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The Neighborhood

Hello friends! The above photo is a quick shot I grabbed on my walk with the pup. If you look closely you can see her ears in the lower right corner. This photo doesn’t do this planter justice. It’s drought-tolerant and filled with fiery reds and oranges. We call this the “long” walk because it’s up a hill and longer than our normal walk around the neighborhood. Sometimes the pup is not in the mood for this walk but on this day, she was in her element and happily sniffing at everything.

As you might recall, my first vaccine appointment isn’t until 4/6 but my work has been encouraging employees to get it so I think pretty soon there will be discussions about returning to campus. I am a little nervous about it if I am being honest. I’ve been home for so long and with my daughter heading back to school on 3/29, I’m feeling a tad anxious.

The flip side to all of this is the ability to do some of the things I love again. We went to dinner as a family the other night. It was outside but with heat lamps and it was just nice to enjoy a meal in a normal way and not from the inside of a car. Although, I am the queen of car eating. Ha!

Movies will be nice again, too. We have a brand new theatre that finished construction right before the shutdown and it never had a chance to open. I hope it still will. Watching a movie on our big screen is fun, and I like not having to deal with talking people and cell phone users but for big blockbuster films only a theatre will do.

Remember how I mentioned towels last week and how I needed to shop for some? I didn’t but we bought new couches for the family room! They should arrive tomorrow! I’ve never purchased something so quickly. We walked in, they were what we wanted, they were on sale and then when they weren’t in stock we bought the floor model for a discount. Done.

Now, on the reading front. My review of Brat: An 80’s Story posted this past Monday. This Friday, I have a review posting for a book that I want everyone to read, The Beauty of What Remains. I finished When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain so that review will be up soon too. What to read next? Possibly Outlawed by Anna North.

That’s all I have. I hope you are having a good week and that you have something really good to read.

Brat: An 80’s Story
By Andrew McCarthy
Grand Central Publishing, 9781538754276, May 11, 2021, 240pp.

The Short of It:

This is probably the first time I’ve ever found myself completely enamored by a memoir.

The Rest of It:

Most people know who he is. Andrew McCarthy did many films, perhaps not all of them successful but films like Pretty in Pink, Mannequin, St. Elmo’s Fire and Weekend at Bernie’s were surprisingly successful and seemed to make him a household name. My favorite film Less Than Zero, is oddly enough, not McCarthy’s favorite by far. From the title, you would think that much of this book is about the 80’s and yes, there’s plenty of that decade covered in this book but it’s more about how the term “brat pack” made and broke, what was a very vulnerable kid just trying to find himself.

The push-pull nature of McCarthy’s story is so readable. He was given some breaks but never felt that he belonged. His insecurity about who he was or who he was being asked to portray, caused him a great deal of nervousness and anxiety. He would often self-sabotage himself by consuming too much drink, and later drugs. The substance abuse only masking his insecurities for the moment.

Anyone who has ever doubted themselves can relate to his story. There’s a raw, vulnerability here which I always felt came through his characters too. This is not a story about Hollywood and all of its glitz and glam and it’s not about what we all perceived to be wild success. This is a story about a young man struggling to find a place for himself in the world.

What I really loved about this book is that it so delicately balances what we expect from him, and what he needed to share with readers. He includes plenty of information about each of his films and how they came to be. He also includes a lot on the business of acting itself, which is why I am handing this copy over to my daughter for her to read. But in addition to all of that, he tells us about his family, introduces us to the people who made an impact on him along the way, and what he’s learned from it all.

I’ve read McCarthy before and he’s quite a good writer but he really outdid himself with this one. If you ever wondered what happened to him after the 80’s, you might recall some TV shows he was in and his directorial work for the very popular Orange is the New Black series on Netflix. In my mind, he has had a very successful film career but with this book, I feel that he’s firmly planted his shoes into writing and I hope that’s the case because I would love to read more from him.

Note: This book comes out May 11th so pre-order it now!

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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