Thursday Hangovers

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The Real Competition

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I kid; however, the YA books are the only ones I’ve a prayer of reading AND tend to get overlooked (plus, last year, Pete Hautman’s Godless rocked the house) so from the New York Times:

The finalists for the award in young people’s literature include a first-time novelist, Jeanne Birdsall, for "The Penderwicks" (Knopf), a story of four girls and their widowed father; and a previous finalist, Walter Dean Myers, whose new book, "Autobiography of My Dead Brother" (HarperTempest), tells of learning hard lessons while growing up in a tough neighborhood. Also on the short list are Adele Griffin’s "Where I Want to Be" (Putnam), a novel of sibling rivalry and mental illness; "Inexcusable" (Atheneum), an account of date rape told from the point of view of the accused, by Chris Lynch; and "Each Little Bird That Sings" (Harcourt), a Southern coming-of-age novel, by Deborah Wiles.

Anyone recommend or not? These seem a bit more messagey than last year’s finalists.

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They’re No Five Ladies From New York

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National Book Award nods are out:

Fiction: The March by E.L. Doctorow (Random House); Veronica by Mary Gaitskill (Pantheon); Trance by Christopher Sorrentino (FSG); Holy Skirts by Rene Steinke (William Morrow); Europe Central by William T. Vollmann (Viking)

Nonfiction: Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion by Alan Burdick (FSG); Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius by Leo Damrosch (Houghton Mifflin); The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (Knopf); 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn; Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free and Empire’s Slaves by Adam Hochschild (Houghton Mifflin)

Poetry: Where Shall I Wander by John Ashberry (Ecco); Star Dust by Frank Bidart (FSG); Habitat: New and Selected Poems, 1965-2005 by Brendan Galvin (Louisiane State University Press); Migration: New and Selected Poems by W.S. Merwin (Copper Canyon Press); The Moment’s Equation by Vern Rutsala (Ashland Poetry Press)

Young People’s Literature: The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall (Knopf); Where I Want to Be by Adele Griffin (Putnam); Inexcusable by Chris Lynch (Atheneum); Autobiography of My Dead Brother by Walter Dean Myers (HarperTempest); Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles (Harcourt).

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VeronicaMarsTalk

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And this week’s it’s:

Cheatty Cheatty Bang Bang. Cassidy "Beaver" Casablancas believes that his sexy stepmother Kendall is cheating on his father, so he hires Veronica to investigate the situation, but neither are prepared for what they find.

I’m sure this is going somewhere less obvious than it sounds. See you later, kiddoos.

(And the season 1 box set is on its way, yay!)

 

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GilmoreGossipCircle Alert

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So, yeah, I rewatched last week’s episode and–while there were some nice grace notes–must concur with the group’s overall eh. I must have picked the wrong day to give up cocaine. Tonight looks better though:

We’ve Got Magic To Do. Rory (Alexis Bledel) does a fabulous job organizing a big DAR bash for Emily (Kelly Bishop). However, at the party, Richard (Edward Herrmann) confronts Logan’s (Matt Czuchry) father, Mitchum Huntzberger (guest star Gregg Henry), about his opinion of Rory’s journalistic talents, while Emily has an even uglier confrontation with Logan’s mother, Shria (guest star Leann Hunley), over the romance between Rory and Logan. Meanwhile, after a small kitchen fire at the Dragonfly Inn, Lorelai (Lauren Graham) needs Richard’s help settling the insurance claim and uses the time spent with her father to needle him about the fact that he has been unable to get Rory to return to Yale. Though he’s annoyed with Lorelai, Richard has to admit that Rory is not where she should be. Melissa McCarthy, Scott Patterson, Yanic Truesdale, Liza Weil and Sean Gunn also star. Michael Zinberg directed the episode written by Daniel Palladino.

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Mad? Mad Genius?

Science Project / By /

Who can say for sure?

The Saturday night show was set against a backdrop that called to mind the confluence of a carnival sideshow and a burlesque theater. There was a Thumbelina-size woman in jeans and a nearly transparent blouse and a gentleman in yard-long, auburn dreadlocks who looked like a Rastafarian Rumpelstiltskin. Redheaded twin girls wore complementary gold party dresses. The models, as always, were chosen for their unusual physical attributes. But instead of selecting only aberrantly tall young women who weigh 110 pounds, there were beanpole men, tiny old folks, models with jet-black skin and others almost as pale as an albino. The extremes of humanity were drawn together in a celebration of diversity. It was fashion taking on some of its worse biases: fat, old and ugly.

And it was uncomfortable.

The audience laughed. One woman in the audience jerked fitfully back and forth, she was so overwhelmed with amusement. Some people pointed and howled in hysterics. Others applauded appreciatively, offering the models encouragement for stepping into the spotlight — a daunting task even for those who do it five or six times a day.

A single-page handout left on each seat underscored Galliano’s intention, printed with the lyrics to a song familiar to anyone who’d ever been to Sunday school: "Jesus loves the little children / All the children of the world. / Red and yellow, black and white, / They are precious in His sight. / Jesus loves the little children of the world."

Regardless, Galliano will never be accused of subtlety.

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Y’all Come

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Christopher Rowe, Erin Keane, Mark Rudolph and I will be reading this Saturday, October 15, starting at 6 p.m. at Destinations Booksellers in New Albany, Indiana. The reading’s called Four Writers, Four Voices, but I may well use extra voices just to throw people off. Oh, and the fabulous Lipkandy might be playing some acoustic happiness for your ears.

So, Louisville/Indiana types, if you’re out there, y’all come. It should be fun.

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