Waiting for Britney Spears

 Waiting for Britney Spears: A True Story, Allegedly by Jeff Weiss, 388 pgs. 

This is a humdinger of a book. Punchy, first-person writing that keeps the reader hooked all the way to the end--even if you're not a Britney Spears fan, which I am not. The book kicks off with the author, before he's even published anything, accidently wandering into his high school gym right after graduation and stumbling upon the video shoot for the song "Hit Me Baby (One More Time)." That scene kicks off the rest of the story, as the author talks his way into a job at a popular tabloid magazine in L.A. where he's assigned the 'Britney' beat, alongside a charismatic but glory-hungry paparazzi photographer. Together, they capture Britney's worst moments for tabloid fodder. Though he knows he's contributing to the self-immolation of America's favorite pop-star, Weiss can't help but feel guilty and wonder if we've lost sight of the person Britney is as opposed to the icon we all expect her to be. I would occasionally catch headlines over the years, but never really knew what was going on with Spears, but I was surprised at how much I remembered from this book. I don't know if I fully believe the author's guilt, given that's he's writing this today, at a time when it's been pretty widely recognized that Spears was mistreated and abused by everyone around her--he has the benefit of hindsight. To wit, none of his stories that he filed about Spears make an appearance here. Nonetheless, if you're gonna read a Britney book, can't go wrong with this one. Reads like a gonzo-tabloid self-confessional. 

Just Some Stupid Love Story

Just Some Stupid Love Story by Katelyn Doyle (2024) 325 pages

Molly Marks has had some success as a screenwriter for romantic comedies, but she has no trust in love‒it just sells well. Her friends drag her to their 15th high school class reunion, where she encounters Seth Rubenstein, her boyfriend all through high school, until she broke up with him pre-emptively, so that he couldn't break up with her. Seth, meanwhile, although a divorce attorney, still has a belief in true love and "happily ever after."

Molly and Seth place bets on five couples whom they see at the class reunion, wagering on whether the couples will still be together at the 20th reunion. If Seth wins the bet, Molly has to admit that true love is real. The kicker is that one of the couples‒added to the mix by Seth‒is themselves.

Over the next few years, they take turns interacting and avoiding each other. If this book is a rom-com, they'll have to find a way to be together, but it's just not looking good. Their feelings and their dialogue are realistic and nuanced. Interactions with their friends and family add well to the mix. Couldn't put the book down.

Ash Dark As Night

Ash Dark As Night by Gary Phillips, 295 pages

It's 1965 in Los Angeles and photographer Harry Ingram is risking his neck to document the Watts riots that are raging in the city. When he captures a damning photo of police officers killing an unarmed young Black man, Ingram is thrust into the spotlight himself, drawing unwanted attention from the police and others who aren't so keen on what the people are fighting for. However, the notoriety helps him out as Ingram searches for a man who went missing during the riots, a man who may have been involved in some nefarious deeds.

The era and noir feel of this book are fantastic — it captures the unrest of the time and the grittiness of Ingram's life perfectly. However, this is billed as a mystery, and that seems to take a backseat to all of the protests and investigation involved with the civil rights movement. So it's a good book, just maybe not a mystery.

Next-Door Nemesis

Next-Door Nemesis by Alexa Martin (2023) 338 pages

Collins Carter, a native Ohioan, is living back in her childhood bedroom after a tumultuous breakup with Peter, her boyfriend in Los Angeles, after he took a script she had been working on for years and sold it as his own. She was enraged. A neighbor in LA filmed her as she was vandalizing Peter's car while sob-singing, wearing high heels and a silk robe. The video went viral, pretty much assuring her of being blacklisted in the industry.

When she finally reappears in public in her Ohio subdivision, she's blind-sided again, this time by Nate, one of her best friends from childhood, who had suddenly unfriended her in high school. Now he's a realtor and also sits on the board of the neighborhood's homeowners' association. They spar often, especially after Nate gives Collins a citation for planting a tree in her parents' yard without getting approval from the homeowners' association. This means war! She decides to run for president of the association, an office he is also running for. It's a humorous hate-to-love story with a cast of colorful characters, including Ashleigh and Ruby from high school, as well as Collins's parents and myriad nosy neighbors.

Table for Two

 Table for Two: Fictions by Amor Towles  451 pp.

