NEW MARCH RELEASES

Stash: My Life in Hiding

by Laura Cathcart Robbins

A propulsive and vivid memoir—in the vein of Drinking: A Love Story and Somebody’s Daughter—about the journey to sobriety and self-love amidst addiction, privilege, racism, and selfsabotage from the host of the popular podcast The Only One in the Room.

After years of hiding her addiction from everyone—from stockpiling pills in her Louboutins to elaborately scheduling withdrawals between PTA meetings, baby showers, and tennis matches—Laura Cathcart Robbins settles into a complicated purgatory. She learns the hard way that privilege doesn’t protect you from pain. Facing divorce, the possibility of a grueling custody battle, and internalized racism, Robbins wonders just how much more she can take.

Now, with courage and candid openness, she reveals how she managed to begin the long journey towards sobriety and unexpectedly finding new love. Robbins harrowingly illustrates taking down the wall she built around herself brick by brick and what it means to be Black in a startingly white world. With its raw, finely crafted, and engaging prose, Stash is the story of just how badly the facade she created had to shatter before Laura could reconnect to her true self.

The Love Wager

by Lynn Painter

Two people make a wager on who can find love first, not realizing what they should be betting on is each other, in this new romantic comedy by Lynn Painter, author of Mr. Wrong Number. Hallie Piper is turning over a new leaf. After belly-crawling out of a hotel room (hello, rock bottom), she decides it's time to become a full-on adult. She gets a new apartment, a new haircut, and a new wardrobe, but when she logs onto the dating app that she has determined will find her new love, she sees none other than Jack, the guy whose room she snuck out of.

After the joint agreement that they are absolutely not interested in each other, Jack and Hallie become partners in their respective searches for The One. They text each other about their dates, often scheduling them at the same restaurant so that if things don't go well, the two of them can get tacos afterward.

Spoiler: they get a lot of tacos together.

Discouraged by the lack of prospects, Jack and Hallie make a wager to see who can find true love first, but when they agree to be fake dates for a weekend wedding, all bets are off. As they pretend to be a couple, lines become blurred and they each struggle to remember why the other was a bad idea to begin with.

Sea Change

by Gina Chung

A novel about a woman tossed overboard by heartbreak and loss, who has to find her way back to stable shores with the help of a giant Pacific octopus. Ro is stuck. She's just entered her thirties, she's estranged from her mother, and her boyfriend has just left her to join a mission to Mars. Her days are spent dragging herself to her menial job at a mall aquarium, and her nights are spent drinking sharktinis (mountain dew and copious amounts of gin, plus a hint of jalapeno). With her best friend pulling away to focus on her upcoming wedding, Ro's only companion is Dolores, a giant Pacific octopus who also happens to be Ro's last remaining link to her father, a marine biologist who disappeared while on an expedition when Ro was a teenager.

When Dolores is sold to a wealthy investor intent on moving her to a private aquarium, Ro finds herself on the precipice of self-destruction. Wading through memories of her youth, Ro has one last chance to come to terms with her childhood trauma, recommit to those around her, and find her place in an everchanging world. A VINTAGE ORIGINAL

Hello

Beautiful

(Oprah's Book Club):

A Novel by Ann Napolitano

William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him. So it's a relief when his skill on the basketball court earns him a scholarship to college, far away from his childhood home. He soon meets Julia Padavano, a spirited and ambitious young woman who surprises William with her appreciation of his quiet steadiness. With Julia comes her family; she is inseparable from her three younger sisters: Sylvie, the dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book and imagines a future different from the expected path of wife and mother; Cecelia, the family's artist; and Emeline, who patiently takes care of all of them. Happily, the Padavanos fold Julia's new boyfriend into their loving, chaotic household.

But then darkness from William's past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia's carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters' unshakeable loyalty to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?

Vibrating with tenderness, Hello Beautiful is a gorgeous, profoundly moving portrait of what's possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.

The Angel Makers: Arsenic, a Midwife, and Modern History's Most Astonishing Murder Ring by Patti

McCracken

The Angel Makers is a true-crime story like no other--a 1920s midwife who may have been the century's most prolific killer leading a murder ring of women responsible for the deaths of at least 160 men.

The horror occurred in a rustic farming enclave in modern-day Hungary. To look at the unlikely lineup of murderesses--village wives, mothers, and daughters--was to come to the shocking realization that this could have happened anywhere, and to anyone. At the center of it all was a sharp-minded village midwife, a "smiling Buddha" known as Auntie Suzy, who distilled arsenic from flypaper and distributed it to the women of Nagyrév. "Why are you bothering with him?" Auntie Suzy would ask, as she produced an arsenic-filled vial from her apron pocket. In the beginning, a great many used the deadly solution to finally be free of cruel and abusive spouses.

But as the number of dead bodies grew without consequence, the killers grew bolder. With each vial of poison emptied, a new reason surfaced to drain yet another. Some women disposed of sickly relatives. Some used arsenic as "inheritance powder" to secure land and houses.

STFU: The Power of Keeping Your Mouth Shut in an Endlessly Noisy World

by Dan Lyons

Our noisy world has trained us to think that those who get in the last word win, when in fact it’s those who know how to stay silent who really hold the power. STFU is a book that unlocks this power and will change your life, freeing you to focus on what matters. Lyons combines leading behavioral science with actionable advice on how to communicate with intent, think critically, and open your mind and ears to the world around you. Talk less, get more. That’s what STFU is all about. Prescriptive, informative, and addictively readable, STFU gives you the tools to become your better self, whether that’s in the office, at home, online, or in your most treasured relationships. Because, after all, what you say is who you are.

