Read, Dena. Read!

@dena33

2010-01-05T10:05:00.000-08:00

Behold the Maira Kalman-illustrated Elements of Style. A book I love.

The Annual.

2010-01-04T19:14:00.000-08:00

Christ. I just remembered I (used to) have a blog. I need to write again. I need to write something other than emails and tweets, status updates and ad proposals. I need to think...

Fearless.

2009-01-14T15:51:00.000-08:00

Talking books and movies with smart people. Seriously, what else does one need? Well, tequila actually. And maybe some really good guacamole. Spent a wonderful evening out with some new friends and spent lots of time talking about favorites.

I found myself defending sci-fi and encouraging a skeptic! Just passing on what I've learned after living many years with a bona-fide sci-ficionado. Start with William Gibson; that's my advice. Dive into his engaging cyber-punk Sprawl Trilogy with Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive. If you're heading to the beach this winter toss these slim paperbacks in your pack and go.

Then if you are still feeling brave, dip your toes into the world of graphic novels with The Watchman (Alan Moore).

Social Order.

2008-11-16T20:33:00.000-08:00

Oh, yes, I've most definitely been neglecting the blog for Facebook. The instant gratification is titillating and I can't seem to carve out enough time to put two thoughts together. Facebook satisfies the single serving thought just fine, thank you very much.

Watching the social networking evolution has been amazing and it's fun to see how people use it or don't use it. I have an interesting mix of professional, personal and past all mixed up in my "friends" list and the ongoing experiment of how my seemingly separate lives overlap has been illuminating. There is certainly an element of exhibitionism in play but it's much more than that. The camaraderie during the presidential debates, the comments on election night, and just the everyday details of even, or maybe especially, people you don't get the chance to connect with in real life just simply makes me happy.

Tonight I cooked a meal on Facebook. As I went through the process of putting together lasagna Bolognese I tried to update my status at various intervals and then had a great time peeking back over the 6 hours I worked to see who was "watching" me and read the comments. Had I been able, I would've fed friends in Minneapolis, Denver, Duluth, and Maine.

I started by dicing a $10 slice of imported prosciutto di Parma to flavor my Bolognese, went on to wilt spinach for the pasta, roll out the dough, and finally the wait while the whole thing baked. I ended with a final glass of good red wine and a full belly. Even these simple details along the way engaged people and some poured themselves a glass of something to drink while they waited for "our" dinner.

I think playing with Facebook particularly appeals to readers and writers. Just crafting one interesting, clever, funny, sad, or vague-but-perhaps-telling sentence a few times each day satisfies a deep need some of us have. And of course who can resist reading and commenting on what others come up with! I've followed people with their children on a Saturday, traveling for business and pleasure, dining, sitting in traffic, and dealing with the death of a loved one.

We catalog movies, music and books we love and share all of these things nearly daily. People post their photos, videos and artwork. Friends create invitations to parties, art openings, and events of every stripe and then not only invite, but encourage invitations be shared.

To me eating with friends is the ultimate social activity so sharing tonight and almost every restaurant experience on Facebook is weirdly satisfying. When I have a great experience I have always loved sharing my enthusiasm and writing a quick line about whatever I happen to be eating, drinking and or cooking is a blast.

Heads and Tails.

2008-09-01T07:48:00.000-07:00

Two sides to everything, right? Harder to admit when we are in the midst of an election year. Being in the Twin Cities and watching the hoopla escalate daily around the RNC is daunting. And then a moment at the State Fair when by way of a couple of adorable two-year-olds I found myself talking to a lovely woman who introduced the tiny girl gripping Calder's arm and smiling. This daughter was from the Philippines and just adopted by their family four months ago. We talked about the kids and then my eyes dropped to her shirt and her giant John McCain button. My heart skipped (the enemy!) and then I looked back at our children gazing at each other with beatific smiles. It was a good reminder that the rancor is handed down. Not that we'll ever all agree, and that would be a bad thing anyway, but we can still treat each other with respect and by way of example, by far the most powerful teacher, hand that down to our kids.

After reading A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini) I realize how lucky we are to be able to spend our time focusing on the intricacies of political posturing over the weather. Snug in the center of our huge country, and not having children old enough to enlist, we remain untouched by war. We can switch off CNN anytime and go on about our lives. Contrasted with the realities of life in Kabul through these past six years it is stunning that we are looking at the same situation from such different places.

It is amazing to see a situation from the other side; to gain even a little perspective and compassion. The way I felt reading this book reminded me so much of the same feelings while reading Stones from the River (Ursula Hegi) which tells the story of World War II in Germany through the eyes of a young girl. Getting a peek from the other side can be breathtaking.

Hosseini tells this story through the women, the mothers. The two main, overlapping stories of Mariam and Laila have many similarities but of course the power lies in the differences. The change from one generation to the next and in the attitudes and expectations of the women in this culture of men. Through Mariam and Laila and the raising of children, we see the possibilities of a new generation. The secondary story lines, Mariam's mother Nana and Laila's mother Fariba, give us a glimpse at how being mothers, parents, also has the potential to cripple us.

The two sides, over the backdrop of the war, is traditional culture and modernity. This fascinating story weaves the two together beautifully and explores how they are inescapably tangled, for better or worse.

And the pitch.

2008-08-17T12:43:00.000-07:00

I'm into the Murakami again. Summertime always brings me to Windup Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami) and it's lazy, lulling pace. I think this is my fourth time through; my fourth summer with this odd, elegant, magical story. I swear something happens to me, to my brain itself, the weeks I spend with it. Hence my inevitable return. I'm an unapologetic addict and this is my drug of choice.