I'll start off saying I am not a big fan of short stories. However, I am a fan of Amor Towles writing. So, in spite of this being a series of short stories and one novella, I enjoyed it, a lot. The short stories all take place in New York City and encompass various takes on relationships in people young and old. All the short stories are written in a way that make you want to know what happens to the characters after the story ends. The novella, however, does exactly that. The main character is Evelyn (Eve) Ross who first appeared in Towles novel The Rules of Civility. That book ends with the unfortunate Evelyn leaving New York by train to be met by her parents in Chicago. As the train pulls into Chicago she buys passage to Los Angeles without getting off the train. Each chapter of the novella is titled with the names of the different characters Eve encounters. Eventually Eve becomes friends with the actress Oliva de Haviland and ends up helping her with a problem that could impact her career. This is an engaging collection, masterfully written. I wonder what Mr. Towles will come up with next. I listened to the audiobook version well read by Edoardo Ballerini and J. Smith-Cameron. Here is a link to Amor Towles discussing the Los Angeles novella on NPR.

That Prince Is Mine

That Prince Is Mine by Jayci Lee, 320 pages

Emma is a culinary teacher on the cusp of launching her own school when her godmother, a matchmaker in L.A.'s Korean American community, begins setting her up on dates to find a husband. While Emma goes on one bad first date after another, Michel observes her from the corner of the café, captivated by this gorgeous woman with horrible luck in men. When they finally meet, the chemistry between them is immediate and undeniable — though Michel isn't the visiting professor he claims to be. Instead, he's the crown prince of a tiny European country who is determined to avoid an arranged marriage by falling in love on his own. He just didn't think it would be an American firmly entrenched in Los Angeles.

With some definite nods to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, this royal romance novel definitely includes many modern considerations than you'd expect from a more traditional royal affair — both main characters spend plenty of time agonizing over the impossible situation of her growing career and his responsibilities to the throne. But the problem is that they don't agonize together. Instead, they worry about it on their own, when they could easily hash it out over a series of honest conversations. That's one of my biggest romance pet peeves, and between that and the way things end for one of the characters, I can't really recommend this one (despite the mouthwatering descriptions of Korean food). Try Alyssa Cole's Reluctant Royals series for modern royal romance instead.

Nothing But the Truth

Nothing But the Truth by Holy James (2022) 294 pages

We meet Lucy Green just before her thirtieth birthday. She's hoping to land a new client for her publicity agency, while vying for a promotion, and also hoping her boyfriend of two years will propose. Instead, her boyfriend stands her up at a bar the evening before her birthday, which leads to Lucy talking to Adam, the bartender. He fixes her a special birthday drink before she leaves. The next morning, she finds that she cannot tell a lie, which leads to panic. Her job depends on her massaging the truth in order to work with her bosses and to save the careers of her clients. Not to mention getting along with her mother.

Was the drink magical? Maybe?? Most of the book flies past in the course of this one day – her birthday – and shows what happens when Lucy tells only the truth. This includes allowing her body to show its own truths by not subjecting herself to uncomfortable clothes and too much makeup in order to fit some ideal of how a person in her position should look (despite the social discomfort it causes).

I had to bat away my disbelief a few times, but once I decided to accept a bit of magic, I found the story to be a fast, fun trip.

Light From Uncommon Stars

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki, 372 pages

Decades ago, violinist Shizuka Satomi made a deal with a demon — instead of giving over her own soul, she'd find and hand over the souls of seven musicians, and in return she'd get to live, though no record of her music would exist. Over the course of an abnormally long life, she's handed over six incredible violinists, and is on the hunt for her seventh. Imagine her surprise when she finds her newest "student" is Katrina Nguyen, a poor trans woman who only feels at home with herself when she plays her violin. Now Satomi has a decision to make: does she keep her deal with the demon and literally damn this young woman who has nothing else, or does she figure something else out to allow Katrina a happy life? Meanwhile, starship captain and intergalactic refugee Lan Tran is trying to lead her crew/family while building a business as a donut shop owner. While it may not seem possible, Los Angeles brings these two storylines together in a wonderful and eye-opening way.

What an amazing book! There's so much about identity, and humanity, and the purpose of art, and the links between art and artist, and the refugee experience, and authenticity... and it's fun to read! An excellent mix of science fiction and fantasy, and I highly recommend it.

Under Color of Law

Under Color of Law by Aaron Philip Clark, 285 pages

As a Black cop in the LAPD, Trevor Finnegan is used to being an outsider at work and in society. Just four years after starting with the department, he's now a homicide detective, and when he's given the case of a murdered Black police academy recruit, he knows that his role is partially to find the killer, but mostly to be the Black face of the LAPD in a particularly tricky and highly public case. But as he follows the clues and gets pushback from his superiors, Finn is having increasing trouble balancing his career ambitions and his moral code.

Wow, this is an incredible mystery novel. It faces the complexities of being a Black cop in today's world head-on, without preaching or judging, while still providing an intriguing and innately readable plot. I was thoroughly impressed by this book, and I will be recommending it to everyone I meet.

