Saturday, August 16, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Reconstruction in Progress
It's summer...what the heck are you doing inside?
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
NBLB at The Airport
Just finished reading: It’s Called A Breakup Because It’s Broken – the book written by that guy from He’s Just Not That Into You. Yeah, I was supposed to catch up on my Mayle and Coelho and McEwan, but I thought that a frothy self-help book about separation anxieties should send the appropriate “don’t talk to me, I’m sleep-deprived” message to any prospective seatmates. (As if the coffee-stained inflatable neck pillow covered in cat hair wasn’t enough…) Not to mention that the advice and dating horror stories are funny as all get-out.
Speaking of prospective seatmates: No, I have not met that Sudoku-toting twin to Gerard Butler at all – and the closest I may have been to doing so must have been that one guy in the Detroit-SFO leg who I swear could be the missing link between Hugh Laurie (aesthetically) and Howdy Doody (vocally), who was reading The World Is Flat while patiently enduring the cute but noisy (and obviously unrelated) baby next to him. Luckily for him, he came armed with $3 Twizzlers, which said baby chewed on with reckless abandon.
Currently reading: This month’s edition of Real Simple, which promises “Easy Organizing: 99 Affordable Ideas” and “35 great summer reads.” (Still haven’t gotten around to reading either article, however.) Was tempted by O (with Oprah promising a similar review of summer reads) and Allure (Reader’s Awards for makeup, yes; Jessica Alba, meh) – but, hey, shows you where my priorities are right now.
(Postscript: Yeah, way to go, Real Simple, for putting authors together to recommend summer reads. Liz Gilbert’s recs are a gas, as are Sophie Kinsella's… but will somebody please serve Danielle Steel a tall glass of Shut Up? Or at least send her to the same Catholic parish where Anne Rice got her conversion, because I don’t think Joel Osteen is curing D. of her dullness problem.)
Buyer’s remorse: I really should have bought American Gods as a parting gift for Scribe as soon as I saw it selling for $4 on paperback at Mac’s Backs, but apparently it got snapped up while I wasn’t looking. ;) I also regret passing up Sammy’s Hill at Applewood Books… although, to be fair, I thought they’d be selling it for cheaper at Mac’s and Half-Price Books anyway, since it’s been out for years and Kristin Gore already wrote a sequel since then. (The Sammy books, however, will end up in my Must Borrow list -- next to Mort by Terry Pratchett.)
Buyer’s remorse, part 2: Four words – Powell’s City of Books. Apparently the main branch in Portland (OR) has four floors’ worth of books on sale. If I ever decide to spend more than 5 hours in Portland outside of PDX, I am SO going there.
Nicest airport employee: The clerk at SFO’s Aviator Bookstore actually saved my butt when I realized I left my Ziploc of liquid items at her cashier stand. “I was looking for you,” she told me as she handed the baggy to me. Score!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
For Those of You Scoring At Home: Truths, Dares, and Consequences
(...What? He did admit it once before, on-air.)
What a dark place your world must be, Mr. Gingrich, where the way to save America is to destroy America. I will awaken every day of my life thankful that I am not with you in that dark place.And I will awaken every day of my life thankful that you are entitled to tell me about it. And that you are entitled to show me what an evil idea it represents, and what a cynical mind. And that you are entitled to do all that, thanks to the very freedoms you seek to suffocate.
Come to think of it, for all the sound and fury about the Special Comment, what I appreciate the most about Keith Olbermann - and, if Truth and Consequences is an indication, what I fear he might lose - are those moments when he realizes that he doesn't have to play the prophet. He does, after all, note "the unavoidable symbolism provided by the reality that [Mr. Gingrich] answers to the name 'Newt.' " His skewering of Rudy Giuliani is prefaced with a hilariously dishy story of "America's Mayor" introducing him at the banquet by promptly forgetting his name. He even admits that he includes camera placement and blocking to the list of considerations for his Special Comments.
Perhaps my own favorite moment of Truth and Consequences, however, happens to be the one that tells the most about Keith Olbermann, the person: the preface where he talks about his own fake-anthrax scare, which began with an envelope and a letter covered in "grainy, shiny, powdery stuff" - and ends, one sleepless night later, with Hazmat suits, decontaminant showers, widespread police investigations, and a maliciously gossipy piece on Page Six of the New York Post that threatened, if anything else, to expose him as the hysterical ninny - even though the culprit's arrest, a few days later, revealed that similar letters had been sent to his fellow "demagogues" David Letterman and Jon Stewart.