Bookshelf.

2008-08-02T12:58:00.001-07:00

Dog days.

2008-07-30T13:45:00.000-07:00

The very same day I found out my Weimaraner, Greta, has lymphoma and is terminal; an amazon.com box arrived containing a copy of The Dying Animal (Philip Roth). I ordered this title on a complete whim after seeing mention in The Week about a movie coming out based on the book and I've always wanted to read Roth. Why now? Why that book? The world is a very strange place.

It has been a week of endings as I also finished both Half Broken Things (Morag Joss) and A Long Way Down (Nick Hornby). There were some really very disturbing parallels between these two novels and again I wonder how particular things find us at particular times. Of course, it is just human nature to make such leaps. The chaos of the universe is immense and so it is very easy to latch on to random details and in our scrabbling, grasping way try to make some sense of them. No matter how horrible.

The Roth happens to be fantastic. It is a short, taut read and should probably be consumed in one sitting (oh, if only such things were still possible!) as it is written without a single pause; without break or any kind of respite. It is as if he just heaved this whole life onto paper in a single go. Incredible.

Suicidal Tendencies.

2008-07-16T13:40:00.000-07:00

I feel like a dabbler of late. A literary dilettante. I roam from title to title as the stack at my bedside grows taller by the day. I shift restlessly and get to the meat of nothing. The combination of an intense two-year-old and the busiest month of the year at work may have something to do with my lack of focus.

I've picked away at Half Broken Things (Morag Joss) which came recommended by my friend Sarah. I'm about half (ha!) way through and stalled out. It has it's moments but overall the characters are a really unlikeable bunch. They are a frustrating lot but also oddly intriguing. I do need to find out where this is going...

Along the way (hey look! something shiny!) I veered off into A Long Way Down (Nick Hornby) which, coincidentally, is also populated with some really annoying personalities. Both books deliver accidental compatriots into a completely bizarre situation and then let the reader watch them squirm. Hornby's version is just slightly less dark, almost funny sometimes, and I think that is the current attraction for me.

No, really.

2008-06-04T12:11:00.000-07:00

Seriously, seriously horrible.

Lame.

2008-05-29T10:41:00.001-07:00

I am the worst blogger ever.

Shaken to the core.

2008-05-08T22:19:00.000-07:00

I'm stuck. I just finished How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read (Pierre Bayard). And I am disturbed. All of my reading life I've felt my mortality keenly in the knowledge that there are billions of books I will never read. Have you ever done the math? It's terrifying.

It also puts me in mind of a really unsettling travel moment. On impulse I popped into a book store in a small town in France and without a thought wandered over to a shelf...as you do. And then it hit me. I can't read. All of these lovely books undiscovered. I can't read. So on top of the old fear of all of the books in English I will never read...now this. And then that math.

And then the other horrible suspicion I've been contending with of late...translations. Who are these people? Do they wield their power for good or evil? Is a complete reinterpretation really considered the same book? Remember that episode of Northern Exposure when the elfin shop owner decides she can't die until she is able to read Dante in Italian? Ugh. I'm going to bed.

H-I-P. H-O-P. H-E-A-D.

2008-04-20T12:26:00.001-07:00

...been since 1-9-8-3. Well, in my case, it was 1985. (But I couldn't resist throwing down the Jurassic 5 quote.) Although that's not exactly true either since my first genuine exposure to hip hop was accidentally seeing the Beastie Boys when they opened for Madonna on her Like A Virgin tour. (No, I'm not kidding. It's true! Horribly, irrevocably, true. Look it up!) So at age 17 I stood in Met Stadium with my mouth agape watching three unbelievably strident, skinny white boys leap around the stage screaming "You gotta fight! For your right! To paaaaaaar-tay!" What. The. Hell?! I had absolutely no idea what I was seeing. I hated it. All I was interested in was that idiotic material girl. Ahh, the 80s.

Of course 1986 brought the release of Raising Hell (Run D.M.C.) and the rest is hi(phop)story. To say a lot has happened in the genre since then is beyond understatement. And last night I had the privilege of listening to one of the veritable godfathers of hip hop, Chuck D, talk about it all at the Fitzgerald Theater for the last in The Current's Fakebook series. He is erudite and funny and as I sat up in balcony two I wished every person I know who turns up their nose when confronted with rap was there to hear him.

So. It's time I come out. I've been listening almost exclusively to hip hop for the last couple of years. Well, exclusively is a bit strong but at least to the point of annoying various friends and very probably my husband. I don't personally know many people who are fans so I've stumbled along in the dark eagerly following the bright lights of Wu-Tang Clan, Missy Elliott, Roots Manuva, Jurassic 5, the Beastie Boys, and Public Enemy (word); with side trips over to a bunch of the Frenchies ( like MC Solaar) and the Cubanos (like Orishas), Das/EFX and Mos Def; finally graduating to the likes of Common, Nas and Rakim.

I've made discoveries on film soundtracks. Most notably Wu-Tang and especially RZA after seeing Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai (Jim Jarmusch). Or I've fallen in love with a voice I've heard in some more accessible (to me anyway) band, like finding Chalie 2Na of Jurassic 5 doing vocals on a Gorillaz song.

