Book Review - "Just Kids" by Patti Smith

I loved Patti Smith's Just Kids. I love the story she tells, the way she tells it, the people she talks about and the places where she takes us.

The book is Smith's keeping a promise she made to her friend, lover, and muse - artist Robert Mapplethorpe - as he was dying of AIDS in 1989. It's the story of their 22 year friendship, love story and collaboration - a coming of age story set in New York's art and music world. New York City is as much a main character as are Patti and Robert. It's not a pretty New York City - lots of drugs and hustling - but a vibrant art and music scene. And my elusive Shengri-La, the Chelsea Hotel is also a star in the book. They lived there for several years and it was crucial to their development as artists.

I was actually more familiar with Mapplethorpe's work than with Smith's until recently. I've always admired Mapplethorpe's work even as it disturbed me. Reading about how his art evolved as a mirror of his life was fantastic. The name-dropping in the book is fabulous - Smith and Mapplethorpe were in the thick of the Warhol and Chelsea Hotel scene. That's how Smith came to be in the same room as Kris Kristofferson singing "Me and Bobby McGee" to Janis Joplin for the first time - can you imagine!

Smith's writing is beautiful, her love for Mapplethorpe is felt on every page. What started as an accidental meeting, led to a friendship, a love affair and a symbiotic artistic relationship - they fed off each other's creativity. It's really amazing how they each helped the other develop their talent.

While I loved it, I recognize it's not for everyone, the sotry is hardly universal and if you aren't familiar with or curious about this time period, you won't get the same out of it that I did, you might be bored.

Click this link to see Smith's amazing impromptu, a capella performance of "Because the Night" at the 2010 Miami Book Fair.

National Library Week 2009

image source

It's National Library Week 2009.

I hadn't been to a library for a while, but one day last week was so beautiful I took a walk to the library at lunch time. I remembered how much I loved libraries! They're very different now of course (no card catalogs!), but I still got that familiar "at home" feeling.

When I was growing up my father would take me to the library often. I got a library card when I was like 6 years old and I would dutifully pick out a bunch of books to take home, but that was after a couple of hours of hanging out at the library. Papi would go read whatever he was interested in and I would stay in the Children's room amidst toys and books. Sometimes there was an activity going on. Otherwise I would first walk around looking on all the shelves and pick out the books I was going to take home. Then, I'd take a bunch of books, often from the reference section - yes I was a nerd - and sit in the miniature tables and chairs and devour whatever I was fascinated by that day.

As I got older and had to do term papers and reports, Papi would dutifully take me to the library - not that it was ever a chore for him - and I would look stuff up in the card catalog, photocopy things and review stuff on the microfiche machine and gather information for the bibliography on index cards. "Card Catalog", "Photocopy" and "Microfiche" words that are practically foreign to kids today.

I think I'm going to make a point of going to the library more often - just being in there relaxes me. Celebrate National Library Week by visiting your local library if you haven't done so in a while - it's chock full of magic...

A Book Meme

OK, I know this is two memes in a row. I don't care, I can do what I want, y'all aren't the bosses of me! And anyway I got this meme from the anti-meme king Curmudgeon.

So, here's the deal:

* Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more - No cheating.
* Turn to page 123 and find the first five sentences.
* Now post the next three sentences.
* The fun begins - - tag some people to play along.

As usual, I won't tag anyone - if you want to play please let me know in my Comments.

The book is The Lazy Environmentalist by Josh Dorfman. Page 123, sentences 6,7 and 8:

The Brooklyn, New York-based design trio of Sam Kraigel, Nikki Frazier, and Jesse James Arnold create furniture that is as aesthetically exciting as itis extremely practical. The Hollow Series of streamlined bamboo coffee, console, and side tables are "hollowed" out to offer hidden interior storage swpaces - perfect for stashing books, magazines, multiple remote controls, and gaming consoles. The Bamboo Stagger is a stunning wall-size shelving unit designed to accommodate an assortment of objects by integrating shelves of varying widths and heights.

Hey! It said the "nearest book" - that's the nearest book. I purchased right after the big environment concert - I was all inspired and it looks nice on the coffee table.

So what's your nearest book right now?

What I'm Reading

If you keep track the "What I'm Reading" section of my sidebar (and I'm *sure* you do!), you may have noticed that I recently added Hillary Clinton's It Takes a Village, and now it's changed to Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope. It's not because I've changed my mind on my favorite candidate, although if I were voting in the primary today I'd vote for Barack - more on that in another post - but it's because I realized it was Black History month, and I always try to make a point and read a book by a Black author in February.

