A Lil' Sumpin' Sumpin'

2011-08-07T23:20:00.007-04:00

The Monster of Florence: A True Story

by Douglas Preston & Mario Spezi

(4 Scoops)

I was tempted to give this book a five, but like many true stories it doesn't have the sort of neat resolution that I wish it had. Of course, it seems the purpose of this book is not to let us all sigh a satisfied sigh that the monster has been caught and that all is right in the world, instead, it seems intent on showing how the Italian legal system is deeply flawed and itself a monster.

The Monster of Florence is a work of non-fiction that presents information about a serial killer on the loose in Florence. The first part describes these atrocities in I-can't-read-this-while-eating-or-when-it-is-time-to-go-to-sleep detail; the second tells of the ways in which the two authors find themselves ensnared in the criminal investigation. I picked this book up because my neighbors were having noisy sex and I needed a distraction. This was the wrong book for that! I stayed up until sunrise, too terrified to sleep. I thought for sure the Monster was going murder my neighbors and then I'd be stuck as a witness in a long drawn out court case!

Ultimately, the read was well worth the loss of sleep because what we have here is a deeply engaging set of facts and an excellent piece of writing.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, But Could Not Hold My Attention

2011-07-27T13:29:00.006-04:00

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind:
Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope
by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
(2 scoops)

This is a classic example of a great story, but a bad book.

If I hadn't agreed to read it in order to help a lovely young lady with her summer assignment I would have never made it through the first few chapters. The writing is clunky, cliche-filled, and just drags on and on and on. And on.

Sure, there is a quality pay off at the end, but if I'm going to read a book instead of watching a feel good segment on YouTube, then the book-reading-experience should be a pleasurable one. Yes,
I understand that the authors want their readers to understand the cultural context in which Kamkwamba exists, but a few well constructed and well placed anecdotes could have done that a lot better than page after page of rambling. In fact, there is a great bit about boiling goat poop and an exacerbated mother that does just that!

Kamkwamba is truly an inspirational young man and I am glad that I now know a bit more about his homeland and his story. I just wish that the book, which I'm sure will be used in Middle School and High School Science and Humanities courses for years to come, was as inspiringly well written.

Not So Bright

2011-07-27T12:54:00.010-04:00

"This Side of Brightness weaves historical fact with fictional truth, creating a remarkable tale of death, racism, homelessness--and yes, love--spanning four generations. Two characters dominate Colum McCann's narrative: Treefrog, a homeless man with a dark and shameful secret, and Nathan Walker, a black man who came north in the early years of the century to work as a "sandhog," digging the subway tunnels beneath Manhattan. Walker's tale is told in alternating chapters with Treefrog's, who, before his slide into homelessness, chose a hazardous profession- a construction worker building skyscrapers." -- from Amazon.com Review

This Side of Brightness

by Colum McCann

(3 Scoops)

While I loved Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann, I had a hard time engaging with one of his older novels, This Side of Brightness. I read this book over the course of a week or so, one or two chapters before bed. Now, I know this is how most folks read, but it is atypical of my reading habits which border on obsessive. I usually consume a book in an evening, sacrificing sleep until I've finished. If I really love a book and I want the experience of reading it to last I will spread my reading out to three or four days, but that can start to drive an (impatient) girl crazy.

So, it was strange to find myself content with just a chapter or two. At first it was because the chapters were rich with characterization and lovely prose and seemed to stand alone, like well written short stories. Soon though I realized that it was because I was sort of bored.

By the time I got to the ending I realized that I didn't particularly care about one of the protagonists and the lyrical prose was more confusing than illuminating. I don't think I understood the ending- either from a practical this-is-what-happened point-of-view, or a more thematic understanding of the take away message McCann was aiming at. The beginning of the book was reallyinteresting though, when the story centered around the "sandhogs" and their work digging the tunnels underneath Manhattan and its surrounding waterways. I felt transported to another time and was fascinated by the historical fiction that helped produce this place where I work and live. When it switches to the modern tale of Treefrog's experience with homelessness and mental illness I was less intrigued.

As the two stories began to weave together, a McCann structural staple, I was annoyed by the heavy-handedness of the tunnel metaphor and the "meaning" implied by the contrast between the generations. Maybe all of that is there in Let the Great World Spin too, but it is way better written, with sentences so gorgeous they just filled me up with joy and possibility.

Where Have all the Great Books Gone?

2011-07-13T09:47:00.006-04:00

I'm having some focusing issues.

This seems to happen whenever I read an amazing book or, God forbid, multiple amazing books in a row! After reading something brilliant it is so hard to read something that is merely good. And if the book is boring or bad in any way, ugh, that's just the pits.

I've started maybe three books in the last few weeks and, it's not that I want to disparage them, I'm sure they are perfectly fine works, but they aren't amazing. Sans amazingness, I'm finding that I'd rather play Bomboozle on Facebook or stare into space on the subway then take out a book and start reading.

Usually when I read a book I devour it in as few sittings as possible. The characters invade my mind and set up camp, demanding that I think of them and discover all that there is to discover about them in a timely fashion. I'm the girl who walks off the train and up the stairs with eyes still glued to the page and leans against a wall by the exit until I come to the end of the chapter- yesterday I rode the train to the end of the line and back to my stop so I could finish writing the piece I had started (well, it didn't hurt that the train has AC and my apartment does not, but that is not the point right now). The point is, that if I am invested in something I am all in. So it pains me now that I have three quarter-read books littering my home and, despite stacks and stacks of books to be read, no real desire to commit to a new text for fear that it too will suffer from a lack of amazingness. I'm not in the mood to be disappointed again.*

*This is obviously a metaphor for my love life. Analyze as you see fit.

I'm a Winner at the Game of Life!

2011-07-07T16:37:00.014-04:00

A while back I entered a contest at the fantastic website GREEN House of Fashion and, guess what, I WON!!!!!!!!! Nothing like the thrill of victory to get you through the long, hot days of summer.

Today, when I left my dreary apartment to go get the mail, there was a little package with my name on it (and we all know that [except for men] good things come in small packages). I tell ya, it was better than Ed McMahon (RIP, good sir.) himself ringing my doorbell and handing me a giant cardboard check. I mean, you don't get to unwrap a check.

I cut open the bubble wrap and inside was a chartreuse (one of my favorite colors and, for that matter, words) bag and a beautiful, handmade, red, pulpy-paper card with a bit of gold-painted greenery affixed.

(Hmmm, perhaps I should have ironed my sheets before I used them as the backdrop for this photo shoot....)

I opened the chartreuse bag and voila, green gorgeousness. Green because the folks at "Moonlight Glistening Jewelry" made this necklace and earring set with recycled sterling silver, amazonite, and lead-free crystals, and gorgeousness becuase, well, duh! Look at it!

I put it on and felt instantly glamourous. Well, as glamourous as any one in an Old Navy tank top, flip-flops, and frumpy shorts two sizes too big can feel.

(Hmmm, perhaps I should have done my hair or make-up or, you know, bathed before I took pictures of myself destined for the web...)

I am really grateful to Bree and Zanna over at GREEN House of Fashion and the folks at Bel Esprit and Bitch Boss for organizing this contest and for picking lil ole me as the WINNER!

All in all, winning rocks. This jewelry rocks.

And I am going to rock whilst rockin'

these rocks that I got.

Bel Esprit: The online showroom for international designers of ethical fashion from BEL ESPRIT SHOWROOM on Vimeo.

"Play is a Good Thing"

2011-07-07T14:54:00.003-04:00

Fun in the Sun

2011-06-21T13:55:00.005-04:00

My dear friend and colleague gave me a very generous gift card (that I tried to graciously refuse on the grounds that it was far to generous and I had done nothing to deserve such generosity, but she was extremely insistent that I take it, so I acquiesced!) and so, of course, I did what anybody would do: I bought a shit-ton of books. But, because I shopped on Better World Books (an awesome used book site that never charges shipping and donates part of the proceeds to literacy charities) when they were having a sale, I managed to get all 15 of these beauties for a grand total of$45.99. That is $3.06 a book. Woot-woot! I now have reading material for at least a month! And, since I used the remaining value of the gift card to buy some vitamins and organic food on VitaCost, I'll have plenty of energy to write you plenty of new reviews! Woot-woot-woot!

Men, Women and Children

2011-06-21T00:10:00.002-04:00

I love the profane. I love being shocked.

And a good first sentence makes me giddy.

Enter Men, Women & Children by Chad Kultgen.

Here is what I opened to today on the subway:

"Don Truby thought about Kelly Ripa's anus."

Bees are Better

2011-06-13T12:31:00.020-04:00

I'm about a hundred pages in to The Time Traveler's Wife and I gotta say, it's pretty terrible. This is why I never read the BIG book of the season, the one all the ladies-who-lunch propel to greatness. Those books are usually pretty terrible. Sure, there are some exceptions, like Olive Kittredge, or Little Bee. Though, truth be told, Little Bee was simply a compelling story, not an exceptionally well written book.

Anyway, I think I'm done with The Time Traveler's Wife. I mean, I wasn't enjoying it and then I found a few typos and some sentences that made no sense and that just pushed me over the edge. Things like this: "Dad was resplendent in dark blue pants and a white short sleeved shirt, providing a quiet background for Mom's flamboyance." Resplendent? Really? And in the same sentence you say his resplendence is a quiet background. Nope. Not buying this.

And what about this strangely punctuated paragraph? "This room is full of birds. Birds in simulated flight, birds perched eternally on branches, bird heads, bird skins. I open one of the hundreds of drawers; it contains a dozen glass tubes, each holding a tiny gold and black bird with its name wrapped around a foot."

Why the short declarative sentences then the random list of descriptive phrases disguised as a sentence and then the two clauses joined by a semicolon? I'd like to be so engrossed in the story that I don't get distracted by the strange punctuation. The punctuation and structure should serve the story. Like a well laid out buffet or silently passed hors devours, I should notice the arrangement but only in as much as it contributes to my overall appreciation. I don't want to spend all my time analyzing the presentation of the food when I could actually be enjoying my food. You feel me?

And, writing style aside, the story creeps me out. Particularly the sexual tension between the old man and the young girl. And the fact that he knows so much that she can't know and the inherent power disparity in such a relationship and yet they are supposed to be in love. Yuck.

