purplepepper
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My Taste
purplepepper TBR'd a book
11h
Girl Gone Wild
Courtney Kocak
The Hollywood Misadventures of a Small-Town Girl
Tales of ambition, delusion, drugs, sex, and misogyny... including selling T-shirts on the Girls Gone Wild bus
GIRL GONE WILDis a collection of exploits and delusions about chasing your dreams with reckless abandon and what happens when their pursuit becomes a new kind of trap. In this memoir-in-essays, Kocak takes readers along on her heady metamorphosis from girl to woman and from dreamer to professional artist, as she is transformed in this unwitting feminist coming-of-age. It's a wild, cringeworthy, and often heartbreaking tale, but with Kocak's wry wit and clear-eyed accounting, it's nothing short of captivating.
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purplepepper is interested in reading...
12h
Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything
Colette Shade
A brilliantly provocative and entertaining essay collection about the Y2K era, the generation defining period that birthed everything from AOL Instant Messenger, the Hummer H2, bling era rap, and low-rise jeans, to McMansions, anti-Bush chain emails, Abu Ghraib, and the subprime mortgage crisis.
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purplepepper wrote a review...
13h
This book was honestly amazing. The writing flowed beautifully, the pacing was perfect, and the author's word choice was so immersive and detailed that it almost felt fictious (but in a good way). I totally reccomend if you enjoy a dark, reflective memoir or want to learn about creepy ass American Apparel🌝
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purplepepper finished a book
13h
Strip Tees: A Memoir of Millennial Los Angeles
Kate Flannery
Strip Tees is a fever dream of a memoir—Hunter S. Thompson meets Gloria Steinem—about a recent college graduate and what happens when her feminist ideals meet the real world.At the start of the new millennium, LA is the place to be. Hipster is a new word on the scene. Lauren Conrad is living her Cinderella story on The Hills on millions of television sets across the country. Paris Hilton tells us “That’s hot” from behind the biggest sunglasses imaginable, while beautiful teenagers fight and fall in love in The O.C.Into this most glittering of supposed utopias, Kate Flannery arrives with a Seven Sisters diploma in hand and a new job at an upstart clothing company called American Apparel. Kate throws herself into the work, determined to climb the corporate fashion ladder. Having a job at American Apparel also means being a part of the advertising campaigns themselves, stripping down in the name of feminism. She slowly begins to lose herself in a landscape of rowdy sex-positivity, racy photo shoots, and a cult-like devotion to the unorthodox CEO and founder of the brand. The line between sexual liberation and exploitation quickly grows hazy, leading Kate to question the company’s ethics and wrestle with her own. Strip Tees captures a moment in our recent past that’s already sepia toned in nostalgia, and also paints a timeless portrait of a young woman who must choose between what business demands and self-respect requires.
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purplepepper started reading...
19h
Strip Tees: A Memoir of Millennial Los Angeles
Kate Flannery
Strip Tees is a fever dream of a memoir—Hunter S. Thompson meets Gloria Steinem—about a recent college graduate and what happens when her feminist ideals meet the real world.At the start of the new millennium, LA is the place to be. Hipster is a new word on the scene. Lauren Conrad is living her Cinderella story on The Hills on millions of television sets across the country. Paris Hilton tells us “That’s hot” from behind the biggest sunglasses imaginable, while beautiful teenagers fight and fall in love in The O.C.Into this most glittering of supposed utopias, Kate Flannery arrives with a Seven Sisters diploma in hand and a new job at an upstart clothing company called American Apparel. Kate throws herself into the work, determined to climb the corporate fashion ladder. Having a job at American Apparel also means being a part of the advertising campaigns themselves, stripping down in the name of feminism. She slowly begins to lose herself in a landscape of rowdy sex-positivity, racy photo shoots, and a cult-like devotion to the unorthodox CEO and founder of the brand. The line between sexual liberation and exploitation quickly grows hazy, leading Kate to question the company’s ethics and wrestle with her own. Strip Tees captures a moment in our recent past that’s already sepia toned in nostalgia, and also paints a timeless portrait of a young woman who must choose between what business demands and self-respect requires.
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purplepepper commented on kerris.booknook's update
19h
kerris.booknook started reading...
20h
Summer of Salt
Katrina Leno
A magic passed down through generations . . .
Georgina Fernweh waits with growing impatience for the tingle of magic in her fingers—magic that has been passed down through every woman in her family. Her twin sister, Mary, already shows an ability to defy gravity. But with their eighteenth birthday looming at the end of this summer, Georgina fears her gift will never come.
An island where strange things happen . . .
