Inspiration: celebrity endorsed

The easiest way to find a good book is to ask: "Hey, what are you reading?" People love to tell you about the books they're enjoying (or hating) and celebrities are no exception.

Sometimes they're hawking their own books or promoting a friend (or sponsor), and sometimes it's legitimately because they're inspired or in love with a book and want to share. Understand the difference, and you'll be happier!

Celebrity book clubs:

• Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine book club
• Oprah Winfrey's famous book club (that launched many careers)
• NFL quarterback Andrew Luck's book club
• Rocker Florence Welch's The Florence + The Machine Book Club
• Emma Watson's feminist book club Our Shared Shelf
• Emma Roberts on Belletrist
• Sarah Jessica Parker has a gig with the American Library Association recommending books

Learn about what inspires your heroes: Locate the online presence for someone you idolize, and see if they discuss what they're reading and what inspires them. Or follow an author you've enjoyed reading to see what they're reading.

So what are you reading this week that was endorsed by a celebrity?

Armada by Ernest Cline

If we stand a chance, it will be the gamers who save us. Because maybe, just maybe, they've been training us as drone warriors through video games.

Zack lost his dad before he was a year old, and he's spent his youth a little obsessed about the same movies, music, and games his dad loved, just to feel a kinship. So on the day of the alien invasion, Zack finds he's perfectly positioned for a top spot in the real-world fighting force he's been trained on in his favorite game.

In the face of potential extermination, much about the world changes: the bonds of friendship and family are stronger, and so is the possibility of love at first sight. But is human nature what will save us, or what dooms us? We'll have to play out this game to see.

I loved Ready Player One, and this is just as good.

Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin

How do you recover your life after a youthful indiscretion makes you a pop culture punchline? Jane Young reinvents herself but finds that avoiding her past may not be the path to happiness.

In a stupid scandal with a much-older married congressman, political intern Aviva destroys her intended future. She successfully completes her college degree but finds no one will hire her, no matter how far away from her Florida past. So she changes her name, cuts ties, and moves to Maine to start a business as a wedding and events planner. Eventually, though, the past is bound to catch up with her.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit, as I expected - I've loved Zevin in the past, and she's again at top form here. This could have been a fluffy light chick lit kind of book, but she gives Aviva/Jane more depth with a heart and a brain. The revelation of her past isn't a real tragedy for Jane, and how she chooses to face it down is a real 21st Century triumph.

Fake Blood by Whitney Gardner

Sixth grade was supposed to be different. But AJ's still short, still boring, and still invisible to the girl of his dreams. When he's paired with the lovely Nia for a class project, he begins adopting various characteristics of pop culture vampires to draw her attention.

I really enjoyed this middle-grade graphic novel with its mish-mash of vampire lore and all the angst 11-year-olds can inhabit. It wasn't as predictable as I'd feared, and I quite enjoyed the twists.

The Con Artist by Fred Van Lente

You see lots of strange things at Comic-Con, and typically all the blood and gore are stagecraft. When a publishing exec dies dramatically in a bloody slide down the front staircase, however, the San Diego con kicks off like no other.

Our hero, fading comics artist Mike M, is a suspect (although he's innocent) and it looks like if he doesn't try to solve this, he may get railroaded. But he's also interested in networking (drinking) and drawing (making money) while he's in town. There's a lot to do, while avoiding trouble at every turn.

The con's like a circus come to town, and it both amplifies and exacerbates the drama of the story: When everyone's a monster or a hero, who can you trust?

I enjoyed this book - it's a fluffy bit of pop culture with a decent mystery element. There's a fun mix of real and fake comics, and true fans will have fun sorting out which is which.

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

What if the fate of humankind rested on the skinny shoulders of a washed-up pop star?

When the rest of the galaxy discovers that Earth exists, we're forced to defend our sentience: Are we people, or are we meat? Based on a horrific past war and its time-tested truce agreement, the pre-ordained litmus test is, of course, an intergalactic singing-and-entertainment contest. Like Eurovision, but weirder.

This book a hilarious pop culture fest in the best kind of way.

It's also written in elaborate similes and Vegas-showgirl feathered headdress adjectives and expressively convoluted sentences that take lux vacations to exotic locales for up to half a page at a time and twist themselves inside out and backwards in a primitive mating ritual before they bleed out fuschia glitter and then expire. You'll either like that or hate it.

Waiting for the Punch: Words to Live By from the WTF Podcast by Marc Maron & Brendan McDonald

Sometimes all it takes to get through something is to know you're not alone. To know that somebody else has been there, and they lived. They made it through, and so can you. That's what this book is about.

I'm not a podcast listener, but I know a lot of my friends are. This book is culled from conversations on WTF with Marc Maron. Maron is a comedian and he interviews lots of other comedians, along with other pop culture celebrities like actors, writers, producers, musicians, and even a former president of the United States. And they open up about the most sensitive topics.

One look at the labels with which I tagged this post would lead you to believe it's a depressing book: childhood trauma, addiction, suicide. But it's actually a helpful, hopeful book with true stories and personal insights.