Maybe it gets better, but I don't really care. If there weren't so many other amazing books in the world I may have stuck with it, but since I received two new titles from Harper Perennial in my mailbox I tossed TTTW to the curb and instead read The Beekeeper's Lament: How One Man and Half a Billion Honey Bees Help Feed America by Hannah Nordhaus, which is a damn good book. It provides tons of information and manages to have interesting characters and a compelling narrative arc. I never knew I cared about bees, but now I do. I care and I know that I care. And I now want to go on a honey tasting tour of America. (And while I'm on that honey tour I'm going to read the other book that arrived in my mailbox, Men, Women & Children by Chad Kultgen!)

Hannah Nordhaus is not necessarily an objective reporter of facts; she becomes a character in the story and presents her material with a strong, clear and concerned voice. She is obviously fond of John Miller, the beekeeper at the center of this narrative, but does not seem blind to his flaws. I never felt like I was being preached too, though it is clear that Nordhaus, like anyone who actually pays attention to where our food is coming from, is troubled by the state of American agriculture.

For obvious reasons, this is my favorite passage in the book.

"But the attention to beekeepers has also wrought some long overdue recognition- of the hard work required to keep bees alive these days; of the superhuman sacrifices required to make their living; of the quixotic delight beekeepers take in pursuing a difficult professional path. Perhaps that's why I was drawn to Miller. Though I had long been exceedingly fond of honey, I had no particular affection for bees. Beekeepers, though, are a different story. They are heroic characters, tragic characters, anomalous characters. They do the hard thing. I could appreciate that. I had alit on a profession that's even less commonsensical, even more economically obtuse, even lonelier than being a writer. Beekeepers deserve a little recognition for that."

Summer Reading List

2011-06-10T16:54:00.003-04:00

Lately I have been on a non-fiction kick. I discovered Mary Roach and promptly fell in love with her brilliant wit and quirky content. Bonk was laugh out loud funny and Stiff was amusingly cringeworthy. I also read and fell in love with Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. This summer I hope to continue this love affair with quality non-fiction with these three titles:

Thunderstruck by Eric Larsen

In Thunderstruck, Erik Larson tells the interwoven stories of two men—Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of communication—whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time.

The Anti-Romantic Child: A Story of Unexpected Joy by Priscilla Gilman

Priscilla Gilman had the greatest expectations for the birth of her first child. Growing up in New York City amongst writers, artists, and actors, Gilman experienced childhood as a whirlwind of imagination, creativity, and spontaneity. As a Wordsworth scholar, she celebrated and embraced the poet's romantic view of children—and eagerly anticipated her son's birth, certain that he, too, would come "trailing clouds of glory." But her romantic vision would not be fulfilled in the ways she dreamed. Though Benjamin was an extraordinary child, the signs of his precocity—dazzling displays of memory and intelligence—were also manifestations of a developmental disorder that would require intensive therapies and special schooling, and would dramatically alter the course Priscilla had imagined for her family.

SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper by Howard E. Wasdin and Stephen Templin
Less than half a year after sniper school, he was fighting for his life. The mission: capture or kill Somalian warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. From rooftops, helicopters and alleys, Wasdin hunted Aidid and killed his men whenever possible. But everything went quickly to hell when his small band of soldiers found themselves fighting for their lives, cut off from help, and desperately trying to rescue downed comrades during a routine mission. The Battle of Mogadishu, as it become known, left 18 American soldiers dead and 73 wounded. Howard Wasdin had both of his legs nearly blown off while engaging the enemy. His dramatic combat tales combined with inside details of becoming one of the world’s deadliest snipers make this one of the most explosive military memoirs in years.

Any other books you think I might like?

Quarantine

2011-05-06T18:35:00.010-04:00

Nothing like being quarantined in an airplane seat for 6 hours to get some quality reading done! And that is exactly what I did on my last JetBlue flight from California to New York. I had just received the Harper Perenial ARC of QUARANTINE, a new short story collection by Rahul Mehta, and was eager to read it. So, I fastened my seatbelt, turned off the TV monitor in front of me, and settled in to eat my Munchies and get to reading!

The flap copy states:

With buoyant humor and incisive, cunning prose, Rahul Mehta sets off into uncharted literary territory. The characters in Quarantine—openly gay Indian-American men—are Westernized in some ways, with cosmopolitan views on friendship and sex, while struggling to maintain relationships with their families and cultural traditions. Grappling with the issues that concern all gay men—social acceptance, the right to pursue happiness, and the heavy toll of listening to their hearts and bodies—they confront an elder generation's attachment to old-country ways. Estranged from their cultural in-group and still set apart from larger society, the young men in these lyrical, provocative, emotionally wrenching, yet frequently funny stories find themselves quarantined.

Already a runaway success in India, Quarantine marks the debut of a unique literary talent.

I find it off-putting when a book that deals with a particular population seems to be solely marketed to that singular population, when in fact this book, as most quality literature does, speaks to universal themes. Quarantine addresses topics that we all can relate to: love, lost love, longing, and feeling torn between one's true self and societal or familial expectations.

My favorite stories were "The Better Person," "What We Mean," and "A Better Life." I liked how they explored how we use, or don't use, language in our lives. My main takeaway was that if we don't tell the full truth of our hardships we are not protecting the next generation, but rather making it harder for those who come after us.

Please Don't Read This Book

2011-03-14T15:36:00.006-04:00

Head on over to Please Don't Read This Book and check out my guest review of Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys. And don't forget to leave a comment so you can win a copy of this gorgeous work of historical fiction.

Thought of the day!

2011-03-13T11:23:00.002-04:00

"All art is just

problem solving."

Empathy

2010-11-25T11:22:00.006-05:00

Congratulations to Kathrine Erskine- winner of the National Book Award for Young People's Literature for the book Mockingbird. I reviewed this book last year and knew it was destined to be a big success!

Having worked with high school students for the last 12 years, I can say that, Asperger's or not, empathy is sorely missing from so many young people in our schools today. Lately, bullying amongst kids and teens has been in the news and I think that books like Mockingbird can go a long way toward helping young people feel empathy for those around them. Yes, there needs to be policy and consequences for threatening or teasing in schools, but we also need to focus our resources on building communities that value empathy, kindness, praise, and love. And literature is an effective way to start doing just that.

Shump, shump, shump it up!

2010-11-04T14:42:00.005-04:00

Check out the fabulous fashion blog Zannazine!
Read the newest post, "My Lovely Lady Shumps" and see if you can find the A Lil' Sumpin' Sumpin' shout out!
Boom! I'm coining words like I was Abe Lincoln!
Get it? He's on the penny. It's a coin.
Nevermind.

Quote of the Day

2010-10-25T06:55:00.011-04:00

"Language and magic. Where is the connection? Think about it this way: when we form letters to write words, we create something out of nothing, so that the still air or the empty space on the page fills with meaning, as if a wizard created a blizzard from a clear blue sky."

-Roy Peter Clark, The Glamour of Grammar

I Have a Stomachache!

2010-10-24T15:58:00.003-04:00

And it is no wonder! Yesterday I spent my day hanging out with good friends having good times, which meant eating lots of junk food. And now I'm paying the price!

For breakfast, okay it was 2:00, but it was my first waking meal, so it still counts as breakfast, I met my girls at Spot for some delicious Thai coffee and cupcakes. You can read all about the experience, and see which cupcake won the taste-test challenge here. (Lemon Yuzu was by far my personal favorite- and I would gladly accept a Lemon Yuzu birthday cake from Spot- hint, hint.)

Then I travelled to The Wing Bar in Carroll Gardens for some Sam Adams seasonal brew, Buffalo wings, and brussels sprouts... fried brussells sprouts.

Dinner consisted of pineapple pizza, brownies, and wine. Yum. And they gave me the strength to dominate at Scattergories and Cranium. Boom.

A Creative Eden

2010-07-28T13:47:00.010-04:00

Just read a great guest post

by Jeremy C. Shipp

on the blog Not Enough Words

about embracing one's own creativity.

A simple lesson, but one that is surprisingly hard to enact.

He starts off by saying, "Early on, I didn’t think about the creative process. I simply enjoyed it. I wrote what I felt like writing. I didn’t hold anything back. I didn’t edit myself. In a manner of speaking, I was living in a creative Eden."

This is a place I would like to get back to sometime soon. Having made the decision to declare myself a capital W- Writer has increased the pressure I put on myself. What was once fun and the thing I did to relieve stress is now the cause of most of my stress! I am easily overwhelmed and paralyzed when I have complete creative freedom.

Recently I had the opportunity to write a chapter following an outline laid out by someone else. It was so liberating. Since I was not responsible for the character arc or plot, and therefore did not feel the same sense of vulnerability, I was free to relax and enjoy the simple act of playing with language. I think I have always thrived when there was some sense of structure; creating a theatrical adaptation of a classic, writing "in the style of" another author, or responding to an assignment. I feel like within limitations I can be at my most creative, perhaps because I love pushing against boundaries and breaking rules.

For me, it is about learning how to set my own structures and honor them as I would those set by another. That will be my path back to the verdant landscape of creativity.

How about you? Are you in your creative Eden now?

Or have you also eaten the apple?

A David & Goliath Fail

2010-07-23T17:51:00.006-04:00

I understand that advertisers need to get our attention and that in the past some rather quirky ads have done just that, but I am so disgusted by the recent Kia campaign that I just had to blog about it. Especially because lots of other bloggers seem to think something along the lines of this: "... our collective heads heads have officially exploded due to the sheer awesomeness of this effort from Kia and its marketing firm." What!?!?! Are they being paid to say that? They must be, but I'm not.

First of all it's called the Kia Soul Rapping Hamsters. That alone should let you know this is traveling down a dangerous road. I wish I could have been at the meeting when a bunch of guys in rumpled hipster suits first tried to pitch this to the car company elders who probably just assumed that the fact that they didn't get it meant that it would appeal to the youth of this nation, when the truth is that it is just lame and borderline offensive. Why hamsters? They look like rats, which is not a compliment. It is not complimentary, nor funny, to compare people in the hip hop culture to rodents. They look so much like rats that the commercial even makes a point of saying they are hamsters with all sorts of bad hamster puns. It's like they knew they were treading a fine line and crossed it anyways. The song the characters are using is a classic rap by the Black Sheep, so again I ask, why hamsters? Why not sheep? Or people for fucks sake. Don't you remember your mother ever saying enough is enough; the point being, just because it was funny once doesn't mean it will be funny again.

Trendhunter magazine said, "The Kia Soul ‘Rapping Hamsters’ commercial is the perfect remedy for boring commercial breaks." USA Today says, "OK, this new Kia Soul commercial is summertime happiness on your screen." I say, no. No, it is not. How about just play the song with the company's logo displayed on the screen? That would be more appealing. And make more sense. But, let's say I am willing to suspend my disbelief and play along with the logic that hamsters have disposable income and the need for a vehicle... you lose me completely when you have the other hamsters driving down the street in a toaster. A toaster! In no logically coinsitent world does that make any sense! A hamster wheel, okay. But a toaster or a dryer, no. Just no, people. No.

