Big Orange Book Blog

My Favorite Books. Right Now.

2010-09-14T22:56:00.003-04:00

Okay. I had to drive 10+ hours back to the good ol' North East. Or to be more "accurate" - the Mid-Atlantic region. Doesn't matter....when you drive a good work day plus overtime, you get to thinking. alot. about everything.

Therefore I have compiled a list of my favorite books currently that are a good read on a ten hour journey in case you ever find yourself on one. And you should once...more than once...in your life experience a road trip so phenomenal, that when you reminiscence with your friends, drinking a beer, and sitting on the couch with your head back...you say, "hell yeah. That was legendary." (I have become obsessed with the show 'How I Met Your Mother' and it is awesome. I really need to write about it here...but it's not a book but damnit, its going to be in here. I just gotta figure out how to do it...Everyone should be watching this show.)

Anyways, it needs to include getting lost, walking into a random cornfield, eating in a restaurant named "Restaurant" (and believe you me, they are OUT THERE...haha), stealing a road sign, and sitting on the side of a back road. At least it should include that. I don't know, make your own agenda on what should happen. Then film it and send it to me. That would be cool.

I am way off subject right now so let's get to it, yo. Okay here it is:

1) Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding. Every woman's best friend. I love this character. I think I have read and re-read Bridget Jones at least thirty times. I'm that obsessed. And I think I need a new word or a better vocabulary.

2) The Strain by Chuck Hogan. Scare the daylights outta your friends. It's kinda a long for a ten hour drive but just read them the scary parts. Make sure they don't drive off the road though.

3) The Ultimate Dirty Joke Book. HEY, no judging. We all need some of these jokes when we don't feel like thinking.

4)Fatherhood by Bill Cosby. This book is hilarious.

5)Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook by Anthony Bourdain. I love this guy. He is a witty, no bs writer who describes food like he is in love. And by god, he makes you want to eat things that you never even heard of it but it sounds like the best thing on earth. It will make your mouth water. But not recommended reading right before you eat at 'Restaurant.' You need to be staaaaaaarving before you eat there so your apple pie, greasy cheeseburger, and overly salted fries will be the most delicious things in the world.

Okay, I think that is it right now. Let me know what your list is! I want to read it. Hahaha, I originally wrote, 'let me hear it.' I am tired and I need some sleep. This has been the craziest two weeks of my life.

Tonight, Tonight

2010-09-03T16:54:00.002-04:00

Time is never time at all.
You can never ever leave without leaving a piece of youth.
And our lives are forever changed.
We will never be the same.
The more you change, the less you feel.

Believe, believe in me, believe.
Believe that life can change.
That you're not stuck in vain.
We're not the same, we're different tonight.
Tonight, so bright.
Tonight.

And you know you're never sure.
But you're sure you could be right.
If you held yourself up to the light.
And the embers never fade in your city by the lake.
That place where you were born.

Believe, believe in me, believe.
Believe in the resolute urgency of now.
And if you believe there's not a chance tonight.
Tonight, so bright.
Tonight.

We'll crucify the insincere tonight.
We'll make things right, we'll feel it all tonight.
We'll find a way to offer up the night tonight.
The indescribable moments of your life tonight.
The impossible is possible tonight.
Believe in me as I believe in you, tonight.

Thank you.

September 1, 1939

2010-09-01T09:47:00.006-04:00

September 1, 1939 by W.H. Auden

I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odor of death
Offends the September night.

Towards the end of the poem (its really long but worth reading and savoring), he writes "We must love one another or die." Auden wrote that poem at the start of World War II.

September is one of my favorite months:

1. Falltumn is officially here. I was so excited about saying 'fall' and 'autumn' that I combined it. Maybe it will become a trend like 'bro' or 'fist pump.'

2. Back to school supplies. Nothing better than immersing yourself within the shelves of Staples. All those fancy planners, papers, binders, pens, pen holders, organizational cubes. Gah, I love it. I don't have anything remotely cool like that myself and that's because I don't own a desk. One day....I will become known as the woman who loves the Staples store. Maybe I will become their mascot.

3. MY BIRTHDAY. That is right. At 2:32pm, a lazy afternoon (hahaha I bet my mom didn't feel that it was lazy), I was born on September 10... my mom said I was on that little table that nurses put you on, wailing and my dad looked at me and said "oh, don't cry little girl." I stopped crying, stuck my middle two fingers in my mouth, and started sucking on them, staring. AH. Good memory. Good day.

4. Football. I can't help it. The energy, the community, the competition, the GAME. Cheering, drinking, eating, the heartache you feel when you know your team can do better, the faith you have when you say "it's alright, it will get better next weekend," and the immense "holy shit" followed by screaming, shouting, dancing, when your team wins. Plus the halftime shows are amazing. I love watching the bands...and cheerleaders, spirit squad, what have you. I like doing the chants with the band. I like college football as you probably can tell.

5. Books. Hah, of course books. AND MOVIES. I'll post more later.

Eat Pray Love

2010-08-03T10:43:00.006-04:00

The time has come to eat absurd amounts of delicious food in Italy, meditate with monks in India, and then dance and fall in love in Bali.
Or, you can be like the rest of normal society, and just read about these adventures in Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love. And then watch the movie to compare it to the book. I admit I got through India and then lost interest in Bali. That might be because I was nursing my own heartbreak and had no desire to read about falling in love again so I just stopped at the meditation part.

Maybe the movie will be good. ENJOY.

I also want to add that it has taken me over like a year and a halfish to FINALLY figure out how to embed videos to the correct viewing size on this blog. HTML and I really are not the best of friends.

You Say It's Your Birthday....ERNEST HEMINGWAY

2010-07-21T10:40:00.005-04:00

"It's the birthday of Ernest Hemingway, born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1899. He was just 22 when he moved to Paris with his wife, Hadley, having taken a job as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Daily Star. Even though he was making decent money, he liked the idea of living like a bohemian, so they moved into an apartment in the Latin Quarter, in a neighborhood full of drunks, beggars, and street musicians. Rent was 250 francs a month, or about $18, which left them plenty of money to travel around Europe when they wanted to.

He rented himself a room in a hotel, and every morning, after breakfast, he would walk to his writing room and work. He said: "I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, 'Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.'" One of those sentences read, "I have stood on the crowded back platform of a seven o'clock...bus as it lurched along the wet lamp lit street while men who were going home to supper never looked up from their newspapers as we passed Notre Dame grey and dripping in the rain."

WRITER'S ALMANAC.

I Write Like...

2010-07-19T15:45:00.003-04:00

I write like
H. P. Lovecraft

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I found a website linked through the New York Times that "analyzes" your works of writing...such as blogs, journals, anything except for that dang Twitter (because 150 characters are too short to analyze). Anyways, I plugged in my little review for Sh*t My Dad Says and viola! I write like H.P. Lovecraft!

This would be more exciting if I read any of his works.

I did wikipedia him and he writes "weird fiction," a subgenre that is quasi science fiction, quasi supernatural, quasi horror. "Lovecraft's guiding literary principle was what he termed 'cosmicism' or 'cosmic horror,' the idea that life is incomprehensible to human minds and that the universe is fundamentally alien."

I have written nothing that comes close to this type of genre in my life (okay, I am lying...in seventh grade, I elaborated on an Archie comic book story and turned it into science fiction...something about aliens landing and being nice. I don't remember. I was 13, geez).

But I better start. I don't want to disappoint those at the I Write Like...site.

http://iwl.me/

Hey All You Mystery/Horror Fans

2010-07-16T13:50:00.008-04:00

NPR wants your opinion, book readers...they want you to vote in the Top 100 'Killer Thriller' best ever poll, so no pressure in voting for the best.

You get TEN votes...so read through the list and check your favorite. I haven't read too much in the thriller genre so I'm not going to vote. But you should. And then get yourself something to drink. And read a book. Go a pub, drink and read a book.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1008

Sh*t My Dad Says

2010-07-15T11:01:00.005-04:00

Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern is seriously one of the funniest books I have read in a while. Shannon, one of my co-workers (who now works at Yellowstone for a summer...I know, don't we all wish we could be her right now?) can attest to the fact that I was literally laughing out loud to myself reading it. I made her listen to about half the book, reading out loud all of the parts that I thought were hilarious. I would have read her the entire thing but she kept eye-rolling at me every time I said, "Wait! Wait! You have to at least hear this part!"

Sh*t My Dad Says is a hilarious and surprisingly sweet memoir about growing up with his dad, Sam Halpern. He is an extremely honest man who throws around expletives like its job but he is also very loyal to his family, providing "nuggets" of wisdom to his sons as they grow up. It will make you laugh out loud and it will make you sign up for a Twitter account only to read more sh*t his dad says.

Book blurbists are much better at writing synopsises than myself, so here it is:

"After being dumped by his longtime girlfriend, twenty-eight-year-old Justin Halpern found himself living at home with his seventy-three-year-old dad. Sam Halpern, who is like "Socrates, but angrier, and with worse hair," has never minced words, and when Justin moved back home, he began to record all the ridiculous things his dad said to him. More than a million people now follow Mr. Halpern's philosophical musings on Twitter, and in this book, his son weaves a brilliantly funny, touching coming-of-age memoir around the best of his quotes. An all-American story that unfolds on the Little League field, in Denny's, during excruciating family road trips, and most frequently, in the Halperns' kitchen over bowls of Grape-Nuts, Sh*t My Dad Says is a chaotic, hilarious, true portrait of a father-son relationship from a major new comic voice."

Word 'round the streets...or actually, IMDB, is that this is included in the CBS fall lineup with William Shatner playing Sam Halpern. Not sure how that is going to work out because of the absurd amount of expletives in his dad's sayings, but good luck to them.

http://twitter.com/Shitmydadsays

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

2010-07-14T10:49:00.008-04:00

Here is the trailer for Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.

And you can create your own avatar to get yourself psyched for this movie.

http://http//www.scottpilgrimthemovie.com/avatarCreator/

Hymn to the Comb-Over

2010-07-14T10:04:00.004-04:00

I think this poem is pretty funny.

Hymn to the Comb-Over

by Wesley McNair

How the thickest of them erupt just

above the ear, cresting in waves so stiff

no wind can move them. Let us praise them

in all of their varieties, some skinny

as bands of headphones, some rising

from a part that extends halfway around

the head, other four or five strings

stretched so taut the scalp resembles

a musical instrument. Let us praise the sprays

that hold them, and the combs that coax

such abundance to the front of the head

in the mirror, the combers entirely forget

the back. And let us celebrate the combers,

who address the old sorrow of time's passing

day after day, bringing out the barrenness

of mid-life this ridiculous and wonderful

harvest, no wishful flag of hope, but, thick,

or thin, the flag itself, unfurled for us all

in subways, offices, and malls across America.

We all know someone with an excellent comb-over.

Brought to you by The Writer's Almanac. Great people over there.

Happy Birthday David McCullough

2010-07-07T15:36:00.004-04:00

"It's the birthday of writer David McCullough- three-time presidential biographer, the winner of two National Book Awards and two Pulitzer Prizes, and one of the best-selling historians of all time -born in Pittsburgh in 1933. As a kid, he learned about presidential politics early and often and in raised voices. He said: "My father was totally against FDR. My mother thought FDR could do no wrong. They were both quite hard of hearing...the decibel level at our dining room was high."

He wanted to be a painter. But when he got to Yale in the 1950s, John O'Hara, John Hersey, Brendan Gill, and Thornton Wilder were there on campus, and he decided to major in English instead. He worked in journalism for a decade. Then, in 1968, he published his first book, The Johnstown Flood, inspired first by seeing some photographs at the Library of Congress. The photos depicted the disaster- which happened close to his hometown- so differently than he'd learned about in school. He then wrote a book on the Panama Canal, which President Jimmy Carter used as a key reference book in negotiating the Panama Canal treaties.

Then McCullough wrote three biographies about U.S. presidents. The first, about Teddy Roosevelt-called Mornings on Horseback (1981)- won the National Book Award. The second, on Harry Truman, took him 10 years to research and write. Truman (1993) on the Pulitzer Prize.

The third presidential biography he wrote as about John Adams. There were no interviews or photographs around to help him with his research, but he read all of Adams' diaries and the letters between John Adams and his wife, Abigail, more than a thousand of them.

