Posts tagged books
the Upside
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Book Week
Next week is a big book week here in my fair city. Leading up to the Decatur Book Festival, there are many esteemed and up and coming authors coming to town. I have three particular events I had circled to attend. Alas, I can only make it to one. It’s a very busy personal week for me too.
First up, on Wednesday Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Eating Animals and Everything is Illuminated at the Atlanta History Center (a great venue for all things awesome…including weddings:). I invited a very good, vegetarian friend of mine to go and I think it’ll be an interesting talk. Though, I told her I’d still probably want to hit up Mellow Mushroom for a beer and a meat lovers pizza afterward. Ha!
On Friday Janathan Franzen-who has ignited quite an interesting…um…”debate”, okay, hoopla, on the web lately, will be the keynote speaker opening the aforementioned Decatur Book Festival and kicking off his tour for his new novel Freedom. Tickets are free! But don’t get excited. I called every stinking bookstore and box office that were giving the tickets away last week and they are gone, gone, Gone With The Wind (see what I did there). Apparently being on the cover of Time Magazine and being a “literary darling” makes it impossible for the peons to get in to see you.
As the festival continues to Saturday, I was planning on stalking seeing Emily Giffin who is speaking at around 11a.m. I’ve seen her many, many times…and I still go whenever I have the chance to hear her speak. It’s convenient that she lives in my city, so my access is better than a lot of people’s. That sounded super stalker-ish, but I just mean that I have more chances to hear her speak because she does a lot of events around town. I saw her at this very book festival 2 years ago when Love The One You’re With was coming out. Last year I was overseas, so I missed the entire festival.
I can’t go because I have been booked for a super special B-Day party, and it’s the day of my h.s. reunion. I’m helping out a bit so hanging out at the book festival just isn’t in the cards (sad). Next year, it’s on! I really encourage you to go if you are even remotely in the area. The DBF is a pretty prestigious event, drawing lots of distinguished authors. It’s free (save parking, but take Marta, which dumps you, literally, in the middle of the action). This is either the largest or second largest festival of this kind (strictly literary) in the country, so it’s no joke. The author list is huge and includes plenty of Pulitzer Prize winners and New York Times Bestsellers.
Safran Foer picture via. Time picture via. Emily Giffin picture via me.
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Wow! Seeing this bookstore in person is now on my bucket list.
El Ateneo in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Photo via The Huffington Post
My Inspiration.
The Baroque library/Biblioteca Joanina (King John’s Library)
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Book Talk
I went with a friend to another reading and sign last night and had a blast. I like to go to as many interesting book events as possible, but I especially try to go to things from authors I know well. Last night Jennifer Weiner (Good in Bed, In Her Shoes) was in town promoting Fly Away Home.
I’ve never seen Jennifer (We’re on a first name basis now. BFF’s!!) in person. I related to her first novel, Good In Bed, because the protagonist was like me. I’m sure a lot of the women there did too. The character was single, not even a little bit thin, unsure about herself and about life, all the good stuff that a lot of of books are made of. But the book was…fun. It was just fun and great. Highly recommended.
She’s sparkly in person. Funny, kind of off beat and watches trash tv, curses and talks about sex. We could definitely have cocktails together.
She told some pretty hilarious stories and one pretty heartbreaking one, but it all flowed and it was a good night! I’m only about 50 pages into Fly Away Home, but I’m enjoying it so far. And I’m enjoying the quality to the writing, too. You can call it Chick Lit if you want, but this woman can write.
Good times. Off to celebrate big bro’s big 4-0! Wow.
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I mentioned that I picked up James Patterson’s Sunday’s At Tiffany’s (this is the paperback cover) as trip reading material. I finished reading it and I have to say…I loved it!
Spoilers ahead
This book is mostly cheese. But that was what I was looking for. To be honest, it was no surprise that Jane and Michael ended up together. But for a fast, cheesy, love story it had a surprising amount of heart, wit and emotion. I thought most of the relationships were fleshed out well and again, it was a quick read, which was perfect for the weekend. There was only one overly cheesy bit at the very end, but I overlooked that because, well, you know why not.