The Gettin' Was Good

2010-07-20T12:15:00.002-04:00

Get Your Read On: VP Style was a success!

Check out the Verbal Pyrotechnics blog

to read all about it and see some awesome pictures.

VP Reading Series

2010-06-23T11:20:00.003-04:00

GET YOUR READ ON: VP STYLE

July 14th, 2010

8:00- 9:30pm

Bowery Poetry Club

$5.00 cover

Be there or be square!

And submissions open on July 1st, 2010

My Month Off

2010-06-22T16:06:00.003-04:00

Greetings and salutations.

It has been one dramatic month for little old me. I finished my thesis, graduated from the New School, hosted my 9 year old niece on her first visit to NYC, went to a beautiful wedding for one of my oldest and dearest friends in Carmel-By-The Sea, and celebrated my mother's birthday with a day at the beach. While I was relaxing in the Bay Area I attended my niece's fourth grade poetry reading, my nephew's fifth grade graduation ceremony, and a fabulous fundraiser for The Retro Dome. There was also quite a bit of time spent laying on the hammock in the backyard, picking lemons form my mom's tree, and generally enjoying the California sun. I also enjoyed driving to the Safeway for groceries- compared to the overpriced disgustingness that is your average NYC grocery store, Safeway is like paradise And you don't have to carry your groceries home! I swear, fulfilling your basic human needs in this town is so freaking difficult.

But, alas, I am back in NYC in my tiny, humid concrete box of a home.

You Know?

2010-05-17T11:29:00.002-04:00

A poem by Taylor Mali turned into a video by Ronnie Bruce

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

Today's Lists

2010-05-15T17:53:00.010-04:00

Things That Annoy Me More

Than They Probably Should

1. Doing laundry [specifically- folding and storing fitted sheets, trying to stuff my fluffy down comforter into the comforter cover, and when people take your not yet dry clothes out of the machine (especially when other machine are empty!)]

2. This super creepy Excedrin Migraine Medication commercial.

3. When I get something stuck in between my teeth and I don't have any dental floss.

4. When someone puts sugar in my coffee even though I say, "light, no sugar."

Things That Make Me Happier

Than They Probably Should

1. This commercial! Not only am I a huge fan of the product, but the song makes me laugh!

2. Caramel sauce

3. When you think you have lost an earring but it turns out to be stuck to your scarf.

4. Receiving a good old fashioned letter in the mail.

Hey batter batter batter...

2010-05-14T01:14:00.002-04:00

The literary agent Nathan Bransford has some good advice about the author's pitch up on his blog.

"My feeling: get it all out of the way at once. Save yourself the headache and come up with a one sentence, one paragraph, and two paragraph pitch before you even start to query. Then: practice and memorize your pitches. You never know when you're going to need them."

He then proceeds to give an example of the one sentence, one paragraph and two paragraph pitch for his own novel. Check it out!

Worthless-Online

2010-05-13T23:23:00.013-04:00

Today I turned a corner in the 4th floor computer lab and ran right into my dear friend Benjamin Andrew Moore. And yes folks, he is indeed someone who should always be called by his full name, because he is most certainly three names worth of awesome. So, said awesome friend of three names worth of awesome took some time out of his busy day to show me his supremely awesome website which is called Worthless Online. I figured I would pass this gem along to the rest of you so you could be supremely jealous that I am friends with my awesome friend of three names worth of awesome and so you could read his comics and reviews and articles and short stories and watch his great videos and try and figure out what the hell is up with that creepy Jorge Jackson guy!

Book Reviews

2010-05-12T20:39:00.005-04:00

The Sky is Everywhere

by Jandy Nelson

(5 scoops)

Man, oh man. This book is good. So good.

This book should be required reading.

Not required for any particular class, just required for life.

Out of the Pocket

by Bill Konisberg

(3.5 scoops)

An honest, heart warming presentation of a unique coming out story. The author made me really care about Bobby and his friends and family and many of the book's passages moved me deeply. The sports writing and the titular "out of the pocket" metaphor were also handled well. Unfortunately, there were some very glaring errors, which should have been caught by an editor, that momentarily stalled my reading and made it hard to fall head over heals in love with this book. In the first chapter the senior boys on the football team all shave their heads, but in chapter five, only a few weeks later, there is mention of someone's dirty blond hair falling in wisps over his forehead. There is no way his hair would have grown back. Then there is the scene where Bobby and his best friend Austin are outside and Austin puts chew in his mouth, which Bobby is disgusted and seems shocked by. They then walk indoors and sit on the couch in the living room and have a very important conversation, but at no point is there any mention of Austin spitting or negotiating the chew. Another time Bobby is in a restaurant looking at his menu, and a few lines later he is wondering where his food is and then it arrives- but he never ordered! You can't include some of these details and not others or your reader will stop trusting you. I kept feeling like I had skipped a page or something! It's a shame that these easily fixable errors weren't caught before the book went to print because Konisberg is clearly a talented and heartfelt writer.

Pure Talent

2010-05-12T15:02:00.005-04:00

This kid is amazing!

So talented!

So calm and confident.

He's only 12 years old! 12!

At 12 I was just trying to color inside the lines!

SUMMER TRAVEL

2010-05-07T17:06:00.011-04:00

The good part about having gone through graduate school is the obligatory, soul-searching adventure that one must go on the summer after receiving one's degree! I am currently trying to plan some sort of an adventure with a fried of mine and it got me thinking about all the other adventures I have had the good fortune of going on.

In high school I spent each academic year working at the golf course and doing odd jobs in order to save up enough money so that I could go on a two week summer volunteer retreat with my youth group. The summer after 9th grade I went to Tijuana to work at a day care center in the city and make and distribute food to those people who were living in the local garbage dump- most significant experience in my entire life. The following summer I rode the train from California through Nevada and Utah to get to Denver, where we did some volunteer work, and then went to Colorado Springs for some relaxation and white water rafting. The next summer we spent a few weeks on the White River Apache Reservation in Arizona learning about Apache traditions and helping to build a community center. We also got to see the Grand Canyon and hike the Canyon de Chelly. The following summer I found myself in Juneau and then taking a small plane and then a boat to get to Sitka, Alaska where we helped to maintain a college campus and I ran through the woods like a speckled sprite! So many amazing memories!

While in high school I went on other trips too. I spent time in both Eugene and Portland, Oregon with my sister, hiked in Yosemite, went to Lake Tahoe and the surrounding areas for countless camping and ski trips with friends, and to Kansas City for a wedding. I took a road trip with my parents through Nevada and Idaho to get to a family reunion in Montana and then we explored Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Oh, and of course I spent several weekends running around Disneyland!

In college there were various road trips and bizarro adventures: a Route 66 cross-country drive with two of the loudest, craziest dudes I know (complete with a near death experience involving an overturned semi and icy roads); drives from the Bay Area to Arcata to hang out with friends; Fung Wah bus rides to Boston; a bus trip to Washington DC for the final exhibition of the AIDS quilt in its entirety and my one and only march on Washington to date; an epic Greyhound ride down to New Orleans, so I could hang out with friends, drink on the street, stay in a youth hostel, and rent a car to drive to Florida to get fake nails and eat a seafood supper; the foolhardy trip to Graceland for the 20th anniversary of Elvis's death that entailed our car/hotel being stolen and the four of us never actually getting to see the inside of Graceland because we were too busy drowning our sorrows in free alcohol at a casino in a nearby town!

After graduating from college I started teaching high school in the South Bronx and had the opportunity to spend the summer in North Carolina with a group of my students at the Outward Bound school. We went hiking, rock climbing, and white water rafting and wrote a lot of poems.

Two summers after graduating college I took the backpack-through-Europe trip of my dreams. I started in Barcelona with my best friend, and then we traveled to Madrid, Bilbao, and San Sebastian before we parted ways- her to meet up with her brother, and me to join my cousin in Switzerland where I windsurfed over the Alps and almost killed myself and a cute elderly couple when I was riding a bicycle a million miles an hour straight down a dusty, gravelly path. Then I went solo, took a train to Paris and spent a week not talking, napping in museums, writing in my journal, and eating bread with lots of butter. After that I found myself in Brussels for a few days before I headed off to Amsterdam. I had a friend who was house sitting in a small town outside the city, so I spent the last few days of my two month trip hanging out with him in a fully hooked up mansion surrounded by tulip fields.

After my Europe trip I went back to teaching, which meant I had winter breaks, spring breaks, mid-winter recesses and summers free for more exploring! On one such break I spent a ridiculous week at Club Med Cancun but luckily managed to escape for a day to go to Chichen Itza and climb the Pyramid of Kukulkan.

Somewhere in there I spent a weekend in Chicago with a friend who was interviewing for graduate schools. Later, I went to Philadelphia to visit that same friend when she was in graduate school. And later still made the trip to see her in Iowa City where she was actually teaching graduate students!

Once I took a ten day trip to Rome with a colleague. There were lots of cats.

My best friend from high school and I spent a week in Athens and then we met up with my parents and explored the surrounding areas for another week or so. Another time she and I rented a truck and took a road trip from NYC to Tennessee to whoop it up at Dollywood, a Dolly Parton themed amusement park. Perhaps I should say "the" because I can't imagine there ever being another one.

I spent a month one summer, supported by an NEH grant, studying Shakespeare in Ashland Oregon, drinking unprecedented amounts of Pinot Gris and singing songs about dead birds. For about a year after that I dated a guy who lived in Seattle and so I went to visit him in that fine city several times. We went on a road trip up to Vancouver.

I've been on short trips to various cities between NYC and Manchester, New Hampshire such as Cairo and Hyde Park in The Hudson Valley, and Cape Cod and North Hampton in Massachusetts.

Another time I went exploring Austria and Hungary with four fabulous friends. We drank a lot of wine. Ferf!

And one of those fine ladies even decided that she wanted to travel with me again. And Again! We spent two weeks touring China. We started in Beijing and walked The Great Wall, went to Xi'an and hung out with the Terra Cotta Warriors, ventured to gorgeousness that is Lhasa, Tibet, and then on to Chongqing for a cruise down the Yangtze River which brought us to Shanghai. After two weeks of eating the same four or five vegetarian options the tour provided me I was never so happy to eat Pizza Hut as I was in the hotel in Shanghai! I think it took us less than two minutes to eat an entire large pizza!