Tricky

Tricky by Josh Stallings, 289 pages

LAPD homicide detective Niels Madsen is on his way to work when he gets in the middle of a tense situation: a rookie cop has his weapon pointed at an intellectually disabled man who's standing next to a dead body and holding a gun in his hand. Luckily, Madsen is able to de-escalate the situation before learning that the mentally disabled man he just helped, Cisco, is in fact an ex-con and a brutal killer for one of L.A.'s toughest gangs. While the higher-ups are pressuring Madsen to arrest the ex-con, Cisco swears that he would never hurt his dead friend, who lived with him in a group home for people with special needs. Madsen must confront his instincts and his biases to reconcile the brutal murderer from the gentle man he's become.

This is a fantastic police procedural with a twist. It's clever, it's funny, and it manages to confront a lot of biases without clobbering the reader over the head with them. I absolutely loved this, and highly recommend it to fans of police-based mysteries.

Gathering Dark

Gathering Dark by Candice Fox, 319 pages

A year after being released from prison, former pediatrician Blair Harbour is trying to keep on the straight and narrow, in the hopes of regaining custody of her young son. However, the appearance of her strung-out former cellmate, who is looking for her missing daughter, throws a wrench in Blair's plans. Meanwhile, LAPD detective Jessica Sanchez (who coincidentally put Blair behind bars) has recently inherited a multi-million-dollar home from a man whose daughter's murder she helped solve, and the bequest is causing more than a little animosity with her colleagues. Soon, Jessica and Blair's lives cross paths again in a twisty tale of ex-cons, a man on death row, a missing kid, and a possibly fictitious buried treasure.

While I loved both of the main characters in this book, the twists and turns seemed a little much for me. It's an easy read, though I feel like either Blair or Jessica could've carried the book on her own. This seems to be the first in a series though, so hopefully future entries are a little clearer.

Murder Mysteries

Murder Mysteries by Neil Gaiman, art by P. Craig Russell, 64 pages

This graphic adaptation of Gaiman's short story focuses on what may be the original murder, back before Cain and Abel, to the angels who were creating the concept of death. The tale of this angelic death comes to the story's narrator via a wandering possibly homeless man during the narrator's weeklong forced layover in Los Angeles. The wanderer claims to be the angel that investigated the murder, and tells the story as payment for a cigarette.

In less capable hands, this whole story could be put down to a crazy man's ramblings. But when Gaiman tells this sort of story — actually, any sort of story — the impossible becomes possible and the unbelievable becomes likely true. While Russell's artwork doesn't really detract from the story, it doesn't add much either, particularly because so much of the angelic environment cannot be shown. I would love to hear this as the radio play that Gaiman originally created though.

The Unwinding of the Miracle

 The Unwinding of the Miracle: A Memoir of Life, Death, and Everything That Comes After, by Julie Yip-Williams (2019) 315 pages

Julie Yip-Williams was born blind to Chinese parents in Vietnam not long after the fall of Saigon in 1975. When her family was able to get out of Vietnam, they came to the United States where doctors were able to help Julie's vision somewhat by removing cataracts from the four-year-old child. She remained legally blind, though, and always tried to compensate for it by becoming a high-achiever, eventually graduating from Harvard Law School.

At age 37, married to another attorney and mother to two young daughters, she was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer. This book traces her whole life, including her medical and psychological journey as she deals with cancer. She wasn't brought up with religion, but one sees hints of spiritual thinking intertwined with her realism. Being invited into her thinking sometimes felt intrusive and other times felt like a privilege. Gut-wrenchingly honest.

Broken People

Broken People by Sam Lansky (2020) 297 pages

Sam is a gay man who has written a memoir about his early messed-up life, immersed in drugs and sex. Even in sobriety, he has continued to sabotage his relationships with other men. At a party, he overhears someone talking about a shaman who can do the equivalent of ten years of therapy in a single weekend. He and Buck, the host of the dinner party, go to meet Jacob, the shaman, to learn about his field of "transdimensional intercession." They decide that they're willing to give the process a try.

The book switches back and forth between Sam's past  relationships and the present, weekend-long session with the shaman. If the reader is firmly entrenched in the here and now, the mystical connections might be hard to swallow, but the factors that have caused Sam's brokenness are very believable.

