Terry Teachout doesn't care for the stage adaptation of Joan Didion's memoir and that's fine, he's a respected veteran critic.
But you get an idea of what's coming from a pretty churlish first paragraph.
All the articles that she's written since the Sixties in the New York Review of Books stand out for me a bit, given whose publishing Teachout's next book.
Posted by Dave
Friday, March 30, 2007
It's been a big day for the Road
it's out in paperback with an Oprah sticker on it and it's picked up the big prize, as well.
Called it.
I'm thrilled for the book and glad that it's out in paperback.
The judges all make good points, but this, from lead judge Jessica Kane, is my favourite:
"Good God, where did this book come from? It seems to me terrifyingly good, and not good as in “masterpiece” or “instant classic,” but good as in “future sacred text.” The world’s slow dimming. Civilization dying. The ingenious decision to set the story some years after the cataclysm, whatever it was. It’s wrenching to read the time placers: the early years.
“Once in those early years he’d wakened in a barren wood and lay listening to flocks of migratory birds overhead in that bitter dark. …He never heard them again.”
Where I live in Virginia the cherry trees are blooming. Today it will be warm and the air seems soft and pink with promise. I, however, feel sick. Flashes of McCarthy’s burned-out land keep coming to mind, obliterating all of it. It’s awful and wonderful. I haven’t been so affected by a book in a long time."
Yep, that's about it.
There's an awful lot of books that are fine on their own, but pretty much immaterial against work like this.
Posted by Dave
Called it.
I'm thrilled for the book and glad that it's out in paperback.
The judges all make good points, but this, from lead judge Jessica Kane, is my favourite:
"Good God, where did this book come from? It seems to me terrifyingly good, and not good as in “masterpiece” or “instant classic,” but good as in “future sacred text.” The world’s slow dimming. Civilization dying. The ingenious decision to set the story some years after the cataclysm, whatever it was. It’s wrenching to read the time placers: the early years.
“Once in those early years he’d wakened in a barren wood and lay listening to flocks of migratory birds overhead in that bitter dark. …He never heard them again.”
Where I live in Virginia the cherry trees are blooming. Today it will be warm and the air seems soft and pink with promise. I, however, feel sick. Flashes of McCarthy’s burned-out land keep coming to mind, obliterating all of it. It’s awful and wonderful. I haven’t been so affected by a book in a long time."
Yep, that's about it.
There's an awful lot of books that are fine on their own, but pretty much immaterial against work like this.
Posted by Dave
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Cormac McCarthy on the Law of Attraction?
After ensuring the Secret, the planet smasher of a book made up of spittle and post-it notes is everyone's birthday present for the past few months; Oprah is going to have at Cormac McCarthy's The Road.
In keeping with the Rhonda Byrne title it seems the few who survived the end of the world in McCarthy's novel projected negative thoughts at some time in their lives or previous lives and were responsible for their lot. Or some twaddle like that.
They should have just applied the "principles" of the Law of Attraction and wished for a Benz.
One novelty hit pretty much guarantees another.
I just don't see that there's any difference.
It probably bears noting that the Road is in the championship match in the Tournament against Gary Shteyngart's Absurdistan. I'd bet the proverbial farm on this one.
Posted by Dave
In keeping with the Rhonda Byrne title it seems the few who survived the end of the world in McCarthy's novel projected negative thoughts at some time in their lives or previous lives and were responsible for their lot. Or some twaddle like that.
They should have just applied the "principles" of the Law of Attraction and wished for a Benz.
One novelty hit pretty much guarantees another.
I just don't see that there's any difference.
It probably bears noting that the Road is in the championship match in the Tournament against Gary Shteyngart's Absurdistan. I'd bet the proverbial farm on this one.
Posted by Dave
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Honest and for true
This sordid little scenario pretty much defines our place, except with an occasionally explosive fifth act.
Posted by Dave
Posted by Dave
Lazy, but not without standards
Feeling upbeat about the future, despite everything
I saw this last week, trolling through the political thickets on the "internets", and was reminded of it reading Jane Smiley (so this counts as bookish) here.
Her column mentions Oklahoma Republican Senator James Inhofe in the context of his state and Texas next door, which are currently in the grip of a severe drought.
Smiley wonders about the future as it relates to global warming.
This matters because Senator Inhofe has been a more than willing advocate for global warming deniers for years and sparred with Al Gore on his return to testify before a committee on global warming last week in the Senate.
Crooks and Liars has the video, and California Senator Barbara Boxer is my new hero.
The video requires no explanation at all.
Posted by Dave
Her column mentions Oklahoma Republican Senator James Inhofe in the context of his state and Texas next door, which are currently in the grip of a severe drought.
Smiley wonders about the future as it relates to global warming.
This matters because Senator Inhofe has been a more than willing advocate for global warming deniers for years and sparred with Al Gore on his return to testify before a committee on global warming last week in the Senate.
Crooks and Liars has the video, and California Senator Barbara Boxer is my new hero.
The video requires no explanation at all.
Posted by Dave
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Belated thanks from us all
I should have put this up earlier, but there was a very well attended launch for local favourite Chris Banks on the Saturday previous. On either side of Chris were his friend and fellow dark arts practitioner Adam Getty reading from Lyric & Elegy (Biblioasis)
and Nick Thran reading from a very strong first effort. The guy's got his craft down, and he's got a dream job, too.
The book sales were fine, but there were easily thirty people in attendance, damn fine for a poetry event. Nice one, Waterloo, and sincere thanks to all who attended.
Posted by Dave
and Nick Thran reading from a very strong first effort. The guy's got his craft down, and he's got a dream job, too.
The book sales were fine, but there were easily thirty people in attendance, damn fine for a poetry event. Nice one, Waterloo, and sincere thanks to all who attended.
Posted by Dave
Nice
Sarah points to a marvelous NYT column detailing some top of the mark new crime stuff out there. I haven't' read one or two of them, but Mo Hayder, Jean Cluade Izzo, Carlotto, David Goodis. Oh baby.
I like reviewer deluxe Marilyn Stasio makes the point that around one of my faves that
"A Mo Hayder novel makes a nice palate cleanser when you’ve binged on too many mellifluent literary mysteries and don’t feel like shooting it out with yet another wise-racking private eye."
Actually, a Mo Hayder thriller will make you forget much of your previous months reading.
Proof positive, baby.
Posted by Dave
I like reviewer deluxe Marilyn Stasio makes the point that around one of my faves that
"A Mo Hayder novel makes a nice palate cleanser when you’ve binged on too many mellifluent literary mysteries and don’t feel like shooting it out with yet another wise-racking private eye."
Actually, a Mo Hayder thriller will make you forget much of your previous months reading.
Proof positive, baby.
Posted by Dave
Monday, March 26, 2007
Are you crying? There's no crying in bookselling!
The troubles at the Borders chain in the UK prompt the Guardian to wonder about the future of chain stores, yes chain stores in the face of huge supermarkets and Amazon, at least in the British market.
Although I suspect it's out of politeness that the lead mentions "the individual appeal of the independents" I'll take it because it's true.