The following year that same lovely lady and I hiked the pristine mountains of Peru along the Lares Trek and explored Macchu Picchu. Apparently some sort of Peruvian bacteria was also on vacation that week, exploring my gastrointestinal tract. I have never been so sick in my entire life! But it was still an amazing trip.

Wow, that's a lot of adventures! No wonder I feel so old! But, I wouldn't trade a single one of them! So, I'm taking suggestions; anyone been anywhere they'd recommend?

Lights up on Washington Heights!

2010-05-07T15:15:00.006-04:00

Those of you who know me know that I am always complaining about my apartment- it's loud and dark, the sink clogs, the boiler always needs repairs, and a couple weeks ago the ceiling opened up and a hot, steamy, bleachy waterfall poured through from the upstairs neighbor's washing machine- but what you might not know is that, despite my apartment agita, sometimes I really do love this hood. Like today. I left the house looking for a cup of coffee and a place to read my new book and wound up shopping up a storm! I spent less than $40 dollars and made out like a bandit! No wonder my closets can barely contain all of my crap. Here's the breakdown:

1 fedora ($1)
1 NY Giants t-shirt ($4)
1 fabulous swing coat ($12)
1 pair pink sneakers ($5)
1 pair of rock n roll print sneakers ($5)
1 pair gray and white canvas flats ($4)
1 black maxi dress ($10)

Keep an eye out for...

2010-05-06T12:59:00.004-04:00

the first round of A Lil Sumpin' Sumpin' Interviews!

Yes, thats right, in the next few weeks I am going to be interviewing my fellow MFAers. Together we just went through an amazing, overwhelming experience and I am curious about what sort of insights about writing and living the life of a writer that each of us has walked away with.

There is a lot out there on the world wide web about the horrors of the MFA program, but all in all, I had an extremely positive experience. (Look at that verb tense! So weird! Technically I don't have my diploma in hand, but it still feels over. Aaaack!) I was nurtured, challenged, pushed, poked, and prodded, and most of all, encouraged. And I am grateful for it.

Wooo-hoooooo!

I'm Back

2010-05-05T14:17:00.003-04:00

In case you've been wondering where I am, I've been toiling away on my grad school thesis! It is close to done and I am slowly starting to rejoin the real world. That means fun things like going to movies and talking to my friends, but it also means mundane things like doing a million loads of laundry and cleaning the fridge. This semester has been very difficult but in the end I am grateful for all of the struggle. I feel prepared to live the life of the writer.

Lust List

2010-04-21T00:40:00.019-04:00

Since I am sick I am giving myself permission to be useless.

Uselessness is boring though.

So, I decided to share with you my current Lust List.

You know, the Hollywood Five a la that Friends episode. Here goes...

1. Justin Kirk

2. Gael Garcia Bernal

3. Paul Rudd

4. Adrian Grenier

5. Jon Stewart

Wow, I hadn't realized I have such a clear type

until I lined up all these pictures!

Apparently blondes need not apply! Swarthy comes to mind.

Swarthy, stubbly, and smirky!

So, who is on your Lust List?

Teen Author Reading

2010-04-14T23:39:00.007-04:00

Went to a wonderful reading at the Jefferson Market Library tonight featuring:

David Levithan - Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus - Dedication
Adrienne Maria Vrettos - The Exile of Gigi Lane

Marie Rutkoski - The Celestial Globe
Elizabeth Scott - The Unwritten Rule
Sarah Mlynowski - Gimme a Call

Rachel Vail - Brilliant

All of the panelists were witty and gave thoughtful answers to the (surprisingly) awesome audience questions. The two best questions (Do your characters ever help you through real life situations? Do you ever feel bad for your characters when you have to write them into a bad situation) by Rachel Vail's son, a 5th grader. After the reading I complimented him on asking such smart questions and Rachel Vail gave me an ARC of her newest book Brilliant and she even autographed it: To Elizabeth- clearly a BRILLIANT girl. Yay! I'm excited to read it. The short section that she read was very engaging and the character was concerned with grammar and word play!

Big Scale Book Swap

2010-04-14T13:29:00.003-04:00

Last Saturday I went to an event at The Center for Fiction for the organization ReadThis which donates books to under-filled libraries in New York CIty high schools. I got to hear Jamaica Kincaid talk about her childhood and how it led to her being a writer and read from Jane Eyre. She was the most delightful woman and I could have listened to her all day, but there were other events to attend. Like a writing workshop on voice in YA literature led by Natalie Standiford and Bennett Madison! And a reading given by Sam Lipsyte from his new novel The Ask that had me cracking up. It was a good day and they collected over 5,000 books for New York City schools. Yay!

One of these things is not like the other...

2010-04-13T18:50:00.016-04:00

Catch Light

a poetry collection by Sarah O'Brien

(3 scoops)

This collection plays with white space as it relates to the idea of light and capturing an image on film. The last series was the most compelling- O'Brien used textbook chapter titles as inspiration.

[Sarah O'Brien the poet does not have a website, but there is another Sarah O'Brien all over the web; she is a musician and she just got back from a tour with Yanni. That's funny.]

A Necklace of Bees

a poetry collection by Dannye Romine Powell

(2.5 scoops)

Some nice moments, but overall the poems felt overly sentimental and I did not connect with the subject matter. One of the best poems in this collection is Everyone is Afraid of Something.

Splintering

a poetry novel by Eireann Corrigan

(3 Scoops)

Told in a series of poems, this book explores the impact of a violent crime. The two speakers, 15 year old Paulie and her older brother Jeremy, describe the struggles they endure dealing with the aftermath of the attack. I never believed these speakers were real people, instead they read like containers for the author to present emotions and observations about the world. One moment when this was obvious was when Jeremy commented on Evan's dorm room- it read like a 30-something reflecting on her college experience instead of a teenage boy who has never been to college reacting to his environment. There are many powerful poems in this book and it is full of fresh metaphors and similes, but the sequencing feels off. Details are introduced and then forgotten, like when Paulie decides to cultivate dreadlocks and then a few poems later her sister is running her fingers through Paulie's hair with ease. Overall I believe there are too many poems- too many words in each poem-(there are even a couple of typos!) and the plot, especially at the end, seems forced; what could have been a beautiful and evocative collection of thematically linked poems devolves into a silly action sequence, thus rendering the lyrical ending completely unsatisfying. This books feels like one book was layered on top of another book and the finished product is confused as to what it is, but, despite the failure to be a cohesive work, there are poems or lines of poems in these pages that I want to frame and read everyday.

Realm of Possibility

a collection of interrelated monologues written in free verse by David Levithan

(5 scoops)

What can I say, I Iove this book.

I Don't Want to Be Crazy

a poetry memoir by Samantha Schutz

(2.5 scoops)

Most of the time I felt like this was an honest portrayal of having anxiety and confronting the reality of mental illness, but other moments felt like they just skimmed the surface, particularly in regards to the actual work of recovery. Perhaps if the author had waited a few more years to write the book there might have been a more satisfying conclusion for the reader

TTYL

an instant message novel by Lauren Myracle

(4 scoops)

I liked this book a lot more than I thought I would. The characters seemed a bit cliche at first, but as it moved on I felt the characterization was quite rich. The story definitely went in directions I didn't expect and I appreciated that. The instant message format was fun and it read quickly, like a reading a theatre script.

Paranoid Park

a novel in journal entries by Blake Nelson

(3.5 scoops)

Borrowing from Fyodor Dostoevsky, this novel takes a look at guilt and the effect it has on the human psyche. Alex, the protagonist, is a skateboarder and on the edge of a reckless street scene. I believed the voice and empathized with the character.

Don't read Twilight...

2010-04-07T00:42:00.002-04:00

...watch this instead!

He's hilarious.

All Reviews- All The Time!

2010-03-27T17:30:00.009-04:00

Let The Great World Spin

by Colum McCann

(5 Scoops)

[I was given a photocopy of the first five pages to read for a class and was so compelled by the writing that I went out and bought the book. It did not disappoint. The writing is gorgeous. Sentences so well crafted and emotionally rich that I would have to close the book momentarily and just let the words settle in me. This is not generally how I read. I usually read to get to the end; to follow a character arc through to that moment of transformation. This book wouldn't let me plow through it- there was no easy catharsis. It slowed me down- made me look at the little things, the moments that make up a life. And I am grateful for it. The writing is amazing, the characters intriguing, the setting details so specific, and the structure (multiple point of view characters whose lives intersect because of one man walking a tightrope betwixt the Twin Towers) works perfectly for the content and theme of the book.]

Destroy All Cars

by Blake Nelson

(3.5 scoops)

(I heard Blake Nelson speak at the NYC Teen Author Festival hosted by David Levithan. The panel was about taking a work though from first draft to final. I love works that experiment with structure, so I was intrigued when he said his first draft was a long, rambling 1st person manifesto and he turned it into a multiform book complete with school assignments, online questionnaires, and scenes written entirely in dialogue, as if in a play. The novel worked because the protagonist, through his interactions with women and an AP English teacher, grows and changes,he learns to be a more open and less cynical person. Because that is such a straightforward and expected plot-line, I think there was more room to play with the format. All in all, although I liked the specific character that Blake created, the book felt safe and familiar and I had really been hoping for something more original.)

Rock Star Superstar

by Blake Nelson

(3 Scoops)

(After having read Destroy All Cars I was curious to see what else Nelson had written. Rock Star Superstar started out a little slow, with a lot of the beginning of the book really feeling like it could have been back story- mentioned later as a memory if it was necessary at all. The book did seem concerned with painting a realistic life and moving us through it at a realistic speed. It reminded me of seeing a play where there are long blocks of silence while the actor's on stage make a pot of coffee or sweep the floor in an effort to show the audience that they are real people living real lives. I think this choice worked extremely well in the relationship between the protagonist and his alcoholic, present-but-emotionally-absent father, but less well in other parts of the book.)

No More Us For You

by David Hernandez

(3 scoops)

(This book initially felt like it was set in the 90's but then as it went on it had pop culture references sprinkled in it to make it seem more contemporary. It was not as dynamic as Suckerpunch, but it was still quite charming. I liked how Hernandez incorporated the Long Beach Contemporary Art Museum into his plot. There were some scenes that felt very honest, like how Carlos acted out when he was grieving, and the relationship between the two point of view characters, Carlos and Isabel, was complicated and endearing. What I appreciated the most, however, was the ending. I won't spoil it for you, but I will say that it shows that he trusts the foundation he has created and his reader.)

Busy Week!

