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Thursday, June 19, 2008
6/19/2008 10:27:00 AM by Sharon | |
Thursday, June 05, 2008
6/5/2008 2:27:00 PM by Sharon | |
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
I finally
got around to reading my May email update from Goodreads.com, one of several
social networking sites for book nerds like me. (I use it primarily to keep
track of my own current reading habits / progress; I’m less interested in
reading/writing reviews.) Since I joined about a year ago, the site has
continuously improved; recent updates include the ability to purchase books
directly from your “To-Read” list, and an addictive, reader-formulated book
quiz.
Also fun to
see is the list of “Movers and Shakers” -- that month’s most popular books.
May’s top five are: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
by Barbara Kingsolver (read
it, loved it); Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (sci-fi YA about a
society where everyone gets prettifying plastic surgery at age 16 -- sounds
good); a twofer of Tweak by Nic Scheff and Beautiful Boy by David Scheff (a boy’s tale of
crystal meth addiction and his father’s story of dealing with it); The Book
Thief by Marcus Zusak (heard great things about this book, started it,
couldn’t get into it, didn’t finish it); and The
Road by Cormac McCarthy (definitely on my to-read list, and currently being made into a movie).
You can be
my book-friend here: http://www.goodreads.com/profile/dfulton. -- Deirdre Fulton
6/3/2008 2:38:00 PM by Sharon | |
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
How stoked was Richard Johnson when he and the rest of the Page Six crew got to slap the headline " Mailer's Lust Goes to Harvard" on today's Post? We're still getting over the ick-factor, but the item is pretty interesting, if you like reading about the fact that even Pulitzer-Prize winning authors dare their mistresses to write 50-page sex scenes. Don't believe what you hear in creative writing workshops, because if Carole Mallory can do it, surely, you can, too.
4/23/2008 4:03:22 PM by Sharon | |
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
4/15/2008 1:33:59 PM by Sharon | |
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Okay!! Our editor sent us this link to Polyvore a couple of weeks ago, and we were all, oh, cool, it's like Cher's computer in Clueless. And then we promptly forgot about it. But the delightful T.Y. at the Lit Connection was inspired, and she created two book-themed character collages which we're totally envious of. The first is inspired by the prom scene in Stephanie Meyer's Twilight, the second, which is our favorite, is inspired by The Witch from Blackbird Pond! Go look at them, NOW! She also made one for a young Ernest Hemmingway and Sixteen Candles! And here is our collage, which we made in tribute to Jane Austen's first novel, Sense & Sensibility, which we are reading right now. We spoiled the plot for ourselves by watching the Masterpiece Theatre program last weekend. The 2-part series made us weep, and the book just breaks our heart over and over and over again! Elinor and Marianne! Painting and pianofortes! Tea in a country cottage! Suffering and emotional breakdowns! Hurrah! We are totally asking for it! We can't remember the last time we read a happy book. Without further ado:
4/10/2008 11:08:48 AM by Sharon | |
Monday, April 07, 2008
Yup. Liz Phair reviewed Dean Wareham's Black Postcards: A Rock & Roll Romance in this Sunday's NYTBR. Among other things, we have learned that her mother named her Elizabeth Clark Phair because she thought it would make a good New Yorker byline. But more importantly, and most exciting, is the fact that Liz is finishing up her first book -- " fiction, not memoir." She probably would have started a blog, too, but haven't you heard?! People CAN DIE OF BLOGGING and it is FRONT-PAGE NEWS! ZOMG! We'd better go get ourselves some pills and rest and relaxation and time away from this Internet sweat-shop! Jeff Bercovici's rant is the funniest we've read so far.