So, I'll go back to Hillary later but for now, I'm looking forward to reading about our next President's audacity.

Book Meme!

I got this from Observations of a Librarian. It's a meme and it's about books - how can I resist?

1. Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?
   Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. I know, I know...but it is *impenetrable* to me. I've tried in English and Spanish, with Cliff Notes - I can't get through it. I own it though...so some day maybe...
2. If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?
   Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany's, Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird, Lestat from Interview with the Vampire. I'd have the over for drinks. I'd try to set Holly up with Atticus - I think they'd be good for each other, she'd help him loosen up and he would be a steadying influence for her. Lestat, would be my date...:)
3. (Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realize it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?
   Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Not only do I disagree with the philosophy the book espouses, but 645,000 words in 1168 pages - I mean come on!
4. Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?
   I don't think I've ever done this.
5. As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realise when you read a review about it/go to ‘reread’ it that you haven’t? Which book? Wuthering Heights. I would have sworn I read it, but I didn't and when I tried to I couldn't finish it - but I loved the movie!
6. You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (if you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead and personalise the VIP).
   To Kill a Mockingbird because I think everyone should read this book at least once.
7. A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?
   French.
8. A mischievous fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?
   There are several I have read several times, but again I'll go with To Kill a Mockingbird. I've read it several times already, but not quite once a year.
9. I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)?
   I read about graphic novels and now it has become a genre I really enjoy greatly.
10. That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leather bound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free.
    Bookshelves built into the walls , a big comfortable chair with an ottoman, a rocking chair, a rolltop desk, a ceiling fan, and a nice sound system. The books would be a mixed lot - raggedy paperbacks, hard copies, some leather bound stuff, big art books, etc.

If you want to play, leave a note in my Comments section :)

Slow Vacation Day and Book Cover Meme

On the vacation front thus far we've had a pretty mellow day today. We woke up late and went to my SIL's house for her world-famous cauliflower soup. Later tonight we're going to see "Beowulf" in IMAX. I don't even want to go into how geekily excited I am about "Beowulf" being made into a movie. I'll tell you about the movie and whatever adventures ensue tomorrow.

For now I'll offer this fun and easy meme I found a while ago and saved for when I needed content. Here are the instructions:

1. Go to the Advanced Book Search on Amazon.com.
2. Type in your first name in the book title and post the most interesting/amusing cover that shows up.
3. Again, as always if you want to play, please let me know in my comments section.
   

Jeffrey Toobin and Erica Jong

You're probably thinking, now there's an odd pairing! What do Jeffrey Toobin and Erica Jong have in common? Well, they were my favorite part of the Book Fair!

Toobin was promoting his newest book The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court. Of course I had seen him on TV and heard him on NPR numerous times, but he was always in *serious mode*. At the fair, his presentation was in the form of a conversation between him and my favorite local broadcaster, Michael Putney, and Toobin was relaxed and funny as hell. I mean the man made a conversation about The Supreme Court - not a body known for its hilarity - a hoot! I'm actually considering adding the book to my Christmas list - that's how entertaining he made it sound.

Erica Jong, on the other hand, I had seen at the Book Fair before - years ago. She was fabulous today, at 65, promoting her memoir Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life. She talked about she had wanted to be a writer ever since she was little girl and would kiss the pictures of writers on book jackets. She's wonderfully candid, charming and funny. She also talked about being in the process of writing a sequel to her classic Fear of Flying, where Isadora will be in her 60s and dealing with aging in general and specifically sexuality and aging, the loss of parents to death or dementia, declining health, etc.

There were other lesser known authors that I saw and who have caused me to add yet more books to be never-ending-I'll-have-to-live-to-be-100-to read-them-all book list.

I also attempted to listen to Ralph Nader, but, I don't know if it was because it was late in the day and I was tired and had to get home to change for an evening out with friends, or if he really is such a bad, rambling speaker - but I lost my patience with him and left within the first 15 minutes of his presentation. I like the guy, i really do, but he makes me anxious.

So, another Book Fair is over. It was wonderful, we were blessed by beautiful weather and I had, a s always a phenomenal time. C-Span 2 will be airing several of the presentations for a while, so maybe you can catch one. Next year will be the 25th anniversary of the Fair - I can't wait to see what they have planned.

Book Meme!

Inspired by the Miami Book Fair today, I'm taking this meme from Doppelganger at 50 Books.

