I was in college when [b:Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto|599|Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs A Low Culture Manifesto|Chuck Klosterman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1380742001l/599._SY75_.jpg|929649] came out and I LOVED it, it was one of the first things I read that made me realize you could discuss pop culture in a sort of serious way. And then I read more and learned that like, a lot of people were doing that and I found new favs, but I still have a soft spot for Klosterman. And I have a soft spot for 90s nostalgia as do I think most people who lived through it.

Overall I enjoyed reading this collection and learned some things from it, especially sections dealing with politics/history (I was age 5-15 in the 90s so I wasn't really up on current events for most of it and then my high school classes did not really cover Ross Perot. Wild stuff in the 1992 election, it turns out!)

Klosterman is notably aware of his own perspective and cultural blindspots and will do things like make a footnote about how arguably Tupac and Biggie were a bigger deal than Nirvana and he's aware that he's making a choice by talking about Nirvana way more because that's what he personally was more impacted by. And I think honestly, when you're writing a single book that's just called THE NINETIES you do have to make some choices and understand that you can't talk about literally everything, and can't give equal weight to everything. So like, I get it.

It's definitely a straight white gen X man's POV on the 90s, but he knows it, and I overall liked the infotainment-y air of it all. Basically I think if you think you'd like this, you probably would, and if you're already rolling your eyes at the idea of it, it's probably not going to convert you.

haha I def felt like a dirtbag for being like "oh Wuhan, like where COVID started" and then this memoir starts with her being like "everyone associates Wuhan with COVID." SORRY but, in good news, now I will instead associate with this great book! It's a really funny and charming memoir with a lot of cute pop culture references. I love her drawing childhood battles and schemes in the style of Pokemon and Super Smash Bros challenges. There's a universality to her specificity--I obviously don't know what it's like to grown up Asian American in Texas but I can still relate to her story.

The style and story will, dare I say it, ~appeal to fans of Raina Telgemeier~ and beyond.

If you stayed up too late to finish reading this because you simply couldn't put it down, yawn at work!



Oh it's me. Worth it though. God Ruta Sepetys is SO GOOD at ~making history come alive~ and in this case just immediately putting you in the world of the 1989 Romanian surveillance state, how every interaction becomes SO FRAUGHT and so high stakes even if it's just sharing a snack with a friend. SO GRIPPING. SO COMPELLING.

And yet also ultimately hopeful.

Also this is going to sound shady but sincerely: love that it's not very long. She really gets in and gets out and accomplishes the whole mood without needing to be 500 pages. This book keeps it moving just like MY PULSE while I was READING IT, I'm so stressed.

Also realizing that I knew basically nothing about Romania before this. So interesting and infuriating!! And timely too, just that the mechanism of the surveillance state has shifted and grown.

God this book was GREAT.

imo skip the book and just take an online quiz. but like, it's not as bad as [b:Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus|1274|Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus|John Gray|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1441636319l/1274._SY75_.jpg|55001]. so there's that.

that said, although the love languages are explicitly gender neutral it is also explicitly heteronormative and outside of the book Chapman has said some homophobic shit. for more details listen to our podcast

too soon!? oh man. But actually I think this will be great for kids trying to process the pandemic--it perfectly captures a lot of early pandemic weirdness and confusion that I'd already kind of forgotten about (the rush for hand sanitizer) as well as the anti-Asian racism on display. I think Kelly Yang is so good at showing how big challenges (pandemic, racism, immigration law, etc) face kids who have very little power and managing to show a realistic way that kids can react and effect as much change as possible--her books are furiously shining lights on injustices and showing a little bit of hope. like no Knox and his siblings aren't going to single-handedly solve racism and the pandemic but they can raise awareness and make things a little better in their community. I just think it's such a fine balance and she nails it in a way that's engaging and important for kids to read.

Man I was really looking forward to this but this one just didn't work for me. I think the problem for me is that, the concept here is to show a young Okoye before she was the total badass of the movies/comics. But in order to make her more relatable to young readers it's just kind of weird vibes, like why are the Dora Milaje sending her to New York without fully preparing a cover story, so that she has to keep improvising something that doesn't quite make sense?? MESSY, the Dora Milaje are better than that even if Okoye is young!! And like it happened like...5 times. She's a student. She's a model. She's a bodyguard. She is not prepared to answer literally any questions about this. Whew. It's not like she ran off in a hurry and didn't have time to prepare. This was like, an honored mission. There was training. There was a long flight that she could have read a little file folder on. Help her. Please.

Also the idea of Okoye having her eyes opened to poverty among Black communities in the US is a little jarring because--and I know these books aren't necessarily operating in the same universe as the movies, but--it's really kind of a rehash of the Oakland scenes of the Black Panther movie, except those were much more effective than this book IMO.

Also the central plot

Spoiler

of an evil white woman developing this bananas drug that gives people pyrokinetic powers but the powers only affect buildings and not people? So the neighborhoods get burned down so they can be gentrified? Like I get it as a metaphor but it's such a weirdly specific drug that I was just like, what?? Like sure I can buy all sorts of wild superhero shit but that was just...so strange and weirdly toothless. Why not just have the evil white lady not care if Black people burn to death instead of going out of your way to invent weird new fire. How does it work.

was like, a little too convoluted for me. Like I'm all for calling attention to the problems of gentrification but the specifics here were like.......what.

Anyway, I know Ibi Zoboi is a great writer and I've enjoyed non-Marvel books of hers, and I love Okoye's character in the movies and comics, but for me this was 2 great tastes that did NOT go great together. Wah!

And I don't know, teens might just be excited to have a book about Okoye but I kind of feel like the teens who love her in the movies are going to have a similar confused reaction here, maybe I'm wrong but it just felt off to me.

I love that recently there have been more MG/YA books with asexual characters! They pretty much all feature the characters being shook to learn that this concept exists and that there's nothing wrong with them, which I think is about right for this narrative at this point in time. Fingers crossed that within a few years asexuality/aromanticism will have more mainstream cultural saturation to the point where we won't need as many books like this, but for now I think it's so important!!

Anyway that aside I also really appreciated how honestly this dealt with acne and the side effects of accutane. I've been #blessed with pretty good skin so I never had to go through that and it sounds so intense! I can imagine that for kids who do have to take accutane they will appreciate seeing it represented (and I know the author has said both the acne and asexual narratives were based on his own experience so I assume they're pretty on-point, though of course everyone's individual experiences vary).

Big Issues aside it's also just a great slice-of-life coming of age kinda story, great for the hordes of fans of Raina Telgemeier.

Multiple people recommended this to me and I was secretly like "IDK I already know a lot about cults" but I really appreciated the specific linguistic arguments being presented about the power of language in cults. I liked the bit of backstory from Amanda revealing that her dad had been raised by a cult and I think that contributed to the very empathetic way she writes about people who have joined cults. Really smart and compelling!

whew this book was BAD ACTUALLY

and like Beth sweetie I'm not mad at you for writing this when you were 15, I'm mad at Random House for apparently just publishing the whole thing straight from Wattpad and not making any editorial enhancements?! Or if they did....not enough of them?! I was really hoping this would be fun but it was just tedious!! Bleh!!

https://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-191-the-kissing-booth/

Loved this! It read very realistically Online to me, these characters all felt like nerds I might know and love.

I think it's likely to be a book that's Too Sweet for some tastes but I loved reading it. Very cozy and very affirming of the Power of Friendship <3