Gianna:
My Friendly Giraffe
This book was written in 1972. It was about a little girl named Gianna who one day met a giraffe and how they became friends. I loved this book and read it all the time. The reason its most like my life is because the girl lived at 508 Tulip Drive .... my address. Okay, this was a personalized computer book - and it may have been one of the first. I LOVED THIS BOOK! Everyone is in this book, man--my pets, my brothers, my bff (Joyce Ewers - hi Joyce!). The giraffe's name by the way is Annaig which I never loved and still can't pronounce.
[This thing is a true work of art (I LOVE the type writer look), but more importantly, it explains quite a bit about our friend Gianna. I always wondered why she liked me and it turns out that she likes all things that remind her of her giraffe. It's also why she calls me 'Annaig.']
Liz:
The Liars' Club by Mary Karr
Back when I was in college I would recommend Karr's groundbreaking memoir as a means of explaining my background. Sure, Karr is several decades older than me, and my childhood wasn't quite so hardscrabble, but no book has managed to capture Southeast Texas quite so well. These are the people and towns I knew from a voice that could have been one of my friends'. How do you explain to someone who grew up in an affluent suburb of Dallas or went to a private high school in Houston what it's like to live in a town where the first day of hunting season is a school holiday and the Tyler County Dogwood Festival is a bigger deal than any holiday except Christmas? How do you explain spending weekends running through miles of woods with no supervision, or that the hot spot for high school parties was at the local auction barn on the catwalks above cattle pens that reeked of poo? Karr gets it, and she also gets what it's like to be the literary kid in that environment.
I hope you realize the giraffe's name is Gianna backwards...so you're just the opposite of a giraffe. Liz does mention your lack of height often.
ReplyDeleteI had one of these personalized books too, mine had a Christmas theme and my dog, Happy, was featured prominently. I also seem to remember a book with a "Katie" and a snow plow or a crane.
i have a feeling that a giraffe was the only thing the artist could draw...choices were limited. these days kids can get anything!! i told liz that i realized that the giraffe's name was my name about 5 years ago...
ReplyDeleteWow. Tough one. Adam Langer's Crossing California has bits of me in it. And Chuck Klosterman's Fargo Rock City. And Marilynne Robinson's Gilead. And A Prayer For Owen Meany.
ReplyDeleteBut, the book that is probably the most like me is either The Handmaid's Tale or The Bridges of Madison County.
Seriously though, it's probably High Fidelity by Nick Hornby.