4/7/2008 11:52:01 AM by Sharon | |
Monday, March 03, 2008
Er, more specifically, JANET MALCOLM has reviewed Gossip Girl, and we're talking about the book series by Cecily von Ziegesar, not the television series by Josh Scwhartz. Oh, we are completely losing our shit over this review. It is three pages long online, although we would be so happy if it were longer, and that Malcolm did succumb against her own will and "go on telling Blair stories until they are gone..." The piece is so full of delicious bits we're pretty much at a loss. We would cut and paste the entire thing here just to satisfy our need to have it preserved somehow, but instead we elected to simply link to it and cut out the clip from our print copy and file it away in our file folder of amazing stuff. But just because we really can't help ourselves: Von Ziegesar uses the technique of narration through interior voice with all her major characters, but when she gets into the id-shaped mind of Blair Waldorf she crosses a kind of boundary. Blair is both a broader caricature and a more real person than the others. Her over-the-top selfishness and hatefulness has the ring of behind-our-masks-we’re-all-like-that truth. And among her malevolent internal mutterings lurk some of the series’ funniest lines. When her mother marries Cyrus Rose, for example, and proposes that Blair reconsider her refusal to take his name, Blair’s inner voice growls back: “Blair Rose? No thank you. It sounded like the name of a perfume made especially for Kmart.”
Even though the books are about a hundred years old in terms of newsiness and timeliness, it really doesn't matter because of how elegantly Malcolm dissects them here. We wish we were her, pretty much.
3/3/2008 1:02:16 PM by Sharon | |
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Word Up pauses from our usual coverage of literary gossip and socialite authoresses to call your attention to the fact that it's National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. As such, we are quite pleased to present you with an online-only author interview with writer and lecturer Aimee Liu. In Liu's first memoir, 1979's Solitaire, she detailed her first battle with anorexia, and nearly three decades later she's returned with New York Times bestseller Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders. Weaving research, interviews, and her own continued battle with the disease, Liu draws a number of insightful conclusions. Not only does she reject the notion that our culture's emphasis on thinness is the sole cause of eating disorders, but reveals that a true recovery requires a comprehensive understanding of one's own condition. Liu will speak about women’s body images, her research and experience, and Gaining tomorrow, February 28th, at Simmons College. Tickets are $10 for general admission; $5 for students; free for Simmons College students and staff. Visit www.medainc.org for more information.
Did you ever expect, after writing and publishing Solitaire, that you would write another book about anorexia and your personal experiences with it?When I wrote Solitaire I believed I was finished with eating disorders. I used to say that I didn't want to become a "professional anorexic." I was eager to get on with a healthy life, writing fiction and books on psychological topics unrelated to eating disorders. I didn't appreciate at that point how interesting and complex these conditions are, or how they connect with aspects of biology and psychology that have nothing to do with eating or weight. Back then, in 1979, the science of eating disorders was still a mystery even to the medical establishment, so much of what I wanted to do with Gaining was to discover what we know now that no one knew then. Your findings that our thin-worshipping culture--the media, the fashion industry, Hollywood--don't solely trigger an obsession with one's own weight is startling, given that so many point fingers at this.Our thin-worshipping society elevates extreme thinness as an ideal that all "perfect" women and girls must achieve. This ideal comes across particularly loud and strong in status conscious homes and communities, where eating disorders tend to proliferate. But it takes a perfectionist to CARE about achieving this perfect goal. That's one of the ways that biology, in the form of innate temperament, plays a key role. If you're not a born perfectionist, chance are you won't kill yourself (literally, as well as figuratively) to become perfectly thin. By the same token, even if you are a perfectionist living in this culture, you probably won't develop an eating disorder if you learn to value yourself, your body, your health, and if you are encouraged and taught to develop personal ideals that are genuinely fulfilling and rewarding instead of self-defeating. Finally, the typical trigger for eating disorders tends to be acute anxiety and/or depression. So it's critical for everyone, but especially those who are perfectionistic and very sensitive, to learn positive, constructing coping skills, including techniques for relaxation, trust, self-awareness, and self-compassion, as early as possible. Tell me a bit about some of the things you learned from the people you interviewed for Gaining. Did they