2010-03-07T22:04:00.007-05:00

Seek

by Paul Fleischman

(5 Scoops)

Cathy's Book- If Found Call (650) 266 8233

by Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman

(3.5 scoops)

Ella Minnow Pea

by Mark Dunn

(3.5 scoops)

Patti Smith: An Unauthorized Biography

by Victor Bockris

(2 Scoops)

Snow Day

2010-02-26T09:28:00.010-05:00

An article in the book section of the NY Times had this picture of philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes.

I say, throw a mullet wig on Robert DeNiro

and he can play Descartes in the movie!

Look at me! Look, look! Are you looking?

2010-02-24T16:37:00.008-05:00

Woooo-hooooo!

I'm a guest blogger.

I feel so important. So cool.

Oh yeah. Look at me, celebrating small victories.

Yeah, you can hate if you want to...

but we all ought to take more time

to celebrate the small victories.

For those big victories, at least when it comes to the act of writing, feel few and far between.

So, check me out !!!!

I reviewed one of my favorite books,

Nick Burd's The Vast Field of Ordinary,

with one of my favorite people, Kathryn Holmes.

Please Don't Read This Book

is an awesome blog run by the lovely and talented

Marirosa Mia Garcia and Julie Sternberg.

They review amazing books and run fabulous contests.

So you should follow them too.

Cool Contest

2010-02-19T16:07:00.008-05:00

Hi, I wanted to pass on information about a blog contest going on at bildungsroman to win a copy of the graphic novel Smile by Raina Telgemeier. They want to hear your embarrassing dental stories. As someone who has had teeth removed so the others could be squished together, a pink plastic retainer, a permanent metal retainer and braces twice, I love the idea for this book and this contest! I do not, however, like the idea of ice skating or anything else that has the potential to knock out my front teeth!!!

Grumpy

2010-02-18T16:38:00.008-05:00

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today and can't quite shake the grumbles. I'm not feeling motivated to write and instead of forcing it, I am giving myself a free pass today. I've played some Lexulous, some Tetris, and read some blogs. I've scrolled through pictures of Alexander McQueen, sent some emails, and watched some SNL sketches from the 70's. I've listened to yahoo music's Big Hits of the 90's station, had some lunch, and paced. And I've been amusing myself by typing random word combinations into Google images. Here are some of my favorite results...

CHICKEN FREEZER

JERMAINE DIAPER

ZEBRA WATER CHAPSTICK

BIRTHDAY CAT

Pushing the envelope?

2010-02-14T11:26:00.002-05:00

I hate this expression. Every time I hear it, regardless of context, I picture a little man in an oversize suit moving white envelopes around a desk and some big, bald boss chomping on a cigar standing in the doorway, tapping on his watch, yelling at him to "push the envelope."

I have never understood the origins of this phrase. And I'd imagine that most people who use it don't actually understand it. Yet they continue to use it. Grumble, grumble, grumble.

After reading The Grammarphobia Blog, which gives a clear etymology of this phrase, I have a new appreciation for it...but that doesn't mean I want to hear Joe Schmo use it to motivate someone on a reality show. Nor do I ever want to hear "throw me under the bus" again.

My name is Will Grayson...

2010-02-09T01:32:00.011-05:00

... and I appreciate this book.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

by John Green and David Levithan

(5 scoops)

* I was so excited to get my hands on a copy of this book that as soon as I did I dropped everything and began reading. And reading. And reading. At 6:00 am when I finally turned out the light I was hardly able to sleep for thinking about the characters and wondering what would come next.

Most reviewers have singled out the character of Tiny as being the one that stole their hearts, but for me it was will grayson, the uncapitalized one. There was a truth to his fear that was deeply compelling. Of course, this did not surprise me, for I have come to expect David Levithan's writing to beautifully convey the complexities of feeling. His characters always seek connection and a sense of community, yet they struggle to accept the very thing they most want. will grayson is no exception; he is so scared of being overcome by feeling that for much of the book he refuses to feel anything. Yet I was completely invested in his journey.

As I'm sure you all know, John Green and David Levithan are two of my favorite authors- Levithan for his rich characterization and talent for revealing emotional truths through simple, honest moments, and Green for his quirky wit and playful use of language. However, I was afraid that reading the book would feel like riding a DNA strand, two separate story tracks merging only once in awhile; but that was not the case. The characterization was seamless and each chapter moved the plot forward. So, I would say that, just like the theme of the book, they were strengthened by their relationship with one another.

Book Swap Booty

2010-02-07T16:12:00.013-05:00

Last Thursday I had a party I called the Great Book Swap of 2010 and, let me tell you friends, it was fascinating. Namely in that countless people sent me emails or texts, or pulled me into a dark corner of the hallway to confess, that they "had nothing to give away." Now this, dear reader, is unbelievable.

These are literate people. People with books. Books, books, and more books. What I believe they meant was not that they had nothing to give away, but nothing that they COULD give away. And apparently my tack- that we ought part with some of our books before ending up on an episode of Hoarders, was not appreciated.

Sure, I have books I want to keep; books I will use in the classroom, books I plan to reread, or that I wrote embarrassing notes in, or that signify an important literary or personal epiphany. But I also have shit-loads of books that are just there. And I find it hard to believe that others aren't overwhelmed by the little buggers too.

So why is it easier for me to imagine parting with these extraneous books? Is it because many of them were free or gifts, because I buy too many books in the first place, because many were purchased at thrift stores for supremely discounted prices, or is it because my apartment is so cluttered and I am always desperate for space? Why? Who knows.

For others, however, it was not so easy to say goodbye. It was as if folks though that by giving them away they would somehow hurt the books feelings. Now this, my friends, is preposterous. Books do not have feelings. Yes, they evoke feelings in the reader. And books given to you as gifts might remind you of fond feelings for the gift giver. But the book, and, quite frankly, the gift giver, is not going to be wounded if you give away a book that you have read and have no intention of ever reading again.

To be clear, I wasn't suggesting that people hand over their entire library, just one or two of those that might be gathering dust in the top most corner of your shelf. Thankfully some folks were able to find books they were willing to part with and they came out in the cold to get their swap on! After all, the point of a swap is to trade. Tunafish for Oreos, you see.

I ended up swapping five books representing a diversity of genres: White Teeth by Zadie Smith, When I was Five I killed Myself by Howard Buten, and Urban Tribes: A Generation Redefines Friendship, Family, and Commitment by Ethan Watters, and....yikes, for the life of me I can't remember the other two. See, out of sight out of mind! (Perhaps the fact that it turned out to be free Jamesons night at the bar and they kept passing out drinks might be a contributing factor in my selective amnesia...)

And I came home with Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman, The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst, Persuasion by Jane Austen, a pile of books for donation, and an ARC of Will Grayson, Will Grayson co written by David Levithan and John Green, which I stayed up until 6:00 in the morning to finish because it was so awesome!

All in all, a great night with great people. Those of you who were not there were missed. Be forewarned, another Book Swap is in the works. So start combing those shelves for titles you are willing and able to let go of and make some room for the new titles that want in to your life.

Best American Blog Name

2010-02-02T10:51:00.012-05:00

I just ordered a copy of the 2009 Best Non-Required Reading that Dave Eggers and his minions edit. In the first few pages they always print funny lists- Best American Poem Titles, Best American Alumni Newsletter Blurbs, Best American Cat Foods, or what have you...

Well, my vote for BEST AMERICAN BLOG NAME goes to:

BLAKE KIMZEY'S ONLINE WEB PRESENCE ON THE NET

Not only is that an awesome name for a blog, but it also happens to be a pretty awesome blog by a totally awesome guy. Check it out. And buy his work. You won't be sorry.

Oh, and speaking of blog names, turns out Lagunitas Brewing Company has a limited release brew called...you guessed it, A Lil' Sumpin' Sumpin'. Looks like they used a picture of me on the front without asking.

And then, of course, there is the 1994 smash hit album by Troop!

But this isn't about me, it's about Blake Kimzey,

and the Best American Blog Name.

Do you guys have any other suggestions for Best American Blog Name?

Smarties are Hotties

2010-01-31T22:10:00.016-05:00

I think you'll like this video of smart (and sexy) people talking about art and culture:

Vampire Weekend & Kwame Dawes

And you can download Vampire Weekend's newest single

(it's named after my favorite beverage of all time!)

Just Kids

2010-01-29T17:40:00.007-05:00

Just Kids

by Patti Smith

(3 scoops)

Blue stars and lambs and the moon and Genet and poetry and huaraches and magic.

These are just a few of the words used time and time again in this memoir to make sure the reader understands that this is a book about an artist talking about the life of an artist and the sacrifices one must make for art and the art of Art.

It is not a wonderful book, nor is it a terrible book; it exists somewhere in the space carved out by a constant motion between these two extremes. Take, for example, these two sentences from a three paragraph description of the famed Chelsea Hotel, the first, a wonderfully evocative and succinct sentence, begins the passage, while the second, a tragic mess of half-images, concludes it- 1. The Chelsea was like a doll's house in the Twilight Zone, with a hundred rooms, each a small universe. 2. I sniffed out their spirits as I silently scurried from floor to floor, longing for discourse with a gone procession of smoking caterpillars.

As an artist working and living in New York City for 15 years now, I was inspired by her descriptions of how influential people moved in and out of her life. And throughout the book there are interesting tidbits of information mixed in with an endearing portrait of young love and the wistful, romantic remembrances of a time gone by. Reading this book was like reading a love letter- to Robert Maplethorpe, to New York, and the artistic process. And, in the end, who doesn't like a good love letter?

Don't Judge a Book...

2010-01-28T12:33:00.015-05:00

Yes, we all know how that adage ends... but come on,

who hasn't grabbed a book off the shelf because of the cover?

Something about it entices you- perhaps it is a color, a font, a texture, an image, the title, an author's name- so you look at the front, decide if you want to read the back, read the back, then decide if you want to invest your time and energy reading the contents of the book. Happens all the time. But as far as I can remember

I have never read a book strictly because of the cover.

Until now.

Meet exit here.

This is the book I bought yesterday based solely on the design.

I haven't read it yet.

I hardly want to open it for fear of cracking the spine.

It is gorgeous.

* I've been looking at this post for a few days now and I gotta tell you the cover just doesn't look good online. In person it is stunning. The matte finish, the white edging, the muted colors, the precisely placed text- it is really sophisticated and evocative. You'll just have to trust me...or go to a bookstore and find it yourself. It will look like something pulled from a Chelsea gallery sitting amongst hundreds of children's Paint by Numbers.

Saunders Saunders Saunders

2010-01-22T02:32:00.003-05:00

Pastoralia: Stories and a Novella

by George Saunders

(5 scoops)

Thought provoking. Amusing. Haunting.

Simply brilliant.

