What You're Not Reading, Day Six

The hardest question customers ever posed to me when I was a bookseller was "Can you recommend a
happy/funny book?" I don't read happy books. Actually, that's not strictly true, but I connect more to books with serious themes. Books that aren't the picks you give your aunt who's recovering from surgery in the hospital--that's my sweet spot. I don't think I'm the only book nerd with this problem either. I take note when I encounter a book that has genuinely funny moments and to which I still connect as a reader, a book that you can give to your mom and discuss together and both enjoy.

The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat is one of those big-hearted, funny, life-fulfilling books that makes me happy. I was completely invested in the characters and found myself rooting for them, wanting to hear their stories, cheering for them. Think Fannie Flagg. Think sitting in the kitchen listening to your aunts talk to your grandmother as they fix Thanksgiving dinner. This is a book you want to wrap around you.

Edward Kelsey Moore

Odette, Clarice, and Barbara Jean become inseparable friends in high school, and as they grow up one thing remains constant--they eat at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat every single Sunday afternoon. Their bond is so obvious that the locals begin referring to them as "the Supremes." They struggle together, fight, make up, and prop each other up through affairs and romances and illnesses. They gossip and laugh loudly.

I think the reason The Supremes at Earl's is so full of love is because author Edward Kelsey Moore did spend his childhood sitting in the kitchen and listening to the conversations, and he remembered the crazy stories he heard. He's a classically trained cellist in his non-writing life, so there's the chance that I would hate him like I hate ridiculously talented people on principle (this is my calling in life), but really, it's impossible to hate the guy who brought Odette to life on the page. These characters really are that memorably good.

New Year, New 30 Day Book Challenge, Day 16

Day 16: Favorite Female Character

Liz:

Hey look! I get to go first today! Gianna's love connection attempts to find me a soul mate will have to wait at least a paragraph or two. (I've convinced friends to play board games with me for the first time in six months and need to finish my half of the post before Gianna's ready.) 

Today's topic is our favorite female character, and this one's easy for me. I'm going to reveal here for the first time that Stieg Larsson modeled his protagonist from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo after me.  Naturally I love myself.  Shall we look at the evidence?

Liz....beth.

1. Lizbeth Salander. It even sounds like Elizabeth Sullivan.
2. Lizbeth has a twin sister named Camilla. I have a twin sister named Kathryn.
3. Lizbeth is brilliant.  I know, this one's obvious.
4. Lizbeth is socially awkward and tends to behave outside the bounds of social norms. I once gave a presentation to nuns in which I discussed Harry Hole.
5. We have rage issues.
6. We are both single. Daniel Craig may or may not have been our true love.
7. Lizbeth has a dragon tattoo. The dragon is my Chinese Zodiac sign.
8. Lizbeth's heritage is dark, the daughter of a Russian mobster and prostitute. I grew up in East Texas.
9. Gianna is in love with Lizbeth. Gianna is in love with me.

I feel such relief. The truth shall set you free and all that. Please don't send me fan letters, though. I want to maintain my privacy. 

Gianna:

I try not to read books with female protagonists, so this category will be tough.  Okay the first few that come to mind, and I know Liz is going to totally make fun of mine, but she only makes fun of me because she has a not so secret crush on me. Also, I have not seen Liz’s picks yet, but twenty bucks says she picks Mrs. Dalloway. [wow....how wrong was I?]

Okay, you are a punk if you don’t love every single female character in Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café. Ruth, Idgie, Evelyn, Mrs. Threadgoode, and of course ‘secrets in the sauce’ Sipsey.

I love Lillian from one of my favorite novels, Away by Amy Bloom. I think Lillian is the kind of woman (or man, really) that I aspire to. She’s smart and fearless. She escapes Russia after the murder of her entire family, including her daughter. While in New York she meets a woman who claims Lillian’s daughter is still alive in Russia. Lillian is able to “negotiate” transportation all the way to Alaska, but with no other option she must walk the rest of the way along the Telegraph Trail toward Siberia. 

The last two thoughts in my head about awesome ladies are; Jo, from  Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, and pretty much any woman that Margaret Atwood writes. If you have to ask why you’re in trouble.

Days of Love...and Lack Thereof, Day 13

Gianna:


Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg


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"Suck it Prop 8" - Ruth and Idgie

[True story: Gianna and I ate dinner together tonight since she was in Houston for some sales calls.  We ordered dessert to go.  When she dropped me off at my car, I realized that my slice of Italian cream cake was still in her car as she drove off.  That crazed person honking and flashing her brights on Bissonnet at 8:34 pm tonight?  That was a woman who loves her cream cheese frosting.  It's good cake.  Anyway, I am not going to comment on Gianna's entry for today.  You can ask her about it if you want.  In fact, I dare you to fill up our Facebook page with comments!]