Amidst the gallows humor and the possibility that the suspect was a loser who "lived in his mom's basement and thought Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, and Katherine Harris were the three hottest women in America," there are glimpses of humanity. He's worrying over his girlfriend, who was about to move in with him "into the very room where the powder had spilled..." (And here's the part where I sigh in relief, knowing that my longtime brain-crush has finally fallen in love - who woulda thunk it?) He's worrying about his neighbors, and whether or not they too may have been contaminated if the powder was, indeed, what he thought it was, even as he hoped that "nearly all the contents" of the envelope had been sealed and remained intact in the Ziploc bag where he'd sealed it: "But nearly, of course, only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades and threatening letters with white powder in them."
(Ironically, this anthrax scare "nearly" echoes, in my mind, another life-changing event for a TV personality: David Letterman's coronary bypass. Knowing how that bypass affected Dave, however, I can't help but wonder if there are plans to get cracking on bringing about an Olberspawn...)
Somehow, lest any one of us - even Keith himself - would actually believe all the quasi-Messianic comparisons to Howard Beale, the words of Oliver Cromwell continue to ring true:
I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.
Love Letters from Strange Men
The closest text in the real world apparently is "Love Letters of Great Men and Women: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present Day," first released in the 1920s and reissued last year by Kessinger Publishing, which specializes in bringing back old works.
[...]
Enough readers have been directed to the Kessinger anthology [...] that it ranked No. 134 on Amazon.com on Tuesday afternoon.
Personally, I'd prefer to just point you in the direction of Beethoven's original love letter to the "Immortal Beloved"... or, better yet, to a DVD of Immortal Beloved, which I still think is a brilliantly gorgeous movie.
********
Speaking of love letters from strange men - albeit a different kind of "love" letter altogether:
I just started reading Truth and Consequences yesterday. Oddly enough, it also coincided with the day of my first baseball game ever - Indians vs. Twins with the Scribes (and Mr. Scribe's mom) at Progressive Field.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Portrait of An Artist as a Young Woman: Anita Amirrezvani's The Blood of Flowers
First there wasn't and then there was. Before God no one was.
Under the brilliant reign of Shah Abbas the Great, Iran flourished, its minarets casting long shadows over busy bazaars filled with peoples from every civilized point of the world, mullahs calling out prayers above a gorgeous mix of cultures, swirling like the intricate knots in its celebrated carpets, the objects inspiring Anita Amirrezvani's Scheherazade of colors and patterns, a talented, dangerously impulsive narrator without a name, a simple village girl who must adapt to the temptations and glories of the Shah's capital Isfahan in the early 1600s.
The novel begins with a curse from the sky. A comet streaks through her village, leaving cosmic destruction in its wake. It seems our heroine is destined for ruin...but she defies the stars at every turn, to the dismay of her passive, traditional mother. This is a kohl-rimmed peek into a jeweled world of women's rivalries, hopes and dreams, veiled struggles in a male-dominated society. Left without a father protector, the young girl and her mother must throw themselves at the feet of a wealthy relative, dependent on his charity and the malicious schemes of his wife. Traditions trapped and protected women - from the sensual mystery created by chadors; to marriage contracts that brought impoverished brides into temporary sigheh unions in exchange for money. We see all sorts of women: our ambitious heroine, her long-suffering mother, her greedy aunt Godiyeh, her pampered cousins, and the sad, steely Naheed, her best friend and surprising rival for one man's capricious affections. It was not easy being a girl, whatever station in life. Especially one as determined as our narrator, who longed to take her place among the celebrated carpet designers employed by the Shah himself.
There are a lot of obstacles - most created by our impatient heroine, whose desperate need to be free of an unwanted marriage contract costs her the comforts of her uncle's home. Sometimes I wanted to cheer her on...and many times, I wanted to throw the book across the room in frustration over her foolishness. I felt like a parent watching over a headstrong daughter - she had to make her mistakes to succeed...but what mistakes! What tangles she creates with such horrible decisions! As she realizes how her actions prevented her from realizing her full potential as an artist, our heroine's bad luck star fades into the deep indigo of the desert sky. She learns to accept who she is.