Whitewashing Follow Up

2010-01-22T02:02:00.003-05:00

Thanks to blogger Jacket Whys for continuing to put Bloomsbury on blast. Check out his post and the link to Bookshelves of Doom for more examples of Bloomsbury's bad decision making.

Book Review

2010-01-19T16:37:00.004-05:00

The Story of Forgetting

by Stefan Merrill Block

(3 scoops)

I really wanted to like this book more than I did... but something about it just didn't land with me. There was great suspense in the beginning and an interesting intersection of voices, but as I read on the plot became too obvious and the multiple voices inauthentic. Also, the metaphoric quality of the Isidora story line felt forced. Too bad. It had so much potential. And yet it is winning awards out the wazoo. Check it out.

Encouragement

2010-01-19T14:03:00.003-05:00

The agent Nathan Bransford maintains an amazing blog. You should definitely add it to the list of those that you follow.

Today's post was actually written by a guest blogger, Bryan Russell of Alchemy of Writing. So many of us have a 1.2.3.4.5 like Russell, but so rarely does life follow the order we try and impose upon it. His post is a very moving reminder of how those things that we think interrupt our writing ultimately strengthen it.

Whitewashing

2010-01-18T17:38:00.003-05:00

So, it looks like Bloomsbury is again whitewashing their book covers. What a shame.

I'm sure we all remember that Bloomsbury was responsible for the controversy regarding Liar by Justine Larbalestier and it seems that they didn't use that moment to reassess their design decisions. Unless of course all of this is a publicity stunt- take the bad press for a bit, rerelease the book with an appropriate cover, and then wait as the revenue rolls in. Yuck.

You can read more about it here or here.

A Milestone

2010-01-16T15:38:00.008-05:00

Hey look, it's my 150th blog post!

Woo-hoo!

Balloon drop please...

...thank you very much!

So, in order to celebrate properly, how about another contest for my perfectly adorable and deserving readers? What, what's that I hear...

a resounding yes!

Well then,

here it is...

In exactly 150 words describe for me what you would do with $150,000.00.

Not that I am going to give you a $150,000.00, mind you, but let's all just play pretend for a bit and imagine one hundred and fifty thousand buckaroos dropped into our laps. What would you do with it?

The winner will be chosen at random

from the list of entries

and will receive 150 surprises.

Seriously.

2010

2010-01-16T14:21:00.004-05:00

It has been so long since I last wrote and in that time so much has happened! I celebrated my 32nd birthday, the Christmas holiday, and New Years Eve (which is also my parent's wedding anniversary), spent a week in the Santa Cruz mountains working on the first draft of my creative thesis, and had some quality time (and home cooked meals) with my family. Yay.

Now, after a month on vacation, I'm back in New York City and I'm not quite sure what to do with myself! It's all chores and errands and projects to finish...

But instead of doing any of that, I got myself a cup of coffee and sat down at the computer whereupon I stumbled on this passage in the NY Times Book Review:

Like all good narrators, she isn’t entirely trustworthy, but she’s articulate, critical and thoroughly engaged, such interesting company that the reader may not need to know whether that adolescent house-burning was really an accident. She’s a formidable woman, and her story doesn’t hinge on a Big Reveal.

I wonder about that first part. Would you say that's true? Are all "good narrators" a bit untrustworthy?

Milorad Pavic

2009-12-20T09:52:00.004-05:00

I have a new obsession

Ironically, it is only through his death that I have learned of his life.

But, now that I know, I need to know more.

So, it is fair to say, that if you are looking for me this winter break you'll find me in the

Newly Deceased "Unorthodox" Serbian Novelist

aisle of my local bookstore.

Wishful Drinking in the Snow

2009-12-20T09:14:00.003-05:00

Earlier this year I reviewed the script of Wishful Drinking. Last night, in the middle of a snowstorm, I had the opportunity to actually see her one woman show.

The house was only about a quarter full, but all seemed ready to have a good night, Carrie Fisher included.

I think she delivered a tremendous performance. I was impressed by her ability, through the script and her stage presence, to completely control the audience. Seriously, she brought people from laughter to heartbreak exactly when and how she set out to. It was masterfully done and a pleasure to experience.

Since I had read the script before, some of the jokes fell flat, but I still found myself laughing heartily many a time. Audience participation however stresses me out to no end. I am too anxious for such things. I have little faith in humanity and therefore always expect things to go tragically wrong. They didn't. But it was still awkward.

Cynthia NIxon was in the house. That was fun.

I really found the moment where she talks about her daughter's ability to laugh, despite all madness, as the key to her salvation quite moving.

So, all in all, I'd say well worth the frostbite.

This Country of Ours

2009-12-20T00:41:00.001-05:00

The only article on Tiger Woods worth reading.

Quote of the Day 12/18/09

2009-12-18T13:43:00.001-05:00

An intellectual is someone who says a simple thing in a difficult way; an artist is someone who says a difficult thing in a simple way.
–Charles Bukowski

Fan Mail

2009-12-14T18:45:00.002-05:00

Richard Dawkins reading fan mail from kind, compassionate Christians.

THINK!

2009-12-08T15:11:00.003-05:00

I've copied this from ThinkProgress.org because I think everyone needs to know what "facts" are being presented to the American public (well, at least the public that for some inexplicable and inexcusable reason turns to the Fox network for their news).

Fox fudges poll numbers to claim 120 percent of the public believes scientists falsify global warming data.

Last week, Fox and Friends showed a Rasmussen poll graphic revealing that a whopping 120 percent of the American public believes scientists may be falsifying research to support their own theories on global warming:

Media Matters explains Fox’s fuzzy math:

Well, here’s the Rasmussen poll Fox & Friends cited. They asked respondents: “In order to support their own theories and beliefs about global warming, how likely is it that some scientists have falsified research data?” According to the poll, 35 percent thought it very likely, 24 percent somewhat likely, 21 percent not very likely, and 5 percent not likely at all (15 percent weren’t sure).
Fox News’ graphics department added together the “very likely” and “somewhat likely” numbers to reach 59 percent, and called that new group “somewhat likely.” Then, for some reason, they threw in the 35 percent “very likely” as their own group, even though they already added that number to the “somewhat likely” percentage. Then they mashed together the “not very likely” and “not likely at all” groups, and threw the 15 percent who were unsure into the waste bin. Voila — 120 percent.

Last month, ThinkProgress also caught Fox showing a pie chart documenting that 193 percent of the public supports Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, or Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination in 2012. So much for “zero tolerance for on-screen errors.”

USCommunity

2009-12-04T20:32:00.006-05:00

I'm not a football fan, but I am a softy. This video is quite lovely.

I like this video for many reasons, some serious, some silly...

1. The family, in classic California style, uses the word "like" like nine million times

2. Did you see how nice that kids house is!

3. A football player admitted on National TV that he has feelings and is capable of crying

4. His twin sister was able to participate in everything with him

5. It is interesting to hear him speak around the idea that the anxiety of an event is always worse than the event itself; what a nice reminder to stay calm

6. It is also a beautiful reminder that people are capable of compassion, kindness, and generosity

Authors I am Thankful For

2009-11-24T14:35:00.009-05:00

Yesterday I was browsing at Idlewild Books and decided I would pick up a short story collection or two. There were many to chose from so I asked the (handsome) guy behind the counter if he was a short story reader. He said yes, much to my surprise, as I always hear that short stories are a dying form and collections unpublishable.

He showed me a few titles that he was fond of and then asked what I had read recently that I had really liked. And let me tell you, dear reader, I had absolutely nothing to say. Seriously. It was embarrassing. I was silent and bug eyed as it slowly dawned on me that I had no idea who I liked to read.

I managed to mumble that I was in school so I hadn't been reading much for pleasure lately. But the question rang in my ears: I'm a writer, how can I not have any favorite authors? How can I not know what I like to read?

I've had friends go through MFA's in Painting express a similar feeling of discombobulation, the feeling that all you thought you knew has been ripped away and replaced with others ideas or empty spaces, like coming home to find that all of your furniture has been replaced and rearranged. But this was the first moment in which it had occurred to me that I was feeling this way.

So, after some serious thought and home-bookshelf browsing I am able to articulate five authors that have inspired and continue to engage me as a reader and writer.

1. Milan Kundera

2. Italo Calvino

3. Dorothy Alison

4. Emily Dickinson

5. Julia Alvarez

Which authors are you grateful for?

Irony

2009-11-23T18:01:00.001-05:00

"Irony has always been a primary tool the under-powered use to tear at the over-powered in our culture. But now irony has become the bait that media corporations use to appeal to educated consumers. . . . It's almost an ultimate irony that those who say they don't like TV will sit and watch TV as long as the hosts of their favorite shows act like they don't like TV, either. Somewhere in this swirl of droll poses and pseudo-insights, irony itself becomes a kind of mass therapy for a politically confused culture. It offers a comfortable space where complicity doesn't feel like complicity. It makes you feel like you are counter-cultural while never requiring you to leave the mainstream culture it has so much fun teasing. We are happy enough with this therapy that we feel no need to enact social change."(Dan French, review of The Daily Show, 2001)

Who Creates Hate?

2009-11-23T13:54:00.005-05:00

I strongly encourage everyone to take the time to read this thoughtful opinion piece by Robert Wright in the NY Times entitled Who Created Major Hasan?

When I first heard about this tragic event I was fearful for the inevitable reporting and distribution of blame. I wrote on my Facebook page:

I'm so sad about the loss of life at Fort Hood. And I am nervous about the fallout this will bring for mental health professionals and Muslims. I hope the conversation will be about one man and his choices, not about groups of people, and that we can honestly talk about the damage that wartime has on the human psyche.

It is nice to see that Wright is also pushing the dialogue in this direction and that the NY Times has provided him with the platform to do so.

Middle Grade Reviews

2009-11-23T12:45:00.005-05:00

No Laughter Here

by Rita Williams Garcia

(4 Scoops)

Walk Two Moons

by Sharon Creech

(4 Scoops)

To Reread or Not to Reread?

2009-11-23T12:35:00.010-05:00

Charlotte's Web

by E.B White

(5 scoops)

A classic.

The themes are still relevant and the language still gorgeous.

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.

by Judy Blume

(1 scoop)

This book does not stand the test of time. It is poorly structured and the writing is bad. It is not funny, nor salacious, and doesn't even communicate any helpful information about puberty. Also, there is a sub plot, that I had no memory of whatsoever, regarding Margaret's search for an organized religion. It starts out interestingly, but concludes in a wishy-washy way that is extremely unsatisfying.

The only thing that this book is good for is making fun of!