McCullough wanted to try to get inside the head of John Adams, not just to read what Adams wrote, but also to read what Adams read for pleasure in the 18th century. He read classics in English, stuff by Swift and Defoe and Samuel Johnson and Smollett and Pope. He said reading these books allowed him to "marinate" his head in John Adams' thoughts and vocabulary.

When John Adams was published in 2001, it became one of the fastest-selling nonfiction books in history. McCullough won another Pulitzer Prize for it. His most recent book, 1776 (published in 2005), was a huge best-seller.

David McCullough, who said: "You can make the argument that there's no such as the past. Nobody lived in the past. They lived in the present. It is their present, not our present, and they don't know how it's going to come out. They weren't just like we are because they lived in that very different time. You can't understand them if you don't understand how they perceived reality.

And, "Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard."

BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE WRITER'S ALMANAC.

P.S.- GO GERMANY!!!

WORLD CUP

2010-06-22T15:49:00.004-04:00

I am very much into the WORLD CUP 2010. If you are a fan, check out some book reviews, specifically about soccer...or football as the rest of the world calls it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/18/AR2010061802808.html

BLOOMSDAY

2010-06-16T10:54:00.002-04:00

"Today is Bloomsday and James Joyce fans all over the world are celebrating. It commemorates the day on which the events of his novel Ulysses takes place. Joyce chose June 16th, 1904, for the setting because it was the day of his first date with Nora Barnacle, his future wife. They'd met each other randomly on Nassau Street in Dublin on June 10th, chatted a bit, and agreed to meet up later. But she stood him up on their first would-be date of June 14th. On the 15th, the 22-year-old James Joyce sent a note to her that read:

I may be blind. I looked for a long time at a head of reddish-brown hair and decided it was not yours. I went home quite dejected. I would like to make an appointment but it might not suit you. I hope you will be kind enough to make one with me--if you have not forgotten me!

They successfully met up the following day, June 16th. They went for an evening stroll around the south bank of the Liffey River in Dublin. And Joyce later chose this day for the setting of Ulysses.

Even after the novel's success, Joyce himself did not call June 16th "Bloomsday." Nor did he really celebrate the day, though publisher Sylvia Beach organized a celebratory Parisian luncheon on June 16th, 1929--years before the book was legal in the English-speaking world.

The first modern celebration of Bloomsday was in 1954, the 50th anniversary of the fictional events in Joyce's book, and about three decades after Joyce published his novel in 1922. Irish writers Flann O'Brien and Patrick Kavanagh got together with critic John Ryan and a dentist cousin of James Joyce, named Tom Joyce, to make daylong pilgrimage around Dublin. They were have stops at the Martello Tower (the opening scene of the novel), Davy Byrne's Pub (where Bloom eats a gorgonzola cheese sandwich) and 7 Eccles Street (where Bloom and his wife, Molly, lived). They role played, acted out the dialogue, and rode in horse-drawn carriages like those described in the scene of Paddy Dignam's funeral. Thy were supposed to end up in the red-light section of Dublin, where the 15th chapter of Ulysses "Nighttown" is set, but the literary pilgrims got a bit drunk and distracted at a pub about halfway through the route and lost their ambition to finish it.

There are big Bloomsday celebrations today in Paris, Toronto, Seattle, Sydney, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, Oslo, Trieste, Minneapolis, Melbourne, Genoa, and Pittsburgh. In Philadelphia, there are readings- seven hours' worth- on the steps of the Rosenbach Library, where the original manuscript of James Joyce's Ulysses resides.

This past weekend in New York, there was the inaugural Bloomsday in Brooklyn event, a pub crawl with actors reading passages from Ulysses at six different pubs in Park Slope. Today in New York, there's Bloomsday on Broadway, staged readings of Ulysses at Symphony Space. The celebration in Dublin is, of course, the biggest in the world. This year, the festivities have been going on for four days already--since last Saturday.

Dubliners sometimes call the whole thing "The Feast of Saint Jam Juice."

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org

Yesterday's Birthday.

2010-06-15T11:34:00.002-04:00

"It's the birthday of a man whose image has become one of the most popular cultural icons- and counterculture icons- of the past half century: Che Guevara, born Ernesto Guevara de la Serna 82 years ago in Rosario, Argentina (1928), to parents of Irish and Spanish descent. His family was affluent and believed strongly in socialist ideals. He swam competitively, played rugby, and learned to speak French fluently before heading off to medical school. At 23, he took a year off from medical school and set out on a motorcycle ride with a friend of his. For nine months, he traveled around, traversing 8,000 miles by motorcycle, steamship, horseback, hitchhiking, river raft, and cargo plane. The journey became the basis for his New York Times best-selling book The Motorcycle Diaries.

He finished medical school, traveled to Guatemala to promote his ideas of land reform and peasant revolt, and went on to Mexico, where he became friends with Raul Castro. Raul decided that Che had a lot of ideas in common with his older brother Fidel Castro, who was living in exile in Mexico after leading a failed uprising in Cuba. In 1955, Che and Fidel had a series of meetings in a house in Mexico City in which they planned to invade Cuba and overthrow the corrupt Batista regime. They gathered other Cuban exiles into their ranks, and Fidel put Che in charge of training the soldiers for combat.

Guerrilla fighters set out from Mexico on a wobbly old yacht, called the Granma, and landed on Cuba's east coast, where they began inciting revolt. In late December 1958, Che led a crucial victory in the town of Santa Clara, boarding and overtaking a railroad train full of Batista's soldiers and weapons. And a few days later, on January 1, 1959, Batista fled the country and Fidel Castro marched victoriously into Havana, where he began setting up the new revolutionary government- the one that still rules Cuba today. Che held various internal ministry posts in the new government, including director of the national bank. He also oversaw the execution of war criminals, and he served as the ambassador to a number of nations around the world. It was Che Guevara who orchestrated the close ties between revolutionary Cuba and the Soviet Union. He set up massive trade agreements in one deal, the USSR would buy 3 million tons of sugar from Cuba--and arranged for the Soviets to provide military support if Cuba should be threatened by hostile neighbors.

It was around this time, in 1960, that Cuban photographer Alberto Korda snapped that famous photo of Che Guevara, at a funeral for victims of a ship explosion. It's the image that's on millions of tee shirts, posters, key chains, coffee mugs, hats, and other items. Korda declined royalties for the photo when it became famous in 1967, and he objected when British advertisers later tried to use the image to sell vodka. Che's four children by his second wife, all of whom still live and work in Cuba, likewise to not receive royalties, but have asked New York lawyers for help in stopping a fashion designer from their dad's face on bikinis.

Che was captured in Bolivia in October 1967, while trailing guerrilla fighters for an uprising. He was executed at a schoolhouse the next day. His famous last words: "Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man." He was 39."

Courtesy of The Writer's Almanac.

Barbara Kingsolver Wins Orange Prize for Women

2010-06-09T16:52:00.003-04:00

Congrats to Barbara Kingsolver for her achievement with The Lacuna, which resulted in her winning the Orange Prize for Fiction today! The Lacuna was among a shortlist of books by six writers that includes Booker Prize winner Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.

"Daisy Goodwin, chair of the judges, praised The Lacuna's "breathtaking scale and shattering moments of poignancy.

"It wasn't a unanimous decision in the sense that we all said this was the winner, but I think it was fashionably consensual in that we all listened to each others' point of view," she told Reuters.

"We decided to go for the book which aroused the most passion in the most people rather than settle for everyone's second choice."

"The Independent newspaper's reviewer said The Lacuna was "the first book in a long that made me swap my bike for public transport, just so I could keep reading."

"The story centers around Harrison Shepherd, who follows his mother from household to household as she chases rich Mexican men and who comes into contact with real historical figures like the artist Frida Kahlo and Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky.

"The narrative crosses between Mexico and the United States and comes to the reader in the form of memoirs, letters and press cuttings kept by Shepherd's stenographer despite his wish that they be burned."

"Through darkening years, political winds continue to toss him between north and south in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach--the lacuna--between truth and public presumption," the U.S. publisher's precis reads."

"Kingsolver was one of three U.S. authors nominated for the annual prize, which comes with a check for $44,000. The other two were Attica Locke (Black Water Rising) and Lorrie Moore (A Gate at the Stairs), who were joined by Britons Mantel and Rosie Alison (The Very Thought of You) as well as Monique Roffey, of British and Trinidadian descent, with The White Woman on the Green Bicycle."

"The prize, in its 15th year, honors the best novel of the year written in English by a woman. Previous winners include Marilynne Robinson for Home (2009), Rose Tremain for "The Road Home (2008) and Zadie Smith for On Beauty (2006)."

"The Orange Prize has been criticized for honoring only women, but many figures in the publishing world defend the idea. "It is widely recognized that women are far more willing to read books by both sexes than men, leaving too many talented female authors under-appreciated," said Jonathan Ruppin of Foyles bookshop, commenting on the prize."

"The Orange Prize really does help address the likelihood that there are quite a number of female writers, especially in Britain, who would be considered amongst the first rank of contemporary authors if they were men."

"Goodwin said the main aim of any literary award was to help sell books, and that Alison's novel, which hardly had any media coverage before the shortlist was announced, "has now sold around 50,000 copies, and that's great."

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65851Z20100609

Mountains Beyond Mountains

2010-06-08T12:36:00.013-04:00

Freshman Orientation....scores of upcoming freshman and their parents/aunts/uncles/twice-removed cousins are learning and exploring our UT campus this week.

The only thing I remember about my orientation is that I became friends with a girl in my group named Stephanie and we paired up for the two day festivities. My parents also met their respective 'parent pair' as well and were very encouraging in me meeting their new friends' daughter. Lo and behold, it was Stephanie's parents. After our exchanges of phone numbers and "see you in August," the next time I saw Stephanie, for our move in day, we discovered we were next door neighbors in Hess Hall, 3rd floor. We each did our own thing eventually...and I have no idea where Stephanie is now but you never know who you will meet in your orientation. Make the most out of orientation, it really is helpful. I promise.

ANYWAYS. FRESHMAN READING.....LIFE OF THE MIND SERIES.

So far, the Life of the Mind Program (started in 2003 a year after me, so I had no summer reading....HAH), has put out some great reads in previous years such as:

The Colo r of Water by James McBride (2003)

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (2004)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Hadden (2005)

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami (2006)

In the Wake of the Plague by Norman Cantor (2007)

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah (2008) *I highly recommend this book*

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (2009) *I highly recommend this book*

AND this year is no different!

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracey Kidder

REVIEWS:

"Mountains Beyond Mountains is inspiring, disturbing, daring and completely absorbing. It will rattle our complacency; it will prick our conscience."- The New York Times

"[A] masterpiece...an astonishing book that will leave you questioning your own life and political views... Kidder opens a window into Farmer's soul, letting the reader peek in and see what truly makes the good doctor tick." - Nicholas Thomas, USAToday

"Mountains Beyond Mountains unfolds with the force of gathering revelation. Like all of Tracy Kidder's books, it is as hard to put down as any good and true story."- Annie Dillard

Read an excerpt from Chapter 1 of Kidder's book on the NPR website.

Also. Click on any of the titles to learn more about each book.

If You Liked My Book, You Will Love These....

2010-06-01T09:38:00.003-04:00

I saw this link on my newsfeed on Facebook; this is brought to you by the New York Magazine.

"Six writers on their favorite reading, genre by genre"

"Beach reads don't have to be new best sellers or formulaic romances. in fact, summer is the perfect time to dig deep into books, classic and otherwise, you've missed. We asked exemplary authors in particular fields to recommend the books that matter most to them- the ones they keep going back to and, in many cases, that made them want to write. Their literary mix tapes, of a sort."

I love the phrase "literary mix tapes." What you would put on a literary mix tape if someone asked you to write one out?

PS. Just click on the picture and it will direct you to the article...

Top 5 Campus Best Sellers (Last Month)

2010-05-27T11:06:00.013-04:00

I assume by last month, I am referring to April...so let's get on with it...eh?

