A letter to Tracy (a.k.a. some love for comics)

Hi Tracy,

Thanks for lending me these books this week.

      

      

   

I liked Lucky a lot.

See you later,
Megan

I recommend: The Year of Magical Thinking

by Joan Didion

Little and stunning in every way. Also, for Manhattan-philes, the memoir gives you a peak into what it's like to live that life you see in early Woody Allen movies (groceries at Zabars, weekend walks in the Park, coffee at the Turkish cafe around the corner, dinners at 11 uptown). I swooned.

Better Book Titles

/via Better Book Titles

Ink on paper: MAGIC!

McSweeney's Issue 35 is wrapped in an unbelievable disappearing-ink cover done by Jordan Crane.

This:


... with a little bit of elbow grease, makes this happen:


The fun continues inside!

/via Mr. Magazine

No, I haven't actually read Freedom

... but I am loving the discussion that is happening around Frazenfreude! Franzen is trending online like a literary Lady Gaga--long after the discussion has gone stale, he's SEO gold! And yet, bloggers and commenters are still opening up a wider conversation about gender and writing -- I hope it goes on.

Inspired by the discussion about the male/female divide in American literature, Liza Mundy's piece on the Double X blog at Slate is one I wanted to share for its candour and hilarity.

Here she is on the gender divide on reporting trips:

"...in my experience, male reporters say something along the lines of "Bye, honey!" when they go out the door to the airport, while women reporters have to make 7,000 back-up plans involving not only spouses but primary baby-sitters, secondary baby-sitters, pet-walking services, and carpooling colleagues, just to make sure that while they are away, no child gets forgotten overnight at gymnastics practice. Women reporters take the earliest train trip to their reporting destination in the morning, and the latest possible train back, rather than spend an extra, leisurely night in a hotel room. Women reporters stuff breast pumps in their carry on bags and help with homework over the telephone."

--"Franzenfest"

Hot and Bothered

Hi there,

The hot weather here has made it difficult to think. I have been keeping my computer off so that it doesn't add more heat to the insufferable amount that just hangs in my apartment. The other night, Tracy and I phoned our favourite podcasters, Jonathan and Seth from "Uhh Yeah Dude," in a fit of heat-induced insanity, and let them know that we were possibly going to perish. Seth called us back the next day to check that we were OK.


And we are.

It's finally cooled down a little bit in Montreal. Yesterday's incredible thunderstorms drove some of the heat out of the city and it's now possible to sit in my place without sweating pouring down from all parts of your body. It's gross, I know.



I am just a week away from going to Toronto for a while and I have to make a decision about where I'll be in September. It's been wonderful here, though I miss you all very much. I like eating fancy cheese three times a day, riding bikes on the way home from the bar and unknowingly walking into concerts any day of the week.



Also, I've noticed that a lot of restaurants here serve water in wine bottles, to be poured into little glasses meant to hold scotch. Little pleasures, right?

It's also been lovely to have months off to do anything I want when I come home. My supervisors at Reader's Digest have discouraged me from putting in extra hours; overtime is a compulsion when you work in publishing. Now I come home and have to find other things to do with my life, which has been confusing.

Pie fans: I concocted a blueberry nectarine lattice pie last night - to die for.



I've also taken to listening to more music, taking time to catch up on Pitchfork favourites so I can talk the talk in this city of hipsters (Hey, guy, aren't you hot in those tight pants?). Also, my work with the web department led me into reviewing books so now I am reading some great stuff from Random House (thanks, RH), like The Golden Mean by Annabelle Lyon. I can't wait for more from Lyon.

I'm also reading:

• Esquire - The Impossible issue
• Maisonneuve - Music We Hate issue
• Lush Life by Richard Price (highly recommended)
• Greedy Little Eyes by Billie Livingston

Some food notes for those planning to visit (me in) Montreal:

• Ripples on St. Laurent has some tasty, tasty ice cream. Surprising flavours, and dipped cones too.
  
• McKiernan is a delight.
  
  
  
  
• The best Chinese BBQ pork is not at the well known Toronto joint Kom Jug Yuen but Andy and Dobe on the border of Montreal's Chinatown. The pork is thinly sliced, tender and perfectly sweet. Takeout comes with a few pieces of bok choy, green onion-ginger sauce and a generous portion of delicious rice cooked in chicken stock and fat.
  
• Picnics on Mont Royal with Cookies of Course, a round of crib and a large bottle of wine are a must.
  
  
  

Anyway, that's my dispatch. What are you up to these days?

Talk to you soon.