Near the end of the article, there's a link to an independent shop that gets it right:
"The purist reader in me cringes at the thought of the country's largest chain of booksellers (and once-upon-a-time bookselling greats) dumbing down its focus areas still further at the expense of a broad range of titles and subject areas. Certainly news of a drop in sales is a bad indicator for the industry, and no one wants to see booksellers losing their jobs or bookshops having to close.
But while the inner reader frowns, the independent bookseller in me is rubbing his hands with glee. It seems that Waterstone's is again indicating its intention to turn around its problems by heading off for a duel to the death with Tesco and the mega-discounters. Cue price wars on chick-lit summer reads, anything by (or remotely connected with) anyone on TV and everyone's favourite little wizard.
Well, much as I'd like to stay and watch, I'm going to be busy brushing up on my humanities selection. The narrower Waterstone's makes its core stock, the easier it is for any decent independent bookshop to find niches where it can compete."
To boot, he's not a bad looking chap either.
Posted by Dave
Although I suspect it's out of politeness that the lead mentions "the individual appeal of the independents" I'll take it because it's true.
Near the end of the article, there's a link to an independent shop that gets it right:
"The purist reader in me cringes at the thought of the country's largest chain of booksellers (and once-upon-a-time bookselling greats) dumbing down its focus areas still further at the expense of a broad range of titles and subject areas. Certainly news of a drop in sales is a bad indicator for the industry, and no one wants to see booksellers losing their jobs or bookshops having to close.
But while the inner reader frowns, the independent bookseller in me is rubbing his hands with glee. It seems that Waterstone's is again indicating its intention to turn around its problems by heading off for a duel to the death with Tesco and the mega-discounters. Cue price wars on chick-lit summer reads, anything by (or remotely connected with) anyone on TV and everyone's favourite little wizard.
Well, much as I'd like to stay and watch, I'm going to be busy brushing up on my humanities selection. The narrower Waterstone's makes its core stock, the easier it is for any decent independent bookshop to find niches where it can compete."
To boot, he's not a bad looking chap either.
Posted by Dave
and in other things Cormac McCarthy
grab your coat and get your hat, leave your worry on the doorstep
A couple bloggers have already linked to this L. A Times piece, which speaks of a trend toward End of Days fiction in the novels of Cormac McCarthy, Matthew Sharpe, Carolyn See, Daniel Alarcon, etc. whose book fits the bill, I think.
Cormac McCarthy, as the article notes, sets the standard for bleak with his book.
Of course 9/11 gets mentioned, but also
"a sense of real limits … and a kind of regret," from both his students and new fiction, according to according to Thomas Schaub, a University of Wisconsin professor."
I've often thought that fiction is doing a better job of getting things like this right than nonfiction is, at least in terms of karma.
This cheeky, but hard to dispute article from Radar magazine magazine (I know, verging on South Park here, but still) shows pretty clearly that being wrong on Iraq hasn't hurt much.
As an aside, on the subject of dark and getting darker, the new Michael Gruber is moving along nicely.
Distressing fiction out there, but we're not lacking for quality.
Posted by Dave
Cormac McCarthy, as the article notes, sets the standard for bleak with his book.
Of course 9/11 gets mentioned, but also
"a sense of real limits … and a kind of regret," from both his students and new fiction, according to according to Thomas Schaub, a University of Wisconsin professor."
I've often thought that fiction is doing a better job of getting things like this right than nonfiction is, at least in terms of karma.
This cheeky, but hard to dispute article from Radar magazine magazine (I know, verging on South Park here, but still) shows pretty clearly that being wrong on Iraq hasn't hurt much.
As an aside, on the subject of dark and getting darker, the new Michael Gruber is moving along nicely.
Distressing fiction out there, but we're not lacking for quality.
Posted by Dave
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Lie back and think of England, I suppose
First great review of spring...
that I've seen for a hell of a book.
I'm not quite two thirds through it, but on the strength of an astonishing first effort, it's a lock that Japanese crime novelist Natsuo Kirino's second book would be pretty fine as well.
The San Fransisco Chronicle makes the call.
It bears mentioning by the way, that in a time when newspapers are losing readers left and right, it's inevitable that book review sections are often among the first thing that get messed about. The Chronicle has lost a step compared to a few years back, but many other papers have lost both legs. I've said for years that the San Fransisco Chronicle has the best book coverage of anyone in North America, and it seems to be more true now than ever.
I've no idea of it's globalization or not, but in the last few years one of the best things about the trade, hell the planet is the wealth of foreign crime writing out there. As if there's enough time to do justice to everything else.
Sheeesh.
This is a decent time to bring this up as well.
As of Saturday, Mar 24, our little outfit is discounting all hardcover fiction in the store, special orders included by twenty per cent. This looks like something that's going to stick around for awhile, so you know, at your service.
That makes books like the little darling above just a bit more affordable.
Uh, on the subject of affordability, did I mention how great the new Jon Clinch and Lionel Shriver are? Oh and are.
Good.
20% off Hardcover Fiction
Posted by Dave
I'm not quite two thirds through it, but on the strength of an astonishing first effort, it's a lock that Japanese crime novelist Natsuo Kirino's second book would be pretty fine as well.
The San Fransisco Chronicle makes the call.
It bears mentioning by the way, that in a time when newspapers are losing readers left and right, it's inevitable that book review sections are often among the first thing that get messed about. The Chronicle has lost a step compared to a few years back, but many other papers have lost both legs. I've said for years that the San Fransisco Chronicle has the best book coverage of anyone in North America, and it seems to be more true now than ever.
I've no idea of it's globalization or not, but in the last few years one of the best things about the trade, hell the planet is the wealth of foreign crime writing out there. As if there's enough time to do justice to everything else.
Sheeesh.
This is a decent time to bring this up as well.
As of Saturday, Mar 24, our little outfit is discounting all hardcover fiction in the store, special orders included by twenty per cent. This looks like something that's going to stick around for awhile, so you know, at your service.
That makes books like the little darling above just a bit more affordable.
Uh, on the subject of affordability, did I mention how great the new Jon Clinch and Lionel Shriver are? Oh and are.
Good.
20% off Hardcover Fiction
Posted by Dave
Jodi Picoult podcast
at the venerable Boston independent shop, Newtonville Books
Podcast here.
Scroll down to audio/video.
Do her books sell incredibly well everywhere or is it just our place?
There are some days lately where I swear we only retail three different books.
Posted by Dave
Podcast here.
Scroll down to audio/video.
Do her books sell incredibly well everywhere or is it just our place?
There are some days lately where I swear we only retail three different books.
Posted by Dave
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Sam Lipsyte says...
well I'm not really sure.
Anyway, Thomas Pynchon over Monica Ali, whose second book was subject to some pretty harsh reviews in America. I haven't made time for Pynchon in years, so I have little to say on this one.
Next up is Half of a Yellow Sun vs. One Good Turn.
Lipsyte kind of phoned this in , but he wrote this. He can say pretty much anything he wants.
Posted by Dave
Anyway, Thomas Pynchon over Monica Ali, whose second book was subject to some pretty harsh reviews in America. I haven't made time for Pynchon in years, so I have little to say on this one.
Next up is Half of a Yellow Sun vs. One Good Turn.
Lipsyte kind of phoned this in , but he wrote this. He can say pretty much anything he wants.