I wanted a love story and that’s what I got! I’d definitely recommend it if you are looking for a lovely beach read. Or bath read. Or lunch break read.
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The Little Mermaid is, quite simply, a feminist’s worst nightmare. This movie is about, as a very wise friend of mine once put it, a young woman who gives up her voice to get a pair of legs so that she can snare a man. It’s about the triumph of “good” women - young, slender, silent and lovesick - over “bad” women - old, voluptuous, outspoken and sexual. It’s about a young woman forced to choose between her father’s world and her husband’s world, and there is nothing in between. And there’s the unsettling fact that the song “Kiss the Girl” tells us that the “one way to ask” if a woman wants you to kiss her, is to just kiss her.
I have like no problems with this paragraph aside from the second and last sentences, I have to tell you. Everything else in it is correct. And yet!
Because “The Little Mermaid” (much like Beauty and the Beast, which maybe reified emotional-abuse-by-a-giant-yak, but also gave us Belle and her books and her enduring ew-yuck-NEVER rejection of Gaston who I still find a delightful villain because he is basically Tucker Max if Tucker Max were not two feet tall and an evil leprechaun, or Aladdin, which gave us Jasmine pouting aloud that “I am not a PRIZE to be WON” even as it also gave us a story about a dude who gets the girl after his Ride has been decisively Pimped by a manic genie) is an entry into Disney’s weird late 80s/early 90s “postfeminist” or early-third-wave feminist run.
“The Little Mermaid,” BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN, is about giving your voice up so you can snag a man. It is also about how if a boy still decides he does not like you, after the voice abdication, you should just basically die already and get out of his way. It is thirdly, and fairly obviously, about Hans Christian Andersen earnestly wishing to fuck dudes and being pretty upset about that not working out and furthermore being upset about those dudes ending up with ladies instead. The movie is not about that. Not at all.
For one, it presents the voice-for-legs bargain as intrinsically evil, and compromising, and ultimately counterproductive. Eric likes Ariel because of her voice. He likes her voice to such an extent that he becomes interested in another woman specifically because she is able to produce a facsimile of said voice. Ariel’s voice is presented to the audience, to such a drastic degree that I cannot believe anyone is missing this message, as her best quality. They do not end up together until Ariel is able to work it so that she has legs and also her voice. And, like, once she gets it back, basically all she has to say is “uh” and she and Eric are insta-dating.
She does end up with her legs. But one of the subtexts of the Andersen story that the movie emphasizes is that she was always, somehow, wanting those. She was flat-out obsessed with what is Up There, and frankly kind of depressed about being stuck Under The Sea, vaguely racist production numbers notwithstanding. Granted, it took meeting a cute boy for Ariel to transition from “oh, if only” to “GOD DAMN IT LET’S MAKE THIS HAPPEN,” but how often has that sort of thing actually occurred for you? For me, it is not an unrealistic scenario. In a nine-million-year-old comment thread on Feministing, someone said that they always saw Ariel as being somehow analogous to a trans person, needing to bring her body in line with her desired body so that she can have the life she wants, and frankly, I am not trans but from my position that was a mind-blower of a comment.
Re: the last sentence, I don’t think the line “one way to ask” is about it being THE way to ask, but… one way to ask? And I am maybe more sympathetic to this than some. For I am a survivor of Antioch College and its much-mocked, SNL-skit-parodied “explicit verbal consent at all points throughout the process” sex training. This can - SNL forgot to add, apparently - be really hot, actually! But one of its results, in my own personal life, is that I wind up interacting with dudes in a way that is sort of clueless regarding your subtler variety of signals, and I ultimately wind up blurting out, “LOOK, SCIENTISTS HAVE CONFIRMED THAT WE SHOULD PROBABLY BE KISSING,” which either works out or ends up with the guys being like, “that’s a very interesting point, Sady! Now, as I was saying…”
(via sadydoyle)
I LOVE SADY SO HARD RIGHT NOW. also, i really want to rewatch little mermaid now, because first off, i am on a disney movie kick apparently. BUT ALSO. it was probably my favoritest one as a child, and i haven’t thought of it in detail in years, but this brought it all back, and i like to think that if i had watched it more recently & it were more freshly in my mind, i would have thought of all this, which it turns out is exactly what i think but didn’t know i thought until sady said it. but i mean, maybe not, i don’t want to flatter myself. but in conclusion: i love this a lot.
