Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk

I'm a sucker for a Sedaris. He is one of the few authors I can't wait for paperback and end up dropping the dough for the hardback; he is also one of the few artists that will have me LOLing. Unfortunately not this time. This collection of "Modest Bestiaries" is missing something...what, I can't pinpoint. I liked many of the personalities the animals carried (there's a lot of human issues mirroring issues with race, gender, egos, etc.) but somehow, I found it a little cheesy and a little iritating. Animals! Why aren't you funny?! They even have a story about leeches in a butt hole (right?! that's right up my alley, no pun intended). Perhaps I am too alike these animals, or perhaps I'm taking the short stories too seriously. Overall, I thought it was a bust. I still love you Mr. Sedaris.

Just Kids

"For art sings of God, and ultimately belongs to him."

I'm on a role here with amazing books. I love a good autobiography now and then (though, I guess I never read one this past year huh?), and I found that I couldn't put this one down. Whether or not you are a Patti Smith fan, you can admire her as an artist, musician, and above all, a poet. I found her story about her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe endearing (wouldn't anyone want to find a soul mate like they did?). Like Chronicles by Dylan, Smith's narration is poetic, like reading an epic song. Their talent to share their lives on their beginnings makes you love their music even more.

"Taken down, the stardom they so desired just out of reach, tarnished stars falling from the sky."

The most inspiring thought I took away with her story was to always stay true to your heart. Because everything works out in the end. That may sound cheesy but with all the changes in my life right now, this just had me thinking...thinking a lot.

Because you're never too busy for some P & P...

comic bo, I mean graphic novel style. Ahem. What more can I say about a comic book of Pride and Prejudice? I'm sure you've seen a movie version. And read the book. Well, I will have to say, the graphic novel was amazing (like how I keep switching it up comicbookgraphicnovelcomicbookgraphicnovel). Concise, no surprises, yes the sisters are a bit slutted up (ok, not really) but this might even have the guys reading it as well. Yes, no? Can you tell I'm tired?

Now instead of unpacking my room in my new place, I think I will read Patti Smith's Just Friends until I pass out.

The Singer's Gun

Ms. Emily St. John Mandel is my author crush of the month, maybe of the year. I scored on getting her new book on sale and like Last Night in Montreal, I couldn't put this one down. Our main protagonist, Anton Waker has a bit of a different life; his parents sell stolen antiques in which they refurbish and put back on the market. He ends up getting into some shady business himself as he works with his cousin on selling fraudulent society security cards and passports. As the saying goes "the grass is always greener on the other side", Anton craves a normal life, whatever that means. The Singer's Gun is about that, what it means to want normal, to make choices and to live with the consequences.

One of my favorite things about the two Mandel novels I've read is the way she uses the world as her scenery. Singer's Gun mostly takes place in Brooklyn but brings together some remote places in Canada and Italy; for someone like me who has never really traveled outside the U.S., it elevates her stories to a more imaginative level.

"There was something about the way the air around her was painted; Anton leaned in closer. They were standing together against a brick wall, and there was the faintest disturbance in the bricks, the slightest electrical charge, a haze, and then he understood: Evie had a halo around her. An opening line from a novel he'd once read came back to him unbidden--We are not alone, this side of death--and he took the painting and left the room very quickly, leaving the door ajar. He locked the door of his own room behind him. "

I can't wait for her to write more.

early Christmas

The books I ordered have arrived right on time for my long weekend. And an awesome friend is in town and was sweet enough to bring me tons of Intelli beans (already on my second cup), along with books she recommends (see below). The one pictured I was especially excited for because Mr. Burns (you may have seen his art on Believer magazine covers) doesn't publish as often as I would like him to.

Like Black Hole, X'ed Out is a little demented, a little nightmarish, a little emo (just like my sense of humor!). I mean this in all good ways. Unfortunately, this is book is just the beginning. There were many unanswered questions (Who the hell is that little worm? What drugs is he on? How did he get injured? What is the animal of the eggs/developed fetus he found in his omelet? What happens to the chick he leaves his girlfriend for? And why is she always naked?). Next in the series is The Hive and I can't wait!


Danielle (and brother Josh) Bauman's recommended reading list for me...

The Red & The Black -Stendhal
Collected works of Jorge Luis Borges
Blankets -Craig Thompson
Bone -Jeff Smith
Tekkan Kinkreet (manga artist/author)
Taiyo Matsumoto (manga artist/author)

Amen!

Read this article or you're not my friend (ok jk, but dude, this is how I've been feeling!!!!!)

http://therumpus.net/2010/11/the-blurb-20-joy-is-a-job/#more-66768

Bambi & Basketball

Remember Bambi? Remember when Thumper is clowning on something or someone and he gets scolded by his mother who told him "If you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all". (or was it Bambi?) Well, that is how I feel about this blog a bit...I can give you a million excuses on why I haven't been writing in it regularly but the truth is, it's basketball season and I have cable. Though I have started to read with the games on mute until the fourth quarter...

I've started reading The Sound & the Fury by Faulkner. Not very far into it but the novel starts with an appendix summarizing most members of the family this story involves and there will be no happy ending.

