Candy Girl by Diablo Cody

Sarah's Reaction:  My neighbor lent me this book with the words "I sometimes read weird things."  Mmmkay.  I sometimes read weird things as well.  And this book is both weird and oddly commonplace.  Before Diablo Cody became known as the woman who wrote the screenplay for the movie "Juno," she was a stripper.  Well I haven't ever actually seen her take her clothes in front of other people, but I'm taking her word (or in this case book) for it.

Candy Girl gave me a lot more insight to the world of sex workers than I needed though it was not grotesque, explicit, and was blissfully devoid of judgment.  For someone of Cody's obvious intellect with a knack for pith, it's refreshing that she could not just get close but work along with some of the world's sorriest cases and not smear them with disdain for their lives.  She constantly mocks, but not those around her at work and she does not pretend to have the answers for the other women who so clearly struggle with myriad vices and neuroses. 

What still perplexes me is where Cody picked up such insecurity and need for validation.  She is smarter than most, funnier than average, and clearly can excel at many professions.  I mean, I enjoyed the account of her time as a stripper but I'm still not sure why she felt the need to do it in the first place.  When did self-discovery become such an obvious metaphor in the shedding of clothes?  Throughout the whole thing she never seems happy, but I guess not everyone is meant to be.  Still it was a very enlightening and entertaining read.

From Booklist

A copy typist by day in Minnesota, Cody was hardly a likely candidate for entering an amateur stripping contest. But her curiosity got the best of her and, encouraged by her boyfriend, enter she did. The contest left her with an increased curiosity about the profession, and Cody decided to take an evening job stripping at Schieks, a local club. There Cody learns the ins and outs of stripping--how to catch a client's attention, how much the house takes, how some nights are highly profitable and others leave a stripper in debt to the club. Eventually Cody outgrows Schieks and moves on to Deja Vu, a bigger club that's much faster paced. A promotion at her day job forces her to give up stripping temporarily, but before long she's back in the adult entertainment business, this time stripping behind glass in an emporium. Cody's lively romp through the adult entertainment business is bound to appeal to those wanting a peek inside the inner workings of the sex industry. Kristine Huntley

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Amy says:  Unlike my last review, I actually paid for this book.  Shocking, I know!  A friend had been talking incessantly about it and her self-proclaimed addiction to its characters on Facebook, so I had to see what all of the fuss was about.  And  while I didn't feel the need to update my status after every chapter (I was a little embarrassed to admit that I was reading a Young Adult novel), I will admit that I devoured this book in a weekend.  

The author created a plot that was intense from the very beginning.  Being introduced to the main character, Katniss, right as she was thrown into a competition for her life left me no choice but to attach myself to her immediately.    I love reality TV (something else I am a little embarrassed to admit) and following Katniss through the competition gave the book  a reality TV feel (think Survivor), which made it that much harder for me to put down.

Like I said, I read this book in basically 48 hours.  But the fact that the author used children, some as young as 12 years old, as competitors in The Hunger Games totally disturbed me.  I found myself on the verge of being sick to my stomach in some chapters and had to remind myself that it was all make-believe.   While that is a testament to the talent of the author, I would think twice about letting a young reader read this book.   

I have since read "Catching Fire" and "Mockingjay," the other two books in the trilogy, and will review those in future posts. 

Amazon's synopsis 

In a not-too-distant future, the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts.  Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games.  Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch.  When 16-year-old Katniss's young sister Prim, is selected as the mining district's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place.  She and her male counterpart, Peeta, the son of the town baker who seems to have all the fighting skills of a lump of bread dough, will be pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives.

Book News

From Sarah:

Two things sent me to blogger this morning, both of which were brought to my attention by Barnes and Noble (they send me emails, I'm lazy like that), therefore I've linked back to them.

1.  Edith Piaf's biography No Regrets: The Life of Edith Piaf
If you don't know who she is, you never had the great misfortune of having me as your French teacher.  She was a singer but in the way that a tragic background and stardom can make you more, she was much more.  I won't go into all of it, as you can read it for yourself either in the biography or the review of the biography found here, but in her life she was abandoned by her mother, raised in a brothel, mixed up with the Parisian mob, a teenage mother (the baby didn't live past age 2), a folk hero of the darker side-with a heart of gold of course-of Paris, a perpetual loser in love (it would've helped if she hadn't continually picked married men to be her lovers), and a national icon.  Her life was interesting to say the least, and I'm adding this book to my list.  And now I have Milord stuck in my head.

2.  Sarah Vowell's new book Unfamiliar Fishes
Depending on when this was released this month, it's killing Carrie that she can't buy it immediately.  {Carrie gives up buying new books for Lent.  It's a long 40 days for book sellers round the world.} This one is also going on my list, as I really liked Vowell's other books and they have a tendency to focus on things in American history that don't often get that much attention.....or attention in this manner.  If you haven't read any of her other books, Carrie and I would encourage you to do so as you learn quite a bit even if you don't try and rarely notice.  Unfamiliar Fishes focuses on Hawaii and its journey from island to state which is enough fodder to fill three books in my opinion.  You can find information about Vowell and her books here.

Happy reading!