the Upside

I was at the gym last week ‘reading’ this month’s Vogue (w/ the awesome Tina Fey on the cover) when I came across a short article written by Sophie Dahl about our (hers and America’s) collective obsession with food. The article isn’t online, but I saw that she has a new cookbook/memoir (seems like this is becoming a trend) coming out and I had to look it up!

I’ve actually been a fan of Sophie Dahl from back in her modeling days, and I’ve loved almost every photograph of her in every stage of her career and weight. Who can forget that classic Opium ad? Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delight’s (isn’t that a fab title) sounds like an excellent book. I may have to kick Eating Animals to the curb for my spring break reading.

Of course you can’t have an emerging, leggy, female cooking enthusiast come out of England with a famous last name (yes, she of the Roald Dahl descendant) without mentioning the typical “catfight” that’s about to go down as Nigella Lawson tries to “defend her crown.”

I call bullshit on that whole angle, but the British press…they’ve got to have a semi legit reason to talk about licking frosting off of finger tips and heaving bosoms in the kitchen, right? I’m sure some of the tabloids would love to throw these two in some chocolate pudding and let them have at it.

But I love them both and I can’t wait to get this book.

suddenly:

Ledgers (via art-e-ology)

If my birthday hadn’t just passed, I would want someone to give me this book. But I guess I’ll have to buy it for myself. BOOOOO for spending my own money! I love Nina Simone!

Princess Noir: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone

My Spring Break is the second week in March. In lieu of my usual activity of visiting friends in New York, I’ve decided to spend this year home. Save some money. Go to the gym, redo my tiny concrete slab/back patio. I’m also challenging myself. Really, I’m playing a little game with myself.

I love meat (insert dirty joke here). I mean I grew up on a steady diet of chicken and steak and fish. Even mutton and lamb with a rabbit thrown in here and there. BBQ, grilled, smoked, deep fried, baked…there are so many ways to cook a delicious piece of flesh.

I don’t mean to be provocative by starting out with those descriptions. That’s really how I feel about meat. I love it. I do. But I also respect the fact that some people don’t eat it. I don’t eat mushrooms. Even if they are stuffed with a cream cheese filling and fried in a fattening/awesome batter. I don’t like Swiss cheese. I don’t like Jennifer Aniston (as an actress, I don’t know her as a person, obviously. That movie The Bounty Hunter looks just awful). But I don’t judge people who like these things. Internally I may go, “Blech, mushrooms” but whatever. Differences are what make the world go round.

So here’s my self challenge/game. I’ve read very compelling things about Eating Animals. I’ve heard that it’s made people stop eating meat from the moment they started reading it. Now I’m not looking for an excuse to stop. I’ve seen plenty of graphic animal rights videos. They are disturbing, I won’t lie. But none of it has ever made me pause when it comes to my personal consumption of meat. Well, that may not be true. I tend to lay off chicken when I occasionally pass an 18-wheeler on the highway carrying what looks like hundreds of chickens in tiny, tiny crates, and their feathers are flying all over the road and there is always-ALWAYS-a smell…it’s gross. But I inevitably make my way back to chicken. Usually in the form of Chick-fil-A. It gets me every time.

So I want to see what all the hype is about, frankly. I know writing about this a few weeks early is strange, but I’m putting it out there. Anyone read the book? Thoughts/questions/concerns/advice? Is this stupid? What else is a girl supposed to do on her spring break? Panama City: been there, done that, you can see me in Girls Gone Wild volume 28, girls of the SEC. Haha…jokes.

I don’t love Chelsea Handler. I know people who adore her show, but I never really “got” her. But I think her books are FREAKING HYSTERICAL!

I’m not sure if it’s because she just comes across better to me through words. Or maybe she has a fantastic book editor. Whatever it is, I tend to speed read her books. I go through them in a  weekend and if you ever catch me at a Starbucks or Borders Cafe or any other yuppie place where I go to read, you’ll see me buried deep in the pages, smiling to myself maniacally and trying not to laugh out loud.

