Lindsayism.com

Postcards From Yo Momma Book Deal!

Huge congrats to my friends Doree Shafrir and Jessica Grose, whose site Postcards From Yo Momma is going to be a book I would actually buy even if I didn't know them. Yay!

Reading Rainbow

(I've not been around, I've been blogging on Videogum.com and boy is my everything tired! Go there, things are good there!)

There are two excellent books I've been meaning to plug (but neither needs it, they're absolutely everywhere!) I want to write long things about each of them, but I'm exhausted, so just please take my word for it (and, you know, everyone else's) as a person who's always looking for good books to read, that you can't do better than:

Rapture Ready!: Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture
Longtime genius blogger Daniel Radosh travels the country talking to Christian bands, comedians, actors, mascots, kitsch-peddlers, etc, and getting into funny scrapes along the way. The genius of this book is the way Radosh balances his own fish out of water (for lack of a less cliched term) perspective with his genuine respect and empathy for people who don't share his worldview. That said, the funniest parts of the book are when Daniel Gets Mad. (Favorite chapter: Daniel fills in as an actor in a Passion Play at a Christian theme park, and singlehandedly tries to redeem his People from centuries of misunderstanding.)
Also, they've made a really cool site with an appendix so you can see people and places from the book.

I Was Told There'd Be Cake
That fawning "Most popular publicist" profile was good press, but it only distracts from the charm of the actual book, which is funny and original and refreshingly almost totally not about dating. If you've been waiting for a book about the inner life of a woman who thinks about Things Other Than Boys And Clothes, here it is. I read it in one uninterrupted afternoon and couldn't put it down. I still maintain that Sloane never had more than two plastic ponies in her drawer (CrosleyGate '08) but if you want a real reason to be jealous of the girl, which I clearly am, (and enormously entertained by her), read this book. Also, the website is amazing.

But don't take my word for it! Look for both of these books on Best of 2008 lists in December.

Poor Old Dan and Little Ann!

Last night I tried to explain one of my favorite childhood books,  Where the Red Fern Grows (with spoilers!) to someone who had never heard of it. It's impossible to do so without sounding insane, especially if you say "crazy old mean old nasty coon" a lot, which is critical for accurate plot description, and not actually offensive in context.

Christopher McCandless vs Alexander Supertramp

AV Club: Book versus Movie: Into the Wild

God Save the Fan!

If you're reading this site, you probably already know this, but if you have anyone in your life who cares about sports, Will Leitch's new book God Save the Fan: How Preening Sportscasters, Athletes Who Speak in the Third Person, and the Occasional Convicted Quarterback Have Taken the Fun Out of Sports (And How We Can Get It Back) is the perfect gift.

(This is also a reminder to people who were already planning to buy it to buy it today!)

(Also, genius cover by Jim Cooke!)

Round Up of Some Good Media to Consume

I'm apparently too busy consuming media to blog about it, but here is some media I've consumed recently, most of it good. (I don't get anything for this.):

Good Books:

Foreskin's Lament by Shalom Auslander

The Kept Man by Jami Attenberg

The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta

Good Movies:

No End in Sight

Juno (I went in expecting to hate it - it had some annoying tics and was kind of twee, but I think it's theater-worthy.)

The Savages (But it's not really a comedy)

Bad, Bad, Very Bad Movie:

Margot at the Wedding (you're still going to see it, you'll just wish you didn't)

Sloane Crosley Really Is That Great

But if I didn't know that for a fact, I might hate her a little after this (but don't! even her quotes came out self-deprecating. which is insane considering the medium):

The Most Popular Publicist In New York

Friend: "Are you jealous? Are you jealous?"
Me: "No way! She has to be a publicist!"

Sloane's very funny book of essays, I Was Told There'd Be Cake, comes out in April. (And look, even Gawker can't really find anything actually mean to say about her!)

Bill Cosby Eats, Shoots, Leaves Out Important Comma

This is allegedly the cover of his new book:

Who Knew Judi Dench Could Act?

