Gift guides always seem to highlight the same stuff, year after year: fancy serving-ware for your hostess friends, scented candles for your bad-smelling friends, little tiny guest soaps that will never, never be used for the people you wouldn’t necessarily call “friends” but whom you certainly can’t pass over altogether in the big end-of-year gifting meltdown…

Here’s a suggestion–put together a fun little package with one of these witty, design-y t-shirts* and a few good books! Why not try one for each author? I recommend Hurston’s Go Gator and Muddy the Water: Writings by Zora Neale Hurston From the Federal Writers’ Project, Morrison’s A Mercy, We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness by Alice Walker, AND (Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Yule comes but once each year, after all) Octavia E. Butler’s entire Xenogenesis trilogy, now collected in one volume! What a stocking-stuffer!

–Isadora

*The best thing about these wonderful t-shirts is that each purchase helps to support the Black Girl Project for another year, so you’ll be spreading holly-jolly cheer and assisting girls and young women become stronger, more self-confident individuals and community leaders at the same time! And when you pick up the accompanying works of these great authors, you’ll also be keeping your local independent bookstore afloat for another wintry season… ho ho ho!

“NYPD destroyed 5,000 books at #occupy library, as well as tent donated by author and performer Patti Smith, which had been used to protect those books. The image of NYPD officers destroying books – tearing down a library – is one which should spark outrage around the world.” (source)

No matter where one stands on matters political, for book lovers and champions of learning and knowledge (as we believe all our wonderful customers and friends to be), there are few things as regrettable as the unnecessary destruction of libraries and the precious words they contain. Would this country have achieved the vibrancy of its democracy without those sparks to the heart and intellect that books represent? When we speak of free speech, do we believe that citizens can truly be free without unhindered circulation of ideas and undertakings, new and old–protected and presented to the public, one and all?

The past couple of months have been amazingly turbulent in the political sphere, with the Occupy Wall Street movement sprouting up in cities and towns here and across the globe; without getting too embroiled in potentially controversial declarations, I’ll simply note that democracy begins in the mind of every free person, and surely won’t be curtailed by the shuttering of a single park. As long as we (and I do mean the global, all-encompassing “we”) continue to believe that any person has the potential to make positive change in the life of our society, greed and oppression will never triumph.

–Isadora

I was greatly honored to have the chance to attend the October 17th United Nations discussion panel of What You Wish For, a new YA book benefiting the humanitarian foundation Book Wish. All proceeds from the book go towards establishing libraries for refugees displaced by the violence in Darfur, an ongoing conflict that’s left thousands of men, women and children adrift and uprooted. With authors the caliber of Marilyn Nelson, R.L. Stein (the world’s greatest spooky cheeseball), Joyce Carol Oates, Cynthia Voigt, and more all contributing to the book, this is one donation to a charitable cause that speaks to the power of literacy both at home and abroad.

–Isadora

Looking for something a trifle civilized that goes well with a spot of cream? Zena Alkayat’s lovely Tea & Cake London will transport you to a sophisticated high-street tea shop in a twinkling–if you manage to prevent yourself drooling all over the pages, that is. From a ginger-molasses slice at Violet, to jam flapjack at the Fleet River Bakery, to those little crustless cucumber sandwiches at the Original Maids of Honour, you’ll be ready to relinquish your American citizenship for a chance to taste it all. After all, who needs that little blue passport, anyway? And of course it all begins with a T–afternoon tea on the banks of the Thames, with a piece of bakewell tart, please.

–Isadora

Gilbert Adair was previously know to me as the translator of Georges Perec’s magnificent Oulipo novel La Disparition, which in Adair’s capable hands became, in English, A Void. The titular void at its heart is the missing letter E, which spectacularly fails to appear throughout the entire 300-page book. So it makes great sense, in the context of this alphabetical absence, that Adair would put his gigantic mind towards fulfilling another literary gap–this time, the void of a third adventure for Lewis Carroll’s perpetually perplexed heroine, Alice.