plus, ariel is, as she says very defiantly in my second-most memorable line from the movie, SIXTEEN, and… at that age, crushes are a pretty fucking strong motivator, and you are willing to do some pretty intense shit for them. or a lot of people are, at least. it is definitely, in my mind, a movie in no small part about adolescence, with the two worlds being not so much “her father’s world” and “her husband’s world” as much as “her childhood/parent’s home” and “independence and adulthood.” my reading of this may be colored by the fact that my MOST memorable line from the movie is titan’s “as long as you live under my ocean, you shall obey my rules!” because my mom quoted that one at me A LOT during my own adolescence. like: their whole dynamic is such a fucking parent-teenager dynamic, to the extent that it’s kind of surprisingly realistic coming from a disney movie. it’s actually very juliet capulet, wanting both to get away from your family and its things you are not interested in and also very badly to get with this one guy immediately to the extent that you are willing to give up everything for him (though of course, in that romeo is also on board that particular train).
ha wow i don’t think i realized i thought of the movie that way till now… but yeah, to me it’s basically a movie about being a teenager more than anything, down to ariel’s constant desire for new experiences she doesn’t understand but still wants desperately - “what is a fire, and why does it - what’s the word - burn?” what a teenage sentiment, that is, the idea that there is this whole giant wonderful world that is so much bigger and better, and you are absolutely convinced of this and long for it passionately, and long specifically to belong there more than anything, even though you’ve only experienced it through distorted glimpses. because even if it’s not as awesome as you think it is, god KNOWS it’s got to be better than your life right now, because how could it be worse?
damn. i enjoy this reading of the movie, i have to say. well-played, disney.
(via isabelthespy, sadydoyle-deactivated20100329)
Really loving all of this…
(via lostgrrrls)
Reblogging this for all of you, but especially Susan, who as I recall had a bit of guilt over letting the Tots watch it but ended up letting them watch it anyway.
(via lemdi)
I was reading this thinking, “yes, yes, YES! How did I miss when SD herself posted this?” Then I got to the bottom and realized LD put it up here for me? I feel special. Thank you. Kaylee is downright OBSESSED with Ariel so now I have good talking points.
(via librarianpirate)
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This might be the best bookshelf I’ve ever seen.
Photo via Oh Happy Day
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My plane reading material. I was crying by page 35. I picked this book mostly because it was $7. But I really just wanted a quick, sentimental love story to read. What can I say, I wanted that warm and fuzzy feeling after the series of semi-depressing books I’ve read recently. So far I’m really liking this. Oh, and I’m in Boston!!!!! Just waiting on the boy, whose plane was right behind mine (we flew seperately).
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THIS. IS. HILARIOUS.
I love looking at the “inspired by your shopping trends” list on Amazon.com. I am pretty obsessed with Nigella, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Pippi Loongstocking (Hello childhood: Party of one!) so those are no surprise! Funny, but no surprise.
I’ve never heard of The Penny Pinchers Club, but from the description it sounds right up my current, broke-as-hell, alley!
Strohmeyer’s bubbly farce finds a shopaholic New Jersey wife worried about hanging on to her husband and trying to curb her lavish lifestyle. Katarina Kat Griffiths, a 40-something interior designer, joins the eccentric supersavers of the Rocky River Penny Pinchers Club to get out of debt…
I mean, except for being 40, and a housewife, I could have written this. Is there a North Atlanta chapter of the Penny Pinchers?
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Book Review: Heart of the Matter
I’ve been meaning to talk about how I liked Heart Of The Matter for ages and ages but this and that got in the way, blah blah blah, so now I’m getting to it.