April's Top 5 Campus Best Sellers:

Food Rules by Michael Pollan

"Pollan makes the best list again! This time with Food Rules. A must have for anyone who enjoys eating delicious food. This book consists of sixty-four food rules and a short explanation. He writes that he is still collecting food rules and if you, dear reader, have any that you would like to share, send them to pollanfoodrules@gmail.com. I personally would like to see some food rules on my five favorite food groups of all time: Cheese, Bread, Chocolate, Beer, and Potatoes. 'Nuff said."

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

"Movies always generate interest in the original story and this is no exception. The Lightning Thief, first written in 2005, is the first in the series about Percy Jackson and his friends. If you have younger siblings, (or in mine and Heather's case, oodles of nieces and nephews) we highly recommend this book. Greek Mythology has never been more entertaining. And on a side note: we need to devote more time to the word *oodles.* 'Nuff said."

13 Bankers by Simon Johnson and James Kwak.
(Is that pronounced like "quack?" Mull over that!) Anyways, The authors examine not only how Wall Street's ideology, wealth, and political power among policy makers in Washington led to the financial debacle of 2008, but also what the lessons learned portend to for the future. 'Nuff said."

The Bone Thief by Jefferson Bass

"No Suprise here- Dr. Bass and Jon Jefferson have another hit with The Bone Thief. For those of you who are new to UT or have been living under the proverbial rock, Dr. Bass is the founder of the Body Farm, which is located here on UT Knoxville campus. 'Nuff said."

Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith

"Interesting how one author has a fun, quirky idea, sells millions of copies, and suddenly everyone jumps on the bandwagon...BUT sometimes it works. Like Dawn of the Dreadfuls works and was a hot seller last month. Winess the genesis of the zombie plague in early 19th-century England in this terrifying and hilarious prequel to the bestselling Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Watch as Elizabeth Bennet evolves from a naive young teenager into a savage slayer of the undead. 'Nuff said."

Southern Fried Poetry Slam 2010

2010-05-26T16:31:00.007-04:00

GUYS! Here is your chance to experience Poetry Slam and support our locals, especially CALVIN!

I have been lucky enough to see some of these guys perform and let me tell you, they are amazing.

It is four days: June 2nd- June 5th and the preliminary rounds are at The Emporium Center for Arts and Culture in downtown Knoxville.

http://www.southernfried2010.com/

Theodore Boone- Kid Lawyer by John Grisham

2010-05-26T16:21:00.003-04:00

Check out John Grisham's interview about his new young adult novel, Theodore Boone- Kid Lawyer

Word 'round the streets is that this book is supposed to be huge.

LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST....oh wait, hold the phone...LOST

2010-05-21T15:14:00.002-04:00

http://lost.wikia.com/wiki/Literature

Here is a list of books and references compiled from wikipedia....LOST is so amazing that it has its own separate wikipedia site dedicated to it.

Promise To Update DAILY...PROMISE

2010-05-21T13:02:00.005-04:00

I apologize for being so M.I.A. lately.

This is what has been happening since April 27th:

*End of Semester Chaos...aka Textbook Buy Back
*Switching over to Summer Session classes
*Greeting Card Inventory
*LOST (Series Finale May 23rd. Event of the Decade. Believe me.)
*Reading, Reading, Reading:

*Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith (A review coming verrry soon: GREAT read though)

*The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows (One of the BEST READS I've come across...okay, well Heather came across it but she convinced me it is wonderful)

*Unfortunately, I started reading a young adult book and for the life of me, CANNOT remember the name of it. BUT...also unfortunately, the book is poorly written and has no build up. The first couple of chapters are confusing because it jumps right into a muddled plot with no introductions to characters, situations, etc. IMO. Just not my favorite kind of genre. I know I am being really vague right now, but I will write more about this mysterious 'not-for-me' novel later when I figure out the title.

My Father's Corpse

2010-04-27T09:34:00.003-04:00

My Father's Corpse

by Andrew Hudgins

He lay stone still, pretended to be dead.

My brothers and I, tiny, swarmed over him

like puppies. He wouldn't move. We tickled him

tracing our fingers up and down his huge

misshapen feet- then armpits, belly, face.

He wouldn't move. We pushed small fingers up

inside his nostrils, wiggled them, and giggled.

He wouldn't move. We peeled his eyelids back,

staed into those motionless, blurred circles. Still,

he wouldn't, didn't move. Then we, alarmed,

poked, prodded his great body urgently.

Daddy, are you okay? Are you okay?

He didn't move. I reared back, gathered speed,

and slammed my forehead on his face. He rose,

he rose up roaring, scattered us from his body

and, as he raged, we sprawled at his feet- thrilled

to have the resurrected bastard back.

Heather Hearts Russian Novelists

2010-04-23T14:01:00.002-04:00

"It's the birthday of novelist Vladimir Nabokov, born in St. Petersburg, Russia (1899). He said he grew up "a perfectly normal trilingual child in a family with a large library." He learned to read and write English before he did his native Russian.

When the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia, Nabokov's family was forced to flee. They escaped to Germany but had to leave behind their fortune. Nabokov's father was assassinated at a political rally in Berlin the same year that Nabokov went off to Cambridge to study French and Russian Literature. After graduating, he returned to Germany, where most of his family remained, and he earned a living by giving language and tennis lessons, teaching boxing, and creating crossword puzzles and chess problems.

At night, he wrote. He was an insomniac, and he often sat and wrote in the bathroom so that the light wouldn't bother the slumbering members of his family. He wrote his first nine novels in Russian, much of them in his manner, as well as dozens of short stories and plays.

He was invited to give a lecture on Slavic languages at Stanford University in 1939, and he decided to stay, formally immigrating and becoming a U.S. citizen. And he started writing books in English, including the one for which he is most famous, Lolita (1955).

Lolita was rejected by four publishers on the grounds of lewdness before G.P. Putnam put it out. Some leading national newspapers refused to review it, and the New York Times review said the book was "highbrow pornography." Many public libraries banned the book.

But despite mixed review and moral denunciations (or perhaps because of these), the book sold remarkably well. It soon came to be regarded as a classic work of literature. The royalties from the book- as well as the $150,000 Hollywood film rights- allowed Nabokov to quit teaching and devote his time fully to writing. He moved back to Europe and into a hotel in Switzerland on the shore of Lake Geneva, where he spent the last 20 years of his life with Vera, who faithfully typed out his manuscripts and played Scrabble and chess with him."

Once again: this is from the lovely people of The Writer's Almanac.

Were I Like Thee I'd Throw Away Myself

2010-04-23T13:48:00.003-04:00

Insult your friends, and maybe some enemies, with the ultimate zinger: Shakespearean Insulter. You will appear intelligent as well as an expert in the middle English language when you shout phrases like:

"Thou crusty botch of nature!" Troilus and Cressida

"[Thou art] a flesh monger, a fool, and a coward." Measure for Measure

"[Thou art] a disease that must be cut away." Coriolanus

Go to this site: http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/index.html, copy down some taunts, and save them for a rainy day!

"Thou art some fool, I am loath to beat thee!"

For All You Shakespeare Fans....

2010-04-23T12:02:00.005-04:00

"It's the birthday of William Shakespeare, born in 1564. He wrote more than 30 plays, including A Midsummer Night's Dream (c. 1594), Romeo and Juliet (c. 1595), Twelfth Night (c. 1600), Hamlet (c. 1601), Othello (c. 1604), King Lear (c. 1605), Macbeth (c. 1605), and The Tempest (c. 1611).

Only a few scattered facts are known about his life. He was born and raised in the picturesque market town of Stratford-on Avon, surrounded by woodlands. His father was a glover and a leather merchant; he and his wife had eight children, including William, but two of them died at birth and another at age seven. William probably left grammar school when he was 13 years old, but continued to study on his own. When he was 18, he married Anne Hathaway, who was already several months pregnant. Within two years, he was the father of three children. He went to London around 1588 to pursue his career in drama, and by 1592 he was a well-known actor.

Shakespeare joined the acting troupe the Lord Chamberlain's Men in 1594, and he wrote many plays for the group while continuing to act. The group performed often for Queen Elizabeth, and in 1598 Shakespeare helped to buy the Globe Theater just south of London, which became the group's new home. They built the Globe from the timber of their old theater, wood that they transported across town on a summer's night.

Shakespeare was very populate late in life, becoming one of the first playwrights to sell editions of his plays to the public. He went into semi-retirement in 1611, after finished The Tempest, and returned to Stratford to be with his family. He died on his birthday five years later."

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

The Golden Shovel

2010-04-20T09:37:00.003-04:00

The Golden Shovel

I. 1981

When I am so small Da's sock covers my arm, we
cruise at twilight until we find the place the real

men lean, bloodshot and translucent with cool.
His smile is a gold-plated incantation as we

drift by women on bar stools, with nothing left
in them but approachlessness. This is a school

I do not know yet. But the cue sticks mean we
are rubbed by light, smooth as wood, the lurk

of smoke thinned to song. We won't be out late.
Standing in the middle of the street last night we

watched the moonlit lawns and a neighbor strike
his son in the face. A shadow knocked straight.

Da promised to leave me everything: the shovel we
used to bury the dog, the words he loved to sing,

his rusted pistol, his squeaky Bible, his sin.
The boy's sneakers were light on the road. We

watched him run to us looking wounded and thin.
He'd been caught lying or drinking his father's gin.

He'd been defending his ma, trying to be a man. We
stood in the road, and my father talked about jazz,

how sometimes a tune is born of outrage. By June
the boy would be locked upstate. That night we

got down on our knees in my room. If I should die
before I wake, Da said to me, it will be too soon.

II. 1991

Into the tented city we go, we-
akened by the fire's ethereal

afterglow. Born lost and cool-
er than heartache. What we

know is what we know. The left
hand severed and school-

ed by cleverness. A plate of we-
ekdays cooking. The hour lurk-

in the afterglow. A late-
night chant. Into the city we

go. Close your eyes and strike
a blow. Light can be straight-

ened by its shadow. What we
break is what we hold. A sing-

ular blue note. An outcry sin-
ged exiting the throat. We

push until we thin, thin-
king we won't creep back again.

While God licks his kin, we
sing until our blood is jazz,

we sting from June to June.
We sweat to keep from we-

eping. Groomed on a die-
t of hunger, we end too soon.

Terrance Hayes

Book Number TEN

2010-04-20T09:27:00.007-04:00

Here is the end of your suspense. The top tenth? banned book of 2009 is "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier!

Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group. (Nudity in a paperback? Really?)

Once again, here is the link: http://www.buzzfeed.com/vinylroad/top-10-parent-challenged-books-in-2009-r2c/

NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK

2010-04-15T14:41:00.006-04:00

Holy cow. Completely forgot it was National Library Week! You have two more days to celebrate it, woohoo! Neil Gaiman is the spokesperson this year and he has a lengthy interview which I can't post here because I would have to type it all out BUT I will post the link.

Growing up, I loved my library. It used to be a police station in the early 1900's but they converted it into a library around the 80's. I think. Actually, I am making the part up about it converting into the 80's. I have no idea when it turned into a library....hah, nonetheless, when I was about ten, they built a brand new library and it was lovely. With lots of books and magazines and I pretty much spent many of my summer days reading there. I would definitely be categorized as a nerdy bookworm in my pre-adolescent years.

Here is a preview for the interview with Mr. Gaiman:

haha "by Kate" :

Neil Gaiman has long been on record as a fan of libraries, sometimes even calling himself a "feral child" raised by librarians among the stacks. So it should come as no suprise that the American Library Association chose Gaiman to be the Honorary Chair of this year's National Library Week. As both a librarian and a fan of Gaiman, I was thrilled to be able to interview him about National Library Week and what libraries have meant to him.

Read the rest of the interview HERE!

Celebrate your Local Library!

Top 10 Most-Complained-About Books in 2009

2010-04-15T10:35:00.016-04:00

The ALA aka American Library Association has released their list of the books most challenged by parents 2009.

"Apparently parents still think that 1) their kids don't watch television; 2) their kids actually use libraries; and 3) their kids can READ. Of course Twilight makes the list, but surprisingly not because of the attrocious writing."

1. ttyl, ttfn, l8r, g8r (series) by Lauren Myracle

Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs. (Let's pretend for a second that parents actually understand ANY of the acronyms or abbreviations in this thing.)