Total number of books I own - I'm totally ball-parking it here - I'll say about 300

Last book I finished reading - Celebrity Detox (The Fame Game) by Rosie O'Donnell

Last book I bought - Celebrity Detox (The Fame Game) by Rosie O'Donnell

Five meaningful books - There are so many, but off the top of my head, books that were meaningful to me and had an impact on my life:

1. "To Kill a Mockingbird" - Harper Lee
   
2. "1984" - George Orwell
   
3. "Fahrenheit 451" - Ray Bradbury
   
4. "Roots" - Alex Haley
   
5. "The Diary of a Young Girl" - Anne Frank

Tomorrow I'll be back at the fair!

The Lola Shuffle - "The Miami Book Fair 2007" Edition

It's my favorite weekend of the year! The Miami Book Fair International 2007 is here!

I'm so excited I can't stand myself! And it looks like it's going to be a beautiful weekend to boot!

I've got a full schedule Saturday (lots of conflicts actually), not so much on Sunday - but here are my expected highlights (there's always a surprise):

• Erica Jong !!! (OHMYGOD YAY!)
• Ralph Nader
• Judge Marilyn Milian (from "The People's Court" - I love her. It's a guilty pleasure, what can I say? Plus she's a cubanita from Miami - it's a solidarity thing)
• the panel on "Why Kerouac Matters: The Lessons of On the Road (They're Not What You Think)’’
• Amiri Baraka
• Jeffrey Toobin
• The "Cubans in Paris circa 1840" panel

I'll be there - up front in the *reserved rows* because I'm a "Friend of the Fair" and get priority seating. Yes - I am just *that* special!

Happy, happy, joy, joy!

OK Lola, shuffle up something literary...

1. Wanted Dead or Alive - Bon Jovi
2. Born in the USA - Bruce Springsteen (Totally random - I swear! It had nothing to do with yesterday's rant. Dayum - Jersey in da' house!)
3. Tell Me Something Good - Chaka Khan and Rufus (Does everyone love Chaka Khan?)
4. I Need You - America
5. Russians - Sting
6. Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen (this song makes me happy)
7. I Want You Back - The Jackson 5 (Woo hoo! Go Tito, go Tito!)
8. Darkest Hour - Arlo Guthrie (It's always good to have a Guthrie to keep us honest - be it Woody or Arlo)
9. This Kiss - Faith Hill
10. All of Me - Billie Holiday (Ah, we hadn't heard the glorious Lady Day in a while...a wonderful way to end the shuffle!)

Have a wonderful weekend - if you're in South Florida, go to the Book Fair; if you're not - read a book!

Another Book Meme

A book meme...happy, happy, joy, joy! I saw this at Observations of a Librarian and of course, couldn't resist.

Here are the instructions as copied from Katya:

"These are the top 106 books most often marked as “unread” by Library Thing's users, as of I don't know what day -- the original said "today" but I got this a week or so ago. As usual, bold what you have read, italicise what you started but couldn’t finish, and strike through what you couldn’t stand. Add an asterisk* to those you’ve read more than once. Underline those on your to-read list. "


Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Anna Karenina

Crime and Punishment

Catch-22

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Wuthering Heights

The Silmarillion

Life of Pi: A Novel

The Name of the Rose

Don Quixote

Moby Dick

Ulysses

Madame Bovary

The Odyssey

Pride and Prejudice

Jane Eyre

A Tale of Two Cities

The Brothers Karamazov

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

War and Peace

Vanity Fair

The Time Traveler’s Wife (I'm reading it right now)

The Iliad

Emma

The Blind Assassin

The Kite Runner

Mrs. Dalloway

Great Expectations

American Gods

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Atlas Shrugged

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

Memoirs of a Geisha

Middlesex

Quicksilver

Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

The Canterbury Tales

The Historian : A Novel

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Love in the Time of Cholera

Brave New World

The Fountainhead

Foucault’s Pendulum

Middlemarch

Frankenstein

The Count of Monte Cristo

Dracula

A Clockwork Orange

The Once and Future King

The Grapes of Wrath

The Poisonwood Bible : A Novel

1984

Angels & Demons

The Inferno

The Satanic Verses

Sense and Sensibility

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Mansfield Park

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

To the Lighthouse

Tess of the D’Urbervilles

Oliver Twist

Gulliver’s Travels

Les Misérables

The Corrections

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Dune

The Prince

The Sound and the Fury

Angela’s Ashes : A Memoir

The God of Small Things

A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present

Cryptonomicon

Neverwhere

A Confederacy of Dunces

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Dubliners

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Beloved

Slaughterhouse-Five

The Scarlet Letter

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

The Mists of Avalon

Oryx and Crake : A Novel

Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Cloud Atlas

The Confusion

Lolita

Persuasion

Northanger Abbey

Catcher in the Rye

On the Road *

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Freakonomics : a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values