On a lighter note, please read Amy Sedaris' interview with Rumpus

http://therumpus.net/2010/11/the-funny-women-interview-with-amy-sedaris/

PS: Did I mention I just put in a large order with Powells? Merry Christmas to me :)

Last Night in Montreal

I was very tempted to quote the ending here. Very tempted. The book is a heart breaker to say the least. Maybe I have a bias because it involves road trips for years (if you know me, plan B is to become a truck driver if this whole coffee thing doesn't work out), Montreal (I'm going next month for the first time to assist in a class), winter (oh yes, winter. I'm discovering Vermont winter) and fucked up families (the whole non communication thing, ding!). There was no favorite character here, I felt sympathy for all of them, which I believe is no easy accomplishment.

Last Night in Montreal continued

"How deep in our genes is the longing for flight embedded? We always were a species of nomads. Eli found it easy to imagine an instinct passed down generation to generation, a permanently thrown breaker on a genetic switchboard: flight or fight, and a switch jammed permanently in the flight position, the limitless longing for travel pulled down by hooked genes. It leapfrogs a generation (she said her parents had wanted to be a detective and a real estate agent, even when they were kids), and is thwarted when it reappears. She leaned across the table, asked him if it was true that all places look the same, and the least unkind thing he could do at that moment was nod and lie to her. Yes. It's true. I have been to half-a-dozen countries, and all the world looks the same to me. He thought it would be unimaginably cruel to tell her that all of the individual places she hadn't seen were different."

I've only been in Vermont for three months and I'm still in the honeymoon phase with this place. Not gonna lie, if or when I'm done here, I will be kind of ruined. But that's okay. "We always were a species of nomads". I intend to use that line.

Happy November

It's been way too long. Seriously.
I spent October in a blur of coffee (work), friends visiting, and mini road trips.
Another change of address. Another coffee event. Another mini heart ache because I won't see those friends for a while.
And I haven't been able to squeeze a single book to read in that time. Only 3 New Yorker articles.

Oh baby it wasn't you, it's me! And I'm back! I'm reading again, sigh.

A few months ago, I stumbled across an NPR book review. If you know me, I don't have good luck with book reviews as they never live up to their expectations. However that doesn't stop me from reading what people of think of books, what authors think of other authors, etc. They have a column where librarian Nancy Pearl recommends books, which makes sense right? A librarian, surrounded by free books, she would know. And she does. My current book Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel might be my favorite contemporary read of the year as it was featured in one of her 'Under the Radar' picks. I'm declaring this, mind you, and I'm not even half way finished. That is how much I love reading it. And I better like it because it took me about 4 book stores to find a copy (I finally made my rounds of bookstores both new and used and happy to say it made me love Vermont even more).

Here is the book review...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128823435

Here is an excerpt of the book...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128805868

Weekend routine

I must say, I'm starting to love weekends. LOVE them. And I've gotten into a bit of routine with them but I couldn't be happier. Allowing yourself to sleep in, drink a lot of coffee and read all day, then repeat on Sunday, along with learning to roast. My weekends have become just that. I make coffee and start catching up on all the websites/blogs I love (NPR's book section is also becoming one of my favorites now, but duh, you guys have probably been reading it forever). Rumpus which has been a staple in my life has now become Chicken Soup For the Soul for me (sorry I had to go there). Then when that gets old, I switch over to books that I seem to carry with me all over the house like a security blanket.

The picture above is the blanket of the moment. It's called First Fiction: An Anthology of the First Published Stories by Famous Authors and is exactly what the title says. 41 authors and a short intro to when and in what their story was first published in and how it influenced their later works. I'm only 10 authors in and LOVE most of the stories. And with the authors I am familiar with, it is great to read their first work and compare it to what I've read of theirs (as if they were your friend and you were thrilled to see how they progressed).

This is a collection I would recommend for hardcore readers and for those who read once in a while. The stories are truly short, some of them only 10 pages. Perfect for those who don't like to commit and great for those whose life goal is to read every great classic author under the sun but overwhelmed at the thought of it. Unfortunately the copy I'm reading doesn't belong to me (Caitlin, if it was mine, I would send it to you after I was finished with it) but I will definitely be on the hunt for it when I do my usual used book shopping.

Oh yeah, if you haven't heard, I'm moving to Vermont more than the 3 months originally planned. So expect more Nelson Algren book reviews in the future...

Love...

In The Time Of, Barf.

I was going to wait to review this book until I was finished reading it, and well, with about 47 pages to go, it has become a chore. Last week, I tried to staying up all night to read it; many hours later (yes, insomnia has followed me to Vermont), with only making the slightest dent, I realized I was in for a bigger task.

I can't help thinking about the movie The Notebook when reading this (another barf). Why is it that old people get a pass on cuteness and romance? What about all the shit in between? Both allude to idea that love, like everything else in life, is not perfect (duh. Which brings me to...Romeo, where are you dude?). But I haven't finished reading it so who knows (if you know me, endings can make or break a book, so I can eat my words up shortly).

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a poetic writer. A verbose, poetic writer who loves detail, detail, flowers, and detail. He forces an intimacy with the reader, leaves nothing to the imagination. Does Florentino Ariza get the girl (Fermina Daza) in the end? Does he deserve her? Does she deserve him? Or does he croak like a pathetic fool from old age before ever having a relationship with her? Maybe I need to finish the book.

