November 2010
Speaking of James Wright →
You have to immediately immediately immediately read this amazeballs polymathic interview he did with “The Paris Review” in 1975. Seriously, read the interview. He does this free-form riff on Tolstoy and you’re all wahhhhhh.
Oh, and this:
INTERVIEWER
My favorite of your books is Shall We Gather at the River. And one thing that I really like about it is the fact that it...
Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
Oh, this is so embarrassing, but, seriously, nine beloved readers have requested it, and I can’t pretend to be all, “oh, that book? I’ve seen in stores, but I’ve never read it. I mostly read dense biographies of tax policy analysts.”
Because, you know, I don’t want there to be secrets between us.
I have read this book. And, I think, one of the other books. ...
Bobos in Paradise, David Brooks
GPOY.
That is all.
Above The River: The Complete Poems, James Wright
Northern Pike
All right. Try this, Then. Every body I know and care for, And every body Else is going To die in a loneliness I can’t imagine and a pain I don’t know. We had To go on living. We Untangled the net, we slit The body of this fish Open from the hinge of the tail To a place beneath the chin I wish I could sing of. I would just as soon we let The living go on living. An old...
Summer At Tiffany, Marjorie Hart
Remember when I told you to buy many copies of “Little Heathens” and give them out to your elderly relatives in order to curry favour?
Well, you break this bad boy out at Christmas, and you’re gonna have more unwrapped Werther’s Originals than you can handle.
It’s also mad cute, and stuff, it’s not just Matlockian in its old person appeal. Marjorie Hart...
Dude, leave Willie Nelson alone. →
The Lazy Self-Indulgent Book Reviewer fully supports NORML and the Drug Policy Alliance, and so should you.
You probably need to pay your taxes, though. And not cross state lines with six ounces in a tour bus with pro-cannabis stickers.
But, you know, Willie’s gonna be Willie.
Oh, you should all read Jacob Sullum’s ‘Saying Yes,’ anything by Ethan Nadelman, and also Martin Torgoff’s ‘Can’t Find...
The Red Pony, John Steinbeck
Do not read. Do not read. Do not read. Do not read. Do not read. Do not read.
See, also: “My Friend Flicka.” And, no, I’m not doing any goddamn Amazon links for these two. If you want to enter freely into a state of existential despair, I’m not going to hold your hand while you do it.
If you’re going to write a book about a horse or a dog, you should be...
An Unviable Short-term Solution: Mr. Avignon’s... →
msavignon:
Mr. Avignon’s parents have recently (within the last month) started to attend an evangelical church. Normally, they attend a Methodist church that, as far as I can tell, is mostly about following the Golden Rule and bringing casseroles to church functions. But this past year, Mr. Avignon’s uncle…
I put my foot in my mouth constantly about this stuff. For example, women you...
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard
Okay, we’re friends now, right? Like, we’re Internet close? I wouldn’t feel comfortable showing up at your housewarming party, or anything, but we’re not strangers.
Because, and I do feel bad about this, I have not read “Pilgrim at Tinker’s Creek.” Which is especially embarrassing when, periodically, you hear yourself actually recommending it to...
Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight: An African...
Yeah, it’s all that.
This is one of those books that people keep telling you to read, and you keep saying mehhhhh, and then you’re staying at your aunt’s house, and she has it on the bedside table of her guest room, so you read the first four pages before falling asleep, and then you wake up the next morning, and you don’t hear anyone moving in the house, and you...
THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS, URSULA K. LE GUIN
YES YES YES YES. RIOTOUS ENTHUSIASM!
Oh, I’m sorry, do you think you’re too good to have your world rocked? By a book that won the Hugo AND the Nebula? FUCK YOU.
If I were to be all, oh, AMAZING SF BOOKS that have provided me with REAL WORLD ASSISTANCE, it would be THIS BOOK AND MOTHERFUCKING “DUNE.”
Because, obviously, Dune has the psycho FEAR IS THE MINDKILLER,...
I'd Rather Eat Chocolate, Joan Sewell
ZOMG YOU GUYS. Okay, so, I bought this after reading Sandra Tsing Loh’s kinda hilarious review in the Atlantic (we’re mad at Sandra Tsing Loh right now, though, because of her ‘I’m getting divorced, so marriage is a failed institution’ thing), and it’s even worse than you could possibly imagine.
I just don’t think you are allowed to write a book about...
Flat Broke With Children: Women In The Age of...
This is a great book if you want to inform yourself about the meh parts of welfare reform (obviously there have been changes since Hays - USC’S Barbra Streisand (!) Professor in Contemporary Gender Studies and Professor of Sociology - published it in 2004), and especially if you have an interest in how policy shifts have altered the experience of women and children who require temporary...
SPEAKING OF FUCKING ALANIS MORRISSETTE, Lazy...
INTRO: This was originally for Salon.com to commemorate the 15th anniversary of “Jagged Little Pill,” but then I had to leave the country for immigration stuff, and it became Too Late. So now it’s for you! YOU’RE SO LUCKY.
Fifteen years ago, Alanis Morissette released her third album. Her first two are hazily familiar to those of us who grew up north of the border,...
His Piece on "The Who" in The New Yorker, James...
I haven’t even read it yet, Industrious Husband is bogarting my copy. But, squee. For me, this is like reading Paul Simon’s review of “Finishing The Hat.”
James Wood is a genius (we’ll talk about him soon enough, I even love the novel), and I am ob.sess.ed. with “The Who.”
NERD ALERT, these were my favourite albums in high school (as opposed to CDs,...
