The Happy Booker

Happy Booker's House of Linky Love

Just because we're chained to the desk here finishing up a stressful article about relaxing spa dates, there's no reason for you to be left with a blank page. Here's a list of hot links, fresh from the house of Booker:

Our pal Liam winds down his stint at Lizzie's place this week with his childhood memories of McCarthy. Somebody get this boy a blog!

• Jeff culls bloggers for their picks on underrated writers.  We publicly apologize to Jeff for not getting back to him in time— we're especially lame this time year, no doubt about it. If you're asking us, and Jeff did, we would certainly add this book and its author to the list.

• Ed has his 2005 Best Books list here, while TEV posts his notable books one day at a time.  And finally, Jimmy Beck makes us laugh with his best of the Best Of…

• For those in NYC tomorrow: it'sMacAdam/Cage Night at The Happy Ending reading series. Authors on tap: Kristen den Hartog, Jack Pendarvis, and Victoria Vinton. This is the last Happy Ending event of the year, so don't miss it.

More linky love tomorrow…

Crucial Rooster

The year of the rooster is drawing to a close, and along with it comes our last Crucial Rooster column for '05. Reb Livingston, our funny, smart, neighborhood poet, has galvanized this Friday space into a must read for many of our fiction-centric friends, the ones who so often wear blinders when it comes to poetry. Reb has cajoled, taunted, flaunted and seduced us into caring about well-designed chapbooks, little known magazines, and one very kick ass online poetry journal. She has broadened our worldview and challenged our old-timey notions of meter and synecdoche and—god forbid!— a certain Pulitzer prize winning poet. We thank Reb Livingston. We can't pay her. But we can thank her quite publicly and unabashedly. Plus, we're happy to put in a good word with the big guy to go easy on the coal this year— she wasn't really that naughty, was she?

Crucial Rooster: Poetry Column by Reb Livingston

Christmas and Hanukah are only 16 days away, Kwanza 17 days and all this means you have to get your holiday shopping (online, of course) done by  early next week.  Finding that unique and thoughtful gift becomes more difficult each year.  It’s those damn chain stores, I tell you.  Oh, I do my fair share of shopping at them.  Where else am I going to find such great prices on toilet paper, shampoo and Mr. Rooster’s tube socks?  But wouldn’t you like to give a beautiful and interesting gift to your loved ones?  Something they might (gasp) treasure?  Sure, it’s riskier than that Banana Republic gift card and we all have that relative who really just wants a bottle of vodka.  But gift giving is about the thought, not becoming everyone else’s personal shopper for a day.  Every year relatives send me their “What I Want Lists” and demand the same in return.  Sure, this means I no longer get teddy bear sweaters and electric pencil sharpeners and if I buy my dad those road flares, I won’t have to hear him grumble “What the hell am I supposed to do with this?” but but but . . .

Working off a list is uninspired and there’s still a chance for misinterpretation.  Two years ago I asked Mr. Rooster for tanzanite earrings, I took him to a store and showed him the purple stones and reminded him than I only wear platinum, white gold or silver.  So what does he get me?  A tourmaline ring, set in yellow gold with two hideous sphinx heads.  I wish I was making this up.  When I opened the gift I cried.  Not only did he get me a horrific gift, but our special holiday was marred by the reminder that he never listens to a thing I say.  Then he had the nerve to insist I said TOURMALINE.  A triple whammy.  The dashed expectations, the . . . wait a minute, why did I have any expectations in the first place?  Because I basically contracted him to be my personal shopper, something I would never have done in any other situation other than a last minute grocery run.  Mr. Rooster is SO unqualified for the job.  Aren’t most of us unqualified?

How I yearn for the days of special gifts.  I know you do too.  Let me guide you towards some simple, inexpensive and marvelous poetry-ish gifts that I promise will surprise (and most likely delight) any civilized individual.  Give the gift nobody expects.  None of these gifts should break your bank, so if you’ll be banished to the sofa for not buying off the list, consider these as something a little extra – something to break up the monotony of instructed present-time.  Also, these are perfect ideas for stocking, “Secret Santas” and “Grab Bags.” 

