I picked up this book at a time in my life when I was like, "ok, Rachel, it's time to figure some stuff out." Along came Richard Bolles, like my own s...moreI picked up this book at a time in my life when I was like, "ok, Rachel, it's time to figure some stuff out." Along came Richard Bolles, like my own sweet little Grandpa giving me life advice. He actually had me doing all the cheesy exercises -- lists, graphs, venn-diagrams, even a flower chart for Pete's sake. And in the end, gosh darnit, I knew I was going to move back to the Midwest and become a librarian!
FYI, this book does have some serious Christian overtones, but Grandpa Bolles is pretty low-key about it. It kind of makes you want to hug him, actually.(less)
Charles Simic, who says that he wants to write poetry that even garbage men will understand, guides us in Walking the Black Cat through a surreal land...moreCharles Simic, who says that he wants to write poetry that even garbage men will understand, guides us in Walking the Black Cat through a surreal landscape inhabited by street side ventriloquists, magicians, ghosts, dwarves and monkeys with the grace and aplomb of a 66 year old Yugoslavian ballerina. But if you ask Simic, he’ll deny that the characters in his poems are surreal. Claiming to be a “hard-nosed realist,” he says that he merely eavesdrops on the homeless and the mad to come up with his poems.
The world is vile and stupid! At least this is what Simic has declared in interviews and what he continues to argue through verse. He mocks fat men and their wives who keep themselves busy at company picnics by trying to stand on their heads and smearing sun lotion on their legs.
In order to protect themselves from this vile world of which they don’t wish to be a part, the characters in Simic’s poems dress themselves up in sequined dresses, black capes, red shawls, white gloves, orange wraparound shades, black slips, powdered wigs, high heeled shoes. Shadows. The night. The moment of most clarity in the entire collection; the one in which we really feel like we understand what Simic is up to, happens in The Preacher Says:
In the dims, the murky dusks, Of your brain on Judgement Day,
It’ll be like 100,000 firecrackers Going off
All at the same time.
Firecrackers, the desert sun, neon signs and all other forms of light threaten to reveal how ugly the world actually is, but Simic’s characters find sanctuary in shadow, darkness, disguise—“the dims, the murky dusks.”
Simic does, however, allow his speaker moments of vulnerability—moments of light and nakedness. These are the moments he’s with his lover, soaping up her “breasts and crotch” in the shower, making love on noisy bedsprings or unpinning her long black hair and undressing her, urging her to
Lie back in my arms
And watch the light fall Golden over us In wordless silence.
But there are also moments when the speaker is caught, literally, with his pants down—such is the case in Official Inquiry Among the Grains of Sand, when he is spied on by the “chief snoop of a previously unknown secret government agency,” who is “tiptoeing importantly.” It seems that, for this set of poems, nakedness is only delightful when you’ve got a partner in crime, someone to defy the terrible light with.
The most successful poems are told by a plucky narrator who, despite the tragedy of his circumstances, is hopeful. In Marked Playing Cards, for instance, a man sets himself up to have bad luck in life, hoping this will guarantee him good luck in love. He loses his TV, bass fiddle, car, and everything but his windbreaker and slippers. Then he says: “but I feel cheerful, even though it’s snowing.” Simic, too, is a cheerful poet, using humor as his own protective cloak against the abrasive world. His cheeky tone is also successful in What the Gypsies Told My Grandmother While She Was Still a Young Girl. After the gypsies tell her that she will “chop onions and pieces of your heart into the same hot skillet,” they claim that the devil will call her a “little cutie” and that, although she will pray to God, “God will hang a sign that He’s not to be disturbed.” Although Simic warns us in the collection’s first poem that the landscape will be hellish, it’s kind of a cute hell—one that endears him to us.
His set of images is so restricted, however, that by the end of the collection we feel as though we have read these poems before. They seem to be the poems from the first half, simply shuffled and recombined. The black cat that has been slinking in and out of the poems continues to slink, birds and chickens still squawk, and we’ve still got in inexhaustible supply of ghosts, dark windowpanes, mirrors and disguises. The same cast of magicians and Orange County deities still wander aimlessly through the desert. Perhaps if Simic had written more poems like Shadow Publishing Company, in which a woman mourns her dead husband—an eye doctor whose surgical instruments are preserved in a glass case—his weird and eerie images could have sustained his preference for simple language until the bitter end. I find this scene of mourning far more provocative than the merely sensational dwarf who gets out of a cab with his monkey in Hot Night.
Simic has compared his poetry to jazz music, the energetic rebel up against centuries of classical music, and I admire—indeed, adore—his daring in defying what he considers to be the elite language and subject matter of much contemporary poetry. But at times the poems in Walking the Black Cat, with their repetitive and sensational imagery, feel like they’re being performed by a jazz musician who could stand to learn a few more riffs. (less)
I bought this copy of Ovid's Metamorphoses when I was living in Rome. It's the book I was reading on the plane when I left Rome, as the realization su...moreI bought this copy of Ovid's Metamorphoses when I was living in Rome. It's the book I was reading on the plane when I left Rome, as the realization sunk in that an awesome and strange adventure was drawing to a close, and it's the book I was still reading when I moved back to Minneapolis and attempted to readjust to life as a Midwestern college undergrad.
