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January 2008
Oprah’s new pick: Eckhart Tolle
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In case you missed the news, Oprah Winfrey has chosen Eckhart Tolle’s self-help book “A New Earth,” as her latest book club selection.
Tolle is a German native who now lives in Vancouver, Canada, and writes books that some might consider quite helpful. I skimmed his last book, “The Power of Now,” and wasn’t impressed, but it sold a million copies, so maybe Tolle knows something I don’t. “A New Earth” is just out, so I haven’t had a chance to read it yet.
Tolle’s website says that he advocates “transcending our ego-based state of consciousness” as a “prerequisite not only for personal happiness but also for the ending of violent conflict endemic on our planet.” Hard to take issue with that.
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“Love + Sex With Robots”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Here at The Book Page, we never run out of intellectual fodder. Particularly when it’s about sex. Today it’s David Levy’s new book, “Love + Sex With Robots,” in which he asserts that in 30 to 40 years, robots will be so believably human that people will have sex with them and fall in love with them.
This has been a favorite topic of science fiction for years - Philip K. Dick’s classic novel “Blade Runner” comes to mind — but Levy insists we’re getting closer to making it real. If you’ve seen some of the cutting-edge robots being developed in Japan, you know that this is not as ridiculous as skeptics might think.
Levy is an expert on artificial intelligence and computers, but he comes across a little strange. He went on “The Colbert Report,” which was quite brave of him, and Colbert had some fun at his expense. You can see a clip here.
I’m no Luddite, but I have to say I shudder to contemplate a society where men can have as much sex as they want with an artificial partner who looks like Angelina Jolie and never says no. Such a product would make crack look like Doritos. I think the love thing is going to be a lot more of a problem, but if science can create a boinkable android, a lot of guys are gonna order one from Amazon and never do anything else in their life.
Am I right about men? And is there a female equivalent, that if women can buy a guy who will do the dishes, pick up his underwear and put down the toilet seat, they won’t want a husband?
Is the motto of the future going to be Once You Go Bot, You Never Go Back?
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Who’s a sellout?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Randall Kennedy writes about incendiary topics with a sharp, cool intellect. One can admire that approach, and/or one can paraphrase Dr. Phil: So, how’s that working for ya?
Kennedy is a law professor at Harvard. His last book was the excellent historical and literary journey subtitled “The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word.” I’m being more coy than Kennedy was as to the title.
Kennedy’s latest book is “Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal.” He will be at the Margaret Mitchell House tonight to discuss and sign the book; as always, reception at 6, lecture at 7, $10 for non-members.
Kennedy is a thorough, precise writer whose thoughts do not reduce to a simple power point presentatiom. “Selllout’ is about the many permutations of black life that give rise to accusations of selling out one’s race, from “acting white” (i.e. studying in school) to dating or marrying white.
The paper’s @Issue section ran a pretty large excerpt from “Sellout” on Jan. 20. Here are a few snippets:
“Angst over complacency, collaboration and defection continues to occupy a salient place in the Afro-American mind and soul. One hears it in ceaselessly repeated phrases such as “Don’t forget where you come from” and “Stay black.” One sees it in the often obsessive attentiveness with which many blacks scrutinize other blacks for evidence of “passing,” “acting white,” or otherwise showing what is denounced as an inadequate commitment to black solidarity. One sees it in efforts by blacks, especially those in elite, predominantly white settings, to signal to other blacks (and themselves as well) that they have remained true to blackness.”
“…Pursuing certain occupations or attending to certain tasks within an occupation have prompted charges of selling out. Blacks who serve as police officers can expect such denunciation, as can blacks who work as elite corporate attorneys.
During the murder trial of O.J. Simpson, the black assistant district attorney Christopher Darden became a target for accusations of racial betrayal. Black journalists, too, have been condemned. When Milton Coleman of The Washington Post revealed that presidential contender Jesse Jackson had referred to Jews as “Hymies,” Coleman “was assailed by blacks across the country as a sellout who, for career advancement, was attempting to derail Jackson’s historic campaign.” Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam vilified the reporter as “a no-good, filthy traitor” who should be shunned “so that he cannot enter in among black people.”
Scores of black conservatives have been derided as sellouts. Angered by the black economist Thomas Sowell’s opposition to affirmative action and other liberal policies, the journalist Carl Rowan said of him that “Vidkun Quisling, in his collaboration with the Nazis, surely did not do as much damage to the Norwegians as Sowell is doing to the most helpless of black Americans. Sowell is giving aid and comfort to America’s racists.”
Is Kennedy’s concern justified? Is there a way out of this mess?