It would be a great book to dip into and out of, but I even found it hard to put down sometimes: I want to know more about what goes on in people's heads and how they've overcome their inner and outer demons.

You may just find the kernel of strength you didn't even know you were searching for.

Essential History of American Art by Suzanne Bailey

Rarely could I say I've read an art book - they're the kind of thing you dip in and out of, skimming a lot and reading just the interesting bits. This one, however, was different.

It doesn't try to be definitive or all-inclusive (although it covers a fair bit of territory). Also, artists are included if they were born elsewhere but worked in the US, or were born here and worked mostly elsewhere. There's a wiggly, loose definition of "American" art.

And, strangely, the artwork used to illuminate an artist is almost always NOT their best-known piece. I did a lot of Google image searching while I read to view other work and get a better career overview.

But what fascinating text! Brief bio and description of style and influences, with many artists shown with more than one piece of art.

Origin by Dan Brown

These books are my weakness. If I can find the time, I'll read it in a sitting. This one took me longer, but that's not the book's fault.

The world's leading computer scientist is murdered on the cusp of a world-altering announcement. His friend and mentor, symbologist Robert Langdon, is in the audience and immediately takes on the task of finding and releasing his friends legacy to the world before it's lost forever.

Religious subterfuge! Bullets flying! World monuments and astounding architecture!

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

I know, stunning, but I had never read this. We chose it for the library's book discussion, which seemed like as good a reason as any to finally commit.

I listened to the audiobook, read by Rob Inglis, and I think that made a HUGE difference for me. Having the dramatization, the accents and all of that really helped draw me into the story.

Suddenly, having read this, much about pop culture makes more sense to me.

Unmentionable: the Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners by Therese Oneill

In this snarky, casual book, the modern reader receives a no-holds-barred look at what hygiene, fashion, and society were REALLY like for women in the 19th century.

BBC melodramas, romance novels, and the balm of time have worked a true magic: the past has become so sanitized and glossy that we pine for the days of chivalry - completely forgetting that there was poop everywhere, the ownership and operation of your vagina was a medical mystery, and a stricter-than-strict social code of mores meant you were hardly allowed to speak.

This is a funny book that puts you right into the action. The author is speaking directly to YOU the reader, and even responds to your questions and complaints as she imagines you'd be having them. Not in any way scholarly, but certainly educational!

Night Film by Marisha Pessi

The death of a famous, reclusive director's daughter prompts a disgraced journalist to reopen his notebook and investigate. Was Ashley Cordova cursed, or merely tragic?

Scott McGrath is driven by revenge and shame into reopening old sores - Stanislav Cordova was the man and the story that destroyed his reputation as an investigative reporter. Looking into Ashley's short life is a side door that leads Scott into a dark place he never really left, years ago.

NOTE: a lot's been said in other reviews about the "enhanced content" that accompanies this book. The included PDF had articles, webpage screenshots, etc.  I listened to the audiobook and didn't realize my narrator was also describing that additional material until I was almost finished with the book - it had been seamlessly integrated for audiobook listeners.

Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut by Rob Sheffield

With each chapter titled by a song, music critic Rob Sheffield uses this memoir to tells stories about his sisters, their influence on his listening (and fashion), and his ongoing affection for 1980s pop music.

His summer as an ice cream truck driver (titled not with Van Halen's "Ice Cream Man" but with Prince's "Purple Rain"), his almost-seduction by a former teacher, his love of cassingles, a season in the discos of Spain, his high school wrestling career - these are all stories told with nostalgia through their links to songs of the 1980s.

You don't have to love the music to understand the book, but it helps (it also helps that I'm roughly the same age as the author with a similar familiarity to John Hughes movies and MTV) But Sheffield is a guy who writes about music and its effect on our emotions in a really accessible way (see also Love is a Mixtape). This is really a series of stories about growing up and figuring things out.

He's a brave man to admit some of his more bubblegum proclivities, to sing the praises of recreational karaoke, and to analyze what it is about Duran Duran that makes them so irresistible (along with their baffling career longevity). Also, it's adorable the way he dotes on his sisters.

Shrill: Notes From a Loud Woman by Lindy West

It's hard to imagine anyone intentionally becomes an internet writer once you know what Lindy West has been through with trolls, online stalking and spamming, and more. And yet they do because like Lindy proves, there may be a bright future ahead if we can steer this thing in the right direction.

I found this book at an ideal time - I'm more and more aware that we each have a voice, and Lindy's using hers by taking up the feminist flag for acceptance and compassion concerning body image, rape, and reproductive rights. I listened to the audiobook read by the author, so this memoir was much like a conversation with a friend: listening to her stories, sharing in her joys and griefs, anger at her misfortunes.

This book is truly excellent. Lindy's got a way with words and she's got a great sense of humor, but the book's also frequently heartbreaking. She's developed quite an armor without losing her humanity.

The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson

Where, you ask, is the most dangerous place on earth? The American high school, of course.

