In the darkness.

Don’t hit me. Do you hear me? Leave me alone.

No, no, let me in. Apples, the scent of apples. I can almost taste them.

Don’t leave me standing here, in the cold and wet. The wind feels like nails that tear at my hands, my face, until there is no frosted skin, no flesh, no fat left on my bones, my skull.

Haven’t you noticed I’m gone? You couldn’t care less, really, could you?

What the hell is going on here? I’m intrigued.

The Bellwether Revivals by Benjamin Wood, Viking, available now

PRELUDE

June 2003

They heard the caterwaul of sirens, and saw the dust rising underneath the ambulance wheels at the far end of the driveway, and soon the darkening garden was a wash of flashing blue lights. It only seemed real when they told the paramedics where to find the bodies. There was one upstairs on the top floor, they said, another in the organ house, and one more at the foot of the garden—the riverbank in a nest of flattened rushes, with the cold water lapping against his feet. When the paramedics asked for his name, they said it was Eden. Eden Bellwether.

What do you think? Any of these pique your interest?

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Book Giveaway: SHADOW OF NIGHT by Deborah Harkness

I had family in town for the past several days and had a lovely time, but I’m seriously sleep-deprived so it may be another ~~144~~ 24 hours before I can write a longer post. Today, I’ll run this fantastic giveaway that the very nice people at Viking have allowed me to host.

One winner will receive a finished copy of Deborah Harkness’s Shadow of Night, the much-anticipated sequel to A Discovery of Witches, plus an Ashmole 782 temporary tattoo, and “a set of 6 buttons, displaying different alchemical symbols” (click on the image to see them in detail). The book won’t be out until July 10 but perhaps you can get your hands on it early!

First, a description of the book from the author’s website:

A Discovery of Witches introduced Diana Bishop, Oxford scholar and reluctant witch, and the handsome geneticist and vampire Matthew Clairmont; together they found themselves at the center of a supernatural battle over an enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782. Drawn to one another despite longstanding taboos, and in pursuit of Diana’s spellbound powers, the two embark upon a time-walking journey.

Book Two of the All Souls Trilogy plunges Diana and Matthew into Elizabethan London, a world of spies and subterfuge, and a coterie of Matthew’s old friends, the mysterious School of Night. The mission is to locate a witch to tutor Diana and to find traces of Ashmole 782, but as the net of Matthew’s past tightens around them they embark on a very different journey, one that takes them into heart of the 1,500 year old vampire’s shadowed history and secrets. For Matthew Clairmont, time travel is no simple matter; nor is Diana’s search for the key to understanding her legacy.

Shadow of Night brings us a rich and splendid tapestry of alchemy, magic, and history, taking us through the loop of time to deliver a deepening love story, a tale of blood, passion, and the knotted strands of the past.

Enter by answering the following question in the comments section: Which real book comes closest to being the story of your legacy? You don’t have to answer truthfully; I post these questions to make the entries interesting. Fine by me if your answer is Lolita or Sh*t My Dad Says.

Giveaway ends next Thursday, June 28, at 9 p.m. PST. One winner will be randomly selected and have 48 hours to claim the prizes. US/Canada addresses only, please.

OK, let’s hear about your fake family history!

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Nerdy Hot List 2012

It’s been a hard, sleep-deprived week, so I thought I’d do a fun post today. First Impressions should return next week if I get some books with strong openers.

Every year for the past three years, I’ve published a list of 10 nerdy hot celebs as a response to Maxim‘s Hot 100 list, which focuses only on physical perfection. The magazine released its selections a couple weeks ago, so it’s about time I got mine out.

The men chosen here are sexy for being incredibly good at playing goofy or awkward. You can have your Magic Mike beefcake; I’d rather watch these guys in action.

1. Benedict Cumberbatch. He not only manages to bring Sherlock Holmes into the twenty-first century, he makes the detective’s antisocial behavior highly entertaining, leaving fans panting for more.

2. Jean Dujardin. Yes, he has leading-man looks and played a movie star in his Oscar-winning role in The Artist, but George Valentin was also a giant ham, mugging for his audiences and doing tricks with his dog, Uggie. The actor himself is also committed to being silly, as he cameos on Saturday Night Live and “auditions” for these villain roles after winning his big prize.

3. James Marsden. The actor has shown glimpses of buffoonery before as the prince in Enchanted, but lately he’s been holding his own against Tina Fey on 30 Rock as Liz Lemon’s hapless boyfriend Criss. Criss looked like yet another loser at first, but Marsden imbues him with such joy and sweetness that his cluelessness is forgiven. Now I hope he and Liz last for a while, and maybe even have a “plant.”

4. Josh Hopkins. Though he regularly popped up on different drama series, he never left any traction in my consciousness until he showed up on Cougar Town as Grayson. When his character started singing silly songs (many of which the actor says he wrote himself), sometimes accompanying himself on a ukulele, I sat up and paid attention. And realized he’s hot.

5. Matthew Lewis. He played Neville Longbottom, Harry Potter’s awkward, chubby friend, for most of his childhood, and made me cry in the final movie. But when he showed up at the premieres, I realized the little nerdy boy was all grown up.

6. Blake Shelton. He acts reasonably normal as a coach on The Voice, but his goofball side gets unleashed in his crazy Twitter feed, which is filled with “drunk” tweets and TMI about the inner workings of his privates. Sometimes he goes too far, but his unapologetic wackiness gets him nerdy hotness points.

7. Michael Fassbender. He, uh, was kind of nerdy as Carl Jung in A Dangerous Method. Is that reaching a bit? OK, fine, he’s not nerdy at all, but dang it, I wanted to put him on this list, and it’s my blog, so there.

Fassbender as Jung

Fassy all purrrty

8. Max Greenfield. When we first met his character Schmidt on New Girl, any hotness he had was strictly in his mind. There’s a reason his roommates have a douche-bag jar, to which Schmidt seems to contribute the most money. But Greenfield has managed to somehow make Schmidt insecure and sweet beneath the DB exterior, and more importantly, he regularly makes me laugh.

9. Jon Hamm. Yes, he made my very first Nerdy Hot List three years ago, but he has risen to such new heights of ridiculousness recently, I had to put him back on here. Did you see his shirtless, saxophone-playing, hair-weave-wearing cameo in Saturday Night Live‘s 100th digital short? Or his ignorant actor playing a black character in a vintage skit on 30 Rock? He is SO stupid in that. How about his Italian singing in the opening skit of the recent SNL finale, which he did not host? (Mick Jagger did.) The man takes such delight from playing fools, I might as well induct him into the Nerdy Hot List Hall of Fame.

I got to number 10 and realized I didn’t have one more, so I thought I’d open it up to you—who should complete this list??

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