turn some of your earlier theories and assumptions on their head? How?Like many people, I had always assumed that anyone can "get" an eating disorder (like catching a common cold). The clear, strong patterns of personality traits among my interviewees astonished me. People with histories of severe anorexia nervosa tended to be very introspective, quiet, diligent, driven, disciplined, idealistic, and averse to change. People with histories of bulimia nervosa tended to be more impulsive, outgoing, people-pleasing but also rebellious. BOTH groups were intensely perfectionistic and highly sensitive to criticism, yet prone to criticizing themselves (never feeling "good enough"). The amazing thing was how strong these traits remained in people even decades after they showed any of the stereotypical symptoms of eating disorders -- starving, bingeing, purging. I came away from my interviews with an unexpected appreciation for eating disorders as a kind of window into the psyche. If you develop an eating disorder, that tells you something very valuable about your own nature and personality. You can learn from that. The appearance of an eating disorder also signals distress, creating an opportunity (if those around you will help you heed it) to examine the circumstances surrounding the illness and pinpoint the TRUE source of distress...and develop healthier coping mechanisms for resolving that distress. Perhaps the most unexpected reversal for me was the shift toward appreciating eating disorders as a kind of SOS, and NOT something either trivial or shameful. Teenage girls today are constantly bombarded with the fact that they're being influenced and pressured by whatever is around them, but once they come out of adolescence and move on to adulthood, it's almost as if they're left to their own devices. Tell me a bit about how women in mid-life are just as easily prone to an eating disorder.Mid-life for many women is a cruel refrain of adolescence. As menopause looms and our bodies show the first signs of age, many of us become as self-conscious as teenagers. We've become accustomed to the way men look at us, and suddenly men no longer look at us the same way. Maybe they don't look at us at all. Some of us find our marriages faltering or dissolving. Suddenly we're back in the market for a mate, competing against younger contenders. Our careers lurch, and we're back to auditioning on the job market against younger contenders. Our kids leave home, and in that sense, we lose yet another childhood. Maybe we are dealing with serious medical problems for the first time in our lives. Or maybe it's just the shock of facing the mirror each morning and confronting the stranger we are becoming. Some highly well-adjusted, well-loved, and passionately engaged women sail through this season of change, of course. But many others are shell-shocked by the physical changes in their bodies and looks, just as many adolescents are. Those women who have that innate tendency to fixate on a perfect ideal or react to anxiety by obsessing about food and weight or by numbing themselves through over- or under-eating may develop an eating disorder.
You're a former model, so I'm curious about your take on Dove's advertising campaign for "real beauty."
I love many aspects of the Dove campaign. I do believe that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, and that it's the human spirit within the body that makes the body beautiful. I am also SO grateful to Dove for publicly unmasking the lies that go into those images of "perfect beauty" we all ogle on billboards and in fashion and beauty magazines. Women really need to wake up to the fact that these photographs are virtually all doctored, and that many of the models presented as "women" are, in fact, young teenagers and even pre-teens. My only concern is that these ads continue to focus, focus, focus on LOOKS. Can't we ever move beyond our fixation on appearance, and create images of beauty that reflect women's creativity, intelligence, humor, athleticism, and other talents?
What about the billboard Oliviero Toscani shot of a naked Isabelle Caro for Milan Fashion Week last September? Do you think the fashion industry can ever, should ever, or will ever change when it comes to thinness?This is a very hot issue in the eating disorder community. Designers demand models who are as thin as humanly (or inhumanly) possible because they claim these emaciated models make clothes look better. Leaving aside the question of what size women actually buy their clothes, the designers have made no attempt to change the size or cut of the clothes they show on the runways, especially in the haute couture world. This despite great fanfare last year over the fashion world's promises to promote a healthier look on the catwalks. I think change will only come if and when wealthy women stop buying these clothes; fashion editors stop promoting Size Zero as the new Size Eight; and perhaps, if there is some sort of oversight imposed on the fashion industry. Of course, an avalanche of protest letters to the companies that advertise in fashion magazines might have an impact too!!!
Why is it impossible to escape or bury a disease like anorexia, even if you seem to be "cured" on the outside?