I will never inscribe my name in a carpet like the masters in the royal rug workshop who are honored for their great skill. I will never learn to knot a man's eye so precisely it looks real, nor design rugs with layers of patterns so intricate that they could confound the greatest of mathematicians. But I have devised designs of my own, which people will cherish for years to come. When they sit on one of my carpets, their hips touching the earth, their back elongated, the crown of their head lifted toward the sky, they will be soothed, refreshed, transformed. My heart will touch theirs and we will be as one, even I am dust, even though they will never know my name.
Tradition provides the loom, her mother's stories as yarns of experience. But only her nimble fingers, her own efforts, could create the designs, the tiny knots holding her life together. It was her choice, in the end, to be happy. The story ends within another story, and we have no picture of her hand in hand with a handsome suitor - a traditional happy ending. Instead, we have a clear vision of an artist finally coming into her own.
I could not guess what fate promised me, but I knew I would strive to make a good life...I thought of my father, and his love coursed through me like a river. As I began to fall asleep, I could hear him giving me advice. He said, "Put your faith in God, but always fasten your camel's leg."
Thursday, June 5, 2008
We'll Cross the Bridge When We Get There...
...but until we can gather more content while I'm still here in Cleveland, enjoy this real-time video of a now-familiar sight along the Flats of the Cuyahoga River.
(BTW: The Scribe did take me to Coventry Library and Mac's Backs in her Cleveland Heights neighborhood. It was AWESOME. We also found some breathtaking Annie Leibovitz books at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and are about to make a pilgrimage to the Cleveland Public Library soon. Also, there may be a vlog and a possible page redesign in the future.)
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Booked Non-Stop to Cleveland
Anyway, I post about The Cleve here because Scribe and I did a book exchange last night - I gave her a copy of The Tipping Point (to paraphrase the sign I saw at Powell's Books at the Portland airport: "What do you mean, you haven't read this yet?") and my copy of Honeymoon With My Brother to lend, and in turn she has both The Witch of Portobello (on loan from Coventry library) and Something Rotten on paperback.
I'm also still finishing From Bauhaus to Our House, which was the only book I was able to read while running from gate to gate (and snarfing all sorts of food along the way) at the airport. I'll admit that I was a Tom Wolfe newbie before this - even though I've had copies of The Right Stuff, Bonfire of the Vanities, and A Man in Full kicking about my shelves at various points in my life. It's a compact read, but I'm totally blown away by how Wolfe sets up - and knocks down - the Bauhaus renaissance in the United States (especially houses like these) as the impractical, imperfect dogma that it really is; it's a book that's as much about architecture as it really is about power, status, and intellectual snobbery. A perfect read, especially on an election year as mind-bending as the one we already have right now.
I also take back what I said about LAX having the best airport bookstore, too, after experiencing both Powell's at PDX and the notoriously huge airport bookstore at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. That's where I scored a copy of Ian McEwan's Saturday, which I forgot to read back home (I returned it to the Hawaii State Library so I wouldn't incur any more fines). I've saved this along with The Zahir (recommended highly by, of all people, my Dad), on my list of airplane reads for the trip back to Honolulu.
Finally, I don't think it would be right for me to write a Cleveland entry without mentioning a certain literary institution in the city...
That's right. Mac's Backs, I am so coming after you.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
NBLB Weekend Survey #8: Your Newsroom, or Mine?
Once upon a time, our readers sacrificed blood, sweat, tears and valuable REM cycles at the news altar - so much so that one of them (who majored in journalism) sold her soul to broadcasting gods and sponsors, while the other (who majored in English) took a job as an editor for a public-relations firm. Along the way, they met all sorts of characters that we swear we thought would never have existed in real life: for every mentor and sidekick who treated us with pure compassion, there were all sorts of mean beasties, deceptive lotharios, and just plain temperamental archetypes that would've been right at home in the imaginations of, say, Neil Gaiman or H.P. Lovecraft, to say the least of The Brothers Grimm.
6) Least favorite book written by a broadcast journalist: Like the Scribe, my options are limited here – some of the broadcast-related stories I’ve read are pretty well-written. For the record, however, I doubt that Bill O’Reilly will ever be able to write anything more inventive than the infamous “Caribbean shower fantasy” (aka the "I'll rub you with my falafel" monologue) that was posted on The Smoking Gun.
