February 2012
10 posts
7 tags
“The Anti-Foodie Foodies: Has Food Worship Jumped...
So my notes from this meta-ish “anti-foodie foodie” event at Housing Works Tuesday night are a bit nonsensical (“fetishization of eating,” what?), but I wanted to mention panelist Tracie McMillan’s new book: The American Way of Eating. In the book, Tracie records her attempts to uncover what it takes to “eat well” in America, especially from the view of the working poor. At the panel, ...
22 tags
This Week's Readings
Continuing my tour of the literary blogosphere: Two of the friendliest and most delightful bloggers I’ve met thus far are Gabrielle Gantz and David Gutowski. They are my fave people to attend readings with, as they always know much more than I do about the book, author, publicist, editor, etc. I am constantly amazed by their extensive knowledge of the literary scene and literature in general. ...
6 tags
BookStalked: Jami Attenberg
Jami Attenberg was the first writer I met in New York. You can read all about my awkward overtures here, but I think it’s funny that years later Jami still epitomizes the hip, exciting Brooklyn writer to me. She’s hilarious (just check out her tweets), she knows everyone in the lit scene, she’s all about the social media, and she seems to strike out on plenty of adventures (when I met her...
5 tags
Susan Cain
In this day and age, extroversion is king. How else can one market oneself, network effectively, collaborate with others and become well-known in his or her field? At Greenlight Bookstore on Monday night, Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, discussed this issue with George Prochnik (In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a...
16 tags
This Week's Readings
In order to shake things up a bit, I’ve decided to start writing about other literary blogs I admire. It’s funny that almost a year ago when I started BookStalker I had so little knowledge of New York’s rich and vivrant (that’s right, I said vivrant) literary community. Not to say I’m an expert now, but I have gotten to know some cool outlets, and, dear reader, I’d like to share them with...
4 tags
BookStalked: Teddy Wayne
It’s not easy to write “funny.” (Trust me, I’ve tried.) Teddy Wayne makes it look like a breeze, from his hilarious “Unpopular Proverbs“ in McSweeney’s to his sharp debut novel, Kapitoil. The book follows Karim, a socially awkward programmer from Qatar, as he helps a firm on Wall Street prepare for Y2K. On the side, he comes up with Kapitoil, a controversial program that predicts...
3 tags
Vol. 1 Brooklyn presents Stories from the Lower...
Tonight I’ll be reading for Vol. 1 Brooklyn’s first Manhattan event. Starts at 7 pm at RAC. If you’re in the city, stop by for a drink and to say hello!
From Vol. 1 Brooklyn: The Lower East Side has been the source of some of our favorite art and music; the home to legendary music venues past and present; the site of social protests, economic upheavel, cheap pizza, and...
13 tags
This Week's Readings
Good Tuesday! Hope everyone had a delightful weekend. A good friend of mine unexpectedly came into town, which led to one of those vacationing-in-your-own-city deals. Besides going out for some fun meals (if you’re ever hankering for a vegan Philly cheesesteak, Champs has ‘em), we also partook in some culture, wandering around the Met (it’s pay-what-you-wish, which I need to be...
4 tags
BookStalked: Caryn Rose
Caryn Rose is one of those awesomely prolific Brooklynites who seem to be living about five different lives. Not only is she a published novelist, she’s also a director of product development at Billboard.com, a music writer, a photographer, AND the founder of a popular blog about….the Mets. (It’s called Metsgrrl.com, because, as she notes on the site, “I’m a cranky punk rock feminist.”)...
6 tags
Sara Levine
If you had to choose one book to model your life after, what would it be? The unnamed female protagonist in Sara Levine’s debut novel, Treasure Island!!!, shapes hers after Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic. Though the woman’s friends denigrate it as a book for children—specifically, boys—she argues that it clearly shows how everyone can be separated into two categories: those who...
January 2012
15 posts
12 tags
This Week's Readings
So, I just started watching Downton Abbey. Thought you all should know that. Props to my gif-happy friend Kate (and her more Masterpiece Theater-reluctant roomie Brenna) for the screening because after only one episode I’m completely hooked. It’s funny to me that a niche-seeming show could amass such wide appeal (I mean, see Downton Abbeyonce), but Kate made the point: if you make a...
6 tags
Full Stop: Jerk Authors
My new post for Full Stop went up on Friday. I ask if authors have a responsibility to be nice/grateful to their fans and compare nice guy Alan Heathcock with the not-so-nice—but admittedly hilarious—Maurice Sendak. Got some fascinating responses and would love to hear more. A shout-out to Brad Listi and the Other People podcast for mentioning the piece.
Pic via litreactor.com.
