» Literature

It’s In The Bag … My Bookbag That Is.

Carolann DeMatos — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 06:07:12 +0000

There is nothing more exciting for me ...

than a large stack of pristine novels.

That's right, I am that much of a dork.

'Made in the USA' by Billie Letts
'Anthropology of an American Girl' by Hilary Thayer Hamann
'Parisians' by Graham Robb
'Roses' by Leila Meacham
'Uncharted Territory' by Tori Spelling
'Lunch in Paris' by Elizabeth Bard
'Classy' by Derek Blasberg
'What I Did for Love' by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

A combination of trashy reads versus treasures;

You can decide which one is which ...

Lit Review: ‘I Was Told There’d Be Cake’ & ‘How Did You Get This Number?’

Carolann DeMatos — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:01:04 +0000

Over lunch several weeks ago, my girlfriend KG exclaimed 'Guess who I am going to meet tonight?' To which I replied, 'Who?' {...inner monologue screaming Madonna, Britney, Leonard Nimoy} 'Sloane Crosley,' KG replied excitedly. 'Ohhhh,' I answered vacantly. {No idea, folks. No idea.} But turns out this lovely had written a few books - one about cake and one with a bear on the cover. As KG expressed her love for Sloane's wit and honesty, I realized here was an author that should make her way to my list. Lo and behold, a few days later I had both books from KG ... 'signed, sealed, delivered ... I'm yours!' I decided to read her second novel first because, truth be told, I normally like to read things backwards, i.e. magazines, contracts, etc. I do not know why and it is not very beneficial, but alas, I do it. Well, dear friends, I was hooked from the dedication page alone:

'To my parents. For Everything.* *Everything except the two week period in 1995 directly following the time you went to Ohio for a wedding and I threw a party in the house, which is the most normal thing a teenage American can do, aside from lie about it, which I also did, and Mom eyed me suspiciously for days, morphing into a one-woman Scotland Yard, marching into my bedroom with a fistful of lint from the dryer to demonstrate that I had mysteriously washed all the towels, and then she waited until we were in a nice restaurant to scream, "Someone vomited on my couch, I know it!" and Dad took away my automotive privileges straight through college so that I spent the subsequent four years likening you both to Stasi foot soldiers, confined as I was to a campus-on-the-hill when I could have been learning to play poker at the casinos down the road and making bad decisions at townie bars. I think we can all agree you overreacted. For everything except that, I am profoundly grateful. I have only the greatest affection for you now. Also: I vomited on the couch.' {HDYGTN}

Nevermind the fact that her initial sentence is 157 words long - that in and of itself is something I was truly impressed with - but she also talks like I think. Some of her stories are better than others, but overall the stories are quick, friendly reads and she has a couple of killer one-liners:

'Uniqueness is wasted on youth. Like a fine wine or a solid flossing habit, you'll be grateful for it when you are older.' {IWTTBC}

'The lies we construct to defend ourselves from humiliation are the strongest, resfusing to be torn down.' {HDYGTN}

I was taken in by her honesty, conversational writing style, and to tell the truth - her learning disability because I have never heard of it before. I loved her stories about her childhood pets, her roommate stories, and the feelings she had before giving notice for leaving her first job. I do not want to go too in depth and ruin the read, {I know some of you are going to rush out to buy/read after my glowing recommendation} but if you did/do happen to read this I would love to discuss! What do you think of Sloane's recollections?

WONDERPUG RATING:

‘B*tch: a reflection of people’s lack of creativity & inability to acknowledge & embrace a powerful woman; a woman who won’t comply’

Carolann DeMatos — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 17:14:50 +0000

Have you happened to read Kelly Cutrone's new book ...

'If You Have to Cry, Go Outside'?

Because I just finished it.

The premise was all about personal experiences,

funny anecdotes, embarrassing mistakes

and a call for female empowerment.

Some of it made me giggle ... {see below}

Empowered women can't wear wife-beaters? Guess I'm out. Lol.

However, some of the book really rang true to me.

And as corny as it sounds gave me hope, strength and ideas.

Maybe because I am a young women looking for strong mentors.

Or because I feel powerless or scared at one moment or other,

nearly every day of my life.

Cutrone urges women to:

"Gather up your courage like an armful of free clothes."

To accept that:

"... some people really hate women in power ..."

And reminds women that in order to succeed:

"... we don't have to stab each other in the back, we don't have to take things personally and breakdown when we are criticized, and we don't have to advance at each other's expense."

She speaks of hard work, spirtiualism, fear,

sexism, powerlessness, love, motherhood,

email, branding, reality, womanhood,

and fighting for what you deserve out of life.

I don't know if I buy everything she is selling,

but she sure did give me some food for thought,

some determination to dream,

and courage to remember:

"Sometimes if you don't eat others, they will eat you."

If you decide to read this book,

I would love to hear from you,

male or female, feminist or traditionalist,

'lowly' assistant or 'big-time' boss ...

I am here.