8) Which existing comic strip would you like to see in compiled anthology form?As much as I like 9 Chickweed Lane, I would really love to see Brooke McEldowney compile the entire “Hallmarks of Felinity” sub-series into one single anthology. Never have I seen a comic-strip artist do so much with so little dialogue.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Cute (Character) Overload, Book-to-Film Edition
1) Sense & Sensibility, 2007-2008. Forget the fact that Willoughby looks too much like that weaselly Samm Levine for my taste, or that Marianne resembles the Clueless-era (and pre-destroyed-by-fame) Brittany Murphy. The scenery is fantastic, the acting is near pitch-perfect... and if you've ever wondered what on earth I ever saw in David Morrissey in spite of his role as a jackass in State of Play (not to mention his other craptastic roles - really, Basic Instinct 2 and The Reaping?!?!?!), start at the 4:30 mark when Marianne arrives at Delaford... and keep watching as he shows off his mad falconry skillz. He's definitely no Alan Rickman, but at least the perceived age difference between him and this Marianne isn't as squicky.
2) A Room with a View, 1986: Apparently the YouTube gods may also have realized that people hated the recent remake as much as Happy Scribe and I did... which probably explains why and how the spoilerrific videos from that hot mess disappeared from the site. (A pity, since I would've loved an endless HD loop of Rafe Spall-as-George giving Lucy her first kiss in the fields of Tuscany.) So please do enjoy this video of Helena Bonham Carter lying to Julian Sands' handsome face.
3) Shattered Glass, 2004. Okay, technically not a book adaptation - and this trailer is more like yet another excuse for me to post more proof of the hotness that is Peter Sarsgaard, as if I needed another one. Still, this trailer is a preview of what we have cooking for the upcoming Readers' Survey, which we'll also post late this weekend.
Mr. Darcy says, "Kindly tell that walrus that I do, indeed, have his bucket. Thank you."
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Linkidy-Split: Books about wasting the hours away
Hey clockwatcher, if you're clicking onto this site to kill some time (why, thank you - we aim to amuse...even for five seconds) check out Slate's special Procrastination Issue, hot off the pixelated presses. There's a neato article on novels about wasting time - click it, and shave off a few more minutes 'til the end of the work day.
Meatier posts in the making...we promise. Really.
Friday, May 9, 2008
NBLB Weekend Survey #7: Books on a Plane!
(Yep...sooo punnnyyyy...)
Mei: Give the Sudoku-toting dude a doll-sized drink!
1) Do you take too many (insert Sammy L.J. expletive here) books on a plane? Why? (Or why not?) No, never. Two books in the hand-carry are too many already. This is coming from somebody who always ends up at the boarding gate with copies of Allure and Entertainment Weekly.
2) What are your travel reading rules? My main rule is to always pack something that I shouldn’t be afraid to put away if I can’t finish it – that way I won’t feel guilty if I have to put the book down in case I need to sleep, which I’d rather do on long flights anyway. I guess that’s what makes me so different from my Dad – his “airplane books” of choice are almost always suspense novels, which I have the compulsion to read from cover to cover without breaks. I also tend to carry a lot of serious books with me – for example, I read Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink while trekking through the Visayas with my family, because I knew nobody would “get it” well enough to read it over my shoulder.
3) Name one author/topic you will NEVER pack in your handcarry. If the book’s plot points center on something gruesome and macabre, it’s not going on the plane with me. Also, as much as I love my trashy romance novels, I can never bring myself to read them in-flight… unless I want to arrive at my destination crankier than usual.
4) What was your last impulse airport bookstore purchase? I spent a near-fortune on children’s books on my way to the Philippines. It was a good investment, considering that I bought them for my cousins who don’t have a lot of access to quality children’s books back home.
5) Finish this sentence: If I see cute fellah next to me reading ___________, I will try to strike up a conversation about___________ over our doll-sized inflight alcohol rations. Here’s where I out myself as a geekazoid: If said doppelganger-of-Gerard Butler happens to be carrying a book with the words “edited by Will Shortz” on the cover, he better start buying me those $5 rations of booze! There’s nothing like bonding over the clues to the New York Times crossword puzzle. (Extra points if he gives me dibs over the Sudoku.)
6) After a trip, how many pounds (approximately) of your luggage can be blamed on book purchases? Roughly two to five pounds – I usually just buy all sorts of omiyage anyway (especially from Trader Joe’s and Bath & Body Works), so some of those books won’t end up on my shelf. And the ones that do – well, my brother has a habit of giving me running and exercise books every time we see each other, so that counts.
