Author Archives: bookdwarf

Ecce Homo!

For all you Vollmannites out there. I got the fresh, hot copy of the NYTBR in my hands and Vollman has a 2 page review in there. Alas, it’s not available online until this Sunday. But your man William T. Vollman reviews Frederick Nietzsche by Curis Cate. Whoo!

Event Mention

Anyone fans of Lydia Millet? She’s got 2 books out this year from Soft Skull Press, a great independent press: Everyone’s Pretty and Oh Pure and Radiant Heart. Both look extremely good and have made it to my TBR list (not much of a feat I agree, but I really want to read these). Read the CS Monitor’s review of Oh Pure and Radiant Heart, which they describe as “that rarest of finds: a compassionate satire, with a terrific premise and writing that’s so assured that readers should be lining up for admission to this dystopia.” And Ron pointed out this Newsday interview with her as well. Millet will be reading with Tennessee Jones and Maggie Nelson tomorrow night at Newtonville Books, another wonderful independent bookstore in the Boston area. So go check it out.

What’s on My Shelves?

I’m home sick today, bored. Thought it would be fun to take some pictures of my shelves, so y’all can see what I have. They are surprisingly organized now, which happened after we moved in April.

Here’s the nice bookcase:

This one is the first of the fiction cases:

This is the second fiction case:

And here is some of the Classics and Philosophy:

I still have a few unpacked boxes of books, but no room for to put them. Alas, bookcases cost so much! So, do you see anything interesting?

Mockingbird by Sean Stewart

I’ll admit that when I read the description of Mockingbird, I thought, ‘You’re shitting me’. But it was Gavin Grant himself who gave me the book when he and Kelly Link were reading at my store several months back. I think very highly of those two, so I knew he wouldn’t steer me wrong. In short, this book involves a vivacious Southern woman who also happens to be a seer and who has also recently passed away, leaving behind two grown daughters and a confused husband. The eldest daughter Toni, who is trying to sort out the mess her mother left behind and take care of her sister, inherits her mother’s ‘gift’. This sounds ludicrous I know. So just ignore what I am saying and read the book anyway because it’s fucking hilarious. Really, it is. I read it over the course of an evening and a morning, almost spraying Mr. Bookdwarf alternately with beer and with coffee, laughing at parts of this book.

Boston Globe Round-Up

There’s much to cheer about as well as much to lament in this past Sunday’s Book Review. On the one hand, we’ve got Gail Caldwell’s beautiful essay and some well-written reviews. On the other hand, most of the reviews of books that came out 3 or more months ago. I’ve included the pub date of each book after the title and author just so you don’t think I am crazy. So follow me after the jump…
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What to Read, What to Read

I am feeling overwhelmed with options here. Do you ever dread the moment when you finish book? Usually, if a book is good enough, you just don’t want it to end. But these days finishing a book means I have to choose a new one to read. Do you ever feel really good about crossing a task of a To Do list? As someone who is a bit of an organizational freak, I get an insane pleasure crossing things off lists. That’s what I sometimes felt finishing a book. Ok, that one’s done, on to the next (though books are never just tasks to me. Except for Psaltis’ book, which I finally finished yesterday. I only read all the way through because I wanted to see if it could get better. It couldn’t). With my job in a bookstore, I add books to my TBR list at a rate that I cannot possibly get to them all. I’ve got probably 150 books in my office alone, not to mention the piles at home. Sometimes I even toy with the idea of posting my TBR list, but the task frankly seems daunting. Perhaps I will take pictures to post. Max of the Millions has a great system which involves putting all the books on a numbered list and using a random number generator to pick a number. That way he gets to the stuff he’s always meant to read but hasn’t gotten around to yet (Nabokov for me). Right now I am at a lost of what to do. I don’t know that the number system would be right for me. How do you decide what to read next?

Mummies, Show Tunes, a Nineteenth-Century Biblical Sex Cult, Mean-Spirited Totem Poles, and More

Uncle Red takes on Sarah Vowell over at Identity Theory. “I never wanted to be a writer. When I was growing up I wasn’t one of those people who hid in their bedroom with a flashlight scribbling out stories. I came to writing by studying art history and writing essay exams. So I don’t know how to make stories up. I know how to lie. One reason I like writing nonfiction is [that] it’s all about the implausible.

Seasoning Needs Some Spice

It’s always troubling when I get my hands on a long-awaited book and find it very disappointing. I love the food writing genre and couldn’t wait to read The Seasoning of a Chef: A Journey from Diner to Ducasse and Beyond by Doug Psaltis. But only half way through now, I am extremely disappointed. The back of the book bills Doug Psaltis as the anti-Bourdain, which is fine. We don’t need a million Bourdains in the kitchen. But being the anti-Bourdain doesn’t mean you have to be completely boring and self-involved. Sure, it’s his autobiography (written with the help of his twin brother Michael) so of course it’s self-involved, but the guy always seems to make himself out as the star in every kitchen. He has no humility and no sense of humor. It’s the most boring kitchen book I’ve read. He claims to be the most passionate chef, but that is not evident reading this book. Everything is a learning situation, every kitchen a schoolroom for him. That’s fine–but it’s not compelling reading to hear again and again that he’s the hardest worker and learns from every mistake.

There’s a tendency to repeat himself and to overuse literary devices, which could be forgiven if the subject matter were more interesting.
One of the more irritating devices is that of the ominous sentence: “On the day that marked the beginning of the end of Panama Hatties for me, I arrived as early as anyone else in the kitchen.” Or “On the day that I knew was my last, as I came into the kitchen Peter was leaning over a cookbook on the pass amid the general level of accepted chaos around the rest of the kitchen.” They really lead to nowhere. And he tries to give you these build-ups to something exciting: “One day in late January, when New York got hit with its first big snowstorm of the year, I faced a real test.” Okay, this seems promising. Some big kitchen mishap? The snowstorm prevents food deliveries? Nope. He goes on for several pages about how difficult it can be starting in a new kitchen, as you try to learn the new system. But as I already know, he loves learning and hard work. And then he starts discussing the use of sauces. Finally he gets to the big “test” which amounts to the chef/owner coming in and using his station to cook some salmon for a VIP. Wow.

I know I sound particularly harsh here, but it comes from disappointment. I suppose not everyone can be Anthony Bourdain, who just as self-important maybe more so, at least has the decency to realize it and joke about it. Psaltis’ ego gets in the way of what could have been an interesting book. I’ve certainly read other books where the writing isn’t polished, but the subject matter is interesting enough to make up for it, for example Japanland: A Year in Search of Wa by Karin Muller. I found her writing clumsy at times and lacking finesse, but I also thought the strength of the book was the story she was telling. Psaltis’ book is poorly written, plus it’s just very boring.