CALENDAR

Everybody needs a calendar.  Sure, you could go to your local chain bookstore and agonize over chubby cherubs or kittens with yarn or the hilarious Dilbert and when Grandma forgets who you are when she’s revising her will on her deathbed. . .  but if she received The Most Intriguing (and Sensual) Male Poets 2006 ($19.99) you might just earn the status of stand-out grandchild and reap the spoils.  Beefcake poets?  You betcha!  Some are legitimately hot, for real.  The brains behind this brawny outfit are three lovely poets, Didi Menendez, Jenni Russell and Pris Campell.  All profits from this calendar will go CFIDS (Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome) research. 

STATIONARY

OK, this is totally demented, that is why I love it.  Poet, Jill Alexander Essbaum, recently learned how to cook chickens.  Chicken was What’s for Dinner? at the Essbaum household on a regular basis.  Being a creative type, naturally Jill started dressing the chickens in costumes.  Then she started building props and sets.  She took pictures.  Her habit was getting costly and time consuming and hence Emily Chickenson ($2 - $16.50) was hatched.  All the chickens used in these photographs were eventually eaten.

Jill also has a new book of demented sonnets called Oh, Forbidden (Pecan Grove, $9) – a mix of the “sacred and profane,” this slim collection will spice up any Christmas Eve:

“We did it / in the master bath, pressed against the sink. / We were quick, but very quiet.  You came / like Christ, as a thief in the night; I split / into halves, a crimson sweet.  You polished the wink / of my wet, wistful eye.  Then you went home.” 

CHAPBOOKS

Yes, I’m totally hot for elegantly designed chapbooks.  I never stop talking about them, do I?  They’re so intimate, such labors of love and so rare.  Chapbook print runs are usually anywhere from 25 to 300 copies.  These aren’t Cabbage Patch Dolls or Xboxes.  Nobody is getting trampled or punched in the face for the last one.  Isn’t that a good thing?  While everyone is fighting over and overpaying for crap, you get your choice of the good stuff.

Chapbook darling, Joseph Massey, has done it again with his latest chapbook, Bramble a book of lunes (Hot Whiskey Press, $6.50).  The little birdies have informed me that there aren’t too many of these left, destining it to become a hot collectable in the not too distant future.  If you know someone who’s into haiku, they’ll love the lune form (usually three lines with five syllables, three syllables, and finishing with five syllables).

   

    crows cackle over
an engine
            starting and stopping

Or give two poets for the price of one. Coltsfoot Insularity (Fewer & Further Press, $7) is a collaboration between poets Aaron Tieger and Jess Mynes.   Truly an original purchase, each cover is handcrafted and unique containing different colors, stamp impressions, and design.  These poems are funny and surprisingly tender.

What a sight
it must be
I’ve never
been, you?  I
like anise
only OK
too much Orzo
once spilled
& mopped
the floor with
my red wool
pants while I
was wearing
them killed
it for me.

That reminds me, my red wool pants are still at the cleaners.  Better go pick them up.  I need something to wear at the holiday parties.  Have a wonderful holiday and remember, be creative with your gift giving! 

If I Only Had an iPod...