2. "And Tango Makes Three" by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson

Reasons: Homosexuality. (Fear the homosexual penguins, for they are here for your children.)

3.) "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," by Stephen Chbosky

Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Anti-Family, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs. Suicide.

4. "To Kill a Mockingbird," by Harper Lee

Reasons: Racism, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group. (Unless your kids don't watch the news or, I don't know, INTERACT WITH ANY OTHER HUMAN BEINGS, they've heard/seen worse on the best days.)

5. Twilight (series) by Stephenie Meyer

Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group.

(This book should be burned in the fiery pits of hell, but because of the atrocious writing, not because the characters wait until getting married before bumping uglies.)

6. "The Catcher in the Rye," by J.D. Salinger

Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group.

7. "My Sister's Keeper," by Jodi Picoult

Reasons: Sexism, Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide, Violence

8. "The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things," by Carolyn Mackler

Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group.

9. "The Color Purple," by Alice Walker

Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group.

I posted this from BUZZFEED. I have read most of these novels and To Kill a Mockingbird and The Perks of Being a Wallflower are two of my all time favorite books. Ignore these book bans...except for Twilight, because these novels are pretty exceptional.

PS- I know it's a Top Ten list. If you are wondering..."maybe she doesn't know how to count to ten..." I promise I do. Me and Blogging just aren't seeing eye to eye today and I'm giving it a break. Besides, some suspensefulness is exciting sometimes. I will post book number 10 in a little bit.

Line Breaking, Blogging, HTML-ing, all of it is enough to drive a person to drink. I'll have two pints please.

69

2010-04-13T09:17:00.008-04:00

by Philip Schultz

This morning I'm tired of the same newspapers and arguments.

I'm tired of sticking the same legs into the same pants,

the same hands poking out of the same sleeves, going west

and then east, heating up the same tea, watching the same sun

rise over the same horizon, the same trees shedding the same leaves.

Tired of climbing the same stairs to look out the same window

at the same street, tired of shaking the same hands, opening and

closing the same doors, dreaming the same dreams, saying hello

good morning happy birthday I'm so sorry please forgive me.

69" by Philip Schultz, from The God of Loneliness: Selected and New Poems.

Barbara Kingsolver

2010-04-09T09:59:00.002-04:00

This in from THE WRITER'S ALMANAC...yesterday:

"It's the birthday (April 8th) of novelist Barbara Kingsolver, born in Annapolis, Maryland in 1955. She grew up in a house in an alfalfa field in rural Kentucky, where her dad was the county doctor. When she was seven, her father moved the family to the Congo for a year so he could work as a medical missionary, and she started keeping a diary. They came back to Kentucky, and she kept writing in her journal, eventually writing stories and poems. She was tall and thin and bookish, and she felt like an outsider at school- she said, " I wanted to read Anna Karenina and everybody else wanted to do stuff in the back of cars."

She was a good writer. She was also a good pianist, and so she got a scholarship to DePauw University for piano. Even though she really wanted to be a writer, she didn't think it was any more lucrative than music, so she switched her major from music to biology. She moved to Tucson and wrote a thesis on termite behavior for her master's degree at the University of Arizona, but she decided academia wasn't for her and she didn't want to finish her Ph.D. She got a job doing technical writing for the Office of Arid Land Studies at the university, and she wrote stories on her own, but she didn't show them to anyone. Finally she decided to enter a short-story contest sponsored by an alternative weekly paper in Phoenix. She never heard anything from them, and it was more than a year later that a friend mentioned reading her story, and she realized that she had won and the paper had forgetten to tell her.

So she kept writing stories, and then she got pregnant, and she developed insomnia, so at night she only took her typewriter into the closet and wrote, because it was the only place in the house where she wouldn't wake up her husband. She realized that she was writing a novel about a young woman desperate to escape her life rural Kentucky, who moves to Tucson and ends up with the custory of a young Cherokee girl named Turtle. That novel was The Bean Trees (1988), and it gained a steady following and got good reviews, and she wrote two more novels, Animal Dreams (1990) and Pigs in Heaven (1993), as well as books of essays and short stories.

But for all those years, she had the idea for another novel in mind, about a missionary family in the Belgian Congo. She had a folder on her desk that she called the "damn Africa file," and she just kept adding to it. She looked back to the journal she had kept as a girl in the Congo, but she said: "The entries were basically 'Got up had breakfast. Later we had lunch.' For me the whole experience was like 'Yippee I'm missing second grade." So she did research- read self-published memoirs of missionaries in the '50s, studied the Kikongo language, read the Bible over and over, traveled to Central Africa. And after many years, she published The Poisonwood Bible (1998), and it was a huge best-seller, selling more than 2 million copies. In 2007, she wrote Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, about her family's year of eating only food that was produced locally or that they raised themselves on their farm in Virginia. And most recently, she published The Lacuna (2009), a novel that moves from the household of Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Leon Trotsky in the 1930s Mexico to the mountains of North Carolina during the height of the McCarthy era.

When someone asked her what her background in science has given her, she said: "A passion for research. The best research get yours fingers dusty and your shoes dirty, especially because a novel is made of details. I had to translate places through my senses into the sense of my readers. I had to know what a place smelled like, what it sounded like [...] There's no substitute for that. I've been steeped in evidence-based truth."

Woohoo, I really enjoyed reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and one of my favorite books I have ever read is The Poisonwood Bible. Really good stuff there.

LAST MONTH'S TOP 5 CAMPUS BEST-SELLERS

2010-04-06T09:33:00.010-04:00

SO...Here are the Top 5 Campus Best-Sellers for last month. And their descriptions which I am blatantly stealing from Heather and UT Bookstore Newsletter:

Poet Laureate, Kay Ryan was on campus in February and her latest book, The Best of It, continues to be a hot campus title. If you have not read any of her poetry, definitely check this book out.

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly, incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy."

So begins this englightening book by Michael Pollan. This has been a hugely popular title on campus as well as being on the Indiebound and New York Times Best-Seller lists for months.

Oh Alice. We're guessing that the movie had a strong influcence on the up-swing of sales of this classic tale. I, for one, loved Tim Burton's take on this story. If you haven't read the original story, you must check it out. I will leave you with this intriguing question: Why is a raven like a writing desk, anyway?

We LOVE Seth Grahame-Smith (Become a facebook fan of his. He has some pretty funny statuses). He had our attention with his first book, Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. His latest work, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is engrossing to say the least.

I shouldn't be surprised that this title is a hot campus seller. It has been on the Indie Best-Seller for MONTHS. Several of us on staff have read it and LOVED it!

"January 1946: writer Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a stranger, a founding member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. And so begins a remarkable tale of the island of Guernsey during the German occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as its name."

http://web.utk.edu/~bkstore/documents/pdf/newsletter09.pdf

http://www.indiebound.org/

http://web.utk.edu/~bkstore/?p=gen_book

TWIIIIILIGHT

2010-03-25T10:06:00.006-04:00

Twilight. A book series that will forever capture hearts ages 12-15. As enchanting as Twilight is with its very dramatic sexual chemistry between 'plain-looking' Bella and 'sparkling, gorgeous' Edward, I have some problems with the writing in certain sections of Stephanie Meyer's first best-selling novel...(oh who am I kidding, I think the entire novel poorly written). I admit that Edward and Bella have a helluva relationship though...very passionate and intense.

But then again, I am not a big reader of romances and vampires. So combined, the likelihood of me reading Twilight was already only at 30%.

But I did it... sorta. I beat the odds...starting it. I unfortunately never finished it.

Here is a pop culture blog called Monkey See...led by Linda Holmes on the NPR website. She has started a Twilight discussion group with her friend Marc, dissecting and analyzing Bella's tears and Edward's ice cold hands.

Some of the highlights of the discussion:

"MARC: How many times does she describe his face? And how many of those times does she fail to venture beyond "perfect"? There's no charm to it. It's tell, don't show, over and over and over. She just leans on repetition until her readers finally scream "Uncle! He's beautiful! I want him!"

LINDA: The entire book is "tell, don't" yes. Not just regarding his perfect face.

MARC: Right. I'm 220 pages, and so far Bella has moved to Washington, started school, been saved from an accident, gone to the beach and gone to Seattle. How is that 200 pages of content? It would be fine if she had an interesting internal life or if Meyer were a perceptive observer (or a sharp describer). But none of those things are true. She is spinning her wheels like a car stuck in mud. (See what I just did right there?)"

And that is how the discussion goes. Read the rest of the article HERE.
It's worth it the read, for both Twilight fans and for rest of us.

On This Day....Happened Yesterday

2010-03-25T09:39:00.003-04:00

I meant to post this yesterday but then I was caught up in stuffing envelopes, customer service, and general Internet stumblings. If you don't have the stumble upon toolbar, I highly recommend it. It's pretty fun...you stumble around the Internet in search of some of your favorite topics. Anyways, not the point.

I read this on my WRITER'S ALMANAC daily email:

"On this day (MARCH 24) in 1955, Tennessee Williams' play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opened at the Morosco Theater in New York. Directors hated it when Williams came to opening night performances; he had a funny high-pitched laugh, he laughed at lines nobody else found funny, and people in the audiences were always turning around trying to see where the noise was coming from."

haha, I love this (makes me really appreciate Tennessee Williams') and really wanted to share it with you.

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2010/03/24

More Plants and Pages

2010-03-24T09:49:00.005-04:00

Pages and Plants....Plants and Pages

2010-03-24T09:09:00.003-04:00

In response to all those new fangled technologies like the Amazon Kindle or the new Apple Ipad (which I'm pretty hesitant in buying because there is nothing like holding a real book in your hand...ooh especially new book smells... well and old book smells...), an Italian company named Gartenkultur came up with a fantastic idea of recycling books and helping with keeping the earth green.

Turn used books into planting pots! It looks pretty and people will think you are an amazing genius for this. Be sure to say GARTENKULTUR and then your friends will think you are cultured as well!

"Pursue their own survival instinct and the desire to find balance with the planet. Thinking about your life as all 'avvicendarsi the season and prepare themselves for it, never lose sight of the art and the wonder that dwells within us, to make his art and his nature, a "law of pollution contrary."

Nature creates majestic trees, the man to dominate over other species, needs to assert itself, not with his art and its inherent beauty, but with the fruit of his intelligence. Where the nature creates, the man writes. Until now.

Gartenkultur is furnishing items, additional art, unique and unrepeatable. As each seed becomes a plant or tree, so the book becomes a pot and cradle."

Wonderful description of their website which is linked HERE. It is in Italian, so you will need to have google translate it for you unless you happen to be fluent in Italian.

History of Saint Patrick

2010-03-17T12:20:00.004-04:00

"Today is St. Patrick's Day. It is on this day in the fifth century-probably in the year 460- that Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, died. He was born in Britain to wealthy parents, but not much more is known about his childhood until he was 16, when he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Ireland. He was a slave for six years, herding sheep, often alone. He wrote in his memoir Confessio: "I used to stay out in the forests and on the mountain and I would wake up before daylight to pray in the snow, in icy coldness, in rain, and I used to feel neither ill nor any slothfulness, because, as I now see, the Spirit was burning in me at that time." He said that he heard the voice of God telling him to escape from Ireland, and then to come back as a missionary.

He made it back to Britain, was trained as a priest, and then returned to Ireland. He wrote that he would have loved to go home to his family and his country, but that it was his duty to remain in Ireland, converting people to Christianity and baptizing them. There were few Christians in Ireland at the time, so Patrick tried to integrate traditional beliefs with the new religion, and legend has it that he introduced the Celtic cross as a way to combine the Christian cross with a symbol of the sun. Another legend says that he used the three leaves of the clover to explain the Trinity, which is why shamrocks are a symbol of St. Patrick's Day. And March 17, Patrick's Feast Day, has been celebrated as a religious holiday ever since.

But the green clothing and all-out festivities of St. Patrick's Day are largely a product of the United States. The first St. Patrick's Day parade was held in New York City in 1762 by Irish immigrants. These days, about 3 million people line up to watch the parade in New York and there are similar huge celebrations in Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago, where they dye the river green."

That is an excellent description of the history of St. Patrick's Day via the Writer's Alamanac.