Once through the needle’s eye, Adair’s Alice meets with all the sorts of easily offended talking animals and paradoxical situations you might expect, rendered with perfect lightness and spirit. Instead of a pack of cards or animated chess pieces, this time she encounters various alphabestial creatures from A to Z, all with her accustomed blend of curiosity (and curiositier) and nonplus-ability. For example:

“…It shut it eyes and stood for the longest time with one flapper pressed upon its forehead, as if deep in reflection, before asking at last, “When was the Battle of Hastings? Answer me that—if you can.”
It wasn’t at all the question Alice thought the Grampus would ask; and she half hoped the Emu would be unable to answer it, as History was her best school-subject, and she didn’t mind in the least displaying her knowledge of it. But the Emu confidently replied “1066,” for which it received a little round of applause.

“Pooh!” said the Grampus. “There’s no such time of day.”

“Oh, all right,” sighed the Emu: “6 minutes past 11, if you prefer. It was due to begin at 11 o’clock sharp, you know, except that King Harold, better known as Harold the Unready, was not—well, he wasn’t quite ready. Next question!”

Get it?? Get it?? Do ya, huh? Okay, enough of that. Rest assured, however, that anyone who doesn’t appreciate such stupid jokes is a real philistine… and all the rest of us are true connoisseurs.

–Isadora, Distinguished Carrollian*

*anyone who knows me by sight can easily distinguish me from any other Carrollian.**
**apologies to C.L.D.

To continue with the theme of my last post, I recently read Melanie Benjamin’s 2010 novel,Alice I Have Been. Very similar in theme to Katie Roiphe’s Still She Haunts Me, both books take a long jump at the infamously short conclusion that Lewis Carroll (aka Charles L. Dodgson) was not only entirely motivated by Alice Liddell, his baby muse, to write his best-known works, but also truly, madly, pedophilically in love with her. The implicit “et ceteras” of that contention are spelled out, with a disconcerting degree of explicitness, in Alice I Have Been which pulls itself back from the brink of Lolita-levels of heavy petting by delving into Alice L.’s later life as former child-friend and pseudo-celebrity fictional character.

Well, I can’t say I don’t understand Benjamin’s desire to Mary Sue her way into one of the most potentially ambiguous literary relationships of the 19th century. Both her and Roiphe’s books share a kind of creepy, kind of romantic, kind of semi-feminist understanding that maybe a girl of Liddell’s temperament, intelligence and class would take more than a passive interest (viz. crushin’) in a man who treated her not as the classic Victorian “angel in the house,” but an equal. Unfortunately, Benjamin’s Alice reads more as a loving dope than a girl who could hold her own against the Queen of Hearts (even if she was just a card).

In the annals of historical inaccuracy, there’s been almost too much space allotted to poor Mr. D. I’m not totally sure what the lure of Humbert Humbertization is, but from a strictly factual perspective, it’s been pretty roundly disproven in Carroll’s case. That has little effect on the creators of further fictions, who will continue returning to the “what ifs” and devising new, queasily erotic interpretations. Aside from that, the main problem I have with Benjamin and Roiphe’s novels (jury’s still out on Lynne Truss’s Tennyson’s Gift as I’ve yet to receive it) is that… they just aren’t funny enough, or grotesque enough (apart from the contortions necessitated by creating a touching-on-pedophilic love story). Expecting fanfiction to also turn into a realistic pastiche of such an inimitable author might be more than a little much, but I don’t think it’s out of the question. Interestingly, tertiary ALice tales, like Gilbert Adair’s Alice Through the Needle’s Eye or Jeff Noon’s Automated Alice, comprise a wholly separate genre from these works of, let’s face it, real-person slash. There’s something in the violent youthfulness and chaotic precision of Carroll’s own writing and thinking that is more or less completely bypassed by slotting him into a vision of Nabokovian dimensions (ie., one).

This post is too long by half (probably by two halves), but unfortunately there’s more I was recently alerted to the existence of a series of mysteries starring Charles Dodgson AND Arthur Conan Doyle (one of my other Victorian favs), which ought to see this tail getting more and more tangled…

–Isadora, Noted Carrollian

Novels about novelists! There are few things more satisfying than coming across a character in an unrelated book who bears a striking similarity to one’s own favorite writer, whoever that might be. I’m extremely eager to get my paws on a novel by Lynne Truss, Tennyson’s Gift, which, along with the titular poetaster, contains a fictionalized version of my own very favorite author, Lewis Carroll (aka Charles L. Dodgson). Though this book appears to be out of print in the United States, fans of Truss, the “pedant’s pedant,” shouldn’t be surprised to hear she and I share a fav Victorian–grammarians, punsters (what a terrible word), and hyper-critical language mavens alike (often rolled up into one somewhat obsessive personage) tend to be fans of the foremost creep of children’s literature.