Posted by Dave
Friday, March 23, 2007
how do they feel about short, pale, kind of slouchy?
It's an easy cliché, but Harlequin is looking for a few good men.
"We usually cast through the modelling agencies," said Deborah Peterson, a creative designer with the Toronto-based publisher of women's fiction, "but the reason we decided to do it (open casting for the first time) is because what we're finding is the models we're getting from the casting agencies are getting progressively younger and younger, and skinnier and skinnier.
It's actually become a huge problem for us."
If memory serves, Harlequin made inroads into Nascar a couple years back.
"Romance novels are changing these days. Old standbys, like romances set in the Regency period, continue to do well, as do stories set in Ireland and Scotland, but the fastest-growing category now is paranormal romances, books about vampires and werewolves in which the path to true love often entails looking past a guy’s fangs and body hair to discover his inner self."
Oh well then, problem solved.
God, I'm a dork.
Posted by Dave
"We usually cast through the modelling agencies," said Deborah Peterson, a creative designer with the Toronto-based publisher of women's fiction, "but the reason we decided to do it (open casting for the first time) is because what we're finding is the models we're getting from the casting agencies are getting progressively younger and younger, and skinnier and skinnier.
It's actually become a huge problem for us."
If memory serves, Harlequin made inroads into Nascar a couple years back.
"Romance novels are changing these days. Old standbys, like romances set in the Regency period, continue to do well, as do stories set in Ireland and Scotland, but the fastest-growing category now is paranormal romances, books about vampires and werewolves in which the path to true love often entails looking past a guy’s fangs and body hair to discover his inner self."
Oh well then, problem solved.
God, I'm a dork.
Posted by Dave
I'm assuming that a cult has secretly lost their collective marbles
This Secret nonsense is really getting out of hand.
From a gathering at a Toronto Indigo (natch!) last week:
"Burman, the founder of Toronto-based independent publisher Burman Books, recently signed Marie Diamond and Joe Vitale, two more members of The Secret's extended family. Diamond's book, The Very Simple Law of Attraction, has obvious connections.
Burman sees The Secret's success as easily explained. "Basically, human beings are lazy. If you tell them you can get rich just by thinking about it, obviously, they're going to buy it." But he knows a cash cow when he sees one: Riding The Secret's success, he's projecting sales of at least 400,000 for each of Vitale's and Diamond's books. "It used to be, if we sold 20,000 copies of anything, we were lucky," he said.
Burman hosted Diamond at an event at Indigo Books on Bloor last weekend, where she took some questions from a packed audience. "I'm a really big believer in The Secret," said one, a young black woman. "But I also believe that discrimination and racism are real. How can you harmonize those things?"
Diamond, a middle-aged Belgian woman with a welcoming air, nodded knowingly. "You just said you believe in discrimination. You be-live it. I'm going to ask you to stop believing it, because if you focus on the negative, you project it yourself."
Another, from a young man. "I really love what you're doing," he says. "But how, for example, was 9/11 attracted to the people in those buildings? That's something I can't understand."
Another thoughtful pause. Diamond, in her madras blazer and jeans, furrows her brow and speaks softly, breathily. "Sometimes, we experience the law of attraction collectively," she says. "The U.S. maybe had a fear of being attacked. Those 3,000 people – they might have put out some kind of fear that attracted this to happen, fear of dying young, fear that something might happen that day. But sometimes, it is collective."
Yeah, that's how 9/11 happened.
Grrrrr.
Posted by Dave
From a gathering at a Toronto Indigo (natch!) last week:
"Burman, the founder of Toronto-based independent publisher Burman Books, recently signed Marie Diamond and Joe Vitale, two more members of The Secret's extended family. Diamond's book, The Very Simple Law of Attraction, has obvious connections.
Burman sees The Secret's success as easily explained. "Basically, human beings are lazy. If you tell them you can get rich just by thinking about it, obviously, they're going to buy it." But he knows a cash cow when he sees one: Riding The Secret's success, he's projecting sales of at least 400,000 for each of Vitale's and Diamond's books. "It used to be, if we sold 20,000 copies of anything, we were lucky," he said.
Burman hosted Diamond at an event at Indigo Books on Bloor last weekend, where she took some questions from a packed audience. "I'm a really big believer in The Secret," said one, a young black woman. "But I also believe that discrimination and racism are real. How can you harmonize those things?"
Diamond, a middle-aged Belgian woman with a welcoming air, nodded knowingly. "You just said you believe in discrimination. You be-live it. I'm going to ask you to stop believing it, because if you focus on the negative, you project it yourself."
Another, from a young man. "I really love what you're doing," he says. "But how, for example, was 9/11 attracted to the people in those buildings? That's something I can't understand."
Another thoughtful pause. Diamond, in her madras blazer and jeans, furrows her brow and speaks softly, breathily. "Sometimes, we experience the law of attraction collectively," she says. "The U.S. maybe had a fear of being attacked. Those 3,000 people – they might have put out some kind of fear that attracted this to happen, fear of dying young, fear that something might happen that day. But sometimes, it is collective."
Yeah, that's how 9/11 happened.
Grrrrr.
Posted by Dave
Yates on film
It looks like Richard Yates' seminal novel is going Hollywood. One of his earlier works, Revolutionary Road is one of those founding books that really, everyone in their early 20s ought to ingest; even if only as a cautionary tale. Yates life was a mess, but he was a natural storyteller who wrote beautifully. His books were unfairly dismissed as dour and overly dark by some, but a new generation of writers championed him in later years.
It's wonderful to see him find a new audience yet again.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet star and Sam Mendes directs.
Link via Galleycat
Posted by Dave
Thursday, March 22, 2007
What a wow
I just finished Lionel Shriver's Post Birthday World and it's almost as fine as her previous book We Need to Talk About Kevin, which I've constantly called one of the defining novels that I've read during my time here.
The hook is a simple one. Irina is a children's book illustrator who at her partners urging keeps an annual dinner date with a fellow Londoner, the rakish celebrity snooker player Ramsey Acton.
Irina's intellectual, long time partner Lawrence is a policy wonk at an emerging think tank. He is called away, unable to keep the aforementioned date. At said encounter Shriver entertains what would happen if Irina gave into temptation and kissed Ramsey, again clearly the more dynamic of the two men.
Alternating chapters detail the repercussion's of Irina's choice and the book ends with a decision made.
Some critics, most notably the dolts in the New York Times were needlessly reductive in their approach. If it sounds like I'm picking on them, fine I'm picking on them.
They blew the call.
The strength of the book lies in Shriver's utterly nervy choice not to flinch from the unsettling aspects of any long term relationship, and the fallout from a wandering eye that any of us can fall prey to. It's not for nothing that Lionel Shriver has consistently been referred to in evolutionary terms with respect to the "Chick lit" phenomenon.
She robs it of it's Sex & the City trappings and drags it into a more precarious, adult world.
Readers, uncomfortable though they may be, are entirely the better for it.
Like "Kevin", this is a book that is difficult at times, but damn near unforgettable for readers looking for more than the modern novel usually provides.
Posted by Dave
The hook is a simple one. Irina is a children's book illustrator who at her partners urging keeps an annual dinner date with a fellow Londoner, the rakish celebrity snooker player Ramsey Acton.