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

Annnd here is a picture that I took in Dublin where St. Patrick supposedly baptized many of the peoples in Ireland in the fifth century:

May You Be in Heaven Half an Hour Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

2010-03-17T11:13:00.016-04:00

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Today is a favorite holiday of mine. Even though, I am not wearing any green clothes, I feel my name -Murphy Jane - more than makes up for it. After all, can't get more "Irish" than having a first name as Murphy (my last names are Irish as well, but you can just guess what they are).

On this day, EVERYONE is Irish.
Doesn't matter, no excuse, everyone celebrates this day.

Here are some of my favorite Irish "things" on this day (and in no particular order):

1) OSCAR WILDE. One of my favorite Irish novelists. And quote-tist.

"Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854-30 November 1900) was an Irish writer, poet, and prominent aesthete. His parents were successful Dublin intellectuals, and from an early age he showed his intelligence, becoming fluent in French and German, then an outstanding classicist, first at Dublin, and then at Oxford. After university, Wilde moved around, trying his hand at various literary activities: he published a book of poems, then toured America lecturing extensively on aestheticism. Returning to London, he worked prolifically as a journalist for four years. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress, and glittering conversation, Wilde had become one of the most well-known personalities of his day.

He produced a series of dialogues and essays that developed his ideas about the supremacy of art. Though, it was his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray- still widely read-that brought him more lasting recognition. He became one of the most successful playwrights of the late Victorian era in London with a series of social satires which continue to be performed, especially his masterpiece The Importance of Being Earnest." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde

I love his quotes in particular. Here are some of my favorites:

"Over the piano, there was printed a notice: Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best."

"People who count their chickens before they are hatched act very wisely because chickens run about so absurdly that it's impossible to count them accurately."

"The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame."

"The suspense is terrible. I hope it will last."

"The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple."

And my all-time favorite: "Some Cause Happiness Wherever They Go; Others, Whenever They Go!

Seriously, these are just some of his gems. Go here to read to more of his quotes as well as some of your own favorite authors. http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/3565.Oscar_Wilde

2) POTATOES.

I cannot tell you enough how much I love eating potatoes. A good staple Irish food. Everyone has their own delicious favorite potato recipe in their mind.

Love it all: twice-baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, raw potatoes, roasted potatoes, baked potatoes, au gratin potatoes, frieten (the original french fried potato), gnocchi.

And let's not forget that vodka is made from potatoes.

3) IRISH TOASTS

Nothing better than an Irish toast when you are among your friends.

"May you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings, slow to make enemies and quick to make friends. And may you know nothing but happiness from this day forward."

"Saint Patrick was a gentleman, who through strategy and stealth, Drove all the snakes from Ireland, Here's a toasting to his health. But not too many toastings Lest you lose yourself and then Forget the good Saint Patrick and see all those snakes again. 'Beannachtam na Feile Padraig!' Happy St. Patrick's Day!"

"Here's to you and yours, And to mine and ours, And if mine and ours ever come Across you and yours, I hope you and yours will do As much for mine and ours, As mine and ours have done For you and yours!"

"May the lilt of Irish laughter lighten every load. May the mist of Irish magic shorten every road...And may all your friends remember all the favors you are owed!"

"Here's to the land of the shamrock so green, Here's to each lad and his darlin colleen, Here's to the ones we love dearest and most. May God bless old Ireland, that's this Irishman's toast!"

"May you be in heaven a full half hour before the devil knows your dead. May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live!"

4) FLOGGING MOLLY

I know its a literary blog. And potatoes and Flogging Molly aren't literary...although one could argue that potatoes=cookbooks and Flogging Molly=lyrics=poetry...uh huh.. see what I'm getting at??

4) IRISH FICTION

Now we are at the literary part of my post. Some of favorite books:

Dracula- Bram Stoker
Ulysses- James Joyce
Brooklyn- Colm Toibin
Angela's Ashes- Frank McCourt (okaaaay, you caught me...he was born in Brooklyn, but he is a wonderful memoirist)

http://www.pgil-eirdata.org/ Princess Grace Irish Library

Well, that's it. some of my Irish favorites (GUINNESS).. Have a GREAT St. Patrick's Day!

Toast with your friends, sing heartily, and regale others with your Irish tales!

Douglas Adams

2010-03-11T09:16:00.004-05:00

"It's the birthday of writer Douglas Adams, born in Cambridge, England (1952), best known for his five-book "trilogy" The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a series of comic science fiction novels that sold more than 15 million copies, was translated into more than 30 languages, and inspired a cult-like following.

The idea for the first book came to Adams when he was backpacking through Europe at the age of 19, lying drunk in a field with his tour book called Hitch-hiker's Guide to Europe, and lamenting the fact that he couldn't communicate with Austrians. He said it occurred to him right then that somebody ought to write a hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy.

He worked odd jobs for years, writing things on the side and having them rejected for publication, and was about to give up all hope of being a writer when in 1978 BBC radio accepted an outline of his hitchhiker story for a radio comedy. It's about an Englishman named Arthur Dent and his alien friend, Ford Perfect, who hitch a ride from Earth on a passing starship before the planet is destroyed by a band of bureaucratic aliens. He wrote 12 episodes for the radio series, which was a big hit, and soon afterward a publisher asked him to write it up as a book.

He said, "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so." "

There ya have it. Sadly, Douglas Adams passed away in May of 2001 but he will always be remembered.
I "borrowed" this article on Adams from Garrison Keillor and the Writer's Almanac. Of course. You know how much I love their show.
Click here to see what else the Writer's Almanac have up their sleeves.

Top Ten Reasons to Purchase BEFORE I FALL

2010-03-10T10:36:00.015-05:00

After two years, Lauren Oliver's book, Before I Fall, has finally hit the shelves on March 2nd. After reading a review of it on the IndieBound site (the reviewer is from my own stomping grounds, Hockessin, Delaware...wooohooo), I am now pretty pumped to read this book. Rather than trying to summarize a review...I'm just going to post it here for ya:

"When Samantha Kingston dies a tragically early death, she is forced to relive the day she dies seven times. Each day, something different happens, and Sam learns more about herself and her friends than she ever could have imagined. Filled with self-doubt, new experiences, and heartache, Before I Fall takes the reader on a spectacular journey as Sam accepts her fate with grace and power." -Sarah Driban, Hockessin Book Shelf, Hockessin, DE

Sounds intriguing, right? That is what I thought as well.

So...here from Lauren Oliver herself (posted on her blog) is a Top Ten List on why you should purchase Before I Fall:

Top Ten Reasons You Should Buy My Book on March 2nd:

10. Because it will keep you off the streets

9. Because everyone wants to be a trendsetter...and you can be one of the first people to own a finished copy-- ever!

8. Because books are better than brussel sprouts. Depending on the book. And the brussel sprout.

7. Because if you hate it, you can tell me so @OliverBooks on twitter.

6. Because at 480 pages, in hardcover, if you hate it, you can also use it to smack somebody upside the head.

(Not that I'm recommending violence. I'm a lover, not a fighter, people).

5. Because it doubles as a coaster, an arm rest, and possibly a cake stand.

4. Because even though it doesn't feature vampires, I promise it's romantic.

3. Because you want to make me happy.

2. Because what else will you do today? School? Homework? Chores? Yawn.

1. Because you might discover a new favorite book. Or at the very least, a book with a very, very pretty cover.

Read the rest of her blog HERE.

I think those are some pretty solid reasons for buying this book, for sure. Whatcha waiting for?

Shutter Island

2010-03-03T09:00:00.003-05:00

I was pretty pumped to see Shutter Island the movie so I decided to pick up the book to read the blurb. I am not a fan of reading books before the movie comes out because each time, I am disappointed with the movie (same reason why I very much dislike the Harry Potter movies).

Anyways, I read the blurb and before I knew it, I was 15 pages in. I was already sucked into this psychological thriller. Dennis Lehane starts the novel off with gorgeous descriptions of the famous Shutter Island, depicting the bleakness of the 1950's with reminscence to a gothic theme. It is 1954 and Edward "Teddy" Daniels sets off to Shutter Island investigating the disappearance of "prisoner" (or "patient" if you prefer like the ominous chief doctor, Dr. Crawley), Rachel Solando. Teddy Daniels is a very calm, very observing, very suspicious man with many theories on the atrocites that occur within the Island. Teddy is also a broken man, with many flashbacks to his childhood and the days before his wife was killed in an apartment fire. According to Dr. Crawley, it is like "she evaporated straight through the walls." And this is not the only creepy mystery on the Island. Doctors not allowing federal marshals access to any patient or employee files. Strange.

By the end of the novel, I was so wrapped up in Teddy's mind and his surroundings that I felt myself suspicious of even my own mindset.

A definitely edge of your seat, can't put down novel. Read the book.

Kay Ryan: Poet Laureate

2010-02-17T09:54:00.006-05:00

Kay Ryan, poet extraordinaire, visited the UT campus last night and provided both students and faculty with readings from each of her six volumes of work.

My favorite poem by Kay Ryan is The Niagara River. I love her style because of the short, clean lines and the packed punch her words deliver.

The Niagara River

As though

the river were

a floor, we position

our table and chairs

upon it, eat, and

have converstaion.

As it moves along,

we notice--as

calmly as though

dining room paintings

were being replaced--

the changing scenes

along the shore. We

do know, we do

know this is the

Niagara River, but

it is hard to remember

what that means.

Here is a list of books penned by Ryan:

Say Uncle

Elephant Rocks

Flamingo Watching

Strangely Marked Metal

Dragon Acts to Dragon Ends

The Niagara River

5th Annual Black Issues Conference Presents: MARSHAWN EVANS, JD

2010-01-19T14:28:00.006-05:00

Black in America: How Far We Have Come...Yet, So Far to Go

The purpose of this conference is to offer a forum for research and discussion of issues affecting the African-American culture. The conference is open to everyone, and is schedule for Saturday, Februrary 6, 2010 at the Carolyn P. Brown University Center at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. This year's theme is, "Black in America: How Far We Have Come...Yet, So Far to Go." This is the 5th year for the annual conference, and it has grown to become a stellar conference under the coordination and collaboration of several groups. The conference and lunch are free to all UT students, faculty, staff, and registered participants.

Charlie Lemmons Endowment Keynote Speaker: Marshawn Evans, J.D.

The journey for entrepreneur, attorney, and author, Marshawn Evans, J.D., stretches from being labeled a problem-child to becoming one of Glamour Magazine and USA Today's top women in America. Now known to audiences as "Miss Peak Performance," Marshawn has used her story to speak words of empowerment across the nation and on such leading media outlets as ABC, VH1, CNBC, and PBS. As President and Chief Branding Officer of EDGE 3M, a media, marketing and management firm for celebrities and professional athletes, she represents some of the nation's top personalities in entertainment, the NFL and NBA.

With her savvy business brawn, Marshawn attracted the attention of real-estate tycoon Donald Trump whom handpicked her as a cast member on NBC's popular show, The Apprentice, and enabled her to lead Trump's all-women team to their only victory as the project manager. She has worked on televised promotional projects and marketing campaigns for companies such as Sony Pictures, Lucas Films, Lamborghini, Bally Total Fitness, The Learning Annex, and Dairy Queen.

Her elegant style, which won her the interview and talent phases of the Miss America competition and catapulted her to the Top 5, places her in high demand. Through a robust corporate consulting practice, MEU Executive Training Systems, a soon to be released motivational clothing line geared towards women and her next book, S.K.I.R.T.S. in the Boardroom: A Woman's Survival Guide to Success in Business & Life. Marshawn continues to attract attention from the world's leading corporations, professional associations, churches, and universities to call on her as a consultant, host, keynote speaker, and executive seminar presenter.

Known for her engaging mix of education and entertainment, Marshawn challenges women groups, executives, sales teams, athletes, students, and clients to evaluate their attitude, habits, and perception of self to become a peak performer personally and professionally. Marshawn's presentations are driven by a nine-step, proprietary peak performance module called HABITUDE.

