Book Review: "Jujitsu Rabbi and the Godless Blonde" by Rebecca Dana

Growing up in Pittsburgh, Rebecca Dana dreamed of the day she would come to New York to pursue the glamorous life she knew she was destined for. Like so many young women influenced by Carrie Bradshaw's life in Sex in the City, Rebecca wanted to go to the right parties, wear the right clothes, date the right guys, and follow the right path. "I wish I wanted to fix cleft palates in Africa, but the truth is I wanted a glamorous life."

And once she settled in, she found a job as a columnist for The Daily Beast, and had the chance to attend the parties, wear the clothes, and socialize with the people she always dreamed of, plus she found the perfect relationship. But when the relationship suddenly turns sour, it leaves her confidence shaken and she wonders whether her life's ambitions were the right ones to pursue. She winds up moving into an apartment in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood with Cosmo, a lapsed Lubavitch rabbi who takes jujitsu classes and works at a copy shop while waiting for his green card.

As Rebecca tries to reconcile her job profiling fashion and society with the traditions of the Lubavitch community, she also struggles with questions of faith. A lapsed Reform Jew, she wonders whether she'd find fulfillment if she pursued God, religion, and marriage. But at the same time, Cosmo struggles with his own spirituality, as he tries to decide whether to continue pursuing his rabbinical ambitions or following his less ecumenical desires. The two live somewhat reversed lives for a while, with Rebecca exploring the Lubavitch religion and Cosmo eating bacon.

While Rebecca fancies herself a Carrie Bradshaw prodigy, in reality, she's a much more philosophical person. Her journey of self-discovery is sometimes humorous, sometimes reflective, and it shows her that her ambitions aren't fundamentally wrong and don't make her a bad person. "To understand this, you don't have to abandon your entire life, everything you ever wished for, and move in with a Xerox shop rabbi in Brooklyn, but in my case, it certainly helped."

I'll admit that I was first interested in reading this book because how could you resist one with this title? But I really enjoyed reading Rebecca Dana's writing, and getting immersed in her journey of self-discovery was really engaging and amusing. She's the type of person who you'd think would be totally underestimated, that someone who writes about fashion and gossip might be insipid and shallow, but her story was much more interesting than you'd expect. This isn't a heavy memoir, but it does touch on issues of spirituality and finding meaning in one's life.

"Our first dreams grip us tightest and can refuse to let go." But Jujitsu Rabbi and the Godless Blonde proves that living your childhood dreams isn't necessarily a bad thing, and sometimes that realization is hard to come by.

Book Review: "The Tragedy Paper" by Elizabeth LaBan

So much of the so-called young adult fiction world these days is occupied by multiple versions of dystopia, characters with some sort of special power, zombies, vampires, werewolves, angels, and warriors, it's easy to overlook some of the sensational work being done in more "traditional" fiction. I was utterly captivated by Elizabeth LaBan's The Tragedy Paper, and think it's demonstrative of the depth of this genre today.

Tim Macbeth has always been an outsider. Being albino, he's always stood out in crowds for the wrong reasons, when all he really wants to do is hide in a corner and make himself invisible. When his mother and stepfather sell their Chicago house, Tim agrees to attend the prestigious Irving School in upstate New York for his last semester of high school. En route to school, he meets Vanessa Scheller, a vivacious, beautiful, sensitive girl his age—who happens to be a student at Irving as well. Vanessa is, of course, popular, and dating the most popular boy in school, but she seems interested in Tim, especially when there's no one else around.

As Tim tries to fight his growing attraction to Vanessa and deal with confusing behavior from her boyfriend, Patrick, he, like all of his fellow seniors, is obsessed with The Tragedy Paper, Irving's version of a senior thesis, which is an assignment of great magnitude given by a quirky and demanding English teacher. Tim also deals with increasingly alarming physical problems, which he tries to ignore as he attempts to make sense of his relationship with Vanessa, finish his Tragedy Paper, and plan for his future. Everything comes to a head during a fabled and mysterious school activity known as "The Game."

At the heart of this novel is Duncan, a senior who learns firsthand all that transpired in Tim and Vanessa's relationship, as he tries making sense of what occurred, while he tries to take control of his own life (and his own Tragedy Paper). The book switches viewpoints between Tim and Duncan.

I thought this was a really well-written, compelling book. I had suspicions about the direction in which the plot would flow; sometimes I was right and sometimes I was wrong, but I wanted to keep reading. Even though I couldn't quite identify with the characters as it's been quite some time since high school (sigh) LaBan drew me fully into their stories. I wanted to know what was going to happen to them, and more than that, I wanted to know what happened to the characters after the book was over, which for me is truly the mark of a book I love.

This isn't a book in which high school students lament their lives or their star-crossed loves; this is a book that provokes emotions and may very well remind you of feelings you once had. But even if it doesn't provoke memories, it's still a book you should read.

A truly superb Super Bowl...