I was reading Metamorphoses at the cafe a few blocks away from my apartment when a strange man gave me that little terror of a kitten, Monster. And Monster used to bite my toes when I was reading Metamorphoses in bed.
I was in love, so much in love, when I read Metamorphoses, with someone I would surely never meet again. And I was so lonely. And Metamorphoses was just beautiful, all the forlorn humans going up against the gods, only to be transformed into plants, animals, birds~
To read the great Roman poet while living in Rome, and to continue reading him while you are in mourning for the city once it's gone ~ was outrageous. In the best way. Grand. Epic. Eternal.(less)
I once submitted myself to the queer torture of reading Ulysses twice in one year.
I don't know what to say about Joyce that hasn't already been said b...moreI once submitted myself to the queer torture of reading Ulysses twice in one year.
I don't know what to say about Joyce that hasn't already been said before. I love Ulysses for being Ulysses -- filthy, ribald, beautiful, hilarious, all the things people have pointed out before. I love the mysterious man in the Macintosh, and Plumtree's Potted Meat, and Venus' mesial groove.
The activist in me gets really excited about the feisty Sylvia Beach who published Ulysses all on her own from a little unknown bookshop in Paris, and the ensuing obscenity trials that were fought and eventually won, permitting Ulysses to be printed and distributed in the Puritanical US of A. Intellectual freedom -- hip hip hooray!
Most of all I love that this book makes me think of Stuart McDougal, teaching our seminar on (not-really) British authors in his tweed suit in the Minnesota mornings. It makes me think about how Ezra Pound was really cantankerous and crazy, and about Pound's dictatorial relationship with T.S. Eliot, and about Tiresias drinking blood in the Underworld. It makes me think about the River-Merchant's wife's heart breaking when she sees pairs of butterflies, and about H.D.'s Helen being trapped in her body. And it makes me think about taking study breaks to watch 7 seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 5 months while eating York Peppermint Patties and drinking Chai.
I suppose it makes me think about all of these things, not because it was about any of them, but because reading Ulysses is a little like being in a long-term committed relationship, and it makes you think, by association, of all the things you experienced while you were in that relationship. And how hard it is to disentangle oneself once it's all done -- but why would you want to, really?(less)
I've spent a long time craving the perfect history of hip-hop. Watched a few documentaries here, read a few books there... but never quite satisfied t...moreI've spent a long time craving the perfect history of hip-hop. Watched a few documentaries here, read a few books there... but never quite satisfied that desire to put it all in context as the sociopolitical movement it's always felt like to me. Until now, that is!
Can't Stop Won't Stop is a dense little volume, telling the story of hip-hop alongside the stories of polarizing housing and economic reforms, police brutality, drug trafficking, and the fight inner-city communities have put up to survive and create meaning via popular cultural movements: music, dance, the visual arts. It's not a quick or easy read, with Chang packing in as much history and context as each page can possibly hold. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of the cultural and political events that birthed hip-hop, and in Can't Stop Won't Stop he gifts that knowledge to us, taking us from 1960s Jamaica to 1990s L.A., with a twenty-year stop in New York on the way.
Chang does skip major artists in his history, which might disappoint some hip-hop fans, but I thought it was a great move in the context of this book. LL Cool J, Biggie, Wu-Tang --they're not really represented here, Chang having opted instead to showcase key artists in depth to emphasize sociopolitical conditions in inner-city communities: Afrika Bambaataa, Public Enemy, Ice Cube. And rather than deifying these hip-hop icons, which could be awfully tempting, Chang offers up a much more complex view of their work, putting it in dialogue with feminists and other activists who've often clashed with their views along the way.
One of my favorite chapters is about Ice Cube's Death Warrant, the uber-macho gangster rap album that Chang first made me appreciate by showing how it evolved out of the race politics that defined L.A. during the Rodney King era of police brutality. But then, turn the page, and there's a transcript of Ice Cube in conversation with a prominent black feminist who questions his portrayal of women on the album. This is why I loved reading Chang! -- he puts it all in context, but without oversimplifying. He both celebrates the art form and dissects the politics, giving us layers upon layers to unravel.(less)
I think I actually clapped my hands with delight when I picked this one up -- it's a truly strange narrative, which is always a huge plus in the Book-...moreI think I actually clapped my hands with delight when I picked this one up -- it's a truly strange narrative, which is always a huge plus in the Book-of-Rachel. It's been a while since I picked up anything quite this satisfyingly weird.
I didn't know anything about the historic Ned Kelly going into this, but it turned out to be in many ways just a good old fashioned outlaw story, where the outlaw is a hero -- stealing from the rich to feed the poor. Peter Carey is a genius, rendering Ned Kelly's voice as gruff, macho, poetic, lovely and truthful. He writes in broken run-on sentences, using irregular punctuation and ignoring all the rules of grammar, but this is somehow what makes Ned Kelly feel like he's made of flesh and blood and bones. I adored the repeating themes of transvestitism and weird mythological banshees that somehow stayed quietly in the background. This book really has it all -- love, honor, corruption, traitors, revenge, passion, murder. And Australians quoting Shakespeare.(less)
I hated this. . . and I loved it. But mostly I hated it. Like crack & heroin & sundry other controlled substances, its pleasures are highly ad...moreI hated this. . . and I loved it. But mostly I hated it. Like crack & heroin & sundry other controlled substances, its pleasures are highly addictive, yet so very very bad for you!