Love...Cholera Continued.

"Without intending to, without even knowing it, he repeated until his dying day that there was no one with more common sense, no stonecutter more obstinate, no manager more lucid or dangerous, than a poet."

Love In The Time of Cholera

"Their love affairs were slow and difficult and were often disturbed by sinister omens, and life seemed interminable. At nightfall, at the oppressive moment of transition, a storm of carnivorous mosquitoes rose out of the swamps, and a tender breath of human shit, warm and sad, stirred the certainty of death in the depths of one's soul."

Brave New World

Remember a few posts back I started reading Brave New World? And then never spoke of it again? Well I made it part of my Labor Day weekend. I bought it at Caphill Books a while back after reading 1984, in one of those panics of shit-there's-so-many-classics-I-haven't-read-yet.

I had to stop myself from comparing it to 1984, though I vaguely remember the plot...It also reminded me of Daniel Quinn's Ismael. Like the previous book I read, I couldn't sympathize with any of the characters. They all sucked as people, even John, but maybe that was the point. I enjoyed the dark humor (or smart people may call it satire), the ending, but that's about it.


PS: Is it wrong every time I think of the novel, I start singing it to the melody of The Little Mermaid's "A Whole New World"? Everyone does that right? Right?

His Illegal Self continued

I just finished reading His Illegal Self. It was a good, fast summer read but nothing more than that. I'm not compelled to pick up his other books. The ending was cheesy (it ends happily in my opinion) and overall, the novel doesn't elicit any sympathy in any of the characters (but they didn't annoy me either). However, I did like how the first person narrative would switch back and forth between Che (the child that is taken) and Dial (the woman who is sent to take him); As I Lay Dying did a similar thing.

I'm ready for a classic again...

Blogs and lists

One blog leads to another...I stumbled upon a blog called The Displaced English Major. Her blog is goal oriented which led me to the list she is following. The list is from Modern Library which actually I should note that there are two...I started skimming the list to see how cool (or not cool) I was. I usually don't like lists (my exception are ones from friends that hardly seem to fail me) for a few reasons, the biggest reason being the anxiety it causes me to feel that when I die, I will not have read all the books I've wanted to read (anybody feel me on this, or is that just sad?). Perhaps it's worth checking out to you.

PS: Flannery O'Connor didn't make the list but John Irving did (fuck you modern library!)
PSS: But all the books I have read on the lists are some of my favorites (damn, your love hurts!)
PSSS: In case you're interested as I was, I've read 17 on the board's list and 21 on the reader's list. ::Sigh:: What about you?

you can't win 'em all

Last week, Trish and I went to to check out the Waterbury library. They were having a book sale. It was a dollar for a bag of books. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you see my book buying habits), it was the end of the sale and it was slim pickings. I did score two books though.

His Illegal Self by Peter Carey
&
Making Things Grow, A Practical Guide for the Indoor Gardener by Thalassa Cruso

I picked up the first book because I've seen it around at Borders or something, I'm sure. I'm a third in and it's ok. It's a good post Faulkner cleanser. There are parts where the narration gets annoying; it is as though Carey is trying really hard to be original but I just think he's being passive aggressive. The jacket says he's received the Booker Prize twice, and I'm guessing not for this book.

The second book I haven't started yet...I bought it in filling the void of always wanting house plants but never buying them thinking, what's-the-point-I-move-too-much-anyways. It comes with illustrations and upon skimming it, I found 2 dried up leaves someone pressed, yay! Apparently the author had a show on PBS; maybe I can find them and watch them...

The library in my town sucks. Which duh, it's a small town. But! They have magazines you can check out (Harpers, Atlantic, New Yorker, etc) so I plan on reading those.

PS: Went to Montpelier (fact: it is the smallest capital city in the US) last week, there were 3 book stores within a block, so exciting! More on that later...

Vermont!

I have 40 pages left in As I Lay Dying and I had to tear myself away to write this. This! If you haven't noticed, I suck at writing. This book is amazing in so many ways. It makes me cringe, it breaks my heart in so many ways, and I have to reread certain passages because I can't believe what he wrote. I can see why people compare him to McCarthy. Faulkner is the original gangster and McCarthy is his follower.

Everyone should read this book. It is about a family that loses their mother and the journey they take to bury her. It's in a stream of consciousness/vignette-esque so you get to know each family member and the people around them who are affected by the death. That's all I can say without quoting the entire book.

Expect more books from Faulkner. Though the library kind of sucks here in Waterbury...

PS: So far I haven't read as much as I thought I would because I've been so distracted by Vermont!

PSS: I'm falling in love with this town, I want to Montpelier today (the capitol of VT, and I saw 3, effing 3! bookstores in a block).

PSSS: I went on a short roadtrip to Maine last weekend. And I creamed my pants when I found this place... http://www.rockcitycoffee.com/secondread.htm. The book selection is not that great (lets say I found better new books than used) but it was quite charming and I fell in love with the place nonetheless. And no, I didn't have any coffee because it was late.

Still Life with Woodpecker

Hi Everyone,

Vermont! And I realized I finished Still Life, loved it and then forgot the book to reference any of it (Caitlin, you wanna pitch in here?). If you've never read it, read parts of it here. This book had me loling a few times (very few books do that except for Sedaris).

