puffin + pantone

Check these super cute Pantone-styled editions of classic books!

rainbow book fair!

I'm reading with a bunch of poets at the Rainbow Book Fair tomorrow. Lots of great peeps and great books to check out. Come one, come all.

book briefs

Here's some recent books I read and enjoyed.

I'll Drink to That - Betty Halbreich (with Rebecca Paley)

Thinking that this would be a light, gossipy memoir on fashion, I was taken aback how great this memoir was. Halbreich grew up wealthy as an only child in Chicago, living a relatively lonesome life. From an early age, she was deeply fascinated by clothing. After enduring a difficult marriage and an attempt at suicide, Halbreich found her calling as a personal shopper (of the Solutions Department) at Bergdorf Goodman, helping dress celebrities like Joan Rivers and Candice Bergen (Halbreich is partly responsible for the iconic "Murphy Brown" look). Rich and lively and studded with incredible details, I'll Drink to That took me into bygone eras of fashion (she bemoans that it's all about the labels now, not the clothing) and into the life of a no-nonsense, direct, creative and dry-witted artist.

Drunk Mom - Jowita Bydlowska

Does addiction ever leave us? The present tense immediacy of Bydlowska's memoir suggests sometimes it does not. Bydlowska's book hurtles into her personal experiences as an alcoholic young mother. Despite its subject matter and its wide open revelations, I wouldn't call the book devastating nor shocking, in fact Bydlowska's experiences are sometimes ordinary, eerily banal. 

Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire - Brenda Hillman

I believe this is the first collection I've read of Hillman and now I'm excited to go back to her other books. This one really sparked for me. The poems are packed with politics and detail. I liked the risk-taking and the messiness--the collision of varied moods and voices (furious and at times, weary) protest photos, data, and asides.

-Jeffery Berg

interview with john waters

Check out my interview with John Waters over at Lambda Literary about his new book Carsick.

I was a bit afraid to talk to him because he's so iconic / important to me (and where to begin?!) but he was sweet as can be.

under the covers: kickass retro spine-tingling cover art

Jerome Murphy offers up a fun and ghoulish journey back to some memorable, creepy book covers of childhood.


Part 1: Traumatize Your Kids 


Long, long ago—in a galaxy far away—book covers were works of beauty, designed to entice the imaginations of a wide reading public. Let us look, as Prospero said to Miranda, into the “dark backward and abysm of time.” Before photoshopped teen models … before movie tie-ins … before our e-readers – to an age when mass market book covers were almost as good –often better – than what awaited readers inside.

10. The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural by Patricia McKissack

Hell yeah, you best be lookin’ over your shoulder with all that cross-hatching coming after you. This cover has the rare distinction of explicitly featuring an African-American. Even better, Brian Pinckney’s moody, Caldecott prize-winning illustrations throughout made this one a winner.

9. The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

This cover basically looks like a young child’s imagination at Halloween. Which is to say, like an acid trip. It fit the kaleidoscopic journey of the characters who explore Halloween customs around the world.

8. Alfred Hitchcock’s Solve-Them-Yourself Mysteries

Where are this kid’s parents?

7. Stay Out of the Basement by R.L. Stine

The best of the Goosebumps covers captures the sheer cheesetastic fun of Stine’s phenomenally popular series.

6. The Duplicate by William Sleator

Oh, come on. COME ON. Look at that cover. What should have been cartoonish is totally unsettling and eerie. Long-sleeved horizontal stripes are a big part of that.

5. Urn Burial by Robert Westall

Now, that’s a cover. The underrated Westall crafted the kind of careful, literate YA fiction that’s out of fashion these days. This out-of-print title, about a Scottish teen shepherd uncovering an alien burial site and reigniting an ancient interstellar war, is worth the effort to track down.

4. Something Upstairs by Avi

This cover was educational—is a ghost a solid, a liquid, or a gas?

3. The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander

You’d think The Black Cauldron would boast the standout art of Alexander’s famous series, but this title presaged the 70’s "Dungeons and Dragons" aesthetic with nightmarish aplomb.

2. Short & Shivery by Robert D. San Souci

Tales from the Crypt, for Kids.

1. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz

The leader, by a mile, of all spine-tingling children’s book covers. You remember these, don’t you? And this cover art was practically "My Little Pony" compared to the pictures inside. Most frighteningly of all, these titles have been reissued with Harry Potter-style illustrations, which ought to raise a blood-curdling cry … of outrage.



Next up: teen edition. R.L. Stine, Christopher Pike, and some deep cuts.



-Jerome Murphy

the asylum

My review of Simon Doonan's new book The Asylum is up on the Lambda Literary Review.

Check it out.

The book is fun and dishy.