Let’s dive right in, shall we. This is, in my opinion, Giffin’s (Can I call you Emily? Mmkay), Emily’s most serious work. It’s not that her other novels were fluff in any way. In fact, what I like about Emily’s other novels is that they AREN’T fluff. They are smart and witty and prove that “chick lit” doesn’t have to be shallow.
But this book isn’t as easy to like as her previous ones are. To me, there is no clear winner. Which I think shows an evolution of the writing. It’s easy to make a clear hero and a obvious villain. But what if there are two women and both are flawed. Both have aspects which are easy to root for and both have aspects to them that make you want to rip your hair out.
This is {SPOILER ALERT} a book about cheating. There is a wife, there is a mistress and there is a sincerely written man in the middle. It’s probably obvious going in, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
I found myself wanting to know more about the central man in the story. Wanting to hear his side to allow myself to more clearly choose a side. And I’d say if there is any clear villain, it was he. A perfectly nice guy villain.
To be honest, I was livid at him. Livid at him for being so cliched. Livid at him for playing house with someone else’s child instead of his own. Livid for crossing that line both professionally and personally. I know it happens everyday. I know people don’t think of what they have to lose when they are “in the moment.” Maybe that’s what got me. That it happens every day. That people get wrapped up moments. Hey, how about not putting yourself in situations where you might get wrapped up in the moment? No hotel bars, no house calls, no late night dinners…just the two of you. It’s a recipe for disaster. We’re all adults. Grow up, and don’t put yourself in situations you know will tempt you.
In the end I did end up slightly picking a side. Though it was far from black and white. Although I said this book might be harder to like for some of Emily’s fans, I really liked it. I liked it better than both Baby Proof and Love The One You’re With, but Something Borrowed/Blue remain my favorites.
It’s definitely worth the read. Is it pool worthy? Well, how depressed do you want to be at the pool? I’m just sayin’.
And on a random note, I am finding that I am compelled with stories of relationships, marriages, and infidelity. over the last year or two I’ve read a bunch of books covering this topic. It all seems to start completely organically-saw a feature on Perfection in the New York Times. Learned about Happens Every Day (read what I wrote about it on this post about a different book) from a blog post on Jennifer Weiner’s site, then saw it in a Starbucks. Marry Him (which I skimmed and, I’ll be honest, it scared the shit out of me) has received a truckload of press. Elizabeth Gilbert has transcended the title “writer” and has become a “famous writer” so avoiding Committed would have been difficult. And I liked Eat, Pray, Love so checking out Committed was probably a no-brainer for me. There have been plenty more.
But I’m sort of disturbed by my fascination. And kind of worried that it might actually have an effect on my real life trust in people. It’s seems as though cheating really does happen all the time in real life. We all know someone who has done it. Someone who has taken that step. Someone who has either emotionally or physically given themselves to someone who wasn’t their committed partner, for a variety of different reasons. It just seems to me that this thing called infidelity that shouldn’t be so common, is just so common. And that scares me. It scares me for the relationship I get deeper in every day. It scares me for the future of friend’s relationships. I can’t help it. Like the book says, It happens every day.
I guess my base fear is that no matter how perfect a partner you are, and lets face it, ain’t nobody perfect, and I’ve written about that here before, you can never really safeguard your relationship. You can only control your own behavior. Like every other aspect of life, you can only control your own actions. And trust that the other person has the integrity you have. Trust that no matter the state of your relationship-good, bad or ugly on any particular day-they have enough respect for it, and for you, not to be careless with your heart or possibly destroy the relationship you built together.
Pic via
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I just became aware of this book via an interview at World Hum and I want to read it. It’s gotten good reviews and it looks interesting.
But at the same time, I’m kind of sad. I’m sick of seeing other people’s books and wishing I had written them. I’m sick of being envious when I see a first time novelist’s book that I’ve been hearing about, on the shelf. I’m sick of seeing people that have taken chances that I have yet to take.
It makes me sad that I haven’t been able to get it together because I really believe that I could do this for a living. That I could write.