The Aeneid

Watership Down

Gravity’s Rainbow

The Hobbit

In Cold Blood : A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences

White Teeth

Treasure Island

David Copperfield

The Three Musketeers

If you participate, please let me know in my comments.

YAY! A Book Meme!

I found this over at 50 Books and it's a meme and it's about books. HELLO! Talk about a no-brainer-this-is-gonna-suck-Hilda-in exercise!

So here we go...

Hardcover or paperback, and why? Paperback, because they fit better in your purse.

If I were to own a book shop I would call it: A Good Book for Your Shelf

My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) is: I have a lot. Today I'll go with - from "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker:
"'I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it."

The author (alive or dead) I would love to have lunch with would be: Harper Lee

If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except from the SAS survival guide, it would be: "The Oxford Book of American Short Stories"

I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that: Serves as both a highlighter and a book mark

The smell of an old book reminds me of - My father - we went to so many used book stores together...

If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be: Holly Golightly in "Breakfast at Tiffany's"

The most over-rated book of all times is: For *me* and I realize this is very subjective - Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye" - I just don't get it.

I hate it when a book: Messes up details which makes me focus on the mistake and takes me out of the story

Regarding My Reading

For about 2 or 3 days, the book shown above, The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy, has been appearing in my "What I'm Reading" section. Well, I'm invoking the 50 Page Rule. The book was irritating the hell out of me - perhaps I'm not in the right frame of mind to endure the misadventures of a 22 year-old college graduate on a 2-year-funded-by-her-rich-uncle-so-she-doesn't-need-a-job jaunt in Paris! Call me an envious bitch, I'll own it, hell I'll embrace it!

I implemented the 50 Page Rule about a year ago when I quit my 10 year book club and decided that life is to short to read bad books. Often I don't get rid of the books I abandon, I may lone them out or just set them aside. I may decide I want to read them later. Of course it would probably be easier for me to part with a kidney than with a book, but that's a whole other dysfunction.

So, there will be no book review of "The Dud Avcado" for now. Oh, and I didn't comment on the book I read before this one because it was a very me-specific book written by a friend about her life and I didn't think anyone would benefit from a review of it because few people would be interested in reading it. (WOW! That was a long-azzed sentence.)

Hopefully the new book I'm reading New Art City, will be a more successful endeavor about which I will report later.

Or maybe not...

It was 50 years ago today, we were told that we could run away!

(with props to The Beatles for the post title)

50 years ago today Jack Kerouac's landmark novel "On the Road" was published. I wrote briefly about this anniversary before, but today is the actual anniversary.

As I wrote in the linked entry and in other places this book had a profound impact on me. Not only was it - as it was for many - my gateway to the Beat movement which is one of my favorite literary movements, but it was also the first time I felt the wanderlust that fuels the adventures of Sal and Dean (the names used for Kerouac and Neal Cassady).

I can't pinpoint exactly how old I was when I first read the book, but it was in my teens. At that time I was fascinated by the story and misadventures they encountered "on the road", it was so far removed from my good Cuban-American girl existence. And of course at that age everything seems possible.

I read it again later on, in my late 20s, when my life was in a bit of turmoil and the idea of just picking up and going and ending up wherever was dangerously alluring. "Why think about that when all the golden land's ahead of you and all kinds of unforeseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you're alive to see?" (Part 2, chapter 6)

As I think back on the book now my life is very different, but I still wonder what it would be like to travel without the trappings of an organized life - no map, no itinerary and (gasp!) no reservations! While a disconcerting idea for this slightly obsessive middle-aged woman with control issues - it still holds a certain attraction.

Who knows, maybe some day we'll do it. Hubby and I will get in the car and just drive till we get tired, sleep wherever we land and do it all over the next day. Maybe some day...

In the meantime, I plan to read the book’s “original scroll” , where the names haven't been changed and piddly stuff like paragraphs aren't really an issue. This is how Kerouac wrote it, and according to reviewers, in the scroll you can actually hear the bee-bop rhythms in the writing.

