Uptown Literati

We've Moved!

2010-02-15T11:29:00.005-05:00

Thanks to all the support and growth I've gotten with this blog, I've moved all of the old content over to UptownLiterati.com! I'll also be posting all of the new stuff over there too, so I'd love for you to follow.

If you follow UL on Google Reader, you might consider subscribing to our Website (just click here), following us on Twitter (@UptownLiterati) and/or joining the Facebook group so that you can keep up.

Oh, and if you ever need to contact us for anything, just send an email to uptown.literati@gmail.com.

Happy Reading!

--Whitney, UptownLiterati.com

SheReads: mmmetropolis' Melanie

2010-02-05T12:25:00.003-05:00

SheReads looks at the reading lists of cool chicks. If you want to be featured, send an email to uptown.literati@gmail.com.

Lately by Sara Pritchard

"I love this book because it is both hilarious and sad. Pritchard populates her fictional Cook County with strong, unconventional characters, who look back over their lives and wonder at how it deviated from what they expected. There’s Maggie, whose “divorce party” is the subject of one story, Jack, whose house is filled with paint-by-number illustrations of the last supper and Fanny, whose father may or may not have left her family to join the circus. Lately is a short story cycle, so each story is linked to the others, which means you get the pleasure of figuring out how the various characters are connected as you move through the stories. Reading this book has made me want to track down anything and everything else Pritchard has written – it’s that good!"

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger

"I love all of Salinger’s work, but especially this book, which shows the author at his best – written after The Catcher in the Rye and before his later, longer, more digression prone stories. The book’s two stories complement each other beautifully and illustrate some Salinger's main concerns, particularly, the problem of getting along in the world while maintaining one's ideals and sensitivity. There's a number of endearing details in this book, particularly Franny and Zooey’s father, Les, who tries to help Franny recover from her nervous breakdown by serving her a tangerine."

Masked Men: Masculinity and the Movies in the 50s by Steven Cohan

"I was assigned this book a few years ago for a class, but found myself unable to put it down. Cohan’s book is an examination of masculinity in 1950s American films, but despite the academic subject matter, the book is very readable. I see it as a smarter alternative to other books on movies from that era – which tend to be light on substance. A highlight is the chapter on the rise of boyish rebel stars like James Dean and Montgomery Clift, who became popular as a reaction to the uncomplicated WWII hero types who previously dominated the screen. Another chapter that stands out is called “The Age of the Chest,” discussing the era’s obsession with male chests on film and in movie posters. If you have an interest in old movies, I highly recommend this one."

Melanie lives and works in Washington, D.C. She writes mmmetropolis, a blog about books and food.

Oh Snap!: The Happiest Place On A Bibliophile's Earth

2010-02-05T10:30:00.004-05:00

The Kansas City Library in Missouri. Swoon!

--Photo: BoredPanda

--Nicole Crowder

Uptown Literati X Clutch Weekly Reading Recommendation 2.5.10

2010-02-05T09:15:00.003-05:00

Who: Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Junot Díaz

What: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Díaz’ sophomore novel that created a literary firestorm for it’s stunning and fantastical account of a multi-generational family haunted by a supposed curse, the fuku. Told in brilliant color and dialogue, Díaz is able to narrate in the voice of four different characters, infusing his dialogue with Dominican vernacular and poetic prose to illustrate life’s tumultuous and satisfying moments.

Why: The Brief Wondrous Life is a book whose hype has not overshadowed its magnificence and beauty. Díaz manages to merge important literary references with relevant pop culture without skipping a beat. At once hysterical and heartbreaking, Díaz’ novel illustrates a people navigating through pain, love, violence, and redemption, with the stubborn tenacity of their character and the omnipresence of divinity guiding them.

Rating: 5 stars

--Nicole Crowder

Oh Snap! Kate's Books

2010-02-02T12:13:00.002-05:00

When I open emails from accessories retailers, I don't expect to see gorge images of women reading, but sometimes I do. This arrived in my email this morning from queen of the cute person, Kate Spade.

And, really, we all know love of reading and great style go hand-in-hand, right?

--Whitney

Uptown Literati X Clutch Weekly Reading Recommendation 1.29.10

2010-01-29T09:24:00.000-05:00

Who: Activist and Author Beverly Bell; Foreword by Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat

What: Walking on Fire: Haitian Women’s Stories of Survival and Resistance, a diverse collection of istwa, Haitian Creole for “both story and history.” After a proud, rousing foreword by Haiti’s high priestess of Literature, Krik? Krak! author Danticat, Bell sweeps readers into the multi-layered ’90s world of Haitian women. While Bell’s introductory passages are more academic, with passages on the island’s political history and women’s movement, they create a perfect balance to the often emotional stories of the 38 Haitian women storytellers.

The women represent the full range of Haiti’s ethnic and economic diversity, from Lise-Marie Dejean, former Minister of the Status and Rights of Women, to “Tibebe,” the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy man and a maid, who was given away and raised as a restavék, a child slave. Full of hope and the unyielding résistance that led their ancestors to rebel centuries ago, these women walked on fire and lived to tell the tale.

Why: Any story or book or historical knowledge that helps us understand the people of Haiti and their spirit, right now and in the futire, is a good thing.

Hedes & Dekes: Author J.D Salinger Dies

2010-01-28T13:56:00.006-05:00

The Washington Post has reported that one of the great American writers, J.D Salinger, has passed away. He was 91. [Washington Post]

--Uptown Literati

Hedes & Dekes: Battle For Camus' Grave, iPad Inks Deal with Publishers

2010-01-28T09:58:00.012-05:00

One of France's most beloved writers, Albert Camus, died in a car crash 50 years ago this month. However, the issue of where his final resting place should be has sparked debate between French president Nicolas Sarkozy and a tiny village in Lourmain, where Camus lived until the time of his death. NPR breaks down the controversy as France commemorates one of it's literary and philosophical heroes. [NPR]

In other literary news: Apple's new iPad offers book publishers a deal to compete with Amazon's monopoly on the e-reading industry. Random House appears to be the only holdout. [NYT]

Lit Talk: Author Jonathan Safran Foer on 'Eating Animals'

2010-01-19T16:56:00.006-05:00

Jonathan Safran Foer is known for acclaimed novels such as Everything Is Illuminated. Foer was an on-again, off-again vegetarian for years. But the birth of his son led Foer to ask: Was it right to feed his son meat? The result is Eating Animals, his new book on the moral, environmental and health quandaries involved. USA Today's Elizabeth Weise spoke with Foer.

USA: So should everyone be a vegetarian?

Foer: My book is not a case for vegetarianism. It's a case against factory-farmed meat. Basically, that's meat where animals are raised in enclosures, where they don't get to see the sun, don't get to touch the Earth, and they're almost always fed drugs to keep them from getting sick or make them grow faster.

I think there are a lot of responsible conclusions one could reach (about whether to eat animals). There's selective meat-eating (from responsible growers), there's being a vegetarian.

The thing I can't respect is the willful forgetting, the kind of people who say "I simply don't want to think about it."

USA: What was it that you found so morally problematic about factory-farmed pigs and chickens, the focus of your book?

Foer: The rule is animals in tiny cages where they can't turn around, in just this very ordinary kind of misery. The just insane vastness of the industry, 50 billion animals that are factory-farmed every year. It actually just boggles the mind.

USA: What were your assumptions going in?

Foer: That raising animals for food had to necessarily involve a kind of carelessness or violence. And in the process of writing this book, I met a number of small farmers who aren't that way. If my book has heroes, it's some of these small farmers. I was surprised by how moved I was by those farmers. And how statistically negligible they were.

USA: How many are there?

Foer: I thought such farmers might comprise half or a quarter of American agriculture. In fact it's significantly less than 1%. If there's a tragedy in the book, it's that those farmers are the exceptions. (In his book, Foer describes visiting small, boutique pig and cattle farms where animals are given ample space in conditions that at least attempt to allow them natural behaviors and social conditions.)

USA: What about people who can't afford to buy expensive meat from small farms?

Foer: It's exactly the opposite that's true. Factory-farmed food is an elitist food; it's a food that's making hundreds of millions of dollars for CEOs of corporations at the expense of normal people. Yes, it seems cheap when we go to the supermarket, but that's because we're being lied to about the true costs. We pay for them in our health care costs, the destruction of the environment and our values. What we call cheap food is the most expensive food in American history.

USA: But is it realistic to expect that people will stop eating meat because of a moral stance?

Foer: Sometimes we take apart very big things because we come to terms with the ways they're wrong. It's easy to forget that we had slaves in this country until quite recently, we treated women as second-class citizens who didn't have the right to vote until very recently, racism is something we're still working with. These things that have been going on forever can change very quickly.

USA: What suggestions do you have for people who take your research to heart?

Foer: One way is to stop eating meat entirely. Another way is to say, "I don't want to eat that kind of meat, but I still want to, so I'm going to seek out small farmers who raise the pigs and chickens outside."

USA: What choice did you make?

Foer: Not to eat meat. It would be very hard for me to reject factory farming without not eating meat, because I don't really have the time or energy or expertise to know where the meat comes from. (For those who have the time, Foer suggests buying at farmers' markets from farmers themselves after visiting their farms.)

USA: Do you think eventually everyone will be vegetarian?

Foer: There's a very good chance that there's going to be a rejection of factory farming. I think that will happen in my lifetime. The trend has been away from meat. People are eating less meat every year.

USA: You're a novelist. What responses have you gotten about writing a treatise like this one?

Foer: I've been very, very happy with the response I've gotten. Even if they say "I'm still going to eat meat, but you've given me a lot to think about."

USA: Will you be doing more books like this?

Foer: No. Novels.

Text from USAToday.com. See the interview here.

Recognize! Martin Luther King, Jr.

2010-01-18T11:06:00.002-05:00

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Voices: Learning the Rules in 'Girls in Trucks'

2010-01-16T14:15:00.003-05:00

Sarah Walters is a woman who has followed the rules her entire life, like most of us. Unlike most of us, her rules were passed down over generations of Camellias, women at the top-most rung of Charleston's social ladder. It's a public society that's anything but Democratic. Camellias are born, not made: If you're mother is one, then you are. For life. No matter what.

"'Never chase men or buses,' my mother told me. 'Another one will always come along,'" writes Sarah, whose struggles meeting expectations are what make this book by first-time novelist Katie Crouch so relatable and interesting.

With a slow start that follows Sarah and the three other Camellias her age, Bitsy, Charlotte and Annie, through middle-school Cotillion training, it's clear as the story develops why Crouch spent so much time developing the traditional South Carolina enclave of Sarah's youth.

Sarah as a heroine is a little bland and things happen to her, not with her or by her. She observes the increasingly bizarre sequence of experiences that happen when her domineering older sister moves to Yale, when she and wild-child Charlotte met country boys who lure them away from high-society duties and even when she goes away to a no-name Northern college.

The novel moves into familiar coming-of-age territory when Sarah moves to New York to work in journalism, joined by Charlotte, now in the fashion industry, and Bitsy. This is where she searches for love and where Crouch explores the frighteningly submissive personalities of her heroines. Sarah dates a man who changes her life and accepts, if not encourages, his violent sexual behavior. Bitsy marries a wealthy older man, who is later revealed to be selfish, uncaring and unfeeling. Annie dates men who don't love her. Charlotte, the most sensible, falls in love with mind-altering substances.

I wonder if these women are supposed to represent some aspect of femininity that exists in every woman because something, the fear of being alone or the fear of not being enough or the fear of being unloved, keeps all of them from searching for or choosing healthy relationships.

At one point Sarah remembers what her mother taught her about men, "that no mater what, there's always something. Fall in love and you'll find it. He will steal, or drink, or dress up in your clothes, or die on you at dinner. That's love, she says. That's what you sign up for."

Sarah is at her best when she is honest and feeling about the emotions that most of us only occasionally stumble upon. After almost screwing up her sister's wedding she tells her, "'There's a lot wrong with me,'" before continuing with, "I tell her I'm sorry again, which she waves off. I am sort of always sorry. I am sorry for being drunk on her wedding day and for not being good enough for Max and for not being smart enough for her friends and for breaking her toe with a hockey stick when I was twelve. God, I am sorry. I am sorry for so many things that I should go outside and swim to Cuba."

Emotionally numb, our heroine stumbles through the rest of the novel looking for electrifying love to shock her out of her numb funk. She finds it, in an unexpected place, and ends up right where she started: among the mama, baby and grandbaby Camellias of Charleston.

-- Whitney Teal

Lit Talk: Melissa Hart, Author of 'Gringa'

2010-01-13T12:58:00.005-05:00

Author Melissa Hart's complex and dynamic childhood is the subject of her latest book, Gringa: A Contradictory Childhood. She spoke with The Urban Muse about the inspiration:

Urban Muse: Tell us about the inspiration behind Gringa.

Melissa Hart: Inspiration comes to me in the form of images--in the case of Gringa, I recalled a pack of Spanish flash cards that my mother had when we took language classes together at the local library. I couldn't get one image--a line drawing of a disembodied ear--out of my head. Really, it was that flash card that provided the initial inspiration to sit down and write the first chapter. I'd told part of my story--about my mother coming out and losing custody of me and my younger siblings--in my first memoir, The Assault of Laughter. However, I didn't feel that I'd written the story as eloquently or thoroughly as I could have, and so I set out to write it once more and expand upon it with more sophisticated prose and a greater sense of how the dissolution of my family affected me as a young adult. I'd also been reading memoir and fiction with recipes--Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate, Diana Abu-Jaber's The Language of Baklava--and as food provided comfort and intrigue for me as an adolescent, I structured each chapter around a key recipe.

UM: Was it difficult to write about events that are so deeply personal?

MH: It is difficult to write about personal events. After almost thirty years, I still have a lot of pain regarding what happened to my family. Many women with kids who came out during the 1970s and 1980s lost custody of their children, and most don't want to discuss this. However, I think it's a critical period of history that needs to be explored, and while I shed many tears during my writing of Gringa, I also feel confident that this book offers insight into LGBT families and their value. The hardest scene for me to see in print is the sex scene in "Young Americans." I didn't want to include it, but my editor thought it was important. It's not erotic--more "theater of the absurd"--but I blush to think that my journalism students and my grandparents have read it.

UM: In addition to two memoirs, you've published a number of essays. Any tips on writing compelling essays? How is it the same (or different) from writing a memoir?

MH: Essay writing can be so much fun. It requires a lot less time commitment and research than a book-length memoir; however, many of the writing techniques are the same. You have to go into an essay with a compelling introduction, and the whole piece is guided by a thesis (that is, a topic and a point you wish to make about that topic). I think it's important to include research, so that readers learn something about a subject, and you also need to include sensory details, stylish writing, vivid imagery, and a conclusion that really leaves people thinking. I get a lot of my ideas from what I'm thinking about or learning about at the time--for instance, I've just finished an essay exploring Jim Henson's "The Muppet Show," which was so important to my family in the 1980s, and which my three-year old daughter now adores. The trick was to make it personal, while exploring a universal truth and offering readers insight into the program and its influences on audiences then and now.

UM: Since you also teach journalism, what is the single most important thing that you impart to students each semester?

MH: I think the single most important thing I impart is that publication doesn't have to be this far-off dream that one spends years pursuing. It's something that can happen within a few weeks of learning a few crucial skills, such as constructing a compelling short essay and submitting it to specifically-targeted editors with a succinct cover letter. My Feature Writing 1 students regularly get published in places including The Washington Post, The Oregonian, Horizon Air Magazine, and High Country News. They're amazed that editors are willing to publish their work, but why not, if they've worked hard at multiple drafts and submitted a polished piece?