Thanks to all who commented. I’m turning off commenting now. Come back tomorrow for something completely different.
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The Shack
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’ve never used this blog to put forward my own religious beliefs, and I won’t start now, but I’d like to tell you about an interesting event happening Wednesday that happens to be about a Christian book.
“The Shack” is one of those word-of-mouth books that gets passed around a lot, friend to friend. It’s a self-published novel by a guy you never heard of, William P. Young. With no media push, just word of mouth, it’s sold more than 200,000 copies. It’s been hovering around No. 120 on Amazon.com’s best-seller list, which is pretty amazing, and of the 118 user reviews there, 108 of them are five-star.
“The Shack” is a novel about a regular guy, Mackenzie Phillips, whose young daughter is abducted on a camping trip and never seen again. Several years later, he’s soldiering on, but still prone to depression, when he gets a written note from God asking Mack to come to the shack where his daughter disappeared to have a talk with God. And Jesus and the Holy Spirit show up as well.
To very traditional Christians, Young’s view is going to seem pretty radical. To non-Christians, it may not mean anything. But to some people, it’s a book that could make them see life and their relationship to God in a new way. I’m not endorsing Young’s vision, just acknowledging it could be powerful.
A guy I know and wrote a feature story about last year, Joe Kissack, has brought Young to Atlanta to talk about the book, and it sounds like it’s going to be a bigger-than-usual author appearance. Kissack, who tends to be enthusiastic, thinks hundreds may turn out because the buzz is so strong in local churches and on Christian radio.
Young will talk about “The Shack” at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 30, at the Westminster School’s Junior High Multipurpose Room, 1424 W. Paces Ferry Rd.
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7-Day Author Forecast for Jan. 28-Feb, 3
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jan. 28
Scott Kaufman. “Rosalynn Carter: Equal Partner in the White House.” Kaufman discusses and signs his new bio of the First Lady from Plains. 7:15 p.m. at Decatur Library.
Jan. 30
Randall Kennedy. “Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal.” Kennedy, a brilliant and provocative Harvard Law professor who brings sharp observations about race to his books, will talk and sign at Margaret Mitchell House. Reception at 6 p.m., lecture at 7 p.m. $10 for non-members.
Jan. 31
J.A. Jance. “Hand of Evil.” Mystery writer Jance’s new novel features ex-TV journalist Ali Reynolds. She’s signing at 7:15 p.m. at Decatur Library.
Feb. 1
Lorraine Morris Cole & Pamela M. McBride. “Work It, Girl! The Black Woman’s Guide to Professional Success.” 1:30 p.m. at Wordsmith Books in Decatur.
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Two Atlanta weekend events
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I just got word of a couple of book-related events this weekend.
Atlanta author David Fulmer was supposed to read and sign his new novel “The Blue Door” last weekend when the snowstorm hit, so they cancelled that event and have re-scheduled. It’s on for 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Wordsmith Books in Decatur. Fulmer is a Shamus Award winner, and “Blue Door” is about the music business in Philadelphia in the early ’60s (and, of course, a murder and a guy trying to solve the murder). I wasn’t there, but boy does he make it feel authentic. I loved the book.
The Southern Order of Storytellers is holding its 26th annual Winter StoryFest tonight and Satuturday. Atlanta author Carmen Agra Deedy is the headliner. She will do a workshop at 3:30 p.m. today, and a performance at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. There will also be a performance by some other members of the Order at a show at 7:30 tonight, and more workshops Saturday. You can see the whole schedule here.. Deedy, who lives in Decatur, is known as a children’s author, but her stories and appeal are universal. A festival pass is $30, but I’m told there are additional fees for workshops.
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In Defense of Food
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
There, in seven simple words, is the diet you need, not just to lose weight, but to be healthy.
That’s the gospel of Michael Pollan, whose new book, “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto,” has been in the Amazon.com Top 10 bestsellers for the whole month of January. This book, which I devoured like a can of Pringle’s (my personal problem food; yours may vary), is a smart look at eating badly, eating well, eating smart, and eating healthy.
It is not a diet book. But if you do what he says, you will probably lose some weight.
Pollan is a journalist and author who has become a leading expert in nutrition, food culture and agribusiness. His last book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” was a grand tour of how food gets to be be food in this society, from the chickens that end up in a bucket of KFC to small family farms that will graze their cattle only on fine grasses. For people who care about food, it was eye-opening. And, at times, disgusting.