A native Texan and a former Harry S. Truman Scholar, Marshawn finished her undergraduate studies magna cum laude at Texas Christian University, and graduated Georgetown University Law Center debt-free by obtaining over $200,000 in scholarships. She has practiced law with one of Atlanta's most prestigious law firms. Her pro bono legal work and reputation as a passionate, no-nonsense advocate has created a buzz in Atlanta's legal community. Driven by faith and dedication to service, Marshawn serves on numerous boards including Jamie Foxx's Learn Through Laughter Foundation and the TMB Foundation for Women. Marshawn believes in strengthening the esteem of women while erasing stereotypes and has committed the use of her voice to make that happen.

For more information: http://omsa.utk.edu/bic/index.php

2010-01-19T09:15:00.003-05:00

The University of Tennessee Common Ground Book Club's latest read BEHIND THE VEIL is now available at the UT Bookstore and Hodges Library.

"Behind the Veil is the story of Jefferson Myles who embezzles money from the wealthy clients of his securities firm to fund "Operation Stingray," an organization that steals ammunition from military bases to sell to rebels in Honduras. His greed doesn't stop at the bank, though."

For more information or to join us, visit the Common Ground Book Club at: http://utcommonground.ning.com/

Kay Ryan: Poetry Reading! Feb.16th!

2010-01-07T13:53:00.004-05:00

Poet Laureate KAY RYAN will be here Feb. 16th with the time and place to be announced later.

Buuut in anticipation for her poetry reading, here is some background on the wonderful Kay Ryan:

"Ryan was born in San Jose, California and was raised in several areas of the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert. After attending Antelope Valley College, she received bachelor's and master's degrees in English from University of California, Los Angeles. Since 1971, she has lived in Fairfax, California, and has taught English part time at the College of Marin in Kentfield. Carol Adair, who was also an instructor at the College of Marin, was Ryan's partner from 1978 through Adair's death in 2009.

Ryan published her sixth collection of poetry, The Niagara River, in 2005. Her first collection, Dragon Acts to Dragon Ends, was privately published in 1983 with the help of friends. While she found a commercial publisher for her second collection, Strangely Marked Metal (1985), her work went nearly unrecognized until the mid 1990s, when some of her poems were anthologized and the first reviews in national journals were published. She became widely recognized following her receipt of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize in 2004.

In July 2008, the U.S. Library of Congress announced that Ryan would be the sixteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress for a one year term commencing in Autumn 2008. She succeeded Charles Simic. In April 2009, the Library announced that Ryan would serve a second one-year term extending through May 2010."

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/352

Here is a sample poem:

Patience

Patience is

wider than one

once envisioned,

with ribbons

of rivers

and distant

ranges and

tasks undertaken

and finished

with modest

relish by

natives in their

native dress.

Who would

have guessed

it possible

that waiting

is sustainable-

a place with

its own harvests.

Or that in

time's fullness

the diamonds

of patience

couldn't be

distinguished

from the geniune

in brilliance

or hardness.

Welcome Back to School Sale

2010-01-04T10:39:00.002-05:00

In January

2010-01-04T10:04:00.002-05:00

January 2010 is now here. Seems like yesterday it just 2000. Welcome to the 2010 Year!

In January

Only one cell in the frozen hive of night
is lit, or so it seems to us:
this Vietnamese café, with its oily light,
its odors whose colorful shapes are like flowers.
Laughter and talking, the tick of chopsticks.
Beyond the glass, the wintry city
creaks like an ancient wooden bridge.
A great wind rushes under all of us.
The bigger the window, the more it trembles.

-Ted Kooser

Ted Kooser (born 25 April 1939) is an American poet. He served as Poet Laureate Consultant to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. (Click on the link for Ted's page on wikipedia)

Sherlock Holmes Trailer

2010-01-04T09:56:00.004-05:00

Sherlock Holmes...Read it! Watch the movie! Do Both!

You will not be disappointed.

The Man in Hopper's Office in a Small City

2009-12-16T12:50:00.005-05:00

The Man in Hopper's Office in a Small City

A kiss or rather the ruins of one: a swirl of dust

in sunlight, perhaps, as it mingles with the stifled love-cries

of a hotel painting above an unmade bed

even after the lovers have left, checked out to wherever it is

lovers go hours later driving a blue Chevrolet

down a two-lane highway in Kansas & watching a controlled

burn's flames flutter, smoke braids rising

from black grass & becoming the ashen haze evening is,

jotting down its regular inventory of empty silos & sagging

fence posts bound with rusted wire that mark the miles. But

whatever it is, I'll never know it, trapped as I am

decades now, staring out spotless window glass forever at God

knows what. Sleeves rolled & vest chest-tight, this sun-muted office severe in its loneliness,

I know you're thinking I could be your father years back, working late, distracted

by the thought of a woman not your mother, a woman who

even now remains nameless, though it wasn't what you've

thought: Motel 6 & an hour for lunch, Jim Beam

in a plastic cup, lipstick-smeared menthols, the alarm

buzzing get back to work as if in your imagining of it you might

find some shadowed truth made visible, something

like what would find you here if you searched long enough,

something there in the foreground, maybe. Right there.

Something knowable, touchable, a single stroke.

Joshua Robbins

HALLOWEEEEEN! Get in the Spirit!

2009-10-28T10:48:00.004-04:00

From NPR- 'Three Hauntingly Unforgettable Literary Houses

Check out this link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114176451

Best Friday in a Long Time!

2009-10-16T13:51:00.002-04:00

"Where the Wild Things Are" is finally hereeeee! Yes!! Click on the picture and see the official website!!

Anne Frank

2009-10-03T09:53:00.002-04:00

When I was 12 or 13...eh, I don't remember but I was young, I read The Diary of Anne Frank for school. I fell in love with Anne...her writings, her mind, her stories.

Here is a rare video of Anne leaning out the window of her Amsterdam home, watching a bride and groom on their big day. The clip has been kept at the Amsterdam museum, the Anne Frank House, but was released on YouTube in honor of the new Anne Frank Channel, which will feature videos and interviews about her life.

It's haunting and eerie. Read her diary if you have never read it before. Or read it again if you have.

Favorite New Book

2009-10-02T16:10:00.013-04:00

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows

(Named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by Time and USA Today)

I love reading this book. Note I say LOVE, present tense, because it is impossible to read it once. I wish every character were real. It is written in the form of a series of letters exchanged among the characters of the story and I did not want it to end.

The novel is set right after World War II ends in 1946, and Juliet, our fantastically funny main character, sets out to write about the inhabitants of Guernsey Island and their struggles during the war.

Seriously, my review cannot do this book justice. Here are some better reviews:

"I've never wanted to join a club so desperately as I did while reading Guernsey....[The novel] is a labor of love and it shows on almsot every page." - The Christian Science Monitor

"A book-lover's delight, an implicit and sometimes explicit paean to all things literary." - Chicago Sun-Times

"For sheer enjoyment, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is one of the best books of the year...[a] delightful, unforgettable novel." - BookPage

http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/guernsey/

Neil Gaiman's Massive Library.

2009-10-02T16:00:00.004-04:00

This is a picture of Neil Gaiman's personal library...we all should be so lucky

Look at that amazingly comfy chair.

I want a library just like this.

The wonderful gang at Shelfari catalogued Neil's books and took more pictures of his library.

Such a great idea!

http://blog.shelfari.com/my_weblog/2009/09/neil.html

The Perks of Being a Wallflower..

2009-09-02T14:41:00.005-04:00

For those of us who have had the great pleasure of reading The Perks of Being a Wallflowers by Stephen Chbosky...seriously, one of the best books I have read recently...this is a list of books given to Charlie by his English teacher, Bill:

To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

The Stranger by Albert Camus

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

If you haven't read The Perks of Being a Wallflower, I definitely suggest starting with that.

PS- The titles are links! to Indiebound!

September 1st

2009-09-01T12:51:00.004-04:00

I sit in one of the dives

On Fifty-second Street

Uncertain and afraid

As the clever hopes expire

Of a low dishonest decade:

Waves of anger and fear

Circulate over the bright

And darkened lands of the earth,

Obsessing our private lives;

The unmentionable odor of death

Offends the September night.

Toward the end of the poem, he says, "We must love one another or die."

-W.H. Auden

Read Freely

2009-08-04T11:41:00.001-04:00

Taking Woodstock

2009-08-03T13:09:00.004-04:00

Here is a look at the new movie: Taking Woodstock...saw a preview for while watching The Hurt Locker (excellent movie, highly recommended) and Taking Woodstock has a great cast. In theaters--AUGUST 28th...but it is limited so I'm not sure when its wide release is. For now, enjoy the trailer! Click on the poster and it will take you to the magical and wondrous world of Taking Woodstock.

And These Are My Vices...

2009-08-03T12:22:00.001-04:00

Fireflies by Cecilia Woloch

And these are my vices:
impatience, bad temper, wine,
the more than occasional cigarette,
an almost unquenchable thirst to be kissed,
a hunger that isn't hunger
but something like fear, a staunching of dread
and a taste for bitter gossip
of those who've wronged me—for bitterness—
and flirting with strangers and saying sweetheart
to children whose names I don't even know
and driving too fast and not being Buddhist
enough to let insects live in my house
or those cute little toylike mice
whose soft grey bodies in sticky traps
I carry, lifeless, out to the trash
and that I sometimes prefer the company of a book
to a human being, and humming
and living inside my head
and how as a girl I trailed a slow-hipped aunt
at twilight across the lawn
and learned to catch fireflies in my hands,
to smear their sticky, still-pulsing flickering
onto my fingers and earlobes like jewels.

Classes + Students = August 18th!

2009-08-03T11:38:00.002-04:00

The Student Theme by Ronald Wallace

The adjectives all ganged up on the nouns,
insistent, loud, demanding, inexact,
their Latinate constructions flashing. The pronouns
lost their referents: They were dangling, lacked
the stamina to follow the prepositions' lead
in, on, into, to, toward, for, or from.
They were beset by passive voices and dead
metaphors, conjunctions shouting But! or And!

The active verbs were all routinely modified
by adverbs, that endlessly and colorlessly ran
into trouble with the participles sitting
on the margins knitting their brows like gerunds
(dangling was their problem, too). The author
was nowhere to be seen; was off somewhere.

Reason #42 for Essential Bathroom Reads

2009-07-20T13:51:00.006-04:00

"A Japanese author is having his latest novel printed entirely on rolls of toilet paper. The book is the latest work from Koji Suzuki - the writer behind 'The Ring' - and tells the story of a ghost which hides in a public toilet. At just nine short chapters the author says 'The Drop' can be read in a few minutes and is printed several times on each roll of toilet paper, each copy taking up just 90 cm.

Printers Hayashi Paper say the unusual print run was not a comment on the quality of the book but the ideal way of producing a "horror experience in the toilet" ... I've had a few of those. Hopefully this scary loo roll book won't have you on the edge of your seat, otherwise it could get a bit messy."

http://newslite.tv/2009/05/25/japanese-horror-novel-printed.html

First Candy.. then Unmentionables.. Now This!

2009-07-01T16:45:00.001-04:00

This is a picture of a vending machine, called the Espresso Book Machine, that -for real-prints books right in front of your eyes!
War and Peace? 9 minutes!

Click on this article!

http://newslite.tv/2009/04/28/vending-machine-prints-any-boo.html

Expresso Book Machine

2009-07-01T16:27:00.003-04:00

I want one! Next thing on my Christmas List!

Here is the website for the Expresso Book Machine:

http://www.ondemandbooks.com/the_ebm.htm

Six-Word Memoir Video!

2009-07-01T15:55:00.000-04:00

Six-Word Memoir book preview from SMITHmag on Vimeo.

Jennifer Joyce.

2009-07-01T15:14:00.003-04:00

It's been a while since I have recommended a friend's books so here is Recommendation(s) #2!

I like the flow of my friend's name...roll it off your tongue three times...it's almost musical.
This here is a list of Jen's favorite books.

She is one of the deepest thinkers I've ever met and with great passion and great spirituality...you know that you will be reading some good stuff if she is recommending it.

Jen's Favorite Books

Traveling Mercies- Anne Lamott

Blue Like Jazz- Donald Miller

She's Come Undone- Wally Lamb

To the Lighthouse- Virginia Woolf

The Color Purple- Alice Walker

Grab a journal, lounge in the most comfortable spot in your couch, and start reading!

(click on any of the titles to go to their IndieBound page!)

