On the Eve of the Eve of the Brooklyn Book Festival

September 16, 2011 5 Comments

Decisions, decisions. Here’s where I tell you about my grand and epic plans to DO ALL THE THINGS at the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday! (or not) Not surprisingly there are so many authors I want to see that there’s some overlap and I’ve had to make some tough decisions based on whether or not I’m able to see a particular author later on in the month/year. Please note that for each event, I’ve only named the authors I’m interested in seeing. See complete details at the website.*

10:00 AM: Laugh Your Head Off. Libba Bray.
Most likely the above event, it sounds way more fun and a good way to kick things off, but I won’t completely rule out this one: At the End of the Story [TIX REQ] w/ A.M. Homes and Nicole Krauss.

11:00 AM: Undecided/Nothing.

12:00 PM: Epic Confusion. Chuck Klosterman and Sam Lipsyte.
This one is sort of take it or leave it for me. Wish the Kate Beaton event could have been at this time.

1:00 PM: Writer as Illusionist. Steven Millhauser and Emma Straub.
I’m actually surprised to see Emma Straub on this panel… I don’t recall anything particularly fantastical in her short stories. This is during the time of the Kate Beaton even by the way. HEAVY, DRAMATIC SIGH

2:00 PM: Dangerous Laughter. Karen Russell, Elissa Schappell, Rob Spillman.
there’s an event going on with Esmeralda Santiago going on at this time that I think my mom would like to go to. Perhaps we will part ways at this time. I want her to enjoy herself too! Also I find it somewhat ironic that Dangerous Laughter is also the name of a Steven Millhauser collection, yet he’s not a part of this panel.

3:00 PM: Starring: the City
no authors listed because I’m actually more interested in the topic for this one

4:00 PM: Truth versus Memory [TIX REQ]. Myla Goldberg and Téa Obreht.

5:00 PM: Unholy Paths to Redemption. Jennifer Egan.
Though I got my copy of A Visit from the Goon Squad signed at the Brooklyn Book Festival last year I didn’t actually hear Ms Egan speak because I was in a panel about memoirs, moderated by Elizabeth Wurtzel (!!!!). So I guess it’d be nice to hear her speak this time around even though I’m still mad at Goon Squad..

In addition to the Festival itself, there are what they call “Book End Events,” which actually began yesterday. I’m hoping to go to tonight’s Brooklyn Indie Party! at Greenlight Bookstore. A Public Space, Archipelago Books, Black Balloon, BOMB Magazine, Electric Literature, Melville House, Tin House, Ugly Duckling Presse, and many others will be in attendance and there will be music, food, and drinks. After the Festival on Sunday, there is a Brooklyn Book Festival Closing Night Party at the Brooklyn Bowl which is nowhere near Borough Hall where the Festival is held! It’s actually near McCarren Park Pool where I attended my first Regina Spektor concert. I love how the public transportation directions on Google Maps involve going back into Manhattan to catch the L train.

*One thing I really don’t like about the Events Listing is that they’re only organized by location and not by time? Time would have helped in terms of deciding, I had to keep scrolling up and down. Not exactly ideal. I understand the usefulness of organizing by location (because some events are ticketed, and that is dependent on the location), but another viewing option would have been much appreciated.

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Orange Prize Longlist Announced

March 15, 2011 Leave a Comment

Oh, the Orange Prize! There is still some debate as to whether this prize is actually necessary. Given the state of things (VIDA Studies, Franzenfreude, the fact that so many women novelists are classified as chick lit writers, etc), I’d say that yes, maybe singling women out for excellent work is actually still necessary. Whatever your feelings on the matter, here are the nominees:

Leila Aboulela – Lyrics Alley
Carol Birch – Jamrach’s Menagerie
Emma Donoghue – Room
Tishani Doshi – The Pleasure Seekers
Louise Doughty – Whatever You Love
Jennifer Egan – A Visit from the Goon Squad
Aminatta Forna – The Memory of Love
Tessa Hadley – The London Train
Emma Henderson – Grace Williams Says it Loud
Samantha Hunt – The Seas
Joanna Kavenna – The Birth of Love
Nicole Krauss – Great House
Wendy Law-Yone – The Road to Wanting
Téa Obreht – The Tiger’s Wife
Julie Orringer – The Invisible Bridge
Anne Peile – Repeat it Today with Tears
Karen Russell – Swamplandia!
Lola Shoneyin – The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives
Roma Tearne – The Swimmer
Kathleen Winter – Annabel

Source

I have not actually read any of these books (GASP! … actually this is nothing new, I’m notoriously bad at reading award nominees, even worse at reading the actual winners). But I have read three of these authors and am currently reading a fourth: Jennifer Egan (Look at Me), Nicole Krauss (The History of Love) Karen Russell (some stories from St Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves), and of course, as you can see from my sidebar, I’m reading Emma Donoghue’s Inseparable. I feel in the end this is going to be a race among Egan, Russell, Krauss, Obreht, Donoghue, and Orringer. The shortlist will be announced in less than a month, so we’ll see how my predictions pan out!

What do you think of the Orange Prize longlist? Which works have you read and liked? Which ones are you baffled by? What do you think of the Orange Prize in general? Is it time to put it to pasture?

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I have dreamed of you so much, you are no longer real

May 25, 2010 2 Comments

Have you ever formed an attachment to an author or a book before reading them? Working at Barnes and Noble I seem to be especially prone to such attachments. They come without warning, these attachments, for any number of reasons, most of which have nothing to do with the content of the book itself.

After the first floor rejected Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses, I took it under my wing and nursed it as if it were my own child. I put it on our favorites table and never looked back. Two years later, it still sits there thanks to me and every time I go on vacation I remind my coworkers that it is one of three books that had better still be on the table when I get back. I am attached to this book for no reason other than I could not believe the first floor didn’t immediately put it on their favorites table.

Norwegian Wood is another of the three that I am especially fond of. I finally read it this weekend, but before that I insisted on having it on the table always. Admittedly I am a little familiar with Haruki Murakami’s work, having read After Dark on a whim last year. By on a whim, I mean I had absolutely no idea what it was about. I simply sat down and started reading it with no knowledge or expectations. (I also finished it in one sitting). But even before that, I think I was a little fond of Norwegian Wood for reasons I cannot completely explain. It is not simply that I know it will sell off of the table. That is certainly part of it, but I know of plenty of books that will sell off of our table that I don’t latch on to in quite the same way.

And then there is Everything Is Illuminated. Unlike the aforementioned titles, I cannot even begin to trace this attachment to anything substantial or otherwise. I do know that I have always had a thing for writer couples, and the husband and wife duo of Jonathan Safran Foer and Nicole Krauss is no exception. But this fact has nothing to do with my personal feelings for the book. I didn’t even know these two were married until just a few months ago. In addition, I have never had any real interest in the plot, making this particular attachment particularly strange. I am finally giving in, however. Everything Is Illuminated is part of my own personal summer reading list. It feels almost as though I am giving in to something that started a long time again. I am giving in to a pull I don’t quite understand, but what the hell? At least it’s just a book, and not drugs, yeah? And because I can’t leave out Nicole Krauss without feeling a little guilty, I’ve decided to read The History of Love this summer as well. In fact, I’ve already started it.

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