3 tags
BookStalked: Kamala Nair
I had the pleasure of attending one of Kamala’s first book readings last summer. She’s a friend-of-a-friend, and I was psyched to see Barnes and Noble packed to the gills to celebrate her debut novel, The Girl in the Garden. The story’s about a woman named Rakhee who must revisit her past before she can commit to getting married. As a pre-teen, Rakhee visited family in India...
6 tags
"Behind the LongReads": New York Mag's Dan P. Lee,...
A friend of mine has a bit of a thing for Adam Moss, EIC of New York Magazine. Thus I (happily) found myself at Housing Works on Wednesday night for “Behind the LongReads,” an event pairing long-form site LongReads with the magazine.
As moderator, Adam spoke with several NY contributing editors about working on pieces that have garnered awards and accolades. Wesley Yang, Jessica Pressler and...
16 tags
This Week's Readings
Hello hello. Hope everyone had a pleasant weekend. I did, right up until I fell ill, ugh. Hoping to get better soon because I have an excitingly play-heavy week: I’m seeing Richard III with Kevin Spacey at BAM on Tuesday (check out this preview, oh my lord) and on Thursday I’m seeing Relatively Speaking, three one-act comedies by Woody Allen, Ethan Coen and Elaine May. There’s so much amazing...
8 tags
The Nervous Breakdown: with Greg Olear, Rachel...
On Friday night I had the pleasure of checking out The Nervous Breakdown Literary Experience. The Nervous Breakdown is a sweet lit/culture site with essays, interviews, fiction, poetry, etc. (Founder Brad Listi also hosts a podcast called Other People where he interviews a wide range of authors. They do it all!) NBD contributor T.K. Danovich hosted the Friday event at KGB, which featured four...
4 tags
BookStalked: Melissa Febos
I first read Melissa’s work in a New York Times essay called “Look at Me, I’m Crying.” It’s a lovely piece about the ways people protect themselves, especially in the crowded streets and subways of New York. Because of the honest lyricism of her writing, I wasn’t surprised to find she’d also written a memoir—although I was surprised to learn it was about her years as a professional...
12 tags
This Week's Readings
A (depressing) Packer game, the Golden Globes, dinner with the fab Sammy Davis….this was quite the eventful three-day weekend! Heading back into the workweek, there are some exciting lit events on the horizon, which include tales of tales of rehab and (cubicle) redemption.
But first, I should mention that my fellow lit bloggers Gabrielle (The Contextual Life) and David (Largehearted Boy)...
4 tags
BookStalked: Carmela Ciuraru
Carmela’s book on pseudonymous authors has been receiving heaps of praise, and it’s easy to see why. Whether relating O. Henry’s ex-con past, Patricia Highsmith’s obsession with snails or Alice Sheldon’s flirty correspondences with women (as James Tiptree, Jr.), Carmela uncovers the good stuff and lets her own enthusiasm and interest in her topic shine through.
Read on for...
15 tags
The Moment
Ask a group that includes writers, photographers, artists and zoologists (!) about a moment in their lives that changed everything, and you’re sure to get quite a range of hilarious, haunting, and/or heartbreaking answers back.
On Monday night, The Moment’s editor Larry Smith (he’s also editor of Smith Magazine and Six-Word Memoirs) hosted a night of readings at McNally Jackson....
18 tags
This Week's Readings
Hello! Since I’m heading off to my Monday event in a few, let’s make this short and sweet:
MONDAY: Authors sharing tales about a moment that changed their lives…FOREVER. Featuring Larry Smith, Mira Ptacin, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, Matt Dojny, Karol Nielsen, Jerry Ma, A.J. Jacobs, Piper Kerman, Gillian Laub, and Alan Rabinowitz. [McNally Jackson] TUESDAY: Emily Books (rad pro-women e-book...
4 tags
Leigh Stein
Last Thursday night I stepped into Greenlight Bookstore and was surprised to see most of the audience members holding panda masks in their laps.
So Leigh Stein likes pandas. A lot. So much that she worked them into her debut novel and brought the masks for her fans to hold up as she read a panda-related section. (“This is my dream come true,” she said, viewing the audience with a...
4 tags
BookStalked: Myla Goldberg
Welcome to BookStalker’s newest feature: BookStalked! Every week or so I’ll be asking an awesome author (or bookstore owner, or reading series coordinator) to tell me about some of their fave and/or traumatic reading experiences. First up, we’ve got the magnificent MYLA GOLDBERG… Most published writers are somewhat sociable (I rarely leave a reading muttering, “Man, what a jerk”), but...
12 tags
(Re)making media: DIY, zines, & punk rock in the...
Last night’s panel at McNally Jackson brought a rock and roll vibe to the bookstore’s basement. Called “(Re)making media: DIY, zines, & punk rock in the digital age,” it featured a host of authors, journalists, ‘ziners (is that a word?) and musicians. I was happy to be able to go with my favorite librarian, Kate D., who’s an archivist at the Whitney (as well as my go-to girl for...