In “Defense of Food,” Pollan covers the rise of what he calls “nutritionism,” the notion that we need to be consuming specific nutrients rather than a balanced, healthy diet; the so-called “Western diet,” heavy on red meat and high-fructose corn syrup; and finally, his advice on how to counter those two.
There’s a lot to chew on in Pollan, but here’s an appetizer. When he says “Eat food,” what he means is eat real food, that came from plants or animals instead of a factory. “Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” (That would be those Pringles.) “Avoid food products that make health claims.” “Get out of the supermarket whenever possible.” And so on.
I can’t recommend this book highly enough. To get the commenting rolling, I’d like to hear stories about the food you eat that your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize, and/or food products in your pantry that make health claims that you don’t really believe (cereals are great ones for this). And go buy Pollan’s book and follow his advice. You’ll be glad you did.
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Sex, ferrets, plagiarism
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I know, I know. You saw that headline and thought, “Oh no, not another blog about sex and ferrets and plagiarism! When will he get off this kick?”
But listen up, cause this is a hoot. A romance novelist, Cassie Edwards, has been caught plagiarizing chunks of material from another source into her paperback novel “Shadow Bear,” a story of forbidden love between a Lakota chief and a white woman, Shiona Bramlett, in South Dakota in the 1850s.
After Bear and Bramlett have made the beast with two backs in his tepee, a family of ferrets starts making noise, and they discuss the critters.
“They are so small, surely weighing only about two pounds and measuring two feet from tip to tail,” says Shiona. She continues that she once read a book about ferrets. “I discovered they are related to minks and otters. It is said their closest relations are European ferrets and Siberian polecats. Researchers theorize that polcecats crossed the land bridge that once linked Siberia and Alaska, to establish the New World population.”
Let’s just pause here a moment. Shadow Bear, old buddy, if you have just done your manliest best with a woman, and you and she are entwined on a pile of pelts or whatever, and she starts nattering on about a book she read about ferrets, then you need to raise your game a notch. Trust me on this.
OK, back to the literary controversy. It turns out Edwards lifted her ferret research — word for word in parts — from an article by Paul Tolme in “Defenders of Wildlife” magazine. The plagiarism was discovered by bloggers at a romance novel blog called Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. Once they uncovered that, they started plugging more and more of Edwards’ prose into Google and have found at least 14 more such instances in seven of her novels.
At first, Edwards pleaded ignorance. “When you write historical romances, you’re not asked to” credit your sources, she told the Associated Press when the news first broke. She later changed to “no comment,” and her publisher, Signet, has said it is reviewing her books.
Back in 2002 there was a flurry of plagiarism charges, with noted historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Stephen Ambrose both called out for sins of (depending on one’s viewpoint) outright plagiarism or just not crediting source material properly.
There’s outright theft, and there’s carelessness, and from what I recall of the Kearns and Goodwin cases, there was ammunition on both sides. I’m not going to pass judgment.
But I do take away one sure thing from all this: When I write my novel, and the hero and heroine are floating in post-coital bliss, and the subject turns to ferrets, as it usually does, I am by Golly going to be sure and footnote my research.
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Cruisin’ for a bruisin’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A new biography of Tom Cruise has skulked into bookstores, cobbled together by the esteemed biographer Andrew Morton. It’s probably not the low point in unauthorized celebrity biographies. But I’m sure it’s pretty close to the rug in that particular limbo contest.
I haven’t read the book, nor do I intend to. The New York Times has weighed in with a review, and thank you, Janet Maslin. If you’re collecting money to be hosed off after reading it so that others don’t have to, I will gladly send you a couple of bucks.
Why my contempt? Well, Morton is not exactly a great writer. He got super-lucky once, when Princess Diana decided to dish to him to get her version of events out without actually having to go on the record. Since then he’s been sort of a British Kitty Kelley, knocking out bios of Madonna and Monica Lewinsky.
As for the subject, I switched off Cruise a while ago. Loved him in “Risky Business” and “Jerry Maguire,” tolerated him in “Top Gun,” and stopped going to his movies sometime around the second “Mission: Impossible.” He’s capable of being a decent actor, but for 10 years or so, it’s been all about the promotion, and his Scientology, and not about the acting.
So we have a self-promoter doing a book about a guy who has become a self-promoter. Gee, where do I get my autographed copy?
Standard response from the media and the gawking masses to these books is to ask: What are the big revelations? I don’t care. I don’t care if Morton has videos of Cruise meeting with Osama bin Laden, or signed affidavits that he once beat a hobo to death with a hammer, or photos of him getting out a limo with no underpants.
OK. Time to go take my meds. Return to what you are doing. Unless you wish to take issue with that assessment.