I can understand why Twilight is appealing to a lot of people, especially young women. Stephenie Meyer aroused feelings in me that I hadn't felt since I was in junior high and high school. She exploited the emotional neediness of that confused adolescent girl, and I think this is why it was so hard for me to stop reading, even though "grown-up" me was horrified by what I was reading.
This book teaches girls that they are weak, and that men are strong. It teaches girls that men are dangerous when it comes to relationships and sex, and that they had better just keep their fingers crossed that they'll attract a gracious man who won't abuse his great power over them. It also teaches girls that they have to ask men for permission when they want to drive, get dressed, eat dinner and use the bathroom.
I could go on and on.
Edward stalks Bella in the name of "protecting" her from sexual predators, and he even sneaks into her bedroom to watch her sleeping at night. Why is this ok??? I, for one, find this very disturbing! Edward is a power hungry control freak, yet Bella finds this sexy and alluring. He forces her to do things she doesn't want to do, and then he "chuckles" when she resists. And that "charming, crooked smile" makes her forgive him every single time. Why are we all celebrating this bogus relationship paradigm???
And for all these faults, the plot isn't even that great! Plot holes, improbabilities and deus-ex-machina devices all over the place. And, hello, Stephenie Meyer completely leaves out the last fight scene because the narrator conveniently passes out and wakes up in a hospital three days later! I can't believe her readers let her get away with this.
So. . . why am I still considering watching the movie and reading the sequel? SIGH. I guess there's just no escaping that little tiny piece of me that still remembers what it was like to be 16.(less)
Hang on while I slip out of my tight-lipped, shush-ing librarian persona, and into my sexy librarian persona! Dr. Laura Berman, the author of It’s Not...moreHang on while I slip out of my tight-lipped, shush-ing librarian persona, and into my sexy librarian persona! Dr. Laura Berman, the author of It’s Not Him, It’s You!, is most well-known for her TV appearances on Oprah and Dr. Oz, as well as for her own radio show on Chicago’s Oprah Radio. What I really like about Dr. Berman is that she offers a fresh take on the relationships and self-help genre, encouraging women and men to approach their relationships from a holistic perspective that includes both emotional and physical intimacy, with a little extra emphasis on the physical. She is candid, warm, and affirming about the subject, although readers may want to be cautioned that It’s Not Him, It’s You! is fairly explicit and includes intimate illustrations.
In her latest book, Dr. Berman has a special message for women: “Firstly, you must decide to take full responsibility for your relationships and for your life. Secondly, you must decide to stop blaming your partner or others for everything that goes wrong in your relationship.” It’s empowering advice, shored up from her years of first-hand experience helping couples in therapy. Via multiple-choice quizzes, illustrations, and short, readable chapters, Dr. Berman addresses modern topics such as Internet dating; the balancing act between family, career, and intimacy; and shifting domestic responsibilities between women and men at home. She even offers a primer on psychological issues that can be destructive to relationships, and suggests ways to seek treatment for these issues.
Her writing style will probably appeal to fun-loving women who like going out with their girlfriends, and whose special guys enjoy catching the game with their pals. In this way, It’s Not Him, It’s You! tends toward what I think of as a “classic” guy-girl relationship. But even if this doesn’t describe you or your relationship, Dr. Berman offers at least one take-away I think we can all benefit from: sometimes you just have to forget about those dirty dishes, slip into a hot bath, and simply enjoy the person you’re with. It's the key to taking charge of your life and creating "the love and intimacy you deserve"!(less)
I feel kind of weird giving one of those special five-star ratings to a book about, well, cats , but this was a pretty special book. Squeamish cat-lo...moreI feel kind of weird giving one of those special five-star ratings to a book about, well, cats , but this was a pretty special book. Squeamish cat-lovers beware ~ Doris Lessing starts out by telling of her girlhood growing up on a farm in South Africa, shooting baby kittens with her father because they simply couldn't manage to keep them all. I actually love her for refusing to be sentimental. Yet somehow there is an acute tenderness in her writing about her cats, especially as she grows older, despite wry tales of guns & whiskey & too many kittens. Remarkably like her darker works on the terrors of motherhood, failures of communism, etc., Lessing really zeroes in on the personalities and nuances of her characters. It's just that, this time, they happen to be cats!
This was one of those especially good ones that I had to read really slow at the last chapter because I didn't want it to end.(less)
Hands down one of the best "superhero" comics I've ever read! The superhero is tiny little Lee Wagstaff from Charon, Mississippi, and Bayou is her gia...moreHands down one of the best "superhero" comics I've ever read! The superhero is tiny little Lee Wagstaff from Charon, Mississippi, and Bayou is her giant hulking sidekick. Here's why I love Lee:
"Look at you! You a big ol' monster with arms like tree trunks! You can whup just about anything in the whole wide world! Whatchoo got to be scared of some bossman fo'? If I was big as you, I'd be the bossman! We find your bossman and we find Lily and you can just march right up to that ol' fool and tell him to give him your chilluns or you goin' pound him good!"