45 Beautifully Designed Book Covers

2009-07-01T15:06:00.003-04:00

A Mr. Andrew Lindstrom compiled this list of the most beautiful book covers, in his humble opinion. He has done well...in my own humble opinion!

This is my favorite out of them all....but click on the book cover to see what others made the list!

Quote de Jour

2009-06-30T15:26:00.001-04:00

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®

*Garrison Keillor*

Gone With The Wind

2009-06-30T15:15:00.002-04:00

Today back in 1936, Gone With The Wind was first published. This is from my Writer's Almanac that I receive in my email. Ms. Mitchell sounds like quite the spunky lady! :)

In 1920, Mitchell fell off a horse and suffered terrible injuries. She sort of recovered from the fall, but she kept reinjuring herself in different ways, and a few years later she had to quit her job as a reporter with The Atlanta Journal and stay in bed.
Her husband, a newspaper editor, would go to the Atlanta library and bring her back piles of books to read so she could occupy herself while bedridden. One day, he came home and said, "I have brought you all of the books that I think you can handle from the library. I wish you would write one yourself."

He then went out and got a Remington typewriter. When he presented it to his wife, Margaret, he said, "Madam, I greet you on the beginning of a new career." She asked him what she should write about, and her editor-husband gave her the famous "Write what you know" line.

So she wrote about Southern belles, and she expanded upon family stories and the stories she'd heard from Civil War veterans while she was growing up in Georgia. The one-bedroom apartment that she and her husband lived in was cramped, and she called it "The Dump." She would sit and write in every nook and corner of the tiny place, working in the bedroom or the kitchen or the hallway.
She told almost no one except her husband that she was writing a novel. When friends came over to their place, which happened often, she'd hide the manuscript under the bed or the couch.

But one of her Atlanta friends, Lois Cole, had found chunks of the manuscript lying around that cramped apartment. Cole was now living in New York City and working in the publishing industry. Cole told her boss at Macmillan, Harold Latham, that her witty Southern friend "might be concealing a literary treasure."

Latham went down to Atlanta to pay Margaret Mitchell a visit and ask her about the novel. Mitchell denied its existence. He spent the day with her, following along on outings with her friends, and asked about the novel again in a car full of her girlfriends. Mitchell changed the subject. But when Latham got out of the car, all of her friends in the car kept up the questioning. One friend was adamant that Mitchell was working on a novel, and asked why she hadn't shown it to Latham. Mitchell said that it was "lousy" and that she was "ashamed of it." The friend goaded, "Well, I dare say. Really, I wouldn't take you for the type to write a successful book. You don't take your life seriously enough to be a novelist."

That did it — Margaret Mitchell was furious and galvanized. She hurried back to her cramped apartment, grabbed the assorted piles of manuscript and shoved them into a suitcase, and drove it over to the hotel where Latham was staying. When stacked up vertically in one pile, the manuscript was 5 feet high. She delivered it to him in the lobby, saying, "Take it before I change my mind."

It was published on this day in 1936, and immediately it was a sensation. Reports abound of people in Atlanta staying up all night to read Mitchell's novel that summer of 1936. It revitalized the publishing industry. The next year, Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize. Her book was made into a movie starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, and when it had its premiere in Atlanta in 1939, Margaret Mitchell was there at the Loew's Grand Theater with the movie stars.

The cramped apartment in which Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone with the Wind is now the centerpiece of the Margaret Mitchell House in midtown Atlanta, which reopens this weekend after a long period of renovation. There are tours of the apartment, historical performances, and a museum devoted to her life and work.

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

Quote de Jour

2009-06-29T15:22:00.003-04:00

"My dear Veruca! How do you do? What a pleasure this is! You do have an interesting name, don't you? I always thought that a veruca was a sort of wart that you got on the sole of your foot! But I must be wrong, mustn't I?"
*Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl*

FIRST LINES (A Sort of Literacy Test)

2009-06-22T15:01:00.007-04:00

http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/jad22/

Here is a small sample of the Types of Quizzes Offered...I did pretty well on High School, quite pleased with myself!

There are about 15 questions but only 7 fit in here...but don't let that deter you from clicking on the link and challenging yourself!

It is good brain practice for both impressing your friends and winning Jeopardy/Cash Cab.

INDIE BESTSELLER LIST - Hardcover Fiction- June 18th

2009-06-22T14:10:00.009-04:00

Indie Bestseller List

(hardcover fiction, week of June 18)

1. Shanghai Girls- Lisa See

2. The Help- Kathryn Stockett

3. The Scarecrow- Michael Connelly

4. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane- Katherine Howe

5. My Father's Tears and Other Stories- John Updike

(I was beginning to believe that IndieBound formulated their lists from shortest to longest title)

6. Gone Tomorrow- Lee Child

7. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built- Alexander McCall Smith

8. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie- Alan Bradley

9. The Little Stranger- Sarah Waters

10. Brooklyn- Colm Toibin

http://www.indiebound.org/indie-bestsellers

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

2009-06-22T12:30:00.007-04:00

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane is a fantastic novel written by Katherine Howe. Connie Goodwin, a PhD student at Harvard, is asked by her mother to fix up her childhood home, a run down and dilapidated 16th century house in Salem, Massachusetts in order to sell it.

Connie stumbles upon great mysteries within the house such as illegible jars of old herbs and and an ancient key with a name handwritten around it found inside the family bible: Deliverance Dane. Researching the history of the Salem Witch Trials and the name, Deliverance Dane, Connie finds herself locked deep within the late 17th century and understands that she is more closely linked to the house and Salem than she first realized.

I loved this book! Howe does a wonderful job of incorporating present life and weaving it to the 1690's. The story flows really well and you find yourself deeply immersed into Salem, Massachusetts.

This was selected by IndieBooksellers for June 2009 Indie Next List! Click on the book for more information!

What I Really Want for Christmas....Six Months in Advance.

2009-06-22T10:33:00.001-04:00

This is my ideal bike.

June 21st- Official First Day of Summer!

2009-06-22T09:52:00.006-04:00

Welcome, Summer Solistice:

bring your sweltering heat,

your cloudless never-ending blue skies, your muggy star-filled nights, and your delicious summer beverages...

and in return,

I will bask in your warmth,

Be in awe of the contrast between white airplanes and vivid cerulean atmospheres,

Scour the witching hours for shooting stars,

And satiate my palate with excellent, thirst crushing drinks.

I used the theasurus for every word I could.

And these pictures are taken from my vacation to Long Boat Key Island, FL couple years ago.

Sunlight Map AGAIN

2009-06-18T10:30:00.003-04:00

I'm regurgitating a link I posted on April 7th because I still think its that darn cool.

http://www.opentopia.com/sunlightmaprect.html

Terrible Yellow Eyes

2009-06-15T12:19:00.011-04:00

While stalking numerous bookstore blogs this weekend, I stumbled upon another Where the Wild Things Are creative blog...

How fantastically great is this?! Shannon Bonatakis is responsible for this adaptation of "Wild Thing!" I love this picture.

Here is what the website is about:
"Terrible Yellow Eyes is a collection of works inspired by the beloved classic, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. Over the coming weeks and months I'll display a growing collection of works created by invited contributing artists and myself. We share a love and admiration for Sendak's work and the pieces we present here are done as a tribute to his life and legacy."

Check out this link! Seriously! Now! :)
http://www.terribleyelloweyes.com/

Springtime Quiz for All You Literary Geniuses

2009-06-15T12:06:00.006-04:00

(Photograph: Frank Fell/The Travel Library/ Rex)

Found this quiz on another bookstore blog...or a link to it rather. I failed greatly but hopefully you will do much better!

It's a Spring in Literature quiz brought to you by the Guardian!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/quiz/2009/apr/02/spring-literature-quiz

Happy Birthday Cole Porter!

2009-06-09T10:55:00.003-04:00

Cole Porter was born in Peru, Indiana, in 1891. He went to Yale University, and he got horrible grades but he wrote and performed more than 300 songs for school shows. Porter was gay, but he married a close friend, the socialite Linda Thomas, to keep up appearances.

In the 1920s, he and Linda moved to Paris. They had lavish parties at their apartment, and Cole Porter played songs for his guests while they lounged on his zebra-print furniture. In 1928, he got his break with the hit "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love," in which he sang: "Birds do it. Bees do it. Even educated fleas do it. Let's do it, let's fall in love."

He wrote musicals, including Anything Goes (1934) and Kiss Me, Kate (1948), which is based on a Shakespeare play, The Taming of the Shrew. He went on to write many songs that are still popular today, like "I Get a Kick Out of You," "Night and Day," and "I've Got You Under My Skin."
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

For more on Cole Porter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cole_Porter

Happy Birthday Charles Webb!

2009-06-09T10:22:00.005-04:00

"Charles Webb, born in San Francisco in 1939. In 1963, he published The Graduate, and in 1967 it was made into the famous film starring Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman. Not many people realize that The Graduate is based on a book, but in fact the dialogue in the film comes almost entirely from the dialogue Webb wrote for the novel.

Webb grew up in a wealthy family living in Pasadena, California. He was attracted to the wife of a friend of his parents. He said he decided "it might be better to write about it than to do it," so he wrote The Graduate in the poolside bar of the Pasadena Huntington Hotel. He was 24 when it was published."

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

I've only seen the movie which is fantastically filled with great dialogue and a great soundtrack (Simon & Garfunkel) but I bet the book is just as good if not better, since that is usually how it goes.

Go Alice Huyler!

2009-06-09T10:19:00.002-04:00

"It was on this day in 1909 that the first woman to drive across the United States, Alice Huyler Ramsey, left New York City for San Francisco. She was 22 years old, a housewife from Hackensack, New Jersey. Her trip got a lot of media attention. In 1909, not many women drove cars, and some doctors thought that it was dangerous for women to even ride in cars because they would get too worked up at more than 20 miles an hour. Alice Huyler Ramsey drove 3,800 miles across the country in a Maxwell 30 with three other women, but she was the only one who knew how to drive. They drove for 41 days and used 11 spare tires. She wrote a book about the trip called Veil, Duster, and Tire Iron (1961). In 2000, she was the first woman inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame."

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

Happy Birthday George Axelrod!

2009-06-09T09:14:00.003-04:00

George Axelrod, born in 1922, famously wrote screenplays for such movies as The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), and The Seven Year Itch (1955).

A Little John Keats for Your Soul

2009-06-08T23:09:00.001-04:00

Give me a golden pen, and let me lean
On heap’d up flowers, in regions clear, and far;
Bring me a tablet whiter than a star,
Or hand of hymning angel, when ’tis seen
The silver strings of heavenly harp atween:
And let there glide by many a pearly car,
Pink robes, and wavy hair, and diamond jar,
And half discovered wings, and glances keen.
The while let music wander round my ears,
And as it reaches each delicious ending,
Let me write down a line of glorious tone,
And full of many wonders of the spheres:
For what a height my spirit is contending!
’Tis not content so soon to be alone.

*John Keats wrote this poem because he was leaving some friends at an early hour one night in 1817*

Other Uses for Your Most Favorite Books

2009-06-08T15:08:00.006-04:00

I stumbled upon this website today...and saw just what I can do with all of my favorite friends (i.e-books that I no longer read but cannot have any departure with)....

Click on either of the photos and they transport you to a neat, innovative world that combines architecture and books!

Happy Birthday Allen Ginsberg!

2009-06-03T09:49:00.007-04:00

Song

The weight of the world

is love.

Under the burden

of solitude,

under the burden of dissatisfaction

the weight,

the weight we carry

is love.

Who can deny?

In dreams it touches

It touches the body,

In thought

constructs a miracle,

in imagination

anguishes till born

in human-

looks out of the heart

burning with purity-

for the burden of life

is love,

but we carry the weight

wearily,

and so must rest

in the arms of love

at last,

much rest in the arms of love.

No rest

without love,

no sleep,

without dreams of love-

be mad or chill

obsessed with angels

or machines,

the final wish

is love

-cannot be bitter,

cannot deny, cannot without

if denied:

the weight is too heavy

-must give

for no return

as thought is given

in solitude

in all the excellence

of its excess.

The warm bodies

shine together

in the darkness,

the hand moves

to the center of the flesh,

the skin trembles in happiness

and the soul comes

joyful to the eye-

yes, yes,

that's what

I wanted,

I always wanted

I always wanted,

to return

to the body

were I was born.

