The book, fresh off the presses as of last Tuesday, is about an 18-year-old insomniac who spends the summer with her dad and step-mom in a quaint beach town (so a synopsis tells me — I'm saving it for when I actually find a nice day to spend outside). I started reading Dessen's novels as a teenage girl disappointed by the dumbed-down chick-lit-lite offered to my demographic. Now, even though I'm clearly not in the same age group as the protagonists anymore, I still find the books enjoyable and inherently relatable.
On the surface, the plots of the novels are similar: introverted teenage girl dealing with some sort of crisis (parents' divorce, best friend's pregnancy, sexual assault), meets a love interest whom she ignores at first, but when he helps her realize something new about herself, she blossoms into the butterfly she didn't know she was all along. But there's something about the way Dessen addresses the minutiae of teen-dom with out talking down (like how, at 17, every single thing your parents do pisses you off for no reason), that makes me connect. Hollywood agrees: Two of Dessen's novels were combined into the Mandy Moore movie How to Deal in 2003.
What's on your Must List this week? List up to three items from current TV/movies/music/books/games/online. Don't forget your e-mail address, in case we decide to use your submission in the magazine. Deadline is Thursday, June 25 at noon ET.
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Randy Hauser’s “Boots On” video. (A kid in his car seat rocking a toy guitar while lip synching to the song.) Love it!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydyz5QzLedQ
or
http://www.randyhouser.com/RH/?p=260
My rockin’ Must List: Harper’s Island (TV trash it is NOT), the trailer for (500) Days of Summer–cannot wait until it comes out, and watching The Lost Boys on G4!!
Regina Spektor’s “Far” is just as gorgeous, crazy, and wonderful as ReSpekt herself.
Regina Spektor’s “Far” is just as gorgoeus, crazy, and wonderful as ReSpekt herself.
Jon Chattman’s mustache challenge to Brad Pitt on the Huffington Post
Love that you have Along for the Ride as this week’s MUST. It’s a great novel. Don’t Judge A Girl By Her Cover is my MUST for the week, also Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Jon Chattman’s Mustache Challenge to Brad Pitt on Huffington Post
Oscar Nunez or “Ramone” from The Proposal. He steals all the scenes!
I absolutely, positively cannot stop listening to The E.N.D. “I Gotta Feeling” is the song of the summer.
1. The Best Picture Race being expanded to 10 films – Finally, more untraditional movies will have a chance to win Hollywood’s biggest award. Here’s hoping for Up to make the cut!
2. Fleet Foxes – A beautiful folksy sound and songs that won’t leave your head; a great CD for the lazy summer days.
3. Ryan Reynolds in The Proposal – Hollywood’s brightest new leading man turns in his third great performance of the year.
– “The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson” – I started watching Craig the week Conan took over “The Tonight Show” and fell in love instantly. Ferguson is hands down the funniest man in late night!
– Michelle Forbes on “True Blood” – The veteran TV actress does mysterious, sexy and downright creepy in a role that I couldn’t imagine any other actress playing more perfectly.
– “The Last Airbender” teaser trailer – M. Night Shyamalan has his work cut out for him to make audiences forgive him for last summer’s “The Happening”, but judging by the crazy-cool first look at this movie based on the popular Nickelodeon series, he just might win them all back in the end. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0ZjjMBXMpk
Finger-Lickin’ Fifteen by Janet Evanovich. Stephanie Plum’s adventures get more and more ridiculous, but she’s like an old friend I get to check in with every summer.
-The trailer for Fame. I’m gonna live forever or at least until this movie either soars or disappoints.
-The still shots for Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland”. Yet another Burton/Depp/Carter collaboration–I am so there!
-Finger-Lickin’ Fifteen by Janet Evanovich. A 300lb ex-hooker in leopard spandex, an funeral lovin’, gun-totin’, alcholic grandma, and TWO love interests? This is beach reading with a BANG!!!
Dead and Gone – the new (relatively speaking) Sookie Stackhouse novel by Charlene Harris. Book 9 in the series that True Blood is based on (I went thru the first 8 in about three weeks)
Whoever said Michelle Forbes on “True Blood” is totally mind-melding with me. Forbes is tantalizingly sexy and super-mysterious, two qualities that are made for “True Blood” and flesh out her character. Plus, anyone that toys with Sam’s head is already awesome, even if she’s taming Tara…
I’m also enjoying Secret Diary of A Call Girl on DVD (Billie Piper, how you’ve grown from “Doctor Who!”) and the Angel comics (since it was just Joss Whedon’s birthday, I decided I should treat myself. The comics are amazing; I feel like Whedon found his mini-me in Lynch. The dialogue is beyond perfect, just snappy-goodness).
1. Finger Lickin Fifteen – I love Lula and Grandma Mazur!
2. Harper’s Island – Who’s the killer already?
3. Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King by DMB – I can’t stop listening to this CD!
Honorable Mention:
*Wimbledon – go Andy…Rodick/Murray!
*Free Better Than Ezra concert in Louisville, KY on Friday! “It was good livin’ with you!”
The web series DORM LIFE. It keeps getting better and better and it’s honestly better than the Office right now.
Mos Def’s The Ecstatic- A return to musical form for this multi-talented man. Heavy beats and slick rhymes make it worth more than one spin.
Camera Obscura’s My Maudlin Career- Just catching up with this Scottish Indie Pop band and man am I glad I did. “The Sweetest Thing” tugs all the right heartstrings.
Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix- I can’t stop listening to it. I’ve had it for a month now and it’s still in constant rotation. If you can’t get down with this dance rock, you can’t get down at all.
[...] Sarah Dessen’s ‘Along for the Ride’ is our Must Read this week. . . [...]