This book is considered a novel, but it's almost a series of short stories. Perspective constantly shifts between students, and only a young, new English teacher pops up again and again with an embroiled outsider's perspective on the kids' drama.

The book takes these students from 8th grade through senior year. They study (or not), they party, they get in trouble, and they try to figure out what the world has to offer. We see their actions through the lens of other students (and their teacher), we see their roles in the social caste system, and sometimes we see things from their perspective, too - which often brings new information that alters your reaction to their behavior.

Pretty much they're all self-absorbed shits (they're teenagers - that's the default setting!). But Miss Nicholl isn't too far distanced from her own youth, and her naivety helps illustrate that maturity isn't a threshold you step over, it's more of a series of steps toward an unattainable goal.

The roiling dramas of high school is a near universal touchstone, even if you didn't grow up in this new, technological age, and this is a really, really good book full of complex characters and horrifying, realistic events.

It's being marketed as an adult novel, but it's very much like many of the young adult books being published today (I think the difference is the insertion of an adult rather than an all-teen perspective).

Trish Trash: Rollergirl of Mars by Jessica Abel

Come on, with a title like that you know I had to check it out!

In the future, former Earthlings now are farming Mars for water. Many were contracted into virtual slavery in the process, so contracts have a bad reputation as being exploitive and evil.

Which is why no one's exactly celebrating when Patricia Nupindju rashly signs as a skategirl with the hoverderby league, leaving her farmer family in a lurch without the help - both her labor and her mechanical aptitude.

This volume is an interesting setup - it lays the groundwork for a longer, more detailed story. I especially enjoyed the "wikipedia" entries at the back that give more in-depth explanation of immigration, terraforming, and hoverderby.

I'll be looking for the next volume (fall 2017) to continue the drama.

Razor Girl by Carl Hiaasen

Some stories are just so strange they have to be true - and the con artist at the core of Razor Girl is one of those; her scam involves shaving her privates while behind the wheel, "accidentally" rear-ending someone, her hiked skirt and blood droplets for effect.

This book is a return to former-detective, health officer Andrew Yancy and his endangered bit of paradise. A big-city lawyer and his high-maintenance fiance are planning a new McMansion on the lot next to Yancy's house. Things didn't go so well for the last guy that tried to build there ...

Throw into the mix a reality TV star who isn't what he seems, his beleaguered Hollywood agent, and a Florida redneck with a man-crush. Typical Hiaasen!

Truly, it's prime-form Hiaasen too, with a story that hums right along and a plot you couldn't possibly predict. Nobody does comedy-mixed-with-satire the way he does, and it seems like Florida is determined to provide fodder for these novels (we'll call that a silver lining).

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

When immigrants traveled to the new world, they brought with them the foods, traditions, and beliefs of their homelands. Unfortunately, America as a land is not kind to gods and goddesses.

In this sweeping saga, a newly released felon gets hired to act as driver and bodyguard for a mysterious older businessman. Things are odd from the start, and pretty quickly Shadow discovers that gods live among us - but many are worn down at the heels by a lack of belief and waning worship.

It's basically a roadtrip book, although there are periods of inaction, along with side trips into another realm. Shadow's a guy with a heart of gold and a huge capacity to believe the unlikely.

The more old-world gods and goddess stories you know, the more this book will entertain. That said, Gaiman connects legends of Egypt, Romania, Norse, Native American and more - you'll inevitably want to step away to look up a new character's backstory.

I love everything Gaiman produces, and this is no exception. Exceptionally good!

Reality Boy by A.S. King

Gerald's just a teen trying to get by until he can get out - working his job, staying out of trouble, keeping his head down at school. But that's tough when you grew up on TV as part of a "reality television" show that especially focused on your outrageous behavior. Everyone's sure his future is limited to either jail or death.

When he makes a couple of new friends at work, Gerald decides instead of acting out he'll take his life into his own hands and determine a new, brighter future.

While the story's slightly fantastical, you know this kind of thing actually happens. It's an acidic look at the unreality of reality television and the tolls it takes on its youngest celebrities.

I enjoyed the audiobook - Gerald's a kid forced into his own mind much of the time, and the narrator Michael Stellman does a great job making Gerald relatable and not just a space case lost in his own la-la land.

Vintage by Susan Gloss

This book is a sweet bonbon filled with fluffy nougat - three heartbroken women bond through a vintage clothing store. Men are the worst. Fashion! Love?

If you swoon at tales of women in love and hardship but need to know that it all comes out roses in the end, you'll love this book. This is not my usual fare, but we chose it as a book discussion title.

There's great character development, and the story's got a good arch - there are even a few surprises! I most enjoyed the older Indian woman, Amithi, and her intercultural perspective (she's much less a trope than the others).

The author is from Madison WI and the book is set there, also. Actually, a minor criticism is just how stridently the author places this book in Madison - every single thing is anthemically M-A-D-I-S-O-N! The story could have been in any medium-sized city with a liberal university presence, but she works 300% harder to make sure you can plot everything on a map and Google View the buildings if you wish.