Irina's intellectual, long time partner Lawrence is a policy wonk at an emerging think tank. He is called away, unable to keep the aforementioned date. At said encounter Shriver entertains what would happen if Irina gave into temptation and kissed Ramsey, again clearly the more dynamic of the two men.
Alternating chapters detail the repercussion's of Irina's choice and the book ends with a decision made.
Some critics, most notably the dolts in the New York Times were needlessly reductive in their approach. If it sounds like I'm picking on them, fine I'm picking on them.
They blew the call.
The strength of the book lies in Shriver's utterly nervy choice not to flinch from the unsettling aspects of any long term relationship, and the fallout from a wandering eye that any of us can fall prey to. It's not for nothing that Lionel Shriver has consistently been referred to in evolutionary terms with respect to the "Chick lit" phenomenon.
She robs it of it's Sex & the City trappings and drags it into a more precarious, adult world.
Readers, uncomfortable though they may be, are entirely the better for it.
Like "Kevin", this is a book that is difficult at times, but damn near unforgettable for readers looking for more than the modern novel usually provides.
Posted by Dave
But isn't Lady Macbeth one of the Pussycat Dolls?
I suppose it's one thing if some poorer schools can't even house the books.
But this is just sad.
"Dozens of schools have rejected gifts of free classic books because today's pupils find them too 'difficult' to read, it has emerged.
Around 50 schools have refused to stock literary works by the likes of Jane Austen, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens after admitting that youngsters also find them boring.
The worrying figures were released by the Millennium Library Trust, which donates sets of up to 300 books to schools across the country."
It's not like I sacrificed time to read George Eliot in high school either, but Jesus, I guess were in a different time now.
A scary, different time.
Link via Goodreports
Posted by Dave
But this is just sad.
"Dozens of schools have rejected gifts of free classic books because today's pupils find them too 'difficult' to read, it has emerged.
Around 50 schools have refused to stock literary works by the likes of Jane Austen, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens after admitting that youngsters also find them boring.
The worrying figures were released by the Millennium Library Trust, which donates sets of up to 300 books to schools across the country."
It's not like I sacrificed time to read George Eliot in high school either, but Jesus, I guess were in a different time now.
A scary, different time.
Link via Goodreports
Posted by Dave
Tournament of Books-Round Two
Jessa calls Half of a Yellow Sun over Emperor's Children. I think I liked both books better than she did, but I'm with her on the outcome, only because Adichie wrote the more engaging book. Claire Messud is a fine stylist.
The the second match of Round Two, TEV picks The Road over Firmin by Sam Savage. I gave Firmin a pass when it came out last year, but I loved the last Cormac McCarthy. It'll go far in the Tournament.
Lastly in Round Two, Maud calls Kate Atkinson over Richard Ford.
The notes for each match follow the above links.
This leaves a curious match up. Thomas Pynchon vs. a graphic novel, and Cormac McCarthy vs. Chimamanda Adichie in the semis.
Posted by Dave
The the second match of Round Two, TEV picks The Road over Firmin by Sam Savage. I gave Firmin a pass when it came out last year, but I loved the last Cormac McCarthy. It'll go far in the Tournament.
Lastly in Round Two, Maud calls Kate Atkinson over Richard Ford.
The notes for each match follow the above links.
This leaves a curious match up. Thomas Pynchon vs. a graphic novel, and Cormac McCarthy vs. Chimamanda Adichie in the semis.
Posted by Dave
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
But then David Lodge is a great curative
Many of the popular kids are linking to this from the Chronicle of Higher Education. Its an opinion piece that seems careful not to have much of one.
In essence, faking your way in discussing, or even acknowledging good books can be enough, given that it's likely that no one in your circle has done the reading either, and what does it all mean if there's no longer a commonality between what should be read?
The article suggests that most of us walk around with a sizable amount of guilt over what we aren't reading, and it has frozen us in place. I'm not buying it.
I'm the first to admit to having a huge hole in classical literature and anything that would have once been called "Great Books".
If that means there's an immutable lack, well so it goes, but feeling bad about it won't stop me from reading more David Lodge. Because David Lodge is just good, as well as good for you, as it were.
As with most things, Jessa has the right take on this.
Posted by Dave
In essence, faking your way in discussing, or even acknowledging good books can be enough, given that it's likely that no one in your circle has done the reading either, and what does it all mean if there's no longer a commonality between what should be read?
The article suggests that most of us walk around with a sizable amount of guilt over what we aren't reading, and it has frozen us in place. I'm not buying it.
I'm the first to admit to having a huge hole in classical literature and anything that would have once been called "Great Books".
If that means there's an immutable lack, well so it goes, but feeling bad about it won't stop me from reading more David Lodge. Because David Lodge is just good, as well as good for you, as it were.
As with most things, Jessa has the right take on this.
Posted by Dave
Monday, March 19, 2007
Eat Pray Love Globe
Bronwyn has sold great bunches of Elizabeth Gilbert's book at our place for months,
and it turns our everyone else is now, too.
"Last month, as Gilbert went on a 21-day, 18-stop tour to promote the paperback edition of her memoir, she watched while women choked bookstores and coffee shops and houses of worship across the country. Two days before her first event, at the New York Open Center in SoHo, which specializes in holistic health and offers classes in yoga, spiritual inquiry and feng shui, she got a call notifying her they'd had to relocate her talk to a larger venue because they'd already sold more than 300 tickets. After a reading in Colorado, one reporter wrote that, "virtually every woman in Boulder between the ages of 25 and 70 showed up."
An aside: check out the comments after the story. It looks like "Phil" is a bit ticked off with his lot in life. It's true I guess: the best revenge is living well and without a Phil in one's life.
Posted by Dave
and it turns our everyone else is now, too.
"Last month, as Gilbert went on a 21-day, 18-stop tour to promote the paperback edition of her memoir, she watched while women choked bookstores and coffee shops and houses of worship across the country. Two days before her first event, at the New York Open Center in SoHo, which specializes in holistic health and offers classes in yoga, spiritual inquiry and feng shui, she got a call notifying her they'd had to relocate her talk to a larger venue because they'd already sold more than 300 tickets. After a reading in Colorado, one reporter wrote that, "virtually every woman in Boulder between the ages of 25 and 70 showed up."
An aside: check out the comments after the story. It looks like "Phil" is a bit ticked off with his lot in life. It's true I guess: the best revenge is living well and without a Phil in one's life.
Posted by Dave
Lionel Shriver in the NYT
After a lazy, halfassed review in yesterdays New York Times, the paper runs a profile of Lionel Shriver, author of the much praised We Need to Talk About Kevin, and the recently released Post Birthday World.
The profile runs over similar territory from years back, (first name Lionel?, bit of a chip on her shoulder, etc.)
If she comes off a bit prickly, it might be because she's had to answer the same dumb questions for too long.
Sorry, huge fan; the review really was shite, though.
Posted by Dave
The profile runs over similar territory from years back, (first name Lionel?, bit of a chip on her shoulder, etc.)
If she comes off a bit prickly, it might be because she's had to answer the same dumb questions for too long.
Sorry, huge fan; the review really was shite, though.
