Filed under: books, reviews | Tags: abdellah taia, evan fallenberg, gay books everyone should read, gay pride 2009, gay titles, joel derfner, light fell, salvation army, swish
In honor, or Honour as the Brits say, of Gay Pride 2009 and the 40th anniversary of Stonewall here are some delightful newish gay titles that you should be reading. Maybe not this weekend because who has time for reading a book when there are so many other things going on but soon afterward. After the headache goes away.
Here are three that you should keep in mind … among others.
SWISH: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever by Joel Derfner
Robert had this to say: “Dang, I thought I was pretty darn gay: show tunes, no interest in sports, oh, and a sexual interest in men, but Derfner clearly has me out-ranked, and these hilarious, compulsively-readable essays place him immediately on the shellf with the best of Sedaris, Burroughs, Dan Savage, and their fab ilk.”
SALVATION ARMY by Abdellah Taia
Ed highly recommends: “Salvation Army is a short, but compelling, autobiographical novel by Moroccan Abdellah Taia, told very powerfully and effectively in the first person. Sensually and sexually evocative vignettes depict an uncertain journey of sexual and cultural self-discovery embodying the complex hopes and fears of a gay Moroccan ex-patriot. “
LIGHT FELL by Evan Fallenberg
Ed loved: “Light Fell takes place at the dangerous intersection of homosexuality and orthodox religion – an Israeli man leaves his family for another man (a rabbi, no less!) and now, 20 years later, is about to reunite with his five grown sons on his 50th birthday. Author Fallenberg does a good job humanizing what I found to be an unlikable main character (and his equally unlikable children) while exploring the family dynamics of “gay”, as well as the many taboos and hypocrises demanded by organized religion, and the consequent self-loathing and narrow-mindedness it engenders.”
Filed under: books | Tags: a monster's notes, collins library, curious men, frank buckland, knopf, laurie sheck, mcsweeneys
A Monster’s Notes by Laurie Sheck looks interesting in that way that a monster telling his side of a story that stretches far longer than the life of Mary Shelley will illuminate more than just what a simple monster might be contemplating over his years.
Here is some publisher marketing:
What if Mary Shelley had not invented Frankenstein’s monster but had met him when she was a girl of eight, sitting by her mother’s grave, and he came to her unbidden? What if their secret bond left her forever changed, obsessed with the strange being whom she had discovered at a time of need? What if he were still alive in the twenty-first century?
This bold, genre-defying book brings us the “monster” in his own words. He recalls how he was “made” and how Victor Frankenstein abandoned him. He ponders the tragic tale of the Shelleys and the intertwining of his life with that of Mary (whose fictionalized letters salt the narrative, along with those of her nineteenth-century intimates) in this riveting mix of fact and poetic license. He takes notes on all aspects of human striving–from the music of John Cage to robotics to the Northern explorers whose lonely quest mirrors his own–as he tries to understand the strange race that made yet shuns him, and to find his own freedom of mind.
In the course of the monster’s musings, we also see Mary Shelley’s life from her childhood through her elopement with Percy Bysshe Shelley, her writing of Frankenstein, the births and deaths of her children, Shelley’s famous drowning, her widowhood, her subsequent travels and life’s work, and finally her death from a brain tumor at age fifty-four. The monster’s fierce bond with Mary and the tale of how he ended up in her fiction is a haunted, intense love story, a story of two beings who can never forget each other.
And look at that cover! Creepy. It will compliment the Collins’ Library (number 6 by McSweeney’s) book Curious Men by Frank Buckland that I reading at the moment. A Monster’s Notes was released today from Knopf and is available for $30.
Filed under: books | Tags: jane austen, janespotting, loving jane austen, pride and prejudice and zombies
“Yet this writer who enjoyed only moderate success while she was alive has had a miraculous cultural afterlife. No other author, except perhaps Shakespeare, has been as adapted, appropriated and aped as Austen.”
This article is a few days old at this point, but, BUT, it’s worth a read given that our bestseller for the 1000th week in a row is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
We all know a Janespotter in our lives. Won’t you help them by reading an Austen classic/Genre-based mashup today?
Filed under: books
While this debate is nothing new … This blog and the blog that it is responding to feel the act of reading needs to be encouraged no matter what. What is genre fiction anyway?
So read your Pattersons and your Hamiltons. It’s about being happy not being snobbish.
Haha! You get it!
The Globe and Mail in a, probably, paid advertisement sort of thing, have partnered with Harper Collins to showcase some great old short stories. They just so happen to coincide with some short story collections of famous writers that Harper has started printing.
Tolstoy is up to bat. David Bezmozgis is on deck.