X-
M

(P.S.: Sad Mag is launching issue #4 at the Colbalt on August 4 - it's going to be HOT. The party will be hosted by the fabulous Terminal City Roller Girls!)

The Things She Read

I had the great luxury of abandoning my computer for a few hours and jumping on a train. That meant more time than I've had in months to read!

And fortunately, I picked some amazing things to take with me. I read a piece by Chris Jones (Canadian author of the celebrated profile of Roger Ebert in Esquire) called "The Things that Carried Him." (Not to be confused with another fantastic piece from the Atlantic, "The Things He Carried") This piece earned Esquire and Jones a National Magazine Award. It's a phenomenal feat of journalism that tells how the body of an American soldier finds its way home to his grave in Indiana. The story is a few years old but its power hasn't diminished one bit.

You won't be able to put it down and you will not soon forget the story. If I sound hyperbolic, I'm not. It's really that good. Make sure you have Kleenex nearby.

On a lighter note, try the New Yorker's Parent's Guide to "Your New College Graduate"

Finally - I've just started Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman. I like this book because it was a winner for me in our book publisher "fantasy football" league (pick your list, order books, see how they sell), but also because it happens to be written in Friedman's signature lucid style. The book is a manifesto, calling America to step up and embrace sustainability as way of life-- and the its best hope for the future. Friedman's prose is urgent, clear, and persuasive. When I'm done, I'm sure I'm going to feel very smart.

/via Ish (aka where I get all the material for my blog)

Tove Jansson Carroll and Tokien Covers

Tove Jansson (of Moomin fame) illustrated editions of The Hobbit and Alice in Wonderland. See them all here.




/via the Daily What

Werner Herzog Reads...

a.k.a. sure ways to pervert your childhood reading memories.

Megan Reads and Ish Likes Books

Ooh yes! The best (I don't know how to qualify that - it's just what I feel) and fastest reader I know is not the kindle (HA! publishing-industry jokes are funny and illogical).

It's Michelle. She has a new blog on books and I know it will be full of thoughtful, clever, and unexpected insights into the best books you've never heard of.

Love you, Ish. Love the blog.

Here it is: Ish Reads Books

The Children of Cyberspace

Chelsea just sent me an article from Saturday's New York Times about "kids these days." "The Children of Cyberspace" hits the nail on the head by noting that the adoption of new technology happens naturally and fast for people under 20. I've always had the nagging feeling that people just three or four years younger than me could use technology in ways that were far more sophisticated than anything I could conceive of doing. As Brad Stone argues, there are micro-generational gaps between people born in the same decade. So while us "old fogies" - the twenty-somethings - feel wired and hip using twitter (while still reading books), our younger siblings, nieces, and nephews are just taking every new invention as a natural part of their world. The author's daughter won't be the only little girl who considers a kindle to be a book!

We had a discussion in class today about what it meant to finish a book and put it on your shelf. And the particular arrangement of magazines and books on your coffee table or night stand when guests are over. Sure, they say something about you and lend a sense of accomplishment--but maybe your LibraryThing account could replace that. The kids surveyed in this article would certainly agree. It doesn't sound like they are too attached to their books. (But oh, what would happen if you took their laptops away?)

My feeling is that you'll part ways with your DVD collection (ok, maybe you already threw that out) and your library (if you have to move again), and that you'll define your cultural and intellectual identity to others by customizing your tablet to display what you're watching, reading, and listening to at the time. And you'll keep your copy of The Catcher in the Rye/On the Road/The Bell Jar/Catch-22/The Prophet (har) with you forever.

Agree? Disagree? Shoot.

P.S. ! JULIA STILES?

Special Read: Asterios Polyp

My favourite book of the year: Asterios Polyp by David Mazzuchelli

Now, I've read a lot of fine books this year and this one just takes the cake. Asterios Polyp is a work more than ten years in the making. It's about a paper architect (one that designs but whose buildings are never constructed) and an arrogant professor.

As a star in his field, he meets a new sculpture instructor at a faculty party and they hit it off. He and Hana are married and they begin their life together. But Asterios's his insistence that the world can be defined in dualities jeopardizes their relationship. Asterios's compulsion to see everything as black and white is just his instinct, however. The protagonist is an identical twin; his brother Ignazio died at birth and Asterios cannot help but wonder how his brother, the narrator, would have done things differently.

I'm not even scratching the surface here ... and all there is is surface in this book. Mazzuchelli's epic work is mostly only about form here: how do we express our realities and consciousness to one another to create meaning? But it is explored through a truthful depiction of family, gender, and sex.

His telling of Hana's story is beautiful, unforgettable, and so true.

