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Nerd Girl Rocks Paradise City: A True Story of Faking It in Hair Metal L.A. by Anne Thomas Soffee
ashleyholstrom's review
2.0
Meh. The title made me anticipate a lot more Guns N' Roses references. Instead it was a lot of navel-gazing. Shrug.
clairesersun's review
4.0
It was really good. I read it for school and was surprised how much I enjoyed it.
piratekelly's review
4.0
Soffee is suprisingly honest and funny in recounting her life. Nerd Girl is a great book about how someone's life was changed by the L.A. scene.
b1llz1lla's review
5.0
Man, Anne Thomas Soffee can write an engaging book; I want to be her when I grow up.
Nerd Girl Rocks Paradise City is the autobiographical tale of Anne's dream of becomming a rock journalist. She chucks everything after high school in RIchmond, Virginia and heads for L.A., clips in hand from the free weekly newspaper for which she wrote music reviews. She hopes to find a job in the biz, and also has an encouraging letter from the editor at a music magazine in L.A. telling her to stop by their offices if she's ever in Los Angeles. Well, she does, but as with so many stories that start out this way, the jobs she gets aren't quite what she's hoping for. She details her experiences at Iggy Pop and Danzig concerts along the way, and how she keeps running into Glen Danzig in her neighborhood -- the grocery store, sitting at a stoplight, etc.) so often that she's afraid he'll think she's stalking him.
The tale is set in L.A. during the late eighties, when hair metal still ruled, but change (in the form of the grunge scene) was on the horizon. Eventually, her naive dreams tarnished by reality, she finds herself taking solace in booze and anti-depressants. Despite this turn, Anne's writing is irrepressibly upbeat, and the story does have a more or less happy ending (after all, the story in Snake Hips takes place after the action in Nerd Girl.)
I highly recommend Nerd Girl Rocks Paradise City to anyone with an interest in pop culture, the music scene, or just plain entertaining writing.
Nerd Girl Rocks Paradise City is the autobiographical tale of Anne's dream of becomming a rock journalist. She chucks everything after high school in RIchmond, Virginia and heads for L.A., clips in hand from the free weekly newspaper for which she wrote music reviews. She hopes to find a job in the biz, and also has an encouraging letter from the editor at a music magazine in L.A. telling her to stop by their offices if she's ever in Los Angeles. Well, she does, but as with so many stories that start out this way, the jobs she gets aren't quite what she's hoping for. She details her experiences at Iggy Pop and Danzig concerts along the way, and how she keeps running into Glen Danzig in her neighborhood -- the grocery store, sitting at a stoplight, etc.) so often that she's afraid he'll think she's stalking him.
The tale is set in L.A. during the late eighties, when hair metal still ruled, but change (in the form of the grunge scene) was on the horizon. Eventually, her naive dreams tarnished by reality, she finds herself taking solace in booze and anti-depressants. Despite this turn, Anne's writing is irrepressibly upbeat, and the story does have a more or less happy ending (after all, the story in Snake Hips takes place after the action in Nerd Girl.)
I highly recommend Nerd Girl Rocks Paradise City to anyone with an interest in pop culture, the music scene, or just plain entertaining writing.
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