Trailer Park Lovin’

In honor of Valentine’s Day — those illustrious 24 hours in which we celebrate Cupid’s arrow flying into our asses — there is nothin’ but loooooooooove in the Trailer Park today.

Actually, there’s love and hot, muscled, oiled men.

But the two go hand in hand, don’t they?

First up, Scandal by Carolyn Jewel. This romance revolves around a randy Earl and the married lady he wants to bone. This is a classy and subtle promotional which definitely piqued by interest in reading Ms. Jewel’s book.

Second, Dark Victory by Brenda Joyce. At first, I was a little peeved that this book shares a name with one of the greatest Bette Davis movies ever, but after seeing the trailer, I calmed down. This spot is pretty hilarious, though I can’t figure out if it’s intentional or not. Anyhoo, I’m all for any book trailer that can incorporate a sexy shirtless guy, his soccer mom-looking lady love, and a profligacy of swords.

Finally, The Warlord’s Daughter by Susan Grant. This is part of the Borderlands series, which, to be honest, I know nothing about and will probably never read. One of the critical blurbs for this book mentioned something about Star Trek, and I immediately shut off. But again, any trailer that can spend the bulk of its one minute and two seconds focused on the muscly, oily back of some faceless stud…OK by me! (I think there’s some romance and stuff in the book too.)

Happy Valentine’s Day! May Cupid’s arrow be forever lodged in your ass!

February 13, 2009 | Filed Under Trailer Park | 60 Comments 

Picasso through Words

It’s a little known fact that Picasso — that big bald hunk o’ painterly manflesh (see photo at left; in particular, check out the size of that palette!) – was an aspiring writer as well as one of the greatest painters of all time. In a new exhibit at Duke University, various pieces of written work concerning the artist are being shown alongside his paintings, creating what sounds like a cool-beans new show.

At one time a roommate to poet Max Jacob, as well as a regular fixture in Gertrude Stein’s famed salons, Picasso wrote hundreds of poems, a few plays, and played a role in several books involving illustration and art.

“Picasso and the Allure of Language” is on display at the Yale University Gallery before moving to Duke’s Nasher Museum of Art. The exhibit hosts more than 70 works of art, which encompass most of the 20th century, from 1900, when Picasso was 19, to 1969, when he was 91. Interspersed with the paintings are items from the literary legacy of Stein and Alice B. Toklas: a series of writings (letters, postcards, even an audio reading) about Picasso. Also highlighted is the role literature played as an inspiration to the artist.

“Picasso and the Allure of Language” runs through May 24 at Yale and opens at Duke on August 20.

 

Story Source  Nashua Telegraph via Rare Book News  |  Image Source  The Age

February 12, 2009 | Filed Under Authors, Newsies | 6 Comments 

Your Love Life in Six Words

Last year, Smith magazine published a fascinating collection of six-word memoirs, inspired by the one left behind by Hemingway (”For sale: baby shoes, never worn”). On my other blog, I wrote a handful of my own condensed autobiographies. Among them:

-Passionately, I lived, loved, hated, died.

-Wanted to be Bea Arthur. Failed.

-Spent too much time answering phones.

-Read with abandon. Glimpsed God there.

-Met Meryl, but never banged Brody.  (Note: Booksnark looooooves him some Adrien Brody. Like, dayum and yum.)

-Alas, I am just too much.*

(*Thanks, Bette Davis. I stole that line from a Barbara Walters interview she once did.)

Now the fine folks over at Smith are at it again, asking writers to describe their love lives in tiny little six-word epics. The results range from hilarious to heartbreaking and are presented in a new book, Six-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak by Writers Famous and Obscure. Here’s a sampling of some of the entries:

If I get Chlamydia, blame MySpace.
- Hanorah Slocum

Will government ever let us marry?
- Viki Marsh

Silently suffered his facial hair experiments.
- Elizabeth Minkel

Tried men. Tried women. Like cats.
- Dona Bumgarner

Leap of faith. Shit, no parachute.
- Katherine Yunker

Inevitably, his obituary didn’t mention me.
- R. Sue Dodea

Read more and listen to the full story at the NPR website.

Story Source  NPR

February 11, 2009 | Filed Under Authors, Biography & Memoir | 20 Comments 

« Previous Page — Next Page »



      WHAT IS A SNARK?




      The Snark is a creature created by Lewis Carroll in his poem "The Hunting of the Snark". To give a proper description of Snarks, one must look no further than Carroll himself, who summed them up in one word: Unimaginable.

      But this much we do know: some have feathers, some have whiskers. Snarks sleep a lot, yet they are an ambitious lot -- with very little sense of humor. They love bathing-machines and tend to bring them wherever they go; they are also handy for striking a light. Snarks live on a far-off island, a place filled with chasms and crags, and are constantly on the lookout for Snark-hunters. Their mortal enemies are hope, care, thimbles and forks.

    • Archives

      • The Book Snark's Pick for Best Book of 2008




      Special web hosting offer - LIMITED TIME ONLY

      PerformancingAds


      Picnik: photo editing awesomeness