Also check out Jerome Murphy's review of Frank Bidart's collection of poems Metaphysical Dog, also on Lambda.

didion's list

Joan Didion's list (from The White Album).


"To Pack and Wear:

2 skirts

2 jerseys or leotards

1 pullover sweater

2 pair shoes

stockings

bra

nightgown, robe slippers

cigarettes

bourbon

bag with: shampoo, toothbrush and paste, Basis soap, razor, deodorant, aspirin, prescriptions, Tampax, face cream, powder, baby oil

To Carry:

mohair throw

typewriter

2 legal pads and pens

files

house key

This is a list which was taped inside my closet door in Hollywood during those years when I was reporting more or less steadily. The list enabled me to pack, without thinking, for any piece I was likely to do. Notice the deliberate anonymity of costume: in a skirt, a leotard, and stockings, I could pass on either side of the culture. Notice the mohair throw for trunk-line flights (i.e. no blankets) and for the motel room in which the air conditioning could not be turned off. Notice the bourbon for the same motel room. Notice the typewriter for the airport, coming home: the idea was to turn in the Hertz car, check in, find an empty bench, an start typing the day’s notes.”

-Joan Didion

interview with ryan quinn

Ryan Quinn's debut novel The Fall brought me back to the awkwardness of university life in the same way Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep did. Both books have a keen sense of the banal and the thrilling, life-changing moments of that time. Set at a small college, The Fall follows three students—Casey, a jock; Ian, a film buff discovering his sexuality; and Haile, a talented musician. The novel successfully moves in and out of their point-of-views with compelling first person narratives. I asked Ryan Quinn a few questions about his writing process and thoughts on his novel.




When and how did you begin writing The Fall?

RQ: I started writing the first chapters nearly five years ago. The motivation was a convergence of a few things. The characters came first. They just kept surfacing in my consciousness, I think because their story was interesting to me and yet I didn't see characters like them being portrayed in novels or movies. About the same time I was writing more and more articles for various websites and realizing how much I loved the challenge of crafting a narrative. Also, I read a few bad, very commercially successful books and it made me think, "Hey, I can do this!"

You are originally from Alaska and went to school in Utah. What was it like growing up in these areas? Did you feel any personal connection to Wasilla during the 2008 election when the town was suddenly on a national stage?

RQ: I grew up in Wasilla. It's not a big town, which I think makes it a wonderful place to grow up in. But I never thought of is as a political place. The whole Palin obsession has been surreal. I don't think there is anything to take away from it. It's just a weird coincidence. Maybe one takeaway is that I wish Tina Fey had been my mayor instead.

People usually wince when I tell them I went to college in Utah. I have to clarify that it was for skiing reasons—I was on the ski team at the University of Utah—not religious reasons. But the truth is that the Mormon influence didn't really impact my everyday life. I hung out with a lot of other student-athletes, many of whom had been recruited from other states or countries and weren't Mormon. And Salt Lake City has a fantastic gay community. It was the perfect place for me to be at that time.

I love how the title relates to many different aspects within the novel. Can you discuss that a little?

RQ: The story takes place during the fall semester at this college, which is the obvious reference. But on a more interesting level, there is a painting called The Fall of Man that figures into the plot, and this painting has some themes that echo the plot of the book. Also, some of the characters experience what you might call "a fall," but I don't want to spoil anything! I knew the novel was working when I started to discover that all these themes and layers existed within the story—at that they felt very organic, not forced. The title kind of ties them all together.



I thought the shifts between point of view was pulled off well. The voices of the three main characters felt believable to me. Were there any difficulties in writing in different voices? Did you always picture the novel to be set up that way?

RQ: Yes and yes. I was fascinated by the idea that we each kind of take for granted our own perceptions of reality—when I think what is probably happening more often is that we have hilariously different perceptions of the same situation. I wanted to explore this by structuring the book as three very intimate, first-person narratives so that certain scenes would be seen through all three of the main characters. Honestly, I didn't know if it would work, and at first I was very self-conscious that it would come off as a gimmick. But I think I knew it was working when it became not just a way of telling the story, but a key part of the story and the characters' journeys.

Attempting to channel a female voice was a challenge for me. So was making each character's voice distinct enough so that the reader could tell them apart. A lot of smart people told me it was too ambitious. Usually I'm very coachable in that way, but in this case I had a vision for how it was supposed to work and I just kept revising and revising until I got there. When the book was published I was still worried that people would quit after thirty pages because the alternating narratives was confusing. I was relieved when I started to get feedback from people who said they rarely read books and they read it in a day.

The use of point of view reminded me a bit of the structuring of Michael Cunningham's A Home at the End of the World. Are there any particular authors who have had an influence on you?