But why the love? I realize a big part of it for me is simply words. I'm a reader. A lover of text and language and no one, no one, plays with words with such abandon as rappers. I can't help but make the very early connection to the first time wordplay made me laugh out loud and made the hair on the back of my neck stand up in the same way hip hop can: Amelia Bedelia books (Peggy Parish). (Oh, Chuck D! Tell me you loved them, too!) I know it's a cliché to cry poetry! about rap, it's been done, but only because it is often absolutely true.

Now I'm not talking about gangsta rap here (although there a few I find sort of humorous but most is nasty and pointless). I think a huge part of the bias against hip hop comes from the very unfortunate success of a few shallow pop/rap stars (I ain't hatin' I just heard better) who make way too much money and waaaay too much news. But look at any popular stars and you see the exact same thing. Madonna (there ya go). Britney. Lindsay. That other dense blond and her lip-synching sister, too. The "Fittys" of the world are no different. We can't condemn all popular music because of a narrow layer of whipped cream on top of the real deal.

Great art isn't going to be delivered into your lap with a pretty bow on top. You need to do the work to learn about it and rush out to meet it half way. Rap isn't easily accessible to some of us. Neither is opera.

Chuck D is an artist in every sense of the word; and he invented a few of his own. To hear him speak of music, art, politics, activism, his family (and his '94 Montero), and growing old and gettin' corny (own it!) and giving back was inspiring. He has stood his ground throughout his career and set an example for those coming up behind him and for us all.

Still dubious? I suggest taking a closer listen. So much of hip hop is just joyous. Smart. And some of the most fun you'll ever have. And if you doubt the talent of some of these guys...pick pretty much any rap and try to learn it. Try to deliver that flow with any kind of smooth coherence. It is daunting. And dang if you don't feel awesome when you finally get it!

Truthiness.

2008-04-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

Truman Capote deserves much credit for pretty much single-handedly inventing literary journalism. And re-reading In Cold Blood is reminding me of all the other books in this form that I love. I think authors like Joe McGinnis owe TC a huge debt. I very highly recommend McGinnis' The Miracle of Castel di Sangro. (A big shout out to Ivar Johnson, not a regular reader of 'novels and the like' who picked this up on a whim in an airport and broke down in tears over it-and it's mostly about soccer-on the flight. He gave me his copy.)

The same visceral vibe crosses over into a lot of historical fiction and a couple of my favorites in that realm include Pulitzer-prize winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Michael Chabon), Devil in the White City (Erik Larson), and a fabulous book based on the life of Virginia Woolf whose title is completely escaping me at the moment. (I just know this will be keeping me up tonight.) I had a copy signed by the author which in my excitement (and like an idiot) I lent to someone I didn't know very well; and alas... No doubt the title will hit me in the wee hours and I'll be up editing.

(And yes I was watching Stephen Colbert and blogging at the same time. I must earn some kind of special nerd patch for that, no?)

Quid pro quo.

2008-03-31T14:28:00.000-07:00

When I was little my babysitter, Donna, lived right next door. Most days after she got home from school I would pull together a hefty stack of books and march across the lawn to her back door. Donna invariably answered my call and would spend seemingly endless amounts of her precious teenager free time reading to me. Blessed with book-obsessed offspring, my mom calls it payback.

With the almost-six-year-old well into his own stack of reading, (except for nightly bed time stories read to him by my husband because "he can do all the voices") I was just waiting for the almost-two-year-old to make that story connection. This weekend he did. In spades.

There is now a stack of about 14 board books, all with conveniently-shortened-to-one-word titles; like "Uh oh" for We're Going on a Bear Hunt (Michael Rosen) and "Fly" for The Very Lonely Firely (Eric Carle) next to the comfy chair in my living room. Rest assured (or actually, not), I know when I walk in the door this evening I will be greeted with "Mama! Hand. Walk. Sit. Read!"

Drunken, frisky pagans.

2008-03-27T10:10:00.000-07:00

Is that a beautiful phrase, or what? I totally stole it from Chuck Terhark's (hi, Chuck!) intro to the feature story in the April issue of METRO magazine. He's a clever lad who manages to reference both Pump Up the Volume and Fight Club coherently in the span of two paragraphs. If you think you know everything about the Twin Cities, think again. And go buy a copy of METRO! (You can't miss it. Just look for the gigantic, fuschia, snakeskin drag queen shoe on the cover. Yikes!)

This month's feature is a collection of bits about everything from lunatics who surf Lake Superior to Minneapolis' up and coming graffiti (outdoor?) artists. Most notably, John Grider, who is incredibly talented and very, very brave. Though mention of the jump from the street into galleries just made me think immediately of Jean-Michel Basquiat (a/k/a Samo) who accomplished this feat and far more before he died of a heroin overdose in 1988.

Quick story tangent: I worked at a certain Beverly Hills hotel in the 80s and Basquiat stayed there while in town for an art show. He removed all of the "paintings" from the frames in his room and rehung them empty. He denied maids or anyone else access and when he departed, they opened the room to find that he had kept all of the windows open and welcomed in numerous pigeons. (I also have stories about Emo Philips, Michael Jackson, Vidal Sassoon, Mickey Rourke, Milton Burle, Willem Dafoe, Tone Loc, one of the Princes of Saudi Arabia, and Billy Idol. It really is in your best interest to buy me cocktails.)

There is a lovely film about Jean-Michel's life and death done by New York painter and director Julian Schnabel. Schnabel also directed the absolutely stunning Before Night Falls and the surprising Le Scaphandre et le Papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) which was nominated for four Academy Awards this year.

We're not in Kansas anymore.