7) Dream book browsing spot: If I ever visit New York, Boston, or London, I will make sure to visit one of those mom-and-pop bookstores that I keep seeing in the movies.
8) (Already visited) Best vacation bookstores ever (include locations if you can remember!): I remember seeing an English bookstore in Rome that made me swoon with delight – I just stumbled right into the door and went crazy. I also swear that LAX has the best airport bookstores, ever.
Also, for those of you visiting Hawaii: We have Borders (Ward Center and Waikiki) and B&N (Ala Moana and Kahala), but you will definitely want to visit the UH Manoa Bookstore for some serious Hawaiiana. [/shameless plug]
9) What sort of books do you buy as souvenirs? I usually just buy books with tons of pictures in them – nothing too heavy (again, see #6), so it would be easy to browse through.
10) The tentative title of MY travel memoir would be: I Hope This Flight Exists. It’s based on an infamous Mei-family anecdote of a bratty tantrum that I threw as a teenager in Bali, when I couldn’t find our flight to Jakarta on the departure board at Denpasar International Airport. What can I say? I was very hormonal at that time. (And obviously not carrying any books with me to read – no wonder my Dad got me started on John Grisham the following summer.)
The Happy Scribe: Don't talk to me, I'm reading.
1) Do you take too many books on a plane? Why? I really, really, really do try to bring only one book (I do!). I end up bringing three. Most of my flights are over ten hours, give or take a few stops. If I bring one, I finish it too quickly and am bored the rest of the trip. Two really should be enough, but then I almost always end up buying another during a stopover. Bad, bad, bad.
2) What are your travel reading rules? Boredom is my biggest enemy on a long flight. The sounds of the plane machinery and so many people in an enclosed space already freak me out, so I need a very good story to distract me. Also, I don't like conversations with strangers next to my elbow - if my nose is in a book, DO NOT DISTURB. If I have to hear you snore, don't cut into well-written dialogue with inane small talk. (This is why I usually go for the aisle seat - I hate feeling boxed in. If my fellow passenger gets too chatty, I leave for the bathroom.) I also prefer fiction over non-fiction during flights - unless it's a travel memoir, I generally like the realms of imagination over reality during vacations.
3) Name one author/topic you will NEVER pack in your handcarry. Nothing that will make me cry. I'm already anti-social as a lone passenger. Sobbing also provokes unwanted conversations with strangers.
4) What was your last impulse airport bookstore purchase? Atonement by Ian McEwan at the MPLS airport, during what seemed like an endless walk to find my terminal.
5) Finish this sentence: If I see cute fellah next to me reading ___________, I will try to strike up a conversation about___________ over our doll-sized inflight alcohol rations. The cute fellah would be my hubby - and he will be reading a photography magazine. We will be talking about Kittensley, as usual, over our $5 vodka tonics.
6) After a trip, how many pounds (approximately) of your luggage can be blamed on book purchases? Ten pounds, easily...and if I'm lucky enough to keep it that low.
7) Dream book browsing spot: I really need to slow down the next time I browse through the little San Fran bookstores. I blame the rain and dim sum cravings - note to self: eat before book shopping. Actually, to have enough time to prowl new bookstores in any culturally alive city would be a dream come true.
8) Best vacation bookstores ever: Oxford's book stores are so much fun. I tend to go into full book consumer mode when I visit any university-oriented town - Oberlin, Oxford, Berkeley...eyeluvem. Another great place to buy books: Singapore - I adore the mix of Asian and European authors, and cannot keep my hands off the Penguin books that don't make it to mainstream U.S. stores (a.k.a. my entire Jean Plaidy and L.M. Montgomery collections).
9) What sort of books do you buy as souvenirs? I love discovering the local humor - comic strip collections and funny books are a must! This is how I discovered the works of Malaysian cartoonist Lat, one of the most hilarious comics I've ever read. (The New Straits Times is a great place to discover Asian humorists.)
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Post Warmer: I can has vampire book?
I'm a big icanhascheezburger fan. Those delightfully-captioned furballs get me every time. I also love Cute Overload. Nothing like clicking on to photos of fuzzy Shetlands and fidgety fennecs to keep one going during a long work week (and this is definitely one of them, oui?).
Ah, but icanhascheezburger is the awesome, I must say.
