TWO-CENT TUESDAY

Below are a few (somewhat) brief $.02 opinions about books I've read or listened to recently but don't have the opportunity to review in full. Many of these titles I enjoyed as much or more than those that got the full court press. I hope you'll consider one or two for your own TBR stack if they strike your fancy whether they struck mine or not.

1414°, Paul Bradley Carr

I liked this book so much I actually spent an embarrassing amount of time figuring out how to insert the degree character in Blogger. I loved this cover when I first saw it, but since it screamed "TECHNOLOGY" at me I did read a brief synopsis before I jumped. And boy did I jump. Silicon Valley journalist Lou McCarthy has spent her young career exposing sexual predators in the tech world. Following a publishing disaster, she's out on her ass, but her mission lives on. 

As powerful men start to die, Lou finds herself partnered up with other wickedly smart women to figure out what's going on and how to take down the patriarchy. If you're not into techno-thrillers, don't fear 1414. Even I understood the tech and while it is part of the story it's not THE story. This is a daring and fast-paced story full of fantastic characters, written by a man who has spent a good portion of his career covering the dark side of Silicon Valley. My fingers are crossed for a related book focusing on Lou's mom and her protective, gun-toting pal Carol, who helped Lou face off with the social media trolls. Carr's writing is engaging and a lot of fun, which we could all use more of these days.   

Hollywood Eden, Joel Selvin

A look back at the music of Southern California in the Fifties and Sixties and the beginnings of such groups as Jan & Dean and The Beach Boys and single artists Nancy Sinatra and (forewarned) Phil Spector. This was music I listened to as a kid, so I was excited to be transported back to those days. This book is well-written (and well-reviewed) and obviously diligently researched, but for me it suffered a bit for that. Rather than soaked in the feeling of the times, I felt distracted by the minutiae, like how many credits someone was taking in junior college. I started out reading and ended up listening to the audio, but never really connected. 

Then again, the thing I found most interesting was a historical fact I didn't know--That the elder Nancy Sinatra not only had her own abortion during a time she and Frank were separated, but also arranged for "Little" Nancy to have one. I was really surprised and proud of "Big" Nancy for this. Granted, I'm sure being white and rich played into it, but they were also in the public eye, which you would think would play the opposite way. In any event, I was happy to learn this fact and now have a great respect for Nancy Sr. (This is too short a review to wonder why Mrs. Sinatra is "Big" Nancy, while son Frank got to be a Junior, but there you have it.)

We Are Not Like Them, 

Christine Pride and Jo Piazza

Pride (who is Black) and Piazza (who is white) have crammed so many social and racial issues into this book that I'm frankly amazed and impressed it didn't dissolve into something confusing and preachy. 

A hot button premise, they have taken two lifelong best friends, one white, one Black, and thrown them into a horrific situation and let the emotions fly. Jen is white, pregnant with her first baby, and married to a white cop. Riley is a television journalist on the precipice of becoming the first Black anchor in Philadelphia. 

The book opens as a young Black boy is shot by a cop. Jen's husband was involved in the shooting. This side alone could be and has been the premise of a book. But throw in Jen's close-as-sisters relationship with Riley, who is covering the story, and you get real world, friendship, family, career, media, community issues circling the tragedy and changing as things progress. It's a fascinating, sad, emotional, and educational process, and Pride and Piazza handle the whole thing brilliantly. There are no clear-cut issues (other than that Black people, especially Black men, are killed by law enforcement at scary proportions) and thus no right or wrong answers proposed by Pride and Piazza. No answers at all, really. Just people struggling to do the right thing on many fronts in the face of a divisive tragedy. Highly recommended. 

Nanny Needed, Georgina Cross

What made this whackadoodle book extra fun is that I read it with Gretchen Beetner for an ongoing She Said/She Said segment on the great book podcast Writer Types (available at most popular podcast sites), hosted by author Eric Beetner. Each month we would pick from a group of titles Eric had from various publishers and picked one to read and discuss. We both got a huge entertainment jolt from Nanny Needed.

Sarah and her fiance are struggling to make ends meet in New York, particularly when she is saddled with the medical debt she incurred taking care of the aunt who raised her. So when she sees a job posting in the lobby of their building she can't but be intrigued: "Nanny needed. Discretion is of the utmost importance. Special conditions apply." The exclusive address tells Sarah this job may be her way out. Unfortunately, it's also her way into a family that has all kinds of "special" secrets. A fun read that will keep your head spinning.