THE UNCOOL, PENPAL by Cameron Crowe and JT Gessinger, respectively

 These two books were opposites in my humble estimation. 

I went into THE UNCOOL prepared to adore it and just giving it every chance to charm me. 

I went into PEN PAL with a sense of dread. I mean, look at the cover. This is going to be all humpin'and pumpin'.

I finished THE UNCOOL thinking, well I enjoyed it, but it didn't quite live up to my initial hopes.

I finished THE PENPAL impressed. Don't get me wrong, there was a ton of h&p that I didn't love, but the story itself was really well done. 

Let's start with THE UNCOOL. It's lovely. Cameron Crowe writes like a dream and he gives the inside story of his work as a rock journalist. Everything he writes feels true, but it feels incomplete. Does it make me a bad person that I didn't like it that he didn't talk shit about anyone? I know that hindsight is 20/20, but I feel like he polished all the edges off. 

It starts really strong. In addition to being recollections of the cool and famous, Crowe also makes it a love letter to his family. The story of his older sister who wasn't portrayed in Almost Famous was absolutely heartbreaking. His father, also left out of the movie, seems like he was a stand up-guy. He doesn't say much about the sister who DID appear in the movie, but what was there was good. I can't believe that the running into her in the airport at his lowest point scene in the movie was true! And finally, I like it when a man loves his mother, I really do, but there was so much more of her in the book than I needed. Honestly, this could be because my own mother's health is failing and so maybe I bristled at that. 

I don't regret reading it and I am thinking about putting it on the summer reading list for the high school. It's beautifully written. It just wasn't hitting right for me by the end. 

I read PEN PAL as a requirement for a special issues in libraries course about romance and erotica. Now I love some romance, but I have said of erotica (well, I said it of porn, but it tracks for erotica too) Reading/watching erotica/porn and thinking it is a realistic depiction of sex is like watching a Marvel movie and thinking that it accurately represents law enforcement. I just can't suspend my disbelief when people are having orgasm after orgasm at just the right time and with SO MUCH TALKING!! I know, it's a book, we need dialogue, but good grief. 

And (mini-spoiler) the main character's husband has just died at the beginning of the book and she is hopping in the roofing guy's bed about 20 minutes after she leaves the funeral! And there is some master/slave stuff that I know people are into, but honestly straight-up irritates me. I am happy when people find something that makes them happy, no judgement, but I also don't want to read about veganism or crossfit. It's me, not them. 

So about halfway through, I went to Goodreads to see how others perceived it and it has over 200,000 ratings and the average is 4.11! Granted, people who like this kind of thing are probably reading it, which explains the score, but 200,000 people?? That's a lot of ratings! And so I started to read a review and immediately saw a spoiler shield and clicked on it because I couldn't stand the book and didn't care if I read a spoiler. It was a HUGE spoiler and completely changed my opinion of the book. Of course I would have loved to seen the reveal come out a little at a time, but knowing the twist made me really appreciate the story more. And I am notoriously bad at "seeing it coming" for someone who reads as much as I do, so I would have had to hate-read this thing for another 100 pages or so. So thank you, stranger on the internet, for the info. 

I can't really write much about the plot other than Kayla and her roofer get it on, she thinks her house is haunted and she likes getting spanked. And it has almost nothing to do with penpals. I probably wouldn't recommend it, but if someone told me they were reading it, I would definitely want to discuss it with them after. There is some excellent structure in the writing and some parallels to classic literature that were recognizable to me even though I try to avoid classic literature. I blew through it pretty quickly once I stopped judging Kayla for moving on so quickly, I was hooked. 

So I guess I can read erotica. I am just looking for more of a ramp up. And maybe a male character who realizes that there is no foreplay more effective than vacuuming without being asked.