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7-Day Author Forecast for Jan. 21-27
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jan. 23
Rob Sheffield. “Love is a Mix Tape.” 7:30 p.m. at Wordsmith Books in Decatur. I really wish Sheffield had chosen a better title for his book, cause the title is sappy and the book is great. Sheffield is a Rolling Stone writer, capable of good music criticism but best at a snarky, David Spade style of writing. “Love” is the story of how he met, fell in love with, and married a special woman named Renee. After five years, she died of a pulmonary embolism. It’s a tribute to her, and a story about his grief. When I reviewed the book last year for the AJC, I quoted this sentence: “Have you ever been in a car with a southern girl blasting through South Carolina when Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Call Me the Breeze’ comes on the radio?” I still think that’s one of the finest sentences anyone has ever written. After Sheffield discusses and signs, Atlanta rock band The Swear performs.
Jan. 25
Linda Berry. “Death and the Family Tree.” At Smyrna Community Center, 200 Village Green, Smyrna. I couldn’t get much information on this appearance, but Berry writes mysteries set in South Georgia.
Jan. 26
Marianne Williamson. “The Age of Miracles: Embracing the New Midlife.” 1 p.m. at Unity North Atlanta Church, 4255 Sandy Plains Rd., Marietta. Williamson is very popular among people who are spiritual but not necessarily connected to a particular religion. Her latest book is about embracing the life changes of your 40s and 50s. One could do all sorts of things. Like, say, start a book blog.
Pictured: Marianne Williamson
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Fighting the war on error
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Melody Moezzi, an Emory Law School grad who lives in Decatur, had a great idea for a book: Interview Muslim Americans in their 20s, people like herself, and write about how different they are, one from the other, and all from our lazy, easy American stereotypes of Muslims.
Great idea, said a couple of publishers. Toss in a terrorist and we’ll publish it. D’oh!
Fortunately, Moezzi held firm and got the University of Arkansas Press to publish her first book, “War on Error.” It’s spirited and smart and full of surprises, like Moezzi herself. She will discuss and sign the book at 7:30 p.m. tonight, Jan. 18, at Wordsmith Books in Decatur.
Moezzi, who’s 28, has an activist’s spirit. She’s upset that some people are using Islam to establish governments that oppress people, especially women; that’s not the Islam she finds when she reads her Quran, she says. And she’s upset that in the wake of 9/11, too many American are willing to see only the worst in Islam.
So she introduces us to gay Muslims, and feminist Muslims, and Muslims who talk like any other American in his or her 20s: passionate, questioning, confused sometimes, angry, loving.
“War on Error” won’t make the best-seller list and I admit, it sounds sort of specialized, but I have a feeling that Moezzi’s appearance will probably be hopping and worth attending.
In the meantime, since probably very few have read “War on Error,” let’s talk about prejudice. Has there been a book that helped you overcome a prejudice or see a group of people differently? “Roots” maybe? Something from your childhood? I’ll be interested if we get any responses.
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School librarian wins book award
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The winner of this year’s Newbery Medal for best children’s book is a school librarian in Baltimore who did the book as a fifth-grade class project.
Her name is Laura Amy Schilz, and the book is “Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices From a Medieval Village.”
I have to say that’s kind of cool, like somebody from a local theater company getting their first movie role and winning the Oscar.
The award was announced by the American Library Association, which is meeting in Philadelphia.
Other awards announced by the ALA this week:
The Caldecott award for top picture book went to Brian Selznick’s “The Invention of Hugo Cabret,” a 500-plus page hybrid of a graphic novel and traditional illustration about an orphan boy and a robot in Paris at the turn of the 20th century.
Science fiction author Orson Scott Card for “lifetime achievement in writing for young adults.” Mo Willems’ “There Is a Bird in Your Head!” received the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for “the most distinguished book for beginning readers.”
The Coretta Scott King Book Award for best African American young adult author went to Christopher Paul Curtis for “Elijah of Buxton.”
In a world where the best-seller list seems dominated by James Patterson and everyone is going ga-ga over a new Tom Cruise biography (I’ll post a rant on that very soon), it’s nice to see a librarian writing about medieval history for fifth-graders get major recognition.
Here’s to you, Laura Amy Schilz.
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Hey, hey “Heyday!”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Has anybody else read “Heyday?” It’s Kurt Andersen’s wonderful novel set in 1848, a rip-roarin’, old-fashioned-in-a-good-way saga that connects revolutionaries on the Paris barricades, gold miners in a California camp, Charles Dickens at a London dinner party, a child prostitute in New York City, a band of deserters in the Mexican-American war and a whole lot more.