"Who knows how to make love stay?"
Read it and find out!

What I'm reading now...

"In a strange room you must empty yourself for sleep. And before you are emptied for sleep, what are you. And when you are emptied for sleep, you are not. And when you are filled with sleep, you never were. I don't know what I am. I don't know if I am or not. Jewel knows who he is, because he does not know that he does not know whether he is or not. Beyond the unlamped wall I can hear the rain shaping the wagon that is ours, the load that is no longer theirs that felled and sawed it not yet theirs that bought it and which is not ours either, lie on our wagon though it does, since only the wind and the rain shape it only to Jewel and me, that are not asleep....
How often have I lain beneath rain on a strange roof, thinking of home."

As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner

Reading? Yes please!

My life has been divided between work and this coffee shop (here now). I don't know if it's the Saved by the Bell ambiance, but I've been bringing my reading here lots lately.

In my effort to rekindle my love for Chicago, my roommate Marty (check out his website, yes he writes comics, I know! He is a domestic-partner-dream-come-true-for-Juliet) recommended Nelson Algren's Chicago: City on the Make. As Marty summed up, it's his love poem for Chicago. For me, Algren is just another Beatnik I am falling in love with, at least with this work.

"It isn't hard to love a town for its greater and its lesser towers, its pleasant parks or its flashing ballet. Or for its broad and bending boulevards, where the continuous headlights follow, one dark driver after the next, one swift car after another, all night, all night and all night. But you never truly love it till you can love its alleys too. Where the bright and morning faces of old familiar friends now wear the anxious midnight eyes of strangers a long way from home."

I've also started reading a book of Harvey Pekar comics Marty has around the house. Most of the comics are about his own life. I can't say I'm a huge fan but I can't seem to put the book down. The stories don't really have a point (most comics don't right?) and are a little boring.

Cerebus II is collecting dust. Maybe it's under my bed, not sure.

So much for the summer of reading classics...more so a summer of comics.

Why I heart Al Burian

After not having internet for a few days (ok, that's a lie, but not at home where I can leisurely read all my food blogs, comics and such), I remembered this blog and how much I love Al Burian. Just wanted to share this entry with you. What do you think Caitlin? Is this guy full of shit or just an existentialist?

"Writing is easy, as Robert Pollard said. It really is. If you can formulate a coherent spoken sentence, the leap from that to transcription, assuming some basic literacy and a spell check program in your native language, is not such a great one. If that minimal exertion of energy is too much for you, you’re not going to make it in the arts generally—they all, by and large, demand some form of expenditure from you.

Generating the sentences is one thing, the bigger question (and the one that gets you stuck) is: what to do with the words? Writing for no audience seems tantamount to constructing a house of cards in your room, and then knocking it over without showing it to anyone. You might do that every once in a while, sure. But what if you begin to make a compulsive habit out of it? Two choices remain: either go quietly crazy, alone in your room, or confess to an interest in architecture and channel that energy in a more productive direction.

Processing of words, while less tangible a talent than balancing objects precariously on top of one another, does have some real-world application. You can sell your words for money. Unfortunately verbiage, unlike grain or dairy products, is a poorly subsidized industry, and so the market rates are low, a word being worth, on average, probably 5 – 10 cents. You can break this down further, trying to calculate whether long words or short ones will get you the best cent-to-letter ratio, but, as noted, these sorts of considerations tend to slow down, if not derail, your actual writing process.

Why write? The basic reason is communication: written language is an ancient solution to the human problem of needing to express ourselves in our full complexity. The bigger reason is influence: you get to express your philosophy through what you present and the way you frame it, through the dialogue you enter into with the reader, from the point of view you open to them. The propagandistic powers of writing were discovered early on: it’s no accident that all the major world religions are based on best-selling books, or that political speech writers can charge more than five cents for their words. Even in our globalized, free-for-all internet age, writers routinely go to jail for their dangerous vocabulary combinations. The power to influence- emotions, feelings, thoughts, opinions; to crack a joke from the grave, to make someone weep with a postcard-is what gives words their meaning and force, and this power is equally available to anyone. It’s just a question of stringing the words together in the most convincing order."

Al Burian 7.02.10 [ http://www.alburian.com/ ]

Vermont Book list.

Hi Everyone,

Sugar Plums (all 3 of you). So big news if you don't know already. I will be moving to Vermont in a month for a coffee internship for 3 months. The way I see it, I will be in a beautiful state, learning a SHIT TON about coffee in a way I've never learned before, working under one of my coffee heroes. This all has me thinking, I can't remember the last time I lived in a small town (oh yeah, my home town...that doesn't count!). I want to take advantage of this, and along with possibly taking up yoga (yeah, there's a studio close enough to walk to and that will be another adventure in itself), I want to put myself on a Vermont reading diet (not the right word I know)! Yes, I can finally admit that to people. Not including coffee books, I'm thinking I can finish 10 in that time (they are alluding to me that there will be lots of time to read in this town). SO! What I hope to do is take a couple from my own collection, a couple recommendations from friends and then at least one while in Vermont.

