NOGOODFORME.COM: nogoodforme superlatives: Favorite Beach Reads

First of all, it is important to me that I let all the readers of nogoodforme.com know that my dedication to this blog is so passionate and true that I am actually writing this entry whilst drinking a glass of wine at my 23rd birthday party. To be honest, I really want to go be eating vegan tamales and, like, not updating my blog at my own birthday party, so let's keep this short and sweet. What can I say? I'm predictable. Bob Spitz' definitive Beatles biog, aptly entitled The Beatles, is about the most absorbing book that exists on the planet. It's like a soap opera, only the soap opera stars the four coolest dudes of all time instead of dumb bitches who look like (or are) Eva Longoria. It's about time I re-read this 800-page behemoth of fabulosity (times four, of course). The best part is when you find out that John Lennon was really obsessive and competitive about playing Monopoly. If I could have one birthday wish right now, it would be that John Lennon would show up at my shindig and we'd tag-team all these poor fools into bankruptcy until the sun rose. So yeah, you should totally read this book, maybe even on the Boardwalk. (Laura)

Summer Sisters by Judy Blume

Toward the end of summer vacation when I was nine or ten, my mother gave me a copy of Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret and told me, "Read this, and when you're done we'll talk about it." Which was probably one of the most mortifying sentences ever spoken to me at that point in my life: I'd already read the book when my friends and I swapped it around school earlier in the year, and I knew what The Talk was going to be about, and I wanted no part of it whatsoevs. So for the next week or so I re-read Are You There, God?, then probably re-read it again, pretending to take forever so as to delay the inevitable crushing awkwardness as long as I possibly could. Of course, my mom was totally on to me, but I remember thinking at the time I was so clever with my trickery. And finally the jig was up, The Talk went down, and, to quote Angela Chase, "I'm not sure either of us has fully recovered." (Mostly kidding; it was actually relatively painless, I think.)

So, many years later, Judy Blume put out the far less stress-inducing Summer Sisters. It's such a page-turner, trashy and over-the-top yet intermittently lovely, full of teen-girl angst and lust and all that other fiery stuff - which is to say it fulfills virtually all my requirements for the ideal beach read. But maybe my favorite thing about Summer Sisters is that it's set on Martha's Vineyard, a place I used to visit every summer when I was a kid and I'm sort of neverendingly nostalgic for these days. I loved that the hot boy worked at the Flying Horses carousel; if I had my druthers, the Flying Horses would somehow make its way into practically every other story ever written. The other book I almost chose for this entry (Alice Hoffman's gorgeously sad Illumination Night) is set on the Vineyard as well, but that one ultimately lacks the juicy shallowness and big drama of Summer Sisters, and anyway I'm too precious about it to risk getting it all sandy and salty. But when we do "Hiding-under-the-covers-on-the-darkest-of-winter-nights reads" later this year, I'm picking Illumination Night for sure. (Liz)

Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis / The Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemingway / Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion

I am sometimes a very literal person. When the weather is hot and the sun is relentless and I'm hanging out poolside or at the beach in an almost desertlike or tropical clime, I like to read stories where other people are doing the same. The only difference, though, is that while I'm dozing off or fiddling with my iPod-like device or being a nerd and trying to plan out the next screenplay I have to write, the people in my favorite beach reads are indulging in amorality and aberrant sexual behavior. Somehow I find reading about such antics way more easy to take when my brain is being fried by the total and absolute blaring sunshine. I call this my favorite trio of pretty bad behavior: everyone knows Less Than Zero as a story about 80s yuppie disaffection and malaise, but it goes a little further than that, and is really scary and unpalatable in parts. But something about its apocalyptic depiction of its time and setting is so hypnotic, even in its total trashiness, and it's way better than the unfortunate movie adaptation. (I'm kind of hoping they decide to retackle it and get someone like Francois Ozon to direct.) The Garden of Eden is about a married couple, David and Catherine, who both get involved with a local girl while being glamorous and fascinating in places like the Cote d'Azur and Spain. It always gets ranked on by Hemingway-o-philes because it was published posthumously, but whatever -- those dudes are so busy affirming their manhood they don't realize that it's one of Hemingway's most interesting premises and that Catherine is one of Hem's strongest, spirited female characters. (She's the type of character that would have been played by Angelina Jolie back in the day -- before Jolie became a cross between Beryl Markham and Mother Teresa.) If you're into novels about European expats and love triangles, I'd pick this up. And finally, Play It As It Lays, which deserves so much more than a fleeting mention as a beach read -- it's actually probably one of my most favorite novels ever, a fascinating, chilling story about a failed Hollywood actress essentially having a very slow nervous breakdown. It could be either laborious or soap opera-like, but Didion's bone-clean, elegant prose renders it evocative and even beautiful at times, depicting the decadent corruption of the rich and the shimmering miasmas of material reality. I love this book to pieces, even though I met Joan Didion once and she was really not nice. (Kat)

COMMENTS!!

i think less than zero is such a cool book, for lack of a better word, i am so glad i got it when i read it years and years ago.

summer reading is the best! i am (not so) patiently waiting for the new sedaris to make it here. for some reason i expect it to be the perfect summer read.