5 tags
This Week's Readings
HAPPY 2012! I hope everyone’s NYE was as fun as mine (it included Extreme Glass Clinking, so, you know, it was pretty epic). I can feel awesomeness in the air for this year…including a BRAND NEW blog feature I’m uber excited about that I’ll be revealing later this month. As for readings this week:
TUESDAY: Writer/behavioral scientist Winifred Gallagher will discuss her new book, uh,...
December 2011
5 posts
1 tag
A Handy BookStalking Guide to 2012
So after a quick flight I’m back in (weirdly non-snowy) Wisco, but before signing off I wanted to share my Handy BookStalking Guide to 2012, published via Full Stop Mag. Hopefully it’ll inspire you to hit up some readings next year that you may not have considered.
Happy holidays to all! Get ye to that stack of books-I’ve-been-meaning-to-read with a glass of spiked...
1 tag
7 tags
This Week's Readings
Man, officially less than two weeks until Christmas. I’m hoping that gives me enough time to finish shopping, attend a lot more festive soirees and watch the holiday movies I’m embarrassed to admit I haven’t seen (like, uh, White Christmas). Since things are getting a bit cray, I’ll be taking a bookstalking break until the New Year—though I will share my upcoming guest posts for Stuff Hipsters...
5 tags
This Week's Readings
Good Monday all. I’m a bit sleepy after a fun late-night Mary Tyler Moore screening (my friend Jennifer Armstrong is writing a biography on the surprisingly progressive 70’s show) but am still preparing to hit up a talk tonight: What Is the Future of the Independent Bookstore? Jonathan Ames (HBO’s Bored to Death), Simon Van Booy (Everything Beautiful Began After), Sarah McNally (of...
3 tags
Charles J. Shields on Kurt Vonnegut
Here’s how to get someone like Kurt Vonnegut to collaborate on a biography with you. First: Send them a letter. Charles J. Shields, author of And So it Goes: Kurt Vonnegut: a Life, explained at McNally Jackson on Wednesday night that he first reached out to Kurt with a friendly written request. He received back a large sketch-pad sheet portrait of Kurt in purple ink, with a caption below:...
November 2011
8 posts
12 tags
This Week's Readings
Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving! My time in Milwaukee was filled with great food (including beer cheese soup, mmm), beers with hometown friends and a quick trip to Chicago (which also involved…beer). A little jolting to be back in NYC, but there are some great readings coming up this week: Emily Gould, Salman Rushdie, Paul Auster, Don DeLillo, Charles Shield (who wrote the...
3 tags
Women Who Write like Men and Men Who Write like...
Check out my latest blog post for Full Stop about which writers capture male and female dialogue the most accurately. Woody Allen? Spike Lee? Shakespeare?? The answers may surprise you.
3 tags
Featured Reading
Hi all, I won’t be doing a full listings post this week, as I’m preparing to head back to Wisco for the holiday. BUT I wanted to mention the one reading I’d go to if I could—the NYC book launch for The Guys Guide to Feminism! It’s Tuesday evening at Bluestockings Books and sure to be a fun time. (I also think all the guys who go will be scoring major points with the ladies in attendance,...
3 tags
Pete's Candy Store Reading Series: Julie Klam and...
I love readings at bookstores, but recently I’ve been branching out to uncover some of the many other reading series going on in New York (usually at bars). I’ve discovered some pleasant perks that go along with most of these—a relaxed and convivial atmosphere, a chance to discover new authors and of course, that free-flowing alcohol. Last Thursday I checked out the twice-monthly series...
8 tags
This Week's Readings
Happy Monday, all! A quick update: last week, InDigest nominated my story Disease for a Pushcart Prize! That totally made my day. I know it’s a large pool, but still, cool to be a nominee. In reading news, I’m currently flying through Wuthering Heights. How have I not read this classic up until now?? It’s one of those timeless stories (like The Good Soldier) whose social intrigues could...
8 tags
Mixer Music and Reading Series (Melissa Febos,...
It’s a bit strange meeting someone in person after you’ve read their memoir. Especially when said memoir is about being a dominatrix. I was just nearing the end of Melissa Febos’s Whip Smart, a fascinating and relentlessly self-analytical book about her years in the New York dominatrix scene, when I came across her monthly Mixer Reading and Music Series. (Reason #44586 to love NY: coming...
9 tags
This Week's Readings
Back from a weekend trip to West Dover, VT. It was delightful (with these kids, how could it not be?) and it’s amazing how getting away from the city for just a few days—and enjoying vintage shopping, long chats over wine, townie bars, and the Olive Garden (yeah, I said it)—can be so rejuvenating. Not that I don’t love coming back to great readings. There are some awesome events this...