So busy! Here are some things I've recently consumed and recommend:

* Notes on a Scandal (the movie) Yeah, it's been out a while, but wow. I would recommend it to anyone. Genius. Also, I'm not the kind of person who usually notices this type of thing, but even on my crappy old $40 craig's list TV, the use of color in this movie is amazing.

* But Enough About Me by Jancee Dunn. Don't be turned off, as I briefly was, by the subtitle. Reading the book, you realize it was slapped on there by the publisher. It's a great summer Friday read, albeit a little tidy at the end.

* I believe Eliot Glazer said this last week, but it deserves to be said again in as many ways as possible (and this is a particularly funny one): Sex and the City ruined New York.

Craig Ferguson on Kurt Vonnegut

In his monologue last night (video - about 1/3 of the way in), Craig Ferguson told the story of the first person who introduced him to Kurt Vonnegut -- his drug dealer -- who gave him Slaughterhouse Five and said "Here, this will blow your mind."

Thanks to heartonastick (who also has a tribute to KV) for telling me about it and sending the link!

A Man Without a Successor

You know what I love? I love that the entire blogosphere today (first time using that word unironically) is a celebration of Kurt Vonnegut, with the same motifs: "Kurt Vonnegut changed my life" "I remember the teacher/person who gave me my first Kurt Vonnegut book", "Kurt Vonnegut is the reason I became a writer." These things are true of almost everyone I know (at least everyone I've talked to or read today.)

Normally when someone dies and everyone rushes to make it all about themselves it's tacky and vicariously embarrassing, but not today, not this one time with this one person. Kurt Vonnegut made himself so available to his readers (and to anyone -- he could often be found sitting on a bench on a corner near the U.N., and would chat with anyone who sat down next to him) that it's the rare fan who doesn't have a personal recollection of meeting him or having his or her letter answered (at least until late in his life, KV would punctually answer any letter that contained a self-addressed-stamped-envelope.)

In a perfect world, there would be a state funeral, flags at half-staff, Kurt Vonnegut Day, all the awards his books never won (Nobel, Pulitzer, National Book Award) awarded posthumously, and a great big oral biography called 'Kurt Vonnegut Changed My Life' (okay, there will be an oral biography, no doubt about it), but in a perfect world we wouldn't have needed him as much as we did.      

We all have the same story: Kurt Vonnegut changed our lives, and I think he would want us each to own that and to share our stories (or at least he wouldn't care). Here's one of my favorites today: Kurt is Up in Heaven Now (Matt Tobey)

Awesome Thing: John Green's Fans Make Videos

One of John Green's fans made a video using The Sims 2 based on John's first book, Looking for Alaska.

I had never seen Sims anything before, but the video is impressive. It makes me excited for the movie Looking for Alaska, which will be written and directed by Josh Schwartz (The O.C. creator). Josh sends John mix CDs of potential soundtrack songs for the movie. How cool is that?

Highly Recommended: "Mergers and Acquisitions"

I've had it on my to-do list for weeks to write a thing about how there's going to be all this hype about Dana Vachon's "Mergers and Acquisitions" and that a lot of it is going to probably make him sound like this rich preppy fuck and you're going to be like "fuck that dude!" but that you should read the book anyway because it is INDISPUTABLY hilarious (okay, nothing is indisputably hilarious, but if you don't laugh out loud at least 20 times I think there might be something wrong with you) and actually kind of really down on greedy rich people (it is satire, after all), but the hype has already begun, so despite the fact that, for instance, this "A Night Out With" Styles piece makes me nauseous (then again, they all do), M&A is NOT just a book for people who, like, think watches are important and don't read books. In fact, it's not really for those people at all because those people won't catch most of the sly subtle wit on every page (though someone is clearly marketing it to them, probably wisely.)
I happen to read books, and one of my big faults that I need to work on is my lack of sympathy for people who grew up wealthy (the "born on third base but think they hit a triple" set, and whatever, fuck that, I'm never going to work on it) and I curled up with M&A on one bleak February Saturday, and didn't put it down all day, and laughed, and wished that I could write as well as Dana, and I think you will too, whether you share my reverse-classist world view or not.
What I'm trying to say is: because it's the easiest angle for media people to go with, Dana may come across in the media as a rich preppy fuck*, but he's a rich preppy fuck who can write, and I don't think anyone could credibly argue otherwise. I am truly impressed with this book and I think it's deserving of the praise and the promise and the hype. It is a much better book than it needed to be, if that makes sense.

