Call it mini-reviews. Call it digital handselling. Call it whatever you want. Whatever it’s called, here’s my regular check-in with what I’ve been reading over the last couple weeks.
Good Eggs by Phoebe Potts
I LOVED this book. In Good Eggs, Phoebe Potts writes (and draws) candidly about her life - and specifically about her struggles to conceive and start a family with the husband Jeff. It’s now among my favorite graphic memoirs, right up there with the work of Jeffrey Brown and Alison Bechdel. Potts manages to be personal, honest and touching, yet possesses a great sense of humor that a lot of memoirs lack. Where other books are droll, Good Eggs is lively. A story about fertility and trying to conceive isn’t something I’d necessarily think of for a 25-year-old guy like me, but this one proved me wrong. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: black hole sun, Books, charlie english, david macinnis gill, evan wright, good eggs, hella nation, kristen schall, mockingjay, phoebe potts, rich blomquist, suzanne collins, the sexy book of sexy sex, the snow tourist
One of my favorite books of the year so far - and a serious contender for my favorite read in 2010 - was Adam Ross’ debut novel Mr. Peanut. I rhapsodized about the labyrinthine book non-stop while I was reading it, and convinced my friend Rebecca Schinsky (The Book Lady’s Blog) to pick it up as well. Rebecca loved the book, and social media maven that she is, she corralled author Adam Ross into answering a few questions the two of us had about the novel. The result of our collaboration is a fascinating Q&A, and a great peek at what goes into a novel as complex as Mr. Peanut. This morning, Rebecca posted PART ONE of the interview on her blog. The second half is featured below.
A number of scenes in the book seem influenced by or, at points, directly pulled from, scenes and ideas in Hitchcock films. What’s the purpose of all this Hitchcock material in the novel?
Adam Ross: It’s part homage to a great artist, but in the Hastroll and Sheppard sections, the inclusion of all these allusions and, as you point out, actual scenes—not to mention costumes, locales, and characters—present a synthesis of my thinking about Hitchcock’s work, particularly with respect to intimacy in marriage: how we arrive at it, destroy it, or restore it. For instance, there’s a scene between Susan Hayes and Sam Sheppard in a hotel room that samples from a similar scene between Eva Marie Saint and Cary Grant in North by Northwest. I use this strategy throughout that section so that the alluded-to moments comment on each other, and there are scenes throughout that interlock with at least seven Hitchcock films. Again, in the spirit of cheat codes, I’d point to Vertigo, Shadow of a Doubt, Strangers on a Train, Marnie, Rear Window, Frenzy, and Psycho—though the truth is that there are a lot more. Notorious. The Birds. I’ll shut up now.
Of course, on a thematic level, Hitchcock is very interested in the way in which men idealize women and how this puts them at a distance from them, or does terrible violence to them, not to mention how men try to control or rebuff women who are perceived as threats to their freedom, or are viewed as objects of voyeuristic pleasure. I was very interested in exploring some of these ideas as they applied to couples who’ve been married for long periods of time. Read the rest of this entry »
Traditionally, the way people have tried to get people into craft beer has been a gradual escalation of intensity. Everything starts with American lager - if you like Budweiser, try a pale ale. If you like pale ales, try an IPA or a brown ale. If you like those, try stouts and porters. Go on from there to the extreme world of barleywines and “imperial” beers.
Basically, it’s a gradual shift from what people think of as typical or American beer to the stuff us beer geeks salivate over. The path certainly gets some people drinking better beer, but it doesn’t really take taste into account. Instead, it’s a focus on a repeated refrain of “oh, this is like what you’ve had before, but a little bit different.”
This year, a couple of great beer writers have turned me on to a much better way to turn beer non-drinkers into beer lovers. In The Naked Pint and Great American Craft Beer, the authors suggest that the best way to match people with beer is finding out the flavors they like. Not flavors like hoppy or malty - terms even beer geeks can’t seem to agree on - but lemon, caramel, espresso, plum, scotch or apple pie. It’s a fun way to discover beers, and a testament to the huge variety of flavors that exists across the dozens of beer styles (or even within a particular style). It also makes discussing beer with people new to the stuff much easier, as people can point to flavors in foods and drinks they like instead of in particular beers.
So, for everyone from beer neophyte to beer devotee, here’s a list of some familiar flavors you can find in some of my favorite beers. Read the rest of this entry »
Check it out - episode two of the Bookrageous Podcast. This time, Rebecca from The Book Lady’s Blog and Ali from WonderAli joined yours truly to talk about genres, what we wish we read more of, and what we’re reading at the moment. Enjoy, subscribe, and let us know what you’d like to see in future episodes!
[46:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player
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Intro Music; Bust a Move - Matthew Morrison
What We’re Reading;
- Rebecca - Bad Marie
- Ali - Stiff, Queen and Country, Vol 4
- Josh - Mockingjay, Good Eggs, Sleepwalker
Break Music; Ahab - MC Lars
What do we want to read more of?
- Literary Fiction - A Visit From the Goon Squad, Mr Peanut, The Passage
- US History - The Wordy Shipmates, Founding Brothers, To Hell on a Fast Horse
- Historical Fiction - Cutting for Stone, the Master and Commander series
- Graphic Novels - The Complete Essex County, Local, Parker: The Hunter, Phonogram
- Young Adult - The Hunger Games trilogy, Black Hole Sun
Find Us Online (collectively) - Twitter, Tumblr, Formspring
Find Us Online (individually) - Josh, Rebecca, Ali
Outro Music; My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors - Moxy Fruvous
Tags: bookrageous, genres, podcast
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