Even more intriguing is the fact that Andersen used to be the editor of Spy Magazine, which in the ’90s carried the banner for a certain kind of snarky irony. There’s nothing at all snarky or ironic about “Heyday.” He takes his historical research and his characters seriously.
“Heyday” came out in early 2007 to good, and occasionally rapturous, reviews. It’s now out in paperback, a little more portable that way (it’s a big book). Authors don’t usually tour to support paperbacks, but Andersen is making the rounds, and he’ll be at the Decatur Library at 7:15 p.m. tonight (Jan. 16) to discuss and sign.
Stop by and say “Hey.” And if you have anything to offer on “Heyday” or Andersen, speak up here.
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Geraldine Brooks’s “People of the Book”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Geraldine Brooks is at the Margaret Mitchell House tonight to talk about and sign her new novel, “People of the Book.” It”s the standard MMH schedule: reception at 6, show at 7, free for members, $10 for non-members.
Staff writer Kirsten Tagami interviewed Brooks for a story that ran in Sunday’s paper. For anyone who missed it, here is Tagami’s interview:
In her new novel, “People of the Book,” Geraldine Brooks takes a few historical facts and creates a story as richly detailed as the rare illuminated prayer book at the heart of the work.
It’s an approach she has used before, with great success. Brooks won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2006 for “March,” her imaginative novel about the life of the absent father in Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women,” set against the backdrop of the Civil War. Her fiction debut, “Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague,” re-created a year in an actual English village that sealed itself off from the outside world so as not to spread bubonic plague to others.
In “People of the Book,” Brooks, a former war correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, tells the story of the Sarajevo Haggadah, an exquisite Jewish prayer book that survived through centuries of war and exile. She will speak about the book at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Margaret Mitchell House.
Q: This latest book is similar to “Year of Wonders” in that you’ve taken a fictional approach to history. And in both cases, I believe, you ran across the historical facts while working as a foreign correspondent.
A: Absolutely, yes. I was in Bosnia during the siege of Sarajevo and I heard about this Hebrew codex that was the treasure of the Bosnian collection that had gone missing during the war. There was a lot of intrigue around what had happened with it. And when I found out that it had been rescued by a Muslim librarian, who had taken it to safety during the course of the war, I just got really intrigued with the story. That’s how it tends to work with me. I like to find the stories from the past where we can know something but we can’t know everything. The history that you can research gives you a kind of scaffolding. The void in the record is the place where the imagination is free to work. There was nothing really known about how this book came to be created in Spain in the 15th century or even as early as the 14th century. Nobody knows who did the illustrations or who wrote the text. Nobody knows how it survived that terrible time of Inquisition and exile. It traveled across Europe and the Balkans only to go through a similar story all over again.
Q: Do you have any thoughts about what would have happened to this book if it had fallen into the hands of the Nazis?
A: I think that probably because it was such a recognized masterpiece by the time World War II happened, it probably would have been destined for Hitler’s Museum of the Lost Race. This was the totally depraved scheme that the Nazis had that after all the Jewish people had been killed, they would have this museum in Prague dedicated to looking at Jewish cultural artifacts. They had amassed an enormous collection of some of the most beautiful items of Judaica and also daily household objects and textiles and thousands of books. They were actually going to employ Czech actors and dress them up as Hassidic Jews and have them walking around this sort of Disneyland of Jewish life. You can’t fathom the depravity of it. But I think they would have wanted the Sarajevo Haggadah for that.
Q: It’s hard to imagine how they would have explained that these beautiful objects were created by people who, in their eyes, were less than human.
A: I think if you could understand that kind of thinking, it would be a worry. I couldn’t even try to fathom the contradictions in it. Also, a lot of things were sent to Prague and never made it there because the Germans were notorious looters. Things got purloined and sold off. The book might have been cut up for the little miniatures and sold off in pieces. It was pretty amazing it was kept out of their hands.
Q: Did you write about the book when you were there as a journalist?
A: I didn’t because when I was there, nothing was known. Nobody knew where it was. There were all kinds of rumors — that the Muslim government had sold it to buy arms, or that the Mossad had come in and taken it to safety. These kinds of stories were circulating, but nobody really knew until right near the end of the war, when the government sanctioned it being brought out of hiding and displayed at the Jewish community’s Passover celebration. Then the story was revealed that the librarian had taken it to safety amid intense shelling in the early days of the war.
Do we have any Geraldine Brooks fans in the house?