Sigh, and the artwork is AWESOME ~ dark, haunting, drenched in rich watercolors... with really cute bugs and animals.(less)
This book mostly made me extremely curious about mushrooms. Apparently they are the most mysterious things EVER. They can't manufacture food energy ph...moreThis book mostly made me extremely curious about mushrooms. Apparently they are the most mysterious things EVER. They can't manufacture food energy photosynthetically from the sun, and must thrive instead on decomposing vegetable matter. In Mexico they're known as "carne de los muertos" -- "flesh of the dead." In fact, *some* mycologists speculate that mushrooms produce LUNAR rather than SOLAR calories.
Well, this just about blew me away.
Of course, this book also made me think a LOT about the energy used to produce every single bit of food I eat. Afterwards I was really gung-ho about how I was going to make much more responsible food choices. . .(less)
Oh my god: I think this is the first bestseller I've ever read while it was still a bestseller!!! I feel like I've been initiated into this sacred cul...moreOh my god: I think this is the first bestseller I've ever read while it was still a bestseller!!! I feel like I've been initiated into this sacred cult... of everyone-else.
So I've been a Tina Fey admirer for a few years now: not necessarily because of Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock, or even Mean Girls, but because she's a kick ass woman at the top of her field in a male-dominated career. I get kind of excited by that feminist stuff. But what I loved best about Bossypants is not just that's its true to Tina's ideals of "gender meritocracy"... but that it's REALLY REALLY FUNNY!
You know, now that I think of it, a lot of Bossypantsis about classically "female" issues: schoolgirl crushes, honeymoons and marriage, body image, being a working mom. I think part of Tina's genius is her novel realization that, hey! 49% of the world's population is female, and there might just be something funny in that. She's created this persona of the smart, over-achieving white girl from the suburbs, and then described that world via expertly honed zingers that hit home for all those ladies like me who've probably felt underrepresented in the comedy landscape.
And sure ~ like most great comics, Tina can get a little weird and annoying and offensive sometimes. but I think this works for her because, just like great guy comics, she's not afraid to take risks and stick her neck way out there, unapologetically. She's ambitious, and strong, and somehow (e.g. hard work, brilliance, and an iron will...) it all comes together.(less)
I wasn't familiar with her work, and expe...moreIf you're already familiar with Brené Brown's popular TED talk, Daring Greatly follows much in the same vein.
I wasn't familiar with her work, and expected this book to contain practical insights into creativity, innovation, and risk-taking. But instead it remained wholly in the territory of Brown's academic research on shame and vulnerability.
Brown's work is interesting, but not at all what I'd intended to read. With a giant pile of TBR books waiting on my nightstand, my time spent on this book is ultimately time I wish I could get back.
I might've stuck with it, but I was too annoyed by the attitude that society is deteriorating into a narcissistic bully fest, and it's all the fault of social media and cellphones. I never buy into that argument, and found it pervasive throughout Brown's book. (less)
When I was at my library looking for couples' advice about how to merge money styles, Bambi Holzer's book Financial Bliss stood out as an obvious fron...moreWhen I was at my library looking for couples' advice about how to merge money styles, Bambi Holzer's book Financial Bliss stood out as an obvious front-runner. I loved the first half of the book, which offers some truly great tips for compromise and communication. Holzer is pragmatic and hilarious, in an endearing, corny sort-of way. She's not preachy about her views as some financial writers tend to be, but rather takes a realistic view of today's couples and money styles, and provides a set of tools to help them approach financial questions in a manageable way.
The last half of the book was less interesting to me -- Holzer gives boilerplate advice on homebuying, investing, estate management, family and retirement planning, etc. Useful stuff, but I was hoping for more of the communication / compromise piece. Overall, I think this book provides a great place to initiate the conversation with your partner about how to merge money styles.(less)
So sometimes you pick up a book thinking, "Wow, this is going to be really awesome and trashy!" and then you're just disappointed. Well, this one did...moreSo sometimes you pick up a book thinking, "Wow, this is going to be really awesome and trashy!" and then you're just disappointed. Well, this one did not disappoint. Unfortunately, Robbins brings out the big guns too early (the "Nevada Smith" fugitive-cowboy-turned-hollywood-movie-star story is too good to be true) and then he just keeps recycling the same characters over and over for the next 500 pages.(less)
Some book clubs plan their reading list and meeting schedule a year in advance. Friends, that is not my book club. We’re what I’d like to call "charmi...moreSome book clubs plan their reading list and meeting schedule a year in advance. Friends, that is not my book club. We’re what I’d like to call "charmingly" disorganized; we often don’t know when or where we’re going to meet until the day before.
So when we spontaneously decided to meet at the Taproom this Tuesday to talk about Michel Faber’s Under the Skin , I knew I had to get reading… fast. Because books about Scottish alien cannibal women do not lend themselves well to spoilers.