Posted by Dave
Orange Prize long list
...has been announced.
I suck at predictions but between the three favourites, Stef Penney, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Kiran Desai, I'm going with Adichie. Has there been even one review of her second book that wasn't effusive?
Desai and Penney have already won the major awards.
How cool would it be for Lisa Moore to win, though?
This was a fine piece of work, published in 2005, but the British edition is fairly recent.
Shortlist on Apr 17, winner on June 6.
Posted by Dave
I suck at predictions but between the three favourites, Stef Penney, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Kiran Desai, I'm going with Adichie. Has there been even one review of her second book that wasn't effusive?
Desai and Penney have already won the major awards.
How cool would it be for Lisa Moore to win, though?
This was a fine piece of work, published in 2005, but the British edition is fairly recent.
Shortlist on Apr 17, winner on June 6.
Posted by Dave
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Ouch.
My guy at the Washington Post isn't particularly kind to Daniel (Piano Tuner) Mason's second effort.
"Despite many passages of beautiful writing, the novel suffers from an aimless plot, characters almost as abstract as the setting, and languid moralizing about the tragedy of poverty.
Fans of The Piano Tuner, take note: This new novel strikes the same chord over and over again."
I was a monster fan of the Piano Tuner.
I guess this goes off the list, as Ron Charles is rarely off the mark.
Posted by Dave
"Despite many passages of beautiful writing, the novel suffers from an aimless plot, characters almost as abstract as the setting, and languid moralizing about the tragedy of poverty.
Fans of The Piano Tuner, take note: This new novel strikes the same chord over and over again."
I was a monster fan of the Piano Tuner.
I guess this goes off the list, as Ron Charles is rarely off the mark.
Posted by Dave
Tournament of Books, just keeping up
Missed the last few days of the Tournament of Books. Following the opener, the rest of the opening round shook out as follows:
Firmin by Sam Savage over Emily Barton's Brookland-notes here.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road over Peter Orner's The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo.
Props for that, the Road was a hell of a book, even if not quite the equal of Suttree or Blood Meridian. Notes are here.
The much praised One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson gets the nod over Arthur and George by Julian Barnes. I haven't read either of them, but Atkinsons previous literary thriller was quite good. Notes are here.
Lastly, Richard Ford's Lay of the Land vs English, August by Upamanyu Chatterjee. Again, read neither. Notes are here.
Lastly, Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali triumphs over Colson Whitehead's Apex Hides the Hurt.
I've read all the novels from these two, and I really like Colson Whitehead. Then again Dan Chaon judged this round and I'm not going to go against him. He wrote this so he can say whatever he wants. That's the rule. Here's his notes.
That's a lot to go through, but then I'm not much for keeping up these days.
Posted by Dave
Firmin by Sam Savage over Emily Barton's Brookland-notes here.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road over Peter Orner's The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo.
Props for that, the Road was a hell of a book, even if not quite the equal of Suttree or Blood Meridian. Notes are here.
The much praised One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson gets the nod over Arthur and George by Julian Barnes. I haven't read either of them, but Atkinsons previous literary thriller was quite good. Notes are here.
Lastly, Richard Ford's Lay of the Land vs English, August by Upamanyu Chatterjee. Again, read neither. Notes are here.
Lastly, Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali triumphs over Colson Whitehead's Apex Hides the Hurt.
I've read all the novels from these two, and I really like Colson Whitehead. Then again Dan Chaon judged this round and I'm not going to go against him. He wrote this so he can say whatever he wants. That's the rule. Here's his notes.
That's a lot to go through, but then I'm not much for keeping up these days.
Posted by Dave
Bravo
I've been walking around in a funk for a good while as it relates to the book trade. I've made my peace with independents in the trade as they relate to chains, and their dominance over the bestseller piece of the pie.
It's that dominance that makes books like Chris Anderson's Long Tail seem at odds with what I know to be true. Bestsellers rule and it's damnably difficult to make a living writing (or selling) what's left. Of course not impossible and again, I'm making my peace with things in that regard.
There are always exceptions, but I'm largely in agreement with Logan Pearsall Smith on the subject.
Most of us are familiar with the premise of Anderson's book, but the subtitle is,
Why the Future Is Selling Less of More. The basic idea is that blockbusters are dying and anyone able to find and exploit niche markets will do alright after everyone has read their Harry Potters, Da Vinci Codes and knockoffs of The Secret. Rhonda Byrnes book is a glorified bumper sticker, but is far and away the best selling title going at the moment.
It's an intriguing idea, but one that I mostly dismissed because I saw the book trade working in another direction.
Perhaps movies, games and whatever else is discussed in the book are on a different track but as it happens, I don't have to read it now.
Waterloo's own Tom Slee, who is diffident in a way that only brilliant people can be,
has done a (very) thorough rebuttal.
His take is methodical, evenhanded and solid.
This doesn't change my view of book selling as such, but it does take the piss out of what I viewed as a false premise.
It's a hell of a blog and accompanies a provocative and readable book.
Posted by Dave
It's that dominance that makes books like Chris Anderson's Long Tail seem at odds with what I know to be true. Bestsellers rule and it's damnably difficult to make a living writing (or selling) what's left. Of course not impossible and again, I'm making my peace with things in that regard.
There are always exceptions, but I'm largely in agreement with Logan Pearsall Smith on the subject.
Most of us are familiar with the premise of Anderson's book, but the subtitle is,
Why the Future Is Selling Less of More. The basic idea is that blockbusters are dying and anyone able to find and exploit niche markets will do alright after everyone has read their Harry Potters, Da Vinci Codes and knockoffs of The Secret. Rhonda Byrnes book is a glorified bumper sticker, but is far and away the best selling title going at the moment.
It's an intriguing idea, but one that I mostly dismissed because I saw the book trade working in another direction.
Perhaps movies, games and whatever else is discussed in the book are on a different track but as it happens, I don't have to read it now.
Waterloo's own Tom Slee, who is diffident in a way that only brilliant people can be,
has done a (very) thorough rebuttal.
His take is methodical, evenhanded and solid.
This doesn't change my view of book selling as such, but it does take the piss out of what I viewed as a false premise.
It's a hell of a blog and accompanies a provocative and readable book.
Posted by Dave
Friday, March 16, 2007
Ah youth, interminable pointless youth
I'm late on this, but the steady drumbeat of worry around boys who don't read growing up into men who vote for Stephen Harper or something like him, has Britain spooked and suggesting a "boys' bookshelf" packed with spy novels and action stories to encourage more boys to read, the education secretary said today."
The précis is that female teachers, while able, aren't getting the reading thing across to boys who often come from single parent families, thus they have no decent male role models. Boys are doubly worried about bullies teasing them for carting around books.
Oh, and too much TV.
I'm stealing a construct from TEV here. *
In early grade school, I was occasionally tapped to raid the school library and read aloud when time permitted. Anything baseball related worked for me and I was sickly sweet for a girl in class. She also regularly mopped up most of us guys on the baseball diamond, so I figured Bill Carol's Single to Center about a young boy whose sister was the superior ballplayer would fit the bill as a way in.
After getting into the book, my true loves hand shot up and she asked our teacher to pull rank.
