Category Archives: Recommending

Fiction: “Taft” by Ann Patchett

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I think this was the only Patchett book I hadn’t read yet. What the hell was I waiting for? (Woman needs to write me something new!) I LOVED it. The lead character’s voice totally sucked me in. His longings and his fears and his reality… It all rang true. His tenderness and his sometimes hesitations… The atmosphere at Muddy’s. The rain. Palpable.

A great book. I think she’s one of the best writers out there right now, and in terms of female writers, she’s right up there with Pat Barker and A.L. Kennedy. Would love to see something new. Just talked to my pops, she DOES have a new book out!! “Run”. Heading to the bookstore now!!

Fiction: “Remainder” by Tom McCarthy

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Very cool and mysterious book. Really takes you a place you’re not expecting. Man severely injured in an accident he can’t even remember receives an 8 million pound settlement. The way he sets about spending the money…is not anything you could ever dream up. Wow. Intricate and extremely plotted, the general evolution of his plan was quite spell-binding. I really didn’t want to put this book down.

Ultimately I felt this was a book about control, with the main character the boy version of the girls from, say, “An Invisible Sign of My Own” or “Sharp Objects”.

Current Favorite Band: The National.

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I am so in love with this band right now, I can barely talk about it without getting choked up!

Stay out super late tonight
Picking apples, making pies
Put a little something in our lemonade
And take it with us…

The fact that I had never listened to them before Boxer, their AWESOME current album, just goes to show that no matter how much music you listen to, and how many magazines & blogs you read, and how much you think you are paying attention, there is always something GREAT that slips past your radar.

As the summer went by, I kept picking up random mentions of them everywhere and then Paul mentioned them as well, and I got home, listened to maybe three of the iTunes 35-second samples, and I was ALL IN. Just like that.

The lead singer’s voice is soooo deep and melodius and just downright BEWITCHING. You don’t even want to hear anyone else sing after that, all other voices sound so thin. The music is thick and densely layered (you know I’m not a fan of the sparse). Great lyrics. Great mood. Wow. I’m bowled over!

I had a secret meeting in the basement of my brain.

I am going to see them live in NovemberSeptember! [Doh!] and I CANNOT WAIT!!

Highly Recommended: “Boxer”

Also recommended: earlier album “Alligator”

Although a lot of the reviews are calling the new one a departure, I felt it was more of a logical progression.

You might need me more than you think you will.

Album: The White Stripes “Icky Thump”

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So in the past, I have always thought “naw, I don’t think so” when a new White Stripes album comes out. Then a few weeks after its release, I start hearing it everywhere and loving it. Then I finally buy it and it becomes completely indispensable to my listening ears. So this time, I bought it right away. Good idea — ’cause I love it! I mean I LOVE it EXCEPT I HATE “St Andrew (blah blah)”. That song just grates on my ears and in fact I believe I will DELETE it from iTunes altogether when I get home tonight so it never accidentally starts playing! Hate. Love. It’s always a fine line!
Actually I love this album so much that I think I may finally have found my new AC/DC. You know, that one band in a genre you never ever listen to but you just love that one band so much you listen to it constantly? Because THIS album to me is not rock. It’s HARD rock. Metal, almost. I mean, seriously…it rocks. It’s loud and sassy and all BEAT and GUITAR and hello is it not hard rock to you?
As close to listening to Headbanger’s ball as I will ever be, EXCEPT of course AC/DC “Back in Black” which I did in high school (and still do) listen to full-on over and over. Hello if you went to high school when I did, you young folk, there is no way you didn’t know all the words to at least three songs on this album, whether you liked it or not. And it’s certainly the only hard rock I was interested in then. (And OK, during high school, I was willing to make out to Whitesnake, but I wouldn’t listen to it otherwise.)
So there’s two recommendations for you: White Stripes “Icky Thump” = THUMBS UP. AC/DC “Back in Black” = in my all-time Top 10, no question. (Whitesnake = only during heavy petting.)