You guys, Under the Skin is the most fun I've had reading since Gone Girl in June. Part morality tale, part horror story, and part dystopian sci-fi, it's a lightning-paced read with a serious literary backbone, featuring an embattled, tough-as-nails heroine. Better yet, it taps into pop-culture's beloved hitchhiking motif, but in totally new and unexpected ways. I promise you'll want to hitchhike even less after reading this book.
Although I don’t typically read horror or sci-fi, I loved Under the Skin. It’s a genre-bending tale in the vein of some of the best science fiction classics out there: 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451; the genre is such a great vehicle for exploring those big juicy human questions, and Faber writes with such economy and control. And if you’ve ever been in a book club, you’re hip to the fact that they’re fabulous for getting you to pick up stuff you might not have read on your own.
You might already know Michel Faber as the writer behind the awesome historical mini series The Crimson Petal and the White. But he’s about to enter pop-culture consciousness in another big way — Scarlett Johansson is slated to take the screen as the leading lady in the film adaptation of Under the Skin, due out next month. If you want to read the book first, here’s a tip — the audio version is worth it for the Scottish accents alone.(less)
I like to think of myself as a modern woman -- cool, level-headed, doesn’t cry easily, likes Duran Duran, but not too much.
Leave it to Rolling Stone...moreI like to think of myself as a modern woman -- cool, level-headed, doesn’t cry easily, likes Duran Duran, but not too much.
Leave it to Rolling Stone editor Rob Sheffield and his ruminations on Pat Benatar, Whitney Houston, Sleater-Kinney and Pavement to make me cry like a baby. It also wreaked havoc on my bank account as I went on an iTunes downloading spree. Hanson's "MMMBop," anyone?
In Love is a Mix Tape, written half a decade ago, Rob Sheffield chronicles his marriage to a punk rock, hell-raising Appalachian girl; a love affair that ended tragically when she suffered a pulmonary embolism with no warning at the age of 31. Sheffield writes about their relationship in the best way he knows how -- each chapter is prefaced with the tracklist from a mix tape that describes each phase, from their first meeting at a South Carolina bar (Big Star’s Radio City) to the painful process of grieving and becoming a young widow (Sleater-Kinney’s One More Hour).
It’s a device that you suspect might get tired after a few chapters, except it doesn’t, because Rob Sheffield is a music critic god -- a brainy guy with a pop culture sensibility that infuses each sentence of the book. On his sexual awakening at the junior high dance: "It was a painful night, but I got the message: Let the dancing girls dance. [...] By the second verse of 'Bad Girls,' it was obvious everything I knew was wrong. 'Toot toot, beep beep' was meaningful on a much deeper level than I could have fathomed." And so on.
As a fellow purveyor of pop culture, and someone who agrees that stories and songs are mostly meant to connect us to each other (and also to keep the girls dancing), I stand by Love is a Mix Tape as the perfect little summer book. Check it out, but make sure you’ve got your credit card handy. You might be downloading a lot of Debbie Harry and TLC over the weekend.(less)
I've got a literary crush on Daniel Woodrell, who's the author of Winter's Bone and Lawrence Public Library's guest of honor for Read Across Lawrence...moreI've got a literary crush on Daniel Woodrell, who's the author of Winter's Bone and Lawrence Public Library's guest of honor for Read Across Lawrence in September 2012.
Mr. Woodrell first launched his writing career as a crime novelist with his haunting and gritty Bayou Trilogy featuring Detective Rene Shade in the Louisiana swamp town of Saint Bruno, a place where "tempers went on the prowl and relief was driving a hard bargain." Soon after came Woe to Live On, which was adapted into the Ang Lee film Ride With the Devil and explores the dark and twisty undertones of Quantrill's Bushwhackers and their raid on Lawrence, KS. Winter's Bone is one of his most recent works, and familiar as the inspiration for the film that was a multiple Oscar contender in 2010.
Curious to see what Daniel Woodrell had been up to since Winter's Bone, I cracked open his newest book, The Outlaw Album, a collection of short stories set in his ancestral home of the Missouri Ozarks.
To characterize Woodrell's work just as tough and gritty would be to miss out on some of its finer nuances. Following in the footsteps of other southern gothic writers like Flannery O'Connor, William Faulkner and Cormac Carthy, Daniel Woodrell knows a thing or two about how to turn a sentence. His work is infused with eerie dreamlike enigmas, a quality that really shines through in the short story format. In one of my favorites from the collection, "Night Stand," a Vietnam war vet named Pelham is attacked by an intruder and defends himself with a knife that mysteriously appears on his nightstand. The intruder is killed, and for the rest of the story the question gnaws at Pelham: how'd he get that knife? He never solves the mystery, but instead becomes obsessed with his deceased attacker.
The other stories in the collection are equally tragic with fabulous first sentences: "Once Boshell finally killed his neighbor he couldn't seem to quit killing him." "Morrow wondered if he might soon die because of a beautiful girl from his teens he'd never had the nerve to approach." "My brother left no footprints as he fled."