It seems she played baseball all the time and wanted to hear about something, well anything else.
Thus, my acumen around women was cemented evermore.
*Marks story is actually a hell of a lot better.
Posted by Dave
The précis is that female teachers, while able, aren't getting the reading thing across to boys who often come from single parent families, thus they have no decent male role models. Boys are doubly worried about bullies teasing them for carting around books.
Oh, and too much TV.
I'm stealing a construct from TEV here. *
In early grade school, I was occasionally tapped to raid the school library and read aloud when time permitted. Anything baseball related worked for me and I was sickly sweet for a girl in class. She also regularly mopped up most of us guys on the baseball diamond, so I figured Bill Carol's Single to Center about a young boy whose sister was the superior ballplayer would fit the bill as a way in.
After getting into the book, my true loves hand shot up and she asked our teacher to pull rank.
It seems she played baseball all the time and wanted to hear about something, well anything else.
Thus, my acumen around women was cemented evermore.
*Marks story is actually a hell of a lot better.
Posted by Dave
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Shocking...
In fact, not so much. The Booker-winning novel that topped a survey of books Britons own but didn't finish, wasn't dubbed "Vernon Godawful" for nothing.
I'm guilty, but I gave up after twenty atrocious pages.
Perhaps the problem is here:
"Far too often people are buying books because they think they will be good for them, rather than because they think they'll enjoy them," says . Rachel Cugnoni, from the publisher Vintage.
That's likely true, but fer Chrissake, that's why there's crime fiction.
Posted by Dave
I'm guilty, but I gave up after twenty atrocious pages.
Perhaps the problem is here:
"Far too often people are buying books because they think they will be good for them, rather than because they think they'll enjoy them," says . Rachel Cugnoni, from the publisher Vintage.
That's likely true, but fer Chrissake, that's why there's crime fiction.
Posted by Dave
Chris Banks - Mar 24
Will be instore at 2.pm Saturday.
Come out if you can, and pick up one of his books. For the amount of money he spends on other people's titles, I think my wellbeing is bound up pretty tightly with his.
Posted by Dave
What's the other guy look like?
Everyone linked to the latest boxing results, uh.. literary fight.
"Once great friends, the two writers have steadfastly refused to talk about the reasons behind their spectacular bust-up, and so have their wives.
Now two pictures have appeared in which a youthful GarcÃa Márquez shows off a black eye, and the photographer who took them has shed light on the origins of the feud. Not surprisingly, perhaps, it involves a woman."
The photographer who apparently kept the aforementioned pictures appears to be having a good time with this.
“Now that he turns 80 and 40 years have passed since the first edition of A Hundred Years of Solitude, I believe it is the right time to publish an account of the terrible encounter between two great writers, one from the Left and the other with a strong right hook,” said Rodrigo Moya also a longtime friend of Garcia Marquez.
In Canada the romance has gone out of our bookish bouts.
This is the best we have.
Posted by Dave
"Once great friends, the two writers have steadfastly refused to talk about the reasons behind their spectacular bust-up, and so have their wives.
Now two pictures have appeared in which a youthful GarcÃa Márquez shows off a black eye, and the photographer who took them has shed light on the origins of the feud. Not surprisingly, perhaps, it involves a woman."
The photographer who apparently kept the aforementioned pictures appears to be having a good time with this.
“Now that he turns 80 and 40 years have passed since the first edition of A Hundred Years of Solitude, I believe it is the right time to publish an account of the terrible encounter between two great writers, one from the Left and the other with a strong right hook,” said Rodrigo Moya also a longtime friend of Garcia Marquez.
In Canada the romance has gone out of our bookish bouts.
This is the best we have.
Posted by Dave
But then we'll drink to pretty much anything
One of our own is a published author.
Heather Siemens, whom I've always thought gave the joint some much needed street credibility; is a contributor to a University of Toronto Museum Studies book bound up as part of an ongoing exhibition.
Her exploits around this stuff are...well it's just so sordid.
Bottoms Up:A Spirited History of Drink in Canada is at finer bookstores and watering holes.
Details around the book and exhibition are here.
Posted by Dave
Clown Girl
It's always nice to see a small press book blow up. Clown Girl is starting out well for me too. I can see the Geek Love comparisons the book is getting, but I'll have more later. I'm still slowly picking my way through Lionel Shriver's Post Birthday World. The minority opinion so far is that it's overlong, but I'm good with it.
Clown Girl is a beautiful book to hold, and the publisher looks like they set a standard as well.
Nice one, folks.
Monday, March 12, 2007
a promising writer, an excellent cab driver
I should have gotten to these earlier, but Granta's new(ish) list of Best Young American Novelists is out. The magazine proper shows in a few weeks.
Nice to see Kevin Brockmeier and Olga Grushin on the list, but I wonder about Jim Shepard not being there, for one.
For a little historical perspective, here's the list from ten years ago.
If some of them seem unfamiliar, well apparently there's very little money in all this.
Perhaps the key graf in the Guardian blog is, this:
"The top 10% earned 50% of the total income earned by writers in 2005-06, compared to the bottom 50% who earned less than 10% of the total."
The damn shame, as Bookninja notes is that this is a downward trend.
Worse still, it takes awhile to get ones chops together and build an audience. By then, many writers are too broke to continue.
Posted by Dave
Nice to see Kevin Brockmeier and Olga Grushin on the list, but I wonder about Jim Shepard not being there, for one.
For a little historical perspective, here's the list from ten years ago.
If some of them seem unfamiliar, well apparently there's very little money in all this.
Perhaps the key graf in the Guardian blog is, this:
"The top 10% earned 50% of the total income earned by writers in 2005-06, compared to the bottom 50% who earned less than 10% of the total."
The damn shame, as Bookninja notes is that this is a downward trend.
Worse still, it takes awhile to get ones chops together and build an audience. By then, many writers are too broke to continue.
Posted by Dave
Saturday, March 10, 2007
I do love a fight
The opening round of the Tournament is shaping up, by which I mean the Tournament of Books, an annual knockdown drag out round robin of meanness that I enjoy more than damn near anything. Bloggers and standouts advocate until one book is left standing, and it's great fun if you're the sort who likes a good litbrawl.
In the first tilt, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie made short work of Gary Shteyngart's Absurdistan.
I read both books and there's no surprises here. Absurdistan was fun in spots and Shteyngart is a good writer, occasionally very good; but Half of a Yellow Sun is going to be tough to knock off anyway, it's certainly a stronger book than Absurdistan.
Today's bout was reffed by Brady Udall, whose gone a few rounds himself and knows a thing or two. (Miracle Life of Edgar Mint was a beauty of a novel).
Here's his take on things.
The second match in Round One is a tougher call, but I agree with it as well. I loved
Emperors Children, read it in two sittings. The nonsense about self-absorbed New Yorkers making for tedious reading was bunk and it showed up in the summary here, too.
That sort of junk rears it's head up here, too. I could give a damn if a book is set in Toronto, if it's a good book. I generally have a tougher time with Maritime fiction, but that's just a preference. To read some commentary in Canada though, it seems automatic that a book set in Toronto is going to be populated by shallow idiots. That's true of some stuff in Nova Scotia too, and it makes for some atrocious plotting.
