New Year, New 30 Day Book Challenge, Day 30

Oh Flannery, I could never hate you!

Day 30: The End.

Gianna:

On the 29^th of January, I sent Liz a text telling her how excited I was that we only had two more days of our 30 day challenge. It's really tough trying to come up with books to write about every single day, especially when the prompts are often the same questions worded a bit differently. “What’s your favorite book?” "What’s your favorite book that you own?” “Who is your favorite author that wrote your favorite book?” By Day 14, I seriously starting hating Flannery O’Connor. 

Anyway, so on the 29^th I was pretty excited, just two more daily blog posts and then I could take a break. It was then that Liz reminded me that we actually didn’t start on January 1^st,  and that we actually had three more posts. I’m not going to lie, I shed some tears and felt a little hate in my heart for Liz. But this is it, this really is the last day. And it won’t be like in years past when I would let Liz bully me into an additional thirty days. I’ve grown wiser (and lazier).

me when i cant figure out what to write

I thought I would hit the highlights and lowlights of our challenge.  The best book I read last year (Day 1 question) Why be Happy When You Can be Normal. Book I read more than three times (Day 2) Rubyfruit Jungle (possibly a low point as I think I admitted to stealing). A book that makes me happy (Day 5) Bossypants. Book by my favorite author (Day 16) I chose my new favorite authors like Karen Russell. Book you wish more people had read (Day 24) Autobiography of a Face. Favorite book cover (Day 27, I thought we were done so this too was a low point) Polpo.

I will now use this to help count to thirty

Final confession. I wrote this blog yesterday thinking it was the last day again.  Why did I ever agree to this and why in hell am I incapable of counting to thirty? 

Liz:

Here's the thing: Gianna doesn't get that people LOVE lists. She loves lists too, except when she's the one asked to compile them. I don't know why she can't count to thirty, but I have heard that she graduated from primary school. I'm waiting for the verifying documentation.

Camel. toe.

Oh, and we're doing this again. I don't care what Gianna says; she made the mistake of sending me a picture of her with some massive camel toe. I am not above posting embarrassing things on the internet. It's blackmail. Which reminds me--next 30 Day Book Challenge, Day 1: Favorite Book About Blackmail.

When I couldn't sleep last night, I stumbled across a librarian's book challenge that involved reading one book from all of the Library of Congress categories and subcategories. That's 229 books. Gianna doesn't know how good she has it.

New Year, New 30 Day Book Challenge, Day 29

Day 29: The authors you'd like to join for dinner

Here we are, so close to the end. Gianna is so upset at the prospect of the 30 Day Challenge ending that she's in mourning. I, Liz, am made of stronger stuff and will soldier on for the good of all humanity. Before Gianna burst into tears and ran screaming from her computer, though, she shared with me her picks. Here you go:

Gianna's perfect dinner party:

Serving cocktails, obviously, Dorothy Parker. No gathering of literary wits should exclude her.

Serving drinks, Dorothy Parker

As for the rest of the gathering, Gianna wants to dine with the funny ladies. I'm sure she's trying to lift her spirits even as she grieves for another book list winding down. She's really quite upset. At first, Gianna just wanted "Tina Fey x 10,"

but then I think she realized that Tina Fey is my doppelganger, and to diffuse that bit of awkwardness she edited her list. Now, along with Tina, Gianna will be joined by Lily Tomlin,

Carol Burnett,

and Gilda Radner.

More than one of these dames snort-laughs before appetizers are served.

Liz's perfect dinner party:

I tend to start twitching in groups larger than about five people, so dinner will be cozy. I like the idea of hanging out with writers who seem like they're intelligent but unpretentious. Jeffrey Toobin, who wrote The Nine and The Oath, seems like he'd be a great dinner companion.

And Jennifer Egan; I've liked all of her books.

Mary Karr needs to be there because we could talk about East Texas and also because I suspect that she might swear.

Michelle Obama...I bet she's a great guest. She doubles as the unofficial bouncer.

Finally, to keep conversation flowing and bind the room together, Jon Stewart will be joining us.

There's a good chance that we'll eat chicken pot pie. Who doesn't love chicken pot pie?

