I love all things 1980s, the decade when I came of age in my small Chicago suburb. I don't think I'm alone in the nostalgic feelings I have for the decade, and it can be easy to romanticize the period you grew up in as somehow idyllic compared to the present. But the truth is, while I was having a great time in high school and college, not everthing was so rosy.  Housing discrimination based on race was still rampant, gender pay equity was even worse than it is now, and the queer community was still reviled and forced to live in hiding in many places around the country. The general fear of and disgust for members of the LGBTQ+ community was exacerbated by the AIDS crisis, which was portrayed in the media as a plague brought on by immoral behavior and inflicted on the unsuspecting "normal" people by degenerates. This is the backdrop for the novel Tell the Wolves I'm Home, by Carol Rifka Brunt.

At the center of Brunt's story is June, whose beloved uncle Finn, the one person in her family that really saw her, has recently died of AIDS. Her family is full of anger and grief, with a side of shame and embarrassment at the cause of Finn's death. While the rest of her family tries to move on, June is stuck in a deep, dark hole of sadness, sure that no one will ever love her again the way that her uncle did. Into this void in June's life comes Toby, a stranger who somehow misses Finn as much as June does, and once they begin spending time together, their friendship causes profound changes in both of their lives.

As a legally married, queer woman living in a liberal suburban town with plenty of love and support from family and friends, it can be easy for me to forget that it wasn't that long ago my life would have been impossible, or at least much, much harder. I know that even by today's standards I am lucky to have always been supported by the people in my life; my parents, sibling, friends. We still have plenty of work to do to make sure that everyone in the queer community is safe and supported and accepted by both their families and communities and society at large. But in the late 80s, at the height of the AIDS crisis, the queer community was, quite literally, fighting for it's life. Tell the Wolves I'm Home does a good job of bringing that period to life, and while we see everything from the point of view of a straight, cisgender teenager, I think that Brunt really creates the feeling of fear and intolerance and shame that characterized that time for many in the quer community. She also does a good job with recreating the 1980s generally, which I will admit was part of the appeal of the book for me.

I thought that the story took too long to get to the friendship between Toby and June, but I was the only one at my book club who thought so, so maybe it's just me. I thought the book could have been about 75 pages shorter had she just moved it along a little. June and Toby are very rich and developed, but the other members of June's family are a little less so. They felt pretty one-dimensional, and frankly not that sympathetic, until somewhere towards the end of the book, when you finally get some explanations for why they are acting the way they are. The story kept my attention despite these minor flaws, and the emotional pay-off ended up being worth the extra pages and slightly underdeveloped characters. Overall I'd recommend this one.

We Are Still Tornadoes, Michael Kun, Susan Mullen

I guess I must have subconsciously had a thing for novels told in letters, since this is the second one that I've read in the last month. Unlike  Ella Minnow Pea, however, I really enjoyed We Are Still Tornadoes by Michael Kun and Susan Mullen.


The book details the first year after high school of two best friends, Scott and Cath. Cath has gone off to Wake Forest College, Scott has stayed home to help in his father's men's clothing store, and maybe start a band. Cath and Scott send letters back and forth sharing all of the ins and outs of their new lives; boyfriends, girlfriends, roommates, family trouble, song lyrics...Both Cath and Scott had some major stuff go down in their lives-divorce, death-and throughout it all they managed to keep their friendship alive and kicking.

I think part of the reason I loved this book as much as I did is that it was set in the 80s, which is when I was in high school and college, and because I also had a best friend named Scott who became my penpal after he moved away in middle school. We corresponded all through high school and into college, and I consider it one of the great disappointments of my life that I managed to lose him somewhere between college and the real-world. Like Cath and her Scott, my friend and I shared all of our joys and sorrows and successes and failures, our goals and dreams, and had the kind of supportive friendship that I didn't have with most of the people I saw every day.

Besides the personal connection to the main characters, I also loved how the authors brought back the 80s through the offhand cultural references the characters make in their letters, especially about music. There are so many musical references to everyone from Michael Jackson to Joy Division that I had to go to my music library and evaluate whether I had enough 80s music (the answer? You can never have enough 80s music).

My only complaint about the book was the ending, which I won't spoil, but just know that I really wanted it to go a different way. The strength of their friendship was the heart of this novel, and I think that the ending turned it into something else. But despite that, I would still recommend this novel to young adult and adult readers alike. I think it appeals to both in different ways, because as nostalgic as it felt for me, the themes explored are still completely relevant to youth today.

Big Hair and Popped Collars

Anyone coming of age in the 80s probably has fond memories of big hair, parachute pants, and popped collars.  In Jen Lancaster's last book, Pretty in Plaid, she recounts her metamorphosis from small-town Midwestern girl to fashion-forward, Prada-loving businesswoman.

The book begins when Jen is still Jenni, and she is living with her family in New Jersey.  It is the late 70s, and she is rockin' a retro-60's vibe in her hand-me-down fringe vests.  Before long, her father moves the family to a small town in Indiana because of his job, and her high-style Eastern-seaboard existence comes to a screeching halt.  Throughout the rest of the book she shares tales of her trials and triumphs through the clothes that signify each period of her life-jeans and t-shirts in elementary school, preppy khakis and polos in high school, sorority sweatshirts in college, and frumpy business suits at the beginning of her career in business.

I should start the review portion of this post by saying that I love Jen Lancaster.  I firmly believe that we are meant to be best friends and go out of fancy martinis while we snark about all of the ridiculous things in the world.  I have read two of her other books, Bitter is the New Black and Such a Pretty Fat, and other than the fact that she is a Republican I felt like I was reading something my businesswoman alter-ego (if I had such a thing) might have written.  That said, I did not enjoy this book as well as her others.  Not because of the focus on fashion, which is why one friend of mine did not like it, but because I think that I prefer the fully-formed Jen to the still-developing Jenni.  I still laughed out loud more than once during my read.  Her footnotes add to the hilarity rather than distract from it.  As someone who was a teenager in the 80s myself, I was transported back to my own big-hair days.  I too was one of those obnoxious know-it all honors students who wanted to run the world.  I too got to college and lost my mind for a while (though I took way less than the 11 years to finish that it took Jen).  I too waited tables for many years trying to keep my head above water.  I too had big curly hair that frizzed when it was humid.  Overall, while I wasn't quite as over the moon about this book as the others, I still loved it, and can't wait for her to write many more!