Second Banana to None: Going Ape for Abbi Waxman

When I read that Abbi Waxman's latest novel, Adult Assembly Required, was a follow-up to The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, I was excited.  I loved quirky bookworm Nina, especially how she dealt with her social anxiety.  The main character in Adult Assembly Required is Laura.  She suffers from anxiety too, although hers stems from a car accident.  In every other way, Laura is different from Nina.  She's into baseball, not books, wears sweats instead of vintage dresses, and runs every day.  (Upon meeting her, Nina makes Laura promise that she won't try to make Nina "healthy.")  Yet despite their opposing interests, Laura and Nina begin to bond.

Not that this is the focus of Adult Assembly Required.  That would be Laura's friendship-and-possibly-more with Impossibly Handsome Bob, a character from Waxman's first book, The Garden of Small Beginnings.  Contrary to his name, Bob isn't a ladies' man.  In fact, he can barely talk to women without tripping over his words.  I found this endearing because so many hot heroes are stuck on themselves.  Indeed, Bob's aw shucks demeanor is the puzzle piece missing from most leading men.  That's why his sweet, slow courtship of Laura is refreshing -- even if it's fraught with misunderstandings beneath its dignity.  But I was willing to let that slide in deference to the tenet that only trouble in interesting.  Also because Laura and Bob are good people whose biggest flaws are that they get in their own way.  That's the thing about Waxman's books.  The characters may be smarter than most -- but they're nicer than most too.  Mix in lots of wry humor, and you have brain candy worth the calories.  

Speaking of candy, one of my favorite scenes takes place during a Halloween festival:

"Unsurprisingly, Polly was a huge fan of dressing up, Nina was not, and Laura was somewhere in between.  This resulted in the following disparity: Polly was dressed as a banana, complete with a giant foam costume and shoes made of fake banana leaves; Laura was dressed as a monkey holding a banana, which simply meant she was wearing a giant onesie with ears and a tail she'd bought on Amazon; and Nina was eating a banana and making fun of the other two." (333)

Now, that's my kind of cerebral silly.  Way to go bananas, Waxman.  

Back to Mule Cool

 

Notice I didn't say "back to school" or "Moscow mule" or even that other, unmentionable kind of mule.  Because no one wants to go back to school (especially this year!), and Moscow mules are just plain yucky.  But "cool" is the perfect adjective to describe these candy-colored Katy Perry kicks.  The broken-hearted valentine of a handbag is also pretty badass.  I amassed these four scores over the course of several flash sales on the Katy Perry Collections site, and it was a heel of a good time.  $100 accessories for $30 each?  Yes, please!   

Speaking of school (as we were, sort of) and California grrls, I just read a book about a Golden State mother-and-daughter duo embarking upon an East Coast college tour.  I Was Told It Would Get Easier, by Abbi Waxman, is as buoyant and biting as Waxman's other works (remember The Bookish Life of Nina Hill?).  Just the way a feel-good yet satiric and introspective novel should be.

Mama bear Jessica and angst-ridden Emily don't always . . . get along.  Jessica's a workaholic lawyer, and Emily is sick and tired of being asked what she's majoring in.  What's more, each is also hiding a secret.  Led by an overzealous millennial intent on curating campus-bound camaraderie, Jessica and Emily battle criminally competitive parents, old and new loves, and even relatives as they ponder the East Coast's answer to higher education, raising the question: Will this trip be just what the guidance counselor ordered? 

Only Abbi and I know.  And we're not telling.

That said, here's a part I like that has nothing to do with anything I just talked about:

Jessica on the Ford's Theatre Museum gift shop:

"I love a good museum gift shop; it makes it possible to both spend money and feel erudite.  Sure, some people would argue that museums are for education and inspiration, not the purchasing of assassination-themed merchandise.  But they would be wrong." (93)

Jessica, I couldn't agree with you more.  It's always smart to take advantage of shopping.

Which, convenience of conveniences, brings us back full circle to those mules.

Library Living, the Gift That Keeps Giving . . .

. . . even though I don't like libraries (too smelly).  But I love what they represent.  That is, books.  And in this world, there are few things more comforting than books about books and the people who love them.  Because I'm one of those people too.  So, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill was on my short list of must reads.  If the title sounds a little like The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, then 1) congrats, you've been listening! and 2) that's because it's in that league.  Like A.J., Nina is all about stories.  And knowledge.  And sharing those stories and that knowledge with fellow bookworms who appreciate them.

Here are some things about Nina:

She's twenty-nine, lives in Los Angeles, and works in an independent bookstore.  She's the captain of a pub trivia team called Book 'Em, Danno.  She has an absentee, award-winning photojournalist mother and a father she's never met.  She's witty and arch, sometimes silent, sometimes outspoken.  Order is very important to her, and she enjoys spending time alone.  Also, she's anxious.  And like many anxious people, she's ruled by a mix of imagination and restraint.  I liked her immediately.      

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill is somehow both light and heavy, like ambrosia or non-diet canned pears.  Like its heroine, this novel is organized and moves nimbly from point A to point B.  Yet despite its sound structure, it falls firmly into the camp of books that are about thoughts as opposed to actions.  If it were a movie (and I hope that someday it will be!), then it'd be an indie film instead of a big budget blockbuster.  To me, that's the fiction hall of fame sweet spot.  Quirky and cute and just a little bit sad and played out in the life of the mind.  But instead of nattering on and giving away the ending, I'll share three of the quotes that made me fold the pages.  By the way, I used to think that page folding was blasphemy.  But I've since accepted it as one of the best parts of being a bibliophile.  Not to mention a good reason to say neigh to the Kindle.

A quote that's Nina in a nutshell:

"Nina worried she liked being alone too much; it was the only time she ever fully relaxed.  People were . . . exhausting.  They made her anxious.  Leaving her apartment every morning was the turning over of a giant hourglass, the mental energy she'd stored up overnight eroding grain by grain.  She refueled during the day by grabbing moments of solitude and sometimes felt her life was a long-distance swim between islands of silence.  She enjoyed people -- she really did -- she just needed to take them in homeopathic doses; a little of the poison was the cure." (17).

A quote that's lyrical and mentions makeup:

"As the light dwindled, palm trees and distant buildings would become black silhouettes against an impossibly rosy backdrop.  Sunsets are beautiful in California, the cornflower blue of the sky diluting as the light fades into a teenage girl's pastel palette of nail colors." (96) 

A quote that's a little bit serious and a little bit funny:

"It (The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran) contained Nina's favorite saying: You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts.  She wanted to wear it on a T-shirt, embroider it on a pillow, or maybe tattoo it on her wrist.  But the trouble with wordy tattoos was that people start reading them, then you have to stand still while they finish, and then they look up at you and frown and you have to explain yourself . . . Way too much human interaction, plus also the needles, the pain, the fear of the needles and pain.  So, no tattoo, but an embroidery wasn't out of the question." (183)

In the way of novels, things happen to Nina.  These things, of course, involve other people, presenting her with the challenge of expanding her comfort zone while remaining true to herself.  So yeah, she's like A.J. and Sara and Susan and Eleanor and countless other outsider characters.  Which is to say, human.  And, despite her issues, perhaps not so odd after all.

So, here's to word nerds everywhere and living one's best life by -- and not by -- the book.

Sounds like an epic tattoo -- er, embroidery -- to me.