Take a Chill Pill

The recent unrelenting heat may be near its end, instead of wallowing in it, why don't you come inside, bask in our magical air conditioner, and better yet, come into the cool subterranean UBC and shop and chill.

I'll get you started:

See! It's helping already!

 So stop in and cool down. Find a book that takes place in the dead of a Swedish winter and escape all this. Or, sell us your used books for cash during buying hours Wednesday - Saturday, 10 AM - 4 PM and buy an AC. Or some frozen yogurt. 

On Readings

Tonight I read from my novel at The Writers' Room of Boston's annual reading. I started the day feeling prepared but as the afternoon came around, the air thicker with the heat and humidity, I felt less confident. I've never enjoyed the attention you get when standing in front of a crowd, so many pairs of eyes watching you at once. Since I started working at the Booksmith last fall and helping host events, I've gotten a bit more used to that. But when I introduce the author, it's about the author and their work and not about me. Reading a part of my unpublished, unfinished novel, which only two other people have read, is terrifying.

Having to read from my own work last night had me thinking about readings in general. I've always loved going to readings, partly for the same reason I like going to the movies. I enjoy the communal aspect, the idea that the people gathered in a room are there to see one person, and are each taking away something different from the experience. Readings are just as fun to attend alone as they are when attended with a friend, and I always end up scribbling the name of new authors I want to look into or words of wisdom about the writing process. But there's also something about hearing a writer read their work in their own voice. It makes the reading experience seem more intimate, as if the writer, by adding a voice and adding inflection to the words on the page, is letting you in on a private process.

At the Booksmith we host two different kinds of readings: traditional readings, by authors of newly published books. I love these readings, and the the mix of authors we bring in is part of the reason I wanted to work here and help with events. I spent most of last year living on Cape Cod and during that time I drove up twice to the Booksmith just to hear specific authors. I sat halfway up the stairs to listen to Nicole Krauss read from Great House. And then I came up to hear my friend Alexi Zentner read from his debut novel Touch.

The other kind of readings we host are like what I read at tonight: a mix of unpublished and published authors. There is something less formal about these readings. I remember walking into The Last Bookstore when I was in Los Angeles this past January, and stopping my browsing to lean against a pole and listen to their open-mic poetry reading. At the Booksmith, we regularly host The Breakwater Reading Series, where graduate students from MFA programs in the area read their work. In fact, the first time I read from my novel was at this series, three years ago. These readings usually consist of many writers reading for short chunks of times.  More often than not, the writers have yet to published, and because the audience is often filled with supportive friends and families there's an overall positive energy to the whole experience. For me, that's how tonight felt.

In a month we're hosting a very special reading, similar to the one I read at tonight. Our assistant manager, Kate Robinson, who just published Darling Angel Meat, her first collection of poems, will be reading her poetry. If you didn't know, our staff includes quite a few writers and poets, among visual artists and musicians, and some of us will be the warm-up act for Kate. I've always loved that our staff is full of so many talented and interesting people. I see my co-workers a lot in a professional setting and hear about their work, and I'm really excited to finally hear the work itself. So on Friday, July 27th, I hope you'll join us in the Writers & Readers Room to come hear what your neighborhood booksellers are up to. Trickle in and out, lean against a pole, enjoy some snacks. It'll be a laid back, but special night. 

Summer Reads

With these temperatures soaring and schools letting out for the summer, you can't deny it is summer.  All of our summer reading books for the Brookline schools are up.  We have them all seperated by grade and category for easy browsing and quick-pick-ups.

Of course we have many other books to select from for the long summer ahead.  If you are looking for an easy going middle grade series for a young girl, I highly recommend Ann Martin's Main Street series.  Flora, age 11, and Ruby, age 8, have recently moved to their grandmother's house in a fictional Massachussetts town by the name of Camden Falls.  Throughout the series the girls learn to adjust to small town life, new friends, new school, new experiences, and life without their parents.  Even though it is realistic fiction, heavy subject matter is kept very low key.  Start the first book here!

You don't necessarily need hard core subject matter books that make you think about humanity and other life changing inspirations and catastrophes for a good read.  It's nice to have a break from all that once in a while -- especially on vacation.

GIRLS, yeah all I really want is GIRLS

This past week I have immersed myself in the controversial HBO show, GIRLS, created by Lena Dunham. I also watched "Tiny Furniture", a short film from 2010, directed by and starring Dunham herself. In fact, my roommate and I power-watched the last three episodes of GIRLS and Tiny Furniture all in the same night, and then promptly wanted to fill our pockets with rocks and wade into the Charles.
Despite the shows occasionally depressing effect, however, I find myself torn. I believe, at this juncture, I have seen the entirety of the available episodes (that I was forced to come across by, perhaps, slightly less than legal means) and I'm not sure how I feel. I saw my first episode on my parents' TiVo.
"Oh, you guys are watching GIRLS? What do you think?" I asked my stepmother, Derby.