You know, I can't remember the last time I was pleased about both teams playing in the Super Bowl, or when the game turned out to be such a nail-biter that I was utterly hooked from start to finish, less the 35-minute pause for the ridiculous power outage in the Superdome. (Of course, watching the game on our friends' 110-inch television while sitting in a recliner didn't hurt matters any either.) While it was great to see the Baltimore Ravens end up the victors, who knew what could have happened if the refs had made the call Jim Harbaugh thought they should?

Some years the Super Bowl is known for terrific commercials and some years you find yourself wondering, "Is this what these companies are paying millions of dollars for?" While I don't understand the point of showing all the commercials before the game (and I avoided watching any of them until they showed two at the movies yesterday morning), I enjoyed a number of the commercials I saw yesterday. Among my favorites:

OREO's "Whisper Fight" made me laugh...and made me crave the cookies. (And isn't that what good advertising is supposed to do?)


Doritos again this year brought the funny with this lesson to never trust a goat.


I loved Tide's "Big Stain" commercial, and kudos for predicting the overall outcome of the game.


Even though I saw this ad at the movies earlier in the day, I still enjoyed Taco Bell's take on Fun.'s We Are Young.


As for the tearjerkers, Budwiser's Clydesdale commercial (set to Fleetwood Mac's Landslide) made me pretend I had something in my eye.


And Jeep's Oprah-narrated "Whole Again" ad saluted the men and women who defend our country. A beautiful job.


I also enjoyed Kia's two ads, as well as M&M's take on Meatloaf's I Would Do Anything for Love and Dorito's "Fashionista Daddy" spot. Ram Trucks' ad, which used Paul Harvey's 1970 speech "So God Made a Farmer" was emotional, but it ran a bit too long for me and I didn't feel as if it actually marketed its product. And once again, the folks at GoDaddy.com baffled and disgusted me with their ad, which had model Bar Rafaeli making out with a "nerd." Clearly the company is making enough money to pay for these ads, but I just don't get it.

Oh, and how cool was the brief Destiny's Child reunion? Thought that was the best part of the halftime show. And in honor of the night the lights went out in the Superdome, here's a classic clip from Designing Women. There was no one quite like Dixie Carter.

Movie Review: "Warm Bodies"

Relationships are hard to come by. Especially when you're a zombie. R (Nicholas Hoult) is tired of the same old grind—shuffling through the deserted airport he and other zombies call home, grunting at his compatriots, and tracking down human prey when their hunger gets the best of them. He's a bit of a collector (some might say hoarder) who calls an empty airplane "home," and seeks the solace of old record albums to fill the empty space.

But R is lonely. The closest thing he has to a friend is fellow zombie M (Rob Corddry), but he wants more. And then one day, during a random attack, he meets Julie (Teresa Palmer), and he realizes that she, well, completes him. Or something like that. He saves her from being attacked by his fellow zombies and takes her back to the airport, where he promises to keep her safe, because the minute she breaks free she runs the risk of being found by the other zombies, who can, well, smell prey.

The more time Julie and R spend together, the more she realizes he's not just the dangerous killing machine she's been programmed to believe all zombies are. While she misses the walled city she has called home since whatever caused the zombie virus affected the world, she starts to question the take-no-prisoners, us-versus-them attitude her military (and militant) father (John Malkovich) has perpetuated. And R realizes he's not just a dead being destined to waste away into nothing—he starts realizing he can feel, even dream, which in turn rubs off on his fellow zombies.

Warm Bodies was one of my favorite books of 2011, and I am pleased its film adaptation was faithful and well-done. This is a bit of a zombie romantic comedy (or zom-rom-com, as I'll call it) that isn't particularly controversial or frightening; it's just sweet and funny. It's one of those movies where you find yourself rooting for the zombies instead of the humans who want to destroy them because they think it's the right thing to do.

Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class and the pursuer of Colin Firth in A Single Man) gives an enjoyable, sympathetic performance as R. He's so good-looking it takes some work to make him look like a convincingly frightening zombie, but it's still a little hard to believe this was the young boy in About a Boy years ago. In certain scenes, Teresa Palmer, whom I've never seen before, looks like a prettier and less over-it-all Kristen Stewart, and you can see why R is enamored of her kickass character. Rob Corddry does his usual humorous shtick, even as a grunting zombie, and Crazy, Stupid, Love's doe-eyed Analeigh Tipton gets some laughs as Julie's best friend.

This isn't your traditional romantic movie for Valentine's Day—looks like you have another Nichols Sparks adaptation to fill that role if you're interested—but Warm Bodies puts a sweet twist on the young couple in love. If you like your love stories more quirky than sappy, this is one for you.