So, thanks Jack...in my mind Sal will forever remain riding the roads with Dean."We were all delighted, we all realized we were leaving confusion and nonsense behind and performing our one noble function of the time, move." (Part 2, chapter 6)

Book Meme! Book Meme!

Two of my favorite things - Books and Memes! YAY!

I got this from Observations of a Librarian .

Here we go:

What are you reading right now?
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Do you have any idea what you'll read when you're done with that?
Persepolis 1 and 2 by Marjane Satrapi

What's the worst thing you were ever forced to read?
Chiquita’s Cocoon by Bettina Flores. There simply are no words to describe this mess.

What's the one book you always recommend to just about anyone?
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

Admit it, the librarians at your library know you on a first name basis, don't they?
Sadly, no.

Is there a book you absolutely love, but for some reason, people never think it sounds interesting, or maybe they read it and don't like it at all?
Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton. I thought it was a wonderful, very readable book. I really think if her detractors read it, even if they wouldn't vote for her or wouldn't share her political beliefs, it would allow them to see her in a very different light.

Do you read books while you eat? Yes

While you bathe? No

While you watch movies or TV? No

While you listen to music? Yes

While you’re on the computer? No

When you were little, did other children tease you about your reading habits?
No

What’s the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn’t put it down?
That's easy - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

There's no tagging, but if you answer, please let me know in my comments.

Favorite Kids Books

I contribute to Reading is Fundamental (RIF) because, well because I think reading *is* fundamental.

Anyway, because of this they periodically send me information and ask me for more money…:) I just received a notice about the results of their "Best Books Ballot" for children's books, and these were the top ten favorites (from 1 to 10):

1. The Cat in the Hat - Dr. Seuss
2. Goodnight Moon - Margaret Wise Brown
3. Curious George - H.A. Rey
4. Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak
5. Tale of Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter
6. Madeline - Ludwig Bemelmans
7. The Velveteen Rabbit - Marjorie Williams
8. Make Way for the Ducklings - Robert McCloskey
9. Where the Sidewalk Ends - Shel Silverstein
10. Clifford the Big Red Dog - Norman Bridwell

I haven't read all of the books listed, but some of my favorites - some of which I read as an adult - aren't there:

• The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• Are You There God? It's Me Margaret - Judy Blume
• The Giving Tree - Shel Silverstein
• A Christmas Memory - Truman Capote

Do you have any favorite children's books not listed?

I Want to Go...

Let's all run away to the Kerouac Festival – 50 Years of “On the Road” in Boulder, Colorado.

I loved "On the Road"...obviously my intro to the whole Beat scene. Afterwards I read several of Kerouac's other work, a biography and then graduated to Ginsberg's poetry.

I love the idea of running away for a few days to listen to people talk about Kerouac talking about running away.

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..."
-Jack Kerouac, "On the Road"

YAY - Book Meme!

I horked this from Dixie Peach who horked it from Katya. If you want to use it for your blog, please leave a note in my comments so I can read your answers!

A book that made you cry: "Paula" by Isabel Allende.

A book that scared you: "Blindness" by Jose Saramago.

A book that made you laugh: "Without Feathers" by Woody Allen.

A book that disgusted you: "Memories of My Melancholy Whores" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

A book you loved in elementary school: "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott

A book you loved in junior high: "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell.

A book you loved in high school: "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte.

A book you hated in high school: "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers.

A book you loved in college: "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

A book that challenged your identity: "Roots" by Alex Haley.

A series that you love: Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.

Your favorite horror book: "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier.

Your favorite science fiction book: "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury.

Your favorite fantasy book: "Mists of Avalon" by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Your favorite mystery book: "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie.

Your favorite graphic novel: I've never read a graphic novel.

Your favorite biography: "Che Guevara - A Revolutionary Life" by Jon Lee Anderson. It should be required reading for clueless kids before they buy those frickin' frackin' t-shirts bearing Che's likeness!

Your favorite "coming-of-age" book: "I KNow Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou.

Your favorite classic: "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen.

Your favorite romance book: I don't have one.

Favorite kids book: "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

Favorite cookbook: "The Joy of Cooking" and "Cocina Criolla" aka "Cocina al Minuto" by Nitza Villapol (the Cuban cooking bible).

Your favorite book not on this list: "To Kill a Mockingbird".

Let's Talk About Books!

Books and Memes...two of my favorite things! I found this one at: Rocks in My Dryer . If you want to participate, leave your blog link in my comments.

