Nov
18
Librissime DFG
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Everybody was so Young by Amanda Vail is a great biography about American artist Gerald Murphy and his wife Sara; a wealthy couple ensconced in the height of visual and literary arts in 1920s Paris.
Gerald’s legacy and artistry, fascinates. Gerald’s father, Patrick Murphy bought Mark Cross company when harness-maker, Mark W. Cross, died without heirs. Also, Gerald’s foothold in the history of American Modern Art was achieved with only about a dozen canvasses throughout his artistic career.
During their lifetime, the Murphys’ were an axis to many rising stars; Hemingway, Picasso, and Fitzgerald, to name a few. Sara took on her hosting duties, assiduously. She designated social affairs as DFG, Dinner-Flowers-Gala, from a “notation made of a ship’s menu of a captain’s dinner.”
In reading Vail’s book, Sara’s nomenclature for her soirées affected me. There is an understood elevation of class inherent to a social occasion classified as “DFG.” A kind of distinction and luxury I couldn’t imagine the equivalent of in 2008 (short of an all-white party hosted by P. Diddy). That is, until I had the great pleasure of visiting librairie Librissime in Old Montreal. Read more
Aug
12
So in the last while I’ve been noticing something entirely unusual. Man lit. (More trademarking!) Lots of it. In reprints and on its way to a bookstore near you. Peculiar.
May
20
Ready. Teen Set. Go!
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I hate to give the man my hard-earned dollar, but Chapters booksellers has some crazy deals going on right now. There’s a lot of hardcover fiction for less than ten dollars. Insane!
My interest is in children’s fiction, as I’m currently reviewing and editing a middle grade manuscript I wrote a while back with the hope of one day giving my silly-funny story an audience. (Wish me luck!)
I keep reading and researching published themes and styles of the post-Harry-Potter craze of authors out there who wrote great works that went relatively unnoticed (eclipsed by the Rowling serial) and others who arrived on the scene much later; fresh voices offering entirely engaging and extremely well-written fiction.
This weekend I went on a bit of a shopping binge, and bought three books from the short-listed five I initially had set my sights on. Read more
May
14
The Phrenological Comic
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Graphic novels have now become so the norm for pop culture, that publishers and authors alike are attempting to fit themselves into different niches within the genre.
Of wider popularity as of late, has been the “graphic memoir.” Marisa Acocella Marchetto’s Cancer Vixen, and Marjane Satrapi’s,
Another newly-coined niche, which I find a little unclear as to what kinds of graphic stories it includes or excludes is, “typographic comic.” I’d like to discuss one not so obvious, and one obvious (and maybe the culprit of the new term) graphic novels that might better help clarify the terminology as well as offer a different perspective on two entirely different books dealing with private thoughts and perspectives, rendered in an almost similar (parallel might be the better word) fashion. Read more
May
12
Truth is Vanity
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I hate to admit this, (writers for writers!) but when it comes to buying books, the library acts as my middleman.
How it works is like this: I get a sample, and if I like the product, I go back for more, but this time, at a price. Since my guy doesn’t deal, I have to go to his bookie or sometimes his dealer to buy direct.
Before I buy, my sample gets shelved into a few categories. One-time reads only; cute, but bookshelf optional; want to reread again, don’t know if or when I will, therefore not necessary to own; gotta own it, even if I’ll never find the time to reread it; and drat, this book isn’t at the library and it’s not even on order!
Many purchases over the last couple of years have been made under the umbrella of “gotta own it, even if I’ll never find the time to reread it” category. However, Sloane Crosley’s, I Was Told There’d be Cake was decided by “drat, this book isn’t at the library and it’s not even on order” category despite all the attention the book has been getting. Read more
Apr
15
Magazines that are books, or books that are magazines, terrify me. The sheer size of the issues provides unnecessary pressure to read the beasts from cover-to-cover (especially when you factor in the Canadian subscription rate for an American publication) even though, magazines, typically, aren’t read in this way (from cover-to-cover).