Seriously, I am so disappointed in you, NPR. As part of their obnoxiously condescending "My Guilty Pleasure" series, author Helen Simonson has contributed an essay on her love for Georgette Heyer... despite the fact that she appears to have confused Heyer with someone else, someone whose heroines always "[hold their chins] a little higher than the other simpering misses" until they meet "some brooding gentleman". Um, no. One of the coolest things about Heyer is the way she didn't always match up the lovely, fearless heroine with the great rake, and even when she did, there was usually something about the match that tweaked it, turning what could have been another stale Regency romance into something a little more interesting—and that something was Heyer's sense of humor and gift for creating endearing characters, not her meticulous historical research (although I'm not knocking the meticulous research). She wrote some truly great books, some mediocre ones, and some stinkers, but anyone who considers themselves a fan but limits themselves to "slyly" buying Heyer's books at yard sales can suck it.

Labels: Georgette Heyer, Reviews

I had never heard of Common Sense Media before yesterday, but their purpose statement sounded innocuous enough: they're a nonprofit organization dedicated to "improving the lives of kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in a world of media and technology." Unfortunately, this School Library Journal article paints a more disturbing picture. CSM's reviews break literary content down into various categories, including appropriate age levels, "good stuff", and "what to watch out for". Thus a book like Lauren Kate's Fallen gets a high rating, because it contains relatively low levels of violence, sex, drug and alcohol abuse, bad language, and consumerism. (Plus, the author of the review feels fallen angels are "more charming" than vampires, although no reason was given for that assessment.) The fact that Fallen was poorly thought out and featured an emotionally bipolar love interest doesn't bother CSM one bit, apparently.

Ugh. Look, if you're worried about what your kid is reading, read it yourself. Don't rely on someone else (no matter how well-respected) to tell you what's safe and what isn't. And just think: young adult and kids' books can be fun. You might even enjoy yourself!

Labels: Kids' books, other websites, Reviews, teen literature

I finally got around to watching the 2005 movie adaptation of Ai Yazawa's enormously popular shojo manga series Nana over the weekend:



Yazawa's story follows the adventures of two young women, both named Nana. Nana Osaki is a punk singer who dreams of making it big in the music industry (and surpassing the success of her ex-boyfriend, Ren), and Nana Komatsu is a simple-minded, sweet-tempered girl with bad luck in love. The two Nanas meet on a train to Tokyo, end up sharing an apartment, and, despite their very different personalities, become devoted friends.

Die-hard fans of the manga are almost certain to enjoy this film, seeing as it mimics its source material with remarkable accuracy. Locations, plot twists, and characters—piercings, wrist cuffs, emo hairstyles and all—are faithfully copied from the manga. The actors have undeniable chemistry, and they're instantly recognizable matches for their manga counterparts. (Mika Nakashima, who plays Nana O., and Ryuhei Matsuda, who plays Ren, are particularly well cast—they look exactly Yazawa's visions of their characters.)

Nana is very much a soap opera, and viewers unfamiliar with the story would be well-advised to adjust their expectations accordingly before watching the movie. The film feels like a very long, big-budget episode of an ongoing story—which is basically what it is. (The film script only covers a small portion of Yazawa's storyline.) The characters spend most of their time brooding about their problems, and very few of those problems are resolved by the movie's end*. Rent this movie if you're already a fan of the original manga (or you just like watching pretty, melancholy people in Sid and Nancy-style outfits sit around and play guitars), but skip it if you're a newbie looking for a complete and satisfying storyline.

*They haven't been resolved in the manga, either, and it's twenty volumes long (and still ongoing).

Labels: manga, Movie Adaptations, Reviews