Elizabeth Goodman

Cat Power: A Good Woman

by Elizabeth Goodman
Book NineteenReview:

"Chan Marshall does not want you to read this book." When a book starts off like that, you have to force yourself to push forward to find out what could be so bad that a person is against you reading their story. Who is Cat Power? or Chan Marshall? This is one of those books that you want to put down many times, but are afraid you may miss out on some important message and are reluctant to abandon.

Having seen Cat Power in concert a few times, I felt compelled to getting to know her beyond the music. She has been a controversial character from the get go, whether it be her stage presence or addictions, she is dramatic in every sense of the word. After reading this book, I am still not sure it matters where she came from, because I do not have any idea where she is going. Besides indie music lovers, no one I know even knows or cares about her. It is sad to say, but I do not think she will ever become the star she has the potential to be. Her cult like following is all she really has going for her.

I just recently saw her open for The Pretenders and there were probably a dozen people in the audience who knew of her and cared that she was on stage. She really has a powerful voice, a great band behind her and a spooky stage presence that makes her worth seeing as an opener or main act. This book takes you behind the scenes and into the tormented, psychotic life of one young girl. A must read for music fans alike.

Goodman, the editor-at-large at Blender, interviews her family and friends such as Thurston Moore, Nick Cave, Dave Grohl, Jack White, Bill Callahan, Vincent Gallo, Karl Lagerfeld and Wong Kar-Wai, trying to paint the real Chan Marshall. Although, this is not an ordinary biography,Goodman really tries her hardest lure you in to the private life of an indie singer. The New York Times, Alan Light said it best:

It is very much to Goodman's credit that Cat Power: A Good Woman sustains interest, especially since Marshall refused to participate. Goodman thoroughly explores the central drama of Marshall's life: the "career-long argument Chan has with herself…about whether or not she wants to be up there singing in the first place"…Goodman makes a decent case—to this skeptical reader, anyway—for Cat Power's musical significance.

Lyrics to "Good Woman", which appears on the album You Are Free:

I want to be a good woman

And I want, for you to be a good man.
This is why I will be leaving
And this is why, I can’t see you no more.
I will miss your heart so tender
And I will love
This love forever

I don’t want be a bad woman
And I can’t stand to see you be a bad man
I will miss your heart so tender
And I will love
This love forever
And this is why I am leaving
And this is why I can’t see you no more
This is why I am lying when I say
That I don’t love you no more

Cause I want to be a good woman
And I want for you to be a good man

Annie Barrows

For the past few months I have been told,by multiple readers of different interests and groups,to read the same book. Since I have a running list of books to read and I barely ever read a book in the height of its popularity, this title has bee added to the list many times over. So, although this is not a new book and many of you may have read it already, here are a few links if you are interested in perusing this neat little story. Today, I decided to do a little research and along the way, I found a great little article from Thursday, July 16, 2009 on the Reading Group Guides website. Enjoy!

Top Ten Topics for Writers

Poets & Writers magazine not only offers "The Top Ten Questions Writers Ask" as a pamphlet handout, but a similar online version called Tools For Writers. Happy browsing!

Top Ten Topics for Writers Since our founding in 1970, Poets & Writers has served as an information clearinghouse of all matters related to writing. While the range of inquiries has been broad, common themes have emerged over time. Our Top Ten Topics for Writers addresses the most popular and pressing issues.

Cheeni Rao

In Hanuman's Hands

by Cheeni Rao

Is there such a thing as Junkie Lit? Cheeni Rao's memoir of his own battle with the dark side, In Hanuman's Hands, is the stereotypical monkey on your back drama. This is a tale of the endless cycle of rehab, relapse and redemption.

Even readers who have become jaded to the generic conventions of the addiction memoir…will find themselves engrossed in Rao’s spiritual journey, from the descent into a very personal hell to the slow climb back. Wherever his writing goes from here, this powerful debut is a signal to pay attention.

— PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY (STARRED REVIEW)

About the Author

Cheeni Rao is a graduate of the University of Chicago as well as the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He is a winner of the Nick Adams Award for fiction and the Olga and Paul Menn Foundation Prize for fiction, and has had many of his stories published in nationally distributed journals. His three plays, "Phone," "Broken Circle," and "Islands," were produced by The Asian Theatre Project, and he has had a screenplay optioned by a major Hollywood studio. He is the founder and owner of The Iowa Book Doctors, an editing firm that edits and ghostwrites manuscripts for publication and conducts online one-on-one instruction on the craft of writing.

(HarperCollins Publishers)

Awards & Honors

In Hanuman's Hands—Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award for Fiction, 2009

Nick Adams Award for Fiction, 1998

Olga and Paul Menn Foundation Prize for Fiction, 1998

video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTzYHwK8wlA

Book trailer for newest Pynchon novel

Inherent Vice

by Thomas Pynchon

Zachary Schomburg

The Man Suit

by Zachary Schomburg

Book Eighteen

Review:

The Man Suit, a debut from poet Zachary Schomburg, is a collection of surreal prose poems with a sprinkle of realism. He takes us through the world of doppelgangers, talking animals and dead presidents. This book is layered with a great combination of artwork and space, allowing the reader a canvas to paint, while wrapping their head around the poetry by Schomberg. You will love the oddly wild index in the back of the book and I myself found it helpful and funny at the same time. Some of the poems in this volume first appeared in Fence, tarpaulin Sky and the Canary. "Abraham Lincoln's Death Scene" first appeared as a chapbook from Horse Less Press and "The Truth About Canada" first appeared as a tinyside from Big Game Books. Check out Black Ocean for a wide variety of mediums in the vain of art and humanity.

Praise for The Man Suit:

"Zachary Schomburg's 'The Man Suit' comes to us from the past but it is a thoroughly new book. It comes to us out of the familiar and it strikes us in the face with its novelty. You will recognize your own history, the history of our nation, the influence of Mad Magazine and Benjamin Peret. And underneath it all, and what holds it all together, however unlikely, is the deep and abiding love of the little things that make up our days."--Matthew Rohrer

"It is a rare and fine thing when a poet momentarily affiliates his words and his cadences with the entirety of a world, thus freeing his poem from all burden of mediation, all transgression. In our own era, Rene Char and Pablo Neruda come most vividly to mind in this regard. With 'The Man Suit,' Zachary Schomburg, quietly but with deep conviction, begins to join their company. His book is a blessing."--Donald Revell

"Zachary Schomburg is a wildly imaginative poet who will take you many places you've never been or even dreamed of, always with grace and quirky humor. Whether you are caught in Abraham Lincoln's Death Scene or the Sea of Japan, you are certain to enjoy the original vision of this highly entertaining poet. It's a book like no other."--James Tate

Leaves of Grass

The latest example of baring all for a good long time can be seen at the Cell, where "Leaves of Grass" is being performed, as flyers promise, “without irony or clothing.”

For an hour, nine undressed men and women chant selections from Walt Whitman’s groundbreaking mid-19th-century poems.

Most of the cast members are naked at all times as they make their way through select free verse, including “Song of Myself” and “I Sing the Body Electric.” Some wear tops and bottoms that are eventually shed. One guy wears his glasses throughout.

(taken from The Daily News article entitled 'Leaves of Grass': Walt Whitman's poetry performed sans 'irony or clothing')

“Leaves of Grass,” through Aug. 29 at the Cell, 338 W. 23rd St.

Tickets: $20; http://www.brownpapertickets.com/.

Jim Beaver

Life's That Way: A Memoir

by Jim Beaver

Jim and Cecily appeared to have it all: Cecily was a successful casting director (3rd Rock from the Sun, That 70s Show); Jim was a regular on HBO’s Deadwood. Then their daughter, Maddie, was diagnosed with autism and weeks later, Cecily, a non-smoker, was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. Suddenly Jim was a widower and a single dad.

Like Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie or Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture, this memoir is about the death of a loved one – but also very much about life. Written straight from the heart and with extraordinary humor amidst great sadness, it is a story not just of travail, but also of love and generosity; unfathomable human kindness; and the wondrous gifts of life – all invaluable lessons for living.

(taken from the Life's That Way website)

Kevin Roose

The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University

by Kevin Roose

"It's midnight at Liberty University, and I'm kneeling on the floor of my dorm room, praying..."

