Shameless plugs. I’ve been informed there will be candy. Three books to add to your shelf or Kindle( but not kindle)
Undiscovered Gyrl
by THE Allison Burnett
Synopsis-
“Beautiful, wild, funny, and lost, Katie Kampenfelt is taking a year off before college to find her passion. Ambitious in her own way, Katie intends to do more than just smoke weed with her boyfriend, Rory, and work at the bookstore. She plans to seduce Dan, a thirty-two-year-old film professor.
Katie chronicles her adventures in an anonymous blog, telling strangers her innermost desires, shames, and thrills. But when Dan stops taking her calls, when her alcoholic father suffers a terrible fall, and when she finds herself drawn into a dangerous new relationship, Katie’s fearless narrative begins to crack, and dark pieces of her past emerge.
Sexually frank, often heartbreaking, and bursting with devilish humor, Undiscovered Gyrl is an extraordinarily accomplished novel of identity, voyeurism, and deceit.”
Allison Burnet knows how to a craft a story that will stay with you long after you turn the last page. His gift for storytelling and for getting into the mind of a 17 year old girl is remarkable and a bit eerie. You’ll be moved by her depth, her struggles and desire to be loved. You will feel her very being. You will relate to Katie. Hell, you could be Katie. This book will sing to you a heartbreaking, bluesy melody that will linger and wrap around your soul.
Undiscovered Gyrl is not just a voyeuristic look into the mind of a troubled teen. It is a haunting, cautionary tale that will leave you disturbed and changed. It’s about connections and the need to be love. Engrossing, moving, full of angst and humor. Burnett’s language is lyrical and economical. His imagination and creativity knows no bounds. The end of the book is risky, bold, and brave much like it’s heroine and the message she imparts.
2. Electroboy-A Memoir of Mania
by Andy Behrman (Starbucks addict, Abba dancing, tuna eating, man of the people)
Synopsis-
“Electroboy is an emotionally frenzied memoir that reveals with kaleidoscopic intensity the terrifying world of manic depression. For years Andy Behrman hid his raging mania behind a larger-than-life personality. He sought a high wherever he could find one and changed jobs the way some people change outfits: filmmaker, PR agent, art dealer, stripper-whatever made him feel like a cartoon character, invincible and bright. Misdiagnosed by psychiatrists and psychotherapists for years, his condition exacted a terrible price: out-of-control euphoric highs and tornadolike rages of depression that put his life in jeopardy.”
A mind you won’t forget, a narrative that will linger. A Trifecta of sex, drugs and a bi-polar brain. This book is a stand out in the mental health genre. Andy is a stand out in life. Read the book. Feel the chaos. Be changed.
Children of the Canyon
by David Kukoff
Synopsis-
“Children of the Canyon tells the story of David, a boy growing up in LA’s fabled Laurel Canyon neighborhood as the 1960s counterculture is coming to an end. David’s record producer father works with the reclusive former leader of a surf music band on an album that promises to elevate the legacies of both men to immortal status. His distant, peripatetic mother rides the waves of activism and feminism in and out of David’s life. The elusive Topanga, named for the city’s last remaining Eden, whom David meets on the beach the night of his parents’ separation continues to elude his futile attempts to reconnect with her throughout the decade. Through David’s eyes, we bear witness to the fallout from the California Dream’s malfunction: the ruined families, failed revolutionaries, curdled musical idealism, and, ultimately, the rise of the conservatism that put the country on its present path.”
COTC is a coming of age book that even J.D. Salinger would endorse. It will speak to the child you were. It’s relatable, real and moving. The themes of abandonment, love, the fragility and resiliency of the human spirit will resonate.
Get lost in a book today..
.so, I can have my candy tomorrow.
Everything I Never Told You 