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7-Day Author Forecast for Jan. 14-20
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday Jan. 14
Rafe Esquith. “Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire.” 6 p.m. at Margaret Mitchell House. $10 for non-members, free to members. How good a teacher is this guy? He not only won the president’s National Medal of the Arts, he won Oprah Winfrey’s Use Your Life Award. Now she just needs to put his book in her book club.
Tuesday Jan. 15
Geraldine Brooks. “People of the Book.” 6 p.m. at Margaret Mitchell House. Free for members, $10 for non-members. Brooks, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “March,” has a new historical novel about a a rare illuminated prayer book through the centuries.
Hope Fox. “Impress for Less!” 7 p.m. at Cook’s Warehouse in Midtown. The QVC personality cooks a little and talks about her new cookbook. She’ll also be at Bluepointe Restaurant in Buckhead 8-10 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 17.
Julie L. Cannon. “The Romance Reader’s Book Club.” 7:15 p.m. at the Decatur Library. Cannon is a Georgia author whose latest is about a 15-year-old girl who finds a stack of forbidden romance novels and forms a secret book club.
Wednesday Jan. 16
Kurt Andersen. “Heyday.” 7:15 p.m. at Decatur Library. Andersen discusses and signs his acclaimed best-seller, which is a Dickensian novel about many colorful characters in 1848.
Thursday Jan. 17
Open Faced Sandwich. Fifth Planet Press hosts the premier issue of a “literary annual of uncommon prose.” “Live readings and stark performances” are promised at the launch party. 8 p.m. at Eyedrum Art & Music Gallery, 290 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. Free with purchase of book.
Friday Jan. 18
Melody Moezzi. “War on Error: Real Stories of American Muslims.” 7:30 p.m. at Wordsmith Books in Decatur. Decaturite Moezzi is a young Iranian-American who has interviewed a dozen other young Muslims of many stripes: gay, feminist, devout, rebellious, questioning, materialistic. But not a terrorist in the bunch. The result should knock any notions of Islam as monolithic out of the park. She will read and sign her book and I can attest, as I’ve talked to her some, the event will probably be hopping with energy.
Saturday Jan. 19
David Fulmer. “The Blue Door.” 7:30 p.m. at Wordsmith Books in Decatur. Atlanta author Fulmer won the 2002 Shamus Award and 2006 Georgia Author of the Year. I’m new to him, but I’m reading “The Blue Door” and it is a fine mystery indeed, set in Philadelphia in the early ’60s, where a down-and-out prizefighter is drawns into the disappearance of a young soul singer. It’s damn good. Makes me want to get the paperback of “The Dying Crapshooter’s Blues,” which is set in Atlanta in the ’20s.
Best euphemism winner
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Our third Book Page contest, for Best Euphemism, has a winner. “A couple Skittles short of a rainbow,” a clever variation on the many versions of “not the sharpest knife in the drawer,” etc., ad finitum. It was submitted by Matt. Congratulations, Matt. You win my copy of “How Not to Say What You Mean,” the dictionary of euphemisms.
The contests I run here seem to be somewhat popular. For the first three, I have keyed them to a specific book, and given away the book as the prize. I am now opening up the floor for other contest ideas. They have to be book-related, in some way, and I will probably keep giving books away, just because it seems appropriate.
So help me out here. What should our next Book Page contest be?
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A little “Prophet” sharing
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Everyman’s Library has brought out a new edition of “Khalil Gibran: The Collected Works,” which should prompt most people to ask: “Works? You mean Gibran wrote more than one?”
Yes, Gibran wrote a fair bit, but he is known as a one-book author for his unbelievably — and to some, inexplicably — popular book, “The Prophet.” Both the author and the book get a thorough and fascinating examination by Joan Acocella in the Jan. 7 New Yorker magazine.
“The Prophet” was published in 1923, and has sold like snow cones in Hell ever since. It’s particularly popular in prisons, Acocella writes, and I’ll bet a hefty percentage of high school and middle school students have warmed their sensitive souls in its sun-lamp wisdom over the past 80 years. I remember reading it around the age of 15, but my good friend Trance referred to Gibran as “Kellogg All-Bran” and mocked me for reading him.
Some wisdom from “The Prophet:”
“Prayer is but the expansion of yourself into the living ether.”
“Evil is good tortured by its own hunger and thirst.”
“Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love.”
“The Prophet” sounds at times like a religious book, with its echoes of Buddhism and Christianity, but isn’t really Christian or Buddhist. It also sounds a little like a self-help book, just a lot more vague than Dr. Phil. Acocella calls it “a warm, smooth, interconfessional soup that was perfect for 20th century readers, many of whom longed for the comforts of religion but did not wish to pledge allegiance to any church.” She calls Gibran a mid-wife to the New Age movement.