It is impossible to "get rid of" the innate personality traits and instinctive responses to anxiety that set us up for eating disorders. If we don't learn to re-train those traits and responses in healthy directions, they may go quiet for awhile only to resurface in a moment of stress years later, or they may push us toward self-destructive habits that are not eating-related. I call this the "half-life" of eating disorders, when we continue to punish ourselves, but not through food. However, if we become aware of these traits and tendencies, we can re-train them toward practices and pursuits that are fulfilling and constructive instead of self-destructive. Perfectionism is a grand trait to have, for instance, as long as we develop "perfect" ideals that bring us genuine pleasure and deep satisfaction, that connect us to others instead of alienating us, and that make us feel more, not less, alive. Your writing is so candid and emotional. Do you ever feel scared about what you revealed in the pages of Gaining?I fervently believe that secrecy and shame fuel mental illness. I also believe that we are all human, all vulnerable, and all flawed. There is tremendous freedom to be gained in expressing and examining the flaws and frailties that make us all human. Writing as honestly as possible is one form of this expression. And I've found that when people read what I've written, it bring them relief, too, to know that they are not alone, not shameful or disgraceful, and not guilty. I also believe that writing which is not candid and emotional is usually not honest and certainly not compelling. Who were you writing this book for? Who do you hope to inspire?Initially I was writing for the millions of people who have histories of eating disorders in their own history, because most do not realize how these conditions continue to reverberate in aspects of life that have nothing to do with eating. I also hoped to alert them to the ways in which they might unintentionally nudge their children toward eating disorders, and to the patterns of family dynamics in general that are affected by these syndromes. But I've been surprised by the number of people, even teenagers, still in treatment who have found hope in the book. Hundreds of people have written me, sharing their frustrations and life stories. Therapists, too, tell me that the book has sparked valuable discussions with patients. Finally, I've come to realize how reassuring it is for parents to learn that there are certain traits they can look for to determine whether a child is -- or is not! -- highly susceptible to an eating disorder. Ultimately, I am delighted when I hear that the book has inspired hope, self-awareness, and peace of mind.
2/27/2008 4:51:04 PM by Sharon | |
Friday, February 22, 2008
David Sedaris: we are fans, we must admit. Not of all of his work, but much of it. We missed the fact that the title of his latest book, set for a June publication date, keeps on changing. Leon Neyfakh at the Observer didn't, and asked Sedaris to please explain. We can't help but sort of adore the fact that Sedaris loves the titles his boyfriend suggests and then, ultimately, rejects them. He should write an essay about that, we think. When You Are Engulfed in Flames sounds apropo to us. It provides magical cover art possibilities, at the very least.
2/22/2008 10:44:06 AM by Sharon | |
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
2/20/2008 2:07:54 PM by Sharon | |
Monday, February 04, 2008
James Frey is serious about his come-back, so much so that he's jazzing up his forthcoming novel, Bright Shiny Morning, with jacket art by his friend Richard Prince. He's also thinking of going Ira Glass on us, with a book tour that the New York Post's Page Six likens to something that sounds more like a concert tour: "We're talking about having
bands, other authors reading their work. We may try to include some
pyrotechnics," he said with a laugh."
Elsewhere, New York Times reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner David Car Johnston is pissed about how the Sunday Book Review handled his tome, Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves At Government Expense (And Stick You With The Bill). Complaints as noted by Editor & Publisher's Joe Strupp are here, the review in question itself, by Jonathan Chait, is here. Recession arriving in T-minus now? Magazines, in trouble? Why, you don't say. Of course, it's fashion week, when even retail miracles seem possible. Unfortunately, the publishing industry doesn't have an equivalent. Unless you count BEA?
2/4/2008 2:41:03 PM by Sharon | |
Friday, February 01, 2008
Okay, we feel badly for calling out Jezebel about the whole bitter thing -- it's not all the time! it's just about certain stuff! and we understand how they feel because excessive shallowness is annoying! -- but anyway, we are kissing their collective bums over this Friday Fine Lines feature that they've been running for the past while. We've been meaning to tell you about it but neglected to because we have a lot of trouble concentrating on Fridays. So each week, Lizzie Skurnick reviews and discusses the YA books beloved to most girls in their youth. It's the-next-to-most-delicious-thing other than actually sitting down and rereading them. Today's feature is about the brilliant Katherine Patterson's Jacob Have I Loved, which we totally forgot after our recent revived obsession with Judy Blume yet is absolutely one of our favorite, favorite, FAVORITE YA's of all time. How amazing is that cover. We can't even talk about it. LOUISE WAS TOTALLY THE PRETTIER SISTER. We really want to stop off at the BPL, hustle up to the kid's section, borrow it, take it home, and cry about it all weekend. Our heart breaks.