UM: What books would you say should be required reading for aspiring essayists and/or memoir writers?

MH: I'm an evangelist for Sue William Silverman's Fearless Confessions: A Writer's Guide to Memoir [ed. note: Sue has also shared her insights on this blog]. It's simply the most thorough and inspiring book I've found for memoir writers, regardless of the level of experience. And I regularly read and assign the "Best American" series to my students; in particular, I like "Best American Magazine Writing" and "Best American Essays." I also really enjoy the writing in the literary journals "Creative Nonfiction" and "Fourth Genre." They're essential reading for memoirists.

-- Whitney Teal

Recognize! Happy Black Girl Day

2010-01-07T12:46:00.017-05:00

Are you on Twitter? We are (@UptownLiterati) and we follow an amazing "twibe" of folks, mostly women, and largely women of color. Today, one (@SisterToldja) declared January 7 #HappyBlackGirlDay. How much do we love that?

If you're looking to celebrate offline, check out some of my favorite #HappyBlackGirlDay books:

What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage. What would you do if you found out you were HIV-positive? For the heroine in my absolute favorite Cleage novel, you'd move to Idlewild, fall in love with an honest-to-God Black Adonis and raise a little bald baby girl. Happy Black Girl game proper.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. I read this book in high school and was so moved by Janie's determination to be a happy Black girl amid a town and culture that ignored and continually stepped on the dreams of her kind. In the words of Alice Walker, "There is no book more important to me than this one."

The Accidental Diva by Tia Williams. Inspired by shows like "Sex & The City" and the exploding Chick Lit genre of the '90s, Tia (who is currently Essence.com's Beauty Director) wanted to show that brown girls were there, living the life too. This book is very cute and funny and full of hot, steamy Black love. (Check the Clutch review, too).

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange. A classic celebration of Black girls in all their glory: Triumphs and Tribulations, Hurts and Happiness.

Twibe-member @MlleMitchell tweeted this amazing line from the play: "I found God in myself/and I loved her/I loved her fiercely." (via @sherealcool)

Black Girl in Paris by Shay Youngblood: Travel with this young Black woman all the way to Paris in pursuit of her passion, following in the footsteps of literary geniuses like James Baldwin, whom she revered. It reads like poetry, walking you through the protagonist's amazing journey and drawing you in with every intense emotion along the way. -- Nikita Mitchell

--Whitney Teal

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-26T20:25:00.003-05:00

Hope you're enjoying the holidays (and the extra time to read) with the people that you love!

--Whitney

Green Living: Make Use of Your Books

2009-12-19T15:51:00.000-05:00

Over at Apartment Therapy, they've featured a cool post on how to reuse your vintage books. You know. The ones collecting dust but you are loathe to get rid of? Well, bust out the creative thinking and a few old pieces of furniture and voila!

Photos: Apartment Therapy

SheReads: Bessie, The Fabulous Do-Gooder

2009-12-18T11:48:00.011-05:00

SheReads looks at the reading lists of cool chicks. If you want to be featured, send an email to uptown.literati@gmail.com.

We are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness by Alice Walker. "This book is a beautiful collection of essays and speeches by Walker that reflects wisdom, compassion, and social activism. This book took me on a journey with Alice Walker as she wrote about everything from childbirth, to love, to womanism, sexism, and life."

When Chicken Heads Come Home to Roost: A Hip Hop Feminist Breaks It Down by Joan Morgan. "I read this book in college but I still pick it up and read it every now and then, that is how much of an impact this book has had on my life. This book speaks on the reality of being an African-American woman and touched on male-female relationships in the African-American community. I was definitely able to see myself in several of the chapters."

A Piece of Cake by Cupcake Brown. "This book about redemption chronicles the life of the author as she goes through abuse, neglect, prostitution, and then on to college and law school to become a successful lawyer and, now, author. I love stories of redemption, because in life we will all enter a season that will end in redemption at one point or another."

Bessie is an Atlanta-based young women's advocate and social entrepreneur who's equal parts fabulous and philanthropic. Catch up with her at Twitter.com/FabDoGooder or via her Web site, TheFabulousDoGooder.com.

Voices: The Egalitarian Chick on 'Push' by Sapphire

2009-12-15T11:46:00.006-05:00

We came across this review of Push by Sapphire, which is now a Golden Globe-nominated film. Check it out:

I love it when a book--any book--is hot property. This is certainly the case these days for Push, which I bought from a book vendor on 125th street. because the title was so popular the weekend Precious came out he had to summon another vendor who came sprinting down the street, book in hand.

So is Push any good, hype aside? Yes. It's a quick read, and a painful read--Sapphire doesn't pull any punches and her heroine suffers every kind of tribulation imaginable--but I found it incredibly worthwhile first as an example of experimental narrative, second as an incredibly real window into a place and time and a person's psyche.

Read the rest at The Egalitarian Bookworm.

--Whitney

Uptown Literati Gift Guide, Part II: For the Kiddies

2009-12-09T11:19:00.025-05:00

It's back! Part two of the Uptown Literati Gift Guide is dedicated to the wee ones in your life: your kids, nieces and nephews, cousins, and every other little person with an appreciation for books.

Fancy Nancy: Splendiferous Christmas [Ages: 3-6, Jane O’Conner ($10.00, Amazon): All the rage right now, the Fancy Nancy series has a special Christmas story for the young and imaginative minds in your life. For Nancy there is nothing better than fanciness and nothing fancier than Christmas. The New York Times loves the Fancy Nancyseries, stating “Nancy's joy is infectious, and her over-the-top elegant vocabulary pays off in a warm twist.”

The Polar Express [Ages: 5-8], Chris Van Allsburg ($11.07, Amazon): Republished just in time for your holiday shopping (well, really for the release of the film starring Tom Hanks), this book tells the classic tale of the young boy who experiences a Christmas Eve every kid dreams of. Up waiting for the sound of Santa on his rooftop, he discovers the Polar Express outside his home. Already filled with children, the train takes them on an adventure to the North Pole that he never forgets.

The Princess and the Frog [Ages: 8-12], Irene Trimble ($4.99, Amazon): Every little girl wants to be a princess. Now young black girls everywhere have one to call their own. This “junior novelization” is a great way to get your little princess reading chapter books. Not only will she be enthralled with the enchanting love story of Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen, but she will be delighted to have eight full-color pages of scenes from the movie.

A Really Short History of Nearly Everything [Ages: 9-12], Bill Bryson ($11.69, Amazon): Perfect for the child in your life who can’t stop asking “Why?” about nearly everything. This book will help them understand the fundamentals of the coolest science concepts out there, from atoms to astrology to energy. It’s all there. The best thing about putting this book in their hands? Shhhh… They won’t even know they’re learning.

What do you think of the list? Tweet your reactions to @UptownLiterati!

--Nikita Mitchell

Uptown Literati Gift Guide, Part I: For the Ladies

2009-12-02T14:57:00.006-05:00

It's here! Part one of the official Uptown Literati Gift Guide is dedicated to all the fly gals in your life: mom, sister, aunt or maybe your best friend. A good book is always the perfect holiday gift, especially if you choose one of these:

Changing My Mind, Zadie Smith ($17.79, Amazon): Smith's latest is a collection of essays by the award-winning novelist. It's great for the woman that appreciates witty discourse in short chunks (i.e. a train or bus commuter). We haven't read the book yet, but Amazon.com says the subjects range from "literature, movies, going to the Oscars, British comedy, family, feminism, Obama, Katharine Hepburn, and Anna Magnani."

Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat ($14.61, Amazon): Cupcakes are huge these days, with designer creations going for upwards of $4 a pop. With everyone tightening their belt and everyone and their mama thinking their something of a domestic goddess, why not gift your favorite girl with a guide to whipping up these simple pleasures?

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz ($10.08, Amazon): According to many, Diaz is the best young writer this side of the pond. If you love his writing, pass it on! Oscar Wao, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, is a great introduction to his amazing talent. And, in the words of book tweeter @TatianaRichards: "@uptownliterati The Alchemist, Oscar Wao & Daddy Was a Number Runner are my faves to give!"

Girl Trouble, Holly Goddard Jones ($10.19, Amazon): After reading a great review from Oprah.com, this short story collection immediately made its way to our Wish List. The site describes the books with "the eight stories collected here poignantly dissect a group of trapped people—mothers, lovers, students, dads—all doing the best they can."

Other books to consider:

Girls in Trucks, Katie Crouch

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, ZZ Packer

To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism, Foreword by Rebecca Walker

Nanny Returns, Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus (will be released on December 15)

What do you think of the list? Tweet your reactions to @UptownLiterati!

--Whitney Teal

Oh Snap!: 'Glee'-ful About Vonnegut

2009-12-01T16:48:00.003-05:00

Quinn Fabray of 'Glee' may be working it out with all kinds of accessories, but the one thing a girl can never have too much of is a good read.

--Nicole

Photo: Jezebel

Uptown Literati x Clutch Weekly Reading Recommendation 11.20.09

2009-11-30T09:39:00.002-05:00

Who: African-American novelist Colson Whitehead

What: Sag Harbor. The story of a black teen belonging to a community of upper class African-American professionals and his growth out of pre-pubescence and into self-awareness during summers spent at the gated community Sag Harbor. Using diction and cultural references that lends themselves to the era—the 1980s—Whitehead paints a colorful and humorous sketch of a black teen during the days when ice cream color shirts and jeans, high- top shoes and fades were new fashion statements and not a throwback. Whitehead’s protagonist Benji Cooper is an all-white-prep-school-attending-Lite FM listening-Fangoria magazine-loving teen during the fall and winter back in Manhattan. But during the summers at Sag Harbor his mannerisms morph into a dap-giving-Run-DMC-listening-slang-talking kid. It’s this dichotomy of self in different environments that Whitehead explores in his fourth book.

Why: Using humor in literature requires skill, especially when tackling the issue of race identity. Whitehead’s humor adds a new dimension to the discussion of what it means to “act white” or “act black” without diminishing the significance of the conversation. Through Benji, Whitehead questions what is stereotypical behavior and attitudes of a young black man? How does he fit into or evade the box of black identity? But Whitehead does not approach this question with resentment. Instead, he employs nostalgia to transport the reader back to when they, too, were a teen and how confusing, awkward, and memorable it was for a lot of people, despite your race.

Rating: 3.5 stars

--Nicole Crowder

Oh Snap! McCainin' It

2009-11-24T12:19:00.003-05:00

Actress Rachel True got a dose of inspiration from Meghan McCain's now-infamous Twitpic while reading Feminista.

Photo: The Feminista Files

-- Whitney Teal

Uptown Literati x Clutch Weekly Reading Recommendation 11.13.09

2009-11-19T11:04:00.003-05:00

The Weekly Reading Recommendation is a weekly book column written by Uptown Literati's editors for Clutch.

Who: Novelist Sue Monk Kidd

What: The Secret Life of Bees, Kidd’s well-loved novel, which was turned into a popular film last summer. Imbuing much of Kidd’s own colorful childhood, the story is narrated by motherless teen Lily Owens. Along with her Black caretaker Rosaleen, the girl is forced to flee her hometown in 1960’s South Carolina and winds up in the care of the eccentric Boatwright sisters, who are a brand of sophisticated African-Americans that Lily has never encountered. She and Rosaleen experience a short, dreamy reprieve from their usual lives, which were previously filled with longing (for Lily) and animosity (for Rosaleen), before more tragedies strike.

Why: Centering on an orphan’s heart-felt discoveries, the book is emotional and earthy, almost to the point of being overly emotional. Although narrated by White Lily, most of the characters are Black and there is a reverential tone to many of the characterizations that borders on being offensive. But despite flaws, the novel is a celebration of family and sisterhood.

Rating: 3 stars

-- Whitney Teal

SheReads: Christina: Not-So-Mad Scientist

2009-11-13T11:28:00.005-05:00

SheReads looks at the reading lists of cool chicks. If you want to be featured, send an email to uptown.literati@gmail.com.

Christina's favorites...

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

“Give me anything in this whole fu*king world that is exactly what it looks like. Flash.” Chuck Palahniuk is one of my all time favorite authors; I am strangely attracted to dark comedies where nothing is as it seems at first glance and nothing is as it should be. Invisible Monsters definitely fits this description. This freak show features a horribly disfigured fashion model, a transsexual who is one operation away from becoming a “real woman” and a two-faced pedophile police officer. Together, they embark on a road trip through the U.S. …let the fun begin!"

Delaying the Real World: A Twentysomething’s Guide to Seeking Adventure by Colleen Kinder

"I have to hide this book on my bookshelf because otherwise I end up flipping through the pages and daydreaming of adventures in faraway places, rather than doing anything I am actually supposed to be doing. Consisting of practical advice, organization and program resources and inspirational stories from others, it’s the perfect book to read if you just graduated from college, are not going straight on to a professional job or grad school and everybody in your life is asking 'So, what are you doing now?'"

Less than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

"'I want to see the worst.' If you thought Catcher in the Rye was depressing, then you must have never read Less Than Zero. The novel follows Clay, the young protagonist, as he returns home from college to L.A. for the winter holidays. All his rich and spoiled friends and former classmates are on drugs, having lots of risky sex and generally up to no good. As the days drag on, Clay is faced with several decisions about getting back together with his girlfriend, rekindling old friendships and continuing his education. Even though I am not as wealthy as Clay and his friends, I experienced many similar thoughts, feelings and situations upon returning home from school."

..and her current reads:

Secrets of the Model Dorm by Amanda Kerlin and Phil Oh

"Drama, drama, drama! Basically, this book is America’s Next Top Model in literary form. I am more than slightly embarrassed to be listing this book as one of my current reads, but it is a welcome escape from the monotony that has become my life as of late."

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

"Okay, so I admit it… I lost this book in the midst of cleaning my room. I started reading it when I began planning my escape to London. I loved the endless adventure that the group of friends experienced and it made me long for simpler times (before I was born) when our country (and the world, for that matter) seemed like a less dangerous place."

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

"Being a huge Vonnegut fan, it may seem odd that I have not read this particular book yet, but I was too lazy to request it at the library (their copy was always checked out) and too broke to pay more than a few dollars for it. Finally, I had a bit of luck finding it at Half Price Books."

Christina is a twenty-something grad school hopeful (she wants to study public health and psychology) who obsesses over her growing hair, daydreaming about far-off places, rediscovering her sewing machine and pomegranates. She can be found at Last.fm.

Zadie Smith Talks with NPR

2009-11-12T14:20:00.003-05:00

For today's Zadie Smith fix, check out this recent interview the author did over at our favorite radio station and yours, NPR.

Smith gets candid about her writing process (spoiler: she doesn't write everyday. but would like to), criticism, and her latest collection of essays Changing My Mind. Check the interview to also read an excerpt from Smith's book of essays. Don't you just want to be her friend? We do!

Photo courtesy Roderick Field

Around the Web: Miley Cyrus and Porn, But Not Together

2009-11-05T15:10:00.002-05:00

It’s like a car accident: you don’t want to look, but you just have to. That is, Miley Cyrus’s new Wal-Mart collection. [via The Frisky]

A good citizen calls the police to report a drunk driver. A better citizen calls and reports herself. [via Jezebel]

Dakota Fanning was just crowned her high school’s homecoming queen—that must have been a shocker. Check out a gallery of other celebrities who got the royal treatment from an early age. [via The Daily Beast]

Clutch gives us a list of the symptoms of “racism in treatment”: could you be afflicted? [via Clutch]

Porn magazines often depict women who have been so injected, enhanced, and airbrushed that they’re hardly real. In its November issue, Playboy takes things a step farther. [via Feministing]

Reflect on Halloween with this gallery of the admirable costume efforts of residents of New York’s Lower East Side. [via Nerve]

SheReads: Toni: Reader, Writer, Sewer

2009-10-23T13:46:00.007-04:00

SheReads looks at the reading lists of cool chicks. If you want to be featured, send an email to uptown.literati@gmail.com.