Of course there will be hikes to walk, Montreal to see (never been to Canada), good coffee to drink and drink and drink, good foods to eat! And depending on my funding, possible weekend trips to go to DC and Philly (for reals this time Laura). Wish me luck. And bring on the recommendations.

DC and things

What I'm reading....

Cerebus II (at this rate, I will finish the series in a decade)

Saturday (by the same dude who wrote Atonement)

Brave New World (a classic I've never read and have been living in regret from)

This doesn't include my Believer magazines that have piled up....

I need to squeeze out coffee info from my brain and make room/time for books. I'm also moving soon with a new roommate and I can't wait to read his books.
I can't wait to be in DC, see tons of my hot friends (Caitlin, you are at the top of that list), drink a lot of coffee, and go to my favorite book store, Cap Hill Books.

Henry Miller, XO

"My back is to the wall; I can retreat no further. As far as history goes I am dead. If there is something beyond I shall have to bounce back. I have found God, but he is insufficient. I am only spiritually dead. Physically I am alive. Morally I am free. The world which I have departed is a menagerie. The dawn is breaking on a new world, a jungle world in which the lean spirits roam with sharp claws. If I am a hyena I am a lean and hungry one; I go forth to fatten myself."

Tropic of Cancer

Back in my hole

I just finished Troubled Sleep by Sartre and I'm depressed. I skipped the second book of the trilogy (will probably get to it in the next couple of months). There's a reason why books about war suck.

Graphic novel reading continues! After finishing two volumes of Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and feeling empty (it was ok...it got too comic booky, sorry dude.), I'm committing to Dave Sim's Cerebus. I say commitment because it's suppose to be 300 issues. Stay tuned.

What is next? Lots of coffee reading fo sho (will spare you guys of that)...

Troubled Sleep

"He made his way to the parapet and stood there firing. This was revenge on a big scale; each one of his shots wiped out some ancient scruple. One for Lola, whom I dared not rob, one for Marcelle, whom I ought to have ditched, one for Odette, whom I didn't want to screw. This for the books I never dared to write, this for the journeys I never made, this for everybody in general whom I wanted to hate and tried to understand. He fired, and the tables of the law crushed about him --Thou shall love thy neighbor has thyself--bang! in that bastard's face --Thou shall not kill--bang! at that scarecrow opposite. He was firing on his fellow men, on Virtue, on the whole world; Liberty is Terror. The mairie was ablaze, his head was ablaze; bullets were whining around him, free as the air. The world is going up in smoke, and me with it. He fired; he looked at his watch: fourteen minutes and thirty seconds. Nothing more to ask of fate now except one half-minute, just time enough to fire at that smart officer, at all the Beauty of the Earth, at the street, at the flowers, at the gardens, at everything he had loved. Beauty dived downwards obscenely, and Mathieu went on firing. He fired: he was cleansed, he was all powerful, he was free."

It's been awhile.

Hi there,

I've been feeling kind of crazy lately. Time to change that. If you're like me, reading is kind of a calming agent, and when you're not reading, you get anxious. This past week, I tried to change that (I also have been cutting back on caffeine aka coffee, and so far, life has been treating me better). What did I read? Well, I reread Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway. Unfortunately, this is most people's introduction to the author (it was for me sophomore year in high school). I fell in love, and was compelled to read other works by him, which only got better and better. Man, I didn't remember the story being so sad. Duh, you might say, it's Hemingway, and very true. The contrast of the old man, the boy, the vast ocean and the fish, it broke my heart.

The other is a graphic novel, From Hell by Alan Moore (he also did Watchmen). I didn't know it was a movie, nor that it was a tale spun from the mysteries of Jack the Ripper. There's a reason why Alan Moore is worshiped by many. From Hell is gritty, confrontational, and violent. And like the Watchmen, it builds up to only let you down, until you realize he's giving you a total mind fuck. He's a nerd with a capital n, and my new author crush (next to you Caitlin).

New books!

Look what I got! Untitled is for my brother, though I have to read it before I gift it to him (well, I think it's mostly pictures). House of Leaves, it's all the rage and my friend gave it to me. I will never turn down a free book, and so many people have mentioned that book that I have to read it, though I'm a bit intimidated. If you don't know what I mean by that check it out here . The other two are cook books I bought on sale from Urban Outfitters, the cake one an NPR book (dreams really do come true!!!).

I just finished Eat, Pray, Love. I resisted the book for a long time; to me it belonged in the self help section and who needs that? Definitely not me, I'm so perfect (wah wah). Anyways, it turned out to be a great read once you got passed her annoying self pity, and jealously towards her (she is a writer who gets paid to travel around the world and write about her experiences, that hussy!). Though I can't relate to her heart ache and divorce, I can relate to her restlessness which got me curious about meditation. If the constant moving doesn't solve anything, maybe it's time to stop for a second and figure out why from the inside? I also got this book at a time my interests in Buddhism is creeping up again (I also started Wake Up! by Kerouac which is about Buddhism).

Other book I've started...
Kings of Nonfiction (nonfiction also published by NPR)

American Pastoral continued.