I re-read some chunks of “The Prophet” and, cynical old soul that I have become, found it just wretched. But there must be fans out there who will take issue with my heresy. Is anyone up for defending “The Prophet?” Has anyone profited from its wisdom?
Vote for the best euphemism
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’ve had a week of entries for our Best Euphemism Contest, if we define “euphemism” as meaning all sorts of colorful expressions. We had euphemisms, sarcasm, metaphors and various turns of phrase.
To everyone who entered, bless your hearts.
Anyway, here are a few that stuck out for me, and they cover a variety of approaches. Please vote for your favorite among the following. Remember, the winner gets my copy of “How Not To Say What You Mean: A Dictionary of Euphemisms,” by R. W. Holder. We’ll keep voting open through Friday noon, because I don’t think I’m going to be overwhelmed with votes. But you never know.
Which is the Best Euphemism?
Eclectic (meaning incomprehensible)
Temporarily unavailable (meaning We can’t be bothered, go away)
A couple Skittles short of a rainbow (meaning stupid)
She is really nice (meaning she is fat)
A few fries short of a Happy Meal (meaning stupid)
She’s a hard worker and tried hard (meaning your child is so dumb if breathing weren’t involuntary she’d suffocate)
Pursuing other opportunities (meaning fired)
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Dollar and sense
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dr. Creflo A. Dollar is signing his new book, “8 Steps to Create the Life You Want,” from 6-8 p.m. today at Wal-Mart, 6149 Old National Highway, College Park.
Dollar is a polarizing minister who preaches “propserity theology.” His supporters believe he is lifting them up, teaching them financial responsibility as well as Christianity. His detractors think he’s a con man, getting rich off of poor people.
Here’s what is billed as a “book description” on Amazon.com, which I think means it was written by the publisher:
“Confidence, peace, and abundant life — we all long for these things. In this life-changing book, author and renowned pastor Dr. Creflo A. Dollar challenges readers to stop wishing for a satisfying life. Instead, Dr. Dollar proclaims, we should be claiming the success that God promises today. We do not have to be defined by past failures or mediocrity; we must move forward into the richness available to us right now. God has designed a glorious destiny for each of us, and all we have to do is take hold of it. In order to seize our destiny, each of us must be willing to radically transform our lives. “If you don’t like the way you feel,” says Dollar, “you’ve got to change the way you think.” By taking manageable steps along the way, each of us can achieve life to the fullest — until it overflows.”
On the surface, it’s hard to take issue with those sentiments.
Dollar was in the news in November when he was one of several wealthy televangelists targeted by Sen. Chuck Grassley, whose Senate Finance Committee asked for financial records from Dollar and his church (as well as others, including Bishop Eddie Long). That’s no sign of guilt or innocence, but it sure got a lot of people’s attention.
Can we talk about Dr. Creflo Dollar, and/or his new book, in a spirited way that doesn’t get ugly? It’s worth a try. What do you think of Creflo Dollar and his approach to Christianity?
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7-Day Author Forecast for Jan. 7-13
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Author tours get pretty quiet over the holidays, but now they are starting up again, albeit slowly. So every Monday The Book Page will go back to running all the worthwhile author appearances we know about.
Monday Jan. 7
John Lane. “Circling Home.” 7:15 p.m. at the Decatur Library. Lane is a natrualist and poet writing about his home of South Carolina.
Tuesday Jan. 8
Dr. Creflo A. Dollar. “8 Steps to Create the Life You Want.” 6-8 p.m. at Wal-Mart, 6149 Old National Highway, College Park. Dollar is one of the best-known proponents of the so-called “prosperity theology.”
Wednesday Jan. 9
Crescent Dragonwagon. “The Cornbread Gospels.” 6 p.m. at Margaret Mitchell House. $10 for non-members, free for members. A “thoughtful, exuberant love song to America’s favorite breadstuff and all that goes with it,” according to the MMH’s website. I’m still stuck on the name Crescent Dragonwagon. Is that the coolest name ever?
Thursday Jan. 10
Kate Jacobs. “The Friday Night Knitting Club.” 7:15 p.m. at the Decatur Library. This debut novel is about a single mother raising a biracial daughter who finds support from her knitting club.
