Best of 2011 Countdown: #23

Hey look, we're a week into our countdown!  23 is a lucky number, right?  It's Michael Jordan's jersey number!  Today's post is going to be awesome, I just know it.

Gianna:

Austin Chronicle Music Anthology

Edited by Austin Powell and Doug Freeman

UT Press

Gianna rocking the Glock

As many of you know, Liz and I are in a band [Oh crap.  It's going to be one of those days.  You failed me, 23]. I play an insane Glockenspiel and Liz is up front wailing on her ax. It’s an actual ax, which as it turns out is much less expensive (and easier to play) than a guitar. Right now we are primarily playing in jails, prisons, and the occasional halfway house in what seems to be a never-ending effort to find Liz a husband. We are just finishing up an extended tour of the prison system of Huntsville, TX…what can I say; Liz wants to shop local for her feller [I believe in supporting the local economy].

Anyway my point is, we are really embedded (and not to brag, but pretty well known) in the music scene here in Austin and that is why we find The Austin Chronicle Music Anthology indispensable as musicians, Texans, and book lovers.

Liz playing her ax

More than just a retrospective, it is an excellent history of the music scene as told through thirty years of reporting by the Chronicle.  Starting off with a foreword by Daniel Johnston, the book rips through names from The Butthole Surfers to Stevie Ray Vaughan, to The Gourds, Townes Van Zandt to Spoon.  The highlight for me was REM’s interview with Roky Erickson.

Complete with great photographs on nearly every page, this is a must have for the music lover in your life…or just your lover. [I would like to take this opportunity to point out, once again, that I do not date felons...or Gianna.]

Liz:

Girls in White Dresses

Jennifer Close

Knopf

Okay, so long, long ago, my former post-college roommate and supposed good friend Tracy decided that she wanted to marry her boyfriend Aaron, which was fine (though Aaron is somewhat to blame for Zorro's disciplinary issues).  Tracy, however, ignored the many, MANY overt and obnoxious statements I'd made and decided that I should be a bridesmaid in her wedding.  I should point out that I sent out running commentary on the torture inflicted upon me by this wedding, and Tracy and her family all received these.  They thought I was funny or something.  I'm not sure they fully comprehended the hell they'd asked of me.  On top of this, the maid of honor, Marnie, decided that the two feeble requests I'd made regarding the dress--no black, with sleeves--would be disregarded entirely.  I looked like a cadaver in a black satin shroud.  No alcohol can burn away this trauma.

There's nothing okay about this.

Which brings me to Girls in White Dresses.  Jennifer Close's debut collection of linked short stories perfectly captures the anxieties, social obligations, petty jealousies, drunken musings, and dear friendships that characterize--for me anyway--women in their 20's and early 30's.  These are women who are just out of college, beginning careers, still young enough to join friends at bars after work, searching for companionship.  Close nails the whole wedding ordeal, as all of your friends wed and you attend numerous showers and fork over hundreds of dollars on gifts and it's never reciprocated if you're the single one, and then the babies start coming and there are more showers and more dollars spent and conversations revolve around poop and everyone is supposed to find this adorable or some shit.  ....I might be projecting.  My point is that I loved Girls in White Dresses.  Jennifer Close is a strong writer, and on top of that she's a bookseller, so she gets a gold star from me.  And don't think that this is just a "chick book," much as I hate women being called "chicks."  This is a literary debut from a talented writer that actually was a favorite of many of the men working in the Knopf offices.  I can't wait to read what she writes next.  

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.