Feminista by Erica Kennedy

"At first glance, you might think this is another chick-lit book, but upon closer inspection you realize this is much more. The main character, Sydney, already has it all: a well-paying seemingly glamorous job, access to the hottest clothes & celebrities. But she wants more - deeper relationships and a more meaningful career. Along the way she works to reconcile her feminist side with that of her fashionista side. Hence Feminista!"

Daughters of the Stone by Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa

"Beautifully written saga of five generations of Afro-Puerto Rican descent that shows all of their power, resilience and vulnerability. The stone in the title, along with some powers of magic are passed along from female to female among the descendants of Fela, an African women sold into slavery in Puerto Rico. Relationships between mothers and daughters are fully explored here with all the complications that entails. While some turn their back on the magic and "old ways" of their ancestors, the stories and the stone always endure and the generations are brought full circle in their journey."

Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey

"Great book by a first time novelist. Wife of The Gods is a mystery set in a small village in Ghana. A young female med student is murdered in Ketanu on her way home from distributing information about AIDS. Her murder is pinned on a local boy widely thought to be a troublemaker. Darko Dawson, an investigator in Accra, is called in from the big city to help solve the crime. When the Chief of Police, who resents having him there, is convinced that it is an open and shut case, Dawson must continue to pursue the truth on his own. If you like The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, you will like this also."

The Island of Eternal Love by Daina Chaviano

"I love any and all things Cuban and am always on the lookout for fiction about the island. I initially picked up this book at work because the cover was so pretty! Cecilia is a Cuban-born Miami resident who still hasn't made peace with her new home. Longing for her past in Cuba, she befriends an old woman in a bar in Little Havana. The woman enthralls her with stories of their homeland that wind through history and weave in all of the cultures, African, Spanish & Chinese, that make up the people there. These stories also hold a clue to Cecilia's restlessness."

On the nightstand now...The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

"He is not the greatest writer, and I thought I was done with him after The Da Vinci Code. But this book takes place in D.C. and that's my hometown, so I feel kind of obligated to read it."

Toni is a an avid reader, blogger, Twitterer and all around fab chick. Check her out on her site, Sew Transformed , on GoodReads and at Twitter.com/mshoni.

--Whitney Teal

Lifestyle Gumbo: No Bookshelf, No Problem

2009-10-21T10:02:00.006-04:00

Julia Roitfeld, a New York socialite who happens to be the daughter of French Vogue's editrix, is featured on photographer Todd Selby's site, The Selby. Among her other treasures, the photog snapped her books, which are stacked neatly on the floor, no bookshelf needed.

-- Whitney Teal

Talk Back!

2009-10-17T12:37:00.013-04:00

How do you really feel?!

Tell us in this Uptown Literati Survey! Answer any or all of the questions, then leave other remarks in the comments section.

Oh Snap!: The How To Make A Bibliophile Hyperventilate Version

2009-10-16T15:29:00.004-04:00

Water, water, everywhere....

--Samantha Tungul

Photo: strollerderby

The Teacher's Lounge: Dr. Carol Pippen

2009-10-15T08:10:00.007-04:00

The Teacher's Lounge eavesdrops on professors from various disciplines at universities across the country to find out what they're reading when they're not assigning you 12-page dissertations...due in two weeks.

Dr. Carol Pippen is a professor at Towson University and a scholar on Jane Austen. She supervises the ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages) Writing Lab program as well as hosts yearly trips to England for students to retrace the life of Jane Austen.

UL: What is the name of the course you teach?

Dr. Pippen: I teach writing courses and courses on Jane Austen. I sometimes fill in for other teachers; for example, I taught an American literature survey course last semester.

UL: What five books would you absolutely recommend your students or peers read?

Dr. Pippen: I'd recommend all of Jane Austen books (six), Lee Smith's Fair and Tender Ladies, and the poems of Emily Dickinson--those are the ones that come to mind immediately.

UL: where do you shop for books?

Dr. Pippen: I buy books on-line, at college bookstores, and at the Smith College Book Sale each year. I choose books from the ones I hear about from many sources; I check out bookstores; and I read Bookmark magazine. I love mysteries too.

UL: What books are currently on your personal bookshelf?

Dr. Pippen: Currently, I am pushing Jane Austen and Lee Smith.

UL: Do you have a favorite quote from a book or author that you often refer to?

Dr. Pippen: I remember Dickinson's poetry more than I do lines from novels.

UL: As a scholar whose profession involves constantly reading to analyze works, what motivates you to read on your own free time? Inspiration? Catharsis? Relaxation? For Knowledge?

Dr. Pippen: I read for all the reasons you listed. I read different books for different reasons. I also read to escape and to have travels while being at home.

--Nicole Crowder

Oh Snap!: Rub a Dub Dub...

2009-10-14T16:04:00.002-04:00

...who's reading in the tub?

--Nicole Crowder

Photo: Fuckyeahindiegirls

Author Appearance: Dr. Cornel West Visits B.Dalton

2009-10-14T09:27:00.005-04:00

Dr. Cornel West will be hitting up B.Dalton bookstore in Washington, D.C this Thursday to discuss and sign his newest memoir Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud. Check the details below!

Date: Thursday, October 15, 2009
Time: 1:00-2:00pm
Location: B. Dalton
2021 14th St. NW
Washington, D.C

Lifestyle Gumbo: Books Over My Head

2009-10-12T19:31:00.008-04:00

One of our favorite blogs, Apartment Therapy, recently posted a few ideas on how to turn an overflowing book collection into inspiring home design.

Check out some of our faves:

Here's what they wrote:

No crazy styling ideas, just books in their myriad of colors and sizes. Having shelves above doors and windows is one of my favorite ways to utilize otherwise under utilized space. If you are lucky enough to have built in ones, fantastic. If not and you desperately need more room for books — take a gander above your doors and windows. Could you put a shelf up there?

--Whitney Teal

Oh Snap!: Reading Room After Hours

2009-10-12T10:18:00.000-04:00

How about a midnight book to replace the midnight snack? We agree it's much healthier for both the mind and body. And how can one go wrong with Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita?

--Samantha Tungul

Photo by Neeru Khosla

Oh Snap!

2009-10-09T10:19:00.001-04:00

Cool, casual and comfortable reading. Exactly how it's supposed to be.

--Samantha Tungul

Photo by dreadpiraterach

SheReads: Annemarie, Travel Goddess

2009-10-09T08:32:00.004-04:00

SheReads looks at the reading lists of cool chicks. If you want to be featured, send an email to uptown.literati@gmail.com.

"Books featuring plucky girls making it in the Big City never appealed to me. When you’ve already snuck into NYC’s hottest clubs and pulled all nighters at Grey’s Papaya by age 17, you fantasize about the exact opposite: jetting out of town on a whim. Maybe that’s why I love travel so much…

These four books all agree. So, whether you live on the quiet farm and yearn for New York, or were born a hard-edged city kid who needs a break, these books present the ultimate fantasy of running away and finding yourself."

A Cook’s Tour by Anthony Bourdain: "Bourdain is an animal; a glutton. He doesn’t see the world through fanny packs full of maps, bus tokens, or recommendations from a top-notch Four Seasons concierge. In A Cook’s Tour, Bourdain brings us along as he just figures it out. It’s almost tragic, totally exciting, and always hectic, and with each stop on the No Reservations tour, the glutton becomes less animal and more complete man."

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert: "After a messy divorce, Gilbert leaves to experience the world through three different cities. She finds life in hot young men and gelato in
Rome; meditates in India; and gives up her heart in Indonesia. It’s funny and comforting to experience this type of dream getaway honestly, both the good and the bad, while Gilbert slowly rebuilds her life with better understanding of self."

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer: "Learning about our future through our past. In this Safran Foer book, our lead character does just that. In the search for a woman who saved his families life during World War II, he hops a plane to a near desolate section of the Ukraine and is led on a goose chase by a boy and his 'seeing eye bitch, Sammy Davis Jr., Jr.' On their many mishaps, our boy finds himself through ancestry and the religion he thought he gave up years ago."

[See UL's review of the book]

The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella: "What happens when the big city life you’ve devoted your entire soul to blows up in your face and leaves you with nothing? You learn how to bake pies. After making a horrific mistake at her job, Samantha Sweeting walks out of her office terrified, hops on a train to the countryside, and takes residence as a housekeeper. Without BlackBerry Messenger, she finds a tanner, healthier, happier version of herself who can truly survive in either country or city."

Annemarie is a budget travel maven, and she has the awesome blog, FrillSeekerDiary.com, to prove it. She produces Web sites to pay the bills, often wears awesome hipster glasses and does a little lifecasting at Twitter.com/TravelingAnna.

--Whitney Teal

Lifestyle Gumbo: Skateboard P hears 'The Ear'

2009-10-08T16:09:00.001-04:00

Pharrell is adding actor to his diverse resume, which includes producing and performing music and modeling, according to Sister 2 Sister. He stars in a short film directed by Yi Zhou, based on a short story by Russian writer Nikolai Gogol.

The film was inspired by "The Nose." In that work, a government officer finds that his nose has left his face and is living an independent life.

--Whitney Teal

Recognize! Herta Müller Scores Nobel Prize for Literature

2009-10-08T07:46:00.005-04:00

Here's another chick to add to your Girl Power! list. Herta Müller, a German poet and essayist, was recognized by The Swedish Academy for "the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed," reports the Associated Press. The Nobel Prize Laureate frequently writes about her experiences under the oppressing Romanian government, where she was raised.

Prior to today's announcement, Joyce Carol Oats and Philip Roth, both well-known American novelists, were thought to be the favorites for the Nobel Prize in Literature, along with Israeli writer Amos Oz. The last American to win the $1.4 million award was Toni Morrison in 1993.

Müller will receive her prize at a ceremony in Stockholm on December 10.

--Whitney Teal

The Chick Lit Chick: Meet Chick Lit's Frenemy

2009-10-06T20:56:00.008-04:00

"Bored of chick lit? Why not check out bitch lit, a new genre featuring female anti-heroes who are mad, bad and dangerous to know." -- The Guardian

Lately publishers and reviewers have been throwing out the term Bitch Lit. I recently finished reading Erica Kennedy’s Feminista, which has earned this label. Mary Sharratt, who co edited the short story collection Bitch Lit, describes the genre as “a smart and subversive celebration of female anti-heroes — women who take the law into their own hands, who defy society's expectations, who put their own needs first.”

Feminista's heroine, Sydney Zamora, definitely fits that description. Sydney's brazenly unapologetic for getting what she wants, making her the poster child for this new type of lit. Sydney isn’t out and about with the hopes of landing Mr. Right; She wants Mr. Right, right now -- and she's willing to get him by any means necessary. But it’s not just her take-charge attitude that distinguishes her from the archetypal leads in most Chick Lit novels.

"One of my goals was to write something unabashedly Chick Lit, but give it more edge to show that could be done," Kennedy told us, via her blog The Feminista Files . "I think the reason we get so annoyed when Chick Lit/flicks are just fluff is because we all basically go through the same girl shit. So I think we want these books to tell our story which is why we're so annoyed with them when they don't."

And while Kennedy purposefully "hit all the chick lit cliches," she did them in a different way. Though she has a pretty cushy magazine job, Sydney isn’t one to just throw money around recklessly. She grapples with spending $300 on a new pair of shoes, when most characters in her position would have bought them in a heartbeat.

Check out this excerpt from the book:

She was furious at him, at herself, at the world, really, but Quo was no place to make a scene. It was the überhip restaurant of the moment, the kind of New York it spot that had an unlisted phone number and a menu people called "creative." All the senior editors at Cachet had been raving that the Thai fusion fare was a-maaaaaaaaaazing, hype Sydney was disinclined to believe. It was never about the food at these places. It was about being seen.

And that was exactly what she didn’t want now. Beating a hasty retreat through the dimly lit, ridiculously pretentious subterranean dining room, Sydney flipped up the collar of her trench and donned her plaid newsboy cap, tugging the brim down low. With her healthy five-foot-nine-inch frame, bronzed skin, and chocolate waves of hair falling just past her shoulders, she stood out like a penny in the snow at these trendy hangouts where most of the women were white, blond, and thinner than Darfur refugees. Her honey-brown eyes flicked about the room, on the lookout for Omnimedia employees. The last thing she needed was for this to get back to the office. Those catty bitches (male and female) gossiped about her enough.

Sub-genre Soup

Chick Lit has seen the emergence of sub-genres like Chica Lit (Latina characters, namely in books written by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez), Hen Lit (which is aimed at 40-plus readers), and Mommy Lit (for, well, moms) in its decade-long existence and I wonder how Bitch Lit will fare. Unlike similar books, Feminista at least acknowledges the presence of non-man problems, which some say makes the book more realistic. But, do new generations of women look for characters to relate to? Or is it just nice to kick back and read about someone insanely rich, beautiful, and successful?

While Bitch Lit may be relatively new to Stateside readers, it's not exactly news to British readers. Bitch Lit was published in 2006 in the UK. A reviewer on Amazon.com described the book as, "a collection of bright, darkly funny women."

And while the verdict is still out on whether Chick Lit in general actually empowers young women (one blogger recently called the genre's books a "repetitive story line that was neither empowering or encouraging"), any author who can switch up the usual formula and add a little sass and flair gets a vote from me.

--Ashleigh Menzies

Ashleigh is a bonafide chick lit addict (with the pink collection to show for it), and will be bringing you the best of the genre every other week.

Around the Web: Judy Blume + Aunt Flow

2009-10-06T19:22:00.003-04:00

We’ve all been there: a flight across the country, a million things we could be catching up on, and we’re reading SkyMall. But maybe there’s something to be said for those cheesy in-flight magazine. [via Jezebel]

For those of us who are still smarting about missing Judy Blume at the National Book Festival, Double X brings us an interview with the controversial Young Adult fiction writer herself. [via Double X]

Want to look cute this season without poring through ad-clogged fashion mags? Clutch makes it easy with a report on Fall Fashion for Dummies. [via Clutch]

We have Women’s Studies, African American Studies, and Queer Studies. Introducing the next step in the socially conscious college majors evolution: Gat Studies. [via Bust]

In high school, “come over and watch a movie” was code for “come over and make out.” If you’ve outgrown this, take a cue from Nerve’s list of 15 Movies to Guarantee You Sleep Alone. [via Nerve]

Do we need a “menstrual activism” movement to de-stigmatize the period, or is that just bloody ridiculous? (Fun fact: a woman uses an average of 11,400 tampons in her lifetime!) [via Salon]

--Allison Geller

Oh Snap!: Instant Reading Room

2009-10-05T10:00:00.002-04:00

Amid the hustle and bustle of Bethesda, Md.'s Montgomery Mall, this gentleman finds momentary solitude with Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird.

--Nicole Crowder

Photo courtesy Whitney Teal

Recognize! UL visits the D.C Book Festival

2009-10-03T09:00:00.007-04:00

Last weekend, UL had the chance to join other giddy bibliophiles at the annual D.C Book Festival held on the National Mall. We scoped the festival grounds looking for cool readers like yourselves to find out what books they are currently reading and which authors they came to see:

Meet American University student Lauren, who we initially spotted for her adorable red-framed glasses.

