Days of Love...and Lack Thereof, Day 13

Gianna:


Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg


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"Suck it Prop 8" - Ruth and Idgie

[True story: Gianna and I ate dinner together tonight since she was in Houston for some sales calls.  We ordered dessert to go.  When she dropped me off at my car, I realized that my slice of Italian cream cake was still in her car as she drove off.  That crazed person honking and flashing her brights on Bissonnet at 8:34 pm tonight?  That was a woman who loves her cream cheese frosting.  It's good cake.  Anyway, I am not going to comment on Gianna's entry for today.  You can ask her about it if you want.  In fact, I dare you to fill up our Facebook page with comments!]

Liz:

When I was in college I had to take four semesters of a foreign language.  I chose German because my high school friend Jon was learning German and I like 20th Century history.  It turned out that I really hated studying  the language...perhaps because my German I and German IV professor was Turkish (German was her second language, English her third) and every time she was tired or had a cold she'd slip into Turkish.  I never knew what the hell she was saying.  One semester we were given a passage from a story to translate to English.  I spent all weekend trying to make some sense out of the thing.  There was a guy and he was sitting at a door and he couldn't go through the door and what the hell?  Anyway, the next semester, for a world literature class, I read Kafka's The Trial. 

Kafka has a place among the greats of world literature, but this is the guy who also wrote about a man transforming into a roach.  Love story?  Not so much.  On the other hand, if you really want to confound your lover, give him/her The Trial (and if you secretly hate your lover, give a copy in German).  

30 More Days Book Challenge: Day 25

Day 25: Living Author With Whom We'd Like to Have a Drink

Gianna:

I was telling my friend Stephanie about this blog question and she suggested that instead of living author you would like to have a drink with - how about a living author you would like to throw a drink at. I know, great questions.  [How are we defining "author," because Phil McGraw (allegedly) writes books and he certainly is worth the effort for criminal mischief, but it's an insult to real writers to lump him in the same group.]

Ready....Aim....

So let me answer Stephanie's excellent question first. VS Naipaul, Mr. Women-Writers-Are-Not-As-Good-As-Men. [...Yeah, this is an excellent choice.] He claims within a paragraph he can tell the author's gender. He also believes women have a narrow view of the world. I believe him to be a douche. I would throw a drink in his face, wait for it to dry and then do it again. Douche.

Now an author I would like to have a drink with, that is a longer list. Joyce Carol Oates scares me, as does Jeanette Winterson. Maybe the idea should be someone to have a drink with and learn something rather than just get shit faced with? Of course why can't it be both?

I will also take out people that aren't writers of several books; otherwise it's me, [Liz], Tina Fey, and Amy Poehler.

Fannie Flagg

One of the funniest, nicest, just all-around good time ladies that I have ever met is Fannie Flagg. I would love to spend a night with her (and you know what? Take that any way you want to .... she's got Fried Green Tomatoes money). Actually, Fannie may be my second choice.

Rick Bragg

I would love to spend a few hours sharing cocktails with Rick Bragg. I must have a thing for Southerners. [Is this why you love me?  Also, is East Texas considered "The South?"] I have met him a few times, even had a meal with him and another writer, but still....I would love to talk to him one-on-one. He is one of my favorite writers. All Over but the Shoutin' is so great, if you haven't read it (or listened to it on audio) I highly, highly recommend it. Two more memoirs, Ava's Man and The Prince of Frogtown are top rate, just excellent. There is something so sincere and down to earth about him (Am I swooning right now?), I honestly could listen to him tell stories for hours. I am most curious about his journalism. He has a collection of pieces called Somebody Told Me, which is good, but still, I would rather have it first hand ( I mean clearly I am in love with him...is this awkward for anyone?). [Me.  I'm uncomfortable.]

So that's it, a drinks threesome... me, Fannie and Rick. Look for it on video.

Liz:

Dr. Laura, you'd look fabulous with Diet Coke pooling in those face-crags.  There.  That should fulfill Stephanie's question.  That is, unless, like Dr. Phil, she's not a "writer."  In that case, and assuming that the author has to be alive (thus letting Norman Mailer off the hook), I'm winding up to launch soda at James Patterson.  Then again, Dr. Laura probably actually wrote more of her own books than J.P. ....This is what happens when you swallow down or rage.  You want to throw things at lots of people.

As for sharing drinks, let me start by stating that I am socially awkward.  Like, severely challenged in this department.  Also, I don't really drink often (other than the Diet Coke), and the idea of going out for drinks generally makes me anxious.  Basically I want to make it clear that it would take a special person to make me more excited than panicky about the prospect of drinks, and also that going to drinks with me would probably prove a chore for the selected author.  (I did once have drinks with an author named April Reynolds and she was a total bad-ass in the best ways.  I hope she's doing well.)