Here we go...

Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback? Paperback

Amazon or brick and mortar? Brick and mortar

Barnes & Noble or Borders? Barnes and Noble

Bookmark or dogear? Bookmark with post-it tabs

Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random? Random

Keep, throw away, or sell? I am physically incapable of throwing out a book - no matter how bad it is. If I don't want to keep it I donate them or give them away.

Keep dustjacket or toss it? Keep it

Read with dustjacket or remove it? Remove it

Short story or novel? Both

Collection (short stories by same author) or anthology (short stories by different authors)? Both

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? Harry Potter

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? Chapter breaks

“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”? Once upon a time

Buy or Borrow? Buy - I like writing and underlining stuff

New or used? Used

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse? All

Tidy ending or cliffhanger? Tidy ending

Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading? Anytime, but ideally afternoon and evening.

Stand-alone or series? Both

Favorite series? Rebecca Wells' "Ya-Ya" books and Harry Potter

Favorite children's book? The Little Prince by Antoine de Sainte-Exupery

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? The Gate to Women’s Country by Sheri S. Teper

Favorite books read last year? The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg and Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Favorite books of all time? Too many to list. Off the top of my head: "To Kill a Mockingbord", "Breakfast at Tiffany's", "The Red Tent", "The Shadow of the Wind", "Divine Secrets of the Ya-ya Sisterhood", "Pride and Prejudice", "Rebecca", and on and on and on.

Least favorite book you finished last year? I don't remember.

What are you reading right now? The Last Cato by Matilde Asensi and New Orleans Mon Amour by Andrei Codrescu.

What are you reading next? The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama and Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers

Miami Book Fair International 2006

I spent Saturday and today at my favorite Miami event the Miami Book Fair International 2006 .

This is the 23rd book fair, and I have missed only 2 of them. On these two days I completely allow myself to be absorbed into books and book stuff. I rarely buy books at the book fair, I go to the author sessions. Every year both my days are filled with author readings and presentations, there are always conflicts where I need to pick one over the other.

It is probably my favorite time of the year - in some ways superseding even holidays. I enjoy the fair in a way I can't enjoy the holidays because it expects nothing of me. I disappear into the throngs and immerse myself in the ambience. If someone I know happens to run into me it literally jars me to come back to the real world - it's a weird sort of literary disassociation!

I usually go alone, however, if I do go with someone, we go our separate ways, meeting when we have a common interest. I used to go with my father, comparing our schedules to see where we would coincide, trying to coordinate a time for lunch. This year I met up with my best friend on Sunday afternoon - it was her first time, so we stayed together for the afternoon. Next year, she'll probably have her own schedule.

So, who did I see and listen to this year? I'll tell you:

• Helen Thomas and Myra McPherson (journalists who have each written books - and all around fabulous women, specially Helen - she's a legend and a hoot!)
• two local guys discussing Miami history and architecture
• Jonathan Franzen ("The Corrections")
• Nora Ephron (wrote a bunch of stuff - another fabulous woman)
• A panel comprised of Anthony Bourdain (smoking hot!) and three other chefs, all of whom are included in a new book entitled "How I Learned to Cook"
• Melissa Bank ("The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing", she has a new book)
• Sara Gruen ("Water for Elephants")
• Janet Fitch ("White Oleander", she has a new book)
• Meg Tilly (the actress - she's written a couple of books)
• two guys who wrote biographies of Harper Lee and Peggy Lee

And to top it off we've had fabulous weather this weekend, the first cool weather we've had this year, with practically no humidity and lots of sunshine. All in all a perfect weekend before the holiday insanity begins.

More "Mrs. Dalloway"

Yes, I'm obsessing a little bit, but hey - humor me!

As I've discussed here before, this is not an "easy read" for me, but today I came across what I thought was a phenomenally powerful passage describing what I can only interpret as an orgasm. Here it is:


"Only for a moment; but it was enough. It was a sudden revelation, a tinge like a blush which one tried to check and then, as it spread, one yielded to its expansion, and rushed to the farthest verge and there quivered and felt the world come closer, swollen with some astonishing significance, some pressure of rapture, which split the skin and gushed and poured with an extraordinary alleviation over cracks and sores! Then for that moment, she had seen an illumination; a match burning in a crocus; an inner meaning almost expressed. But the close withdrew; the hard softened. It was over - the moment."

I think I need a cigarette, and I don't even smoke!