2/1/2008 5:11:37 PM by Sharon | |
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Uh oh. Thirteen people in Turkey were arrested for plotting to kill Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk ( My Name is Red).
What a surprise! Oprah's latest Book Club pick is Eckhart Tolle's self-help tome A New Earth. Congratulations, Eckhart -- please enjoy being the spiritual teacher for this entire nation. Just...ew. From Publisher's Lunch Weekly: Bestselling authors Rory
Freedman and Kim Barnouin's SKINNY BITCH JOURNAL, for publication in early 2009,
and a book adapting the Skinny Bitch message for guys, for publication in fall
2009, again to Jennifer Kasius at Running Press, by Talia Cohen of Laura Dail
Literary Agency (world).
1/31/2008 11:24:03 AM by Sharon | |
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
1/23/2008 2:18:10 PM by Sharon | |
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Photo by Masayuki Yoshinaga We were broken for a little while, but we're back, and happy to be here! So here's the thing. We wrote about this book, Gothic + Lolita, a little while ago, but we're still kind of obsessed with it. It sits on our desk and we stare at the pictures when we're supposed to be writing about other things. Phaidon puts out the coolest shit, don't they? Click here for Radar's lengthy and fantastical excerpt.
1/9/2008 5:12:38 PM by Sharon | |
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Well, hello there! Yep, we're still here. So let's talk shop.
The 39 Clues, a new series that Scholastic is billing as the successor to Harry Potter sounds remarkably dull. Collector cards? Why not just package the books with Pogs. More Paper Cuts contributors are on the way. Editorial Ass is a blog we recently discovered, written by an extremely witty former ed assistant. Why are we so easily seduced by books about crafting, even though we never, ever craft, only tell ourselves we will? We finished the novel, and now we must see the movie. It will not be good enough. Why is it so impossible to give holiday gifts that aren't books? We're giving this away to at least two people. It's not Harold Bloom-approved, duhs, but it's as delicious a read as we've ever had. Meh, all these lists are really exhausting. Should we be reading Tree of Smoke instead of Persuasion right now? Probably. Of course, nobody can stop us. Oh happy day.
12/18/2007 5:14:59 PM by Sharon | |
Friday, October 05, 2007
Yesterday, Pacifica Radio broadcast an uncensored version of Allen Ginsberg reading his seminal poem "HOWL." Oct 3 marked the 50th annivesary of a court ruling that determined "HOWL" was not obscene, but a work of social and literary merit. It's awesome. Stream the reading here, at Pacifica's website, follow along with the full text here, and watch him briefly chit-chatting about the wonders of technology below:
10/5/2007 11:13:36 AM by Sharon | |
Monday, October 01, 2007
Penguin is teaming with Amazon.com for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. They're taking submissions through Nov. 5, and the winner receives a publishing contract and a $25,000 advance from Penguin! If only we had participated in last year's NANOWRIMO. We're a bit more preoccupied by short stories lately, although Stephen King's Sunday Book Review essay made us think twice:
"Last year, I read scores of stories that felt ... not quite dead on the page, I won’t go that far, but airless, somehow, and self-referring. These stories felt show-offy rather than entertaining, self-important rather than interesting, guarded and self-conscious rather than gloriously open, and worst of all, written for editors and teachers rather than for readers. The chief reason for all this, I think, is that bottom shelf. It’s tough for writers to write (and editors to edit) when faced with a shrinking audience."
Does that have anything to do with the rise of MFA programs? Because they make everyone sound the same, and too workshop-y?
We couldn't even find N+1 the last time we checked the local chain bookstore, but it seems the anti-McSweeney's lit mag now has a Version 2.0, called Paper Monument, and it's all about art.
Does anyone want to start a photo-copied zine with Word Up? We're open to title suggestions.