Most of the characters who populate The Outlaw Album are unfussy tough guys who don't suffer fools: handy with shotguns, suspicious of fancy outsiders. But a few have softer sides: the convict with a surprise gift for poetry. The army private who processes difficult emotions by creating fantastical paintings (of cows). The girl with penny-colored hair who wears swan-winged glasses and a crinkled black dress, and whose "words put special color to events." There's beauty and humor to be sniffed out from tragic passages.
In a Fresh Air interview with Terry Gross, Woodrell has said that he likes to write about people who are easy to dislike; he wants to coax the reader into caring about somebody she or he wouldn't usually care about. These are the characters of The Outlaw Album, and if you look closely, you'll glimpse their redemption -- writ however quiet or small.(less)
After listening to "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them" on audio book, I am even MORE thrilled that Senator Franken was finally confirmed as a U.S...moreAfter listening to "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them" on audio book, I am even MORE thrilled that Senator Franken was finally confirmed as a U.S. Senator earlier this month! I loved the book so much that just had to write him this letter:
Dear Senator Franken,
With heartfelt relief & appreciation, I congratulate you on your recent confirmation to the U.S. Senate! I was attending Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, in 2002 when Senator Paul Wellstone died his tragic, untimely death. I remember the unbelievable sadness I felt -- as well as the anger and frustration -- as events unfolded and Minnesota elected Norm Coleman to that seat. I can't tell you how happy it makes me that a liberal leader with courage and integrity who truly cares for the welfare of the United States people, such as yourself, is back in that seat. As a public servant too (I'm a librarian at a public library), that sort of thing means a great deal to me.
My boyfriend and I recently listened to Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them on audio book. He despises listening to audio books, yet he kept begging to listen to the next installment of "Franken." The book was hilarious and fascinating, and you're a fantastic narrator. We loved it. If you ever retire from politics (lets hope that doesn't happen any time soon!), we think your next audio book project should be narrating Bill O'Reilly's "Those Who Trespass." We'll definitely buy a copy.
I *really* wanted to love this, and I did have to laugh out loud at "the two naked girls who were running nimbly along the edge of the meadow while tw...moreI *really* wanted to love this, and I did have to laugh out loud at "the two naked girls who were running nimbly along the edge of the meadow while two monkeys followed them, biting their buttocks." And there's plenty of good old fashioned philosophical fodder. But actually, Voltaire just seems like kind of a smug jerk.(less)
So Gladwell's written a pretty interesting little book based on the simple premise that social phenomena usually can't be explained by just one cause-...moreSo Gladwell's written a pretty interesting little book based on the simple premise that social phenomena usually can't be explained by just one cause-and-effect relationship (take that, Steven Levit!). I liked his discussion of how fads disperse through networks, especially in light of the advent of online social networks. There's really nothing revolutionary here, though ~ just entertaining stories about Sesame Street and skater shoes with a little sociology, marketing and econ sprinkled in. (I was actually pretty annoyed by the afterword, in which Gladwell makes the grandiose claim that his book can impact the AIDS epidemic and the problems of struggling urban schools.)(less)
I was sitting on the patio of my favorite bakery on a drizzly Saturday morning, eating a croissant, when the woman doing a crossword next to me notice...moreI was sitting on the patio of my favorite bakery on a drizzly Saturday morning, eating a croissant, when the woman doing a crossword next to me noticed the title of the book I was reading: Methland. "Excuse me," she said, "but can you tell me a little about that book?"
It's a title that's bound to pique interest. She told me that she grew up in the sixties and doesn't really know a lot about meth. Indeed, methamphetamine first showed up on the national radar in a big way in the 2000s, and has since captured the public imagination as a drug that's weirdly predominant in rural working-class communities in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and all across middle America. It's also started cropping up all over pop-culture, from Breaking Bad to True Blood to Winter’s Bone. People are curious about meth.
The thing I like best about journalist Nick Reding's book Methland is that it transcends a sensationalist true crime attitude to look deeply and thoughtfully at the meth pandemic. "Viewing meth as a crime story vastly oversimplifies the problem," Reding has written, and he's taken pains to craft a narrative that avoids stereotyping, trivializing or caricaturing. After spending four years on and off in the tiny town of Oelwein, IA, getting to know meth from every perspective — addicts, the town doctor, the chief of police, the mayor, the county prosecutor, social workers, the owner of the local dive bar — Reding had the material for a book that would land on the New York Times bestseller list and tell the complicated story of meth in small town America.
Methamphetamine was first widely used in combat operations by Allied and Axis soldiers during World War II — many have even speculated that Hitler, when he devolved into increasingly Parkinson's-like symptoms and a derelict mental state, was addicted to meth. In the 1950s thru the early 80s, meth was often prescribed to suppress appetite and fight depression, among a host of other ailments. Then, in the mid-80s, TV personality Tom Arnold’s sister, Lori, started trafficking illegal meth to Ottumwa, IA, and all over the U.S. Now, like a socioeconomic cancer, illegal meth ravages small-time dealers and cooks like Roland Jarvis, who miraculously survived blowing himself up one night after hallucinating that he saw live human heads in the trees at his mother’s house, and Major, a young man struggling to get clean after hooking up with the Sons of Silence biker gang and fathering a child who was taken away by DHS. Meanwhile, strapped local law enforcement agencies are trying every possible strategy — including banning bicycles on downtown Main Streets — to clean up their towns and rid them of meth, for good.