"What are you? Do you know? What you are is you're always trying to smooth everything over. What you are is never telling the truth if you think it's going to hurt somebody's feelings. What you are is you're always compromising. What you are is always complacent. What you are is always trying to find the bright side of things. The one with the manners. The one who abides everything patiently. The one with the ultimate decorum. The boy who never breaks the code. Whatever society dictates, you do. Decorum. Decorum is what you spit in the face of."

That is Jerry tearing a new one to his brother Swede. Never have I loved the word decorum until I read that paragraph. Jerry turned out to be my favorite character in this novel of annoying people trying to live the perfect American life. Though he may be a douche himself, he's honest.

And this book was completely worth finishing (think American Beauty in three parts). I don't want to ruin the ending but it involves a stabbing with a fork.

Nerd alert

One day, I will be able to experience...Thanks Christy for the pictures!

From Caitlin...

i just finished american pastoral. i'm not ready to talk about it yet and i kind of need a hug.

i've been kind of thinking about my top five books for what, months now? i'm not even sure i finished 5 books of 2009 but i'm gonna give it a shot.

the nick adams stories, the compilation of hemingway's semi-autobiographical character. you need to read this, ms han. the only hemingway i'd gotten to was 'the old man and the sea,' so my idea of him was more formed by bar pilar. you read these stories and get the sense hemingway is revealing himself and it's fascinating. many vignettes are barely linked, many are unfinished, which helped me understand the man's process a little bit and gave me a little bit of courage to push on with my own stories.

housekeeping by our girl marilyn robinson. i had to restart it a bunch, and then towards the end all the images came together and the whole experience was overwhelmingly beautiful. i love that it's all about women and the inexorable force of aloneness! everyone in this book comes off as truly alone, and people are only brought together by mutual understanding of that fact. like the antoine st. exupery quote, something about love is not gazing at each other, it's looking outward in the same direction. lookin' out over a lake in fingerbone, waiting for a train.

i picked up Salt by Mark Kurlansky to better understand the foodie brain.... and i found out i pay a lot more attention to world history when there's a common food thread to hold my attention. taken in small doses, (har, har) it was nice to come home from big bear and get my brain off of trying to understand coffee. i did get tired of hearing about fish and caviar towards the end; but i can't get the image of people in poland dancing in underground ballrooms carved entirely out of salt, with statues and religious figures from salt, rowing around the underground lagoons.... miners sliding down 350 foot slides to get to work... it's all pretty fantastic.

i read the first true blood by charlaine harris. it was trashy and i liked it, i'm not proud of myself. an aunt pushed the whole series on me at once and i got into it. you know my thing about bloomingdale's obsession with vampires. i just wanted to fit in.

aaaaaaaand i reread still life with woodpecker, because it is the medium for communicating with my best friend from college. how do you make love stay? it's kind of the only question there is.

Ok, American Pastoral is finally getting better. I made it through part one. Thank God because I was about to give up on it.

Disgrace was AMAZING. I can't remember the last time a book got my attention in the first few pages. This book has so many layers that deal with gender, race, dignity, family relationships and lets not forget the dogs. Yes there are a lot of doggies in this book. This novel was recommended by two people, one of whom I'm not really a fan of but now I hold a little respect for the doooode. I'm not going to go into detail about the book because I believe you must read it if you haven't already. But here is a little about the author and here is a sample of the book thanks to Google books (gotta love the internet).

Disgrace

"He has dinner with his ex-wife Rosalind. They have been apart for eight years; slowly, warily, they are growing to be friends again, of a sort. War veterans. It reassures him that Rosalind still lives nearby: perhaps she feels the same way about him. Someone to count on when the worst arrives: the fall in the bathroom, the blood in the stool."

I give up.

Ok. I made a big decision here. Remember the past posts how I keep talking about a book called Gilead by Marilynne Robinson? And remember how I keep saying how I couldn't finish it? Well I decided to give up and NOT finish it. That's right! I'm not going to finish this book (there is a great article by Nick Hornby he wrote for Believer and is now in a compilation book called Polysyllabic Spree who talks about letting go on this very topic)! Who cares you might ask...well I do. You see, I get very type A, neurotic even with books. If I start it, I HAVE to finish it, even if I don't pick it up for a year or so. I started this book with great expectations...I previously read Housekeeping, another book by her that Caitlin recommended which I fell in love with. But Gilead is boring. Really really boring. It is about an old man dying, a minister so there's a lot of J.C. references and a lot of repetition (just think about all the stories the old people in your family LOVE repeating). He is writing to his young son about life. I only got to page 80 something. Maybe that wasn't fair? My friend gives every book up to page 150 (she almost gave up on Blood Meridian but loved the ending). So should I give myself a page number as well?

"I don't write the way I speak. I'm afraid you would think I didn't know any better. I don't write the way I do for the pulpit, either, insofar as I can help it. That would be ridiculous, in the circumstances."

Maybe this book is too positive for me. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 and P.P.s usually don't let me down. Here is a great review of the book. Let me know if you want my copy, I will mail it to you and maybe you can let me know how it goes.

What is love?