2 tags
Mindy Kaling
It’s been a rough week for Mindy Kaling. She almost didn’t make it to her only NY reading on Wednesday night: “You know, it’s just been really hard…with all this Kardashian stuff.” Cheer up, Mindy! After starring in eight seasons of The Office as Kelly Kapoor (and writing 22 of those episodes), gaining 1.5 million followers on Twitter, and now publishing her widely-anticipated and...
October 2011
8 posts
12 tags
This Week's Readings
Happy Halloween! Due to the NY whiteout on Saturday and a lingering cold, it was a pretty low-key holiday for me—I did get to dress up briefly as Florence Welch, but most of the weekend consisted of spooky movies (Halloween, Hocus Pocus) and Isaak Dinesen’s Seven Gothic Tales. Luckily there are some dark and disturbing events this week to keep the holiday rolling—readings...
4 tags
"Writing a novel takes so long": Authors in TV
My first blog post for Full Stop is up! Take a look at my musings on why Salman Rushdie, Jonathan Franzen and Karen Russell have all gone over to the dark side.
[Photo courtesy of perezhilton.com.]
3 tags
Courtney E. Smith
Hi guys! Check out my Courtney E. Smith post for SexyFeminist.com. And do browse a bit—SexyFeminist is smart, insightful, and often hilarious.
5 tags
Seth and Daniel Clowes
Seth and Daniel Clowes had a vision. A reading vision. Instead of giving a slide show, or hustling to sell their books, they would have a chat. One they might have if running into each other back at the hotel after a convention— though, as Daniel noted, this probably wouldn’t happen in front of 400+ staring fans.
Housing Works Bookstore was quite the place to be Tuesday night,...
7 tags
This Week's Readings
Good Monday. There’s quite an assortment in my top picks for the week: two music journos (Greil Marcus and Courtney E. Smith), two graphic novelists (Daniel Clowes and Seth), some well known Catch-22 enthusiasts (incl. Christopher Buckley) and a zombie-lover (Colson Whitehead). In Personal Reading news, I just finished The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides. The Virgin Suicides is one of...
4 tags
Margaret Atwood
Ever wonder what a homemade Powerpoint presentation by Margaret Atwood detailing her life would look like? Well, let me tell you. Seeing one of my all-time faves on Wednesday night (through the Center for Fiction, which is hosting its Science Fiction and Fantasy month) was a huge treat. Margaret just published the book of essays In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination, which not...
6 tags
Largehearted Lit: John Sellers, Jenna Torres and...
Whoa. This reading introduced me to a religion I hadn’t known existed! But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me start by saying that the blog Largehearted Boy is genius. Combining his love of music and literature, blogger David Gutowski provides a ton of regular features that blend the two. In Book Notes, authors create mix tapes based on their last books (and man, he has everyone, from...
21 tags
This Week's Readings
I’m a bit late on my listings this week—and I blame Murakami.
Reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle has not only become an obsessive pursuit, the likes of which I haven’t experienced since The Hunger Games (well, at least books 1 and 2)—it’s similarly a bonding experience for all who’ve gone through it. Friends, coworkers, the checkout guy at the Strand—everyone nods...
September 2011
7 posts
3 tags
Bernhard Schlink
In the early 1970’s, Bernhard Schlink, then a young research assistant, traveled to see his parents in Hamburg. At this time the terrorist left-wing RAF group was growing more powerful in West Germany, and the subject quickly arose during dinner. Bernhard’s mother told him something that would affect him for the rest of his life: “If you should ever become a terrorist, and are fleeing...
10 tags
This Week's Readings
Good Monday! There are some exciting events coming up this week, including a famous feminist ‘zine-ist, a reading series about HOW TO SURVIVE, and of course, the whirlwind that is the New Yorker Festival.
First, a quick update. In case you missed it, my first review for Full Stop is now up. I reviewed Lamb by Bonnie Nadzam, who will incidentally be reading at Book Thug Nation on...
13 tags
Brooklyn Book Fest (Joyce Carol Oates, Larry...
Oh man. Where to begin.
So, the lineup this year was pretty epic, including the likes of Jennifer Egan, Joyce Carol Oates, Myla Goldberg, John Sayles, Tea Obreht, A.M. Homes, Nicole Krauss, JSF, Seth Fried, Sam Lipsyte, Emma Straub, Jim Shepard, Karen Russell, Carmela Ciuraru, Jonathan Dee, Evan Hughes and Jhumpa Lahiri. The problem: since so many fantastic authors were reading at the same...
3 tags
Justin Torres
Despite suffering from a recent glacier-related concussion, Justin Torres seems to be doing pretty damn well. The packed house at McNally Jackson on Tuesday night attested to this. Justin has been getting a whole lotta accolades for his debut novel, We The Animals, but there was a second reason as well: as a former McNally worker, Justin was home. “This used to be my section,” Justin joked at...