(i am so excited i can comment on your blog now!)

By melanie on June 24, 2008 1:29 PM

i wish there were like 9 million other books exactly like 'play it as it lays' so i could just read them all the time, although i'm sure that would make me feel really weird really fast. also, i'm so happy that we now have an "amorality" tag.

By Liz on June 24, 2008 1:31 PM

did-i-on! did-i-on!!

yay, for commentability! gooo ngfm!

By emily on June 24, 2008 1:43 PM

first off, it excites me that you guys have decided to enable comments here! there have been many times i wanted to respond enthusiastically to a post, but i can't be emailing, you know, all the time.

anyhow, summer reads! i regret to say i haven't read any of the books mentioned, though i loved judy blume, need to read some bret easton ellis, and REALLY need to read some joan didion. i don't think i have a summer read; my read right now is this biography of henri langlois, which is a must for film-lovers. i suggest it! :)

thank you!

By juliet small ernst on June 24, 2008 2:16 PM

GOSH, I hope I am not too late to wish you a happy belated birthday then?! I am a regular of your blog, and indeed appreciate your devotion to it ^^ keep up the wonderful work!

By the_kitten on June 25, 2008 5:37 AM

henri langlois! i must check out that bio! did you see the documentary on him from a few years ago? it's quite good! xo kat

By Kat on June 25, 2008 11:20 AM

Say something so insightful and witty, it will blow us away. (No pressure.)

Got something to say? We'd love to hear it! Name, email and "type in the weirdo drunken text" thingie are all required to comment; don't worry, we won't email you or anything, we just want to make sure you're not an evil spambot. Keeping in mind the good-times mentality we like to keep going here, we've worked hard to keep NOGOODFORME.COM as fun as possible. We welcome all kinds of comments, but insults/abuse/general bitchery are not tolerated. In other words, we put the smackdown on evil troll posts. If you want to be a hater, please go elsewhere. Now, as Salt 'N Pepa say, "Only the sexy people..."

;