Croucher

22-year-old aspiring writer Edith 'Eddie' Miller and her best friend Rose have always done everything together-climbing trees, throwing grapes at boys, sneaking bottles of wine, practicing kissing . . But following their debutante ball Rose is suddenly talking about marriage, and Eddie is horrified.

When Eddie meets charming, renowned poet Nash Nicholson, he invites her to his crumbling Gothic estate in the countryside. The entourage of eccentric artists indulging in pure hedonism is exactly what Eddie needs in order to forget Rose and finish her novel.

But Eddie might discover the world of famous literary icons isn't all poems and pleasure . .

I Am Debra Lee: A Memoir by

Debra Lee

A riveting memoir by the former CEO of Black Entertainment Television (BET), about the glamorous and ugly moments of being a high-powered Black woman executive in the entertainment industry.

As an incredible glass-ceiling breaker and the woman who brought timeless television shows like The Game and Being Mary Jane to cable, Debra Lee has been the visionary responsible for elevating Black images and storytelling for decades. Now she’s telling her own story, in an intimate and eye-opening tale about the triumphant and tricky moments of a career in entertainment.

I Am Debra Lee is a page-turner, filled with deeply personal revelations, juicy celebrity intel, and electrifying behind-thescenes stories that reveal how she went from a girl raised in the segregated South to leading the first Black company traded on the New York Stock Exchange and how she juggled social responsibility while managing a company targeted toward the Black community. In a rousing narrative, Lee writes: “I don’t just love Black culture—the magic in our hair, the swagger in our steps, the particular way we can say ‘alright now’ to fit our changing moods—Black culture saved me.”

Directed by David F. Sandberg

Written by Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan

2019’s Shazam! Gave us a much lighter and fun take on the superhero with almost every power at their disposal, but with a kid being the one possessing these powers. Billy Batson (Asher Angel) and Shazam (Zachary Levi) did a great job bringing the awe of possessing superpowers and the naivety of still being a young person in a superhero body. The first film did a good job reflecting the story of foster kids in foster homes and by the end of the first film all of the foster kids became superheroes. Needless to say, a sequel is expected to bring us the continuation of the story with the entire family fighting to save the world.

Here comes the spoilers.

The film opens with beautiful shots of Athens Acropolis and the Acropolis Museum. Two mysterious figures wearing ancient solider armor walks up to the case containing a broken magical staff and they reveal themselves to be daughters of Atlas, Hespera (Helen Mirren) and Kalypso Lucy Liu). They take the staff while killing all the tourists by turning them to statues. In Philadelphia, Billy Batson and his foster brothers and sisters are all doing their own thing and Billy rallies them to go save people on a bridge before it collapses. They regroup afterwards at the Rock of Eternity to go over the event and see how they can do better. This is when each member shows lack of interest and they are more concerned about their own personal interests. This leads Billy to push harder for them all to stick together and by pushing so hard indirectly pushes them all away. Billy gets called out for his fear of abandonment. As a foster kid he had to deal with his parents abandoning him and as he is soon to become 18 years old he fears by aging out of foster care he will not have a home anymore. This theme of abandonment and siblings drifting apart was never fully developed because the writers had way too much going on and rushed the dynamics here.

The daughters of Atlas are then revealed to be three and not just two. With their younger sister Anthea who is posing as a high school student and crosses paths with Freddy. Freddy has a disability and uses a walking crutch, and when bullied he stands up to them and earns the respect of Anne (Anthea). He takes Anne to the school rooftop to impress her with him knowing a superhero (which is himself). Suddenly Hespera and Kalypso appear and steal Freddy’s power. Shazam and the other siblings fly to his rescue, but the daughters of Atlas fly away leaving the city covered in an impenetrable dome. Shazam and the other siblings go back to the Rock of Eternity and in a magical library to consult a magical pen named Steve who seems to have all knowledge and information. They have Steve send a letter to the daughters of Atlas requesting a trade for Freddy. During the meetup to discuss a trade they end up fighting and capturing Hespera. They imprison her in a cell at the Rock of Eternity, but unbeknownst to them that was her plan to get a seed of life which was contained within an apple they tossed around in the library. She takes it and escapes.

The next several scenes are just as predictable as anyone could imagine. One of the sisters turns on the other and tries to destroy earth. Billy has to reveal to his foster parents who he really is and makes a sacrifice to save his family. The film rushes the ending and spends way too much time on flying through fire sequences and placing gratuitous advertising for Skittles for anyone to care (seriously “Taste the Rainbow”). It becomes a laughingstock of a film and quite frankly I am at a loss of how to make this film better. The villains were never shown how their lives were lived for thousands of years watching the humans take over the earth. No empathy there. No time to fully showcase what each and every member of the family was dealing with. For one character he is hinted at being gay, but when he comes out to his family they are all like “yeah we know”, and right there a tremendous moment is wasted. Every theme they hinted at was never fully delivered upon. Therefore I cannot even provide a way to improve this film other than to spend an extra 8 minutes of film time delivering on these themes.

Although I felt the first film had some potential and had its heart in the right place, this film misses that heart by a long shot. The danger gets turned into a farce and the stakes are never raised to a level where an audience can care about any character or relationship. Even the level of campiness and PG-13 rating, this film just falls flat. Too much going on and a too neat of a bow tie ending. No consequences. No real stakes at hand. No complex emotional themes delivered. Just a waste of film and great actors like Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu. The two writers should be banned from ever writing again for the DC Universe.

Thanks for reading Writing Movie ‘WRONGS’.

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