2008-03-24T10:32:00.000-07:00

A while since the last post, I know. Spent a week in Mexico where normally I would accomplish quite a lot of reading between the plane rides and laying around in a lounge chair but my son is nearly two. Need I say more? Luckily, he naps. And pool+beach+sunshine equals tired babies so when I could keep my eyes open long enough (the above formula works on grown-ups, too) I was also able to get in a chapter or two after kiddo bedtime.

I brought along and finally finished What the Body Remembers (Shauna Singh Baldwin). It was our first book group selection this year and I just couldn't get into it. Yet there it sat, leering at me from my 2008 Reading List and I just couldn't in good conscience leave it there unread. Baldwin's lush descriptions grew on me and like any book, once I got to know and understand her style and came to appreciate it I enjoyed it immensely.

The story tracks the Punjabi peoples in India through Partition: Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs. I couldn't ignore the parallels to the current war in Iraq and America's complete disregard of the history, customs, and beliefs of three very distinct cultures. The story is eerily relative and I think is a chilling look at what may be in store for a country "created" by a distant, arrogant and criminally ignorant nation. (Ooh, did I say that out loud?)

Roop's personal story is so small by comparison. And yet it's intimate nature allows the reader to really move through this foreign world with some sense of reality and understanding. Singh Baldwin leaves us touch stones along the way that give us the ability to become invested in Roop and Sardarji in a way the occupying English never could. This irony is not lost on the careful reader.

To follow this up with The Yiddish Policeman's Union (Michael Chabon) brought some interesting insights. One of the many underlying themes is the fictional reversion of the state of Alaska from a forced Jewish refugee settlement back to America. Going from India's Partition to Alaska's Reversion has an odd and unexpected synchronicity which I totally dig.

Yet Chabon's prose couldn't be more different from Singh Baldwin's. His writing is tight, clever, and when wielded via hammer blows pounding out a pseudo-historical noir thriller, it is downright heart stopping. His prose is gorgeous and to steal my best friend Sarah's line once again, makes my brain tingle. It reads like the love child of Raymond Chandler and Thomas Pynchon.

I was hoping to spend some quality time relishing Chabon's words over Easter but between a trip to Duluth and then the incensed "toto" (Calder's work for chocolate)-induced hilarity after the bunny's visit I'll have to work a little harder this week. Though I think it will be no effort at all to push through this page turner and move on to In Cold Blood (Truman Capote) before next book group on April 2nd.

Oscar buzz.

2008-02-26T14:16:00.000-08:00

This Sunday I watched the 80th Academy Awards in the lobby of the Hilton El Conquistador in Tucson while on a business trip. It was really fun to chat with strangers I'll never see again about movies, dresses (what was with all the red? I think Diet Coke and their heretical "heart health awareness" campaign is behind it), and good v. bad acceptance speeches.

I happened to be in the middle of reading Atonement (Ian McEwan), our March book group selection and a Best Picture nominee. (I made a point of not seeing the movie until I finished the book.) By the way, I am violently opposed to novel covers pumping a movie. I steadfastly refuse to buy any book with actors on the cover and did actually have to go to two bookstores before I could find a copy without those horrid words "Now a Major Motion Picture." (Have you ever noticed it's always major?) Bad enough that the version I did find, though a lovely black cover with a black & white image, still says "In theaters soon. Read the book before you see the movie!" But at least that's a sentiment I can get behind.

I was halfway down the very last page just as my plane touched down in Minneapolis. Perfect timing. How odd it was to see the clip for the Best Supporting Actress nominee, Saoirse Ronan, and then come to that "scene" in the book and have that moment of "ah, that's what she was talking about." I loved the story. I had inklings along the way of what was coming--tingles--and was completely enamored of Ian McEwan's process. A great book, a great ending, and I can't wait to discuss. (Important note to book group members: be sure to finish this one or you will be pissed! You do NOT want this one spoiled.)

During the Oscars there was a totally overwhelming montage of the previous 79 Best Picture winners and it was interesting to see Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, our April book group pick, noted. It was nominated for four Academy Awards in 1967, the year I was born: Cinematography, Directing, Music (Quincey Jones!) and Screenplay-based on another medium. That interesting coincidence put the idea in my head to watch all of the Best Picture Oscar winners from 1967 on, and write movie reviews! I'll let y'all know when I find some extra time for that little project! (Don't hold your breath or anything.)

Beautiful dreamer.

2008-02-16T11:22:00.000-08:00

Reading Vanity Fair this morning and this just tickled me. "Guinness heir Garech Browne at Luggala, the family estate in County Wicklow, Ireland, where he has put white sand around his black lake so that it resembles a glass of Guinness." Isn't he wonderful?

For more, check out the Vanity Fair web site.

Book end.

2008-02-09T16:42:00.000-08:00

I just had to follow up the quote from John Irving (see post Cause célèbre) and say that if he thinks he most likely could never write a better first sentence, then he most certainly will never best the last 111 pages of A Prayer for Owen Meany. I found myself going so slowly. Savoring his construction. Watching the water rise--as the answers came one by one from a great distance--filling in the brittle cracks until a smooth sea met the horizon.

Winners and also-rans.

2008-02-05T21:01:00.000-08:00

I almost made it. I read in bed until the book slid off onto the floor. I read in the kitchen in nine minute spurts between batches of cookies. I read yesterday at work in between clicks as my computer was oddly slow. But my torrid love affair with Calamity kept me from Owen for too long. I fell short by about 60 all-important pages. I accepted my punishment with aplomb. Hearing The Ending. The good parts before I got there on my own. Serves me right. (but damn!)