10/1/2007 12:32:21 PM by Sharon | |
Friday, September 28, 2007
Image via JudithHoffman.net
If we're ever wealthy and foolish enough to hire the Strand bookstore to Build A Library for us, we'd request blue and green Victorian era tomes, cause they're pretty. On our current budget, however, we can definitely manage a copy of Stephanie Myer's Twilight, which fellow Phoenician bookworm Deirdre recommended to us. Care to join the PHX book club? We don't actually have any meetings planned, but if we did, we could all take notes in these Moleskin notebooks, which were a favorite of Hemingway's, and which we always stupidly pass over for the plain spiral-bound reporter notebooks that come free with our job. So since we don't write in Hemingway's journals or write like Hemingway himself, we'll just have to settle for reading his LiveJournal. Shame he hasn't updated since 2001. Here are some actual famous people with LiveJournals, just in case you're in a web-journal reading mood. Actually, forget the computer altogether and take a good long lusty look at one of these vintage typewriters; we can't stop thinking about how badly we want one. Although we'll be satisfied with some typewriter jewelery. Perhaps we'll just make our an amazing purse out of an old hardcover. (More book-bags here). And after we're done pricking our fingers numb, we'll fantasize about the day someone gifts us a first edition copy of our favorite book ever, just because. Even nerds can dream big, right?
9/28/2007 3:39:44 PM by Sharon | |
Monday, September 24, 2007
9/24/2007 11:50:58 AM by Sharon | |
Friday, September 21, 2007
There was only one new fall television program we were especially excited to see, and it finally made its debut this week. Good news: it really is the most Important show of our time! Gossip Girl, which airs on the CW on Wednesdays at 9 pm, was a delight. And we hear the original best-selling YA book series is even more delicious. Upper East Side prep schools are a bitch, eh? Glorious! Plus, just today we got a recommendation for Phillip Pullman's The Golden Compass -- supposedly a favorite of Harry Potter afficionados. Oh dear, someone out there (dpritchard, we've missed you so!) will probably crucify us for this so very un-alternative and sugar-highish post (Friday!), so we'll do our best to counteract the damage with a link to this neat interview with F. Scott Fitzgerald, published now in the Guardian but originally in the New York Post back in 1936. Dig it.
9/21/2007 5:54:55 PM by Sharon | |
Friday, September 07, 2007
Jack Romanos, president of Simon and Schuster is retiring, and Carolyn Reidy is in. Looks like Romanos will have quite a bit of spare time on his hands. Might we suggest whiling away the hours with Literary Rejections On Display? We've been hooked for the last couple of weeks: reading about someone else's failures is about as comforting as a good cup of boiling tea in an overly air-conditioned office (the Phoenix HQ has been freezing us out all week). But in between shivering and ordering extra-hot lattes from the Starbucks around the corner, we finished reading Karma and Other Stories by Rishi Reddi, and it floored us. In keeping with the Indian theme, we might try The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy next, although Sense and Sensibility and Dalia Sofer's The Septembers of Shiraz is also on our list. Of course, toting all that around on the T might be sort of impossible, so perhaps we'll have to get all cutting-edge and switch to e-books. Didn't someone predict that, like, everyone would be reading e-books by now? Yeah, so much for that. Although we do kinda enjoy the idea of being able to read a comic book on our cell phone. Avril Lavigne's manga will probably be next. Oh, anyone planning to hit up Eric Schaeffer's Boston University Barnes & Noble reading on Sept 13? We'll give you a prize if you quote him something from the Gawker tirade during the Q&A.
9/7/2007 11:08:12 AM by Sharon | |
Friday, August 31, 2007
A few things we've been enjoying in lately:
The New York Times' Paper Cuts blog, maintained by the estimable Dwight Garner. He's on vacation now, but there are some wonderful recent entries here on what commuters read (or shouldn't read) on trains, as well as popular Christian sex manuals (which Garner doesn't think are much of a turn-on).
Maud Newton's excellent guest-blogged series on independent bookstores. Great stories and gossipy tidbits.
Hari Kunzru's short story "Magda Mandela," which appeared in the Aug 13 issue of the New Yorker. It's fantastic.
The latest batch of postcards on PostSecret. They've got a new book out, as well.
"The Shit-Kickers of Madison Avenue," an older Talk of the Town piece by Lillian Ross, might just be our favorite thing ever (in recent memory, of course).