"I wanted to meet Junot Diaz who wrote The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. He signed my book, and that was really nice. He was the primary author, but I’d really like to see John Irving and probably Lois Larby, if that’s possible."

"The last book I read... I’m reading a couple of books at school right now. I’m reading a book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez called Love in the Time of Cholera.

Next up are two friends M (left) +A who we spotted while checking out an author reading.

UL: Is there a particular author you came to see?

M: Not really, but there is this woman here named Sharon Robinson. When I was younger we went to see her at the National Book Fair, but I didn’t get to talk to her.

UL: What book are you both currently reading?

A: Right now I’m reading Dude, Where’s My Country? by Michael Moore.

M: My favorite book would probably be First Part Last by Angela Johnson. But right now I’m reading Gravity by Leanne Lieberman. It’s about an Orthodox teenage-Jewish girl, but then I guess she starts questioning her sexuality.

And before the rain ushered everyone under tents we bumped into mother-daughter duo Linda (left) and Jasmine.

Jasmine: I had my book signed by Jodi Picoult.

Linda: I'm hoping to catch Walter Moseley at four o'clock. I'm currently reading The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E Lawrence (also known as Laurence of Arabia).

Jasmine: I'm reading Julie & Julia.

We hope those of you in D.C area were able to check out all the goings on of the Festival last week. And meet us back here for more coverage of future book festivals and events!

SheReads: Miss Melissa, Do-Gooder-in-Training

2009-10-02T12:53:00.000-04:00

SheReads looks at the reading lists of cool chicks. If you want to be featured, send an email to uptown.literati@gmail.com.

The Ditchdigger's Daughters by Yvonne S. Thornton: "I heard this one on tape (yes, as in cassette) many moons ago, then it was made into a movie. As usual, I still love the book and it really makes me want to write a book about my family too. Synopsis: Man, a ditch digger in fact, has family of six daughters who all grow to be professionals including two doctors and a lawyer."

Big Girls Don't Cry by Connie Briscoe: "One of those books I can just keep re-reading. In this book, we watch Naomi mature and find her best personal and professional life. I felt like I was right there living, loving, being lost, being found. This is a great story you may not be able to put it down either!"

Veronika Decides to Die by Paolo Cuelho: "Just that. She decides to die and attempts suicided but suddenly she wants to live more than ever. Really makes you appreciate life."

Must Reads ("I hope to get to these before the year 2011, if life every slows down!")

The Alchemist by Paolo Cuelho: "The first book my boyfriend read and enjoyed. Ever. I want to see what it's about one of these days."
48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene and Joost Elffers: "I want to be powerful, what can I say?"
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison: "A classic. I've started and hope to finish."
Seen it All and Done the Rest by Pearl Cleage: "I LOVE Pearl Cleage. Ever since I read What Looks like Crazy on an Ordinary Day we've been together. This is her only one I have yet to read. Yippee!"

Miss Melissa is a do-gooder-in-training in Cleveland (literally; she's studying to receive a Master's in Non-Profit Organizations). Besides helping the world, she enjoys reminiscing about the glory days of smooth R&B, meeting other non-profit visionaries and reading. Catch her hilarious take on life, in 140 characters or less, at Twitter.com/MissLissa08.

--Whitney Teal

Front of Book: Sweet September

2009-10-02T06:39:00.000-04:00

It’s September: the time to follow your fourth grade teacher’s suggestion to fall into a good book. Things are not so elementary, however, in this month’s magazines’ reading suggestions.

At Vogue, Anna Wintour’s underlings are raving about the “astonishing first novel” of a bright young talent, Evie Wyld, titled After the Fire, a Small Still Voice. The story chronicles a disturbed family history, set in Australia in 1965 and today. Wyld’s gift for language and empathy for her characters makes this outback drama a good bet. Vogue also endorses Nick Hornby’s latest, Juliet, Naked. Sucker that I am for anything Hornby, this novel should be no less of a delight than, for instance, High Fidelity, whose themes of rock music and its obsessive fans are repeated in the new novel. The protagonist is a typical Hornby hero—boy in a man’s body—but the complex female character Annie asks the intriguing questions.

Over in Oprah’s ever-increasing territory is a myriad of reading suggestions. The most intriguing include Nicholson Baker’s The Anthologist, a novel about a hapless poet who just can’t find the words. The book is interspersed with wry lessons on poetry, while making insights on the paradoxes of the artistic career. Things continue on the artsy vein with Dancing in the Dark, by Morris Dickinson. While I’m biased towards anything with “dancing” in the title, the subject of this cultural history is actually the Great Depression and the art that got America through it. From the highbrow to the entertainment of the masses, the book gives an intriguing look at an era that may not be so distant. On a graver note is Strength in what Remains by Tracy Kidder, a “ young genocide survivor’s tale of escape, healing—and hope.” The book follows Deogratias, who fled Burundi for New York in 1994, from sleeping in Central Park to attending medical school, without ever turning away from the place of his birth, despite the dark stain of genocide.

This month O takes us through the bookshelf of Jennifer Garner, who says she grew up reading and believes strongly in the importance of education, which got her mother out of poverty. Books that made particular difference to Garner include Crimes of the Heart, the first play she related to, and Possession, by A.S. Byatt, which she read while struggling to find employment as an actor. A history buff, Garner also loves John Adams, as well as the Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, which she reads like a novel. If Jennifer Garner does it, it must be OK.

Elle recommends Joyce Carol Oates’ newest, Little Bird of Heaven. “Vintage Oates”, the novel is fraught with violence, ambition, sex-crazed teens, and family troubles. I’m especially intrigued by the first English translation of the trilogy Love, Anger, Madness by Marie Vieux-Chaquet. Suppressed in 1968 for exposing Haiti’s sexual, racial, and social tensions, the book evokes the terrors of life under regime in an intensely emotional way. Elle and O both recommend Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow, a work of fiction about legendary characters: the Collyer brothers, two New York hermits found dead in their apartment in 1947. Doctorow imagines the minds and lives of these two eccentrics from folklore, to compelling results.

This month’s women's mags agree on one thing: Foodie Frank Bruni’s memoir Born Round is a must-read. Just what you need to store up for the winter.

--Allison Geller

Hedes + Dekes: E. Lynn Harris Left 7 Unpublished Manuscripts

2009-10-01T14:21:00.003-04:00

The latest in the death of prolific novelist E. Lynn Harris' sudden death comes from Essence.com:

Seven unpublished manuscripts written by the late groundbreaking author E. Lynn Harris have been recovered from his computer's hard drive, according attorney Dermot Givens, who's the lawyer for Mrs. Etta Williams Harris, the late author's mother and sole heir. Computer forensic experts were able to locate and open password-protected files that were found on Mr. Harris's personal laptop. Mama Dearest, the novel Harris was working to release at the time of his death, hit bookshelves in late September 2009.

Thanks to Erica Kennedy for forwarding the link via Twitter.

--Whitney Teal

The Teacher's Lounge: Dr. H. George Hahn

2009-10-01T08:00:00.002-04:00

Dr. George Hahn is a scholar of 18th British Literature and author of several published essays and a book titled The Ocean Bards: British Poetry and the War at Sea, 1793-1815 (2008). Dr. Hahn teaches British Literature at Towson University in Towson, Maryland.

UL: What is the name of the course you teach?

Dr. Hahn: Among other courses, I teach the undergraduate Beowulf to Virginia Woolf 6-credit survey, the course in 18th-century English literature, and a graduate seminar in 18th-century satire

UL: What five books would you absolutely recommend your students or peers read?

Dr. Hahn: How about seven? Severely constricting an answer to my specialization in 18th-century England, I would name these: Addison and Steele’s Spectator papers, Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Pope’s Essay on Criticism, Fielding’s Tom Jones, Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson, and Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France along with Paine’s Rights of Man. Why these?

Put into a time capsule, together they preserve the century’s interests and style. In them we hear how Englishmen talked and argued about questions still at issue, we sample the quality and value of their wit, we return to the Golden Age of satire and the birth of the novel, we see the change from reason to emotion in the way they thought and talked over the century, we see and hear and smell both the mean streets of London and the sunny countryside of that small but important island nation.

Knowing these books is to know part of our cultural genetics as Americans. Whatever our race, ethnicity, or religion, it is certain that our language and grammar, our political and legal structures, and the basis of our laws and social customs are rooted in 18th-century England.

UL: Do you have a favorite quote from a book or author that you often refer to?

Dr. Hahn: I can’t decide. Take your pick of one of these:

-“Never take part in the nonsense that is talked about by the ignorant and uninstructed.”--Marcus Aurelius

-“True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learned to dance.”—Alexander Pope

-“The slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.”—George Orwell

UL: Are there any authors, either living who dead, you hope everyone would explore or know more about?

Dr. Hahn: Authors that I name—Charles Dibdin, Henry James Pye, Tom Carter, to name a few—are lost in time. I call them the Ocean Bards, and my latest book, published in 2008, The Ocean Bards: British Poetry and the War at Sea, 1793-1815 would be my own general answer to your question. Long before Patrick O’Brian’s novels of the great age of combat sail, a vast popular poetry abounded about that 22-year war with France when England stood alone, and war was an existential fact and not escapist fiction. Yet none of thousands of these poems, printed in newspapers and magazines and hawked as broadsides and sung in streets and on shipboards ever gets into the anthologies.

So whatever the attitudes of literary critics now, to neglect these poems is to miss an appreciation of the literary landscape then. Certainly the tall oaks of Wordsworth et al. dominate the picture, but to erase from it the thick underbrush of popular war poetry below, the war clouds above and the sea beyond is to present a false picture of literary and social history.

So the book encourages the reconstruction of that time in chapters about poems of the navy, the nation and the Ocean Bards; invasion poems; sea battle ballads; victory odes; seascapes, and sailors’ elegies.

UL: What are your incentives for reading books? For inspiration? For catharsis? For relaxation? For knowledge?

Dr. Hahn: I see older literature, history, biography, and philosophy as French doors to walk back through to listen to those professors in absentia, wise men and women long dead, who wrote those books. To me, that’s the magic of great writing. But don’t we now know much more than they did? T. S. Eliot had the answer: “Precisely, and they are that which we know.”

--Nicole Crowder

The English Major: The Importance of Reading Ernest

2009-09-30T09:11:00.002-04:00

Hemingway: Not to Be Lost In Our Time

When Ernest Hemingway wrote In Our Time, he declared in a letter that it “will be praised by highbrows and can be read by lowbrows.” The fact that it remains part of the English major canon, yet can easily be put away an hour before lecture proves that Hemingway knew what he was talking about.

The book contains many famous short stories that are often anthologized, including “The Battler,” “ Indian Camp,” and “Cat in the Rain.” However, the work is worth more than the sum of its parts. Blurring the usual genre boundaries, the stories are broken up with short italicized vignettes, unrelated in subject to the stories. Some of the stories have the same protagonist—Nick Adams—while others do not.

Yet Hemingway insisted that some thread of unity binds the work. One of the most satisfying parts of the book is pondering what that is. Reading it, I was forced to ask myself: is Hemingway’s time anything like ours, today? Is our world, too, one that cannot be evoked in a novel of chronological order and a neat plot?

Breaking out of the usual novel bubble, I’ve found as an English major, can yield satisfying results.

So why’d they give him a Pulitzer?

"I want to pull my hair back tight and smooth and make a big knot in the back that I can feel," she said. "I want to have a kitty to sit on my lap and purr when I stroke her," says “the American wife” to her husband in “A Cat in the Rain.”

In the story a young American couple lounges at an Italian hotel on a rainy day. The wife sees a cat crouching under a table at the café across the street. She decides she wants it, but goes out in the rain only to find that the cat is gone.

At the end, the maid brings the cat up to the room, telling the wife that the hotel padrone had asked her to.

And that’s it. Barely four pages of simple prose.

What, then, about Hemingway’s style makes him part of the syllabus?

The greatness of the story is that in telling so little, it reveals so much. We see that the anonymous American wife is in need of something that her husband is not giving her. We see two people pretending to be at home in a foreign land that is not just geographic.

The pull of the work is in all the things we don’t see. In all of the stories, Hemingway lays out the facts like a good journalist. Often they are violent. But he does not tell us how to feel.

In Chapter XIII, one of the italicized portions on bullfighting, the last lines are spoken by the famous bullfighter Maera: “Yes. We kill them. We kill them all right. Yes. Yes. Yes.

And that is what we are left with.

Like any great work of fiction, you can return to these stories again and again, but not because the paragraphs are heavy with symbolism or tied up in clauses. Hemingway also said that his stories were like icebergs—1/8^th visible above water. Because he chooses that 1/8^th so carefully, we must continually dive below to see the rest.

Hemingway the Macho Man

Hemingway often gets labeled as a misogynistic he-man. This isn’t a misrepresentation. Hemingway’s heroes are always men, always detached and unwilling to lay out their feelings. Hemingway knew war to be a defining experience for a writer, and was fascinated by the ritual brutality of bullfighting. Guts, gore, and death were subjects he embraced.

But that’s not to say that his work lacks emotional texture. While the violence in the stories of In Our Time does not always go down easily, there is a subtle psychology to the journalistic description that renders it even more emotionally powerful. The Nick Adams character that we follow throughout the book also leads us subtly to dark emotional terrain, particularly in the two-part ending story “Big Two-Hearted River.” Here is a man scarred by war, reluctant to confront his own mind, and verging between happiness and despair.

Though of course, from first read all he seems to be doing is fishing some trout.

It’s always a struggle to find time for pleasure reading, let alone a space big enough for so-called “literature.” But whether you’re a highbrow, a lowbrow, or somewhere in between, it’ll be worth your while to make time for In Our Time.

--Allison Geller

Allison is an undergraduate English major at the University of Virginia, and a regular contributor to Uptown Literati. Her column, "The English Major," appears every other Wednesday.

Oh Snap!: The Charming Reader

2009-09-30T09:00:00.001-04:00

A beautiful forest creature is spotted; a bookish 'indie' boy enjoys a sweet escape among the elements.

--Nicole Crowder

Photo: Fuckyeahindieboys

Zora Told Countee: Hurston's Letter to Countee Cullen

2009-09-29T14:00:00.001-04:00

As part of their "American Masters" series, PBS published a letter from Zora Neale Hurston to Countee Cullen. Besides addressing the writer's views on white liberals, segregation and Negro writers, it's beautifully written and full of Hurston's famous personality.

March 5, 1943

Dear Countee:

Thanks a million for your kind letter. I am always proud to have a word of praise from you because your friendship means a great deal to me. It means so much to me because I have never known you to make an insincere move, neither for personal gain, nor for malice growing out of jealousy of anyone else. Then too, you are my favorite poet now as always since you began to write. I have always shared your approach to art. That is, you have written from within rather than to catch the eye of those who were making the loudest noise for the moment. I know that hitch-hiking on band-wagons has become the rage among Negro artists for the last ten years at least, but I have never thumbed a ride and can feel no admiration for those who travel that way. I have pointed you out on numerous occasions as one whose integrity I respected, and whose example I wished to follow.

Head to PBS.org for the full text. Thanks to Dream Hampton for spreading the link via Twitter.

--Whitney Teal

Around the Web: Lipstick Tomboys + Sexy Librarians

2009-09-29T10:45:00.002-04:00

Pastel prints? Fashion mags? Abbreviated words? If these things make you shudder, you may just be a “lipstick tomboy.” [via Clutch]

Does objecting to sexism make you a “ranty-pant”? I don’t know, but we think we’ll start using that word. [via Jezebel]

In a completely unscientific but nonetheless fascinating survey, the UK’s Daily Mail asks women to rate men from various countries on their bedroom abilities, as reported by Bust. [via Bust]

You’ll want to flush your contact solution down the drain when you check out these “sexy librarian-inspired” glasses. Tortoiseshell never looked so good. [via The Frisky]

We sometimes wish Sex and the City were real, with its sparkly, punny dialog and glamorous clothing. But according to this writer-cum-extra, being cast in the new movie is nothing short of a nightmare. [via The Daily Beast]

Photo: Clutch

Oh Snap!: Behold, the Power!