I read this book and then I read it again. That's something I can't say about Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware, my other favourite graphic novel and a strong parallel of Asterios. I love Ware's work. It fascinates me. It's clearly the work of a mad genius. It's sad and rich and complex. But it's also frustrating and difficult to read. These are all qualities that make me love Ware's work but I think that's where it differs so much from this book.

Asterios Polyp is simple to read but certainly complex. Mazzuchelli's use of colour (blue for Asterios, red for Hana, purple instead of black for outlines and shadows) is enough material for a Doctoral thesis. There is something to be said for the way that Mazuchelli refined the narrative into a simple story of a man finding redemption while skillfully infusing a meditation on meaning, expression, commerce, and art into the pages.

A fine achievement. Now, go read it.

Can it be?

This blog has been abandoned for almost a month?

Well, I'm back for a short while since my masters program has loosened its death grip and decided to give me a little break. It'll take me a while to get back into the swing of things but I'm excited to see what's happening on the inter-tubes lately.

Offline, I have an exciting stack of books to read. It's ambitious winter-reading book-list time. Here's what's on deck this year:

• Watchmen (Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons)
• Candide (Voltaire)
• The Progress of Love (Alice Munro)
• What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (Raymond Carver)
• The New Kings of Nonfiction (Ira Glass, ed)
• Black Dogs (Ian McEwan)
• Happiness (Will Ferguson)
• I Like You (Amy Sedaris)
  

Plus there's a huge stack of New Yorker magazines by my bed that are calling my name. One day everything will calm down and I will have time to read, right?

I also want to recommend BIGFOOT: I Not Dead by Graham Roumieu. I'm not sure how to describe this book by Toronto author and illustrator Roumieu except to call it the most satisfyingly cruel and unapologetic adult picture book you've ever read. And if you're doing last-minute Christmas shopping just pick up copies of BIGFOOT for everyone you know. It's a crowdpleaser.

Here's a sneak peek:



[click photo for large size]

The New Black

Tracy Morgan doesn't hold back. On an interview with Terry Gross that has been making the rounds, Tracy Morgan speaks candidly about his childhood, getting out of the ghetto, and his experiences as an actor on Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock.

He's charming, he's real, he's effusive. It makes for a very good interview.

Morgan is promoting his memoir I am the New Black (Random House).

Transcript here

Audio here

Soul-Stirring Reading

I was up really, really late last week reading Ian Brown's series for the Globe and Mail called The Boy in the Moon. The report is an intimate and raw account about his family's struggle to care for and understand his son Walker, who was born with a rare genetic disorder.

I know you will love it and it will move you.

Ian Brown's book based on the G&M series was published by Random House Canada this fall. A preview here:

NEW MICHAEL CHABON!!!

I'm three months late, so what?

Here is Manhood for Amateurs

via New York Review of Books

Blockbuster Book Trailer

Not too long ago, nobody knew Quirk Books. Now, with the smash success of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, they are publishers to watch. Currently, Quirk is pulling out all the stops for the follow-up book Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters with this fantastic book trailer.

Authors, beware: Your publisher may not hire actors and put them in costume and actually light them properly.



via HuffPo

Book Bans and Challenges, 2007-2009

View Book Bans and Challenges, 2007-2009 in a larger map

There are hundreds of challenges to books in schools and libraries in the United States every year. According to the American Library Association (ALA), there were at least 513 in 2008. But the total is far larger. 70 to 80 percent are never reported.

This map is drawn from cases documented by ALA and the Kids' Right to Read Project, a collaboration of the National Coalition Against Censorship and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression. Details are available in ALA's "Books Banned and Challenged 2007-2008," and "Books Banned and Challenged 2008-2009," and the "Kids' Right to Read Project Report."

via Banned Books Week (September 26 - October 3, 2009)

The Dan Brown Sequel Generator

September 17, 2009:

"By late afternoon yesterday Barnes & Noble was ready to exult that Dan Brown's THE LOST SYMBOL had set a new one-day sales record for adult fiction at the chain (without specifying which book held the previous record, or quantifying the new record). It also set a new mark for adult fiction pre-orders and perhaps most importantly, "the company said that sales for the book were exceeding expectations.

"...At noon today the Knopf Doubleday Group confirmed that the book had set the record for one day sales of any book at Random House in North America and the UK. The company says first-day sales were in excess of one million hardcover copies in the US, Canada, and the UK....Doubleday has gone back to press for another 600,000 copies."

What's next?



From The Dan Brown Sequel Generator (works great on Safari. Crap on firefox)