If you're a regular reader, you saw my quasi-review of undiscovered gyrl by Allison Burnett.  Don't forget to see the postcript in which I explain the Salinger comparison a little more, as well as a strange connection to author Saundra Mitchell.

undiscovered gyrl made me cringe, made me angry, made me confused, made me think.  I hate when reviews say that books "make you think."  It's as though being thought-provoking is the best you can say about it (as opposed to being witty, eloquent, well-paced, etc.)

I've vacillated from anger to awe, from being impatient to being impressed with Burnett.  I think I'd jump on any bandwagon that tried to convince me one way or another.

Well, Allison got to me first.

You can submit your review to the undiscovered gyrl site, which is what I did. About a week later, I received an email from Allison Burnett.

What can I say? I'm easy.  Authors receive more of my adoration than "celebrities," so to have one engage with me feeds my bookish narcissism. And Burnett's not only an author, but also a force in showbiz; his career includes screenwriting. (How much do I love that he wrote the script for this fall's FAME?!)

The end result, anyway, is that I am declaring myself a news-bringer, a non-neutral force in the viral marketing campaign for undiscovered gyrl. Behold, two videos made by famous people.

The first, directed by Zalman King (he co-directed 9 1/2 weeks), features Burnett talking to the camera about how much he loves Katie, the main character of undiscovered gyrl. The only part that bugs me is his claim that we've all felt like Katie, at some point in our lives. I have to beg out of that one, actually. And I think Holly would agree with me. The vid, however, shows Burnett at his charming writerly best, and it's definitely worth two minutes.



The second video was made by Jordan Alan, and stars his wife Amanda Righetti. I appreciate the attempt, but right away it's obvious that Righetti is too beautiful, too old, too poised, too old, too polished, too old to actually be Katie as she retells the first pages of the book. Still, Righetti is stunning, so watch anyway:



Well? What do you think?

Copies of undiscovered gyrl have gone out to Beth and to Lorna, so if you didn't get an ARC, at least reserve this book at your library. It's definitely something you should read before school starts again - awesome lunchroom discussion that makes you seem both smart and funny, sort of like Amy Poehler.