Liz:

When I was in college I had to take four semesters of a foreign language.  I chose German because my high school friend Jon was learning German and I like 20th Century history.  It turned out that I really hated studying  the language...perhaps because my German I and German IV professor was Turkish (German was her second language, English her third) and every time she was tired or had a cold she'd slip into Turkish.  I never knew what the hell she was saying.  One semester we were given a passage from a story to translate to English.  I spent all weekend trying to make some sense out of the thing.  There was a guy and he was sitting at a door and he couldn't go through the door and what the hell?  Anyway, the next semester, for a world literature class, I read Kafka's The Trial. 

Kafka has a place among the greats of world literature, but this is the guy who also wrote about a man transforming into a roach.  Love story?  Not so much.  On the other hand, if you really want to confound your lover, give him/her The Trial (and if you secretly hate your lover, give a copy in German).  

30 More Days Book Challenge: Day 25

Day 25: Living Author With Whom We'd Like to Have a Drink

Gianna:

I was telling my friend Stephanie about this blog question and she suggested that instead of living author you would like to have a drink with - how about a living author you would like to throw a drink at. I know, great questions.  [How are we defining "author," because Phil McGraw (allegedly) writes books and he certainly is worth the effort for criminal mischief, but it's an insult to real writers to lump him in the same group.]

Ready....Aim....

So let me answer Stephanie's excellent question first. VS Naipaul, Mr. Women-Writers-Are-Not-As-Good-As-Men. [...Yeah, this is an excellent choice.] He claims within a paragraph he can tell the author's gender. He also believes women have a narrow view of the world. I believe him to be a douche. I would throw a drink in his face, wait for it to dry and then do it again. Douche.

Now an author I would like to have a drink with, that is a longer list. Joyce Carol Oates scares me, as does Jeanette Winterson. Maybe the idea should be someone to have a drink with and learn something rather than just get shit faced with? Of course why can't it be both?

I will also take out people that aren't writers of several books; otherwise it's me, [Liz], Tina Fey, and Amy Poehler.

Fannie Flagg

One of the funniest, nicest, just all-around good time ladies that I have ever met is Fannie Flagg. I would love to spend a night with her (and you know what? Take that any way you want to .... she's got Fried Green Tomatoes money). Actually, Fannie may be my second choice.

Rick Bragg

I would love to spend a few hours sharing cocktails with Rick Bragg. I must have a thing for Southerners. [Is this why you love me?  Also, is East Texas considered "The South?"] I have met him a few times, even had a meal with him and another writer, but still....I would love to talk to him one-on-one. He is one of my favorite writers. All Over but the Shoutin' is so great, if you haven't read it (or listened to it on audio) I highly, highly recommend it. Two more memoirs, Ava's Man and The Prince of Frogtown are top rate, just excellent. There is something so sincere and down to earth about him (Am I swooning right now?), I honestly could listen to him tell stories for hours. I am most curious about his journalism. He has a collection of pieces called Somebody Told Me, which is good, but still, I would rather have it first hand ( I mean clearly I am in love with him...is this awkward for anyone?). [Me.  I'm uncomfortable.]

So that's it, a drinks threesome... me, Fannie and Rick. Look for it on video.

Liz:

Dr. Laura, you'd look fabulous with Diet Coke pooling in those face-crags.  There.  That should fulfill Stephanie's question.  That is, unless, like Dr. Phil, she's not a "writer."  In that case, and assuming that the author has to be alive (thus letting Norman Mailer off the hook), I'm winding up to launch soda at James Patterson.  Then again, Dr. Laura probably actually wrote more of her own books than J.P. ....This is what happens when you swallow down or rage.  You want to throw things at lots of people.

As for sharing drinks, let me start by stating that I am socially awkward.  Like, severely challenged in this department.  Also, I don't really drink often (other than the Diet Coke), and the idea of going out for drinks generally makes me anxious.  Basically I want to make it clear that it would take a special person to make me more excited than panicky about the prospect of drinks, and also that going to drinks with me would probably prove a chore for the selected author.  (I did once have drinks with an author named April Reynolds and she was a total bad-ass in the best ways.  I hope she's doing well.)

Two authors come to mind for cocktails.  The first is Margaret Atwood.  I'm a huge fan of her writing, and I think she's a spitfire in person, which could make it entertaining.  She's from Canada, too.  I think she'd be able to keep a conversation going without placing any obligation on me and my awkwardness.  There is a chance that I'd ask her to legally adopt me, but that wouldn't be uncomfortable for her, right?

The other writer I'd like to join for drinks is Jon Krakauer.  You know this guy has great stories.  Where else are you going to have a 50/50 chance of discussing disastrous Everest expeditions and radical polygamist cults?  He's a journalist, adventurer, and the section definition author for adventure writing.  Krakauer would be a terrific date.

Jon Krakauer--great drink date.