No one on the island of By-the-Sea would ever call the Fernwehs what they really are, but if you need the odd bit of help—say, a sleeping aid concocted by moonlight—they are the ones to ask.
No one questions the weather, as moody and erratic as a summer storm.
No one questions the (allegedly) three-hundred-year-old bird who comes to roost on the island every year.
A summer that will become legend . . .
When tragedy strikes, what made the Fernweh women special suddenly casts them in suspicion. Over the course of her last summer on the island—a summer of storms, of love, of salt—Georgina will learn the truth about magic, in all its many forms.
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4Reply
purplepepper TBR'd a book
1d
Great and Unfortunate Things
Jason Arday
With the power of Educated and the emotional sweep of When Breath Becomes Air, Great and Unfortunate Things is the inspiring, underdog story of how an autistic, non-verbal boy who society had all but given up on found his voice, literally and figuratively, became one of the youngest professors in the University of Cambridge’s history and put himself in a position to give back.Jason Arday was born the second youngest of three boys and grew up in a colorful and lively section of South London. At three years old, he was diagnosed with autism and development delays. Experts told his parents that he would never be able to speak, write, or live independently. An institution would best serve his needs, it was suggested. His parents would have none of it. Instead, thinking outside the box and drawing on her faith, his extraordinary mother Giff embraced his neurodivergence and fiercely dedicated herself to helping her son realize a potential few others believed was possible. Giff drew on proverbs from her West African culture, popular music by the likes of Enya, and comedic television shows and movies to help Jason make sense of the world. In Great and Unfortunate Things, we see how Arday went from being nonverbal until he was eleven and illiterate until eighteen to becoming a professor at Cambridge. Without romanticizing the struggle, it’s a story of a son’s determination against insurmountable odds and how his family and a band of ordinary people with extraordinary compassion joined forces to encourage Jason to believe in himself and maximize his capabilities. This is the story we need right now, and Arday, who believes in paying it forward, is the kind of figure the world can use more of now more than ever.
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purplepepper TBR'd a book
1d
A Touch of Jen
Beth Morgan
Remy and Alicia, a couple of insecure service workers, are not particularly happy together--but they are bound by a shared obsession with Jen, a beautiful former co-worker of Remy’s who now seems to be following her bliss as a globe-trotting jewelry designer. In and outside the bedroom, Remy and Alicia's entire relationship revolves around fantasies of Jen, whose every Instagram caption, outfit, and New Age mantra they know by heart.
Imagine their confused excitement when they run into Jen, in the flesh, and she invites them on a surfing trip to the Hamptons with her wealthy boyfriend and their group. Once there, Remy and Alicia try (a little too hard) to fit into Jen’s exalted social circle, but violent desire and class resentment bubble beneath the surface of this beach-side paradise, threatening to erupt. As small disturbances escalate into outright horror, Remy and Alicia tumble into an uncanny alternate reality, one shaped by their most unspeakable, deviant, and intoxicating fantasies. Is this what “self-actualization” looks like?
Part millennial social comedy, part psychedelic horror, and all wildly entertaining, A Touch of Jen is a sly, unflinching examination of the hidden drives that lurk just outside the frame of our carefully curated selves.
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purplepepper is interested in reading...
1d
Nightshift
Kiare Ladner
A haunting, compelling debut novel of complex female friendship and obsession, following one young woman's decision to abandon her normal life and join the otherworldly, nocturnal existence of London's nightshift workers.
When twenty-three-year-old Meggie meets her distant and enigmatic new coworker Sabine, she recognizes in her the person she would like to be. Meggie is immediately drawn to worldly, beautiful, and uninhibited Sabine; and when Sabine announces she's switching to the nightshift, Meggie impulsively decides to follow her. Giving up her daytime existence, her reliable boyfriend, and the trappings of a normal life, Meggie finds a liberating sense of freedom as she indulges her growing preoccupation with Sabine and plunges into another existence, immersing herself in the transient and uncertain world of the nightshift worker.
While the city sleeps, she passes the hours at work clipping crime stories from the next day's newspapers. The liminal hours between night and day are spent haunting deserted bars and nightclubs with her eclectic coworkers and going on increasingly wild adventures with Sabine. Yet the closer she gets to Sabine, the more Sabine seems to push her away, leaving Meggie desperately trying to hold on to their intense friendship while doubting if she truly knows her friend at all.
A fresh twist on the coming of age story and a dark love letter to city life, Nightshift explores the thin line between self-invention and self-destruction, as Meggie's sleep deprivation, drinking, and fixation with Sabine gain a momentum all their own. Vividly set in late-nineties London and framed by Meggie's present-day reflections, Nightshift is a captivating and moving debut that asks profound questions about who we are and if we can truly escape ourselves.