Fair Warning

Fair Warning by Michael Connelly, 399 pages.
Reporter Jack McEvoy, late of the Velvet Coffin, and of the Los Angeles Times before that, is now a reporter at the  consumer watchdog website FairWarning. He is still relentless about pursuing the stories that interest him and he is still making the same mistakes when it comes to trusting people close to him.
McEvoy is more or less dragged into a murder investigation when the LA police question him when a woman he dated once a year ago turns up dead. It turns out she had still his contact information  and had said something to a friend about a stalker. The police push McEvoy hard, wanting to believe he is a suspect, McEvoy pushes back, beginning his own investigation.
Connelly gives us glimpses from some of the guiltier parties (trying to avoid spoilers, they are all bad people in these POVs), and does a great job keeping us guessing about the identity of the killer.
Connelly also brings back former FBI profiler Rachel Walling, alumna of previous McEvoy novels and a few from the Bosch series. All in all a very good thriller. 

The Holdout

The Holdout by Graham Moore, 322 pages

Maya is a successful defense attorney in Los Angeles. But 10 years ago, she was an idealistic writer and a juror on the trial of the decade: Bobby Nock, a young black man, was accused of murdering Jessica Silver, the 15-year-old blonde-haired, blue-eyed daughter of a billionaire real estate magnate. Maya wasn't convinced of his guilt, and over four excruciating weeks, convinced her fellow jurors to return a verdict of not guilty, to much outcry from the public. When the jurors gather for a tenth anniversary documentary, Maya's most vocal critic among her peers turns up dead, in Maya's hotel room, and she's suddenly trying to solve two murders in a race against the clock.

This is a tightly woven thriller that also manages to discuss racial, social, and judicial disparities intelligently without making it seem like a lecture. It's a gripping read.

The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind

The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind by Jackson Ford, 482 pages

Teagan Frost is the only person she knows who has the power of psychokinesis, a skill she uses on a secret government team that spies on threats to the country. But on this one particularly risky job, someone turns up dead, and in a way that only Teagan could do. Suddenly, she and her team have less than 24 hours to solve the murder and clear her name, otherwise she's back to being poked and prodded by scientists. What results is an action-packed caper that travels all over Los Angeles and features tons of things flying through the air.

It's fun, funny, and a great light read for anyone who ever thought that the X-Men needed to lighten up a bit. My one gripe is that the author is obviously British, with lots of British spellings (kerb instead of curb, cos instead of 'cause) and names for things (pavements instead of sidewalks, trainers instead of sneakers). Generally speaking, Britishisms don't bother me, but when a book is set in Los Angeles and populated largely by non-white characters with criminal backgrounds, it blocks the suspension of belief just enough to be annoying. Otherwise, this was a lot of fun.

Daisy Jones & the Six

Daisy Jones & the Six / Taylor Jenkins Reid, read by a full cast, 355 pgs.

One of the most popular bands of the 70's broke up at the height of their popularity.  No one know the story until now when a "band memoir" is published.  All the relevant people are interviewed and the dialog is put together to tell the story from each perspective. A lot of sex and drugs and rock and roll.  The story unfolds about how you expect but somehow it feels like you are hearing this sort of things for the first time.  I listened to the audio book which is just perfect with a cast that fully embodies each character.

Dark Sacred Night

Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly, 433 pages.
Detective Renѐe Ballard, introduced in last year's The Late Show, is still working that same late shift in the Hollywood division, when she crosses paths with Harry Bosch, retired from the LAPD, and working part-time for the San Fernando PD. She spots Harry when he is sneaking a look through some old files at the Hollywood station under the pretext of waiting to interview a patrolman about a body found nine years ago. Ballard quickly figures out what Bosch was looking for, and the two of them form a tentative alliance investigating the death of a young runaway. As the story moves along, Bosch makes a couple of decisions that put him in danger and have him wondering if it may be time to finally stop investigating. A good solid story with great characters. I was slow to appreciate Kathleen's comment that this should be savored because now it will be another year before the next book from Connelly. I guess it's a good time to be losing my memory, I'll listen to this on audio in three months or so and see if it surprises me.

The Lady in the Lake

The Lady in the Lake / Raymond Chandler, 266 p.

I began this Philip Marlowe novel with unease, having recently tried The Big Sleep and finding it hard-boiled to the point of unpalatability.  I had an entirely different reaction here: Lady is a later work, and perhaps Marlowe/Chandler had become more nuanced by the time of its writing.

Whatever the case, this tale of two missing wives and one found drowned corpse was, for me, wonderful reading and generated a great discussion at our Classics book group. Written and set in 1943, I found the war, superficially of little importance to the story, to be a crucial off-stage character.  While the novel's  wealthy socialites, brutal police and sundry low-lifes are romping in a SoCal dreamworld, people are dying daily by the thousands across the oceans.  I kept wondering about the male characters: why weren't they fighting?  were they ashamed?   Of course, I know that every male couldn't possibly have gone overseas, but the war's progress cast a sort of jaundiced glow on all the men in the story.  Terrific, edgy dialogue and gorgeous physical descriptions round out an almost perfect detective story.