RQ: I did read A Home at the End of the World before writing The Fall, as well as Bret Easton Ellis's The Rules of Attraction and a great book called Sea of Tranquility by Paul Russell. Those are the most obvious, transparent influences. But I think we are what we read, and everything we read—whether we liked the book or not—seeps into the gears in our brain that are grinding out any story we're writing.

Since you are an athlete, how did your personal experiences in the athletic world lend to crafting The Fall?

RQ: I was a competitive cross-country skier in college and since then I've run a few marathons. Writing a novel is incredibly similar to training for an endurance sport. You have to put in a lot of hours day after day. There aren't bursts of glory to sustain you. And it's lonely; not in a sad way, just in a literal way. You have to take a long view and be competitive with yourself in order to keep going back and trying to make it clearer—better. It can't be a whim; it's a mindset.

Did anything surprise you while writing the novel? Did you have days where you felt you related to certain characters more than others?

RQ: Absolutely. Actually, one of the things that surprised me the most was how closely I was able to relate to Haile and Casey. I guess I expected to relate to Ian, but the other two were a surprise. Maybe it's because the point-of-view narratives are so intimate, and when you drill down to that level we're all sort of dealing in universal emotions even if what we express to the world seems more unique.

I felt a kinship with Ian who is a film buff and trying to figure out his sexuality and what he wants to do with his life. Do you think his favorite film, Lawrence of Arabia, has any particular significance?

RQ: Yeah, you can draw some parallels, though the relevance of that particular film was only in the back of my mind when I was writing the book. I guess the larger theme of the book is "the search for meaning," which is introduced in the Art History class, but it's also something each character explores on his/her own. I think in Ian's case, he's drawing those cinematic parallels in his mind, even if I didn't make that explicit in the story.

Are you working on writing anything new at the moment?

RQ: I am. I have a rough almost-draft of a new novel. It needs a lot of work, and I'm excited to return to it with fresh eyes and start revising and rewriting. I'm afraid to say more because that'd be like showing you my new apartment before I've gutted it and had all the fixtures redone!

On a scale from 1 to 4 stars, how many stars do you give your day?

RQ: Four. Definitely four. Have you read the news lately? This world is nuts. I'm happy to be here.


Ryan Quinn grew up in Alaska. After graduating from the University of Utah, where he was an NCAA Champion and All-American college athlete, he worked in book publishing for five years in New York City. He now lives in Los Angeles. The Fall is his first novel.

You can purchase the paperback here and also the kindle edition of The Fall here.

bookbags

Check out these bookish clutches designed by Olympia Le-Tan. Slideshow gallery here.

Love Natalie's Lolita clutch.

shoutouts

Check out Teo Blake's new album Death to Sambo. Really good tracks! A little post about it on Le Chic Batik. Available on iTunes here.

After Tuesday's depressing (though I prepared for the very worst) election results, I found Curtis Sittenfield's (author of the amazing novel Prep) Slate essay on Barack Obama warm and refreshing.

Ricky Martin's memoir reviewed by Gawker.

Frank Bidart was a special guest at last night's Wilde Boys salon. An amazing writer. Read his work here.

Carey Mulligan at the BAFTA's. Love it!

the last days of summer reading

Yes it's the first of September and summer is coming to a close. I feel like I've read a lot of really great books this season. Here were some of my favorites:

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas

A simple premise: a lazy Australian suburban barbecue is jolted when a man hits a child who isn't his own. Tsiolkas delves into different lives of those affected by the incident. His writing vividly captures contemporary suburbanites from a 71 year old man to a young gay teen. I found it completely engrossing and really admired his style.

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

I have been a fan of Lahiri's work since Interpreter of the Maladies and her new collection took my breath away. I love the way she builds a story so carefully and intricately.

Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead

Divine! Rio at Le Chic Batik lended this to me and I absolutely adored it. An episodic, funny and poignant coming of age tale set in middle/upper class African American enclave of Long Island's Sag Harbor. So many great 1980s references (New Coke, scoring tix to Lisa Lisa and U.T.F.O.). The first book I've read in a while where the author seems to have had a joyous time writing.

Salvation City by Sigrid Nunez

When a young boy's parents die in a flu pandemic, he is adopted by evangelical Christians in rural Indiana. Nunez not only gives a chilling and realistic portrayal of what would happen to America if an epidemic like this occurred, but focuses in on the emotional trauma of her characters. Deliberately paced and mostly told in flashback in the beginning, this book really surprised me with its powerful portrait of our fragile and divided country.

Some others I loved ...

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

The Surf Guru by Doug Dorst

Jack Kerouac's On the Road

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

Colm Toibin's Brooklyn

Mary Karr's memoirs Cherry and The Liars' Club

You Lost Me There by Rosencrans Baldwin

A Sun for the Dying by Jean Claude-Izzo.

What were some of your favorite reads this summer? Please share!