From Booklist
Brown University student Roose didn’t think of himself as being particularly religious, yet he conceived the novel idea of enrolling at Liberty University, the school Jerry Falwell built, thereby transferring from a school “a notch or two above Sodom and Gomorrah” to the evangelical equivalent of Notre Dame or Brigham Young. His reasons were logical, though curious. To him, a semester at Liberty was like studying abroad. “Here, right in my time zone, was a culture more foreign to me than any European capital.” He tells his story entertainingly, as a matter of trying to blend in and not draw too much attention to himself. One hardened habit he had to break was cursing; he even bought a Christian self-help book to tame his tongue. Throughout his time at Liberty, he stayed level-headed, nuanced, keenly observant. He meant to find some gray in the black-and-white world of evangelicalism, and he learned a few things. His stint at Liberty hardly changed the world but did alter his way at looking at it. That’s a start. --June Sawyers

"Kevin Roose has produced a textured, intelligent, even sympathetic, account of his semester at Liberty University. He eschews caricature and the cheap shot in favor of keen observation and trenchant analysis. THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE is a book of uncommon wisdom and insight. I recommend it with enthusiasm."--The Rev. Dr. Randall Balmer, Episcopal Priest and Professor of American Religious History at Barnard College, Columbia University

"Kevin Roose is a delightful writer, and this is a humane book. Read it and I predict you'll have less paranoia, more exposure to 'the other,' and a larger dose of Roose's generous and hopeful faith."--Brian McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christian, A Generous Orthodoxy, and Everything Must Change

"Keenly observed, funny, and compassionate. Kevin Roose parachutes us into a seldom-glimpsed and little understood pocket of America, then guides us through a story of religion and country more resonant than any of us could have imagined."--Robert Kurson, New York Times bestselling author of Shadow Divers and Crashing Through

"This is a brilliant book. Absolutely brilliant. Roose's wisdom, humanity, and love kept me going. And I laughed. A lot."-- Rob Bell, founding pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church and bestselling author of Velvet Elvis and Sex God

"What happens when a Brown undergrad goes undercover at Liberty University? If he's a writer as insightful and open-minded as Kevin Roose, he ends up learning as much about himself as he does about the evangelical Christians he lives with. The Unlikely Disciple provides a funny, compassionate, and revealing look at Jerry Falwell's 'Bible Boot Camp,' and the surprisingly diverse band of true believers who make it their home."--Tom Perrotta, New York Times bestselling author of Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher

"Hallelujah for Kevin Roose. This is a remarkable book. He takes us on a fascinating, funny, nuanced journey that doesn't condescend or make glib judgments. It's just what the culture wars need. If I didn't already have kids, I'd adopt Kevin."--A.J. Jacobs, New York Times bestselling author of The Year Of Living Biblically

Reif Larsen

The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet

by Reif Larsen

*I would love to say that I understand the website that goes along with this book, but unfortunately I am completely lost. Check out the site for yourself and good luck.

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet: The Lost Images
by Reif Larsen
I initially wrote a draft of The Selected Works without any accompanying illustrations. After reaching the end, I still had that tingly feeling that usually means something is missing, and so I thought about it for awhile and realized that in order to really understand T.S., we actually need to see his drawings laid out on the page. T.S. was most comfortable in the exploding diagram or the annotation or the bitchin’ bar graph; this marginal material was where he would often let down his guard and reveal something he wouldn’t otherwise in the main text.

As soon as you include that first image in the margin, however, you've positioned yourself on a slippery slope, as suddenly there's this temptation to illustrate every single detail in the novel. Particularly with a digressive character like T.S., I found that I had to be very selective about what I wanted to show. What is not shown is as important as what is shown. In addition, many of the images in this book are not direct illustrations like might you see in other books—as in, "let me tell you about x and now here is a picture of x." Instead of a direct one-to-one correspondence, there's a satellite-like relationship between the text and the image, a kind of graphical parallelism. T.S. will talk about his suspicion of the adult male and then include a chart of male-pattern baldness, and it is through these somewhat disparate leaps between text and image, between the main story and the marginalia, that we begin to soak in T.S.'s habits of mind.