A true-life Winter’s Bone story, Reding uses Methland as a springboard to discuss the politics of methamphetamine use, its effects on addicts and their communities, and the families and children who, like Ree Dolly, are left behind to try to survive.(less)
Loved this even more than I thought I would. Apropos for a book about crafts and crafters, the format is very visual without dense text, which worked...moreLoved this even more than I thought I would. Apropos for a book about crafts and crafters, the format is very visual without dense text, which worked fabulously.
Faythe Levine trekked across the country in the mid 2000s interviewing and documenting some of the nation's most brilliant creative people. Each subject gets about a page of text to tell their story and three pages of gorgeous full-color photographs. My jaw dropped several times. Interspersed are slightly longer, headier musings on the politics of DIY and making. Nothing too arcane or erudite, but super interesting nevertheless.
I read this in tandem with my laptop so I could look up the websites of each of the featured crafters. I loved this book for cracking open the more weird, more wonderful world of the online DIY ethos.(less)
Imagine your favorite futuristic dystopia, hashing out socialist versus capitalist values: Brave New World? Fahrenheit 451? 1984? And now imagine that...moreImagine your favorite futuristic dystopia, hashing out socialist versus capitalist values: Brave New World? Fahrenheit 451? 1984? And now imagine that the nuances are a tad bit richer, the characters are a little more flesh and blood, the philosophical explorations are somehow just a smidge deeper and the solutions more ambiguous and complex.
I don't even really like Sci-Fi, but The Dispossessed was pretty perfect. The two worlds LeGuin creates in opposition to each other -- the socialist, utopian Anarres, and the wealthy, earth-like Urras -- are so complete, so believable. But what really sets this book apart from others in the genre is the way she interprets and explores the two worlds -- not as good versus evil, but rather that each is beautiful, corrupt and challenging in its own way. The hero Shevek, in navigating between the two worlds, must learn to understand and live in them both. In choosing this approach, LeGuin really gets at the heart of something more human and rare than you often get to see in novels.(less)
I now have way more disgusting anecdotes to share with the world about vampire bats, leeches, bedbugs, dick fish, and anything else that could suck yo...moreI now have way more disgusting anecdotes to share with the world about vampire bats, leeches, bedbugs, dick fish, and anything else that could suck your blood. Consider: a battalion in Napoleon's army washed their faces in a river, inadvertently getting leech eggs lodged in their noses and throats, and ended up dying a gruesome and painful death when the lil baby leeches came alive inside of them! So, I appreciate this aspect of Dark Banquet.
I got a little bored, though, when Schutt went off on long tangents about the cellular makeup of our blood and all the little vampire enzymes blah blah blah. I admire Schutt for trying to mix popular and academic genres, but for me it seemed a little confused ~ was I his real audience, or was a first year Bat Biologist supposed to be his audience? I would have preferred more narrative, or perhaps even more jazzed-up explanations of what is going on biologically when a bed bug feasts on your blood (a la one of my all-time-fav NPR shows, Radio Lab).
He's a great writer, though, and I enjoyed the chance to ponder things like evolutionary advantages and the like that I don't necessarily get to think about every day. And I will cherish all the gross anecdotes forEVER. (less)
On the one hand, Anitra Frazier claims that you can communicate telepathically with your cats, should only feed them raw meat that you prepare yoursel...moreOn the one hand, Anitra Frazier claims that you can communicate telepathically with your cats, should only feed them raw meat that you prepare yourself, and should organize an elaborate squad of homeopathic veterinarians from around the country to coordinate your cats' health care. She is also pretty fond of promoting her special "Anitra's Vita-Mineral Mix, sold in health food stores in select locations," which makes her come across as a bit of a con-man.
On the other hand, a lot of what she says actually makes a ton of sense. So many pet guardians and veterinarians alike have fallen into the habit of just taking what the market has to offer for granted -- unhealthy pet foods, chemically treated litters that our poor little friends just end up licking off themselves, annual vaccinations, toys that are cute to humans but not satisfying to kitties, etc. She got me to actually look at the ingredients on my pet food label, which was shocking considering what my husband and I spend on the primo brand. As soon as the cats finish this bag, we are switching it up! We also purchased a cat-sized plushie animal, which got our lil kitten to stop attacking our big fatty cat (as often). So even though Anitra has a way of taking holistic care to an extreme that, for most of us, just wouldn't be practical, at the end of the day this cat lady has lots of fantastic tips about how to play with and love your little feline friends.(less)
I despised this book. Absolutely loathed Truman Capote for putting me in the skin of two cold blooded, malicious murderers. How dare he make me feel s...moreI despised this book. Absolutely loathed Truman Capote for putting me in the skin of two cold blooded, malicious murderers. How dare he make me feel such empathy and loathing, all mixed up! The worst thing I've ever read. Period. Brilliant.(less)
But sometimes, let’s face it, it’s pretty satisfying to read a sharp, smart thriller that you can dive into and devour in 48 hours flat. So says Nick, one of the slippery narrators of Gone Girl, the latest bestselling novel by Gillian Flynn. Honeymooning with his devastating bride Amy, Nick observes: “She’d made a grim figure on the Fiji beach during our two-week honeymoon, battling her way through a million mystical pages of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, casting pissy glances at me as I devoured thriller after thriller.” Nick knows it, I know it, and you know it: sometimes it takes a thriller to hit the spot.