So I’m pretty excited about her new book coming out in March. I better start saving up those Borders coupons!

Elizabeth Gilbert is a polarizing figure. Her last book (Eat, Pray, Love…if you didn’t know that, I mean, why are you even reading me) was a huge success and with huge success comes huge criticism. She’s been called indulgent, self-serving, spoiled, and I suppose there were parts of EPL that were self-indulgent. Parts that did come across as selfish and spoiled. But I dare you to point to someone who hasn’t been that way at one point or another in their life.

Regardless of how indulgent some say EPL was, the woman has a way with words. I finally broke down (after a 50% off coupon arrived via e-mail to Borders. Boo-ya!) and purchased Committed. The follow-up/sequel to EPL and I must say, at page 18 I am already hooked on her language even though I haven’t yet gotten deep into the story. And hell, I already know what the story is about, she tells the reader right up front. Another testament to her talent. It’s not very often you can start a book by telling the reader what’s going to unfold (a marriage, by force, thanks to Homeland Security) and still keep people enthralled. And I am. Enthralled that is.

What sets Gilbert apart from other people who have written memoirs (I wouldn’t yet call her a memoirist since this is only her second and she has yet to wade into the waters of someone like Jen Lancaster who writes a new Memoir every 18 moths. I think she’s on her 5^th. Do you think she still has more to write about? Oh yeah), is that despite the “fatal flaw” that people preach (show, don’t tell) there is still so much depth and life in her words. The way she describes the Homeland security officer is a prime example. He could easily have been demonized. We, as readers, know that her boyfriend Felipe is no terrorist. He isn’t a bad guy and has broken a grand total of ZERO laws, and yet he’s being persecuted by a stubborn, glorified mall cop. Locked in an interrogation room and questioned for hours about perfectly legit and legal traveling. It would have been so easy to make the security cop the bad guy. A lesser, lazier writer would have. A lesser writer would have made him one note. But despite the unfortunate mess all three of them find themselves in, she humanizes him. Describing him in a way that makes you not hate him or what he has to do just to put food on his table. Everybody needs a job nowadays, right?

It’s more character development (for a person I doubt will re-appear anywhere else in the book) than I got from any other character in, for example, either of Stephanie Klein’s memoirs. Maybe even including the characterization of SK “herself.” I put herself in quotes because even as you write a memoir, you still write yourself as a sort of character.

Book to book, honest critique about the two memoirs I read from these two women. And their first two books were virtually identical in plot. Picking oneself up after the horrid dissolution of a marriage. They are both, to be fair, indulgent people. But-and maybe this is a talent thing-Gilbert had the ability to really take me away with her words. That didn’t happen in the other case.

And this is why I read EG. I may be stoned for this, (or applauded, it’s about 50/50) but I loved EPL. I’ve never been through a debilitating divorce. I’ve never been to any of the countries she visited. I don’t know Italian. But I connected with her restless spirit. Though being married to someone I love and having a family is something I personally want, I admire her (“selfish”) act of not doing that, even though it’s going against the societal grain. I don’t think Gilbert’s first marriage would have lasted had she stayed silent and just had a baby like they planned. My money would have been on a broken home and a miserable mother. Does a painful divorce that drags on 2 plus years sounds like fun? Not even a little. But I’m sure…I’m positive it’s 1,000 times better than the alternative.

52books:

Oh, hi there. It’s that special day of the year, everyone. The day when my most sought after mixtape becomes available. Your days of waiting by the computer and hitting refresh are finally over. Now is the time for you to download the second complilation of book related songs. So with out further ado, I present: Books are the New Boyfriend, vol. II. It’s got style, it’s got grace, it’s even got another weird picture of my arm. Get to it by clicking the title or the photo. Happy Valentines Day!