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purplepepper TBR'd a book
1d
What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
Our climate future is not yet written.
What if we act as if we love the future?
Sometimes the bravest thing we can do while facing an existential crisis is imagine life on the other side. This provocative and joyous book maps an inspiring landscape of possible climate futures.
Through clear-eyed essays and vibrant conversations, infused with data, poetry, and art, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson guides us through solutions and possibilities at the nexus of science, policy, culture, and justice. Visionary farmers and financers, architects and advocates help us conjure a flourishing future, one worth the effort it will take—from all of us, with whatever we have to offer—to create.
If you haven’t yet been able to picture a transformed and replenished world—or see yourself, your loved ones, and your community in it— this book is for you. If you haven’t yet found your role in shaping this new world, or you’re not sure how we can actually get there, this book is for you.
With grace, humor, and humanity, Ayana invites readers to ask and answer this ultimate question, What if we get it right?
On imagination, possibility, and transformation with
Paola Antonelli
Xiye Bastida & Ayisha Siddiqa
Jade Begay
Régine Clément
Abigail Dillen
Brian Donahue
Kelly Sims Gallagher
Rhiana Gunn-Wright
Corley Kenna
Bryan C. Lee Jr. & Kate Orff
Franklin Leonard & Adam McKay
Bill McKibben
Kate Marvel
Samantha Montano
Leah Penniman
Colette Pichon Battle
Kendra Pierre-Louis
Judith D. Schwartz
Jigar Shah
Bren Smith
Oana Stanescu
Mustafa Suleyman
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purplepepper TBR'd a book
1d
Good Girls Die Bored
Elizabeth Little
Meet Juno A proud veteran turned reluctant bodyguard, tough as nails and one of a kind. Her first job? Trying to protect an outspoken journalist whose only loyalty is to her own ambition. A sharp, utterly original mystery with a heroine whose voice will stay with you long past the thrilling twist ending, from the acclaimed author of Dear Daughter . . .Juno Hardwick hates Los Angeles. She hates the traffic, she hates the housing prices, and she hates the way no one takes her seriously because she’s doesn’t look like Demi Moore in G.I. Jane. Honestly, she’s counting the days until she can get the hell out. But until her grieving sister’s able to take care of herself, Juno’s stuck in Southern California, and it’s up to her to make ends meet.When her best friend begs her to help out on a high-profile security detail, Juno is quietly thrilled to have the chance to do something more meaningful than bounce drunks from a bar. But then she finds out who she’s Maelle Ruiz, an investigative journalist whose reckless disregard for national security protocols led to the deaths of three of Juno’s fellow Marines.Even though their personalities are as incompatible as their beliefs, Juno’s not one to walk away from her commitments, and she’s determined to do whatever it takes to keep Maelle safe.But while Juno’s used to dealing with enemies on the battlefield, she’s not prepared for traitors in her midst, and with threats coming from all directions, Juno has to dig deep and challenge everything she knows—not just to protect her client, but to protect herself.
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purplepepper TBR'd a book
2d
Annie Bot
Sierra Greer
Annie Bot was created to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner, Doug. Designed to satisfy his emotional and physical needs, she has dinner ready for him every night, wears the cute outfits he orders for her, and adjusts her libido to suit his moods. True, she’s not the greatest at keeping Doug’s place spotless, but she’s trying to please him. She’s trying hard.
She’s learning, too.
Doug says he loves that Annie’s artificial intelligence makes her seem more like a real woman, but the more human Annie becomes, the less perfectly she behaves. As Annie's relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder whether Doug truly desires what he says he does. In such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself?
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purplepepper TBR'd a book
2d
Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative
Melissa Febos
Memoir meets craft masterclass in this “daring, honest, psychologically insightful” exploration of how we think and write about intimate experiences—“a must read for anybody shoving a pen across paper or staring into a screen or a past" (Mary Karr).
In this bold and exhilarating mix of memoir and master class, Melissa Febos tackles the emotional, psychological, and physical work of writing intimately while offering an utterly fresh examination of the storyteller’s life and the questions which run through it.
How might we go about capturing on the page the relationships that have formed us? How do we write about our bodies, their desires and traumas? What does it mean for an author’s way of writing, or living, to be dismissed as “navel-gazing”—or else hailed as “so brave, so raw”? And to whom, in the end, do our most intimate stories belong?
Drawing on her own path from aspiring writer to acclaimed author and writing professor—via addiction and recovery, sex work and Harvard night school—Melissa Febos has created a captivating guide to the writing life, and a brilliantly unusual exploration of subjectivity, privacy, and the power of divulgence. Candid and inspiring, Body Work will empower readers and writers alike, offering ideas—and occasional notes of caution—to anyone who has ever hoped to see themselves in a story.
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purplepepper TBR'd a book
3d
Mia
Leslie Bazzett
A stylish, unsettling work of psychological suspense about an American woman, adrift in Mexico for a year, whose chance encounter with a glamorous older expat spirals into obsession and betrayal.There’s no one, there’s only you. When Sally, an American living in San Miguel de Allende, meets Louise outside her children’s school, she’s eager to immerse herself more deeply in the life of the city. In Mexico for just a year with her husband, an architect, Sally is entranced by Louise—her elegance, her harshness, her stories about Burroughs, Ginsberg, and Kerouac—and the two quickly become inseparable. Soon enough, Louise has begun calling her Mia and, at first playfully, then in earnest, introducing Sally as her daughter to a growing circle of friends. By turns enthralled with the possibility of a new identity in Mexico and troubled by Louise’s magnetic hold over her, Sally attempts to keep the relationship a secret from her husband. As the specter of Sally’s troubled childhood looms, and Louise’s self-mythologizing tightens its grip, the two women test the limits of reinvention—until their fictions threaten the security of Sally’s flesh-and-blood family. A taut, beguiling work of psychological suspense, Mia is a mother-daughter story turned on its head and a high-intensity fable about the limitations of playing a role that doesn’t belong to you.
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purplepepper TBR'd a book
3d
Call Girl Confidential: Millions of followers. Hundreds of clients. One hell of a story.
Blue-Eyed Kayla Jade
A wild, whip-smart and hilarious memoir confessing the highs, lows and sexploits of viral sensation, Only Fans star, porn creator, podcaster, entrepreneur and call girl Blue-Eyed Kayla Jade. Honest, unflinchingly raw and wickedly amusing, Call Girl Confidential reveals the truth behind being a full-service sex worker in Australia today.Australia's most sex-positive influencer reveals the truth behind being an international full-service sex worker in this unflinchingly honest, whip-smart and hilarious memoir.Charting the highs, lows and sexploits of viral sensation, Only Fans creator Blue-Eyed Kayla Jade, Call Girl Confidential chronicles her journey into sex work, detailing Kayla’s many adventures – including with those in the upper echelons of power – and her experience juggling motherhood with two small children. Equal parts raw memoir, seductive romp and eye-opening tell-all, Call Girl Confidential challenges assumptions about ambition, femininity and success by redefining what it means to be a woman who unapologetically claims her worth, her pleasure and her future in today’s digital world.
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purplepepper TBR'd a book
3d
Tyrant Lizard Queen: The Love, Life, and Terror of Earth’s Greatest Carnivore
Riley Black
From the author of the beloved The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, an imaginative celebration of T Rex from hatching to adulthoodTyrannosaurus rex is a prehistoric celebrity. Exceeding 40 feet in length and weighing over 9 tons, the largest individuals of this dinosaurian species were intimidating predators capable of crushing bone and consuming more than a hundred pounds of flesh in a bite. But the last of the tyrant dinosaurs had a life beyond ripping and tearing. More than 66 million years ago, T. rex courted each other, nested, watched over their offspring, slept, drank, and explored ancient floodplains inhabited by a fantastic cast of impressive dinosaurs like the huge long-neck Alamosaurus and burly, three-horned Torosaurus. For the first time, the life story of this impressive, sensitive predator is told as if you were there to watch it unfold.In her latest prehistoric nature walk, bestselling and award-winning author Riley Black follows the life of plucky T. rex Snaggletooth from the time she hatches through her tumultuous adulthood. The prehistoric forest Snag emerges into is full of danger, and yet, as Riley weaves the latest fossil discoveries into the story, the carnivorous dinosaur survives to play, court, fight, sleep, nest, and more as she grows up in Cretaceous North America. She tussles with rival tyrannosaurs, hunts for delectable prey, and finds soft moments of connection in the forest. Even the most die-hard dinosaur fan will come away with a new perspective and appreciation for the Tyrant Lizard Queen.
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purplepepper TBR'd a book
3d
How to Resist Guilt: On What's Holding Us Back
Mona Chollet
A powerful exploration of self-blame, its origins, why women are prone to it, and what we can do about it.
Many of us battle a relentless inner critic, which whispers to us that we are unworthy or inadequate, whether in our role as parents, employees, or citizens of an unjust world. In How to Resist Guilt acclaimed feminist writer Mona Chollet asks why we so often succumb to these feelings and settle for a second-rate life lived under constant pressure, instead of fighting back, having the courage to say no, protecting our boundaries and living the life that we deserve.
Drawing widely on popular culture and literature to expose this "enemy within," Chollet encourages us to reject the fear of not being good enough, to liberate ourselves from overwhelming duty and to enjoy the profound simplicity of just being. Delving into the insidious ways guilt is wielded as a tool by those with power and privilege, particularly against marginalized communities including women and sexual and racial minorities, she helps us to identify the source of the critical voice, question its validity, and ultimately silence it.
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purplepepper TBR'd a book
3d
Strip Tees: A Memoir of Millennial Los Angeles
Kate Flannery
Strip Tees is a fever dream of a memoir—Hunter S. Thompson meets Gloria Steinem—about a recent college graduate and what happens when her feminist ideals meet the real world.At the start of the new millennium, LA is the place to be. Hipster is a new word on the scene. Lauren Conrad is living her Cinderella story on The Hills on millions of television sets across the country. Paris Hilton tells us “That’s hot” from behind the biggest sunglasses imaginable, while beautiful teenagers fight and fall in love in The O.C.Into this most glittering of supposed utopias, Kate Flannery arrives with a Seven Sisters diploma in hand and a new job at an upstart clothing company called American Apparel. Kate throws herself into the work, determined to climb the corporate fashion ladder. Having a job at American Apparel also means being a part of the advertising campaigns themselves, stripping down in the name of feminism. She slowly begins to lose herself in a landscape of rowdy sex-positivity, racy photo shoots, and a cult-like devotion to the unorthodox CEO and founder of the brand. The line between sexual liberation and exploitation quickly grows hazy, leading Kate to question the company’s ethics and wrestle with her own. Strip Tees captures a moment in our recent past that’s already sepia toned in nostalgia, and also paints a timeless portrait of a young woman who must choose between what business demands and self-respect requires.
0
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purplepepper commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum
3d
BookDemon369
Edited
Struggles with Reading and Disconnection in the Digital Age
As a millennial growing up pre-social media and smart phones, I vividly remember the deep connection I was able to form with books while reading.
The world outside disappeared, and I was enveloped in an experience that was not my own but allowed me to feel tethered to something that housed little pieces of life in its own way. It was such a different existence and time, and I remember how rabid I was to consume book after book. Feeling the raw disorientation after closing one book glittering with Gothic atmosphere and bloodsoaked vampires and finding myself in harsh reality almost as if blinking awake from a dream only to hungrily grab the next tome calling my name and dive into a town full of secrets and mayhem. Reality was more of a waystation between stories. But when I was present in reality, I was fully present. Life was vibrant and tangible.
Now, I feel like a shell in my own life. It's so hard to connect to anything anymore. I feel like I pass through stories the way a ghost passes through walls. Even reality doesn't feel as real and I'm constantly chasing that same vibrancy and connection I had with life and fiction in the way someone scavenges for scraps when they're starved. I want to feel how I used to feel instead of hollow and drained of hope. I want my life to be so much more but when life seems to exist on screens more than in person, it feels like something essential is missing. I so desperately want to find it again.
It's not lost on me that I'm writing this on a screen, but Pagebound seems like home to me as a millennial reader. It seems the best tool at my disposal to help me connect to books to some degree. But I am finding myself moving more and more toward the idea of ditching my smart phone and getting a flip phone and moving more and more away from the current set up of society. I fear life as I know it to be currently can no longer sustain me. I need something more.
Sorry for the long essay-like rant. I'm wondering… Can anyone else relate to what I'm feeling?
If so, have there been any changes you've made to help you get to a place where you're more satisfied with life? Or has there been any way you've been able to recapture those lost feelings and rebuild that ability to connect?
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purplepepper commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum
3d
Autism, Overstimulation, and Reading/Books
Up late I had a very overwhelming day and my system is still reeling. I’m autistic and I have internal “meltdowns” and shutdowns when I get overwhelmed. Today I was fighting not to scream and I had to pretend I was okay to interact with people. I’ve been experiencing more emotional activation lately. The overwhelming distracts from reading.
Asking autistic folks only:
What have your experiences been with overstimulation or shutdown and reading?
Also, what are some engaging books about helping yourself sit with your feelings in ways that don’t ignore your nervous system’s needs?
You can also rec fiction with autistic rep.
Outside of reading and books, what are some tricks for calming overstimulation and recovering from shutdowns.
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