Saturday Jan. 12
“Make ‘08 Great.” 2 p.m. at Women’s Center Auditorium, DeKalb Medical Center, 2701 N. Decatur Rd., Decatur. This seminar, sponsored by Wordsmith Books and DeKalb Medical, brings together three Atlanta authors: Carolyn O’Neil, discussing and signing “The Dish;” Patrice Dickey, discussing and signing ” Back to the Garden;” and Darlene Wofford, discussing and signing “Edgewise.” I should also mention that O’Neil is a fellow blogger here at the AJC’s website on our Heatlhy Eating blog. Free admission but you have to register to attend, by calling 404-5010-WELL.
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Get the point? I think you do
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This one is for the husbands and the wives, or anyone who has enjoyed a long-term relationship. It’s about the game of points, as explained in the new paperback book “Points: Women Have Them, Men Need Them,”by I. Glebe.
Glebe, a pseudonym for an “ordinary guy” who’s been married seven times, has written an enjoyable tongue-in-cheek spoof of this game some couples play, sometimes subconsciously, rarely with full public acknowledgment.
As Glebe explains, there is only one basic rule: “Men Need Points. Women Do Not Need Points.” But within that rule, a lot happens.
Men get points through compliments (not fished for), gestures, gifts, flowers, public acts of affection, and, when all else fails, abject apologies. Men can also lose points, through not listening, answering questions incorrectly about how these pants look, playing too much golf, etc.
Men can spend points on things like jet skis or golf clubs, Glebe writes, but points really aren’t about jet skis. If you don’t know what points are about, you are too dumb to be helped by this blog.
Glebe also doesn’t assign actual point values to specific acts, because he is not a woman. It is the woman’s job to assign the point values.
This is all in fun, and I hope I’m presenting it that way. So is this game and book of “Points” horribly sexist and old-fashioned, like some Blondie cartoon in the Sunday paper? Or is it a theory that has some merit in relationships even in now?
Anyone care to offer, under seal of blog anonymity, their own Points stories?
Permalink | Comments (19) | Categories: News and Reviews
The Euphemism Contest
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’ve been dipping into the recent book “How Not To Say What You Mean: A Dictionary of Euphemisms,” by R.W. Holder (Oxford University Press). It’s an Anglo-American project, in that it was compiled by a Brit, but heavily influenced by American English slang.
It also makes me wonder: We think we know what a euphemism is — “the substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explict,” according to my American Heritage — but do we really agree?
Holder, for example, lists a lot of terms that I would not consider euphemisms. “Tart” for a promiscuous person, “joint” for a marijuana cigarette and to “string up” for to hang. In my book, (which admittedly is not published by Oxford University Press), those are just slang, not real euphemisms.
But then there are some doozies. “French ache” was a euphemism for syphilis in Elizabethan times, a “railroad Bible” was hobo slang for a deck of playing cards, and the “butler’s perk” is an unfinished bottle of wine.
Closer to home, many people have noticed the euphemisms for various jobs that have crept into the language, as well as the all-euphemistic code of people seeking dates: “curvy,” “athletic,” “adventurous,” etc.
Let’s start 2008 with a contest. Send in your best or favorite euphemism, and try to make it one that was not being used by stand-up comics in 1993. (As always, keep ‘em PG. I’m very aware of some rather fun euphemisms for a certain solitary act. Share them with your buddies instead.) We’ll leave nominations open for a week, then vote on our favorite. The winner gets my copy of “How Not To Say What You Mean.”
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What can I do, my dear, to make it clear?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Who uses libraries? Probably that kid with the tats and the laptop under his arm.
Fifty-three percent of Americans say they visited a library in 2007, according to a new study by the respected Pew Internet and American Life Project.
The headline that’s been going around, though — the Man Bites Dog of the report — is that the biggest users were young adults aged 18 to 30, the Gen Y people who, according to our lazy-thinking stereotypes, are way too wired to even be aware that such an old-fangled gimcracky is still around.
Among Gen Y, 62 percent saw the inside of a library this past year, compared to 32 percent of people 72 and older. Whodathunk it?
“These finding turn our thinking about libraries upside down,” said Leigh Estabrook, co-author of the report.
Or do they? About two-thirds of the people who went to a library used a computer to look up information there, according to the report. So it sounds like they’re going for the free computer access rather than to check out books.
I love books, but I haven’t set foot in a library in years. I just prefer to buy what I want to read, so I can do it more on my own schedule. Yet of all the things I support with my taxes, a strong public library system is one I’m most proud to fund.
We have some librarians who visit here, and I’m interested in hearing from them but also from everyone else.
Do you go to the library? Do you check out books or just use the computer? If you don’t go, why don’t you?
(Photo is from www.ask-a-librarian.org)
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