Speaking of Ross, have you read Picture? We did, and we're kind of ridiculously obsessed with it, still.
Apparently, Nick Hornby wrote a YA novel titled Slam. It's sitting on our desk. We're not sure what to make of it yet.
For the long weekend, we've been saving the following, which we will read under the covers, AC on, in lieu of BBQs and shopping sales: Rishi Reddi's Karma and Other Stories, Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith (out this January by Canongate, we started it yesterday, snap judgement: odd but pretty?), and the new Vogue. Plans to buy Maus II as well -- a trip to the Harvard Book Store is in order.
What are you reading?
See you in September.
Love,
Word Up
8/31/2007 11:51:31 AM by Sharon | |
Monday, August 06, 2007
Oh, Lauren.
I rewatched the second half of Season 2 of The Hills on Sunday (thanks, Comcast On Demand!) in preparation for the Season 3 premiere on Aug 13. It was a delightful, delicious re-immersion experience, let me tell you. Until I noticed something troubling. Often, I saw my dear LoLo curled up on the couch, upset about something Heidi or Douche-bag Extraordinary Spencer Pratt had done. And how did she comfort herself? Not with a good book, as one might expect from such an intelligent young lady. All she ever seemed to be reading was Life & Style or her Blackberry! Tsk. L.C., I know you're better than that. When you aren't updating your website or reading about the interns who threaten to steal your job on the Teen Vogue blog, I'm sure you can be found holed up in your room, tearing through some Proust with an air of utmost contentment.
But just in case you aren't halfway through In Search of Lost Time, here are a few literary recommendations to help you through this difficult period of your life. Please pass in your book report on the title of your choice no later than Wednesday, Aug 15. And stop hanging out with Jason. It's getting pathetic.
1. Emma by Jane Austen: "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence, and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her."
2. White Oleander by Janet Fitch: "Always learn poems by heart. They have to become the marrow in your bones. Like fluoride in the water, they'll make your soul impervious to the world's soft decay."
3. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett: "If someone loves you for what you can do then it’s flattering, but why do they love you? If someone loves you for who you are then they have to know you, which means you have to know them."
4. A Summer to Die by Lois Lowry: "Funny thing about sisters. Well, about us anyway; Dad says it's unacademic to generalize. Molly is prettier than I am, but I'm smarter than Molly. I want with my whole being to be something someday; I'd like to think that someday, when I'm grown up, people everywhere will know who I am, because I will have accomplished something important..."
5. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald: "Life was a damned muddle...a football game with every one off-side and the referee gotten rid of--every one claiming the referee would have been on his side."
8/6/2007 3:07:29 PM by Sharon | |
Thursday, July 26, 2007
7/26/2007 10:23:30 AM by Sharon | |
Thursday, June 21, 2007
The New Yorker was destined to have a books podcast at some point. The Dating Game is the first edition, featuring a discussion between Edwidge Danticat and fiction editor, Deborah Treisman. They chat about Junot Díaz’s 1995 short story “How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie)" from his collection Drown. And included is a reading of the story by Díaz, from from the CD “The New Yorker Out Loud, Vol. 2.”
Stream the mp3 here, go to The New Yorker Out Loud page to download, or subscribe to the fiction podcast from The New Yorker feed at the iTunes store.
6/21/2007 10:36:35 AM by Sharon | |
Monday, April 30, 2007
4/30/2007 12:40:52 PM by Sharon | |
Monday, February 26, 2007
2/26/2007 12:59:42 PM by Sharon | |
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Now at your local Urban Outfitters
Jessica Crispin's latest Book Standard piece, which questions Borders' refusal to stock a promising YA title by Aury Wallington, is interesting.
But not nearly as interesting as Selling Literature to Go With Your Lifestyle. Non-bookstore stockage of niche titles hits the NYT's front page today. Did anyone else know that you can buy trendy hipster tomes in Urban Outfitters? Who would've thunk. If your kitchy gift book doesn't sell well in an actual bookstore, just ask your publisher to have it stocked in a place where you can also purchase an insanely overpriced pair of skinny jeans and pre-torn "Everybody Loves a Whatever Girl" tees. Hooray!