Now, back to business.
I really respected Echo Maker and it's a great book. I've never read any other Richard Powers, but I'll keep up with him now, but Clare Messud deserves the TKO here.
Good sound bite from the commentary here though:
Kevin Guilfoile:
"I’m so tired of books (and movies) about lonely, dissatisfied Manhattan intellectuals that when I actually meet one in person I generally taser him in the scrotum. Which is not really fair to the intellectual."
Heh, heh. Scrotum.
More bloodshed as it develops.
Posted by Dave
In the first tilt, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie made short work of Gary Shteyngart's Absurdistan.
I read both books and there's no surprises here. Absurdistan was fun in spots and Shteyngart is a good writer, occasionally very good; but Half of a Yellow Sun is going to be tough to knock off anyway, it's certainly a stronger book than Absurdistan.
Today's bout was reffed by Brady Udall, whose gone a few rounds himself and knows a thing or two. (Miracle Life of Edgar Mint was a beauty of a novel).
Here's his take on things.
The second match in Round One is a tougher call, but I agree with it as well. I loved
Emperors Children, read it in two sittings. The nonsense about self-absorbed New Yorkers making for tedious reading was bunk and it showed up in the summary here, too.
That sort of junk rears it's head up here, too. I could give a damn if a book is set in Toronto, if it's a good book. I generally have a tougher time with Maritime fiction, but that's just a preference. To read some commentary in Canada though, it seems automatic that a book set in Toronto is going to be populated by shallow idiots. That's true of some stuff in Nova Scotia too, and it makes for some atrocious plotting.
Now, back to business.
I really respected Echo Maker and it's a great book. I've never read any other Richard Powers, but I'll keep up with him now, but Clare Messud deserves the TKO here.
Good sound bite from the commentary here though:
Kevin Guilfoile:
"I’m so tired of books (and movies) about lonely, dissatisfied Manhattan intellectuals that when I actually meet one in person I generally taser him in the scrotum. Which is not really fair to the intellectual."
Heh, heh. Scrotum.
More bloodshed as it develops.
Posted by Dave
Friday, March 09, 2007
Once more with feeling
After a couple late nights at off site bookselling events and one more tonight, I'm ready to drop.
Sleep on Saturday and then, finally to this.
It showed up yesterday, and I'm pleasantly surprised that the gatekeeper at the NY Times rather likes it.
Michiko has been in a bad mood for most of the decade and it shows.
Lovely time had by all last night, and a generous (overflowing) crowd meant much donations for Marys Place; (see previous post). The final reader of the evening, the renowned Jane Urquhart, even got in a shot at Stephen Harper.
Props to Erina Harris, staff at 20 King and all who attended.
Posted by Dave
Sleep on Saturday and then, finally to this.
It showed up yesterday, and I'm pleasantly surprised that the gatekeeper at the NY Times rather likes it.
Michiko has been in a bad mood for most of the decade and it shows.
Lovely time had by all last night, and a generous (overflowing) crowd meant much donations for Marys Place; (see previous post). The final reader of the evening, the renowned Jane Urquhart, even got in a shot at Stephen Harper.
Props to Erina Harris, staff at 20 King and all who attended.
Posted by Dave
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Mar 8 at 20 King
Jane Urquhart, Helen Humpreys and Alayna Munce will be at 20 King restaurant (45 King St. W.) for Kitchener's third annual Literary Saloon & Cowgirl Shindig.
Donations of canned goods or cash will benefit Mary's Place, and the evening is in celebration of International Women's Week.
Jane Urquhart and Helen Humphreys need little introduction, but the highlight for me is Munce's brilliant first novel.
Come out for 8 p.m if you can.
Posted by Dave
Monday, March 05, 2007
Lucre for Iraq, nothing for everything else
Pretty straightforward really.
No federal money so shit like this has to happen.
"Fitzsimmons' literary lifeline will be cut April 7, when Jackson County in southern Oregon shuts down its entire public library system.
The 15 libraries serving this rural forest community lost $7 million in federal funding this year -- nearly 80 percent of the system's budget."
The key point comes from the interim library director for Jackson County, Ted Stark'
"Libraries are so much more than just libraries in rural areas. This is where all the town meetings are held, where all the kids come after school, where everything -- everything -- happens," he said. Indeed, today;s libraries have evolved from merely loaning out books to providing Internet access, reading hour for babies, community meeting centers and art galleries."
I've worked in bookstores forever, so I don't venture into libraries much, but there were a lot of letters to our local paper during Kitchener's Centre Block proposal days that said essentially
"I use the Internet, I don't want to pay for a library.
Most of them made a specious point, and did it using poor grammar.
Posted by Dave
No federal money so shit like this has to happen.
"Fitzsimmons' literary lifeline will be cut April 7, when Jackson County in southern Oregon shuts down its entire public library system.
The 15 libraries serving this rural forest community lost $7 million in federal funding this year -- nearly 80 percent of the system's budget."
The key point comes from the interim library director for Jackson County, Ted Stark'
"Libraries are so much more than just libraries in rural areas. This is where all the town meetings are held, where all the kids come after school, where everything -- everything -- happens," he said. Indeed, today;s libraries have evolved from merely loaning out books to providing Internet access, reading hour for babies, community meeting centers and art galleries."
I've worked in bookstores forever, so I don't venture into libraries much, but there were a lot of letters to our local paper during Kitchener's Centre Block proposal days that said essentially
"I use the Internet, I don't want to pay for a library.
Most of them made a specious point, and did it using poor grammar.
Posted by Dave
Neil Smith part two
What's not to like about a short story collection getting all the attention?
Neil Smith's Bang Crash is a fine debut and he's done the necessary reading as well.
"He cites Aimee Bender, George Saunders and Amy Hempel as major influences and says he read voraciously while writing his book. “I have no academic background in literature,” Smith says, “so my schooling was reading other people's work.”"
Bang Crash has a couple stories that aren't up to the level of the rest, but that's a minor quibble.
He's got everything he needs to really make a mark. We have a few signed copies left.
Oh, and speaking of Saunders, this is out in paperback now.
Posted by Dave
Neil Smith's Bang Crash is a fine debut and he's done the necessary reading as well.
"He cites Aimee Bender, George Saunders and Amy Hempel as major influences and says he read voraciously while writing his book. “I have no academic background in literature,” Smith says, “so my schooling was reading other people's work.”"
Bang Crash has a couple stories that aren't up to the level of the rest, but that's a minor quibble.
He's got everything he needs to really make a mark. We have a few signed copies left.
Oh, and speaking of Saunders, this is out in paperback now.
Posted by Dave
Sunday, March 04, 2007
things past (and deficiencies present)
Bella Stander makes a fine point while acknowledging the passing of Myer Feldman, a man whom I confess I've never heard of; but apparently an integral part of the JFK presidency.
From the obituary and Bella's commentary:
"Feldman was also the Renaissance man: law school prof, exec assistant to the SEC chairman, adviser to JFK and LBJ, back-door liaison to Israel, founder of a law firm with 100 attorneys, buyer & seller of radio stations, real estate tycoon ("he helped finance the condominium boom in Washington in the 1970s"), adviser to political campaigns, chairman of the executive committee of the Special Olympics."