Two authors come to mind for cocktails.  The first is Margaret Atwood.  I'm a huge fan of her writing, and I think she's a spitfire in person, which could make it entertaining.  She's from Canada, too.  I think she'd be able to keep a conversation going without placing any obligation on me and my awkwardness.  There is a chance that I'd ask her to legally adopt me, but that wouldn't be uncomfortable for her, right?

The other writer I'd like to join for drinks is Jon Krakauer.  You know this guy has great stories.  Where else are you going to have a 50/50 chance of discussing disastrous Everest expeditions and radical polygamist cults?  He's a journalist, adventurer, and the section definition author for adventure writing.  Krakauer would be a terrific date.

Jon Krakauer--great drink date.

30 More Days Book Challenge: Day 6

Day 6: Chick Lit

Gianna:

I guess in many ways the term "chick lit" has become a dirty word – or to many it simply means a novel that tilts more toward the romantic. To that I say…uh, well maybe. I don’t read a lot of what may be considered chick lit but I have read some. I read the first Sophie Kinsella novel, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and found it to be pretty funny. I also recently read a book called My Husband’s Sweethearts by Bridget Asher, which had a great twist to the average chick lit novel. A woman’s ex-husband who she thought was the love of her life (until she realized he was cheating on her) calls her to tell her he is dying and he wants to spend his last days with her. So she gets drunk and decides "Sure, I will help take care of him in his last days but so will all these women he cheated on me with." So she begins calling all of these women and says, “Hey, you were there for the good times, how about you show up for the bad?” Well, the women actually start showing up to help care for him.

But as a favorite chick lit book – and I am only choosing this book because I really don’t think men read either of these two books (but they could, I think)--I would have to say either The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank (this is an example of a book I picked up and bought because I loved the cover, by the way) or Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg. Melissa Bank is a very good writer; I have read this one and The Wonder Spot. She is incredibly funny and dead on with dialogue. As a side note, it took Banks over a decade to write her first book. She was hit by a car while riding her bicycle and suffered post concussion syndrome, which effected her short term memory and her vocabulary. Anyway, I really do love Girls’ Guide and would easily recommend it for anyone.

Now Fried Green Tomatoes on the other hand…..this might be more of a pure Southern novel than chick lit…but you know….there is some girl action in here and that is my kind of chick lit. This is Fannie Flagg’s best book, and while Mary Louise Parker may be slinging weed these days…I will never be able to re-read this book without picturing her as Ruth to Mary Stuart Masterson’s Idgie. Of course I can’t watch the movie without seeing Kathy Bates hobbling James Caan in Misery….okay it's getting off the rails a bit. But my point is the book is a classic. Would also recommend this on audio – if you are the sort.

Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing and Fried Green Tomatoes. Those are my picks.

Liz:

I hate the expression "chick lit" and generally am of the opinion that books are not written for poultry.  However, I will acknowledge that some women tend to like a certain type of book, and that type of book tends to have a pink cover.  Or soft focus.  I hate soft focus.  Those pink-covered books tend to be love stories and they tend to deal with women's issues and relationships.  By that criteria, I too have selected two titles. 

I've previously mentioned David Nicholls's novel One Day here, and more than a year after I read it I still feel strongly that it's a great read.  It's the story of Dex and Emma told over the course of 20 years, each chapter checking in on the pair on July 15th of that year.  The novel is funny, charming, and heartbreaking, and it's soon to be a major motion picture starring Anne Hathaway and the dreamy Jim Sturgess.  I've recommended this book to several friends and they still talk to me...occasionally, anyway.

Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close is a new release; it went on sale last week.  That's a plus--you haven't read it yet.  Also, Jennifer Close works at Politics & Prose in Washington, DC, and you should love your booksellers.  I was shocked by how much I loved this book.  These linked short stories totally nail the experiences of a group of women in their 20's as friends begin to wed.  There are the weddings, and the horrible showers, and the even worse bride's maids dresses, and the humorous hell of your friend's happiest day.  I have kept a running total of the amount of money I've spent on wedding showers, wedding gifts, destination weddings, wedding attire, etc, etc, etc, over the last ten years, and some day I'm going to collect some reciprocity.  I think I need a book nerd shower and all of my friends will buy me book stuff and make me cookies and I will NOT write thank you notes.  Anyway, Girls in White Dresses is great and you should pick up a copy soon.