Group was a full house and so much fun. Of course any time I have anyone over to eat (as I write that I'm not entirely sure I've ever really had anyone over ever and not had food), no matter how much prep and planning I may or may not accomplish (come on...this group was on a Monday! With a full weekend before I really have no excuse) my 10x12 turns totally Kitchen Stadium in the hour leading up to my guests ETA. And let me tell you, I am nothing like Zen master Chef Masaharu Morimoto! I think I'm a tad closer to the total Mario Batali freak out. Nah, that's not really fair to Batali. I probably most closely resemble (only more short-tempered) that bizarre host! The Chairman. (Well, he's really an actor. Best known, to me anyway, as the total hottie in Le Pacte des Loups. Yes yes. Just put it in your Netflix queue.) Watch the opening sequence of Iron Chef and you'll get the picture.

I think every thing I made was right out of Everyday Food. (It sounded easy.) Three or four "dips" for crostini. (The favorite being a blend of chevre, dried mission figs, rosemary, and a bit of lemon juice...although I'm quite sure one could blend chevre with dryer lint and it would be fantastic.) Some roasted, spicy chickpeas. And then peanut sauce and chicken satay. No really, it sounded easy! And really, it was...just all last moment for me in Kitchen Stadium.

After our discussion we slogged through the voting and I've posted our twelve chosen ones for the next year at right in the Book Group Bull Pen. Some of the also-rans I am excited about include Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi) now also a major motion picture, Damage (Josephine Hart) also a major motion picture from 1992, The Yiddish Policeman's Union (Michael Chabon), The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Thornton Wilder), Blink: The Power of Positive Thinking (Malcolm Gladwell), and King Lear (well, you know.)

Radical agrarians unite!

2008-01-29T20:49:00.000-08:00

The February issue of Gourmet magazine has a great article on Wendell Berry. (Here's a man who pays attention to details.) I've just recently gone back to reading this magazine regularly and I've noticed that the editors are really wonderfully adept at profiling real people who are making a difference in how we eat, shop and think about food.

Berry is described as a man who "was preaching the gospel of small farms and local foods when Michael Pollan was still in knee pants." Pollan's 2006 book,
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, is currently on our '08 book group list (though we, too, are still in caucuses) and I really hope we vote for this one. I will read it regardless but I know it will be a great book to discuss in the group. Both Pollan and Berry approach the subject of food as naturalists, not scientists, and I think this makes them both much more accessible and enjoyable.

"Eating with the fullest pleasure-pleasure that is, that does not depend on ignorance-is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world." See what I mean? I'm hungry for more (to quote my pretend celebrity best friend, Anthony Bourdain.) If you are, too, hungry for more...Berry that is (okay, okay, I'm done.), here's where you start: The Art of the Commonplace (farm-focused non-fiction), Farming (poetry, a hard-to-find chapbook in which he dubs soil "a divine drug"), and That Distant Land (a collection of stories).

Cause célèbre.

2008-01-28T20:32:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend I finished Calamity and got started on A Prayer for Owen Meany. To get done in time for February 4th book group I'll need to clock in with an average of about 70 pages per day. To pique your curiosity, in the prologue John Irving writes, "I may one day write a better first sentence to a novel than that of A Prayer for Owen Meany, but I doubt it." Yup, that'll get you going.

I am a firm believer in carefully reading prologues, introductions, and most certainly any lines of songs, poetry or prose an author has taken the time to note on the page immediately preceding the start of a story. They can set the tone beautifully and lessen the jarring effect of going from reality to a new and unfamiliar place. And indeed, when I revisit them after reading the book, they often give sort of a lovely foreshadowing (or even outright clues) of what's to come.

It all comes down to details. And I do believe in the adage, "God is in the details." Life is certainly in the details. Love is in the details. Great Food is in the details. I am quite certain many, if not most, people miss most everything. Particularly when it comes to reading. (And I'm talking about everyday stuff here: signs, emails, instructions.) The fact is, The Details is usually small. And quiet. And subtle. Easily missed. Like Owen Meany?

Spoiler Alert.

2008-01-21T21:07:00.000-08:00

Never! Just going on record here to say that I will never (never!) reveal too much here about what I am reading. For example, in my last post I gave a few choice details but I said nothing about the story line one couldn't glean from the back cover or at worst from the first chapter. The things I kind of "work out" in these lines mainly involve the connections I make while reading that I can discuss without actually giving away the story. I may ask a question or two, mainly of the rhetorical variety but also in hopes someone will actually post a comment(!) one fine day. (I'm breathless with anticipation...no seriously, someone throw me a bone!)

And when I sometimes make those leaps, you know, light bulb moments, about a book I really just need to share and/or compare notes. I can still see myself in the mirror, bleary-eyed in the early morning, toothbrush stopped mid-stroke, after finishing Choke (Chuck Palahniuk) the night before. Book group often serves this purpose. And my husband has a line up on his bed side table of things I'm done with and want him to get to so I can talk to him about them. Either option is sometimes not immediate enough when I just need to get it out when the ideas are fresh and then move on to the next thing.

I'm now about two-thirds through Calamity and I just have to say again how much I love it (note the fact I now refer to it with just the one word - a term of endearment.) My friend Sarah will sometimes describe books as making her "brain feel all tingly" and this one definitely fits that bill for me. I'm not sure I will really write more about it. I guess we'll see.
It had been bothering me that my post about Bel Canto came at the half-way point and then I fell mute on that subject. I recently realized that's actually about perfect. To discover any more than that is up to you.