On the morning of their fifth anniversary, Amy Dunne of Gone Girl goes missing from her perfect midwest home with perfect husband Nick. After spending the first few years of their marriage together in cosmopolitan New York, the couple has relocated to Nick’s hometown in rural Missouri to open a neighborhood bar and take care of his ailing mother. But on their anniversary morning, Amy disappears from the living room. Coffee tables are overturned. Vases are broken. There are obvious signs of struggle. And Nick can’t provide an alibi. Soon the cops discover Amy’s diary, and we’re enticed to jump to conclusions. Was their home truly happy?
I loved the fun, twisty, whodunit aspect of Gone Girl, executed so well under the author’s surgical precision. But my favorite part, by far, was Flynn’s signature -- savage -- perceptivity. It’s what makes Flynn stand out from the rest of the thriller-writing pack. Gone Girl is ultimately a portrait of a marriage on the rocks, and Flynn relishes peeling back the layers to reveal how it all went wrong, step by teeny step, as two very flawed characters fail in their vow to love and to cherish. Flynn makes it absolutely delicious to take sides, and you will -- and then you’ll change sides (I promise). And then you’ll change sides again. But whose side will you take in the end?
Its surprising twists and turns make Gone Girl the perfect novel to read with a book buddy. Whatever you’re in the middle of reading now, I recommend a 48 hour detour -- you’ll have a juicy debate waiting for you when you get to the last page.(less)
I'm not ashamed to admit that I loved 50 Shades of Grey.
Sure, I laughed to my husband about the terrible prose and ridiculous characters. And then I w...moreI'm not ashamed to admit that I loved 50 Shades of Grey.
Sure, I laughed to my husband about the terrible prose and ridiculous characters. And then I waited till he fell asleep to read the next chapter. I complained to my girlfriends about the heroine's "Inner Goddess." And then I picked it back up on the sly and kept right on reading. In fact, for two weeks of my life that I'll never get back, I utterly neglected the "TBR" pile on my nightstand, ignored my book club's current book, stopped reading about project management for work, and kept leafing through 50 Shades of Grey to find out what new, um, entanglements Ana and Christian would find themselves in for the evening.
In case you've missed all the buzz, let me fill you in. 50 Shades of Grey is a juicy little piece of erotica that's been cropping up all over popular culture lately, from Good Morning America and The View to the New York Times bestseller list. It's Twilight for the boudoir — gorgeous but insecure young woman falls for impossibly handsome, brooding gazillionaire. But instead of fangs, this guy's got handcuffs, a dungeon, and a 10 page NDA contract he makes all his girlfriends sign.
The fun thing about 50 Shades of Grey is that it is so "girl next door." It's such a far cry from old school erotic classics like The Story of O, Venus in Furs, and Story of the Eye, but that's kind of what makes it so fun. Anastasia isn't some new wave French girl or a 19th century German dominatrix, but a 21st century American woman who could be your college roommate. She grapples with the modern woman's dilemma of wanting to have her cake and eat it, too — she wants a strong, sexy guy to protect her and take control, but she wants him to do his half of the housework, too.
And the thing is, it works. If you can make it through the first six chapters, which are a little dull, the heat turns way up and Ana and Christian become blank canvases for all your little daydreams. The plot is sorta vanilla, but the romantic scenes between our heroes rank at roughly 65,000 on the Scoville scale. Dr. Oz has said it’s helping women save their relationships. Sherri Shepherd from The View can’t get enough of it. And even Kristin Wiig has made the case for why anyone who likes a little heat in their fiction might not want to miss 50 Shades of Grey.
The only thing that drove me crazy is that the story ends on a complete cliffhanger. But not to worry, gals and guys — there's a second and third book in the series, too!(less)
I've expanded my reading horizons! This one was really up and down for me. I loved the fast-paced writing, twists, depth of character, and the morally...moreI've expanded my reading horizons! This one was really up and down for me. I loved the fast-paced writing, twists, depth of character, and the morally ambiguous ending. On the other hand, I was not a big fan of the corny über-macho tone or the weird asides on the moral degradation of hip-hop & video games! The ending felt a little bit like a cop-out, but gave Lehane a chance to explore the overarching theme that violence can be meaningless and chaotic. Overall, I appreciated the unexpected nuances in character and plot layering, and that it was an entertaining, fast read.
I'm looking forward to reading some more thrillers in my quest to branch out into pulp, beach reads & bestsellers in 2011, although I think I'll try some chick lit or popular memoirs first, while I rebound from Mystic River! A fellow-librarian suggested that I try a lady detective, à la Laura Lippman, which might nicely take care of the "macho" issue.(less)
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