But wait! There's more. Read this and weep:
"Mr. Feldman was a book review editor for the Saturday Review of Literature and helped produce six plays. In the Kennedy White House, where wit and intellect sometimes seemed a competitive sport, Mr. Feldman and Mr. [Theodore] Sorensen traded memos in rhyming couplets."
If only we could have a White House like that again. SIGH...
Bella wonders what rhymes with Turd Blossom*. I'd like to propose a rhyming couplet using your favourite White House bit player.
I'll start.
Stuck in the shadow of Bush Forty First,
History will recall W's the worst.
(it's things like this that illustrate the lack of effort I put into this blog, my work life, the house, my relationships etc.)
P.S-She put up Nerd Blossom *
Some of the better Bush-related rhymes are here.
Posted by Dave
From the obituary and Bella's commentary:
"Feldman was also the Renaissance man: law school prof, exec assistant to the SEC chairman, adviser to JFK and LBJ, back-door liaison to Israel, founder of a law firm with 100 attorneys, buyer & seller of radio stations, real estate tycoon ("he helped finance the condominium boom in Washington in the 1970s"), adviser to political campaigns, chairman of the executive committee of the Special Olympics."
But wait! There's more. Read this and weep:
"Mr. Feldman was a book review editor for the Saturday Review of Literature and helped produce six plays. In the Kennedy White House, where wit and intellect sometimes seemed a competitive sport, Mr. Feldman and Mr. [Theodore] Sorensen traded memos in rhyming couplets."
If only we could have a White House like that again. SIGH...
Bella wonders what rhymes with Turd Blossom*. I'd like to propose a rhyming couplet using your favourite White House bit player.
I'll start.
Stuck in the shadow of Bush Forty First,
History will recall W's the worst.
(it's things like this that illustrate the lack of effort I put into this blog, my work life, the house, my relationships etc.)
P.S-She put up Nerd Blossom *
Some of the better Bush-related rhymes are here.
Posted by Dave
Joan Didion talks process...
and does it like no one else. Here's the evidence.
"I have no clear memory of when the notion of making a play took hold, but it was sometime in October 2005. My daughter had died in August, and my sense of the season that followed remains what she would have called, at a point when she was recovering from brain surgery, “mudgy.” Early that October, when Scott Rudin asked if I would consider doing “The Year of Magical Thinking” as a play, I was negative, even vehemently so. I had devised a narrow track on which to get through the fall. The book, an account of the year that followed the death of my husband, was just published. I had promotion ahead, flights, 5 a.m. pickups, Starbucks cappuccino at the gate in lieu of breakfast, Boston, Dallas, Minneapolis, Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Seattle, Chicago, Miami, Toronto, check in, check out, stay on track. I did not want to write a play. I had never wanted to write a play. I did not know how to write a play."
Clearly there's nothing she can't do.
Limited engagement on Mar. 6, via the official site
Posted by Dave
"I have no clear memory of when the notion of making a play took hold, but it was sometime in October 2005. My daughter had died in August, and my sense of the season that followed remains what she would have called, at a point when she was recovering from brain surgery, “mudgy.” Early that October, when Scott Rudin asked if I would consider doing “The Year of Magical Thinking” as a play, I was negative, even vehemently so. I had devised a narrow track on which to get through the fall. The book, an account of the year that followed the death of my husband, was just published. I had promotion ahead, flights, 5 a.m. pickups, Starbucks cappuccino at the gate in lieu of breakfast, Boston, Dallas, Minneapolis, Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Seattle, Chicago, Miami, Toronto, check in, check out, stay on track. I did not want to write a play. I had never wanted to write a play. I did not know how to write a play."
Clearly there's nothing she can't do.
Limited engagement on Mar. 6, via the official site
Posted by Dave
Saturday, March 03, 2007
A poop joke guy..on Fox?
Former Daily Show alum Rob Corddry seems surprised the Jon Stewart's audience can come off as politically partisan. I suspect he's the only one.
"Oh, God. It's all college kids and NPR listeners. They smuggle in The New York Times in their tote bags. The Daily Show audience used to drive me fucking crazy, because they would just applaud at every reference to some right-wing guest being taken down. Or anything slightly to the left of center. They would stand in their chairs, and it would just drive me crazy."
I guess it's the New York Times reading, NPR listening crowd that buys all those books the Daily Show yammers on about.
Corddry won't have to worry about seeing the New York Times or a book for the rest of his life over at Fox.
I hope he didn't burn any bridges.
Posted by Dave
"Oh, God. It's all college kids and NPR listeners. They smuggle in The New York Times in their tote bags. The Daily Show audience used to drive me fucking crazy, because they would just applaud at every reference to some right-wing guest being taken down. Or anything slightly to the left of center. They would stand in their chairs, and it would just drive me crazy."
I guess it's the New York Times reading, NPR listening crowd that buys all those books the Daily Show yammers on about.
Corddry won't have to worry about seeing the New York Times or a book for the rest of his life over at Fox.
I hope he didn't burn any bridges.
Posted by Dave
Then We Came to the End
A few bright lights are big on Joshua Ferris's first novel, and the cool kids are in the good crowd here.
I'm loving this, a satire on the everyday workplace that is funny, smart without trying so hard, and I think with this one novel I can take a bunch of books about globalization and "Bowling Alone" kind of titles off of my radar.
The ad agency in the book looks with longing at it's salad days during the dot com boom and as layoffs denude the company (walking Spanish down the hall) is the work term for getting sacked, a whole host of survival mechanisms and fumbling acts of kindness both pollute and enrich the atmosphere as accounts dry up and the only "work" seems to be a pro bono series of breast cancer related spots.
I'm only about two thirds through it; but corporate satire despite being ripe for such a book, seems not to have a really good one lately.
Max Barry (Company) was good and Benjamin Kunkel (Indecision) a bit less so; my generalized loathing for Douglas Coupland remains boundless.
The beating human heart, despite some truly bad behaviour, indeed some outright cruelty by one of the initially downsized, shines through the novel albeit wrapped in a smoky haze.
After a slow start, 2007 looks pretty fine indeed.
I've already mentioned how freakishly good this is.
Posted by Dave
I'm loving this, a satire on the everyday workplace that is funny, smart without trying so hard, and I think with this one novel I can take a bunch of books about globalization and "Bowling Alone" kind of titles off of my radar.
The ad agency in the book looks with longing at it's salad days during the dot com boom and as layoffs denude the company (walking Spanish down the hall) is the work term for getting sacked, a whole host of survival mechanisms and fumbling acts of kindness both pollute and enrich the atmosphere as accounts dry up and the only "work" seems to be a pro bono series of breast cancer related spots.
I'm only about two thirds through it; but corporate satire despite being ripe for such a book, seems not to have a really good one lately.
Max Barry (Company) was good and Benjamin Kunkel (Indecision) a bit less so; my generalized loathing for Douglas Coupland remains boundless.
The beating human heart, despite some truly bad behaviour, indeed some outright cruelty by one of the initially downsized, shines through the novel albeit wrapped in a smoky haze.
After a slow start, 2007 looks pretty fine indeed.
I've already mentioned how freakishly good this is.
Posted by Dave
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