"It's...different. Your father could only watch half of it. It sent him into a spiraling depression about the state of the current youth and he had to immediately go to bed."

What I have to state, first, is that, I feel like I am (at least partially) the targeted demographic of this show, being a 20 something female and living in a fairly urban setting. I, too, am freshly graduated, slightly afloat, single, and perhaps clinging to my fastly fading relevance and accessibility to experimentation. My first pressing question about the show was related to who the audience is - I couldn't figure out who was watching this show and feeling represented by it. I posted a status on facebook (as I am want to do) about the fact that I was perplexed by the show, and I was suprised by the response. I expected people to be cautiously supportive - after all, like it or not, people are talking about GIRLS, they are watching and they are intrigued, if nothing else. However, the responses I got were more than supportive, more than positive. "I feel like it's my life on TV," one of my facebook friends said.

I was a little shocked. Really? Your life on tv? The responses came from girls I am friends with on facebook, some I've known since high school, some I've known since grade school. One of them, an ex-roommate, is extremely sharp and independent and now lives within her means in an apartment with some friends in Washington, DC, miles away from her (beloved) parents, whom she is financially independent from and has been for quite some time. So I'm not sure how the selfish, immature, stubborn,  and maybe even slightly delusional female characters depicted on GIRLS mirror her current situation.

I think a lot of ladies feel represented by some of the emotional notes in the show, mainly, what I refer to as Boy Problems. Each character has a unique boy problem, or a unique way of interacting with men, and of course these relationships  are caricaturized and dramaticized for television, but still, this audience is able to synthesize what is at the heart of each exchange. The main character, Hannah, has a lover named Adam who is kind of weird, absent - emotionally and occasionally physically, not texting or calling her back for weeks at a time. Yet she keeps going back to him, because she finds him intriguing. What girl (or guy, for that matter) amongst us cannot claim they haven't, at one point, liked what was not good for them? Gone back for more, even when they knew they shouldn't? That must be what viewers are picking up on and what resonates with them. And, in truth, there is a twist involved in that relationship that did intrigue me, and brought another level to the show for me, so that was a nice surprise.

In fact, I can't say that the show is not gripping. I can't say that it keeps you wanting more; the cast is great, the acting is good, and it's all new talent, which I like. The assumed protagonist of the show, Hannah, played by Lena Dunham herself, is the source of much of my joy, and much of my consternation. Just the fact that Lena Dunham is on TV is awesome, with her normal sized and shaped body, tattoos, and accessible brand of real-life pretty, is something I consider a win. Other, far worthier bloggers than I, have critisized the show's lack of color, and without harping on the subject, I would like to tip my hat in their direction. Although set in Brooklyn, the show centers around a gang of white, heterosexual girls, one of whom is chubbier. The rest have the same white girl model bodies, hair and faces you would expect to find on the television. So it's one small step, and I commend the show for it. But it's just that - a small step.

One amazing thing the show GIRLS has going for it? In a recent episode, we found out that Hannah, the aforementioned main character, has HPV. The second half of the episode centers around the fact of HPV; how she contracted it, how there's no test for men, what to do now. It is made very clear the HPV is not a death senteance, that she has options. I loved this, I think talking about a touchy subject such as HPV on a show targeted at 20 somethings, and doing it in a believeable, accessible way, is no easy feat.

In the end, it's not that I disliked GIRLS, it's just that I don't think it's for me. In fact, I'm still unsure who it is for. I think female audiences of my age are just so desperate to be represented by something other than a flighty college grad on some mediocre sitcom; the mother long-suffering, the father gruff and comically oversized. We get a taste of anything that might resemble our lives, and our first instinct is to cling to it, laud it, maybe give it more credit than it really deserves. I'm not saying, stop watching it, or stop relating to it, or take it off the air. I just had feelings about it, that's all, so I did what I always do: I puked them on to the internet. You can sort them out, or not, as much or little as you like.

Here's the part where I tell you what books to read if you're pickin' up what I'm layin' down here.

Wether or not you enjoy the show GIRLS, if you read through this blog post and found me to be funny (or whatever), you might like the essays of Sloane Crosley. Crosley is neurotic, unusual (unique?), and lives in a bustling urban environment. If you are into the trend of Funny Lady Neurotics, you should definitely check her out. Also, a quick read. I keep recommending this book for perplexed family members coming in, looking for a "summer read" for their recent female graduates. Everybody knows I don't really do "summer reads" (last season, people kept asking for books to read on the beach, and I could only recommend "Room" and "Let the Right One In", because those were the only novels I had read so far that summer. They were gripping; one is a horrific novel about kidnap and rape, and the other is a genderbending vampire novel. If you read a book at the beach, it is a beach read, that is all I'm saying, in the same way that if I put a bikini on my body, it becomes a bikini body, and I don't have to go on any fasts or anything. It is already a body in a bikini, ergo: bikini body. Science.) but I did happen to read Crosley's books while on vacation and I found it just delightful.  