As you can see from my Book Group Bull Pen there is just the one book at the moment. It is our last on this year's list. That is about to change! We meet February 4th to discuss A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving) and also to choose the next twelve books we will read. I have been working on my list and have more ideas this time than ever before. We've changed our structure a bit and rather than choosing one book from each member we will choose from one master list. When I think that the choices we make will probably amount to a large percentage of my reading for the next year it is a weighty charge. In the past I've had one book I'm super excited about bringing to the group and that tends to eclipse the other books I offer. I'm also a procrastinator (understatement alert!) so I leave it until just before group. This time I want to be sure I do my due diligence and bring some options I feel really good about.

One title I've known for some time will be on my list: How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read (Pierre Bayard). From the Wall Street Journal: "...is an amusing disquisition on what is required to establish cultural literacy in a comfortable way. Lightly laced with irony, the book nonetheless raises such serious questions as: What are our true motives for reading? Is there an objective way to read a book? What do we retain from the books we've read?" I can't imagine a book group worth it's salt could find a reason not to read this book. Then again, perhaps I've chosen it precisely to find out if buried deep within our lackadaisical group there still lies some serious readers. (Mmmm, a real live litmus test.)

How's that for a spoiler?
;)

Core Curriculum.

2008-01-14T20:19:00.000-08:00

Page 157. Special Topics in Calamity Physics is deeply, densely, wonderfully referential. So much so I'm quite certain I am missing a lot more than I am getting. (Visit Book Nerd Corner at the right and click on the "Book Porn" link and take a quick peek at the seventh image down, the piece by Jonathan Callan. One could argue it quite perfectly represents this novel.) Sometimes this awareness of missing out can be terrifying but I feel quite safe in Pessl's hands. She is somehow familiar; a kindred spirit. I understand her brain. Her process. Her insane (but not) leaps. I can follow and do so so willingly.

Already I know this is a novel I will (and must) go back to over and over. Each chapter is named for a classic book and I try to see the connections; the reasons she chose each of them. Some seem obvious but it would be foolish to assume anything this tantalizing writer does is obvious. Layer after layer and endless parenthetical bits of even more information, references, even the occasional "visual aid."

I veer back and forth between thinking too hard about the writer's intentions and being totally engaged in her story. (Details in this book causing such a different type of distraction for me than the disconnected descriptions in What the Body Remembers.) The main character, Blue van Meer, is charming. A brilliant high school student whose only long-term relationship is with her father, she has changed cities, schools and homes throughout her academic life. In order to give her some footing on scholastic terra firma her senior year, Blue's father decides to finally settle them so that she may attend the prestigious St. Gallway School, where she is immediately, mysteriously accepted by the most elite clique. This seems to occur with the unsolicited help of the beautiful film studies teacher, Hannah Schneider, who is about to turn up dead.

Beating around the post.

2008-01-10T17:25:00.000-08:00

Ugh. Am I actually about to blog about not blogging? Is that better than not blogging? Or just absolutely pathetic? Also pathetic...my reading so far this year. I even went to my book group last night (gasp!) after only getting to page 27. Our book this month was
What the Body Remembers (Shauna Singh Baldwin). I do like it and will certainly continue. Baldwin is so far seeming to be one of those writers who has an overt passion for details (dare I say minutiae?) which can be a little distracting. What is it they say? The thing we despise most in others is the thing about ourselves we can't abide? (See post: Italian Soul.)

I had been hoping to get some significant reading in on a weekend business trip to Milwaukee (you heard me) but alas my order from overstock.com did not arrive in time for my departure. (Have you beeen? Something about the ability to simultaneously order a book and a beautiful German flannel duvet cover at over half off really rocked my world.) Of course, the flight from Minneapolis to Milwaukee lasts all of 43 minutes (plus there's the warm chocolate chip cookie interruption if you're lucky enough to be flying Midwest Airlines) so it really is better suited to The Magazine. Which I try not to venture out and about without. Ever. And somehow a big comfy bed all to myself, a giant flat screen quite literally at my fingertips and no need watch anything animated was a bit irresistible. And did I mention the complete and utter mental exhaustion of spending seven hours at a bridal show? Smiling?!

So the book I schlepped to 'sconi and back with barely a glance was Special Topics in Calamity Physics (Marisha Pessl). (Finally, a writer more parenthetical than I. I think I like it! AND she's funny.) It did serve me well as a security blanket. My comfort item. How scary is an airport during questionable weather without a book? I'll never know...

Of course worst case scenario you can always pick up a magazine: Saveur for food and travel porn, Gourmet for recipes and compiling your next grocery list, Giant for the coolest music and culture and the occasional celebrity fix without a dumbass young actress or Britney in sight, and if you're at Our Very Own Mpls Int'l airport, Metro for Our Very Own local food, entertainment, arts and culture, Vanity Fair (for the articles!), Wired to totally geek out, Harper's (for the articles!), and if you read any magazine article this month make sure you check out the cover story in the December issue of the Atlantic Monthly. Written by Andrew Sullivan, Why Obama Matters is a real eye opener. You can also find it on their web site right now.

Well, hell. I made a little something happen there after all...

New favorite thing.

2007-12-27T14:21:00.001-08:00

I discovered a fantastic and unusual magazine today called Everywhere. All of the content comes from readers so after your trip, log on to everywheremag.com and upload your photos and text. Submissions are reviewed by the Everywhere community and then the final selections are curated by the magazine's editorial staff. So cool!

Variations on a theme.