2009-09-28T09:00:00.001-04:00

Paris Hilton takes a drive over to Book Soup in West Hollywood and finds herself engrossed in The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene.

--Nicole Crowder

Photo by London Entertainment/Splash News

Oh Snap!: Only the Essentials...

2009-09-25T10:00:00.001-04:00

Fashion blogger and bibliophile Olivia does a little shopping for vintage accessories and steals away with Steinbeck and Hemingway.

--Nicole Crowder

Photo by Olivia from I've Got a Lust for Life

SheReads: Mademoiselle Mitchell

2009-09-24T18:12:00.006-04:00

SheReads looks at the reading lists of cool chicks. If you want to be featured, send an email to uptown.literati@gmail.com.

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert: "I can't say that I've read many books that have moved me emotionally and inspired me. In this memoir my heart latched onto the author. I cried and laughed with her throughout her journey to find peace with herself while traveling to Italy, where she fell in love with food; India, where she fell in love with prayer; and Bali, where she fell back in love with love."

Plum Lovin' by Janet Evanovich: "This is one of the "between-the-numbers" of the Stephanie Plum series and a huge disappointment. As an avid reader of this series, I expected to be laughing to tears but I hardly received an embarrassing glance from any strangers on the train while reading about my favorite character's crazy bounty hunting adventures. I'm not one to spread rumors... but it leads me to believe Evanovich didn't really write this one."

Sushi for Beginners: A Novel by Marian Keys: "Written for those who enjoy books like The Devil Wears Prada, this book mostly covers the lives of two vastly different women. Although one falls hopelessly into the world of fashion magazines and the other is out to climb the corporate ladder in magazines, they ironically find themselves connected in their search for true friendship love and happiness. Of course I'm sure you guessed sushi is involved, but I wont say how!"

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet: "I was skeptical about all the hype before reading this book despite both Oprah's and my mother's raving recommendations (two women who never get it wrong it seems). Upon reading the first chapter, I was hooked. I was Immediately wrapped up in the intricate plot that slowly weaved together the lives of its many characters in a way that left my heart pounding and constantly in want of more. While reading this book, time seemed to fly. Let's just say I missed my train stop on many occasions."

Mademoiselle Mitchell is a fabulous twentysomething in Washington, D.C. She also happens to be a rising star at a big-name business corporation, a zealous reader (peep her Goodreads profile for proof) and an original contributor to Uptown Literati. Check her out at Twitter.com/MlleMitchell.

--Whitney Teal

Lit Talk Events: The National Book Festival Hits the National Mall

2009-09-24T07:56:00.013-04:00

The Library of Congress' annual National Book Festival rolls into town this Saturday, September 26th, 2009 on the National Mall.

A gaggle of authors forming the who's who in literature, including children's authors, poetry and prose writers, fiction and non-fiction authors, illustrators, and historical authors, will be present. To see which will be in attendance just take a scroll, and be sure to close your mouth once you get to the bottom!

Patricia Sullivan

Ann Kidd Taylor

David A. Taylor
Julia Alvarez

Junot Díaz

John Grisham

Katherine Neville

Jodi Picoult

Nicholas Sparks

Colson Whitehead

David Wroblewski
Mary Jane Clark

Walter Mosley

James Patterson

George Pelecanos

Ana Menendez

Azar Nafisi

and more!

To find out what time your favorite author will be reading or signing his or her book, click here!

The Library of Congress will also be unrolling its newest initiative--Read.gov--which will combine all the literary promotional material from the Library's archive so that viewers have one specific location where they can find out about all the upcoming literary programs.

Date and Time:

Saturday, September 26th

10 A.M-5:30 P.M

The National Mall

Metro: Smithsonian

Hope to see you on the Mall!

--Nicole Crowder

Poster courtesy LOC Book Festival

Oh Snap!: Seduced... by a Cover, Of Course

2009-09-23T09:30:00.005-04:00

Actor Ryan Gosling is a man who knows how to woo a lady with words (see The Notebook). Now we know where he gets it from. Gosling reads Albert Camus' The Stranger.

--Nicole Crowder

Photo by Melodie McDaniel

Lifestyle Gumbo: Reading Rockstars

2009-09-22T09:03:00.003-04:00

Classic literature plus mainstream pop music may seem like a calamity made in Hades, but, as we've recently discovered, nothing could be further from the truth. So, allow us to present our not-at-all definitive list of rockers who read. Enjoy, add, comment and share :)

1. Alice Smith, a relative newcomer with a light and undefinable sound, is a nerd after our own heart. We thoroughly enjoyed reading an interview on Clutch, where she gushed about being an English major in college (see our newest column, "The English Major") and a bookworm.

2. Natasha Bedingfield is most known for her wanderlust anthem, "Unwritten," but her first single, "These Words," is--shockingly!--an ode to writer's block. We heart these lyrics, "Read some Byron, Shelley and Keats, Recited it over hip-hop beats."

3. D.A. Wallach of Chester French's Twitter blog is a-w-esome! He's so clearly a geek (he tweets about reading newspapers, books and annoying language trends) and he's even a grammar Nazi. Who doesn't love updates like this: "I wish I could invest in words or catch-phrases that I see blowing up everyday. Trendy language is a slight pet peeve of mine, nonetheless."

4. The Roots haven't publicly professed their love of the hardback (that we know of), but if their album naming tendencies are any indication, they love books as much as we do. One of their classic albums was named after Chinua Achebe's masterpiece, Things Fall Apart, and a more recent LP was named after a book The Tipping Point: How Little Thing Can Make a Big Difference.

5. Ashlee Simpson, Pete Wentz and Bronx Mowgli Wentz are clearly a reading family--with the baby name to prove it! Pete was quoted saying, “The Jungle Book is something me and Ashlee bonded over. It’s really cool.”And we take that to mean Rudyard Kipling's books--not the Disney flick!

What other musicians are avid readers?

--Whitney Teal

Oh Snap!: Bedtime Story

2009-09-21T11:00:00.000-04:00

Rainbow slippers, monkey pajama pants, and a novel-- time to say "good night."

--Allison Geller

Photo courtesy of Chapendra via Flickr.

The Chick Lit Chick: Hello, World!

2009-09-20T20:50:00.002-04:00

Do you ever judge a book by its cover? Don’t lie, we all do it from time to time. Cardinal bibliophile sin, I know. Yes, but I’ve learned that this often works for me. And who is this me you may be wondering. I am The Chick Lit Chick, bringing you every tidbit you want to know about the genre, from Chica Lit to Bitch Lit to Mommy Lit and everything in between.

Now back to this cover business. I’ll admit this doesn’t work 100 percent of the time, but I often find myself at my local library, (or not so local, I’ve been known to be a bit of a rouge library patron, checking out books on friends, relatives, even employers cards) perusing the shelves for a brightly colored spine and a fun font. That is almost a sure bet that I’ve struck gold--another piece of chick lit to devour.

As I carefully slide the book off the shelf, I feel a sense of anticipation. Will I like the book, what’s it about, am I being tricked and it’s really some mystery novel with a great book jacket designer? A quick glance at the cover and description confirms that it’s exactly what I want. I’ve performed this ritual countless time at countless libraries, and I am rarely disappointed. Some of you may be wondering why I’m blathering on about something as seemingly as trivial as book covers. Or, why we even have a chick lit column on our site? If the idea of reading about the latest and greatest from Candace Bushnell or Sophie Kinsella (they're like the Oscar Wilde's and James Baldwin's of chick lit) doesn’t excite you, then I ask you to not follow my example and check it out anyway.

I promise to explore the genre in a way you’ve imagined. And for those of you who are just as excited as I am about the column, I will do my best to fill your insatiable need for all things chick lit. As is everyone who wants to please their adoring fans, I’m always open to suggestions.

Feel free to drop me a line at TheChickLitChick@gmail.com. I look forward to traipsing up Park Avenue and down Rodeo Drive with you guys!

--Ashleigh Menzies

Ashleigh is a bonafide chick lit addict (with the collection of pink-colored trinkets to show for it), and will be bringing you the best of the genre every other Friday.

Bitch Lit vs. Chick Lit: Uptown Literati's Podcast Series from Whitney Teal on Vimeo.

Recognize! Hispanic Heritage Month

2009-09-19T17:30:00.011-04:00

September 15th-October 15th is National Hispanic Heritage Month, and UL proudly acknowledges the incredible contributions and achievements from Hispanic Americans (the most recent standout, of course, being newly appointed Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic American to serve on the Court).

But there is no shortage of brilliance from the literary circle, either, as Latino writers and journalists who have been prominent movers and shakers help shape the art of storytelling. Head over to Barnes and Noble for more great titles!

--Nicole Crowder

Photos: Barnes & Noble

The English Major: Going Greek

2009-09-17T11:50:00.005-04:00

Going Greek--Without the Hazing

Of all genres of literature, the ancient Greek tragedy is no one’s first pick. We might be stirred to pick up the classics of Austen and Bronte, even the plays of Shakespeare, but we rarely get the hankering for a few lines of Euripedes. English major that I am, I feel it’s my duty to rush in the defense of these sadly neglected works. Not because the man in the ivory tower tells me so, but because they are great.

What’s more, these plays—of the three major tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides—can be read and enjoyed in an hour. Take that, Tolstoy.

You can expect, of course, mythological allusions aplenty. I say, don’t worry about the footnotes; they just take away from the pure enjoyment of reading. Go back and look at them at the end if you like, but while reading, don’t bother breaking the flow of the dialogue with pesty and largely unnecessary background notes.

You can also expect vengeance. Someone usually gets tricked into killing, eating, or killing and eating their own child. It happens.

But for work this ancient, the plays are surprisingly easy to get absorbed in. After all, they were meant for performance. It was assumed the audience knew the story, so drama and tension had to built in to keep them interested.

We Brake for Aeschylus

Start off with Aeschylus’s Agamemnon. It takes place with the end of the Trojan War, when Agamemnon arrives back home to Argos, a hero. His wife Clytemnestra awaits him. Of course, the play follows a long and bloody back-story: the family is typically and complicatedly cursed. Agamemnon’s father tricked his cousin Aegisthus’s father into killing and eating his sons (Aegisthus’s brothers), so he’s none too happy with Agamemnon. At the same time, Agamemnon scarified his and Clytemnestra’s daughter Iphigeneia in order to gain a favorable wind for his voyage to Troy. So despite her exaggerated claims of love and fidelity toward Agamemnon, Clytemnestra can’t be pleased either.

A great scene takes place that reveals the power play between prideful man and bitter wife. When Agamemnon gets home, he doesn’t even spare his wife a word, but gives a speech that is just short of “I’d like to thank the academy” about his war feats. The queen then induces him to walk on red cloth—a sign of dangerous hubris that would indicate Agamemnon thinks himself equal to the gods. At first he resists, but eventually gives in and walks the fateful red carpet. Clytemnestra has won.

It doesn’t bode well. At the same time, Aggy’s brought home a little something something- a prophet named Cassandra.

When he goes into the palace, the queen tries to get Cassandra out of the carriage, but she remains silent. Finally, though, she starts to sputter frantic and prophetical things (“of the grief, the grief of the city/ripped to oblivion”). Eventually, she proclaims “no more riddles” and gives it up: Agamemnon will die, and so will Clytemnestra; their son will then avenge his father’s death. I’ll save the climactic scene for you, but suffice to say it’s going down.

In my opinion, Clytemnestra makes the play, and makes it relevant to our time and place, when the we don’t take part in the revelry and theatre that was the context of this play (the festival of Dionysus, roughly 450 BCE). She is at first belittled (“rumours voiced by women come to nothing,” proclaims the chorus when Clytemnestra declares that Troy has been taken). She is treated with all brusqueness by her husband, ten years absent. She has also lost her daughter to a sacrifice at her husband’s hand. At the same time, there’s a lot not to pity: Clytemnestra has been shacking up with Aegisthus, and prepared to do what it takes to get rid of Agamemnon and take the throne. Aeschylus gives her a complexity and depth that he doesn’t quite spare Agamemnon, the title character. Along with the play’s ambivalence about war, the emotional territory of the play is far more sophisticated than its antiquity suggests.

In the end, the message is the same as all Greek tragedies, uttered by the Herald: “Who but a god can go through life unmarked?” Who, indeed.

--Allison Geller

Allison is an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, and a regular contributor to Uptown Literati. Her column, "The English Major," will appear every other Wednesday.

The Bibliophiles Guide to...Dupont Circle

2009-09-17T10:11:00.001-04:00

The Bibliophiles Guide to...Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C. from Whitney Teal on Vimeo.

Visit

Kramberbooks & afterwords

Books-a-Million

Red Onion Records & Books

Second Story Books

-- Whitney Teal

Around the Web: Oprah's 'Precious' + RomCom Lessons

2009-09-15T12:01:00.003-04:00

Oprah is said to have the magic touch—but why should Precious need it? [via Jezebel]

As far as transformations go, this one is a little beyond losing 20 pounds: little boy to little mermaid. [via Lemondrop]

When the Harry Potter movies were in the works, I dreamt of playing Hermione. But to hear Emma Watson tell it, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. [via Nerve]

New York Fashion Week got colorful with the This Day/Arise African Fashion Collection, featuring unique prints and pieces. [via Fashion Bomb Daily]

When the fire is literally burning on the dance floor, never fear—you can put that baby out in style. [via LimeLife]

Full of learning and wisdom, the romantic comedy has many—or 10—pertinent life lessons to teach. [via The Frisky]

--Allison Geller

Oh Snap!: A Student's Right to Chose

2009-09-14T19:12:00.000-04:00

Letting students read what they want doesn't seem too revolutionary, but it's causing quite a stir in the education community, headed by this 8th grade teacher, Lorrie McNeill. Her unique approach to assigned reading: there isn't any. As long as it's a book, anything goes.

--Allison Geller

Photo courtesy The New York Times

Uptown Literati x Clutch: Weekly Reading List

2009-09-14T11:21:00.005-04:00

In case you've been living under a rock, not reading Uptown Literati's Twitter updates, and not paying attention to the right side of our Web site, we are officially part of the Clutch family! Nicole and I have been composing a weekly reading list for the online magazine on a regular basis for about a month now, and we're loving it. The best part is that we get to scour our mind banks for the most interesting books we've read, whether they be newsy non-fiction or canon-defining women's lit.

Check out our picks for this week over at Clutch!

--Whitney Teal

Hedes + Dekes: 'Sex & the City' Scribe Launches 'Broadroom'

2009-09-11T10:27:00.005-04:00

Candace Bushnell, that sassy chick lit author who is responsible for the ladies of "Sex & the City" and "Lipstick Jungle," is back at it with her Web show, "Broadroom."

[The cheeky broad herself, Candace Bushnell]

We can tell from the cheeky title that it will probably discuss women in the corporate America. But we're just guessing. MediaBistro's FishbowlNY blog covered the launch of the show on Maybelline.com, which was star-studded.