Books are the New Boyfriend, Vol. II

1. Monty Python - Novel Writing
2. Spoon - The Book I Write
3. Echo & the Bunnymen - Read it in Books
4. Hailey Wojcik - Nobokov’s Butterfly
5. Talking Heads - The Book I Read
6. My Morning Jacket - Librarian
7. The Beatles - Paperback Writer
8. Modest Mouse - Bukowski
9. Tahiti 80 - Open Book
10. Fleet Floxes - Textbook Love
11. Morrissey - Reader Meets Author
12. Ryan Adams - Sylvia Plath

Volume numero uno has been updated and can be found here.

lalanii:

colorful books!

I’ve been reading Changing My Mind by Zadie Smith. I’m pretty sure I’ve referenced this book previously. It was a good choice at this point because I can get quick bits and entertaining stories without committing to an entire novel.

I recently read the story about the author attending the Oscars. The story was, in my opinion, really great. And the fact that the awards are a few short weeks away just made it that much more timely.

Hollywood is a strange beast. I understand the compulsion to perform. To want to be an actor. I understand the compulsion to want to write. To want to be successful at something you are passionate about. But I don’t understand the want to be famous. I mean, blech. Who wants to be followed around incessantly by amateur photographers from TMZ? Who wants to be obsessed over by strangers? Who wants to achieve this by trading in their privacy rights?

I hate that the answer is that plenty of people do. Plenty of people would love to be on the cover of US Weekly. Or in print on Page Six. Or blogged about. I just don’t get it and think it’s kind of gross. Fame, like anything else based on other people’s opinion/adoration/hatred of you, is hollow. It’s not real love. It’s not genuine emotion. Despite my affinity for Johnny Depp, there is nothing sincere about it. My lust is hollow and based on snippets in interviews and photos and a persona that may or may not be accurate.

In the essay, there is a point where Smith is on her way back home after her time in lala land. After seeing all the people that buy into the illusion, and a lot of the people who don’t (namely, other writers) and she finally runs into someone she recognizes and knows who, if I remember correctly, was Jonathan Safran Foer. But was was interesting, and sort of bitter sweet, was that Foer (who I will change if I got this wrong. I don’t have the book in front of me to reference) seemed so “Hollywood” at least in comparison to Smith. Their brief interaction had me picturing Foer giving the typical H-wood kiss-off.

“Yeah, hey what are you doing in town? Gotta go, places to go people to see. I’ll have my people call your people.”

Not the exact dialogue, but the impression I got, nonetheless. It’s certainly no secret that some writers, given a certain amount of success, will start to become characters. Or rather, caricatures. But I’m always surprised by it and interested to observe it.

Random thoughts.

I got one of the million e-mails from Amazon advertising the Kindle (Not gonna happen, I like my books, I don’t like staring into yet another screen during my down time*). I was about to delete when I noticed the selection of books that were suggested for me, as pictured.

Really? Have my Amazon searches become increasingly about “Getting The Love You Want” and “Finding the Marriage That You’ve Dreamed Of?”

I was a little embarrassed. Oh God, I’m that “self-help” girl! Then I realized that this particular e-mail was working the Valentine’s Day angle and that the books on love were probably randomly generated to fit the theme.

At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

*Besides, how am I to build a deliciously grand library in my future home if I don’t keep the books I have collected?!?!?!? I love bent spines and walls and walls of dark wood shelving, filled with words. What would I do if I bought a kindle, display the device on my shelf like a picture frame? Lame! And you know you are just going to have to keep buying new ones (like ipods. I’ve bought a total of 5) and upgrading software and replacing parts and there’s always the chance of losing everything in one mishap or another. I’d be that that unlucky soul whose computer crashed and then I dropped my kindle in the bath water on the same day. And no, I don’t have a back up system!

**Also, I have a lot of fun photos and recipes queued up for Valentine’s Day. I love the idea of love!

This is sort of awesome. I might buy this book.

Chapter 6: Money, Power, and Success: “If you say you’re gonna do something, then by George, you better do it. Being true to your world is important because you don’t want to lose trust in yourself.”
A hilarious added bonus to this chapter is the “The Things I Learned from Watching Judge Judy.” Which include No. 9: “Don’t allow BB guns anywhere.” Hehehe.

Via: EW Shelf Life