2007-12-18T19:16:00.000-08:00

Something occurred to me about Bel Canto last night (I'm about half way through). As the characters emerge further and the story progresses, I detect a similar construction as in Patchett's The Magician's Assistant. The opera singer is this incredible, strong person; a woman surrounded by men. In particular, two men--Mr. Hokosawa and Gen, the translator. The whole of the narrative revolves around her and she, in a really lovely subtle way, holds a lot of power over the others and makes things happen. She holds them all in thrall.

Sabine, the magician's assistant, is in a similar position. She has her two men--the magician, Parsifal, and his lover. They share a house, as do the characters in Bel Canto, though for very different reasons...perhaps. I guess one could argue there are many definitions of being held hostage.

To date I have only read the one and a half Ann Patchett novels so I am curious about this theme popping up elsewhere in her oeuvre. I do love writers who seem to have something "stuck in their craw" and try to work it out again and again, book after book. Murakami is one of these novelists, as is Kazuo Ishiguro. Both write with such musical tone and cadence.

I started to wonder if this musicality was a common characteristic of Japanese writers and find it an immensely interesting coincidence that the two men of Patchett's novel are Japanese. I also started to seek out more contemporary Japanese writers in an attempt to broaden my frame of reference even just a little and read Out: A Novel (Natsuo Kirino) last year. (Warning: not for the squeamish!) Such a different tone here and definitely more rough and edgy. It is about a female serial killer so that shouldn't have surprised me! Of course this helped not at all with my probably incredibly naive theory. It only raised innumerable questions about male v. female writers, the Japanese culture then and now, and translations.

Variations on a theme is also prevalent with film writers/directors. One of my favorites is John Dahl. He wrote and directed three films back-to-back, all with the same structure and basic story line, though they are all very different in every other way. Check out Kill Me Again (1989), Red Rock West (1992), and The Last Seduction (1994). All involve one woman, two men (one good, one bad) and a large sum of money. In each story a different one of the three ends up with the cash. I couldn't choose a favorite...they are all absolutely divine. Go get 'em!

Italian Soul.

2007-12-17T20:13:00.000-08:00

Most of my reading over this past weekend involved recipes. I dove once again into the Alice Waters and tried my hand at her polenta torte on Saturday. I wasn't thinking and instead of making four cups of soft polenta I made sixteen. Ah, yeah. I read "one cup of polenta to four cups of water" and multiplied the four by four instead of the one by four. Yow! I called a neighbor and offered the extra polenta for their dinner. After spreading about four cups out on a baking sheet and letting it cool and set; West had the brilliant idea of using Christmas cookie cutters and making shapes. Our friends were delighted with our snowman, tree, star and stocking polenta!

I made a simple tomato sauce with olive oil, lots of garlic, and canned crushed tomatoes; then layered the soft polenta with the sauce, fresh mozzerella and parmesan. The mozz was a little rubbery and none of the textures seemed to meld. Next time I would shred the cheese instead of using slices. But all in all not that exciting.

Sunday in the kitchen was far more successful. Started the morning with chocolate chip scones. Whole Foods has their house brand of wonderful dark chocolate mini chunks which look like tiny chocolate bars and they are perfect for baking. My scones are really getting quite good. I've finally learned to not over work the dough. The only way to make them come out perfectly crumbly and scone-y is to just dump the whole mess out onto the counter and sort of push it all together into a really rough circle. Just enough so that it holds together. The first few times I did this it just seemed so wrong. If you can divvie the circle into eight wedges and transfer them to a baking sheet you're golden. The messier the better.

After a warm scone and a second coffee I really hit my stride. Recipe number two was almond-anise biscotti and yes I did toast my own almonds; thank you very much. Some friends are coming for Sunday dinner and I have this in mind to go along with coffee. I also have some truffles on hand (again, Whole Foods house brand and dang are they yummy. They are actually made in France.)

I found an interesting cocktail recipe and so I make ginger-infused simple syrup and stick that in the fridge to chill. I also finely grind crystallized ginger and mix with sugar to dust the glass rims. The prosecco is sitting in the window sill keeping cold (old house!)

Ever since I read La Bella Cucina: How to Cook, Eat and Live an Italian (Viana La Place) I have wanted to institute sort of a standing Sunday dinner where a few close friends are always welcome. It's really tough to keep it going so if I can do it every six weeks or so I'm happy at this point. Maybe after the small fry is older and not so insanely needy. Did I mention through most of my cooking I have an 18-month-old saying "mama. mama. mama." endlessly? Or "watch. watch!" which means he wants to stand on the kitchen stool and "help." This sooo doesn't work for me. Lucky for him he's so cute.

For the last year I've been making my bolognese from a recipe I found in Saveur magazine. It's an article entitled "The Lasagna Lesson" and I guard it with my life. (Along with every other issue going back to January 1999 when I subscribed.) Like most Italian recipes this one begins with the "holy trinity"--onion, carrot, celery. It's not long before the house smells absolutely incredible.

I've got several hours of simmering now so I clean the house ("mama. mama. mama!") and generally straighten up. Throw in a load of laundry, make hot dogs for a late lunch, and swing through the kitchen periodically to stir the sauce. In between I stop to read the Christmas books I brought out of storage today to the boys. This is one of my favorite things about the holidays: since West was born he has gotten Christmas books as gifts and I've picked up those I remember from my childhood. It always seemed weird to me to have them on the regular bookshelf all year so I started putting them away right along with the holiday decorations. (I do this with Halloween and Easter books, too.) Each one has the year written in it and many are inscribed from the giver...mostly by my mother-in-law and I am so thankful she taught me to do this.