Especially when one includes a black kitteh (with Kittensley white chest spot!) echoing my current guilty pleasure reads:
A comparison of fictional bloodsuckers forthcoming - including the Barrow vamp series 30 Days of Night, which scared the crap out of me in movie form, despite Hartnett's wooden acting. Too toothy and messy, methinks...but the story is intriguing, which is why I have every single copy of Steve Niles' frozen bitefest on hold from the library. (I'm still trying to practice the best "these are for my nonexistent kid brother" look for my concerned librarian, who had to hand Laurell K. Hamilton's Incubus Dreams over without an audible "tsk." I think she's starting to worry about me.) Also on the boards: David Sosnowski's hilarious Vamped, Elizabeth Kostova's Vlad Tepes quest The Historian, and the broadcast-inspired (why do I always feel the connections aren't so far-fetched?) Fangland, written by a former 60 minutes producer (and apparently also in film gestation, with Hilary Swank as the heroine...hrm). It's really interesting how many authors have tried to define and refine the vampire myth.
So stay tuned for biting commentary and a semi-historical breakdown of vamp lore. Are they humans with fangs and a bad blood habit? Or are they monsters who must be shot/staked/beheaded on sight? And what do you prefer - the glamorous undead...or down and dirty fangsiness?
Why do I have a feeling this upcoming post is going to majorly suck?
Sunday, May 4, 2008
NBLB Weekend Survey #6: A Drink With Your Book, Sir?
Here are some of our favorite combinations, along with some helpful serving suggestions and kind warnings in case you find yourself in the middle of a Hunter S. Thompson monologue....
Meimei: A good sip of whisky can't be that hard to find.
10 –
BOOK: Any of Nick Joaquin’s work
DRINK: San Miguel Pale Pilsen - ice cold in a bucket and straight from the bottle, just the way Nick himself would've liked it
SERVING SUGGESTION: Beef tenderloin tips sautéed with tons of garlic, salpicao-style (save the exotic meat for the repeated viewings of Andrew Zimmern and Tony Bourdain instead)
NOTES: Joaquin was the closest thing the Philippines would get to their very own Hemingway – next to the post-war dandies who tried to rewrite the Western canon, he had an unmistakable swagger and a streak of originality – and his romanticism for Old Manila calls for something equally sophisticated, yet still meaty enough to keep the tunog kalye credibility.
9 –
BOOK: A Good Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O’Connor
DRINK: Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 Sour Mash
SERVING SUGGESTION: On the rocks, if you can’t handle drinking it straight up
NOTES: You would never expect good ol’ JD to be the kind of booze that goes with everything, but it does. It’s great in barbecue sauce, it puts the edge back in chocolate… and, in combination with the iron-knuckle-in-Red Velvet prose of O’Connor’s stories, it may even bring you one step closer to Jesus.
8 –
BOOK: Thousand Cranes, by Yasunari Kawabata
DRINK: Matcha or hojicha – no milk, lemon, or teabags
SERVING SUGGESTION: Try to see if the Japanese ceramics store near you will sell you a mug-size cup to serve the tea in; trust us, you’ll need it
NOTES: Thousand Cranes may be one of those books about cultural repression that will make you want to slap every single character in the face, but one vignette stands out: the discovery of a white tea cup with an unwashable lipstick stain, belonging to a character’s mistress. That one passage alone is enough to sum up the whole book: outwardly irredeemable, even in perfection.
7-
BOOK: Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco, by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar
DRINK: Single malt scotch
SERVING SUGGESTION: Plate up some Ritz crackers on the side; avoid all cigarettes and tobacco products while reading
NOTES: John Grisham and Po Bronson could only dream of serving up a work of fiction that comes anywhere near this real-life tale of leveraged buyouts and corporate backstabbing, made even more delicious when you consider that none of the players in the story would even think of serving up revenge, or anything else, on a Ritz cracker.
6 and 5 –
BOOKS: Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child, by Noel Riley Fitch; and Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell
DRINK: This year’s Beaujolais… or vermouth, if you’re feeling particularly frisky
SERVING SUGGESTION: Coq au vin – a la Julia Child, of course – and some crusty bread
NOTES: You will definitely want to read these simultaneously. The critics are justified in taking Julie Powell to task for her self-centeredness – seriously, love her, but she can be whiny enough to make Elizabeth Gilbert sound like Anne Frank – so you will need Fitch and her deliciously detailed passages from the scandalous life of the former Julia McWilliams. Who knew that the Amazonian TV chef we knew and loved was actually a former employee of the OSS… whose sensual and culinary awakenings collided with each other, upon her marriage to a sexy older man?
