Metal Memoir

Buy this rock chick a beer and let her blab, cuz she’s fun to hang out with. Is she disillusioned with her few years scribing on the tattered outskirts of the ’80s–’90s Hollywood metal scene? A little, maybe, but in Nërd Girl Rocks Paradise City, Anne Thomas Soffee disposes of her illusions like Budweisers, just glad for the ride. Late nights, lousy jobs, loser boyfriends — this is nonfiction L.A., all right.Soffee (author of Snake Hips: Belly Dancing and How I Found True Love) remembers every torn fishnet, pink slip and broken promise. Still, she shrugs it off, like, What did I expect, that Glenn Danzig would carry me off to his dark castle? Wait, THERE HE IS IN THE VON’S PRODUCE SECTION, FEELING UP THE CANTALOUPES!When Soffee bottoms out, she bounces, and you cheer. You’ll rip through Nërd Girl in about the time it takes to play a Motley Crue album, and then you will play one. I recommend Dr. Feelgood.NËRD GIRL ROCKS PARADISE CITY: A TRUE STORY OF FAKING IT IN HAIR-METAL L.A. | By Anne Thomas Soffee | Chicago Review Press | 256 pages | $22.95 hardcover