This quote is just psychotic:
"At Anthropologie on Sunday, Ruth Rennert lounged among the throw pillows on a mustard-yellow sofa -- not far from that display of yellow sweaters and books -- leafing through Jackie: A Life in Pictures, about the former first lady. Shopping for books in a setting like this, she said, is preferable to enduring the hustle and bustle of big bookstores."
Hey Ruth, ever heard of an independent bookstore? We hear they're the new Barnes & Noble, except you can't buy your Starbucks there. Darn that hustle and bustle!
Another winner that chills us to the bone. Very Chuck Palahniuk:
“You walk into Restoration Hardware and you want the couch and the vase and the nightstand, and then you want the two books that are on the nightstand. The books complete the story.”
Not surprisingly, Publisher's Marketplace freaks out:
I Can't Believe this is a Front Page Article In the Paper of Record
The specious passing off of a long-term business development as a recent "trend." The attempt to build a causal link to "statistics" that don't mean anything anyway. The age-old pejoratives (why are publishers always "pushing their books" and "peddling"?) And what high school English wouldn't go to town with a clause like this by itself: "even chi-chi clothing boutiques where high-end literary titles are used to amplify the elegant lifestyle they are attempting to project."
And yet, there is still a graph or two with some facts: "Simon & Schuster is urging its sales representatives to punctuate their bookstore rounds with impromptu pitches at promising shops and markets they spot in their travels.... And HarperCollins plans to design books for its spring catalog in shades of 'margarita and sangria,' greens and reds that store owners have told the publisher will dominate that season's color palette. At Penguin Group, sales representatives have begun pushing into rural areas that are short on big bookstores, selling at cattle auctions, among other places."
Counterbalanced, still, by this note, which gives you the impression that anyone can call up and order new jackets: "The Time Warner Book Group routinely changes the color or design of book jackets at a store's request so the book will color-coordinate with merchandise."
Seriously, we're LOLZ about that jacket art comment as well. It's like calling the TWBG the publishing version of a junior's department store sale rack where everything magically comes in various shades of mint green, bright pink, black (think: classy, not sleazy), and powder-puff blue. What if the merchandise looks like crap? Should the books blend with that, too?
11/2/2006 2:13:20 PM by Sharon | |
Monday, July 24, 2006
Word Up approved lit-links for your case of the Mondays:
*This half of Word Up doesn't buy as many comics as she used to, but
check out Galley Cat's intellectually exhaustive coverage of San Diego's Comic-Con Festival. Holler, tons of important, extremely famous people got their geek on (including Sameul L., promoting New Line Cinema's SNAKES ON A PLANE.) Seth Cohen was there, too. It appears Brody wrote an actual comic called The Red Menace, loosely
based on U.S. Senator Joe McCarthy's communist witch hunt, which had a
stranglehold on Hollywood in the 1950s (what wouldn't we give for a
graphic novel of Atomic County...) with Rachel Bilson's DAD?
*From Carla Blumenkranz’s My Life and Times in American Publishing (via Maud Newton). Think
being a publishing intern is an easy gig? "Then Kristy told me to
find the new Jesus. Those weren’t the exact words she used. Her
superior (a sturdy, headbanded woman named Kate) had commissioned
Kristy to find a new spiritual leader. The market was ripe for it,
Kristy explained. All we had to do was find him. I would know him when
I saw him, because he was a clean-cut, non-white, Christian male. He
had a manifesto already on the market (so Emperor could easily buy the
rights) and a sizable cult or congregation (so he’d be good on
television)."
* The Globe's Gail Caldwell gets down with Pynchon conspiracy theories.
*The Future of Borders:
"George L. Jones, the newly appointed chief executive of Borders Group,
one of the nation’s largest book retailers, is a onetime aspiring rock
star who went on to help Target create its bargain upscale aesthetic
and revived the Scooby-Doo character for Warner Brothers."
*Warning! These Pretty Packages May Contain a Lot of Long Words. The Observer mourns publishers sexing-up and dumbing-down the classics. (via MediaBistro)
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