Gwenda

Things That Make Me Nervous

7 Comments / TV Goodness / By /

Maureen Ryan generates her dream line-up for the new net announced today:

News came Tuesday that the WB and UPN will shut down in the fall, and the best shows from each network will migrate to a new broadcast network called The CW, a joint venture between Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS.

Personally, I’m still hoping this doesn’t mean anything bad for Gilmore Girls or Veronica Mars (now that would be a great night of television). I could very easily see GG ending this season. (Although, perhaps this actually helps its chances, as the new net may pony up more bucks to ASP to keep it for their first season.) I would sob if VM ends this year.

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Tuesday Hangovers

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Stat

LitBlog Co-Op / By /

Okay, so I just put up a post at Ye Olde LBC about Ander Monson’s Other Electricities, which I actually loved, loved, loved. And I had to rewrite it and everything because Typepad ate it the first time. And I even included a short short from the book which is funny and sharp and excellent, just because I love you. So go read it and tell me why I’m a crazed lunatic. And check out all the other fine, fun stylings going on too.

p.s. I think I may possibly have cursed too much, but so damn be it.

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Award Holla & Warning

Books / By /

The American Library Association has announced its 2006 literary award winners. I’m especially happy at this YA award:

Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults “Looking for Alaska,” written by John Green, is the 2006 Printz Award winner. Four Printz Honor Books also were named: “Black Juice” by Margo Lanagan, published by EOS, an imprint of HarperCollins; etc. etc.

Yay for Alaska and Black Juice! (See my take on Alaska in the books sidebar to the left.)

And now the posting frenzy will stop. But fair warning, I’ll be back later weighing in on Ander Monson’s Other Electricities as I was unable to get my s together to participate in the boys’ discussion over the weekend. (See also Ed’s first LBC podcast.)

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The Colony of Snark

Books / By /

Thevoyageofthesnark5Snitched from Laila because this one combines too many things I can’t resist: Jack London, Hawaii and Mary Roach.

I LOVE The Voyage of the Snark, London’s account of his sail around the world for Cosmopolitan. London is a fascinating character and did most everything for money, as he was constantly in dire financial straits. In general, as a writer and a scoundrel, I think London is overlooked or unfairly looked-down-the-nose-at. He’s one of my writing heroes. (The entire book is at that link, btw.)

The connection between all this is that Mary Roach has reviewed John Tayman’s new book The Colony about the lepers on Molokai in this week’s NYTBR. (First chapter here; it sounds fabulous.) London’s "The Lepers of Molokai" (originally published in the Women’s Home Companion and referenced by Roach) is online.

Anyway, I’m also stealing the charming opening of Snark’s introduction behind the cut for your amusment.

…

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Recouping

Nattering / By /

TulipsGreetings from Finally Getting Better Land. After three rounds of antibiotics, a seemingly endless supply of Kleenex, and four hellishly busy weeks.

I hit the misery wall so hard one morning driving into work while listening to The Diane Rehm Show (I love DR, but this in and of itself was a cry for help — I usually listen to music in the car) featuring guest Stephen Pratt that I immediately vowed to only eat SuperFoods from then on. (And um, we’re actually sort of sticking with that one. Sorta.)

Dr. Frye stepped in over the weekend and recommended some herbal goodness (Usnea and Goldenseal). Her voodoo cures seem to be working at least as well as the ones from my M.D., if not better. Christopher bought me tulips and made me my favorite childhood dinner. I slept for three hours after a four block bike ride on Saturday.

But then yesterday, I actually made it through a half-hour at the gym (not pressing it). And today I feel at least somewhat like the brainsucking fog has lifted.

Anyway. I am tentatively declaring that I’m better. Perhaps a little nutty with my tinctures and my SuperFoods, but better. Posting should reflect this.

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Reasons to Love Dolly, No. 74

1 Comment / Miscellany / By /

Awhile back, Dolly Parton started a charity called the Imagination Library, which mails a book a month to all children from birth to 5 years of age in Sevier County, TN, regardless of income. The program is spreading. Dolly sez:

"They call me the Book Lady. That’s what the little kids say when they get their books in the mail. They think I bring them and put them in the mailbox myself, like Peter Rabbit or something," she said, laughing.

Where she grew up in tiny Locust Ridge, children’s books and education were luxuries. "My mother was married when she was in the seventh grade, so a lot of my people didn’t get a chance to get an education," she said. "Imagination Library was really born out of my need to try to help people knowing what a handicap it was with a lot of my relatives."

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Truer Words

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A quote from John Gregory Dunne by way of a Jonathan Yardley essay about Dunne (the whole thing is worth reading):

"Because one has written other books does not mean the next becomes any easier. Each book in fact is a tabula rasa; from book to book I seem to forget how to get characters in and out of rooms — a far more difficult task than the non-writer might think. Still I went to my office every day. That is the difference between the professional and the amateur. The professional guts a book through this period, in full knowledge that what he is doing is not very good. Not to work is to exhibit a failure of nerve, and a failure of nerve is the best definition I know for writer’s block."

(BookWorld is actually stuffed with good pieces this week — Dirda on Conan, John Crowley on a new bio of Robert Louis Stephenson, etc. Plus, there’s the Style pageant piece.)

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