See my submission to Book: The Sequel

— From God? It’s Margaret Again… (sequel to Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume)
I’ve got another question.

Project America's Amazing Race for the Next Top Author

2009-11-18T13:27:00.002-05:00

I'm Busy! Life is crazy. So I am borrowing this AMAZING post from Literary Nathan Bransford (who I heart) that tells you what you can learn about writing from watching reality TV. Did I mention I heart him?

Two Moms = One Controversial Book Fair

2009-11-02T16:47:00.006-05:00

Read this great blog post from Six Boxes of Books about the preposterous "controversy" surrounding Lauren Myracle's Luv Ya Bunches and its inclusion at elementary and middle school Scholastic Book Fairs.

Dollar Dollar Bills Ya'll

2009-11-01T16:40:00.007-05:00

As a former recipient of an NEH grant to study Shakespeare & Performance in Ashland, Oregon I am heartened by this decision.

Congress Approves Budget Increase

for Arts and Humanities Endowments

October 30, 2009- New York Times

The House and Senate on Thursday passed a budget increase for the National Endowment for the Arts and for the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Interior Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2010 sets budgets for each agency at $167.5 million, up $12.5 million from last year. President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law shortly. The funding comes as Rocco Landesman, the new chairman of the N.E.A., prepares to start a nationwide “Art Works” tour next week. “It’s never enough,” Mr. Landesman said. “But we’re looking for progress at a time when every dollar is precious. For us to get a notable increase is extremely heartening.”

The N.E.A. is currently funded at $155 million, and the White House had requested an increase to $161 million. The agency received an additional $50 million through the stimulus bill. This summer, the House approved $170 million for the arts endowment, while the Senate proposed $161.3 million. The final budget was decided in conference this week and passed by a vote of 247-178 in the House and 72-28 in the Senate.

“This important budget increase recognizes the essential role the arts play in our lives, schools, and communities,” said Robert L. Lynch, president and chief of Americans for the Arts, an advocacy group, in a statement.

The Diary of a Teenage Girl: The Play

2009-10-30T23:47:00.009-04:00

Keep your eye out for the exciting adaptation of Phoebe Gloeckner's graphic novel The Diary of a Teenage Girl. (Read a review of the book from Bookslut). The play, written by Marielle Heller, is "the story of Minnie, a fifteen year old girl growing up in San Francisco in the 70s, who has just started an affair with her mother's boyfriend. Shit."

It doesn't open until March of 2010,

but in the meantime you can watch

the beautiful and intriguing trailer video!

CONTEST WINNER

2009-10-25T18:51:00.004-04:00

Thanks to a very scientific process (which I borrowed from the blog

All About Them Words) a winner has been chosen from the fabulous entries to The Mall contest. And the winner is the poetry of Perpetual Thought! Congratulations! Email me your address and I will get your prize packet in the mail right away!

Here is the winning poem about a memorable mall purchase:

Pocket burn spirit free
Took my twenty on a shopping spree
No regrets, passed a pack of cigarettes
Bat eyelashes at a nerdy hunk
A blue and purple purse made by a Buddhist monk?
Hmm, I think I like
Holds cell phone, camera, pack of Mike and Ikes
Made my three dollar purchase, made the economy good
wanted to hail a cab, but there I stood
never once thinking that on my way back
I would wet my phone, break my camera, spill my Mike and Ikes
give myself a heart-attack!
Why did I not use the purse you ask?
Because taking it out, packing stuff in,

would've been quite the task
Broke my twenty on that stupid purse
should have spent more time being careful first.

The Newest "Girl Next Door" is...

2009-10-20T17:08:00.024-04:00

If you answered Marge Simpson you are correct!

Playboy has decided to feature the animated mother of two on the cover of its next issue and give her a full spread (pun intended).

The strangest quote of this very strange article states that, the staying power of The Simpsons "has been in large part due to its family values...." Um, yeah, that's not how I would describe it. I am a fan, and it's not family values that keeps me watching. Unless a blatant disregard for the physical safety of your reckless, troublemaking son is a "family value".

I agree with the notion that having an animated character on the cover of a nudey mag is misleading, but I also know that Playboy magazines are sold in a plastic

sleeve that makes it so no one can flip through the pages while it sits on a 7-11 rack (Rack! Ha!). Having Marge on the cover of a Playboy, instead of the usual breast implanted platinum blonde peeking over the blacked out part of the plastic sleeve, is probably better than a small child being exposed to the unsleeved Maxim

cover on the shelf next to it. I think what is more troubling is the idea that anyone, child or legal adult, would actually want to see Marge Simpson's animated (and photoshop slimmed) nakedness. Yuck.

This further infantilizing (Miley Mania- Toddlers and Tiaras- Anime porn- Furries- Catholic School Girl costumes- what have you) of sexuality in America is troublesome. And Marge Simpson posing in Playboy is just one step too far in my opinion.

And since when is 7-11 a corporation that "wants to be a responsible member of American society..."? Last I checked encouraging people to eat processed cheese product and bad coffee is not terribly responsible.

Do You Desire A Denouement?

2009-10-20T15:21:00.005-04:00

denouement |ˌdānoōˈmä n |
noun
the final part of a play, movie, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved.

My friend Michael The Girl recently sent me this link to a blog discussion of the value of the denouement because I am working on a project that begs to end slightly ambiguously.

Does anybody out there have a lil sumpin' sumpin' to say about books that end without wrapping up all of the loose ends?

Twas Brillig...

2009-10-19T17:38:00.007-04:00

There is a curious article in the NY Times about the value of nonsense on the intellect.

I love the final paragraph.

"Still, the new research supports what many experimental artists, habitual travelers and other novel seekers have always insisted: at least some of the time, disorientation begets creative thinking."

My Brother's Keeper

2009-10-18T19:11:00.007-04:00

My Brother's Keeper

by Patricia McCormick

(3.5 scoops)

Author Patricia McCormick tackles difficult subjects in her books; the war in Iraq, sexual slavery, cutting, and drug use. My Brother's Keeper follows a 13 year old boy whose father has left, his mother is struggling with finances and his older brother is dealing with his pain through drugs. The protagonist is an anxious, insecure kid who is actually quite funny and endearing despite the difficulties he experiences in this novel.

NBA

2009-10-14T17:55:00.005-04:00

No basketball on this blog, just the good old fashioned National Book Award. The finalists are in and there are five nominees for Young People's Literature. Check them out:

Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith
Phillip Hoose, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
David Small, Stitches
Laini Taylor, Lips Touch: Three Times
Rita Williams-Garcia, Jumped

Coe Booth, the fabulous author of Tyrell and Kendra and contributor to The Longstockings blog and generally awesome and intelligent human being, was one of the judges this year so that gives me an extra boost of confidence for these titles.

I haven't yet read any of these books, but I am very curious to hear a lil sumpin' sumpin' from any of you who have. Keep me posted!

FOLLOW UP: There is now a controversy as to whether or not Stitches should have been nominated as a YA book when it was published as an adult graphic novel by W.W. Norton. Read the full article at Publishers Weekly and weigh in on the debate.

Evolution of Tinkerbell

2009-10-14T00:13:00.004-04:00

Check out this 12 picture evolution of Disney's Tinkerbell! Since I just finished reading the original J.M Barrie version of Peter Pan for class and spent several hours discussing what the text revealed about gender, this slide show was particularly interesting.

Having just read Constance Rourke's seminal 1931 work, American Humor: A Study of the National Character, however, I think Barrie was commenting more on the relationship between America (Peter Pan and Neverland) and England (The Darlings and British tradition).

The Mall- CONTEST

2009-10-13T13:35:00.010-04:00

Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall

by Wendy Mass

(4 scoops)

This novel is written in verse and, for the most part, the short lines enhanced the quick pace and ephemeral quality of the inner monologue, but at other times, the enjambment was so illogical that it stalled my reading. There were many genuinely touching moments in this story about a girl who gets pegged in the head by a dodge ball and finds her self in the hospital teetering between life and death. The ending is a bit didactic and moralistic, but it happens to be a moral I agree with, so I didn't particularly mind! Each section had a very clever ending, which made them fun to read, but since I read the book in one sitting, the predictability made the individual endings seem a bit less clever. Overall, despite a few flaws, I found this book extremely charming.

And it has inspired another contest!

Tell me about a purchase you made at the mall

that was significant in some way.

You can write a poem, like Wendy Mass, or just ramble as you see fit.

Make sure to explain what the purchase was

and how it turned out to be significant.

The winner will be announced on Friday the 23rd

and the prize is a mall inspired gift bag!

So, like, get to it!

Wimpy

2009-10-13T13:05:00.008-04:00

I was reading The Longstockings blog today on which Kathryne posted a link to the NY times article about the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. It points out that the appeal for kids is that the protagonist, Greg, does not always do the right thing and that as adult readers it gives us insight into the "child's ethical mind." I also enjoyed reading the comments if for no other reason that they illustrated that there are still places, unlike here or here, where people can comment on the internet thoughtfully and articulately and without name calling!

A classic?

2009-10-12T20:23:00.009-04:00

Harriet the Spy

Louise Fitzhugh

(2 scoops)

What a clumsy, unfocused book!

I had such a hard time getting through this novel.

It is quite dated and the plot is preposterous.

Middle Grade

2009-10-11T13:55:00.008-04:00

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

e.l. konisburg

(5 Scoops)

Holes

Louis Sachar

(4.5 scoops)

Peter Pan

J.M. Barrie

(3 Scoops)

The Tale of Despereaux

Kate DiCamillo

(2 scoops)

10 Little Things That Make Me Happier Than They Should

2009-10-07T12:38:00.003-04:00

1. Parsley

2. Bright nail polish

3. Free refills

4. Having exact change

5. Chocolate dipped vanilla soft serve cones

6. A new pen

7. Compliments on my jewelry

8. Hand knit blankets

9. Comedians that actually make me laugh out loud

10. Non-lascivious smiles on the train

Whitehead Revisited

2009-09-18T23:11:00.009-04:00

So, a while back I got into a little online exchange with the author of Sag Harbor, Colson Whitehead. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt so I bought the book, gave him my hard earned money, and sat down to read it. I made it about a chapter and a half.

Fast forward to the day I received a syllabus that listed John Henry Days, another Whitehead book, as required reading. I thought to my self, "Self, give him another shot." I reread the first chapter and a half of Sag Harbor and actually made it all the way through the third. Progress!

But I felt no desire to keep reading. Strange, because I really wanted to have a well formed opinion about this book.

Of course, now it's clear, that this was my opinion. Is my opinion. Neither the protagonist nor the writing is compelling enough to even invest the few hours it would take to complete the book. Ouch.