Fiction: “Freddy and Fredericka” by Mark Helprin

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I bought this book some time ago and found that I had three Helprin novels on the shelf and had yet to read anything by the man. I’m so glad I finally did as this novel was really lots of fun. Tale of two bumbling oafs in the Royal Family sent off to “conquer America” and stop embarrassing themselves. In the tradition of comedies of manners, or Tristam Shandy. While the subjects, and many of the periphery characters, are soundly mocked, there are also beautiful, poetic, descriptive passages as they make their way through America…very hard to resist a road trip after this one!

There are so many funny moments, and there is also a very tender love story as the Prince and his wife finally come to know each other. There are also a lot of really funny “Who’s on first?” moments, particularly when they meet up with politician Don Knott. “Are you x(whatever)x?” “No, I”m not.” “No, I’M Knott.”

Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Big Screen: A Mighty Heart

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Just completely beautiful and entrancing. Jolie is wonderful (and understated) as Marianne Pearl, and Marianne’s humanist message comes through loud and clear. Great performances by many unknown actors as the various Pakistani policemen and other journalists. Totally heartbreaking and gut-wrenching, particularly since you know the outcome going in / you’re just waiting for the worst.

2nd best movie I’ve seen this year. Highly recommended. But bring kleenex!!

Dad Does Movies Too.

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My dad had a few days off this week. He went to the movies.

Waitress: He liked A LOT. But as we discussed how he liked it and I kinda didn’t, everything he mentioned he liked was a very specific Keri Russell moment. So maybe he liked the film because he liked her so much (and because he was on vacation, he felt that was a contributing factor) whereas I really liked her but was ultimately disappointed that the rest of the film didn’t live up to her level.

Pirates 3: He liked it better than the bad reviews (and hello the third movie of anything is going to get slammed, no?). He loved Pirates 1 but thought Pirates 2 was only OK. He said anyone who liked Pirates 1 will like this one as well, some fun stuff. And Keith Richards is great (he is KR’s biggest fan).

Mr. Brooks: It’s a mess of a movie, there are like seven different (and pretty much unconnected) plots. But there were enough things worth seeing in it that he thinks it’s a shame that probably no one will go to it because every review will say “this thing is a mess.” He said yes that’s true BUT he really enjoyed the Kevin Costner/William Hurt conversations, among other things, and that there are enough enjoyable things that you wouldn’t regret going to it.

We were also talking about our recent DVD watches and whether or not to watch the “extras” or “commentaries” and whether or not they’re stupid.

He recommends the extras on two specific movies:

Gosford Park: commentary by the screenwriter. Completely entertaining, gives ALL KINDS of extra information, etc. Talks alot about the screenwriter’s aunt who was living during that time of changeover from British “realm” to hello welcome to the real world, etc. Very cool.

A History of Violence: commentary by director Cronenberg. Said it was so interesting and compelling that it made you want to watch the movie again right away!

Does not recommend extras on:

Goodbye and Good Luck: commentary by director Clooney [and co-author?I think?]. Said it’s totally lame and laughable and doesn’t fit the tone of the movie AT ALL and makes you forget about how serious and welldone of a movie it was.

Fiction: “An Invisible Sign of My Own” by Aimee Bender

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I really haven’t read many people Aimee Bender can be compared to. As when I read some of her short stories in 2005, her writing is not so much “fantasy” as “writing set in the normal world with fantastical elements.” This novel has less of those elements than her short stories do, yet it has the same overall feeling to me.

Mona is a numbers person. Obsessive compulsive, but not in the typical way, and perhaps beyond that. Tender and moving, sad and sometimes scary. Yet ultimately hopeful. Your heart breaks for this girl, with her worries and her need for control and her unwillingness to accept the happy… I would have happily kept reading about her long after the last page.

Best Late-Night Burrito EVER.

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On Ashland, just south of Division (less than a block), there are THREE places called La Pasadita. Apparently they are owned by three different brothers. They all have a very similar dive-y look.

You want the side of the street with two (the west side) and you want to go to the one that’s further south, and you want to order the steak burrito (and then if you’re me you want to have someone with you to split it with because it is GINORMOUS and you’ve already had way too many calories of beer before you got there anyway) and then you are ready to die and go to heaven because you’ve just had the best burrito of your life.

p.s. this was the second time this burrito has blown my mind. I had to make sure the first time wasn’t just a drunken fantasy before I recommended it. oh my buddha, it was even better the second time.