Monthly Archives: August 2007

Mr. Bookdwarf Reads

Don’t judge Susan Gilman’s Hypocrite in a White Poufy Dress by its cover. Sure, the illustration is a little girl in a tutu and combat boots, and it screams “chick-lit.” The inside of the book, though, is smart and funny and has a universal appeal. Don’t judge it by the back of the book, either, which says Susan Jane Gilman is like a female David Sedaris.

Yes, there are romantic pitfalls and a supportive boyfriend she eventually marries, so it’s understandable that people would want to shelve it with vapid Bridget-Jones material. And any humorous autobiography of a neurotic kid with weird parents is bound to draw comparisons to Sedaris. But Gilman can stand on her own as an observer of life, as a humorist, and as a writer. I’d say it’s summer reading at its best: it’s sweet without being twee and smart without being ponderous.

Bookdwarf notes: I read this book too—it’s hilarious. I hate the description laugh out loud funny, but I did laugh. A lot. Out Loud.

This isn’t Really Book Related but…

I read this article in the NYT this morning and wondered what time warp I had entered. The entire article is about how women like to eat steak. It’s such a condescending, poorly written article, it made me want to stamp my feet, but my high heels prevented me:

But others, especially those who are thin, say ordering a salad displays an unappealing mousiness.

“It seems wimpy, insipid, childish,” said Michelle Heller, 34, a copy editor at TV Guide. “I don’t want to be considered vapid and uninteresting.”

Honey, you work at TV Guide and were quoted in this article. You are vapid and uninteresting.

Booker Longlist Announced

*Yawn* Oh, sorry. I keep yawning every time I look at the recently announced Booker Longlist. It’s a boring list and it doesn’t help that only four of the titles are available here in the US. McEwan’s the favorite so far (what a surprise). Oh well. Hopefully they don’t pick one of the books that we can’t get. It’ll be so irritating for my store, having to field a million queries on what won and how can they get it and why don’t we have it. I don’t always agree with the prestige that these prizes seem to bestow on the winner, but the books move usually (unless you’ve been written by DBC Pierre) once they win one of these things.

Dominion by Calvin Baker

Maud Newton started discussing Calvin Baker’s novel Dominion last year. Since she made it sound so good and since Maud’s taste and mine are freakishly similar (her end of the year list overlaps might at least 6 times), I dutifully added it to my TBR pile, but it lingered there for a long time. Finally, right before I left for Bolivia, I started reading this book, but I had to put it down when I left, but I thought about it the entire time I was away. I mentioned before the books I read—only two of the four did I enjoy. How I wish I had Baker’s novel to finish! I picked it up the minute I got home, even though it was late and I hadn’t slept in about a day.

Jasper Merian, a newly emancipated slave, leaves behind his wife and son in Virginia at the beginning of the novel for the free territory in the west. There he begins to carve out a utopia in the Carolinas, building a thriving estate he calls Stonehouses, with the help of a new wife Sanne and their son Purchase. Eventually the son he left behind Magnus escapes upon the death of his mother. Magnus settles down on the farm, while Purchase, a blacksmith by trade, wanders the colonies in pursuit of a woman. Their son Caelum is sent to live at Stonehouses as the pair chase each other.

I find myself thinking about this book often, although I finished it weeks ago. Is it the archaic tone that Baker uses? The mix of myth and religion—the two are intertwined here—-parts of the novel feel like the Iliad and other parts feel biblical. Yet this style, which feels old, seems new too. Check this book out at your local book store. I hope you find it as captivating as I did.