We were at the premiere at Fred's, the eatery inside Barney's flasgship where Bushnell and the stars of the show, Jennie Garth ("Beverly Hills, 90210"), Jennifer Esposito ("Samantha Who?"), Talia Balsam ("Mad Men"), among others, were all expertly working the red carpet.
After about 45 minutes of meeting and greeting, MORE editor Lesley Jane Seymour took to the podium to welcome everyone and introduce Bushnell. The lady of the hour thanked the various corporate marketing departments that brought "Broadroom" into being: MORE magazine, its parent company the Meredith Corp. and Maybelline. A quick thanks to Ellen Gittelsohn, the shows director, her agent and the cast, and then viewing commenced.

Watch the show on Maybelline.com.

--Whitney Teal

Check back for more smart chick lit coverage when "The Chick Lit Chick" column debuts next week.

Oh Snap!: Bedtime Story

2009-09-11T09:43:00.003-04:00

For this dapper chap, we guess nothing is more conducive for an afternoon nap than having his fill of reading The Menage of Fascism & Anarchy.

--Nicole Crowder

Oh Snap!: Well Trained

2009-09-09T09:00:00.001-04:00

New Yorkers don't let jerky stops and loud cell phone conversations distract their concentration: these urbanites have the art of reading on the Subway down to an art.

--Allison Geller

Photo: The New York Times, who have also put together an entire slideshow on the art of subway reading! Click here to check it out.

Around the Web: 'Glee's In + Summer's Out

2009-09-08T01:32:00.003-04:00

The glory days of Chuck Bass and Serena van der Woodsen are over, says Nerve, making room for a new kind of a high school reality that we’ll all be singing our praises for. [via Nerve]

A little adorable never hurt anyone: revel in this video of panda’s first trip to the doctor. Open wide and say “aw!” [via Jezebel]

We all secretly wonder what it’s like to be an Obama. Live vicariously with this photo album of how Malia and Sasha spent their summer vacation—Martha’s Vineyard, Paris, and the Grand Canyon among the sites these lucky presidential daughters got to see. [via Essence]

Sick of peeing in nasty public toilets? A new product called “Go Girl” may be just what you’re looking for. [via Feministing]

France wants you to protect yourself! Though something tells me this ad campaign wouldn’t be so well received chez nous. [via The Frisky]

--Allison Geller

The Russki Files: Remembering Gogol, Nose and All

2009-09-04T10:00:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, I like to imagine that the world of Russian literature is a 21st century high school with all the classic stereotypes. Mikhail Bulgakov, playwright and author of The Master and Margarita, would be the drama geek who comes to life onstage with lofty dreams and operatic crescendos pounding in his heart. Fyodor Dostoevsky would be the quiet, poetic boy with a saintly face that can, without warning, alight with a devilish grin. Aleksandr Pushkin, essentially the founder of Russian literature as we know it, would be the captain of the football team, the rock star, the most popular senior whom everyone wants to become or date. Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, author of Dead Souls, The Inspector General, and many short stories, would be the nerd whose underwear is run up a flagpole every day during gym class.

This is not to say that Gogol was untalented. He had one of the most distinctive voices of the nineteenth century, and his works are still regarded as some of the most influential in world literature. But even with all this acclaim, he still comes across as a little pathetic.

His classmates, for self-explanatory reasons, nicknamed him “the mysterious dwarf.” He was a short, sallow, somewhat doughy man with round eyes and a long, pointed nose. It is clear from his writings that his nose was a serious source of misery for him. In Dead Souls’ “The Nose,” a low-ranking public official wakes up one morning without a nose, then spots it parading around the city in a uniform, putting on airs and out-ranking him. In “The Overcoat,” a policeman in the process of arresting a ghost takes snuff to revive his frostbitten nose, but the ghost is allergic and sneezes all over the policeman. Gogol also makes several disparaging nose references about his other characters, so clearly there was something of a fixation here.

Throughout his life, Gogol’s literary career appeared less than illustrious. He had recurrent trouble with the censors (not that this was unique to Gogol’s struggle—in fact, it was pretty much a guarantee for any Russian writer up until quite recently). In 1837, when the revered Pushkin was shot in a duel and died, a mourning Gogol returned from abroad, hoping to be hailed as the nation’s new greatest writer. Still, no one took him seriously.

The publication of Dead Souls in 1842 did bring him considerable merit, but over the next 10 years, his health and sanity considerably declined. With fasting and self-flagellation, he adopted a harshly ascetic lifestyle and sank into a creative depression. The last ten days of his life were spent burning manuscripts, claiming that the Devil had tricked him into burning said manuscripts, refusing all food, and dying in agony.

And yet Gogol’s strangeness, his nose fixation, and his pathetic end cannot negate his greatness as a writer. The details of his style were almost anachronistically playful, such as his description of a village in “How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich:” “. . . Looking at it from a distance, only roofs are visible, rising one above another, and greatly [resemble] a plate full of pancakes.” In bizarre stories like “The Nose,” he wrote semi-absurdist stories before absurdism was even a real movement. In “The Diary of a Madman,” he wrote of one man’s decline into madness with an uncanny (and again, anachronistic) understanding of a lunatic’s logic—stemming, no doubt, from the author’s own struggles with insanity. And more than anything, in a time when wealth and bureaucracy ruled Russia, Gogol was an advocate of the lowest of the low, the downtrodden, the unfathomably awkward.

It is hard to reconcile such an outstanding legacy with such a miserable life. I can only hope that, wherever he is, Gogol has found peace and realized his own worth—and most of all, I hope he understands now that noses are beautiful in every size and shape.

--Emmaline Silverman

Image by Bublik

Voices: Investigating 'In Cold Blood'

2009-09-03T19:56:00.001-04:00

When the Clutter family was murdered in Holcomb, Kansas on November 15, 1959 with no trace of a suspect, chief investigator Alvin Dewey declared that in order to crack the case, his team had to “know the Clutters better than they ever knew themselves.”

Truman Capote adopted this goal for himself when he began to write his revolutionary non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood. The detail, the sensitivity to character and depth of setting, prove that he knew not only the Clutters, but their killers Dick Hickock and Perry Smith and the entire town of Holcomb better than they knew themselves. The detail of the portrait, the smoothness of all its edges, is really remarkable: the name of the movie Bobby Rupp and Nancy Clutter were planning to see on Sunday night, the direction the wind was blowing the night of the murder, Perry Smith’s dreams and Dick’s attitude toward Perry’s blood-shedding abilities. The book is so profoundly well-researched that it seems all to have sprung from the author’s mind.

It is both exhausting and mystifying to imagine the research that went into the book: how many hours of interviews, how many shoeboxes of cassette tapes, how many pages of letters, diaries, and newspaper clippings. And on top of the research time, there was also time spent getting to know Holcomb and gaining its trust. A down-to-earth, agricultural small town like Holcomb surely narrowed its eyes when Capote, a flamingly homosexual New York intellectual, waltzed in with hopes of writing about the recent tragedy that struck the community like lightning.

Yet it is clear that Capote did gain Holcomb’s trust, as well as the murderers’ trust, for without it, he would not have been able to develop such nuanced, fully breathing characters. The character development is impeccable, and humanizes the characters—particularly Perry and Dick—as only a master could. The first time we meet Perry (on page 14 in the Vintage International edition), he seems like an eccentric (he obsesses over maps and has a habit of staring trance-like into mirrors, to name a few quirks) but probably unthreatening fellow. We know he is waiting for Dick, but we do not know how they know each other or what their ultimate goals are. It is not until page 22 that we learn that they had celled together at Kansas State Penitentiary. At this point, Capote begins inserting hints as to the plan, such as Dick saying “I didn’t want him to see me taking the gun out of the house” or reminding Perry that “anyone they encountered would not live to bear witness.” Thus, the development of the murder plot is slow, and by the time the reader really understands what is happening, these other details of these two characters’ lives and personalities (Perry’s love of interesting words, Dick’s two marriages, Perry’s recurring dream of a giant parrot grasping him with his talons and flying away) have been filled in enough that they come off as humans, not just as murderers.

The one discrepancy in the book, the one irreconcilable break from reality, is the absence of Capote himself from the narrative. He makes one or two veiled references to a writer from New York, but otherwise, he is invisible, whereas we know from the depth of research that he must have been, in fact, a weighty presence in the town. But of course, changing the non-fiction novel to a first person narrative would have irrevocably altered the texture. As it is, In Cold Blood is a chillingly omniscient and perceptive examination of small-town America, the legal system, the criminally insane, and human characters who committed a gruesome murder.

--Emmaline Silverman

Oh Snap! Like Riding a Bike

2009-09-01T14:15:00.001-04:00

Once learned, reading is a skill that can't be forgotten.

--Allison Geller

Photo: Big Mike Photo Blog

Oh Snap!: Train Spotting

2009-08-28T09:00:00.002-04:00

An engrossing book can make the long commute home that much more enjoyable as this man proves with his copy of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma.

Photo by Uptown Literati

Voices: 'Drinking Coffee Elsewhere' Satisfies

2009-08-27T04:14:00.002-04:00

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, the debut book of cub writer ZZ Packer, is heavily lauded. Novelist John Updike recommended the collection of short stories for "The Today Show" Book Club Pick; The New York Times named it one its Notable Books; newspapers like USA Today, The Baltimore Sun and The Seattle Times all heaped heavy one-worders on the prose: honest, poignant, and provocative among them.

But even as highly recommended as the eight stories in Coffee came, they still exceeded my expectations.

One reviewer called Packer’s characters, all of whom are African-Americans flirting, kissing or full-on sexing social annexation, “smart people surrounded by fools.” I am not sure if I agree that everyone else in the stories is unintelligent, but she certainly seems to have a knack for articulating society’s hypocrisies with above-it-all, other-worldy heroes.

Like Squirt, the Atlanta elementary school nerd who goes to stay-away camp with her Girl Scout troop in “Brownies.” Between the group’s queen bees, a grieving mother-chaperone, a special-needs rival white troop, and a reflective bus ride, Squirt matures and recognizes ugly realities before the story’s end.

In “Every Tongue Shall Confess,” “Speaking in Tongues,” and “Doris is Coming,” Packer takes on the morality of the Black church, pitting willful girls against the patriarchal leaders of the pulpit. But even treading those would-be stormy waters, the writer is careful not to pass judgment on the institution itself, but manages to show a particular opinion or practice as impractical, irrational or plain stupid.

“The Ant of the Self” explores a turbulent father-son relationship while “Geese,” one of the single most odd and magnificent stories ever, shows a woman in Japan that falls on hard times.

Most compelling is Packer’s ability to profile the maligned, misunderstood, sometimes downright pathetic without being overly sentimental or with pity. As suggested by the title, the people in the stories all seem to be passively wishing that they were going about life’s mundane tasks in another time or place.

--Whitney Teal

Lifestyle Gumbo: Obama's Summer Reads

2009-08-26T13:08:00.002-04:00

Summer's for reading, but for President Barack Obama, who is spending part of the season vacationing with family in Martha's Vineyard, it's also about balancing an ambitious book list with family and play time.

The New York Times recently published the Commander-in-Chief's reading list, which, we're happy to report, is full of urban crime novels.

The Way Home by George Pelecanos
Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman
Lush Life by Richard Price
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
John Adams by David McCullough

--Whitney Teal

Lit Talk: Anita Diamant

2009-08-26T10:00:00.001-04:00

Many readers remember Anita Diamant for her unforgettable bestseller, The Red Tent, the story of Jacob’s daughter Dinah over whom the Book of Genesis glosses over. She writes with poetry and an innate understanding of women. Her latest novel, Day After Night, carries these same strengths and focuses on a group of young women who escaped from Nazi Europe to Israel during World War II. In this 2003 interview with William Novak, Ms. Diamant discusses her Jewish identity and a new mikveh (ritual bath) she has helped to start.

***

What are you thinking about these days?

Mostly Mayyim Hayyim, the new Boston-area mikveh, which should be up and running by the time this is published.[As indeed it is: www.mayyimhayyim.org] I'm spending way too much time on it instead of writing, but it's my choice so I’m not really complaining. I've never done a non-writing project before, or a community project. I've never been much of an activist, or an organization person. I've even written an essay on how much I dislike going to meetings, but now I'm going to them all the time. It’s a complicated process building a mikveh; there’s nothing about them when you look them up in the zoning ordinances.

How did this new mikveh get started?

Anita: For me, it began in the mid-1990s when I was writing Choosing a Jewish Life, a guidebook about conversion. I went to the mikveh a number of times with various rabbis as they took converts. I was also chairing the outreach committee at Congregation Beth El in Sudbury, because I thought it was important for the community to have a representative at conversions, so I would try to show up at conversions of our members with flowers and gifts. Only one mikveh in the area--in Brighton, near Brookline--has been open to the liberal community for conversions, and that's only two hours a week, which makes it tough to schedule. There are other mikva'ot which aren’t open for conversion, including a new, Chabad-sponsored mikveh in the western suburbs.

You mean not open to the non-Orthodox world?

Anita: Yes, although I don't care for that phrase, because it seems to imply that Orthodoxy is normative Judaism in the way it refers to the rest of us are “non.” But the problem of most mikva'ot goes beyond that. There's nowhere to stand, to sit, to celebrate, or even to wait. I've been to many conversions, and each time I am moved to tears by the power of the moment, but I've never seen a mikveh with an appropriate space in which to mark the hour after the immersion--or before, for that matter.

I was at the Boston mikveh one spring afternoon when candidates for conversion in the liberal Jewish community were lined up outside, waiting for their turn, and while it was inspiring to see a dozen or so men, women and children waiting to become Jews, having people lined up outside is not a very graceful or welcoming entry into Judaism. Most mikva'ot are set up only for women to come individually and privately, at the end of their periods. Traditionally the mikveh is used at night for modesty's sake, and also because of how Jews count days.

You use the noun “convert,” although many people go out of their way to avoid it, speaking instead of Jews by choice.

Anita: I think "convert" is an honorific, a title of honor, and I see nothing wrong with it. Being a convert, or a Jew by choice, if you prefer, should be a term of the highest praise. For someone to choose this identity and to embrace it--it's a gift to the rest of us. Neither term is great: "convert" makes me think of currency, and "Jew-by-choice" is a little awkward. In the Torah and in classical Jewish writings, the word is ger, which can also mean stranger or sojourner. "Proselyte" comes from the Greek translation of ger, but it's far too archaic.

Where do you think our discomfort about converts comes from?

Anita: According to Jewish law, we are not supposed to make any distinction between someone who is Jewish by choice and someone who was born Jewish. Evidently, Jews have behaved badly toward converts for a long time: there is mention in the Talmud about Jews making fun of them and talking in demeaning ways about their "pig-eating ancestors." And yet the great majority of comments about converts in the Talmud and the Midrash are favorable, such as, "The convert is dearer to God than Israel." When a convert wrote to Maimonides, asking whether he could recite prayers that included the phrase, Elohei Avoteinu, God of our ancestors, Maimonides answered with a resounding yes, saying, "There is no difference whatever between you and us."

***

The rest of the fascinating interview is available here. Ms. Diamant will be touring the east coast in the upcoming weeks:

Thursday, September 10 at 7:00 p.m.
Newtonville Books
296 Walnut St.
Newtonville, Mass. 02460
617.244.6619

Monday, September 14 at 7:00 p.m.
McNally Jackson Books
52 Prince St.
New York, N.Y. 10012
212.274.1160

Tuesday, September 15 at 7:00 p.m.
Book Revue
313 New York Avenue
Huntington, N.Y. 11743
631.271.1442

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo by Mark Ostow

Bookmarks 8.25.09

2009-08-25T00:00:00.002-04:00

Miniature Book Society Grand Conclave in Princeton, N.J. (August 27-31) – A miniature book is defined as a book that is no more than three inches in any dimension, and the vast majority of them are mind-bogglingly cute. At the Wyndham Conference Center this month, the gurus of the art and those with any interest in it will powwow over conferences, exhibits, and social mixers.

