Sara Fanelli

I have the bestest mommy ever. Saturday night she sent me the link to the new book by Sara Fanelli and says if I like she will get it for me. How sweet! Of course I loved the book and now it is on its way to me.

I had not heard of this lovely illustrator before and now I love her. This book sounds amazing, it is a book full of literary quotes and illustrations done by Fanelli. I cannot wait to peruse it!

Below is a picture of what my mom looks like essentially. I look exactly like my mom, and when I have long hair and I straighten it scares me to look in a mirror because I look so much like her. So this her, with a sad face, because I am not on the West Coast as much I wish that I was. (By the way, we both have chins, but it is hidden in this turtleneck, a favorite of the original Betsy)

Love The Strand

I love The Strand. I just bought my textbooks for this semester for over 50% off. How great to be able to buy used to cheap textbooks when you are taking a class on the conservation of the rainforest.

Another thing I love about The Strand is that it is located at my favorite corner, 12th St and Broadway. That corner has the greatest view of the Empire Sate Building. When I lived on 12th street, I would cross that corner every day on the way home and realize how lucky I am to live in the city.

I also bought a book about the village in the 1960's. It is called "A Freewheelin' Time" and I am really excited to read it.

Oh and fun fact? If you dig Dylan, you probably know it is quite a mystery who the girl in the picture with him is, well my calligraphy teacher is apparently really good friends with her. How crazy is that?

Penguin

So many delightful things are going on for Penguin's 70th birthday. Mugs, beach chairs, towels...But can we just take a moment to look at how cute the Penguin is just by himself (or herself, not quite sure on that one)

The Glass Castle

I finished reading this wonderful book on my flight back to NYC. The story is both shocking and spectacular. My best friend Amanda felt the same way that though at points the way their family lived their life was so horrendous, for a lack of a better word, but then at times it was so free we felt a bit envy for that type of life.

Read it and you will see.

Steve Martin

A while back I read Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin. I really enjoyed it, and included in the book is an image of Steve Martin's first business card. I think it is great. I have been trying to come up with a clever idea for my business card, something to make it memorable, and I definitely think this one is memorable.

Sorry for the poor image quality!

Brilliant

Last night I finished A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. It was wonderful.

One of my favorite quotes comes after one of the characters opens a pack of modeling clay for Christmas.

"Thank you," he says.

"Thank who?"

"I don't know. You?"

"No, not me. Jesus."

"Thank you, Jesus?"

"Yes, Toph, Jesus died for your Christmas fun."

"He did?"

I turn to Bill. Bill is staying out of it.

"He did," I say. "Beth, did he not?"

"Indeed he did. Indeed he did."

When asked...

..."Do you know of any good books?" I always respond with two right away. Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk and The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. I am an avid reader, but these two books are by far my favorites. So if you are looking a good book, or two, to curl up with this winter I would definitely pick one, or both, of these up.

Bonus, they are older books so you can probably find a used copy! I pretty much only buy used books now, good for the bank and good for the enviroment.

One More

I just wanted to share one more cover you all.

The Best of the Marx Brothers.

Beautiful Books

I came across a The Folio Society: Beautiful Illustrated Books. And it is true they are, I looooove these covers. Yum.

The Complete Prose of Woody Allen

The Diary of Nobody

RACOONS!

I love Racoons. This love began when I first read the book Rascal by Sterling North (which by the way is a great name. 

I have actually taken to re-reading books that I read growing up. The classic children's novels are actually brilliantly written. And you get a whole other dimension from reading them all grown up. I started with re-reading The Phantom Tollbooth, and then I read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and then The Secret Garden.

One of my favorite quotes comes from The Phantom Tollbooth."Anything is possible, just as long as you don't know it is impossible." That always helps me get through an intense project.

Image from FFFFOUND.

