Rating: 
Summary: Female Ejaculating Bisexual Quakers Unite
Review: This book is a different experience from the start. The paper is similar to grocery bags, the typeface wavers on the line, and almost every page is decorated with rubber stamp art, doodles, and calligraphy. But there's an intriguing story here, too, not just a fancy presentation. Tomato Rodriguez sets off on a motorcycle she can barely ride, as a motorcycle gang of one (the Flaming Iguanas), to cross the country and reunite with her ailing father, who runs a sex toy shop with his girlfriend. Lopez definitely stands many of the conventions of the male road novel on their heads. When I tried to guess how things would end up, I was rarely successful, and I like that in a book. Still, I thought there were places that she abandoned a character or a plot line just as it was starting to bear fruit. Lopez implies that the book is semi-autobiographical, and it's hard to know whether it's the "truer" parts are the places where the plot veers as awkwardly as Tomato steering on gravel. The strength of this book is its characterization. There are no strong male characters in this book, but they are not uniformly disgusting or stereotypical, a fault some feminist authors fall into. The portrait of her therapy-overdosed, boundary-obssessed lesbian mom is wonderful ("I imagined all of us protected by invisible squares of masking tape on the floor that followed us wherever we walked like hoop skirts, and if anyone crossed over into our space we were allowed to shoot to kill, the way you can when burglars break into your house.") Let me leave you with the quote that will, I believe, provide the ultimate litmus test as to whether this book is for you: "I wanted a Bisexual Female Ejaculating Quaker role model. And where was she, dammit? From now on I would demand to be represented." Go on. Ride on the wild side.
Rating:
Summary: Wicked !
Review: This book kicks butt.
It so funny in parts I laughed outloud. All I kept thinking was how true it all was, I mean if you decided tomorrow that you wanted to be tough and drive across the country on a motot bike, you would fall down a lot, you would be really scared when big giant trucks drove by in an attempt to splatter you on the road, and, you might even sing made up folk songs outloud in your helmet to try and keep yourself calm. Hil freekin larious, is what I think this book is. The writing is is a bit like having a conversation with someone super funny but slightly unstable. It is in your face graphic and offers no sugar coating of thoughts and feelings. There is no filter for the verbal rantings and that is what makes it great.
You will be entertained by this book. It was a very pleasent surprise. Plus the packageing is cool, you cannot go wrong. I want to go out and buy several copies and send them to all my girlfriends.
Rating:
Summary: Wicked !
Review: This book kicks butt.
It so funny in parts I laughed outloud. All I kept thinking was how true it all was, I mean if you decided tomorrow that you wanted to be tough and drive across the country on a motot bike, you would fall down a lot, you would be really scared when big giant trucks drove by in an attempt to splatter you on the road, and, you might even sing made up folk songs outloud in your helmet to try and keep yourself calm. Hil freekin larious, is what I think this book is. The writing is is a bit like having a conversation with someone super funny but slightly unstable. It is in your face graphic and offers no sugar coating of thoughts and feelings. There is no filter for the verbal rantings and that is what makes it great.
You will be entertained by this book. It was a very pleasent surprise. Plus the packageing is cool, you cannot go wrong. I want to go out and buy several copies and send them to all my girlfriends.
Rating: 
Summary: Hope for the publishing industry!
Review: This book renewed my hope in publishers, readers, retailers, you name it. It shows that not everyone is afraid of something new, wild, and completely uncategorizable. I read this book in one fantastic sitting. Erika Lopez is the best thing to come down the pike in a long-assed time.
Rating:
Summary: Pleasant
Review: This is a pleasant and quick read with interesting illustrations and lots of them. Perfect for a summer's day when you're feeling glum. Look, this chick Tomato has never ridden a motorcycle. Before she knows it, she's her own gang riding cross country with only half the gang's name embroidered on her leather jacket. Very colorful like the cover. You gotta get this.
Rating: 
Summary: fun feminist road trip
Review: This novel is an easy read, though might be a little rauchy for some readers--no holding back on bluntness--I like that though--a tough lady on a motorcyle without a clue as to what she is doing.
Creates a funny situation in which the narrator learns a little about traveling across country and a lot about who she is. Brief novel based on real trip with funny upfront philosophy of life thrown in. Recommended for those who dream of moving on in this life--finding new roads to travel.
Rating:
Summary: Great Fun...I felt the wind in my teeth
Review: This was such a fun book...I still feel as though I took the ride with Erika. I loved this book so much I sent a copy to my rather conservative Dad.
Rating:
Summary: The best book I have ever read
Review: Tomato is my heroine. Flaming Iguanas is a book every woman should read. It captures perfectly the search for identity and freedom many women are experiencing. I reccomend this to anyone who feels the need to leave everything behind and go experince life.
Rating:
Summary: not just for girls.
Review: with the homogenous gender status in this set of reviews one might get the impression that this book is only for women. not true at all. it speaks to any person who desires to break with the conformity of modern life. being a big fan of jack kerouac and douglas coupland, i applaud erika lopez for throwing her two cents into the "youth with malaise and wanderlust" arena; and from the perspective of someone other than a white male. it's a fun ride... hope for many more.
Rating:
Summary: Frantic, Bizarre, Insightful and Muddled -- I Recommend It
Review: Writing as her alter ego, Jolene "Tomato" Rodriguez, the always-entertaining Erika Lopez spins a tale that you will either adore or despise. It is difficult to feel ambivalent or indifferent towards her quirky story and over-the-top first-person narrator's scrambled but passionate outlook. Adjectives such as "spunky" spring inevitably to mind.
If you love motorcycles and/or good old-fashioned road trip stories, you will probably get a kick out of this book just for those factors, which form a dominant (if not overriding) theme here. And if you dig artistic, literary and (shall we say) "offbeat" bisexual women indulging in irresponsible, unaccountable fun you will probably enjoy it just for those (equally strong) elements.
I followed Tomato's journey with a mix of pity and delight; she is a Latina Bridget Jones on wheels.
You might be distracted or even put off by the strange fonts and even stranger clip art Lopez uses, which I found amusing and curious but ultimately unnecessary. Frankly, I would have loved this book just as much if it had been published in a conventional format -- I don't think the weird lettering and frequent graphic inclusions added anything to the plot. Many readers, I'm sure, will find it intrusive. As for me, I quit noticing it after a while, like the subtitles in a foreign film. It remains an interesting choice, however, and I suppose Lopez is trying to show us how Tomato's mind works.
FI is full of rough and dirty adventure, including enough conflict and sex to keep the casual reader interested even if the bigger issues slip by. I felt like this book could have been 25% longer. It seemed to run out of steam and stop rather abruptly. Then again, the fact that she left me wanting more seems to suggest that she wrote a fine and memorable novella. Lopez is at her best when she describes the sights and sounds (and smells) of her life on the road with a tone that is reminiscent of Charles Kuralt while still bubbling with colorful analogies and images in the style of Tom Robbins. Her brutally honest evaluation of motel-room sex with a virtual stranger is uncomfortably hilarious.
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