–––

{PS>Dear Kelly Cutrone, I think this book would have been even more terrific with pictures! Next print edition you should add pics. Or release a scrapbook. Thanks a bunch. C}

WONDERPUG RATING:

Jezebel’s 75 Books to Read

Carolann DeMatos — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 09:31:07 +0000

I am always always always looking for new books to read.

So, when Erica shared this list with me I was ALL about it.

The Lottery (and Other Stories), Shirley Jackson

To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf

The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton

White Teeth, Zadie Smith

The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende

Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion

Excellent Women, Barbara Pym

The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath

Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys

The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri

Beloved, Toni Morrison

Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert

Like Life, Lorrie Moore

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

The Delta of Venus, Anais Nin

A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley

A Good Man Is Hard To Find (and Other Stories), Flannery O'Connor

The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx

You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down, Alice Walker

Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

Fear of Flying, Erica Jong

Earthly Paradise, Colette

Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt

Property, Valerie Martin

Middlemarch, George Eliot

Annie John, Jamaica Kincaid

The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir

Runaway, Alice Munro

The Heart is A Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers

The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston

Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë

You Must Remember This, Joyce Carol Oates

Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

Bad Behavior, Mary Gaitskill

The Liars' Club, Mary Karr

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith

And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie

Bastard out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison

The Secret History, Donna Tartt

The Little Disturbances of Man, Grace Paley

The Portable Dorothy Parker, Dorothy Parker

The Group, Mary McCarthy

Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi

The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing

The Diary of Anne Frank, Anne Frank

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

Against Interpretation, Susan Sontag

In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez

The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck

Fun Home, Alison Bechdel

Three Junes, Julia Glass

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft

Sophie's Choice, William Styron

Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann

Love in a Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford

Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell

The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin

The Red Tent, Anita Diamant

The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera

The Face of War, Martha Gellhorn

My Antonia, Willa Cather

Love In The Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Harsh Voice, Rebecca West

Spending, Mary Gordon

The Lover, Marguerite Duras

The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

Tell Me a Riddle, Tillie Olsen

Nightwood, Djuna Barnes

Three Lives, Gertrude Stein

Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons

I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith

Possession, A.S. Byatt

___________

PS> Pink-shaded ones are ones I have already read ...

& from the look of things I need to get to the library!

Some of these I may not agree with ...

Do YOU have any others to add?

{Via: Jezebel}

My Next 6 Books {wishlist}

Carolann DeMatos — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 11:30:16 +0000

It is time to update my library & these lovelies are calling out to be added. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe The Victoria Vanishes by Christopher Fowler The Crowning Glory of Cala Lily Ponder by Rebecca Wells Splendor by Anna Godbersen The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen

Lit Review: ‘The Opposite of Love’ by Julie Buxbaum

Carolann DeMatos — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:34:00 +0000

Have you ever ridden the PATH train? I do. Everyday. And one never knows what you are going to see.

Well, if you were on the train today around 8am, you would have seen me reduced to tears over this book! In public ... full on crying over a book. I picked up this book because the main character synopsis on the book jacket reminded me of a friend {and I will not tell you which one to protect her innocence.} I picked this book up because I didn't have anything left to read and it was on sale at B&N. I didn't actually think it would be this good. The writing, the story, the characters - all of it was so real. I felt like I knew Emily, that I could almost sink into her mindset, that I could be her best friend, that I was feeling as she was feeling. I got lost in the story and I became so worried to see the outcome - so much so that I actually leafed ahead {which is something, to be truthful, I do a lot but usually because I get bored with the story not because I was actually stressed about the imaginary characters - like in this case}. And throughout I laughed:

"When she says she wants a fag, does Bridget mean she wants to have sex with a gay person?" Maryann, a tiny raisin of a woman with a red smear of lipstick, asks the rest of my octogenarian book club. "Because I think that's a very offensive term. My grandson is gay."

"I didn't know that. We should set him up with my Walter. He just came out of the closet this last June," Shirley says, and grabs a napkin to write down her grandson's telephone number. Shirley is more prune than raisin, wearing her weight squarely in her middle. It looks like her body wanted to ...

And I cried, but a happy and settled cry:

"I brought you a present, Grandpa Jack," I say, when the nurses stop coming in to check on him, like he has died before he has died. I reach into my bag and take out my tiara. My grandfather smiles at me and motions for me to put it on his head. I balance the tiara on his white tufts of hair, and he transforms into an infant prince. Shriveled, regal, and unafraid.

"Thanks. Kid. Love. It." Each word feels like a victory.

Without asking I take his newsboy cap that has been sitting on the window ledge and put it on my head. It is mine now. I don't need something tangible like this to hold on to Grandpa Jack, but I allow myself the additional comfort nonetheless...

It was just a nice, warm, real and refreshingly upretentious read. And since Julie lives in NYC, I hope to run into her in the streets one day, and then we can share a cup of coffee and she can sign my book. Because she made my morning. And a woman who can feel and write like this is someone I would choose as a friend.

WONDERPUG RATING: