CRUSH

January 25, 2016
This charming book takes a look at first crushes—the ones that leave an “indelible image” and happen when our young selves believe “anything and everything both possible and futile.” Jodi Picoult recalls running away at six years old, taking her Donny Osmond pillowcase; Nicola Yoon “kissed Michael Jackson every day for over a year.” Some crushes were painful and scary, awakening feelings of “forbidden” love and a respite from family life. Some weren’t about love at all but the ability to feel part of a “choir of lonely voices.” The contrast between crush and crushee is what makes some of the stories so appealing: the 12-year-old boy in Okinawa in 1955 who falls for Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Tarzan, the “short Jewish guy” crushing on towering basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. One crush is on a cartoon character (Speed Racer) and two involve Little House on the Prairie. The authors do a remarkable job collecting different types of crushes while keeping the reminiscences short and sweet (one is just half a page). Carolyn Parkhurst’s zippy celebrity fantasy provides a pleasingly lighthearted conclusion to a book that balances heartbreak and relief, blind love and terror. Agent: Kimberly Perel, Wendy Sherman Associates

Starred review from January 15, 2016
A few dozen writers recall their childhood infatuations with celebrated media stars or iconic characters (literary or animated) and how these crushes influenced their future lives. Editors Alter (Up For Renewal: What Magazines Taught Me About Love, Sex, and Starting Over, 2008, etc.) and Singleton (Behind Every Great Woman is a Fabulous Gay Man, 2005, etc.) make a few lofty claims about celebrity influences in the introduction, but they are surprisingly well played out in these sharply observed pieces: "Celebrity crushes change and mold us into the people we will become," they write, "shaping our ideals, fueling our fantasies, aiding and abetting our conquests, and leading us to (or away from) the people we meet and fall in love with decades later." Though boasting big-name contributors such as James Franco and mega-selling authors Stephen King and Jodi Picoult (both deliver impressive pieces), the more memorable stories come from lesser-known talents. Among the standouts is "My Own Private Danny Zuko," in which Yesha Callahan recalls her budding romance as a black teen with a visiting white neighbor, a young John Travolta-like double, which led to an anguished confrontation with racism. Larry Doyle tells of his obsession with Mary Tyler Moore as the Laura Petrie character from the Dick Van Dyke Show, and David Shields writes about Barbara Feldon's Agent 99 in Get Smart--each are stylish and hilarious inclusions. Caroline Kepnes grudgingly revisits an awkward letter-writing correspondence with 90210 actor Brian Austin Green, and Richard McCann's fascination with Bette Davis and her influence on his emerging gay awareness provides the basis for a marvelous multilayered story that begs to be expanded into a full-length memoir. Loosely organized into eight chapters, the collection also includes pieces from Joanna Rakoff, Roxane Gay, Shulem Deen, and Shane Harris. The seemingly lightweight premise of an anthology built around celebrity crushes yields an outstanding selection of poignant and thought-provoking stories.

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February 15, 2016

This collection of writers' reflections on their first celebrity crushes boasts a number of big-name contributors including Stephen King, Jodi Picoult, Roxane Gay, and James Franco. King's contribution is one page in length though isn't a prime selling point. Picoult's recollection of Donny Osmond (who shows up more than once) is more substantial, and Franco's standout meditation on River Phoenix is fascinating in a way that only Franco could manage. Gay's piece on the portrayal of Almanzo Wilder in his wife's "Little House" series was initially surprising given that she admires him from the novelized accounts of his life, but one of the goals of the book is to examine the unreal basis of crushes, and thus the entry fits perfectly well. Other contributors write of entirely fictional characters. Aside from some of the heavy hitters on the cover, the authors here range in background, sexuality, race, and age, and their affections are varied as well. The commonality is tone--this is nostalgia, not serious introspection. VERDICT This solid, legitimate anthology that reflects on a compelling and universal phenomenon will put readers back in touch with their younger selves. [See "Editors' Spring Picks," p. 33.]--Audrey Snowden, Orrington P.L., ME

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2016
It turns out that writers, actors, and artists are just like the rest of us. They, too, harbor memories of that first celebrity crush. It might be embarrassing to admit (really, David Cassidy? Annette Funicello?), but it's all a part of growing up. In this entertaining collection, an assortment of authors, journalists, bloggers, and actors confess longings for singers (Michael Jackson); actors (Mark Hamill, Kim Novak); and fictional characters (Speed Racer, Almanzo Wilder). Some stories are funny (six-year-old Jody Picoult running away to live with Donnie Osmond); others are inspiring (James Franco on River Phoenix). A few contributors discovered their hidden sexuality (gay and straight) by watching their favorites. Some were lucky enough to actually meet their crush in person, though most loved from afar. Reading these short, angst-packed essays about staring at movie screens and listening to transistor radios is like reminiscing with old friends. Most millennials won't know who these heartthrobs are, but seasoned fans will enjoy both the popular-culture references and the reminder that first loves are always worth recalling.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)