Author Archives: bookdwarf

Nooooooooo!

Normally when a celebrity dies, I figure they get enough coverage elsewhere. No need for me to acknowledge that person’s life and death. But Julia Child died! I loved her! Her cookbooks inspired me. She took ‘fine’ cooking and made it seem easy. She had such integrity for a celebrity chef and was a huge supporter of public television. You know she was not in it for the money, but rather for the love of good eating and drinking. Dammit, I am gonna miss that gal.

Am I entering my ‘Dumb’ period?

As you might have noticed, I have not been posting much at all lately. I think I am losing brain cells. I ‘ve been feeling incredibly dumb as of late. I can’t even finish the Sunday crossword! I have been reading tons; I finished The Time of Our Singing, Drown, and The Virgin Suicides most recently. I just don’t know what to say about them. I assume most people have read The Virgin Suicides or at least it seems that way to me. The Time of Our Singing would be a hard book to review as there is so much packed into it. I enjoyed it very much though. Anyway, the point I am trying to make, however incoherent, is that I wonder if this is temporary? Does anyone remember the Simpsons where Lisa thinks she has the “Simpson’ gene that will cause her to lose her intelligence? That is pretty much how I am feeling now. Every time I sit down to write something, the words just won’t come. Maybe it is just summer. I will keep trying though. Hopefully one day soon you will find some well-written post on here.

Love/Hate

Carrie is having a great discussion over at Tingle Alley about books you love to re-read and the Rake is having the opposite discussion on books you hated. Personally, I haven’t re-read much lately except for the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. I want to re-read certain books, but there are so many books I haven’t read yet. As for books I hated, I can name at least one: The Wild Duck by Ibsen. I had to read it for high school English. I remember wanting to toss the book out of the car window. I did not like The Names by Don DeLillo, but I didn’t hate it either. Anyway, everyone go weigh in at each place.

Everyone should read this

Geoffrey O’Brien has a wonderful piece in the New York Review of Books on Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. Regardless of your politics, I think it is an important movie and O’Brien expresses the reason why:

Fahrenheit 9/11 serves as a necessary reminder that, to put it in the simplest terms, we need to see and hear more than the government and the various news channels allow us to see and hear. We need to play back the tapes to refresh our memory of what seems consigned to instant oblivion even as it unfolds. We need to see those images —of Americans and Iraqis alike wounded and dying, for example— that American television tends to withhold, as if the reality of the war could thereby be kept at bay. Michael Moore’s version of what has been happening lately is only one possible narrative; but by its very existence it encourages a more active, more confrontational approach to the images that surround us, anything to break through the numbing effect of the endless flow of TV news broadcasts and official bulletins that has become something like the wallpaper of a distorted public reality, a stream of images that moves forward without ever looking back.

I think that most people know I am fairly liberal. I don’t care for Bush or his administratin. I don’t like the war. So I admit I am biased. But I think everyone should see this movie. Not to convince them about Bush, but so that everyone can see what the media has done. How they have manipulated and filtered what we see every day. How we have no real good source for news anymore. How biased they are one way or the other. I think Moore’s movie, regardless of the politics, and the record numbers of attendence, show that Americans are willing to deal with hard hitting news. We do not need or want to be pandered to nor coddled. We want the honest facts so we can make up our own minds.
So read the above article for an honest assessment of Moore’s movie.

The fiction reviews are even fiction

Carrie over at Tingle Alley has posted two great letters to Sam Tanenhaus, editor of the NYT Book Review, and Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of the New Republic. Mr. Wieseltier reviewed Nicholson Baker’s latest novel Checkpoint which arrives in stores on Tuesday. If you have not heard of this book, it is causing quite a stir, as Baker’s main characters is plotting the assassination of GW Bush.
Tanenhaus, new to the Book Review, maintains that they still review fiction and cites this review as an example. I don’t know about you, but this review certainly does not qualify as a true fiction review. The author obviously has politics on his mind. Nowhere does he mention Baker’s credentials or other books nor does he even say whether it is well-written or not. Read Tanenhaus’ response to TEV’s letter complaining about the review.

Update: Beatrice has posted an actual review of Checkpoint, one worth reading.

Nobody wants the truth?

Everyone predicted Bill Clinton’s memoir as the summer’s hottest book. It sold predictably—fast out of the gate, but slower around the bends. Meanwhile, the 9/11 Commission Report is one of the fastest selling books at my store ever (I do not know this for sure without checking records, but I am reasonalby sure). I suppose I just find it interesting that more people want to read what I imagine is a dry government document than the sexy memoirs of an ex-president. Just goes to show you what the book people know. That is, not much.