Movie Review: "Quartet"

At the Beacham House for Retired Musicians, something is always going on. A former opera diva is practicing scales in her room, groups of people break into spontaneous or rehearsed songs, and someone is always performing. The highlight each year is the celebration of Verdi's birthday, for which the musician residents give a gala benefit open to the public. The importance of this year's gala as a fundraising effort cannot be underestimated—if the house can't get its rebuilding fund filled, there is a risk it may close and everyone must find a new place to live.

When the top-billed performer falls ill, Cedric (a fey, egotistical Michael Gambon, wearing his leftover Dumbledore garb) is trying to badger Reggie (a patrician Tom Courtenay), Wilf (a ribald Billy Connolly), and Cissy (a fragile but precious Pauline Collins) to sing something from their legendary performance in Rigoletto. And the ante is upped when the home's newest resident, opera legend Jean Horton (Maggie Smith) arrives, much to the surprise of her fellow residents. Jean was the fourth person in the group's famed Rigoletto quartet, but when fame and ego got the best of her, she quickly stepped on the little people in her life, most notably Reggie, to whom she was briefly married.

Quartet marks Dustin Hoffman's directorial debut, and it's a precious, fun little English movie in the spirit of Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Waking Ned Devine, or Calendar Girls, but with singing and music thrown in for good measure. The plot revolves around whether Reggie can forgive Jean enough for hurting him all those years ago, whether she can be persuaded to sing in the gala after not singing for years, and whether the house can be saved. And along the way, the film wrestles with the themes of growing older and confronting one's mortality, finding the self-confidence you once had, and trying to forgive and forget.

The movie's predictability doesn't affect its charm in any way, buoyed in large part by the performances. Smith combines her near-legendary sarcastic, eye-rolling delivery with some moments of vulnerability, Courtenay gives his role the most emotional depth, Connolly tears into every double entendre (and even the single ones) with a gleam in his eye, and Collins is flirty, sweet, and fragile. A few times the movie nearly veers into maudlin territory but Hoffman deftly saves the plot from going down that road, and for that I'm thankful. The movie doesn't break any new ground, but it is tremendously enjoyable.

The coolest thing about Quartet comes during the final credits, when you are shown the musical pedigrees of some of the cast. It's pretty fantastic that Hoffman was able to assemble such a worthy ensemble for this movie, and that authenticity keeps it from being just another twee film about older people making music. Definitely a fun movie to catch, either in theaters or on DVD when its released.

Book Review: "Good Kids" by Benjamin Nugent

To slightly corrupt a cliché, the sins of the parents are visited upon the children. Josh Paquette and Khadijah Silverglate-Dunn are 15-year-old high school classmates who one afternoon spy Josh's father kissing Khadijah's mother in a natural foods store. The realization that their parents are having an affair creates a strange bond and a tenuous friendship between the two, although Josh finds himself wanting more from their relationship. One afternoon the two sign a vow never to cheat while in a relationship, and although Khadijah and her mother move away from town shortly thereafter, both are committed to keeping this vow.

As he enters adulthood, Josh finds himself becoming a musician, drawn into any world that doesn't resemble his father's socialist-leaning life in which dreams are talked about constantly but never pursued. Josh follows his new band to Los Angeles, and after the semi-successful group breaks up a few years later, he meets Julie, the host of a wry animal show on a local cable network. After a series of comical miscommunications, the two begin a serious relationship which survives the couple's serious-but-playful banter as well as Josh's inability to pursue any type of career. (He's able to sustain himself somewhat on royalty checks from his band's one hit song, which is used frequently in the entertainment world.)

Soon, the two get engaged and plan a future together, complete with three children. But the strains of coming from two different backgrounds start to pull at them, and their problems aren't helped when Khadijah, whom Josh hasn't seen in 13 years, comes to Los Angeles to visit her fianc&233;, one of Josh'a acquaintances. Both are committed to keeping the vow they made when they were teenagers, but the tug of fascination with their past and what could have been make keeping those vows more difficult than they imagined.

"It's better if you don't place your faith in a vision of how things are going to be," Josh says. "The shock of what happens can be superior to any concept you had in your head at the start."

I really enjoyed this book, and thought Benjamin Nugent did a great job laying out the story and creating interesting, complex characters. (Most of them, at least.) I really liked the beginning and the end of the book, as I was intrigued by how Josh and Khadijah's discovery of their parents' infidelity and the aftermath of this discovery would unfold, and when they encountered each other again as adults, I wondered whether Nugent would surprise me. I felt parts of the book dragged a bit, mainly those involving Josh's father, whom I found immensely irritating and one-note. But Josh's struggles have many layers, and even though I don't tend to like characters who seem somewhat rudderless in their lives, I was completely engaged in his story.

It's amazing how many ways relationships can go, even when they're succeeding or failing. Nugent is a wry observer of human foibles, particularly where relationships are concerned, and I look forward to seeing what else he comes up with in the future.

These are days...

It may not always feel this way, but it's good to keep this in perspective. I don't know where George Takei gets some of these, but his Facebook page is a treasure trove of fun and inspiration.