4 –
BOOK: Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri
DRINK: Mango lassi
SERVING SUGGESTION: Potato samosas and chutney
NOTES: Think Indian literature is too intimidating and rich for your palate? Start here with Jhumpa Lahiri’s little slices of subcontinental angst, served with tiny dashes of East Coast attitude.
3-
BOOK: Of Love and Shadows, by Isabel Allende
DRINK: Chilean red wine, of course
SERVING SUGGESTION: The book’s meal of choice is mondongo, the scent of which drives one character to proclaim that he can recognize it “from the bottom of the sea”… but if you’re not a big fan of tripe, a nice bowl of sancocho should do in a pinch.
NOTES: Despite the ominously romantic undertones of the title, there’s something comforting about Of Love and Shadows – especially when you read Allende’s descriptions of quiet family dinners and impromptu picnics, sandwiched between all the socio-political nastiness.
2 –
BOOK: High Fidelity, by Nick Hornby
DRINK: Bass Pale Ale
SERVING SUGGESTION: Order takeout and play all your records at top volume
NOTES: Reading this book will not only give you a better appreciation for pop music and relationships, but will cause massive snorting of any liquid up your nose. I also would recommend reading the book before watching the movie, lest you find yourself plagued by people who use the words “sonic death monkey” out of context.
1 –
BOOK: Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, by Dr. Seuss
DRINK: Asti Spumante – chilled all day and served liberally in fluted glasses
SERVING SUGGESTION: Molten chocolate cakes and a MythBusters marathon on HDTV.
NOTES: Tradition from la Hacienda de Meimei dictates that this book should be passed on from generation to generation (or at least sibling to sibling) upon completion of any degree or education program that requires marching down a crowded aisle in a tasseled hat. Then again, any grown-up occasion that calls for readings of Dr. Seuss will always be a good occasion for a little Asti, and vice versa… as long as you make sure that all children under the age of 18 have been put to bed, or at least sequestered in their rooms with YouTube and a Nintendo DS.
The Happy Scribe: Green Swizzles and Cosmos for everyone!
10 -
BOOK: The Forsyte Saga, by John Galsworthy
DRINK: A glass of tawny port
SERVING SUGGESTION: With a nice cigar, in your well-appointed study filled with leatherbound books
NOTES: You can't read the Saga in big gulps - like port wine, small sips are required, the warm flavor rolled around the tongue. Imagine Soames Forsyte with a similar glass in hand, simmering over his wife's rejection.
9 -
BOOK: Any Jeeves and Wooster story by P.G. Wodehouse
DRINK: A Green Swizzle
2oz rum
1oz (green) crème de menthe
Juice of 1 lime
1tsp fine sugar or sugar syrup
2oz soda water
2 dashes bitters
Crushed ice
Swizzle stick
BOOK: A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth
DRINK: A cuppa hot Darjeeling tea, brewed strong from leaves (not of that sachet sacrilege) with honey
SERVING SUGGESTION: On a beautiful tray, with sliced lemon pieces and saffron garam masala cookies.
NOTES: This 1471-page novel about the caste/class struggles in newly independent India requires a lot of stamina, hence the caffeine and cookies pairing. You won't regret taking a few afternoons off to find out if Lata gets the right boy - the descriptions are beautiful, like that perfect sip of bittersweet tea.
7 -
BOOK: Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo, by Hayden Herrera
DRINK: A shot of Tequila Rose
SERVING SUGGESTION: Have paints and a blank canvas nearby
NOTES: Anyone who has seen the movie starring a hirsute Salma Hayek will remember scenes of the painter/feminist chugging tequila like water. Yet the artist herself was a beautiful mixture of toughness and gorgeous femininity - a color warrior clad in flowers. Watch for the burn down your throat amidst the strawberry sweetness of this shot...much like viewing a Kahlo painting.
6-
BOOK: The Griffin and Sabine Trilogy, by Nick Bantock
DRINK: Parrot Bay Breeze (with a straw) - coconut rum with pineapple and cranberry juice
SERVING SUGGESTION: You need one hand free to open up the letters in these beautiful books.
NOTES: Otherworldly romance requires an escapist drink.
5 -
BOOK: A Year in Provence, by Peter Mayle
DRINK: Pastis
SERVING SUGGESTION: He does describe a fox stew. May I suggest some yummy cheese and pate instead?
