Book Review: "Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema" by Lindy West

With Lindy West's new book, Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema in hand, you won’t look at certain movies the same way again!

Have you ever watched a movie from the 1980s, 1990s, or early 2000s and realized how ridiculous it was? Have you ever thought how a movie like that might never work in the context of today’s society?

Well, even if you haven’t, West has. This book contains essays on 23 movies that were part of the cultural zeitgeist of their time—and still might be in some way. She looks at movies like The Notebook, American Pie, Face/Off, Twilight, The Fugitive, The Shawshank Redemption, and the movie that inspired the book, Love, Actually.

In her sarcastic, snarky, and insightful tone, West skewers plot holes, inconsistencies, clichés, and the often-ridiculous and offensive ways female characters were treated in these films. (It’s almost shocking how many movies treated women as second-class citizens, and jokes about sexual assault and sexist, racist, and homophobic remarks were so prevalent.)

I laughed out loud at some of her commentary. One of my favorite lines, in her essay on The Terminator 2, was “Eddie Furlong as a child has the energy of an old Kristen Stewart.” She’s dead on in a number of cases, including her skewering of American Pie.

This was a fun read, but sometimes her messages were undercut a bit by her snark. There are definitely spoilers here, so if you haven’t watched a particular movie she wrote about and you don’t want it ruined, steer clear of that essay.

As a movie buff, reading this has encouraged me to rewatch some of these films. I love when books make me think!

Book Review: "A Sweet Mess" by Jayci Lee

Don’t read A Sweet Mess on an empty stomach or you’ll crave baked goods!!

Aubrey Choi is living her dream. Her bakery, Comfort Zone, is thriving, so much so that she’s planning to expand to larger space. It doesn’t leave her time for romance, however, but when she meets a handsome stranger at her friend’s brewery and they spend the night together, she starts to wonder what she’s missing.

It turns out that the stranger is food critic Landon Kim, and he’s about to write an unflattering review of Comfort Zone because of a mix-up he experienced. The review really hurts Aubrey’s business and puts her expansion—and the future of her bakery—in jeopardy.

When Landon realizes the review was unfair and finds out about its impact on Aubrey’s business, he vows to make it up to her. He lands her a stint on a friend’s cooking show, but there’s a catch: she’ll need to stay with him in a villa in California's Wine Country for a few weeks while the show is filmed.

They both know they have to keep things professional between them or it could hurt both of their reputations. But given their intense chemistry and the depth of their growing feelings for one another, that gets harder and harder to do.

Is a chance at love worth the risks to both of them? Are people destined to be together? Love is on the line for two people who have never really trusted their hearts.

I really enjoyed this. It was fun, sexy (not too steamy), romantic, and absolutely hunger-inducing. Jayci Lee is a terrific writer—I’ve read this and a more traditional romance she wrote and both are very different. I could easily see this as a television movie.

The book even has recipes—but I wanted one for the chocolate cake with peanut butter filling, lol!!