And it seems I am not alone in this opinion.

John Henry Days, however, is a marvelous book. 4 Scoops for sure. It weaves together structure, content, and theme masterfully; all three components truly support and enhance each other.

Reluctant Readers No More

2009-09-15T11:37:00.007-04:00

For all you teachers out there I thought I would compile a list of books I've read that I think would be well received by teenage boys.

1. Tyrell- Coe Booth

2. Sucker Punch- David Hernandez

3. Feed- M.T. Anderson

4. Mexican White Boy- Matt De La Pena

5. The Vast Fields of Ordinary- Nick Burd

6. Gentlemen- Michael Northrop

Ghenet's Contest

2009-09-14T22:09:00.003-04:00

If you aren't already following All About Them Words then you should be. And now is a great time since she has just posted her first contest!

Mockingbird

2009-09-10T10:57:00.009-04:00

Mockingbird

by Kathryn Erskine

(4.5 scoops)

This book does not come out until April 2010 so I can't find a picture of the cover to post here. As of now the book has a light sky blue cover with a few abstract clouds. Centered and about two inches from the top in black ink is the word mockingbird. It is lower case and in a font that resembles a youthful handwriting. A red heart dots the "i". Underneath that, in the same black font, is the phonetic spelling in parenthesis. The author's name is centered at the bottom. The simple and emotionally neutral cover is very appropriate for this book which is about a ten year old girl named Caitlin who has Asperger's Syndrome.

The story is told in first person which presents many challenges, all of which are skillfully and beautifully handled by the author. In reading this book I felt a very strong sense of Caitlin's character as well as the nuances of those around her. The book uses Asperberger's as a way of looking at grief and the hard lesson of learning empathy.

FADE TO BLUE

2009-09-02T22:53:00.012-04:00

Fade to Blue

by Sean Beaudoin

Now this is one cracked out read!

Let's start with the cover. So goth. So cool. Reading it on the train certainly broadcasts a certain don't sit next to me unless you're as cool as I am kinda vibe. Or at least it would if you were a Hot Topic shopping teenage girl looking for a black nail polish sportin' boy. And then that super stylized strip of comics on the side. Dizzying. Just like what's inside. The narrative is fragmented. Time and space are distorted. Characters question what is real. For a teenage-person who is just becoming a grownup-person this book might inspire some metaphysical inquiry.

14 year old me would have been super stoked to stumble upon this book. Present day me...not so much. But just look at the girl on the cover. She doesn't trust anyone over thirty anyways.

Contest Winner

2009-08-31T13:41:00.011-04:00

A big balloon drop for the winner of the Barry Lyga Boy Toy Contest, Ms. Alex Millard

and her Pink Socks!

All of the entries were great fun to read and I really appreciate the courage it took to share your stories. Over the course of this contest it was amazing how many conversations I had with grown folks who turned red remembering awkward, unrequited loves of yesteryear and then paled when asked to write about it. I guess for my next contest

I will stick with trivia questions or something!

Thanks again to everybody who participated!

Stay tuned for more giveaways...

The Chronic

2009-08-26T15:55:00.010-04:00

Chronicles

by Bob Dylan

(2 Scoops)

Who knows if Bob Dylan was born a rambling man, but after years of the drugged out hippie freewheeling lifestyle he has certainly become one. Following the logic or chronology in this book is more effort than it rewards. The only thing thing I appreciated about this book was that it served as a fairly good decoder ring for the movie I'm Not There (which I would rate as just under 2 scoops). Sure there are some amusing anecdotes and a handful of interesting facts in this book, but overall it was not a great read. What continues to astonish me about Dylan fanatics is their insistence on trying to understand a man who has set out to be un-understandable.

My Life in Course Description

2009-08-21T20:50:00.002-04:00

The Old Weird America: Music as Democratic Speech—

from the Commonplace Song to Bob Dylan

Greil Marcus

“Poor boy, long way from home” . . . “The cuckoo, she’s a pretty bird, she warbles, as she flies/ And she never, hollers cuckoo, til the fourth day, of July” . . . “Sun gonna shine in my back door, someday/ Wind gonna rise up, blow my blues away”—those lyric fragments and thousands like them are part of a pool of floating lines and verses—the raw material of the commonplace, commonly held American song. They took shape in the years after the Civil War; in the first part of the 20th century they reached a kind of critical mass, and thousands of voices emerged, speaking this new, common language.

Throughout American history people excluded from or ignored by the story the country teaches itself have seized on music as means of both affirming and questioning individual and cultural existence. Music has been used to make symbolic statements about the nature of the singer, the country, and life itself. These are big words for ordinary, anonymous songs like “The Cuckoo Bird” or “John Henry”—but it is in songs that seem to have emerged out of nowhere, and in songs that are self-consciously made to reclaim that nowhere, where much of the American story resides.

This course examines commonplace, authorless songs as elemental, founding documents of American identity. These songs can be heard as a form of speech that, with a deep foundation, is always in flux—especially in the work of Bob Dylan across the last fifty years. In that work, a single performer can be seen to have taken the whole of this tradition and translated it into a language of his own—a language that, today, with other artists, such as Todd Haynes with his film I’m Not There, a movie filled by Dylan-like figures, composites, and specters, is itself becoming a form of the commonplace.

CONTEST News

2009-08-20T15:35:00.002-04:00

ENTER MY CONTEST

TO WIN AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF

BOY TOY BY BARRY LYGA

Book Publishing Glossary

2009-08-14T12:06:00.006-04:00

Literary Agent Nathan Bransford maintains an amazing blog for aspiring writers. His posts are informative, fun, and kind. Yesterday he posted an excellent Glossary of Book Publishing terms, well worth checking out if you are interested in the business of writing.

Wishful Drinking- Script

2009-08-13T23:41:00.004-04:00

Wishful Drinking

by Carrie Fisher

(3 Scoops)

So, I didn't read the Memoir, but I did read the script of the one woman show derived from it. This Fall Carrie Fisher will be performing her show at the Roundabout Theatre Company and I will most likely be responsible for leading audiences through a Pre Show Theatre Talk. I was never a huge Star Wars fan, even though I am the right demographic, and I am woefully inept at remembering stars names or the projects on which they've worked, so I am quite nervous about having to give a lecture to audiences that will most likely be much older and Hollywood-savvier than I. I guess I should make a "use the force joke" here, but that is too lame even for me.

The script was funny and actually made me laugh out loud a couple of times. And there were even some poignant and profound moments. But overall, it lacked a... a something. It didn't have a strong narrative thrust. It didn't have a powerful climax. It seemed to pander, what with the audience participation and all. It was funny but not pure comedy. It was poignant without really taking me anywhere raw, new or scary. It was what it was.

I'm sure if I saw the show I would have a stronger reaction, but positive or negative is hard to say. Right now I feel like I will keep the one or two sentences that I underlined and forget everything else. I wonder how well that will go over in my lecture...

Love is the Higher Law

2009-08-12T03:09:00.006-04:00

Love is the Higher Law

by David Levithan

(5 Scoops)

I cried from page one. Not always because of what was on the page, but for what it evoked. My own memories. The feelings flooding back. Fear. Loss. Love. Need. Every moment flooding back- reminding me of the strange space my mind and body occupied. Chapter 1 was breathtaking. Stunning. Perfect. And then, wondrously, Chapter 2 got me to laugh. It was just as powerful as Chapter 1, but in a different voice. A new truth. Equally right and real. Then Chapter 3 brought me back to the tension. The voice of feeling frozen. But needing to move.

Throughout Love is The Higher Law David Levithan does an amazing job of creating the truth of that moment and the following days and years, yet it never overwhelms. It is honest but not oppressive. He remembers, amidst the confusion, pain, emptiness, doubt, anger, and sorrow, to point out the good, the kindness, the calm, the helpfulness, the love and desire to protect.

The book doesn't come out until August 25th but I need you to order it now. Buy it. Read it. (Especially if you're scared of it.) Share it with everyone you know. If you were here it will help you clarify- even if you think you need no helping. And if you were not here it will educate you, not just about a moment in time but about people in all moments in time.

No matter where you were in September of 2001, this book will inspire you to love those you love just a little bit clearer and to appreciate beauty where you can find it, like in one of the many glorious sentences that pepper this book.

MY VERY FIRST CONTEST!

2009-08-11T00:03:00.020-04:00

Hello dear readers,

In the past I have linked to many cool contests, but never actually hosted my own. Well that is about to change...

Welcome to my 1st Official Contest!

It's your turn to tell me a lil' sumpin' sumpin' about yourself.

Author Barry Lyga has graciously volunteered an AUTOGRAPHED COPY of his wonderful book BOY TOY for my contest winner. Boy Toy explores the ramifications of a relationship between a 7th grade boy and his teacher.

Now we all know that such relationships are wrong. And damaging.

And just plain icky.

But who hasn't had the hots for someone they weren't supposed to?

I certainly have.

Mr. Cushing. My 11th grade English teacher. He was Hollywood hot with a subversive charm. We read The Handmaid's Tale, A Clockwork Orange, and Demian to name a few. He understood my sarcasm, my angst, and my apathy. Never once did he tell me I was squandering my potential; he just let me be me. I loved him for that. And he was so damn sexy that I even managed to stay awake in his class, most days. I learned a lot from that man and I credit that to my crush. If only he had taught Economics, instead of that ogre Father Glass...

It was a harmless crush. It never crossed that line. And I'm sure you've had one of those yourself. So, here is your task: TELL US ALL A LIL' SUMPIN' SUMPIN' ABOUT YOUR MOST ILLICIT CRUSH. That time you were hot for teacher, or for that den leader, or that cute rabbi whose pants were too tight, or your best friend's mom, or the local Lolita, or that cousin that wrote poetry and windsurfed into your heart.

Of course, only write about an UNREQUITED LOVE. No tales that would force me to call the authorities or throw up in my mouth.

The best crush story wins the prize. Best being completely arbitrary, I know. But think salacious, honest, funny or tender, and well crafted. I'm open to a variety of forms; haiku, short essay, rhyming couplets, rambling.

I can't wait to read all your entries- post them below by August 28th!

A winner will be announced on August 31st. Best of luck!

Reading Like A Writer

2009-08-10T22:49:00.003-04:00

Reading Like A Writer:

A Guide For People Who Love Books

and For Those Who Want To Write Them

by Francine Prose

(4 Scoops)

No Homo?

2009-08-09T15:44:00.001-04:00

A flawed premise, I do believe, but an interesting take on homophobia and hip hop nonetheless.