NOTES: Mayle fulfills a long-cherished fantasy: to live and write in the South of France. This light yellow drink, usually served in a squat glass, evokes that cliched vision of France - old men idling with glasses of star anise liqueur sparkling in the late afternoon sun, waiting their turn at petanque.
BOOK: Sex and the City, by Candace Bushnell
DRINK: A Cosmopolitan
SERVING SUGGESTION: Wearing cute shoes, surrounded by your besties
NOTES: Obviously, this is a toast to the upcoming film release of New York's favorite fictional columnist. Fashion and girls' nights out were never the same after Carrie and company dominated our screens.
BOOK: Brain Droppings, by George Carlin
DRINK: Just a plain ole cuppa black coffee
SERVING SUGGESTION: No frills, no Starbucks frou-froofiness
NOTES: Warning - you may want to stay away from other irritating human beings after this book.
2-
BOOK: Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery
DRINK: Currant wine
SERVING SUGGESTION: Don't mistake it for raspberry cordial.
NOTES: Even clean-cut Prince Edward Isle teens get drunk. Eyeloveet. One of the best coming-of-age stories ever.
NOTES: If you have any Pinoy rrrrock at hand, play it loud and proud.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Les Liaisons dangereuses: Revenge is best served cold, in a corset
Most people know the story via the 1988 film starring a deliciously evil Glenn Close and John Malkovich (though you should check out Valmont, a 1989 film starring Colin Firth as the oversexed aristo villain - deliciously camp!) - or through the teen drama version Cruel Intentions with post-Buffy Sarah Michelle Gellar and the preppy innocent, Reese Witherspoon. It's a tangle of calculated deductions orchestrated by the indomitable Marquise de Merteuil, who uses the rake Valmont to accomplish her fiendish plots. The fact that this story is still a viable screenplay vehicle to this day makes me think how clever de Laclos was as a social satirist. Hindsight made it an important reference work for the zealots of the French Revolution, but even at the time of its publication, even the most conservative members of Marie Antoinette's court took to disreputable characters like bees to honey.
La belle Marquise is always my favorite character - she leaps off the pages, stage, and screen as a strong, cultured woman despite her devilish machinations. She is always in control - until her downfall at the very end, the full devastation rarely brought to life in the glittering celluloid versions. She is the general of relationships - her strategies are mind-bogglingly heartless. There is no love here - it is action-reaction, a series of erotic formations designed to fulfill her ambitions. The Marquise's actions are pure Hell's fury from a woman scorned: she schemes for an innocent girl's ruin, just because the doe-like creature is about to marry her former lover. How awful! How cold! How deliciously decadent! This cold dish of revenge is served up with a series of plots carried out under the sheets. The intricacies are so delightfully Baroque, the descriptions like soft-lit photographs of Versailles in the afternoon light. These are aristocrats with too much money and time on their hands, with Marquise at the very helm of these cruel games of the heart.
However, I must say - I prefer her action to the malleability of the other characters. On my slappable list: the virgin-turned-wanton Cecile de Volanges and the prudish Madame de Tourvel. Maybe I just can't stand passive aggressive creatures - in fiction or real life. They make me want to scream at their simpering. Cecile and Marie are the good girls, but they never seem to have any of the great lines. They are pale female phantoms next to La Marquise - in modern times, they would be serving her coffee and walking her dogs while she takes over Wall Street, Washington AND Bryant Park. Ah...and there is her evil partner, Valmont, her glittering snake - the ultimate emotional vampire. He only grows weak when he falls for Marie - letting his heart take over the reins away from his calculating intellect. Ah - but what a waste! The convent girl and semi-virtuous wife doth protest too much, even in the original French. And the hapless Danceny reminds me of the calf-like Charles Hamilton in Gone with the Wind, one of my top ten "goodie-goodie" idiots of all time.
Like any translation, there are certain subtle nuances best read in the original language. However, it would do your library (and certainly your historical collection) a load of good to have this cautionary tale built on lace, lies, and forbidden love in your shelves. Valmont as sexual mercenary is an interesting paradox. Making war through love didn't die at the guillotine - it merely festered into other incarnations. There is a Marquise in all of us, if we are not careful...just as there is a stupid Cecile or a hopeless Marie. While this is a tale of revenge, constant re-readings and re-watchings of the various adaptions has taught me one thing: you have to fall in love with your heart, soul AND mind. It is a dangerous liaison without trust, understanding, and mutual respect.