Mergers and Acquisitions: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

* I've met Dana several times and he's an instantly likeable, affable guy and not a fuck of any kind. 

Pessl's Year of Yes

It's Like Nothing, Really. (See "OVEREXPOSED: How Talented Writers Make Even Their Fans Start to Secretly Hate Them by Appearing in Every Possible Publication (Including Allure) to Talk About How They Wrote the Most Acclaimed Book of the Year Out of Boredom Because Their Hedge Fund Husbands Were Always Too Busy Buying Them Special Paints, I Can Do Everything, Straus, and Giroux; 2007)

Welcome Office Fans!

Since this is apparently a high-traffic day or whatever, I'd like to draw attention to two awesome things:

1. A movie: The Devil and Daniel Johnston

I sang the praises of TDADJ about a month ago, but I really can't say enough about this funny, heartbreaking, brilliant documentary. Find out all about it here.

2. A book: The Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right

Robert Lanham (author of The Hipster Handbook) gives you everything you need to know about the powerful puppeteers brainwashing our most gullible citizens (ie, most of them), in his hilarious satirical guide. His website, Evangelicalright.com is a must-daily-read for me. (When I first found out about Ted Haggard, I knew Robert was somewhere (probably Williamsburg) doing the same dance of joy I was.)

Yay!

"...Imagine an operating room at the start of a daring but well-rehearsed procedure and you will have something of the atmosphere of “An Abundance of Katherines”: every detail considered, the action unrolling with grace and inevitability. Green’s characters are quirky without having to gnaw soap or assemble a boyfriend from body parts. They’re also genuine enough to counter the sweetness in this novel, in which no one but the rampaging boar really wants to hurt anyone..."

From this weekend's RAVE review of John Green's An Abundance of Katherines, in the New York Times Book Review.

John's blog (and the formula mentioned in the review) are here.

An Abundance of Katherines!

Today's guest-post on the Jane Magazine blog: my friend John Green's comic novel, An Abundance of Katherines, comes out today, so I celebrate it and offer my theory of John's writing success.

You can buy the book here. And it's really really good! Yay!

heard melodies are SWEEEET!

Today's guest-post on the Jane Magazine blog: 4 Books Worth Reading.

(No obscure gems here, I'm basically just bragging that I've read a lot of books recently. But I do recommend them all.)

"TV Hot"

Emily interviews Marisha Pessl, author of Special Topics in Calamity Physics, over at Bookslut. (I'm not reading it yet because I'm halfway through the book, but I'm sure it's a great interview.)

Just Set it and Forget It!

My friend John Hodgman's hilarious book, The Areas of My Expertise, is now out in paperback. Here's a funny trailer for it that I found on Elizabeth's site:

(Co-starring Jonathan Coulton.)

When this book first came out in hardback I heartily endorsed it because I really really liked it. Since then, I've gotten email from people I do not know who also loved it. Just from a quick gmail search:

"I just got through reading "The Areas of My Expertise" last night. Holy shit, that book is hysterical and really well-written... Each time I read through a section, I'd think "Okay, that's my favorite part so far..." and then I'd read the next section and think "Nooo, this is my favorite part." - Carol

"John Hodgman: It's a little bit frightening how funny that guy
is. Kind of like when you see a kitten that's so cute you're just
certain it could take over the world if it wanted to. Very important
to always keep kittens like that distracted with balls of yarn. Very
important." - Jeff

If you haven't read it yet, get it here.