Sometimes I would include an image and then realize that I could now erase a piece of text, as the image was performing the work of that text, and often performing it in subtler ways. On page 67, for instance, there's a diagram of the patterns of cross–talk at the dinner table. Before this image came along, I had a whole elaborate explanation of T.S.'s difficulties talking to his Father at the head of the table, but this became redundant with the diagram; the visual shows it much more elegantly.

And then there were cases where I put in an image only to figure out after awhile that it just wasn't working. In honor of T.S.'s tendency to categorize everything, I've chosen five of these "lost images," each representative of a different reason for ending up on the cutting-room floor.
(taken from Amazon.com)

C.E. Morgan

All the Living: A Novel

by C. E. Morgan

*I should have made this post a month ago, upon the release of C.E. Morgan's beautifully written debut novel, All the Living. The setting is rural Kentucky in the 1980's. The story is about two lovers: Aloma, orphaned as a young child, and Orren, whose entire family has recently died in an accident. Orren takes over his family farm and asks Aloma to come live with him. Although, not at all suited for each otherm the two become one. Aloma quickly becomes unhappy on the farm, which leads her to the local church, and its young preacher.

A few great lines:
"She wondered if all men could sleep this soundly under duress... But she did not know any other men, has not seen the way they slept, and she wondered... how it would feel to have someone else sleep beside her."

"All you care about is being happy. I....I can't have that, that ain't an option."

"Strange that she could want to be here and at the church...yet feel that no matter where she [was] she would be nowhere."

"We all got schooling darlin..."

What the critics have to say:

"Enchanting... Morgan’s prose holds the rhythm of the local dialect beautifully, evoking the land, the farming lifestyle and Aloma’s awakening with stirring clarity."
— Publishers Weekly

"As I read the opening pages of All the Living, I was suddenly no longer in my study but gazing out at the leafy tobacco plants of a small Kentucky farm where a young couple are struggling to make their living, and their lives. In seemingly effortless prose, C. E. Morgan captures both the complexity and the simplicity of Orren’s relentlessly hard work and Aloma’s dangerous drift toward another man. A wonderful debut."
— Margot Livesey, author of The House on Fortune Street

Proust and Pynchon

How can a book trader admit they have never heard of Marcel Proust?

The conversation went like this...

the shopper (me): Do you have any books by Proust?

the store owner: Who?

the shopper: Marcel Proust

the store owner: Is he a philosopher?

the shopper: He's usually categorized under literature or classic literature.

the store owner: What has he written?

the shopper: Remembrance of Things Past

the store owner: I never heard of him, is he modern?

the shopper: Never mind. Do you have any books by Pynchon?

the store owner: (walking over to the science fiction section) Who?

the shopper: Thomas Pynchon

the store owner: Never heard of him either. Sorry.

the shopper: Thanks anyway.

I have been trying to downsize my library this summer and randomly frequenting various book traders in New Jersey. Believe it or not, there are only a handful and they are too picky or a rip off. Unfortunately, most store owners are also way too pretentious to be of any help or completely clueless. The above conversation is an example of the later.

Why is it that Proust and Pynchon, who are constantly mentioned in the literary world, are unknown to this store owner? Both names rolled off my tongue like Hemingway and Faulkner and I was flabbergasted when I received a "deer in the headlights" stare from this so called reader. I almost wished she were arrogant and corrected my pronunciation of Proust. A few years back a book trader did just that and I thought I was going to throw a shelf of books on him. So, my quest for the perfect book trader continues. One both educated about their product and willing to give at least a dollar credit for a hard cover trade in. Happy reading!

Boog City's 5 Days of Poetry & Music

Ugly Duckling Presse

at

Boog City's 5 Days of Poetry & Music

Sept 9-12, 2009

Friday, September 11, 7pm to 1am Boog Poet's Theater (starting at 9pm) featuring plays from Charles Bernstein, Corina Copp and Dana Ward, Kristen Kosmas, Filip Marinovich, etc. and performance by Dan Machlin (11pm) @ Sidewalk Cafe, 94 Ave. A, at E. 6th St., NYC

Saturday, Sept 12, Noon - 9pm Boog City Poetry Fest with many readers including UDP authors:Rachel Levitsky (2pm), Karen Weiser (4:45), Dana Ward (5:20) @ Unnameable Books, 600 Vanderbilt Ave, Brooklyn (btwn Prospect and St.Marks)

Sunday, Sept 13, Noon - 9pm Boog City Poetry Fest with many readers including UDP authors: Corina Copp (4:40) and Lewis Warsh (4:55) @ Unnameable Books, 600 Vanderbilt Ave, Brooklyn (btwn Prospect and St. Marks)

Poets Forum Update

"In only three years, the Poets Forum has become the poetry event of the fall, as poets (and fans of poetry) of all aesthetics celebrate and learn about what they all have in a common: a desire to give life itself a shape through language."

