Books Two Damn Fine Book Reviews
posted by on April 16 at 16:25 PM
This week’s Stranger is coming online right about now, but I wanted to take this opportunity to point out two really great pieces that ran in the books section last week.
The first is Erica C. Barnett’s A Little Bit Doomed, which is ostensibly about a book called Little Green Purse, but is more about the new, stupid face of environmentalism.
While picking at chalky slabs of salmon and overdressed salads, the women toss a volley of green-lifestyle questions at MacEachern. What kind of lipstick should I buy? Should I buy my daughter a new car? How do I know if the cosmetics industry is lying to me? MacEachern, a tiny, well-coiffed woman in a lime-green quilted jacket and sensible black pants, answers each question with a confident, beatific smile: one without phthalates or other toxic chemicals; no; when a manufacturer substantiates the claim with third-party verification.
It’s the best-written indictment of this sort of materialistic idiocy that I’ve ever read.
And! Megan Seling does a great job picking apart those stupid Porn For Women books that are all the rage in local bookstores:
Not only is their definition of a woman—the dishwashing spit-up rag who just wants to cuddle—still living in the past, but so is their definition of porn and those who enjoy it. Instead of changing the way we look at naughty pictures, it just takes them away completely, replacing them with what a new mom really wants to see: some young buck saying, “Damn! You look hot in those sweatpants!”
I really hated those books when I was a bookseller, but I could never justify my loathing with more than a spittle-dotted rage. Megan’s 300 words really nail exactly why these books are so horrible, and the last sentence of her review is one of my favorite book review closing lines ever. Go and check both these reviews out, please.
But using re-usable canvas grocery bags will save the planet, right?
No. It's already destroyed remember.
Key line from Erica's review: "I am completely out of touch with what upper-middle-class American women care about." No, you're completely out of touch with anyone, and anything, outside your narrow world view. We can only picture your barely concealed smug look of contempt for the women at this event.
Sounds more like The Feminazi Manifesto to me.
@4: Holy shit, did you just use the word Feminazi? You're out of my will.
I blogged this.
I still can't find a URL for the In The Hall column in the print version that says the opposite of the book review. Anybody?
That's OK, Paul - you were never in my will in the first place. When I die, all my money's going to someone who really needs it: Dan Savage.
But, seriously, though: Feminazi? Come on!
You know, Paul, usually I agree with you about everything (it's part of the stalker manifesto) but this time, no way. The superlatives in your post were as annoying as the condescending claptrap that Megan and Erica passed off as book reviews.
@3 I couldn't agree more.
And I could write a concise, eloquent rebuttal to Erica and Megan's obtuse, self-righteous reviews, but I'm too tired. Instead, I'm going to watch Sleepless in Seattle.
Paul, I'm with you. Feminazi? What the hell?
Great reviews--thanks for pointing them out!
Little Green Purse makes me want to buy a cute little smart car so I can drive it onto the bus. I am going to write a letter to Metro to encourage them to remove some seats to increase the number of parking spaces on the buses, surely that will improve ridership.
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