It's been well over a month since we've run our favorite feature— If I only had an iPod. Thankfully, author Michelle Herman has stopped by to help us get our groove back. Herman is the author of the newly released short novel, Dog, and as well as the poignant memoir, The Middle of Everything. Two books in one year, plus she still has time to share her musical selections with us. Wow. Color us impressed. And we think you will be too, after you get to know her. So settle back and take a listen, you won't be sorry you stopped by ... (Did we also mention she was a stylish dresser?)

iPod Playlist, by Michelle Herman

Telling you what to listen to is right up my alley, because although I somehow ended up a writer, what I love most in the world is songs, and what I love second-most is introducing other people to the songs I’m most wildly in love with.  My memoir,  The Middle of Everything, is full of references to songs I love—from “Superstar” (don’t think Karen Carpenter—not that there’s anything wrong with that version—or Ruben Studdard; think Leon Russell and Bonnie Bramlett, who wrote it—Bonnie of the late, great Delaney and Bonnie  [and who, by the way, some people blame for the breakup of another late, even greater group, Blind Faith ], who finally released her own version of “Superstar” in 2002 on I’m Still the Same)—to “It Might As Well Be Spring,” the Dead’s “Box of Rain” to Belle and Sebastian’s “The State I Am In.”  Actually, “Box of Rain” and “The State I Am In” didn’t end up getting named—just the bands—because eventually the song name-checking seemed to be just too much, even to me.  The other thing that got to be too much was all the lyrics I quoted in the original version of the manuscript. In the end, given what the permissions to reprint them cost, and the fact that half the rights-holders never bothered to respond to my question about what it would cost, I ended up paraphrasing almost all of them (so that the Beatles’ “Love You To” was just described as that song with “George Harrison’s mournful lyrics about how quickly time passes” and out went the two lines I’d planned to use from it, and “Close To You” (the Carpenters again!) is mentioned as being about “birds suddenly appearing and stars falling out of the sky every time my beloved was near.”

But this isn’t what I meant to talk about. I meant to tell you what songs I would love most to put on your ipod.

Start with  “The State I Am In,” just because it’s so beautiful.  Then at least two Laura Nyro songs—because they are some of the most wonderful songs anyone has ever made; I’d go for “Save the Country” and “Timer” (but it’s hard to pass up “Sweet Lovin’ Baby” and “Time and Love” (hell, just download all of  New York Tendaberry and Eli and the Thirteenth Confession if you’ve got the space.  If you don’t know Laura Nyro—and the young folks just don’t seem to, which breaks my heart—you’ll fall in love, I promise).

Then Janis Joplin’s “Try” and “I Need A Man to Love.”  Lucinda Williams’ “Passionate Kisses” from her first album, to cheer you up after Janis. From Brian Wilson’s Smile, “Heroes and Villains.”  The Magnetic Fields’  “All I Want to Know.”  The Beatles doing “Besame Mucho.”  Elvis Costello’s “She,” because I’m getting kind of sappy and sweet-minded now.  And maybe his version of “The Very Thought of You” for good measure.  Then, to perk you back up, his “What’s So Funny ‘bout Peace Love and Understanding?”

And while you’re thinking about words, you’ll want Tom Tom Club’s “Wordy Rappinghood” with its typewriter clacking, and “Genius of Love.”  And speaking of genius, although you probably have it in your ipod already, Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Goin’ On,” one of my very favorite songs ever, which I can listen to over and over and over and never get tired of.  And Sam & Dave’s “Hold On! I’m A’Comin,” about which I can only say ditto.  Finally, Nelly Furtado’s  “I’m Like A Bird,” which has become one of my favorite songs, just when I thought I had no room left in my heart for favorites.

And if you’d like to round things off with something that is pure glorious fun, that will make you laugh and dance at the same time, even if you’re fifty years old and walking down the gray flat streets of Columbus, Ohio where you can’t figure out how you could possibly have ended up living, and how can you possibly be FIFTY when you are still just a girl who loves pop music beyond all reason, add this one: Kid Creole and the Coconuts', “Don’t Take My Coconuts.”

Link-O-Rama

There's been a lot of email and blog-worthy news piling up around chez Booker these days. It's time to share the wealth:

• Dan Wickett forwards us an open letter on behalf of the Archives Division of the New Orleans Public Library—which is still below sea level. Find out how you can help the Library move its records, some dating back to the 18th century, out of its basement. Read the letter here.

