Friday, March 26, 2010

Congratulations Sherman Alexie!


Sherman Alexie has won the PEN Faulkner award for War Dances. I bought this for my sister around the holidays. When I went back up to see her, it was gone from her shelves. A sign she loved it- because she passed it on to her other literary friends. Hopefully this spring it will show back up so I can read it!

I loved Smoked Signals (a film he wrote and starred in) and I also loved many of his other books and short stories. Indian Killer, is an amazing novel and his YA novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

Happy reading to you!



Thursday, March 18, 2010

Another New Blog to Read

This is a new website and organization founded by Winona LaDuke and the Indigo Girls. I stumbled upon it as I reading Winona's blog post about Somalis, Indians and Amish. A post about the globalization of a small town in Minnesota.

Enjoy the read!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Louise Erdrich: Read All Her Books


I just found Louise Erdrich's blog on the website of her own bookstore she owns and runs in Minneapolis. It is a wonderful blog. I just watched her clips on, Faces of America, with Henry Louis Gates Jr. So good!

If you haven't read anything by her, I especially love her early work: Love Medicine, Tracks, the Beet Queen. I love how these novels are all intertwined and connected!

Enjoy her books, her video clips, blog and bookstore!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Guest Blogger: Another Reading Life


My Friend's Husband has decided to contribute to the blog and gave us a post about his reading life! Enjoy the read by Guest Blogger: Anonymous.

Last Night at Twisted River By John Irving

I am a non-fiction reader. I like facts, ideas, arguments, and dissertations. It takes a lot to get me into a novel. That which springs forth from someone else’s mind disconnected to real world events usually leaves me cold. But take a well researched book with an historical setting, and now you are talking!

I admittedly am a lover of John Irving, though his earliest and most recent work has been less striking. This latest novel captured my interest and held it till the end. The story is a multi-generational tale about a cook, his son and his grandson and their life-long connection to the North Country’s logging industry. The son is a writer and while I feel that novels about writers are derivative and self-referential, I manage to excuse this one (and every other Irving book). Irving has a way of revealing the story to you as if the event already happened and he is talking about the past, although all the action seems to take place in the present. This reminds me of the way a certain friends talks, and it is comforting and annoying at the same time. The story follows first the father, then the son as their lives unfold.

All the heavy emotional events are in there, like love, friendship, revenge, and grief. They are held together by a wonderfully framed story, with the gaps filled in by fascinating details of a world that no longer exists. It is a great read with compelling characters and a vivid backdrop. I didn’t want it to end.

Next, I think I’ll curl up with a nice presidential biography, or maybe a book about checklists.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Reading Lost


My reading life has been a bit consumed with trying to figure out, what is happening on Lost.
Yes, I do mean the television show. I find the show hard to follow, complicated and I am usually always lost. I read literally to understand what I just saw. I read to hear about the complex theories that people are coming up with. Yes, I even read the spoilers. I love those. Helps me to prepare!

I do find it fascinating how a television show has increased my reading. I do also find it strange, how with my comprehension of the show is so low, yet the interest is so high. Very interesting.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Tom French


I just heard Tom French address a group of educators about the teaching of writing. He is a reporter from St. Petersburg Times in Florida. He read from his reporting of studying a school, a middle school in Tampa. "Thirteen" is a series of reports about being a teenager in America. They are gripping accounts and stories. Enjoy the read.



Friday, March 5, 2010

What Gets Your Reading Bug On?

My friend Lori is a voracious reader. Literally, I think sometimes she eats books. She said that she is a big fan of the blog and I invited her as a guest blogger to talk about about her current reading life and what she is reading etc. Enjoy the post. Enjoy the read.

Guest Blogger: Lori- The Rocky Mountain Mama.

You would think I read for a living. You would think that someone or many someones pay me by the word to read. After I confide in you my combination of ADD/ADHD habits and interests in reading you may think many more things about me. Let’s find out.

Firstly I have always had this relationship with reading. At first it was Babar The Elephant, Dr. Seuss and cereal boxes. Once the reading bug bit I never stopped. Magazine ads, newspapers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal all got equal time. At one point, my parents had weekly articles to discuss during one dinner so I wouldn’t take up all of their time asking questions during all the other dinners. And yes, I did have friend

s. And they read too. Imagine what happened during those adolescent years when we all got together and read serial romances, Judy Blume books and really trashy mass market fiction. (I still have a very soft spot for anything Sidney Sheldon.)

Oh the misinformation we gathered still makes me blush.

I digress slightly from the blog’s emphasis on current reading and current interests. A little backstory helps to interpret current habits. In order to prevent an embarrassing over-sharing moment, I will spare you the details of further experiences. Suffice it to say, I have and always will be a reader of varying and vast tastes.

Currently, I am reading books with Jewish content, for a Synagogue book group, various blogs and on line magazines, cookbooks and a sprinkling of random additions free of categorization. Here’s a sample of my daily reading:

Book Club selection:

Four Girls from Berlin by Maryanne Meyerhoff (just beginning)

Jane Austen in Boca by Paula Marantz Cohen (just finished)

As a Driven Leaf by Milton Steinberg and People of the Book by Geradline Brooks (two favorites)

Various online reads:

Slate

The Daily Beast

Jewcy

Guernica

Smitten Kitchen

go fug yourself

people magazine

feministing

Cookbooks:

How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

How To Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman

Moro by Sam and Sam Clark

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz et.al

A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen by Jack Bishop

The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters

Feast by Nigella Lawson

America’s Test Kitchen The Family Baking Book by America’s Test Kitchen


Here is what is on my list to get to soon:

Pops by Terry Teachout

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

Rashi’s Daughter Book 1 by Maggie Anton

Nurture Shock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman

Chihuly in the Hotshop by Dale Chihuly

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

And, anything my friends send and/or recommend.

If you think this is where I inform you of my opinions and recommendations of the previous material you may be disappointed. A large part of my habits come from the joy and satisfaction of finding my own way through all things print and now online. I find an idea, an interest or a question and follow it through to as many sources possible. I discover either more ways to read and explore about the initial idea or I stop and move to the next. That is what feeds my reading bug. If you want more opinion and less road map, invite me to coffee.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

The Believer


The Believer is a magazine. This month there is a great article that is really a conversation between writers discussing their choice of language to read and write in. It is a great article about writing, language, and identity.

This is a great interview that Dave Eggers did in 2003 with David Foster Wallace.

I missed Joshua Ferris' reading due to the blizzard two weeks ago. But here is another good review!

Monday, March 1, 2010

Articles I Posted on Facebook in February


Photo By Daniel Galan

Become a fan on Facebook of 'Reading Myself Into The World'. I have been posting all month other artciles that I read on our Facebook site. Feel free to browse the fan page as well as the blog! There will reminders when new posts are added! You can also follow us on Twitter- if you prefer- 'Readingmyself'. You may decide to follow the blog on Blogger! It can be sent to your account- each time there is a new posting! You decide.

Here are things I posted on Facebook that never made the blog.



Keeping it Green Blog





I Speak Soccer- Film about traveling the globe to learn about pick up soccer and cultural norms.

Holly Miranda- Singer. Cover of Lauryn Hill song.

Suheir's poetry reading at the Palestinian Festival of Literature.

Laurie Sandell interviews a famous star in LA.

Shani Davis- Went for the Gold!




Happy Reading To You.