New Year, New 30 Day Book Challenge, Day 26

Day 26: Your Favorite Title

Gianna:

When you agree to questions like "What is your favorite book title?," you just know that you’re going to screw up and leave out your favorite title. I will wake up around 3:00 am and remember that I really loved such and such title more than anything else. Seriously, I am done with these lists!

Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal by Jeanette Winterson is probably the best title--the most heartbreaking title--I have seen in a long time.  The title is an actual question Winterson’s mother asks her in regards to her daughter’s lesbianism. As if it’s a choice.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers is a big, bold, ego title that somehow just absolutely works.

The Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy: I just wrote about this book the other day but it's another memoir that just has the perfect title. After you read this (and my God, just read this book) you know that no other title would have worked.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender; actually, Girl in the Flammable Skirt and Invisible Sign of My Own are all really good titles by Bender.

Wocket in My Pocket by Dr. Seuss – This is the heartbreaking and timeless story of a man who has a wocket in his pocket. It also sounds dirty as you get older.

A few others that I like; Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth; The Lover; How to Breathe Underwater; Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing; Breath, Eyes, Memory; Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter; The People of Forever are Not Afraid; Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains; and and and....

Liz:

I think that Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil perfectly captures the crazy beauty and eccentricity of Savannah described in John Berendt's classic.

Tell me you wouldn't be intrigued by a book with the title The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Mark Haddon's book lives up to the name.

Another Bullshit Night in Suck City is Nick Flynn's terrific memoir about meeting his father in a homeless shelter. It grabs you and lets you know that you'll be hitting rock bottom, but in a way that makes you want to keep reading. Recently the movie version of Nick's book came out; maybe more people would've noticed if they'd kept the book title instead of going with Being Flynn.

Hey Clarice, are the lambs still screaming? The Silence of the Lambs--chilling. A great mix of innocence and peril.

I also love titles pulled from Shakespeare. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose, Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, A Heart So White by Javier Marias, The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and many, many other titles are pulled from the Bard's lines.

New Year, New 30 Day Book Challenge, Day 25

Day 25: The Character to Whom You Most Relate

Gianna:

Today we are finding our literary mirrors, the characters we most identify with...or the closest thing possible. 

Jo March - Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

I have several brothers and exactly zero sisters, and as a young girl I had very little interest in dolls, makeup, pretty dresses, or anything “girly.” I could, however, throw a football as well as the boys on my street, and I was a damn good baseball player. I enjoyed building forts, climbing trees and jumping off of very high things. My goal was to become a stunt person (I am sure I went around and said stuntman, but you get the point). As I got older, my mother’s patience with my lack of girly interests grew and she would either be chasing me around the house with an eyebrow tweezers or let me know, in the nicest of ways, that “a little lipstick would really help.”

Jo March understood me, and I understood her. She enjoyed a boisterous joke, a competitive footrace, and a healthy disinterest in boys. But things change; Jo got married and I have at long last tried to get these god-forsaken eyebrows in check. 

"If Wearing hair up means becoming a lady, I'll wear it down until I'm 100 years old." Jo March in Little Women

...No.

Liz:

Dang. I have no idea. I mean, I already declared that Lizbeth Salander and I were one and the same, but it seems too easy to rest on those laurels. Let's turn to the internet for an assist, shall we?

I took this Literary Character Quiz, and ended up with Wendy Darling from Peter Pan. Apparently I'm mothering to lost boys and caring and this really couldn't be further from how I see myself. 

I like the book part anyway.

So then I took this quiz, and it says I'm Hermione from Harry Potter. So I'm smart and witty and rational and don't let people mess with me. On the other hand, though, I've already stated that I have not read the Harry Potter books, and I'm also not going to fall in love with a redhead. 

It turns out there are a lot of these quizzes on the internet. Let's try again with this one. Really? George Bailey from It's a Wonderful Life? That just happens to be one of my least favorite movies ever. I give up.

I liked Leslie from The Bridge to Terebithia because she played in the woods and died (spoiler?). I liked Turtle from The Westing Game because she was smarter than everyone else and fairly obnoxious about it (and then she won the game--spoiler?). Gianna compared me to Flavia de Luce from The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie because she was actively hoping to poison her siblings. Those are good enough.