WVFC Poetry Friday- David Tucker

David Tucker is the deputy managing editor at the Newark Star-Ledger, in Newark, N.J, where he was part of the Ledger team that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News. Previously, he worked as managing editor at United Press International, and served as sports editor and later city editor for The Philadelphia Inquirer. He brings a journalist’s sensibility for clear language and visual immediacy to his poetry as well. Two years ago he told the American Journalism Review, when asked about his poems: “You can’t always sit down and dictate to yourself where you’re going with poetry. Journalism is about what the facts tell us. Poetry’s about what the facts don’t tell us.”
Read the poem and see a video at Women’s Voices For Change.

And yes.  I engineered this installment of Poetry Friday.  Largely because I’d gotten to know David through the Star-Ledger, and discovered his poetry, which is scorching excellent.  So very happy to find a poem of his that would work for WVFC!

Pile of Books

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Booking Through Thursday: Celebrities

The question for this week has got to be inspired by recent events: “Do you read celebrity memoirs? Which ones have you read or do you want to read? Which nonexistent celebrity memoirs would you like to see?”

I’ve read and re-read Roald Dahl’s “Boy,” his memoir of growing up. It’s easy to see where he got so many of his ideas.  I should read some of his later ones, though. The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington isn’t a memoir, but looks fascinating as well.

The thing I most remember about reading Michael Caine’s autobiography
was a story of him getting drunk with John Lennon.

I need to reread Mark Twain’s autobiography.  It was astounding.  And funny.

Also- Beverly Cleary’s A Girl From Yamhill is due a re-read.   I didn’t know it continued: Time to grab My Own Two Feet: A Memoir from the library.

I wish Mick Jagger would write his memoirs.  Or Charlie Watts.  I grew up loving the Rolling Stones, and always wondered.

I also love memoirs of ordinary people, who are more about capturing vivid moments of history and place.  James Herriot, is of course, my very favorite.  So I’m always on the lookout for something that good, and would welcome suggestions.

Yes, I’ve noticed the British theme in my favorites too.  Got any Americans for me?  Well written, warmly funny, keen sense of region and history?

Musing Mondays: Mid-Year Reading

Today’s Musing Mondays is about mid-year reading.  Now that we’ve come to the middle of the year, what do you think of your reading so far?  Anything interesting that you’d like to share?  Any favorites?

Great new discoveries this year:

Lauren Willig’s floral-themed historical espionage.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies!

Shel Silverstein’s audio recordings are on MP3

I need to read more PD James.

There is good fashion writing out there.

Cherry Ames exists in modern printing!

And on the flip side, books that have not been great.  A mercifully short list!

Washington Square, by Henry James, isn’t worth finishing, even with Dad reading and writing about it too.

The Body Farm was dumb.

Poets and 19th century technology

Walt Whitman would have been a perfect blogger. Didn’t he revise and reprint Leaves of Grass dozens of times? What would instant posting and feedback have done to that thought process? “I sing the body electric,” all right.

After reading a YA novel that got inside the head of an imagined teenage Emily Dickinson, I’m convinced she would have loved MySpace.   Would she have posted her poems there?  Maybe.  Or maybe a cable modem and a glowing screen would have changed the flavor of her reclusive years.  I can picture Twitter affecting the rhythms of her lines.

Who else?

This isn’t quite bookish, but I’ve also always wondered what John Lennon would think of hip hop, or techno.  What he and Bono might say to each other, or he and Eminem.

BTT #2 this week: Unique Sorting

And the second in our Booking Through Thursday twofer is about the Sorted Books Project, a wonderfully whimsical art project of juxtaposed books.

Mostly, it reminds me of The Strand- where there is the best section juxtaposition ever.

As far as my own shelves.    The chance arrangement of 3 I picked up from a secondhand book sale yields something that looks like the story of a journey.

• Five Fortunes
• Away From Home
• My Racing Heart

And my punny mind conjures:

• Partners In Necessity
• Webster’s Dictionary
• Roget’s Thesaurus
• (AP Stylebook also optional here.)

Booking Through Thursday: Hot Summer Reading

Booking Through Thursday appears to be a twofer today.  First question:

Now that summer is here (in the northern hemisphere, anyway), what is the most “Summery” book you can think of? The one that captures the essence of summer for you?

(I’m not asking for you to list your ideal “beach reading,” you understand, but the book that you can read at any time of year but that evokes “summer.”)

I will not use this opportunity to curse the rain or the distinct lack of beach weather we’ve been having in my corner of the Northern Hemisphere.   It may be the weather talking, but it’s easier for me to think of favorite books that convey a sense of “fall” to me.  Some of my favorites: Tam Lin, by Pamela Dean, and of course The Westing Game.

I think it’s less the type of book and more the act of reading more than three books in one week that says summer to me.  Getting immersed in a book, devouring it, and then zooming to the next with few distractions. Especially if I’ve got a mystery, followed by a zany travel book, followed by an odd but highly readable bio.  And a good poetry collection for when I’m feeling a little less focused…  Yes, books are the heaviest part of my vacation suitcase, why do you ask?

Thinking about summer also makes me want to write more.  Not just the various journalism and blogging I do.  But a memoir about growing up with my particular wordy, funny, intensely loving family.  And the time Aunt Ruthanne put dog food on the grill instead of charcoal briquettes.

Odd Facts about Bestselling Authors

I’m willing to believe that Dan Brown wrote pop songs before he wrote pseudoreligious conspiracy schlock adventure novels, but:

Jodi Picoult wrote Wonder Woman comics???

Thanks to MentalFloss for the odd, intriguing article.

Literary Links

While this might make me feel self-conscious the next time I’m whiling away a few hours in the Strand, it’s hilarious.

A wonderfully snarky guide to the types of people in bookstores. From the kids who “have to read it for school” to Oprah’s acolytes to devout sci-fi readers.
Thanks to ChrisL for the link.

I have a couple overdue books. (I know, shame on me) and I wish they were overdue from the SFPL instead. Because then I could return them with a good excuse.

Cherry Ames and the Lazy Sunday

Cherry Ames novels are the perfect length for a lazy Sunday morning in bed. Polished off Cherry Ames, Boarding School Nurse, this morning. Cherry takes a job at an exclusive and strict boarding school near her hometown. An odd outcast girl with French ancestry, the boarding school’s financial troubles, and the search for a secret perfume recipe intersect to give Cherry quite a mystery to solve. She gets to do some pretty diverse nursing, too. Everything from routine flu and laryngitis, to being at the right place to assist after a nearby car accident, to the routine bumps and bruised egos of a community of teenage school girls. The headmistress of the school likens a school nurse to a psychologist, hearing the girls’ secrets and worries.
Although there isn’t too much technical detail, there are fun asides about perfume making chemistry, gardening and botany, as well as an ancient family secret to liven things up. And a handsome doctor for Cherry to twinkle at a little bit. (Thus far, two handsome doctors wanting Something More from Cherry, and scarcely a date. I like this. She’s focused on her career, is our Miss Ames.)

I’m slowly purchasing the boxed sets of Helen Wells’ Cherry Ames books from Amazon. that should take me to the mid-60s or so. I’m not sure if Julie Tatham took over writing them sequentially, or in tandem with Helen Wells, and not sure who has the copyright. Maybe there’s still something for me to do at garage sales after all.