-allen ginsberg, San Jose 1954

This is a great poem and the way poem is normally stylistically written....really impacts the words, the diction and the meaning. I would definitely recommend picking up a copy of Allen Ginsberg poetry...rather than reading it online.

Featured Book for JUNE

2009-06-02T12:03:00.006-04:00

If you think Guillermo del Toro is GENIUS....he only wrote and directed Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth as well as produced The Orphanage (the movies are a must-see)...(Pan's Labyrinth is amazing and my favorite)....then...

you need to check out his new novel series which came out today!

The Strain: Book One of the Strain Triology

"An epic battle for survival begins between human and vampire in this heart-stopping thriller--the first in a trilogy--from the visionary creator of the Academy Award-winning "Pan's Labyrinth" and a Hammett Award-winning writer."

“The Strain begins with a newly landed plane stopping dead on the runway. When the rescue crews arrive, they discover that all the passengers and crew are dead in their seats, with their necks cut and their bodies devoid of blood. This utterly original novel is absolutely fantastic and like no vampire novel I've read. You will love it!”
-- Jon Tobin, Saturn Booksellers, Gaylord, MI

JAY JAY JAY...

2009-05-29T14:29:00.009-04:00

Below is a list of a few choice books submitted by my good friend, JAY. She is an excellent reader with excellent taste.

If you need a few books for your summer reading, JAY provided you with great recommendations:

If I Stay- Gayle Forman
Hunger Games- Suzanne Collins
Alice In Wonderland- Lewis Carroll
Catcher in the Rye- J.D Salinger
Harry Potter- JK Rowling
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie- Laura Joffe Numeroff
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs- Judi Barrett

So grab one of these good reads, pack a cooler, plunk down in the shade, and read your gloriously lazy summer away.

(Click on the title and you will either go to IndieBound or the Author's website)

Happy Birthday T.H. White

2009-05-29T11:41:00.002-04:00

T(erence) H(anbury) White was born in 1906 in Bombay, India, educated at Cambridge, and best known for his novels about the Arthurian legend: The Once and Future King (1958) and the children's classic, The Sword in the Stone (1937).

Snack Nap Read

2009-05-27T11:25:00.001-04:00

Cuteness OVERLOAD

2009-05-27T11:15:00.005-04:00

Click on the picture to the left to see (and desire) some seriously cute animals. Your computer might start spewing out butterflies, bubbles, and bright rainbows...so click at your own risk

Memorial Day

2009-05-27T10:13:00.005-04:00

Click on the picture above to see a tribute to the Armed Forces. To all those in the military: past, present, and future...Thank You.

Happy Birthday Nora Ephron!

2009-05-19T12:11:00.005-04:00

Nora Ephron, age 68, is an accomplished film director, producer, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, and most recently, blogger.

She wrote the screenplay for When Harry Met Sally and Michael as well as wrote and directed such films as Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, Bewitched, and Julie & Julia, set to be released on August 7, 2009.

Nora Ephron is responsible those for tear-jerking, kleenex grabbing romantic comedies; my personal favorite is You've Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. That movie is guaranteed to make you fall in love with the beautiful quaint streets of New York City.

Some of her essay collections include: Crazy Salad, Wallflower at the Orgy, and I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman.

My Sister's Keeper

2009-05-19T10:46:00.015-04:00

Speaking of Jodi Picoult and her wonderful novels, now is a great time for me to tell you about My Sister's Keeper, which will be released on June 26, 2009 as a theatrical feature film!

Directed by Nick Cassavetes (whose directorial films include: Alpha Dog, John Q, and of course, how can one forget The Notebook?) and starring a trillion actors (well, that's an exaggeration) such as:

Cameron Diaz (good to see her branch out of romantic comedies)
Abigail Breslin (fantastic in Little Miss Sunshine)
Jason Patric (Speed 2, anyone?)
Alec Baldwin (Love him on 30 Rock)
and the ever funny, ever wonderful Joan Cusack

This is a synopsis from the back of My Sister's Keeper:

"Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister Kate can somehow fight leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate-a life role that she has never challenged . . . until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister-and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for her sister she loves."

Click on the poster to see the trailer because only half of it will embed into the html unfortunately and I'm not computer savvy enough yet to know how to enlarge.

Happy Birthday Jodi Picoult

2009-05-19T10:35:00.004-04:00

Jodi Picoult, 42, is the bestselling author of fifteen novels: Songs of the Humpback Whale (1992), Harvesting the Heart (1994), Picture Perfect (1995), Mercy (1996), The Pact (1998), Keeping Faith (1999), Plain Truth (2000), Salem Falls (2001), Perfect Match (2002), Second Glance (2003), My Sister's Keeper(2004), Vanishing Acts (2005), The Tenth Circle (2006) Nineteen Minutes(2007), Change of Heart(2008) — both of which debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list, – and her newest novel, Handle With Care (2009).

“You don't love someone because they're perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they're not”-- Jodi Picoult

Birthdays are Just Nature's Way of Telling Us to Eat More Cake...

2009-05-18T08:53:00.011-04:00

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY to:

Tina Fey who is 39 years old today! Tina Fey is a talented writer, comedian, actress, and producer...she has won 5 Emmys, 3 Golden Globes, and 2 SAG Awards.

Tina is the developer for 30 Rock, a hilarious show currently on NBC, loosely based on her workings for Saturday Night Live, starring Tracy Morgan, Alec Baldwin, Jane Krakowski, and herself.

Some of her works include: SNL, 30 Rock, Mean Girls, and Baby Mama.

Frank Capra was born in 1897 and passed away on September 3, 1991. Frank Capra was a Hollywood Icon in regards to directing and producing and a main force in helping to shape Hollywood to what it is today. He is the director to 6 Best Picture awards as well as a 6 time winner for Best Director. His movies include:

1. It Happened One Night

2. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

3. You Can't Take It With You

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

The Battle of Russia

It's a Wonderful Life

It is a must for any self proclaimed movie buff to watch these iconic movies. Pop some corn and start watchin'!

Happy Birthday Joseph Heller!

2009-05-01T10:24:00.003-04:00

Joseph Heller was born on May 1st, 1923 in Brooklyn, New York. He wrote Catch-22 (one of my favorite books of all time) in 1961.

The satirical novel, set during the later stages of World War II from 1943 onwards, is frequently cited as one of the great literary works of the twentieth century. It has a distinctive non-chronological style where events are described from different characters' points of view and out of sequence so that the time line develops along with the plot.

The novel follows Yossarian, a U.S Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier and a number of other characters including a chaplain, a doctor, a general, and other members of Yossarian's squadron. It is a very funny yet sobering novel and I loved every minute reading it!

Here is one of my favorite parts of the book:

Dr. 'Doc' Daneeka: Sure. Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat isn't really crazy, so I can't ground him.

Yossarian: Ok, let me see if I've got this straight. In order to be grounded, I've got to be crazy. And I must be crazy to keep flying. But if I ask to be grounded, that means I'm not crazy anymore, and I have to keep flying.

Dr. 'Doc' Daneeka: You got it, that's Catch-22.

Yossarian: Whoo... That's some catch, that Catch-22.

Dr. 'Doc' Daneeka: It's the best there is. "

It is also a movie (1970) called Catch-22, directed by Mike Nichols and starring Alan Arkin, Art Garkfunkel, Bob Newhart, Martin Sheen, Jon Voight, Anthony Perkins, Jack Gilford, and Orson Welles! What a great cast!

Celebrate Joe's birthday with some chocolate cake, vanilla frosting, Catch-22 book, and a delicious beverage!

Featured Book for APRIL

2009-04-29T15:24:00.005-04:00

Here is the Featured Book for April:

The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls

"Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever.

Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town -- and the family -- Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.

What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.

For two decades, Jeannette Walls hid her roots. Now she tells her own story. A regular contributor to MSNBC.com, she lives in New York and Long Island and is married to the writer John Taylor."

http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780743247542

American Book Review's 100 Best First Lines from Novels

2009-04-29T14:37:00.002-04:00

Here is the Top 10 Best First Lines from Novels (According to American Book Review):

1. Call me Ishmael. —Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)

2. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

3. A screaming comes across the sky. —Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow (1973)

4. Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. —Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967; trans. Gregory Rabassa)

5. Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. —Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)

6. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877; trans. Constance Garnett)

7. riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. —James Joyce, Finnegans Wake (1939)

8. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. —George Orwell, 1984 (1949)

9. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

10. I am an invisible man. —Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)

If you want to read the rest (and you should)...go here: http://americanbookreview.org/100BestLines.asp

Annnd to challenge yourself, try to read all 100 novels because

You will surely impress all of your literary friends.
Random literary trivia is always featured on shows like Jeopardy! and/or Cash Cab.

Six Word Stories

2009-04-29T14:08:00.003-04:00

Dream of becoming a writer?
Not having enough words to fill a novel causing you all sorts of frustration and stress?

No worries because I have the solution to your problem! Temporary of course.

Six Word Stories!

These stories are funny, sad, make you say "ahhh" or "aww" and most importantly, gear your brain into concocting all sorts of six worded stories.

The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor

2009-04-22T09:46:00.007-04:00

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

WELL...this is a great site that updates daily poems, poet's birthdays, and other little tidbits. Managed by Garrison Keillor, writer extraordinare.

I had an image all ready for this post but for some reason, my 'add-an-image' button is on vacation and forgot to tell me. Maybe it will work tomorrow.

Big Orange Book Blog

My Favorite Books. Right Now.

Tonight, Tonight

September 1, 1939

Eat Pray Love

You Say It's Your Birthday....ERNEST HEMINGWAY

I Write Like...

Hey All You Mystery/Horror Fans

Sh*t My Dad Says

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

Hymn to the Comb-Over

Happy Birthday David McCullough

WORLD CUP

BLOOMSDAY

Yesterday's Birthday.

Barbara Kingsolver Wins Orange Prize for Women

Mountains Beyond Mountains

If You Liked My Book, You Will Love These....

Top 5 Campus Best Sellers (Last Month)

Southern Fried Poetry Slam 2010

Theodore Boone- Kid Lawyer by John Grisham

LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST....oh wait, hold the phone...LOST

Promise To Update DAILY...*PROMISE*

My Father's Corpse

Heather Hearts Russian Novelists

Were I Like Thee I'd Throw Away Myself

For All You Shakespeare Fans....

The Golden Shovel

Book Number TEN

NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK

Top 10 Most-Complained-About Books in 2009

69

Barbara Kingsolver

LAST MONTH'S TOP 5 CAMPUS BEST-SELLERS

TWIIIIILIGHT

On This Day....Happened Yesterday

More Plants and Pages

Pages and Plants....Plants and Pages

History of Saint Patrick

May You Be in Heaven Half an Hour Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Douglas Adams

Top Ten Reasons to Purchase BEFORE I FALL

Shutter Island

Kay Ryan: Poet Laureate

5th Annual Black Issues Conference Presents: MARSHAWN EVANS, JD

Kay Ryan: Poetry Reading! Feb.16th!

Welcome Back to School Sale

In January

Sherlock Holmes Trailer

The Man in Hopper's Office in a Small City

HALLOWEEEEEN! Get in the Spirit!

Best Friday in a Long Time!

Anne Frank

Favorite New Book

Neil Gaiman's Massive Library.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower..

September 1st

Read Freely

Taking Woodstock

And These Are My Vices...

Classes + Students = August 18th!

Reason #42 for Essential Bathroom Reads

First Candy.. then Unmentionables.. Now This!

Expresso Book Machine

Six-Word Memoir Video!

Jennifer Joyce.

45 Beautifully Designed Book Covers

Quote de Jour

Gone With The Wind

Quote de Jour

FIRST LINES (A Sort of Literacy Test)

INDIE BESTSELLER LIST - Hardcover Fiction- June 18th

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

What I Really Want for Christmas....Six Months in Advance.

June 21st- Official First Day of Summer!

Sunlight Map AGAIN

Terrible Yellow Eyes

Springtime Quiz for All You Literary Geniuses

Happy Birthday Cole Porter!

Happy Birthday Charles Webb!

Promise To Update DAILY...PROMISE