Arlene Mosel: Tikki Tikki Tembo
A tongue twister I still remember 30 years later.
Marjorie Flack: The Story about Ping
This one is unlike any other. I have very very fond memories of my uncle reading this to us.
Kay Thompson: Eloise
Please, for the love, read this book to your kids. And do the haughty voice for the nanny. And let them, like I did, grow up until age 31 before they find out Eloise was supposed to be blonde. I mean, really, she's a brunette! Be sure to fold out the diagram of taking the elevator all over creation. It's a blessing in and of itself. And also: Dear Mom: I'm just realizing I'm a little mischevious. Apologies--but then, you let me read all that stuff!
Maurice Sendak: Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months
This guy really was a genious. I recommend the itty bitty set of four...though that Pierre one never really got me. I'm not much of a francophile.
Todd Parr: Underwear Do's and Don'ts
Ah, the unruly children. Another one for them. I mean us. I found this guy's stuff in the late 90's and it's fantastic. Check out the rest of his line...
Where the Wild Things Are
Because even unruly children must have their imaginations stoked.
Margaret Wise Brown: Goodnight Moon
I mean, it's a classic.
Virginia Lee Burton: The Little House
Seriously, this book is so sweet, and the drawings are so wonderful, I bought a copy of it when I was 30 just so I could read it on a regular basis. Note to self: go get from storage.
Dubose Heyward: The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes (Sandpiper Books)
One of the BEST.
BEST--Do you hear me? BEST.
« August 2007 | Main | December 2007 »
Oh yes, my friends - and any total strangers who happen to be stopping by - that is a 10 pound hairball recently removed from the stomach of an 18 year old complaining of weight loss, pain, and swelling in her abdomen. Gives a whole new meaning to the word "stuffing" this holiday season, now, doesn't it?
Click here if you didn't get enough and want the recipe for yourself. Please note that CNN.com is referring to this as "the hairball case"
Tomie De Paola: The Lady of Guadalupe
A kids book about my favorite lady...It's a great one!
Jim Knipfel: Ruining It for Everybody
First of all, how can you not read a book with this title? Oh, fine, if you're into substance, it's a wonderful personal rumination on realizing you've grown up, without being boring, mature, or negative.
John Falk: Hello to All That : A Memoir of War, Zoloft, and Peace
I will admit that this isn't the best writing ever, but the story is a great one, and if you are feeling like you are down in a hole where no one will ever reach you and no one will ever understand how you feel, you should pick this up as a reminder that not only are there thousands of other moles trapped in their own little holes all over the world, but some of them actually get out and flourish.
Willa Cather: Death Comes for the Archbishop (Vintage Classics)
Truly a beautiful book about the west, and about how it came to be the way it is, and how it lost a bit of what it was in the process.
Tobias Wolff: The Barracks Thief
I love almost anything this man writes, even though he has limited subject matter - pure, clean, and full of feeling - not all of it pleasant but all very real - this is a quick and rewarding read.
Augusten Burroughs: Running with Scissors: A Memoir
A little Bukowski, a little Sedaris, a lot of wry humor.
Dave King: The Ha-Ha : A Novel
In addition to this being a fantastically well-written book, Dave King is the author writers dream about. He didn't start writing until 'later in life' and this is his first novel, out to start 2005 with more good press than any debut novelist could DREAM about. More importantly, he is the most kind man, very appreciative of all who've helped him along the way, including every single bookseller he met today. He completely redeemed authors after the scum I handled earlier in the week. Thanks, Dave, for ending my week on a bright note! Check out Dave's website at http://www.davekingwriter.com/
Homer: The Odyssey (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (B&N Classics Trade Paper)
Truly a classic, better than most movies, gory, romantic, adventurous, and no boring catalogue of the ships like the Illiad.
Sarah Shun-lien Bynum: Madeleine Is Sleeping
Finalist for the National Book Award. A good escape from reality enriched by its referential interactions with other works.
David Shields: Dead Languages (Graywolf Rediscovery Series)
Well, this is a new, way too literal cover, but the book is a fantastic fictional memoir--okay, maybe it's just fiction but the author does have a lisp--of a boy trying to find his voice. It's beautifully written and funny in all the right places.
Willa Cather: My Antonia (Everyman's Library (Cloth))
You've gotta hand it to this woman--She writes like the west, and I feel constantly in a dream when I'm reading it--not always a good dream, but always an engaging one.
Roy Parvin: The Loneliest Road in America: Stories
um, do you sense a theme here? landscape, solitude, california
Charles Bukowski: You Get So Alone At Times It Just Makes Sense
Just one of his many books of poems that are so endemically him, they couldn't belong to anyone else.
Emmett Grogan: Ringolevio: A life played for keeps
Between the beats and the hippies there were Diggers (no, not the Irish ones). One of the best works on San Francisco counterculture. (As a counterpoint to this one, check out Peter Coyote's Sleeping Where I Fall)
Stephen Crane: The Red Badge of Courage (Tor Classics)
It is incredibly easy to see why this is called a classic.
Paul Beatty: The White Boy Shuffle
I laughed, I cried, it was better than Cats--more artistic and less self involved than A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which I don't think was so genius. It came earlier and is a more relevant cultural commentary.
Cormac McCarthy: All the Pretty Horses
Sooooo much better than the movie. A truly beautiful book about friendship--but it's a slow, still one, so if you can't relax, don't read it. And I don't like this picture, because I don't think books should change their titles to suit the movie...
Jack Kerouac: On the Road
Honestly, it may be a toss up between this and the Dharma Bums, but this work is more pivotal and more American (meaning US). Try to lay your hands on a recording of him reading a snippet or two before you read because once you do, you hear the music behind the words while they roll on by.
Michael Herr: Dispatches
One correspondent's view of Vietnam.
Annie Proulx: Close Range: Wyoming Stories
If you like geography, and you like to know how it affects people, or if you just like stillness and/or brutality in your fiction, read this book.
John Edgar Wideman: The Best American Short Stories 1996: Selected from U.S. and Canadian Magazines (Serial)
Home of one of my all time favorites: "Fires" by Rick Bass
Larry Dark: Prize Stories 1999 : The O. Henry Awards
"Sea Oak" by George Saunders will stick with you for days. This collection really does feature some of the best from that year, like "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri and Michael Chabon's "Son of the Wolfman".
Jhumpa Lahiri: Interpreter of Maladies
This Pulitzer Prize winning collection is the first by the Indian American female author. The stories are a great look at cross-cultural identity, and they're beautifully written.
T. C. Boyle: T. C. Boyle Stories
This is one of my favorite shorts authors. Testimony to the fact: I missed my bus stop at least 5 times on the way to work while reading this book.
