The Happy Booker

Sweet New Year

The New York Times dishes advice for your holiday table here. 

Where I Am Calling From

As you may have already noticed: We're back.  Dusting off the old blog and getting back into the swing of things..

September came at us with a vengeance, a flurry of back-to-school activities with kids, teaching, writing and the usual maelstrom of daily life; vacation was clearly over. 

So with Europe behind us, a new school year in front of us, we are back to business as usual, learning to pack creative school lunches for the kids (see the pros), writing for The Washington Post —also this essay on my low-cost home furnishing in August's   Washingtonian Magazine—  and attending many of the September literary events in the area:  Fall for the Book,  National  Book Festival, and a lovely PEN/Faulkner pre-gala dinner party (no, we did not attend the $400-a-seat black tie gala, where some well-heeled folks were apparently very surprised to hear strong political comments made by Terry McMillan and Amiri Baraka. A charged election season and center stage in DC, yet nobody expected political? From Baraka? Hmmm…).

Yes, like everyone else, we've been busy. But we're back and we're trying to swear off watching the Palin videos, but this one is just too good not to pass along, promise: Disney does Palin.  Enjoy! xxoo, tHB

One Click Voting

We've gotten this email 11 times in the past few days. For those left on the planet who have not seen it, here it is:

Please consider participating. PBS is running a poll asking one question: Is Palin is qualified to be VP? At the moment, "yes" is winning.

Cast your vote here.

At this point, we're beginning to think this is an ingenious way to get rightwing "YES" voters to visit the PBS/NOW page. 

Dems Big Readers

Earlier this month Ayelet Waldman sent around a note to authors asking for signed books to auction at an Obama-campaign fundraiser.  This idea garnered almost 1,000 books and launched Books4Barack. Donate $250 or more through the web site and you would receive a mystery bag of 10 books, all in a canvas tote printed with the BOOKS FOR BARACK logo.  (Several of the mystery bags will also be auctioned off during Alice Waters' September 26 Berkeley fundraiser, Vote with Your Fork, an evening of political gastronomy in support of Barack Obama, for which tickets are still available here. )

But today there is big news from Ayelet:

When the idea for books4barack first occurred to me, I hoped to raised two or three thousand dollars for Barack Obama's historic campaign. In my wildest dreams I never imagined that the figure would be close to $40,000. Thanks to all of you, this ridiculous project has been a resounding success. We've sold more baskets than we have books, a boggling feat, considering how many books are spilling out of boxes in my living room. We won't be taking anymore book bag donations, but we urge you to please consider donating anyway, even without the books. Writers, keep sending your books in. Please. We need lots more to fulfill the orders we already have.

The response had nothing to do with the idea, or with me, and everything to do with the historic candidacy of Barack Obama. All of us feel a profound sense of urgency. For the first time we can imagine voting not just against a person or a party (although, God knows, there's a lot to vote against), but for someone. For someone who demands of this country that we rise to his example. That we become our best selves.

Since our children were small, Michael and I have been telling them a story about America. We've been telling them that this complicated nation has a complicated history. That just as Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Edison, and the Wright brothers figure in its history, so do slavery, the Trail of Tears, and Korematsu v. United States. We've described our country's history as a heroic struggle for change inspired by leaders like Susan B. Anthony, Medgar Evers, and Chief Tecumseh. Because of their sacrifices, and the sacrifices of ordinary people, America left behind those ugly days, we tell our children, and today we live in a better place. We've told these stories with our fingers crossed behind our backs, because even as we celebrate progress, we think of Guantanamo Bay and Pelican Bay, and even as we celebrate change, we think of the fact that a woman still earns 77 cents to a man's dollar.

On January 21st, my family will be standing on the Mall where the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. gave the speech that inspired generations, watching Barack Obama raise his hand and take the oath of office. At that moment, the America of our myths and stories will come true. At that moment, we will uncross our fingers, raise our hands to the sky and begin another story.