– Carl Phillips

New event and participants added to 2009 schedule

Discounted passes available for a limited time

The Academy of American Poets invites you to join us in New York City for the annual Poets Forum, a series of events exploring the landscape of contemporary poetry in America. This year's Poets Forum includes new talks and discussions with an array of distinguished poets, readings, publication parties, and an expanded selection of literary walking tours, led by poets, through Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Joe Pernice

"It Feels So Good When I Stop" is a companion piece to Joe Pernice's debut novel It Feels So Good When I Stop. According to Pernice,'Though the book is not explicitly about music, there are quite a few cover and fictional songs mentioned, so I thought it would be a cool idea for me to record some of those songs and release them, as a soundtrack album to the novel.''

About Joe Pernice

Joe Pernice began his recording career in the mid-90 s with the Scud Mountain Boys, in Northampton, Massachusetts. They released two records before signing to Seattle s Sub Pop in 1996 and releasing Massachusetts, along with The Early Year, a compilation of the two pre-Sub Pop recordings. In 1997, he disbanded the Scuds to form Pernice Broth ers, whose debut Overcome By Happiness was released by Sub Pop, as was Chappaquiddick Skyline, more of a Joe Pernice side project in 2000. Big Tobacco, a Joe Pernice solo record was released in Europe in 2000 (and later in the US). Later that year, Joe left Sub Pop and he and his longtime manager Joyce Linehan established Ashmont Records, based in Boston, where they have released several Pernice Brothers records: The World Won t End (2001) , Yours, Mine and Ours (2003), Nobody s Watch ing/Nobody s Listening live album and DVD (2004) Discover a Lovelier You (2005) and Live a Little (2006). Joe has also published a volume of poetry called Two Blind Pigeons and a novella for Continuum Books 33 1/3 series, Meat is Murder. His music has appeared in the movies Fever Pitch and Slaughterhouse Rules, the television shows Six Feet Under and The Gilmore Girls, and in television ads for Sherwin-Williams, Sears and Southern Comfort. A Massachusetts native, he now lives in Toronto. A new album of Pernice originals is planned for early 2010.

(taken from Amazon.com)

“There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.”

Walter Wellesley Smith said, “There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.” When we write we basically give up everything we have inside, almost to the point where we feel we are opening a vein. In order to become a writer you have to be willing to sacrifice yourself and others. Sometimes we have to reveal family secrets, other times we have to dust off our own skeletons in the closet. All in all we are putting ourselves out there and taking major risks with little rewards. So, why do we write? Is it for our own pleasure, is it to entertain others? Whatever the reason, we write because we want to and some of us because we need to. As writers, we feel we have an obligation to create and to report. And it is our responsibility to fulfill this obligation.

It is our duty to tell a story and to tell a story well. The only way to do this is to write, write and write some more. By flexing our writing muscle we are fine tuning our craft and simultaneously fulfilling our need to reveal truths. If writing was as easy as Smith says, then we would have more writers than needed. He states, “There’s nothing to writing.” I wish I believed him. Writing can be the most exhausting, grueling experience one can put themselves through. Although he does go on to state how all giving writing is, he still makes it sound so easy at first. Maybe people approach writing as if it is an easy task, but after they try it, it is much harder then they think. At times, it seems so easy and sounds so glamorous, but in reality, writing is painful.

Although, writing is a rocky mountain to climb, it is truly a rewarding experience. I really enjoy writing and especially practicing in a writing community. Writing really forces me to take a look at myself. It pushes me head first into the deep end of the reality pool. It gives me a chance to get down on the page thoughts and feelings that I could not express verbally.