Once Upon a Crime’s Anthology Launch Party in Minneapolis, Minn. (August 27, 8:00 p.m.) – The bookstore Once Upon a Crime will have a launch party for its latest anthology of mystery stories this week. There will be no authors reading, but there will likely be detective aficionados sleuthing around with magnifying glasses and trenchcoats. And there will definitely be refreshments.

Publishing Workshop in Reno, Nev. (August 27, 6:00 p.m.) – This workshop, held at the office of LRP/LeRue Press, is ideal for aspiring writers who have high hopes but aren’t quite sure how to get a foot in the door. Gotta start somewhere, right?

2009 Hawaii Writers’ Retreat in Honolulu, Hawaii (August 28-September 3) – Can you even imagine a more idyllic location for a writers’ retreat than at the Outrigger Reef on the Beach in Honolulu? And not only will this retreat be surrounded by palm trees and macadamia nuts, but there will be a highly acclaimed staff of seminar leaders specializing in many genres.

Festa del Libro: A Children’s Italian Book Fair in Corte Madera, Calif. (August 29-30, 9:30 a.m.) – This book fair, held at Book Passage, is a treat for children, Italian students and native speakers, and anyone who enjoys a beautifully illustrated children’s book. Italy’s foremost booksellers will send their finest specimens over, and local bakeries will provide biscotti.

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo: Corbis

The Russki Files: Awesome Women

2009-08-21T16:09:00.008-04:00

Russian literature is not exactly known for its heroines. The vast majority of its protagonists are men—brooding, unstable, superfluous men who are too intelligent (or think they are) for the vapid society into which they were born. Behind the heroes, however, there are often women slinking about, pulling strings and being generally awesome. (Spoiler warning below.)

Tatyana Larina (Eugene Onegin, by Aleksandr Pushkin) – Some readers will surely identify with Tanya, a shy and bookish girl who rejects the superficiality of society. When the charming dandy Eugene Onegin comes to dine at her family’s manor, however, she falls head-over-heels in love with him and writes him a letter expressing her adoration. He coolly rejects her. But years later, when she is a mature, married Moscow woman, he realizes his mistake and tries to win her over. Remembering her past and how she has been hurt, she rebuffs his advances. Essentially, Tatyana Larina embodies my long-standing fantasy of being able to tell my high school crushes who paid no attention to me, “Sorry, I’m not interested.”

Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladova (Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky) – Sonya’s life is miserable—an alcoholic father who forced her into prostitution, few friends, no respect—but through her quiet, somewhat fanatical spirituality, she finds strength. This strength converts into a magnificent command over others, and without the influence of her gentle, serene, righteous force, Raskolnikov would never have found the power to confess to his eponymous crime.

Natalya Ilyinichna Rostova (War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy) – Natasha Rostova is, in the context of War and Peace, the ideal Russian woman—and she is not a submissive, reticent, wifely type either. She is impulsive, spontaneous, full of life and light, always game to sing and laugh and make friends. As a young woman she is very beautiful, but once she becomes a mother, she cheerfully lets herself go and becomes dowdy and plump. This does not stop her husband Pierre from being madly in love with her. In fact, it is nigh impossible for anyone to read War and Peace without falling a little bit in love with Natasha.

Agrafena Aleksandrovna Svetlova (The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky) – Agrafena is more commonly known as “Grushenka,” which translates to “little pear.” The nickname is appropriate, for Grushenka is a pear-shaped Russian beauty who holds an astounding power over the men in the community, even sparking a paramount rivalry between Dmitri Karamazov and his father Fyodor. She has amassed a small fortune through lending money and charging exorbitant rates of interest, and has pared down to an art form the manipulation of men using her feminine wiles. Though by today’s standards this may not be considered an admirable thing, during Dostoevsky’s life, feminine wiles were really all women had going for them. I say, more power to her.

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo: Audrey Hepburn as Natasha Rostova in the 1956 film adaptation of War and Peace.

Oh Snap!: Model Citizen

2009-08-21T07:33:00.004-04:00

This model in Paris knows what's up: great books never go out of style.

--Nicole Crowder

Photo by Scott Schuman/The Sartorialist

Lit Talk: Author Jonathan Tropper

2009-08-19T11:58:00.002-04:00

The dysfunctional family saga is one that has been touched upon many times, but every once in a while a novel comes along that revolutionizes the subgenre. Jonathan Tropper’s This Is Where I Leave You has been hailed as one of these novels, at once side-splitting and heart-rending and cockle-warming. In the interview below, Jonathan talks about his routine and being successful.

***

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
It's hard to pinpoint. I was always an avid reader. I remember, when I was in high school, reading The Stand, by Stephen King and thinking, at some point, that it must be fantastic to be able to be able to make a living just telling stories. But I think it was years before I actually really considered giving it a try. And then there were all those years of denial, when I wouldn't admit to myself that I wanted to try, because failure was such a large possibility. So I probably lost a few years there, and then, at some point, it just became imperative to give it a real shot. I think it helped not being particularly interested in anything else.

How did you get published?
I wrote a book that I thought was pretty good. I submitted to about fifty agencies and a handful of publishers and got rejected across the board. So I gave it up for a while, but never stopped reading. A few years later I felt the urge to write again. This time there was more urgency to it. I felt I actually had something to say. So I wrote what would become Plan B, my first novel, sent out query letters, got interest from a handful of agents, signed with one of them, and few months later we had a deal at St. Martin's Press.

Your books tend to be about people dealing with very serious, sometimes tragic life-issues, and yet they're all very funny. Why do you think you tell your stories in such a funny way?
Because that's how life really is. No matter what you're going through, there's comedy to be found. And if you ignore the comedy, than life is just one long funeral. I'm the guy who laughs at a funeral and cries at American Express commercials. You have to be open to the full spectrum of emotional responses. So I try to write books that convey that range. I want you to be moved, maybe to tears, but also to laugh your ass off.

Three of your novels are in development as motion pictures. What do you think it is about your novels that has captured Hollywood's interest?
I couldn't say for sure, but I write very character driven novels. I work very hard to create three dimensional, flawed, interesting, and occasionally over-the-top characters. And I think interesting characters are in demand in Hollywood. Interesting characters attract top shelf actors, who in turn, attract the rest of the talent, and then the financing, which is what ultimately gets a movie made. It all starts from the characters, so I think, when producers are moved b characters, they see a project that has the potential to attract talent.

Are you a disciplined writer? Do you write every day? Do you follow an outline?
I'm a terribly undisciplined writer. I do try to write every day, try to treat it like a job; show up by nine, put in a full day, etc. But it's hard when it's such a solitary process. There are good days and there are bad days. I never start with an outline, I start with a character, and after I've written about that character for a while, I start outlining the novel, but I never seem to follow my outlines anyway. So it just becomes a mess of chapters until finally, hopefully, the book presents itself. I tend to write a lot more than actually makes it into the book.
***

The full interview is available at Jonathan’s website, and you can catch him at these East Coast locations in the upcoming weeks:

Tuesday, August 25 at 7:15 p.m.
215 Sycamore St.
Decatur, Ga. 30030
404.370.8450

Thursday, August 27 at 7:00 p.m.
Inkwood Books
216 South Armenia Avenue
Tampa, Fla. 33609
813.253.2638

Tuesday, September 1 at 7:00 p.m.
The Odyssey Bookshop
9 College St. #4
South Hadley, Mass. 01075
413.547.7307

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo: Jonathantropper.com

Around the Web: Shaved Heads + Fag Hags

2009-08-18T12:23:00.006-04:00

For ladies seeking hair liberation, Honey brings you a few tips to ease the transition when you decide to get “chopped and screwed”: aka, shave it all off. [via Honey Mag]

She sure doesn’t sound like Nicole Kidman: a clip of Virginia’s Woolf’s voice was recently released, the only one known. [via Jezebel]

We live in a “rape culture”, asserts a new video. Could we really live in a culture of fear and political correctness? [via Double X]

A list of the Top 10 Sexiest Chefs, from Colicchio to Cora. Let’s just say I’ve got absolutely no reservations. [via Nerve]

“I can be your fag hag, and you can be my gay,” sings Lily Allen in her new album. But according to this writer, the era of the “gay boyfriend” is overdone, and simply done. [via Salon]

Catch the season premier of Mad Men on Monday? If not, beware of spoilers, in Feministing’s analysis of some of the show’s key moments. [via Feministing]

--Allison Geller

Photo: HotAtlantaBuzz

Bookmarks 8.18.09

2009-08-18T09:29:00.002-04:00

Nuclear Poetry: ACCELERATION in New York, N.Y. (August 18, 8:30 p.m.) - Join the hippest writers on New York’s experimental literary scene for a night of drinks, reading, music, and inspiration. The basement of Elmo’s Restaurant will be transformed into a “literary bomb shelter” as the Nuclear Poetry movement gears up for its first anniversary show on September 15.

A Night of Literary Laughs in Minneapolis, Minn. (August 19, 7:30 p.m.) – Celebrate the light-hearted side of being a book nerd with a lecture on literary hoaxes, five-minute book reports, slide shows, and various activities of bookish fun. The event, which will take place at The Soap Factory, will mark the release of an issue of Granta Magazine.

Julia Child’s Birthday Celebration in Menlo Park, Calif. (August 20, 6:00 p.m.) – Kepler’s Books will ride Julia Child’s wave of popularity with this tasty open house, which will provide champagne, cake, and a chance to peruse the cookbook selection and share notes with other foodies.
URL: http://www.keplers.com/

Translate in the Catskills in Hunter, N.Y. (August 21-23) – This weekend retreat, held at the scenic Catskill Mountain Foundation, will feature seminars and workshops on the art of translation, for skilled translators and those just breaking into the career. There will also be a star-gazing session for people who are sick of city light pollution and want to stare up into a clear mountain night.

31st Annual YMCA Book Fair in St. Louis, Mo. (August 21-26) – At the Kennedy Recreation Center, the YMCA will sell books in over 60 categories at pocket-change prices. In 1978, this book fair was an understated one-day affair, and it has since exploded into an enormous six-day extravaganza, perfect for bargain-loving readers.

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo by reconstructionist/Flickr

Meet Your Bloggers: Emmaline

2009-08-16T08:00:00.002-04:00

Emma in 2007 with her boyfriend. She likes older men?

A brief introduction:
I’m Emmaline (which rhymes with “wine,” not with “’tween”), but most people call me Emma. In May 2009, I graduated as a Russian major from a tiny Midwestern liberal arts college, and now I’m back in the D.C. area basking in the fabulous economy and burgeoning job market.

Greatest loves:
Spelling bees, movies with training montages, writing and receiving letters, shellfish, and watching funny animal videos on YouTube. Oh, and books are good, too.

Currently reading:
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, recommended to me by my grandmother. It is written as a series of letters, held together by the characters’ reverence for books, and it’s really the loveliest novel I’ve read in a while.

All-time favorite book:
It’s a close call, but I’d probably have to say The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Don’t let the length intimidate you, and ignore the stigma that all Russian novels are dismal and heavy-handed. The hope that shines through the story is best summed up by the line, “In most cases, people, even wicked people, are far more naïve and simple-hearted than one generally assumes. And so are we.”

Most questionable item on my bookshelf:
Five different baby name books, all in a row. People make the obvious assumption when they see these books, but I’m not expecting—just fascinated by baby name trends over time and the cultural movements behind them.

Why I like Uptown Literati:
It gives a hip, desperately-needed makeover to the face of the book nerd—which, let’s face it, is really what we all are.

Front of Book: Summer's Last Hurrah

2009-08-14T13:36:00.005-04:00

The best—and worst—book picks of the month from our favorite magazines.

Summer is winding down, but time still remains to cram in a few, last good reads before your tan fades or you exchange novels for textbooks.

Oprah typically has a lot to say on the subject. This month’s issue of O has many promising, if not a little heavy, suggestions. On that score there’s Methland by Nick Reding, about a small town in Iowa where images of quiet Main Street and wide open fields are replaced by the horrors of a methamphetamine epidemic. Reding doesn’t shy away from any details about this very real tragedy, but he also doesn’t remove himself from compassion and empathy for those who are embroiled in it. On the lighter side is Thomas Pynchon’s latest, Inherent Vice. While I’m not an avid mystery reader, a detective story with an intriguing hero (“a blend of classic California noir hero and committed hippie stoner”), a gripping and intricate plot, and the evocation of years past—the novel is set in the ‘60s—is just the recipe for a last end of summer getaway that starts and ends on your front porch.

One pick I’m not quite sure about is The Magicians by Lev Grossman, which at first skim reads like Harry Potter, except that the protagonist and his entourage live in Manhattan, move past first base, and drop F-bombs rather than “you-know-who”'s. A modern fantasy novel meets coming of age story, this doesn’t look like the Pulitzer, but if you’re itching for something to fill the void that J.K. Rowling so callously left after book number seven, this might be a good bet.

Catching on to the latest "Mad Men" buzz, O also features John Hamm’s book picks. Among this suave and serious actor’s recommendations is The Elegant Universe, by Brian Greene, a tome about string theory and the laws of the universe that has been sitting on my shelf for years. I swear I’ll get to it one day. Hamm also suggests Michael Chabon’s Wonder Boys, the modern classic about an aging writer who just can’t find the words, sure to satisfy any bibliophile.

Over at Vanity Fair, the magazine’s Fanfair culture section takes us to elite beach clubs, dim sum, and dirty martinis before arriving at their short and sweet book feature. After reading an excerpt in The New York Times magazine, I’m right beside them in recommending food writer Frank Bruni’s memoir Born Round. Instead of imitating a foodie’s passion à la Meryl Streep, Bruni displays it with exuberance, along with humor, pathos, and a touch of David Sedaris-like self-deprecation, making this a read you’ll want to eat up in one bite. Less digestible but equally engaging is Love is a Four-Letter Word, a collection of short stories about break-ups. Don’t expect pints of Ben & Jerry’s and gallons of self-pity: the stories are sharp, poignant, and recounted with candor and wit. The collection also includes two mini graphic novels, by Emily Flake and Lynda Barry.

Elle gives us three books that won their Reader’s Prize 2009: Laura Moriarty’s While I’m Falling, Cathy Marie Buchanan’s The Day the Falls Stood Still, and Sarah Dunant’s Sacred Hearts. The first two are undeniably well-written, but the basic premise of female protagonists whose lives are falling to pieces—in Moriarty’s, a young woman in college and in Buchanan’s, a girl from a well-to-do but ailing family in Niagara Falls who falls inevitably in love—don’t pique my interest for a last summer page turner. I’m voting for Dunant’s Sacred Hearts, sucker as I am for period drama. The book takes place in an Italian convent where things are not as holy as they seem. Careful research and plot drama make things come to life behind this convent’s walls.

Here’s to summer’s last few rays.

--Allison Geller

To Woodstock: Peace & Love

2009-08-13T20:09:00.011-04:00

Uptown Literati is celebrating one of the most seminal events in history, and certainly of the turbulent 1960s. Woodstock reached beyond Max Yagur's dairy farm in the sleepy corner of Bethel, NY in 1969 to rock the world with its rallying cry for peace, love, and music. It's since spawned movies, books, and has inspired countless men and women to take up the guitar and start bands of their own. Today, we remember Woodstock in words and images.

Bobbi and Nick Ercoline at Woodstock in 1969.

Photo by Burk Uzzle/Courtesy Laurence Miller Gallery, New York

One of the greatest to ever blaze the guitar, Jimi Hendrix.