There are more fictional depictions of L.C./C.L.D., and I’ve read a couple: Katie Roiphe’s Still She Haunts Me is the hot-house Flowers in the Attic take on things; and Anne Thackeray Ritchie’s slightly forgotten short novel From An Island might contain, in the person of a Mr. Hexham, a more disguised version of the pioneering photographer/writer/mathematician/control freak.

Until someone produces “Finding Wonderland” (starring Johnny Depp, naturally), I remain on the lookout for more literary interpretations…

–Isadora

Okay okay…it is possible that not everyone might enjoy this fantastic memoir, but I’m not sure why anyone wouldn’t. Our protagonist is Nathan Rabin, the head writer of the Onion’s entertainment section, A.V. Club. He ties in the story of his own too-crazy-not-to-be-true upbringing with various works of television, film, music, and literature that were important to him at different stages of his life.

His knowledge of pop culture is encyclopedic, his life story at turns incredibly depressing yet always fascinating, and his tone both extremely sincere and wonderfully sardonic. Rabin is a fantastic writer: often hilarious even when describing times of great confusion and sadness. Ultimately, it’s a downright uplifting story; against all odds, Rabin makes it, overcoming his roots to land the job of his dreams, and a life he didn’t know he attain. That said, there is some use of “foul” language and there are some sexual situations (thus my above age recommendation). But something tells me you can handle all that.

The Big Rewind is always immensely entertaining and when it ends you’ll wish it was only the first volume. I guess you’ll have to just move onto his latest critical work, My Year Of Flops, a reexamination of films that were initially badly received or unsuccessful. Kudos Mr. Rabin! Long may you write…

Well I say the hell with all that.  Sex is fun: in fact I think human sex is the only good kind – but if you disagree, well, more power to you.  We in General books are proud to offer a selection of books for everyone (or at least everyone over 18) in our Human Sexuality section.  Included are fun books like the one above, and this one for the crafter in you:Who would have thought that household items like candles and greeting cards could have so many interesting uses?

But on a more serious note we also care a large supply of educational titles.  The most famous of those being: So please let’s stop being ashamed of our bodies, our desires and our fantasies.  Let’s just be us, and celebrate our freedoms.

Disclaimer:  We are by no means encouraging wanton behavior in our customers.  Reminder:  having sexual intercourse without protection can lead to pregnancy and the transmittance of sexual diseases.  So please take the proper precautions so that no one is injured in your play.  But we strongly believe that as long as both parties are consenting adults,  it is no one’s business but your own.  So have fun.

-Nikki-

You don’t have to be a serious cyclist to enjoy Connecticut by Bicycle, a wonderful book by Frederick John Lamp, Curator of African Art at the Yale University Art Gallery. When Lamp moved to Connecticut a few years ago, one of the first things he did was organize a bike ride with friends. The group gathered at the corner of Chapel and Green, near the entrance to the New Haven Green. To Lamp’s astonishment, there at his feet lay a “plaque commemorating the very first bicycle ride – ever, anywhere.” It was the plaque for Pierre Lallement the French immigrant who invented the bicycle in 1886. To test his invention, Lallement had taken his two- wheeler out for a spin beginning in Ansonia and ending at the New Haven Green.

The book includes maps and advice for the road with a good dose of advocacy and a bit of cyclist’s lament. What most sets it apart from other cycling books however, is that it is a serious appreciation of the Connecticut landscape. Lamp carried a little Coolpix in his back pocket during all his rides, and with this camera and his very talented eye, he took stunning photos of our state. And yes, Northeastern Connecticut, so often ignored in guidebooks, is nicely included.

Lamp brings us past old mills, quaint villages, rusting farm machinery, barns with silos, steepled churches, gravestones, and houses. He shows us forests, fields, rivers and lakes. “The emphasis,” he writes, “is on sightseeing…I recommend looking at things on the way, which means turning your head as your ride and stopping to see some of the wonderful sights.”

You could of course follow his routes in a car. You wouldn’t see as much, but you would get a nice taste. Meanwhile, leaf through this book as I did, and take a mental ride around the state with Lamp as your guide. You will be glad you did. Posted by Suzy