This is the cover of the book I finished last night. Up At The Villa by W. Somerset Maugham (the same author who wrote Of Human Bondage that I raved about). Gotta love the movie covers. And I can see why it would make a good movie (oh, you've never heard of the movie? And no I'm not going to watch the movie). The book reads like a soap opera. The protagonist is a beautiful woman is who is widowed (her marriage was rocky, but she married for love) and finds herself with other marriage proposals. One from a handsome-wealthy-tons-of-status man who has known her throughout her childhood (think Celine Dion) and another who just the opposite, but he still has the money (duh). Well, after a crazy night (not sure if I should tell you guys what happens in case you chose to read/watch), she is left in anguish but chooses to the truth over everything, bring the perfect women that she is. The moral of the story? You can have the most perfect man throwing himself at you, but if you don't love the dude, it doesn't really matter does it? And don't have sex with crazies.

WhyIwantedtocallthisblogDearCaitlinbeforeitwastaken

Still reading this folks?

To Caitlin in an email, subject line: cheesy quote
[“We write because we can’t not write. We want to make music out of our breath; we want to be under the power of an art that toys with us and could destroy us, but which allows us to get a glimpse of what’s real.” -Gary Young]

I took this quote from a Rumpus interview with the author. I send her stuff when it inspires me (well she actually writes). The line about music out of our breath, I effing loved it.

Her reply...
[yeah!

do i start every email with you with assent? yes! i do!

so i read the interview with gary young and got caught up for an hour reading about rimbaud and verlaine on wikipedia. rimbaud's mom was an overbearing troll! she made him smart but miserable, which plays perfectly into the dynamics of this family i'm writing about. thanks for the inspiration.

have you ever read 'someone like you' by roald dahl? i lean on his dark style of adult fiction a lot. i just put a great quote by him in my notebook:

"Parents and schoolteachers are the enemy. The adult is the enemy of the child because of the awful process of civilizing this thing that when it is born is an animal with no manners, no moral sense at all."

here's something you're welcome to get stuck in your head all day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqV5KzbNYIQ]

I've already made notes to the authors she has listed. I don't know what I love more, actually reading books or talking about authors of future books to read...sounds quite sad but it's true.

On a side note, I recently finished Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Not only was it a great read while being funny (he never lets me down) but discussion followed when I found out a few of my friends/coworkers read it too and really enjoyed it. The story is broken down into two parts: first part, more of ramblings in his head and the second part, explaining why with events that happened in his life. Don't expect to like the protagonist, he is a complete douche. Whats even better is that everyone can relate to him and though he created his own isolation in a way, he reminds us that we are all alone in this world (yeah, 'no man is an island' blah blah can go suck it). Next on the list, Chicken Soup for the Stone Hearted Soul by Juliet Han.

please feel free to advise me...

books I've started...
Gilead (Marilynne Robinson), Uncommon Grounds (Mark Pendergrast) & Notes from Underground (Dostoyevsky)

books I am borrowing...
The Reprieve (Satre), The Feminine Mystique (Quindlen), Rain of Gold (Victor Villasenor), & Quicksand and Passing (Nella Larsen)

books to reread...
Old Man & The Sea (Hemingway), Raise High the Roof Beam (Salinger), Tale of Two Cities (Dickens), Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevsky)

books on my mind...
The Lazarus Project (Hemon), House of Leaves(Danielewski), The Idiot (Dostoyevsky), Downtown Owl (Klosterman)

projects that if I had discipline/time/awesomeness would do this year...
read everything of Dostoyevsky
read all Pulitzer Prize authors
read all the books I own (seriously!)

awesome Sunday

And not because of Superbowl. My day off today, I declared that I would have nothing to do with work, volunteer work included. Sometimes you need to. Not to say I haven't been reading all the coffee blogs (I will spare you that topic).

My reading has been sporadic as things got crazy busy starting in 2010. I have been reading Gilread but haven't gotten around to finishing it (will write about that book later). But I can say picking up The Little Prince today was a great idea.

" 'What does "tame" mean?'
'It is something which is too often forgotten,' said the fox. 'It means to establish ties...'
' "To establish ties"?'
'That's right,' said the fox. 'To me, you are still just a little boy like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you have no need of me, either. To you, I am just a fox like a hundred thousand foxes. But if you tame me, we shall need one another. To me, you will be unique. And I shall be unique to you.'

I'm still waiting for Chicago to tame me.

And how could we forget this part...

" 'Now here is my secret. It is very simple. It is only with one's heart that one can see clearly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.' "

Believer Article

Anyone a fan of Believer? If not, you should be. As pricey as it is (for good, quality reasons may I add), it is a wonderful read and some of the articles are online. In the current issue is an interesting article about Las Vegas and suicides.

"We know that people are four times more likely to kill themselves in a city than any other kind of environment.
We also know, however, that rural can be bad.
As are the hours between noon and six.
Or May.
Or winter.
Or if you don't drink coffee your chances of suicide are three times higher than if you did."
-What Happens There written by John D'Agata


I can totally relate to the last sentence. So lets drink to our mental health shall we?

R.I.P. Salinger

My coworker and I were talking about his death, I was sad and she was not. Maybe his popularity gave him the best excuse for what he ultimately wanted. Solitude.

Five Favorite Reads of 2009

My top five reads of 2009 in no particular order...

The Crossing, Cormic McCarthy: I have almost read all of his stuff and although The Road got me weepy, the second work to the border trilogy will remain my favorite. I recommend reading the entire trilogy. No quote from this one because I don't own the book...