I guess I’m throwing a bit of a pity party for myself. I guess if I want something bad enough, I’ll make it happen. Stay tuned on that front.
I guess I just want to write. I just want to live a life I can be proud of instead of one that just limps along. I just want to write.
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Oh hai, paparazzi!
It’s oh so annoying to be constantly trailed by the photogs. Sigh…it gets dreadfully old! But I guess that’s what happens when you are as awesome and my friends and I are. In case you want to check this out, we made it into the gallery for Emily Giffin’s current book tour for Heart of the Matter. Pics 48 and 69 (ha!)*
*In case you didn’t guess I am being totally sarcastic. I’m nerding out!
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Book Party
The girls and I attended Emily Giffin’s Book Release Party last night and had a fabulous time! I’ve raved and raved and raved about Emily on this blog. I’ve had a not very well contained admiration of her for years. She’s not only hilarious in person, but it’s not just smoke and mirrors…The woman can write!
I’m about halfway through Heart of the Matter (tear count=2). It’s touching and serious and fun and un-putdownable! Which is totally a word. I also love how she throws in some SOBO* and SOBLUE (yeah, me and my friends made that last one up) references in the story. Not enough to distract but enough to delight!
You can buy her book at any retailer (rumor has it that Target has it on sale, and if you are a member of Borders rewards I just got a brand spanking new coupon via e-mail, so check that out) or on Amazon.
I couldn’t live without the pleasure of books and Emily’s are some of the best!
**SOBO is short for Something Borrowed. Emily’s first book, and arguably the most popular. The characters are so beloved that she has slipped them or references to them into her other books to the delight of fans.
More photos on my flickr.
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Holy Book Alert!
I have to add another book to my spring reading list. I can’t believe I almost missed that a new Sookie Stackhouse novel, Dead in the Family, was coming out! Currently it’s #7 on Amazon’s bestsellers list and it doesn’t even come out until May 4!!!
To be honest, I only sort of remember what happened in the last book. I remember, pretty clearly, books one through four. I’ll have to go back and re-read some of them, especially because the series moves faster than the books. The first and second seasons of True Blood took elements from or set up situations that happen in the first several books. Usually I wouldn’t want to know what happens, but I couldn’t help myself and devoured the books. And Alan Ball keeps the series just different enough (Yay for not killing off Lafayette. Booo for extending Tara’s role, who is really a minor character in the books) to keep me interested.
God, I can’t wait for both this book and the new season on HBO! Sweetness squared!
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Back to Back Book Posts
Whatever, get over it! Now that I’ve finished reading The Rossetti Letter (not bad, but not great. It got much better at the end), I’ve been thinking about what books are going to carry me through Spring!
Spring, Spring, Spring!!!!!!!
I plan on doing a lot of reading by the pool. You know, in between studying (har har…yeah right)
Sweet, sweet pool time. Reading while wearing a giant hat and SPF 1000 because I have what my friends like to call, a natural tan (AKA, I’m black!) I’ll be reading Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin, who is perhaps my most-favoritest living author (My forever faves are, um…dead). Here’s a YouTube video of EG talking about the new book. And she’s on tour soon, so check her out if you can! She is so much fun in person. I should tell you that the book doesn’t come out until May 11, but it never hurts to be prepared!!!!! Okay, my geeking out is over.
Next up is Insatiable by Gael Greene. This woman is a force of nature! And really, any woman who tweets this deserves to be read!
Also, I can get my grubby little paws on it now! It can carry me until May when Heart of the Matter comes out. Well, that and my law books which I should be reading for finals. Ha! Yeah right.
The final book is Life After Yes by Aidan Donnelley Rowley. I’ve read her blog for a while now and we don’t have very much common ground. But she is thoughtful in her writing and I can tell the effort she puts into every word that I read. I’m rather sloppy, but there is nary a typo there. She cares. And I’m ready and willing to support a first time novelist as I hope to be supported someday as the same! But this doesn’t come out until May 18th! AARRGGGGG!!!!!
Pool photo via