When he's not busy forwarding on important email messages, Dan Wickett can be found picking his favorite books of the year over at Max's place, or sitting down having a lovely conversation with literary journal editor Danna Sides on his own Emerging Writers Blog. Dan was also kind enough to lead us to Pages alliterative appreciation of the Litblog Co-op. Thanks again to Dan for making our blogging life a little bit easier. (In our note to Santa this year we've decided to ask for a little of the Wickett mojo or go-go, or whatever it is that makes Mr. W. so damn efficient with his time!)

• More good news for Coffee House Press: Gilbert Sorrentino is the  2005 recipient of the Lannan Literary Lifetime Achievement Award. Sorrentino picked up the $200,000 prize for his contribution to "English-language Literature."  Coffee House has brought out Sorrentino's three most recent books of fiction— Little Casino, The Moon in Its Flight, and Lunar Follies—and  lets us know there is another novel forthcoming.

• Show #15 of The Bat Segundo Show is now up. The literary podcast features an interview with the venerable sci-fi author Octavia Butler. (Remind us to tell you about the night we heard Octavia read with Michael Chabon). Mr. Segundo may be AWOL but the main Segundo site can be found here. And remember kids, you don't have to have an iPod to listen in, just click on the bat and all will be revealed.

• The LA Times picks its favorite books for '05. Not "best books," it states, but favorites, 20 titles in both fiction and nonfiction that are sure to start some conversation.  The Times also asks readers to add a few choices of their own.

• Finally, if you're in NYC tomorrow night, there will be a  reading and discussion with Hazel Rowley, author of Tete a Tete: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre at Labyrinth Books. Check their site for more info here.

Snow Day

Yes, we know. It's been a while. We missed you. And judging by our full email bag, you missed us too.

Thanks for the many inquiries and notes. While we're almost never too busy to blog, last week just kicked our sorry blogging ass. There were all those daily spa visits in the name of journalism—we love journalism!— and kid's school projects (3-D Rosetta Stone, anyone?) and something called "daily life" that completely subsumed us. Go figure.

But now we're back with a vengeance. We've got a few Friend of the Happy Booker Reports for you, some way cool iPod programming, more literary musing on Chapters bookstore, and a wild set of link-o-ramas in the pipeline.  Here's a little something on an exciting NYC event that we were sorry to miss, provided by the awesome Todd Zuniga. And there's plenty more where this came from—so stay tuned!

Friend of the Happy Booker Report: Opium Magazine Reading by Todd Zuniga

While our events have been rarely photographed outside of the .print #1 launch party, the OpiumMagazine .reading Series #8 at Happy Ending in NYC was filled with an outstanding, marvelous looking crowd worthy of a pro-photog.  Standing room only, it was a great turnout, bustling with literary energy.

The night kicked off with a letter written from a man in Califonia state prison—he'd seen the reading listed in the New Yorker.  His name was Turbo, and he was hoping to be added to the site.  We're aiming to get his letter scanned and up, post-haste.

After the letter, a short film by John Leary, featuring Kung-Fu Kittens.  Hilarity.

Then Opium's technical director (and leader of Opium's .live movement),  C. J. Kershner took the stage, wearing a oxblood ascot.  Dreamy.  He read his story from .print #1, and captivated the crowd with his verbal flair and orgasm-inducing neckwear.

Next up was the dulcet melody of Michelle Orange, who read from her 12-part McSweeney's story.  No special neckwear, but a careful reading that twisted and surprised the wowed crowd.

The final reader was humorist/hilarioso, Tom Lombardi. A last-minute fill-in, Tom used a laugh track and cricket chirps to support a handful of hilarious tales. The crowd was in stitches.

And the conclusion, a short film by Jonathan Hayes based on Donald Barthelme's "The School."  One of the greatest short films I've ever seen, it was beautiful, heartbreaking and left everyone gob-smacked.

After, people drank, and drank and…  We can't wait for Dec. 15, for the next one.