Originally On Jane Magazine's Blog: LaPorte, Indiana

Current Obsession: LaPorte, Indiana

 

After a post here a few weeks ago here about the new Found Magazine book, Found co-creator Jason Bitner sent me a copy of his new book, LaPorte, Indiana. I was excited, since I've been obsessed with found photos since college, when I found a box of family photos from the 1890s-1970s at a thrift store in Ybor City, Florida. Since then, I've collected about 200 (including a pendant that I wear on a necklace of a little boy from the 70's I call "Chip.") Hopefully I'll get to share some of them here during my guest blogging tenure.

 

Anyway, the story behind LaPorte, Indiana is this: a few years ago, Jason Bitner discovered a treasure trove of over 18,000 portrait proofs leftover from a portrait studio that served the citizens of LaPorte in the 50's and 60's. He went through them and chose his favorites and made them into a book.

 

When I first got the book last week I was rushing to the subway. As I walked I flipped through it and was surprised to see that aside from the foreward and Jason's brief background story in the front of the book, the rest was just the photos. It just seemed so...simple.

 

But I got on the crowded train at rush hour and found a seat and started from the beginning. Within about a minute, I was frantically searching my bag for a tissue for the tears streaming down my face. I felt exactly the way I did the first time I opened my first box of found photos - there's something extraordinary about the cumulative effect of all these faces of real people whose lives are (probably) over. The Smiths song "Cemetary Gates" started going through my head: "All those people, all those lives, where are they now? With loves, and hates and passions just like mine, they were born and then they lived and then they died."

 

I don't want to over-describe it because I think each person will take something different away from this book, but it's an experience - looking at these people's faces you see the inherent dignity of every person who has ever lived or ever will live on earth. (How's that for some heavy praise?)

 

You can see some of the photos here , but I highly recommend sitting down with the book and getting the full experience. Book report ending in 3...2...1: just don't try to read it on the subway!

I'm about to have a

I'm about to have a lot of time on my hands, as I'm staying in town for the holidays. Lately I've been finding television as undistracting as it is guilt-inducing, so I want to spend the long weekend reading. Books. I'm making a Borders run in a few hours, if anyone has suggestions, email me! Keep in mind that I like books that are funny. My favorites this year were:

The Underminer by Mike Albo with Virginia Heffernan
The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman
Home Land by Sam Lipsyte
Don't Get Too Comfortable by David Rakoff

I think I want to read some funny novels and/or memoirs, so if anyone has any recent suggestions, send 'em to me! Thanks!

The Holy Tango of Literature

Francis Heaney, author of the laugh-out-loud hilarious book, The Holy Tango of Literature, is offering it for free as a printable e-book on his site. Hopefully, people will see how brilliant it is and buy a paper copy for friends as a gift this holiday. The central question of the collection is "What if poets and playwrights wrote poems and plays with titles that are anagrams of their own names?"

I was a huge e.e. cummings fan in high school, so here's one of my favorites from the book:

nice smug me
e. e. cummings

nice smug me lived in a pretty hip town
(with up so noses snobs looking down)
saks moomba vong prada
i wore my mesclun i ate my uggs

Women and men(both wealthy and rich)
opened their mouths to gossip and bitch
as many by many we spent our bucks
scarf tie hat tux

noon by drunk and cab by home
we laughed our loves and felled our rome
(gin vodka wine vermouth)i
said my shouldnts i scorned my shoulds

Women and men(both thin and tall)
glamour vogue esquire elle
smiled my jokes and slept my myth
cindy adams liz smith

(If you buy it here, it's only $8.96 and the profits go to schools. But it's also on Amazon.)

Win The Areas of My Expertise!

Win a copy of future Daily Show guest (next Wednesday night!) John Hodgman's new VERY funny book, The Areas of my Expertise. Here's the question:

John Hodgman has recorded 700 fake hobo names in his book and on his website and some people have
taken it upon themselves to draw them.

Using only the internet, can you determine from the following sequence which is the missing "hobo name?"

291. The Chamberlain.
292. The Emperor
293. The Ritual-Master
294. ??????
295. The Scientist
296. The Gourmand
297. The Slave-Master
298. The Treasurer
299. The Scroll Keeper
300. The Ornamentalist

First correct answer in the subject line of an email wins a copy of The Areas of My Expertise.