Assassination Vacation

A couple of years ago I was looking for books to read and a friend recommended Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. I bought it from the strand, but never read it because I thought why do I want to read some road trip book about history. Well I picked it up off my shelf when I finsihed Born Standing Up and I found out why my friend picked it up. It is amazing. Incredibly well written, hillarious, and very informative about our nations history. I read half the book in one day. I read it so quickly that I didn't even have time to update my What I am Reading thing on this here blog. Seriously, you should read this book.

Born Standing Up

I just finished reading Born Standing Up by Steve Martin, and absolutely loved it. I love the way he writes, and found myself laughing out loud through the entire book. I highly recommend it (I also recommend his other novels Shopgirl and the Pleasure of my Company, as well as watching L.A. Story). Now I am trying to figure out what my next read will be.

POP! ABC3D!

                                  

This is a pretty fantastic pop-up book. I am kind of in love.

You can preorder it on our friend amazon.

Kafka

I love book covers and I do judge a book by its cover (no matter what my second grade librarian said). I have never been a big fan of Kafka (or creepy bugs for that matter), but thoroughly enjoy this book cover.

Cover found on one of my new favorite sites The Book Design Review.

Not that you care...

But I forgot with my craziness of school work and family about updating "What I am currently reading". So if you care I just read Diary by Chuck Palanhniuk (by the way I just had to look up how to spell his name way too many times). It is rather interesting, you have to have patience with his books though because you never find out what is really going on until the end, but there was a really interesting concept with this book.

Now I am finally reading The Bell Jar. It has been on my list for a while.

Leatha

I am not a big fan of logology books, but I love the debossed leather (or Leatha as Stella would say) of this cover. And the WWF Panda logo just looks so adorable.

Hello Southern California

I have arrived in Los Angeles to spend some time with the family. On the flight down I finished "The Graduate" (the book not the movie) by Charles Webb. I think it was a fitting book to read on my way to LA since it takes place in Pasadena. It was fabulous, apparently Webb has written a sequel to the novel. I am torn about reading it because I don't want to spoil the book in any way, but since it was such a good read I would love to read more of his work.

Hmmm, what to do, what to do.

Tonight my family and I will be dining to Spago then heading to Disneyland in the morning.

So far, so good!

Photo from vm1757 flickr.

Hello Again

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I haven't formally said hello to you since I have gotten back from Tahoe. The trip was amazing, and there are more posts about it to come, so stay tuned. Normally I update you on what book I am reading on the side bar, but I have been through multiple books in the past week while I was on my trip, so here is a little recap incase you were wondering. 

First off I finally finish Lolita. Yay! It was a very good read.

Next off I read the "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon. This is apparently a book everyone has read but me. Okay that is a tad exaggeration, but apparently it is quite a popular book. And now I know why. I highly suggest it.

Then I read "Naked" by David Sedaris. I have been meaning to read his books for a while now, so I finally went to the strand and bought one of his books. Sadly my used copy did not come with the book jacket. This is both sad because the jacket and hardcover together are a very cool design, and also I didn't know what the book was about. Because of this it took a little bit of getting used to, but was incredibly entertaining.

Next up was "Lullaby" by Chuck Palahniuk. Another author I had been meaning to check out for quite some time. Really an interesting concept about the power of words in sound, in a world where silence seems to be hard to come by. Living (the majority of my time) in NYC I definitely crave silence, so this theme resonated with me. I am sure if you have heard of him you have heard that his books a little odd, which I now know is true, but they are also really good reads.

Sidenote: Palahniuk resides in Portland, OR, so he is also my west coast neighbor! Ballin!

Not sure what is next on my bill of books to read. I am thinking maybe "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath, but I plan to head to this amazing used bookstore in town to find some reads for my trip to LA next week. Do you have any recommendations? 

Tamara Shopshin

I have enjoyed Tamara Shopshin's witty illustration for quite some time now. Above is a selection from her book C'est le pied. You can view more of her portfolio on her site.

My Favorite Person

I found this book about a year or so ago at The Strand, and I bought it for this amazing picture on the cover. I think I am in love.