Did you know Hendrix and his band improvised their now classic version of "The Star Spangled Banner"? I guess when the man of the hour says just play, you do just that.

WOODSTOCK PERFORMERS: THEN & NOW

Joan Baez

Richie Havens

Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young (later only Crosby, Stills, and Nash)

Did you know that Woodstock was only the second time that Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young had ever performed together? Get it!

Melanie

Sly & The Family Stone

(Check Sly with the mohawk action. What a difference 4 decades makes!)

Sha Na Na

Ravi Shankar

Photos: Getty Images, AP Photo, and Corbis.

--Nicole C.

Voices: 'Potato Peel Pie Society' Enchants With Sweet Letters

2009-08-13T10:16:00.009-04:00

I picked up Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows’ The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society on a recommendation from my grandmother, a witty and well-read lady herself. “It’s an epistolary novel, so it’s written entirely in letter form,” she explained. “And it really is the loveliest novel I’ve read in a while. The thing is, it’s all about books—reading books, writing books, loving books.”

Naturally, I couldn’t resist this endorsement. The book truly is a tale of reading, friendship, and romance. It is set in a broken England, post-World War II, suffered more than the Channel Islands, including the Isle of Guernsey, the inhabitants of which were starved and occupied by German soldiers for years. When one of writer Juliet Ashton’s used books, Selected Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb, falls into the hands of a founding member of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, letters begin flying over the English Channel and life-altering friendships are written with the ink. These friendships initially are based on a love of books—Charles Lamb, Seneca, Jane Austen, and the sisters Brontë are among the Society’s most beloved authors—but go on to face even more powerful issues: loss, heartache, the horrors of wartime. It is touching to watch Juliet find such kindred spirits in Guernsey’s Society through a series of letters, and downright uplifting to learn how the Society found solace in each other and in literature during the hell that was the Occupation.

Juliet Ashton is a heroine of the best kind, a protagonist to fall in love with. She is brilliant, feisty, funny, loyal, and a truly kind friend. She is also prone to flashes of rage, such as throwing a teapot at a reporter who made uncouth insinuations about her dead fiancé. By no means is she perfect, but she’s the sort of woman I’d love to take out for coffee—or cocktails.

(Actually, as a side note, I believe that my fondness for Juliet is partly due to the resemblance she bears to a heroine I adored in my formative years, one Miss Betsy Ray of Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy-Tacy books. Both are smart, fun-loving writers who thrive on friendship, write diligently to pen-pals, and have questionable culinary abilities.)

The epistolary quality of the novel both charmed and impressed me. Charmed, because I am an inveterate letter writer myself, and if I could, I would pen all my correspondences by hand on violet-scented stationery. And impressed, because I know it is not easy to write an epistolary novel well. So much of story-telling involves showing as opposed to telling (the mantra of creative writing teachers everywhere), and people tend to tell rather than show when they write letters. But somehow, Shaffer and Barrows’ novel is both vivid and genuine, with highly distinctive voices, seamless pacing, and masterful building of suspense. Not once did I feel as though I was reading an epistolary novel written by two women in 2008. The whole way through, I felt as though I was really reading a long series of correspondences, as though I was privileged enough to be let into the secrets of these people’s lives.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a light, fast-paced, but still very fulfilling read. There are plenty of laughs and, for people like me who have an uncontrollable weeping reflex, maybe a tear or two as well. And be warned: Go buy some stationery before you read the book. If nothing else, it will make you hungry to write a lengthy and loving epistle to a dear old—or brand new—friend.

--Emmaline Silverman

Lit Talk: Author Carleen Brice

2009-08-12T21:30:00.003-04:00

Kind-eyed, loced Carleen Brice, the author of the highly-acclaimed novel Orange Mint and Honey, published her second novel, Children of the Waters, in June 2009. Children of the Waters tells the story of two sisters’ parallel struggles through prejudice, disease, and family through subtle but finely tuned writing. In the interview below with "One World Books" (from the Reader’s Guide to Children of the Waters), Carleen shares the surreal joy of her success and her thoughts on book clubs.

***

One World Books: Carleen, it’s a pleasure getting the chance to sit with you and talk all things books, now that you’re a seasoned and award-winning novelist! Perhaps the best place to start would be to ask how you feel about the success of your first novel. Orange Mint and Honey earned the First Fiction Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, debut novel honors from the African American Literary Book Club, was an Essence book club pick, there’s been interest from Hollywood—and of course, admiration from readers everywhere. Did you have any idea that this would happen?

Carleen Brice: I hoped, of course, for good things to come, but it’s pretty surreal when it happens. When they called my name at the awards for the African American Literary Book Club, and people at my table—who I had just met that night—screamed for me, it was amazing. The whole process has been incredible. I’m overjoyed and honored that my work has received so much attention. But the best thing has been reader response—I’m so grateful to the people who’ve taken the time to email me or write reviews online.

One World Books: Can you tell us a bit about your visits to individual book clubs to discuss Orange Mint and Honey? How did that come about? How did you find the experience?

Carleen Brice: Book clubs contact me through my website, www.carleenbrice.com, or approach me at events and whenever I can, I make it a point to attend in person or via phone. It’s wonderful to hear the discussions first hand. When you’re writing about your characters, it’s just you and them in a room. It’s really fun to see other people relate to them and treat them like they’re real—feeling sorry for them or getting mad at them—just like I did when I was writing.

At first people are a little shy because the author is right there, but eventually they loosen up (the drinks served at book clubs might have a little to do with that!) and start saying how they really feel about the characters and the plot. I encourage that honesty (though so far it’s easy to do because nobody has hated it). It’s fun to hear one person say “I thought it was wrong for them to act out in the church the way they did.” And then someone else say, “I understand it. If I was Shay I would have been hollering too!” It makes me feel like I did my job when some of the group is siding with Shay and some of the group is siding with Nona, which happens at every single book club.

One World Books: Did any of the early feedback you received about Orange Mint and Honey impact the way you wrote this novel (which, by the way, is simply stunning)?

Carleen Brice: Thank you! I wouldn’t say the feedback impacted how I write. I feel like I learned a lot writing my first novel, but writing this book was a completely different thing so I don’t know how much was applied to it. My goals were the same: to make people think and feel and for them to be entertained. It was inspiring to see how people responded so well to my first novel. Gave me hope that readers are interested in the same kind of characters and stories I am.

***

The full interview is available on Carleen’s website, and you can catch Ms. Brice this week in Denver:

Sunday, August 16 at 6:00 p.m.
West Side Books
3434 W. 32nd Avenue
Denver, Colo. 80211
303.480.0220

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo courtesy CarleenBrice.com

Oh Snap!: Reading Railroad

2009-08-12T14:24:00.003-04:00

Travelling by rail is the way to go, when you look stylish, snag a window seat, and bring a good book.

--Allison Geller

Photo: Clutch

Bookmarks 8.11.09

2009-08-12T12:19:00.004-04:00

Marvel Comics 70^th Anniversary Party in Arlington, Texas (August 12, 7:00 p.m.) – Captain America and Spiderman may still be young and muscular, but their creator, Marvel Comics, is turning 70 years old. Marvel’s birthday party, held at Lone Star Comics, will be a chance for old and young fans to geek out, chill with superheroes, and eat birthday cake.

Monsoon Voices in Phoenix, Ariz. (August 14, 7:30 p.m.) – Literature is a very sensorial thing—sometimes it’s better when heard and seen along with the taste and smell of a cappuccino. So on August 14, head to Unlimited Coffee for an issue of Monsoon Voices, “the live literary magazine of poetry, prose, and song.”

Jane Austen Ball in Alexandria, Va. (August 15, 8:00 p.m.) – This ball, held at Gadsby’s Tavern Museum, is sure to fulfill the fantasies of every Mr. Darcy lover in the D.C. area. There will be period dancing, music, and dress, and the chance to relive the beauty and grace of England’s Georgian countryside. Reservations required.

From Bugs to Beasts: Storytelling through Collage by Eric Carle in Washington, D.C. (through September 1) – Who among us was not enchanted by the colorful collaged illustrations The Very Hungry Caterpillar as a child? This exhibit, open at the Stanford in Washington Art Gallery, showcases both the process and product in the artwork of Eric Carle. His famous works and lesser-known pieces alike are on display.

Golden Legacy: 65 Years of Golden Book Illustrations in Omaha, Neb. (through September 6) – Little Golden Books have been a favorite with parents, teachers, and children since their debut in 1942. This exhibit, at the Joslyn Art Museum, will feature gorgeous, original illustrations from the series.

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo: Catalina magazine

Meet Your Bloggers: Rachel

2009-08-09T09:20:00.002-04:00

About me:
· I learned to read when I was four years old, and have been an avid reader ever since. I have enough books to start my own library, and I’ve seriously thought about taping call numbers on their spines.

· Reading is a very tactile experience for me. I prefer hardcover books to paperbacks, and I rarely read mass market paperbacks because they don’t feel right in my hands.

· I read, on average, five books a month, but quality is far more important to me than quantity. I always have a book (or two) with me, and I read every day, whenever and wherever.

· I love used book stores for the variety of books therein. You never know quite what you might find inside…. One of my favorite used book stores is Molly’s Books in Philadelphia, owned by poet Molly Russakoff.

My top five favorite books are:
· The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

· Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov

· If on a winter’s night a traveler…, by Italo Calvino

· Atonement, by Ian McEwan

· The Canterbury Tales, by Chaucer

All of a sudden I realize that my favorite books are all by white males. The multi-cultural feminist in me rages at this. But, what are ya gonna do? Those are the books I love best!

Besides reading, I also like:
· Cooking. I would love to be a gourmet chef, but I have too much of a propensity for inadvertently burning dinner. Instead, I spend my time drooling over the latest issue of Food & Wine, imagining recipes I know I don’t have the skill to handle.

· Dancing. I used to be an avid swing dancer, but have since branched out to other forms as well. Who knew contra dancing could be so much fun?

· Photography. This hobby is still in development, as I learn to make better use of the awesome camera technology that’s available these days. And looking for new and exciting things to photograph gives me an excuse to travel more. Hooray!

Other somewhat random tidbits:
· The year I was born, Rachel was the sixteenth most popular name in the US.

· I share a birthday (the date, not the year!) with Lyndon B. Johnson and Pee-Wee Herman.

· My favorite non-book-related website is Cake Wrecks. Seriously. Check it out.

· I started keeping a reading log two years ago.

· I really like lists. A lot.

Why I love Uptown Literati:
It’s a collection of great voices all discussing one of my favorite subjects. What’s not to love?

Lifestyle Gumbo: Vanity Fair

2009-08-07T10:47:00.004-04:00

This fall, models are turning over a new leaf.

Models got bookish as they showcased this season’s looks, from the pages of Italian Vogue to the backstage of fall 2009 runway shows. Tatyana Usova, a Christian Dior model, perused Proust, while Steven Miesel shot a wild and glamorous library scene for Alberta Ferretti’s fall campaign.

Could designers and models be intentionally defying the stereotype that their industry is vapid and utterly opposed to reading? Are books the next big accessory?

Whatever the reason is for this recent phenomenon, the fact remains that a good book, like a good handbag, never goes out of style.

--Allison Geller

Photo: The Cut

Oh Snap!: Hitting the Books

2009-08-07T09:52:00.003-04:00

School is just around the corner for many of us, which means putting in long hours at the library. If only we could always look this cute while doing it.

--Allison Geller

Photo by Ziko-C via Wikimedia

Voices: Tasty Morsels of Joy Found in 'Garlic and Sapphires'

2009-08-06T10:00:00.008-04:00

Eating out should be a joyous experience, in theory. However, the question alone of what to eat or which appetite to satisfy—the sweet or the tangy—can be daunting, even agonizing. Then of course there is the decision of where to eat: someplace fancy or someplace ordinary? Recommendations, especially those coming from someone as highly regarded as the newly hand-picked food critic for The New York Times, can take the pressure off. But it can also carry a lot of weight in the eyes of those willing to spend money at the most premier establishments in a tough city like New York. Such is the lot that Ruth Reichl has taken on in Garlic and Sapphires, and she does so with gusto and charm.

Being a notorious food critic in a city that thrives off of Page Six headliners presents challenges, and the means to combat them are paramount. In a series of humorous, light-hearted, and often times sad vignettes, Ruth Reichl recounts stories of how she disguised herself as six women while she ate in and reviewed New York City restaurants that would otherwise be sure to recognize her. In Sapphires, however, Reichl makes no attempt to placate any particular party: her employer the Times, the chefs at the restaurants she reviews, or the millions of New Yorkers whose mouths she presumably looks out for. Instead, over the course of six years Reichl unintentionally performs a social study on the varying degree of attention and respect one receives at well-regarded eating establishments based solely on one’s appearance.

In “Betty”, Reichl adapts the persona of a meek, almost invisible senior woman who she followed from the train one afternoon. The service Reichl receives as Betty while attending the Tavern on the Green is almost as deplorable as the meal itself. In fact, it is simply because she’s old and timid. In more humorous reflections, Reichl disguises herself as a stunning red head who “dumbs down” her knowledge of food by feigning ignorance during a meal with a man who has tentacles for hands and is as equally clueless and garrulous as he is wealthy.

Despite flowing in and out of characters and alter egos, Reichl's book delights as she stimulates the appetite with her luscious descriptions of everything from prosciutto to shrimp to cheese to duck, and the precise temperate at which each should be served. Readers join Reichl at the table while she digs into euphoric experiences with fresh eel, roasted lamb, rolled pasta or soup consommé. In some cases you can even imagine Reichl closing her eyes, tipping her right pinky in the air while holding a spoon, and raising her foot in glee over a robust meal. But even good meals come to an end.

For a short while, Sapphires rides on the strange irony of Reichl blithely reviewing food that she so clearly grew up being stimulated by. She doesn’t seem bothered by criticism from her editors or from angry letters and phone calls from the public calling for her resignation after slamming some the most preeminent restaurants in the city. But the reality for a critic is that critiquing can become stale and cumbersome, if you let it. At some point, even the critic needs to be reinvigorated again. Through exploring the restaurants of New York’s culinary landscape via her own alter-personas (and taking a food tour of NYC with another food critic colleague), Reichl comes to rediscover why she fell in love with food in the first place.

Sapphires is not solely about going along on the epicurean journeys of a renowned food critic for the New York Times. It reads like a personal journal you might expect a chef or a cook or even an everyday foodie to carry. It’s filled with personal recipes, newspaper-like-clippings of several Times restaurant reviews Reichl has written over the years, stories of secret food discoveries, as well as Reichl’s family and friends. The stories are also about the glory days of the economic boom during of the 1990s that the country was sailing on, and the restaurants that tried to board, and the few that fell off the proverbial economic gangplank. Reichl’s tender retrospective on the mom and pop cooks, bread makers, fish vendors, and candy sellers who were a disappearing breed in the changing culinary landscape of New York City become—excuse the pun—the bread and butter of Garlic and Sapphires. In “Missionary for the Delicious”, Reichl blows a long kiss to bread kneaders in Queens, candy makers in Brooklyn who, in vain, toil away at making candy by hand, and to the best little-known shop in Brooklyn that sells yogurt perfect enough for making Afghan dumplings. It’s one of the books more crowning achievements, and is a testament that true satisfaction in eating belongs to those with an appetite for it.

Oh Snap!: Generation Gap

2009-08-05T09:35:00.003-04:00

Great books are being replaced by MacBooks for the younger set, begging the question: is reading via a lit screen better than no reading at all?

--Allison Geller

Photo: The New York Times

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