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, Carson McCullers: "The most outlandish people can be the stimulus for love...A most mediocre person can be the object of a love which is wild, extravagant, and beautiful as the poison lilies of the swamp. A good man may be the stimulus for a love both violent and debased, or a jabbering madman may bring about in the soul of someone a tender and simple idyll.Therefore, the value and quality of any love is determined solely by the lover himself.
It is for this reason that most of us would rather love than be loved. Almost everyone wants to be the lover. And the curt truth is that, in a deep secret way, the state of being beloved is intolerable to many." This quote was taken from a Mary Gaitskill book (she would have made top 10) and I had to find out who McCullers was. I was not disappointed.

Of Human Bondage, W. Somerset Maugham: "Truth had nothing to do with it. There was no such thing as truth. Each man was his own philosopher, and the elaborate systems which the great men of the past had composed were only valid for the writers.
The thing then was discover what one was and one's system of philosophy would devise itself. It seemed to Philip that there were three things to find out: man's relation to the world to lives in, man's relation with the men among whom he lives, and finally man's relation to himself. He made an elaborate plan of study."
This book was recommended to me from a dear friend/coworker of mine here in Chicago and it took me a while to get into. Think of Jane Eyre through a male's perspective with more academia and no happy love story ending. Us young people can relate to it all, trying to find oneself and make a meaning of this short life, blah blah blah.

Natural Disaster, Al Burian: "There are no words to describe. At around -20 the air itself gets you high--you leave the apartment wrapped in every article of clothing you can possibly find, fully shielded against the windchill, with only eyes exposed to the elements. The moment you walk out of the front door you can feel your body heat shoot out of your eyeballs like twin laser beams, you feel your heart speed up as your temperature drops, the body goes jittery, euphoric shock, and all the extraneous thoughts of phone bills, break-ups, coffee dates, gossip and logistical consideration, all of these escape you as you realize that here you are, in the icy chasm, literally dying on your feet, freezing into a solid block, a blood and brain popsicle, even as your feet scuttle forward, propelling into the darkness along the avenue, sludging through the grimy, car-exhaust colored snow."

This is Mr. Burian describing Chicago winter...I first fell in love with his writing with Burn Collector 1-9. My favorite zine writer, I enjoyed this one as I'm living in a city he was writing about. So far there has only been one day the weather dropped in the negatives but you better believe I will be wearing half my closet when it does happen again (I hear February will be really ugly).


The Complete Stories, Flannery O'Connor: "'The world was made for the dead. Think of all the dead there are," he said and then, as if he had conceived the answer for all insolence, he said, "There's a million times for more dead than living and the dead are dead a million times longer than the living are alive!" and then he released him with a laugh." -You Can't Be Any Poorer Than Dead

Is it fair to claim a complete works as one of my favorites? I had to, she is amazing. And devastating (there is a theme to all my favorites as you can tell, please refrain from cutting your wrists). Yes, her stories end up with the same tragic ending and the same racial tensions, but I couldn't put this collection down. My favorite story has to be The River.

Summer Blonde

There's always guilt when buying graphic novels...they're not cheap nor are they easy to find used. Every once in a while, I drop the dough and this time I had to thanks to the sale section at Quimbys here in Chicago. This caught my eye because I realized I bought a book of postcards (another love of mine NERD!) from the same artist a while back (You want one? Send me your addy. Side note: are you allowed to use 2 side notes in the same sentence? Help Caitlin!). Intrigued and for 8 bucks, it was mine.

This is a collection of 4 stories. Themes: adolescent-like angst, loneliness, awkward situations, sex and drugs. If it sounds like your 2009, please don't feel like you have to read it. I found it hard to have a strong opinion about the work, let alone harder to pick a favorite of the stories. Don't get me wrong, the stories weren't bad, but they were not fantastic either. They all carry a depressing tone (and in one story someone poops their pants after passing out from drinking too much) which I'm all about, but it just left me saying "eh" to most of it.

I'm in So Cal in 2 days and determined to get some reading done (what else do you do in the suburbs besides eating lots of fro yo and In N Out?). Any suggestions?

You interested?

Book: A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties by Suze Rotolo

Ok so I cheated and actually wrote about the first book of the new year for the other blog project I had going (by other blog project, I mean the blog I am suppose to write for and maybe did twice at the most), because the book is music related. Please see here.

Hi friends. Welcome to my blog (ok I kind of cringe at that, just how I cringe for rejoining Facebook). This is going to be grounds for me sharing what I read for anyone who is interested. Are you interested?

This blog (ehh) was originally suppose to be called Dear Caitlin. For those of you who don't know Caitlin, she and I have brain crushes on each other and will talk about books like they are cute boys as if we were in middle school. But guess what?! That name was already taken so I went with a song title by Willie Nelson which Bob Dylan covers beautifully. In the memoir she states it is one of her favorite songs by him...

"To me, this song is the essence of Bob Dylan. It showcases his acerbic wit and his ability to twist multiple meanings around his finger...He was not the person they thought he was. He kept going; he moved on."

Another thought...it would be awesome if everyone who reads to list their top 5 favorite books of 2009. Or favorite authors for that matter. Might help for inspiration on new reading. You still interested? Email me.