	Wednesday , October 8, 2008 nogoodforme superlatives: Favorite Beach Reads The Beatles, by Bob Spitz First of all, it is important to me that I let all the readers of nogoodforme.com know that my dedication to this blog is so passionate and true that I am actually writing this entry whilst drinking a glass of wine at my 23rd birthday party. To be honest, I really want to go be eating vegan tamales and, like, not updating my blog at my own birthday party, so let's keep this short and sweet. What can I say? I'm predictable. Bob Spitz' definitive Beatles biog, aptly entitled The Beatles, is about the most absorbing book that exists on the planet. It's like a soap opera, only the soap opera stars the four coolest dudes of all time instead of dumb bitches who look like (or are) Eva Longoria. It's about time I re-read this 800-page behemoth of fabulosity (times four, of course). The best part is when you find out that John Lennon was really obsessive and competitive about playing Monopoly. If I could have one birthday wish right now, it would be that John Lennon would show up at my shindig and we'd tag-team all these poor fools into bankruptcy until the sun rose. So yeah, you should totally read this book, maybe even on the Boardwalk. (Laura) Summer Sisters by Judy Blume Toward the end of summer vacation when I was nine or ten, my mother gave me a copy of Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret and told me, "Read this, and when you're done we'll talk about it." Which was probably one of the most mortifying sentences ever spoken to me at that point in my life: I'd already read the book when my friends and I swapped it around school earlier in the year, and I knew what The Talk was going to be about, and I wanted no part of it whatsoevs. So for the next week or so I re-read Are You There, God?, then probably re-read it again, pretending to take forever so as to delay the inevitable crushing awkwardness as long as I possibly could. Of course, my mom was totally on to me, but I remember thinking at the time I was so clever with my trickery. And finally the jig was up, The Talk went down, and, to quote Angela Chase, "I'm not sure either of us has fully recovered." (Mostly kidding; it was actually relatively painless, I think.) So, many years later, Judy Blume put out the far less stress-inducing Summer Sisters. It's such a page-turner, trashy and over-the-top yet intermittently lovely, full of teen-girl angst and lust and all that other fiery stuff - which is to say it fulfills virtually all my requirements for the ideal beach read. But maybe my favorite thing about Summer Sisters is that it's set on Martha's Vineyard, a place I used to visit every summer when I was a kid and I'm sort of neverendingly nostalgic for these days. I loved that the hot boy worked at the Flying Horses carousel; if I had my druthers, the Flying Horses would somehow make its way into practically every other story ever written. The other book I almost chose for this entry (Alice Hoffman's gorgeously sad Illumination Night) is set on the Vineyard as well, but that one ultimately lacks the juicy shallowness and big drama of Summer Sisters, and anyway I'm too precious about it to risk getting it all sandy and salty. But when we do "Hiding-under-the-covers-on-the-darkest-of-winter-nights reads" later this year, I'm picking Illumination Night for sure. (Liz) Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis / The Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemingway / Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion I am sometimes a very literal person. When the weather is hot and the sun is relentless and I'm hanging out poolside or at the beach in an almost desertlike or tropical clime, I like to read stories where other people are doing the same. The only difference, though, is that while I'm dozing off or fiddling with my iPod-like device or being a nerd and trying to plan out the next screenplay I have to write, the people in my favorite beach reads are indulging in amorality and aberrant sexual behavior. Somehow I find reading about such antics way more easy to take when my brain is being fried by the total and absolute blaring sunshine. I call this my favorite trio of pretty bad behavior: everyone knows Less Than Zero as a story about 80s yuppie disaffection and malaise, but it goes a little further than that, and is really scary and unpalatable in parts. But something about its apocalyptic depiction of its time and setting is so hypnotic, even in its total trashiness, and it's way better than the unfortunate movie adaptation. (I'm kind of hoping they decide to retackle it and get someone like Francois Ozon to direct.) The Garden of Eden is about a married couple, David and Catherine, who both get involved with a local girl while being glamorous and fascinating in places like the Cote d'Azur and Spain. It always gets ranked on by Hemingway-o-philes because it was published posthumously, but whatever -- those dudes are so busy affirming their manhood they don't realize that it's one of Hemingway's most interesting premises and that Catherine is one of Hem's strongest, spirited female characters. (She's the type of character that would have been played by Angelina Jolie back in the day -- before Jolie became a cross between Beryl Markham and Mother Teresa.) If you're into novels about European expats and love triangles, I'd pick this up. And finally, Play It As It Lays, which deserves so much more than a fleeting mention as a beach read -- it's actually probably one of my most favorite novels ever, a fascinating, chilling story about a failed Hollywood actress essentially having a very slow nervous breakdown. It could be either laborious or soap opera-like, but Didion's bone-clean, elegant prose renders it evocative and even beautiful at times, depicting the decadent corruption of the rich and the shimmering miasmas of material reality. I love this book to pieces, even though I met Joan Didion once and she was really not nice. (Kat) Tags: amorality, anti-heroines, books, Bret Easton Ellis, corruption of the rich, disaffection, Ernest Hemingway, Eva Longoria hate, Joan Didion, Judy Blume, Laura loves The Beatles, summer Posted by Kat, Liz and Laura in Superlatives Permalink \| Stumble This! \| Digg This! \| \| Leave a comment \| Comments (6) + Contact Us + HOME COMMENTS!! i think less than zero is such a cool book, for lack of a better word, i am so glad i got it when i read it years and years ago. summer reading is the best! i am (not so) patiently waiting for the new sedaris to make it here. for some reason i expect it to be the perfect summer read. (i am so excited i can comment on your blog now!) By melanie on June 24, 2008 1:29 PM i wish there were like 9 million other books exactly like 'play it as it lays' so i could just read them all the time, although i'm sure that would make me feel really weird really fast. also, i'm so happy that we now have an "amorality" tag. By Liz on June 24, 2008 1:31 PM did-i-on! did-i-on!! yay, for commentability! gooo ngfm! By emily on June 24, 2008 1:43 PM first off, it excites me that you guys have decided to enable comments here! there have been many times i wanted to respond enthusiastically to a post, but i can't be emailing, you know, all the time. anyhow, summer reads! i regret to say i haven't read any of the books mentioned, though i loved judy blume, need to read some bret easton ellis, and REALLY need to read some joan didion. i don't think i have a summer read; my read right now is this biography of henri langlois, which is a must for film-lovers. i suggest it! :) thank you! By juliet small ernst on June 24, 2008 2:16 PM GOSH, I hope I am not too late to wish you a happy belated birthday then?! I am a regular of your blog, and indeed appreciate your devotion to it ^^ keep up the wonderful work! By the_kitten on June 25, 2008 5:37 AM henri langlois! i must check out that bio! did you see the documentary on him from a few years ago? it's quite good! xo kat By Kat on June 25, 2008 11:20 AM Say something so insightful and witty, it will blow us away. (No pressure.) Got something to say? We'd love to hear it! Name, email and "type in the weirdo drunken text" thingie are all required to comment; don't worry, we won't email you or anything, we just want to make sure you're not an evil spambot. Keeping in mind the good-times mentality we like to keep going here, we've worked hard to keep NOGOODFORME.COM as fun as possible. We welcome all kinds of comments, but insults/abuse/general bitchery are not tolerated. In other words, we put the smackdown on evil troll posts. If you want to be a hater, please go elsewhere. Now, as Salt 'N Pepa say, "Only the sexy people..." Name Email Address URL Remember personal info? 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