When our friends arrive I warm olives on the stove with some slices of garlic, red chile, and orange zest. I put a loaf of olive bread in the oven for just a bit, take it out, slice and slather with goat cheese and then put back in to toast. Sarah heads out to the porch for a chilling bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau (est arrive!) and we get to work on the pasta dough.

I've made pasta several times and it's worked just fine. Better than fine, actually. It's always incredible! (And I'm always so surprised.) Each step is very easy; it's all about texture. So far I've just been making it by hand on the counter. This time I decide to try the KitchenAid stand mixer...Alice Waters doesn't exactly recommend this idea but she does mention it so how bad can it be? So I toss two cups of flour in, beat two eggs lightly and pour them into the mixer bowl...whirrrrrrr. Hmmm. Dust. Really, it's like fine powdery dust. I go back to Alice and reread her comments more carefully this time and see that it says to slowly pour in the eggs while the mixer is mixing. I upend the first batch of dust into the garbage can not wanting to take any chances and just start again. This time I end up with something with a texture I recognize. Before things go too far I dump it out onto the counter and start kneading it together. Still not as perfect as the by-hand method but the job gets done.

Now I put my friends to work with the pasta machine rolling the dough through again and again until it magically transforms and has that incredible elastic feel. It is truly amazing. Why don't I do this more?

From here the pace is frenetic. Layers of clothing begin to be peeled off as we crowd into the small kitchen (four adults, two kids, and two dogs in a 10 x 12 foot kitchen. It's awesome and there is not a drop of sarcasm in there. Or in there either.) and all are kneading, cranking, whisking (I'm making the besciamella to layer into the lasagna), grating parmigiano reggiano or just trying to step over a dog, pick up a kid, or stay out of the way. Before we know it the noodles are dropped into roiling water for all of 10 seconds, the assemblage happens in minutes, and it's in the oven. Just ten minutes to make vinaigrette, (which rocks; thank you, Alice!) and set the table.

Buon appetito!!

Opera and hostages.

2007-12-12T21:30:00.000-08:00

So far that's what I'm getting from Bel Canto (Ann Patchett). One hundred and ninety well-heeled party goers suddenly find themselves lying prone on the expensive carpet, held by earnest revolutionaries who had intended to abduct the country's president, but El Presidente stayed home to watch his favorite soap. Not sure I am completely enthralled with this one yet but of course, I'll stick it out.

Oh my gosh! It just hit me! Bel Canto is The Fifth Element! The enthralling opera singer, hostages in black tie; it's all there. But if at some point in Bel Canto they open the opera singer's stomach and pull out magical crystals I'm done. The Fifth Element is one of those movies I can watch again and again. Written by Luc Besson and based on a story idea he had as a child, it's a dizzying romp through time and space. Flying taxis! Alien shape-shifters! A beautiful innocent with orange hair (Milla Jovovich); an oddly amusing, sniffling bad guy (Gary Oldman) and a femme talk show host who blathers on hilariously at the speed of light (Chris Tucker). All this, plus Bruce Willis saving us all (again)!! How could it miss?

I also really loved Patchett's The Magician's Assistant. One moment in that story really sticks with me: the magician, while making gin and tonics out by the pool plucks a fresh lime from a potted tree and says how much he "loves living off the land." It also has a terrifying and very intense airplane scene. Do not read this book while flying. Her "scenes" are so vividly drawn I have the images in my mind as if they were from a film rather than a novel. Dang if that isn't true of all good writing.

Popping my cherry.

2007-12-10T21:00:00.001-08:00

So maybe that got your attention. Hopefully this will hold mine. Several things have happened recently to push me into facing the harsh pressure of choosing a friggin' blogspot URL. (It just seems like such a commitment! This is the same sort of reason I could never get a tattoo. This seems just slightly less ouch-y so here goes.)

I've been sort of a freakish reader since I was five and now that I have my very own freakish five-year-old reader (see photo above) the timing seems appropriate to begin keeping some sort of record of just what I am actually reading. I absolutely hoard books and have many many I've read and quite a few I haven't yet. I can browse my own library and see what's there but somehow it's just not the same. I started noting dates on the flyleaves and I find it interesting to know where I was, when I was and who I was when I read something. It is extremely cool to see the three sets of dates in my very attractively beat up copy of Windup Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami) Why do I read it every other summer over the fourth of July holiday? And why can't I ever get all the way through Underworld (Don DeLillo) when I love it so so much? (I'd mention Proust here but I don't think that particular problem is very unique. And god help you if you're still trying to get through Ulysses.) I'm hoping this blog may help me answer some of my own such questions.

I just read Julie & Julia (Julie Powell) and am completely inspired by her. However, I will forgo Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Julia Child, et al) and stick with Alice Waters and her new The Art of Simple Food. Seriously, just go ahead and toss pretty much every other cookbook you have and get this. I've found myself carrying it around the house. It's near me at all times. I love it. Passionately. I've been a fairly decent cook for some time but I think of this book as a sort of master class...the basics, yet she's given me these tiny details that change everything. My god you should taste my vinaigrette! And I have a whole new relationship with my once-feared cast iron pan.

Okay, I can see already that this blog will be veering wildly from subject to subject. Well, at least from books to food and back again. And I suspect there may be some travel bits that show up as well since reading, eating, and travel are my main life pursuits. Again, there has never been a time in my life I haven't been reading regularly so that, as always, is the thread through it all.

D
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