The story will take you five minutes to read. Ten minutes, tops, or your money back.
Ha! See, that was another one. I am on fire today. Must be the sleep deprivation.
Filed under: bookstore news | Tags: changes at unabridged, shelves moving around at unabridged bookstore, more room for penguin classics
You may, or not depending on how engrossed in your game of minesweaper on your iPhone you are, noticed some sections being moved around at Unabridged. It’s expansion! at the expense of others. History lost a unit. No more new age. But. We’ve got a lifetime of philosophy. Tear.
The gay section, we feel, is now more browsable than ever. Shorter shelving units have really opened up the room. No need to have mirrors and more track lighting!
Also of note: Penguin Classics are getting more room to breathe. They looked so unhappy stuffed into their little shelves barely able to flutter in the wind. And. Drama has more room. No more double-stacked Shakespeare. That’s what those covers look like…
There are a couple of other sections that have moved as a result of the changes, but they are minor and no one is worse for the wear. Except for our arms. Time for some icy-hot!
Come take a look at the shifts and tell us what you think. I’ll post some pictures as soon as I get a digital camera in my hands.
This is a great and touching article from the LA Times about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s secretary, Frances Kroll Ring, at the end of his life.
No, I didn’t tear up at the end. Jus’ some dust in my eye.
Filed under: books | Tags: dave eggers, gawker, mcsweeneys, pep talk from dave eggers, zeitoun
In “Will the Book Survive” Doom and Gloom News for the day:
Someone finally got one of Dave Eggers’ email-based pep-talks! LINK to Gawker commence!
I fill pepped. (If you don’t know full story go here) Of note is that McSweeney’s has been on the front lines, so to speak, for some time in making sure the book stays relevant as a piece of art.
Eggers concludes:
“Physical forms of the written word need to offer a clear and different experience. And if they do, we believe, they will survive. Again, this is a time to roar back and assert and celebrate the beauty of the printed page. Give people something to fight for, and they will fight for it. Give something to pay for, and they’ll pay for it.”
At least Eggers (McSweeney’s and hangers on) is practicing what he preaches. You have to give him credit for that.
Dave Eggers’ new book, ZEITOUN, is due out July 21st on McSweeney’s.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: amazon sucks, bea 2009, book expo america, e-books, jeff bezos just wants your money, sherman alexie, the kindle is the wrong way to go
That is to say: how much did we already know?
For those that are unaware of BEA it is Book Expo America. The biggest book-based trade show in the country for the year. There are several regional shows that happen, but BEA is where everyone gets together. Except this year. The first hint of the coming change in the publishing industry (and changes are coming) was the absence of Macmillan Publisher Services (who own Farrar Straus and Giroux among other very prestigious publishing houses) AND Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt.
And then there’s the Internet. Oh Internet, you have changed so much of our lives. Some for bad, and most for good, but you are most definitely shifting attitudes. Book bloggers were in full force the whole weekend. They love books. They love computers. They love the Internet. We do have common ground. In our coming book-apolypse
Then there’s Macmillan’s CEO half-hearted answer to the threat of Google’s book project and the integration of digital library distribution. (Link here if you’re a paying member of Publisher’s Marketplace) I know why they’re worried: They see what happened to the record companies when they tried to fight user driven desire to stream-line the process of music delivery. But that shows they aren’t with the change. They just want to stop it. Amazon has done one thing: they’ve broken open the discussion of how the book should change.
What I’ve really learned:
The Kindle is the wrong way to go. (not saying all e-book readers) Many have spoken of the ills of Amazon model of book buying (Sherman Alexie being the most recent. Go to this link. His answers are amazing). One thing everyone does know is wrong with Amazon is it’s lack of community (This NY Times link to a Slate article is quite telling). Bezos just wants your money.
That’s the final thing that was reinforced at BEA: we are a community. A massive one that is learning to live with many different pieces. It’s slowly becoming decentered around the old media companies, and dispersed to many different channels that are preparing to the coming modal change in consumption.
We love books. We love talking about books. Since BEA, twitter has been a non-stop discussion about the ebook, the place of bloggers in the process, and how things are not going to stop changing. Oh, and Sherman Alexie’s comments about elitism.
How would you like to see Unabridged Bookstore change? Podcasts? Twitter feed? Free Wi-Fi? Send us your ideas. We are deeply connected to the LakeView/Chicago community. We breathe with the life of the city and the neighborhood around us.
I am working on a larger post about Book Expo America and what I took away from it this year. That should be up tonight.
But I do want to point out that two days after the official close of the convention people are generally still talking about the experience. We’ll see a week down the road and even a month, but so far, so good.