In the same vein do I recommend Mindy Kaling's book, "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?" except that I do it with more thumbs ups and winning smiles. I loved this book, I think Kaling is the perfect mix of memoir author, lady comedienne, and happening gal about town, whatever that means. Plus, this is also a good pic for recent ladygrads, because Kaling talks a lot about what she did after graduating, re: moving to NYC to make her fortune.



Cattier Book Titles

After this gem of a found item in a used book:

...we recommend you check out these catty works of Great Literature:

The Great Catsby

The Blow-Up by Catazar

The Sound and the Furry

Cats-22

Enjoy your weekend!

The Dabbling Artist

"Books, albums, they're the same. People create things." -Patti Smith

Patti Smith said the above last week in New York at BookExpo America (BEA) while interviewing Neil Young about his memoir, which is due out this fall. (The New Yorker blogged about the interview here; our own Jodie, in her elegant Jodie way, managed to encapsulate the craziness of BEA into a beautifully written blog post here).

Coincidentally, I happen to be reading Patti Smith's memoir, Just Kids. Nearly two years after it's been a bestseller, I picked it up because the instructor in my photography class showed us Robert Mapplethorpe's orchid images and mentioned the book. I had seen it so many times, on our Books We Love table, on our best sellers shelf, but it wasn't until then that I really knew what it was about: two artists trying to make it. 

There are many reasons why Just Kids is appealing, not the least the core of the book, the relationship between Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe. It was a relationship made complicated by Robert's attraction to men, but also one that was remarkably simple because it revolved around a mutual respect for each other's work and careers. However what I found most compelling about their lives is how Patti and Robert explored so many art forms. Patti Smith was into drawing and wrote music reviews for magazines before becoming the poet and musician that we know her for today; Robert Mapplethorpe actually resisted photography because it was an expensive medium to work with, and instead made necklaces, created installations, and drew.

I related to this exploration of many art forms, being somewhat of a dabbler myself. In graduate school, while pursuing my degree in creative writing, I took classes in literary nonfiction, screenwriting, column writing, and even wrote film reviews for the school newspaper, while chipping away at my novel. This summer, I decided to formally learn photography, something I've been fiddling around with for as long as I can remember. It was inspiring to see that these two greats in their own fields played with other forms of artistic expression, and that maybe, it even enhanced their eventual careers.

In that vein, here are some books that speak to the dabbling artist, young or old, or anyone with the least bit of artistic sensibility, looking for some inspiration.

Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon - This miniature book is structured around a list of ten pieces of advice about being creative. My personal favorite is rule number 5,which states that "side projects and hobbies are important," and then goes on to discuss it as a form of "productive procrastination."

How to Be an Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum by Kerri Smith - This lively, colorful larger format book offers page after page of excercises that suggest ways to creatively interact with the world. The back includes pages where you can conduct your "field work."

Tattoo a Banana: and Other Ways to Turn Anything and Everything Into Art by Phil Hansen - Quirkier and more humorous than the others, some of Hansen's project ideas include decorating plastic grocery bags with permanent markers, making a face out of potato peelings, and window decor made of glue.

 

Draw It with Your Eyes Closed: The Art of the Art Assignment edited by Paper Mounument - A more sophisticated collection of assignments from established artists. Despite the title, artists of all mediums will find this inspiring.

Learning to Love You More by Harrell Fletcher & Miranda July - Miranda July does it all, from writing fiction to performing to directing. In 2002, she and her husband founded the website Learning To Love You More, where they posted assignments and encouraged readers to submit their responses. This book includes both the assignments and the best of the more than 5000 responses they received.

Freeze Your Summer

Kick your summer off with popsicles.  Or better yet, make your own!  People's Pops is the perfect place to start.  Once upon a time three friends got together to create a better ice pop.  Long story short, that idea led to a popsicle stand in NYC, which led to a critic approved book released earlier this month.

People's Pops gives the basic rundown on what is needed to make a spectacular popsicle.  I love that they encourage local produce (speaking of which, the Coolidge Corner Farmer's Market is soon to begin!) and to create your own flavors.  The recipes here are all guidelines, so no exact measuring is necessary.  If desired, you could make all of your pops sugar free, or vegan, or specifically make your kind of flavors (isn't there always that one flavor in the store bought box that no one likes?)

It may take a few goes to find perfection, but it will be well worth it.  Great tips are also included, such as, how to keep your pops from getting freezer burned, and that the sweetness taste is dulled when frozen so the mixture must be made extra sweet.  Also, this is a great way to use up extra herbs that would otherwise go to waste.  Herbs, you say?  Yes!  There are your traditional flavors, and then there are very unique flavors such as canteloupe and tarragon, pumpkin pie, and rhubarb and jasmine.

Enjoy!

We also sell popsicle molds here!