In other news: HAI! I haven’t updated since MARCH! That’s a long time. But, I actually love this blog and books and writing and talking about books so I couldn’t bring myself to delete it. I’m way behind on reading too. I’ve been reading more lately, but I went through a whole long period where I wasn’t doing much, but looking at the internets. I HEART Etsy, and making Treasury Lists, and I am waiting impatiently for my invitation to Pinterest! SO, as always, what are you reading? What do you recommend?

I finished Wildwood by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis not very long ago. Which I liked, and so did The Kid. Adventure, talking animals, bad queens, and bandits, what’s not to like?

And, I just finished Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan (of The Strain fame), but to be honest I wasn’t into it. It’s all about jacked up Boston boys who rob banks and when one of them decides to leave the neighborhood and his friends to start a new life with a person he so happened to kidnap in a bank robbery, things start to fall apart. I read the whole thing, but I just didn’t love it. It was fantastically written in parts, especially from the point of view of the protagonist, but the female characters were so cliche: the absent mother, the whore, the victim, the saintly teacher. Barf.

So, come back hotties! Tell me what you’re up to!

And now that I’m done with Flavia, I am not reading any of those books listed below either, instead I’ve got a book called The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley. Which came used from abebooks.com and (The Book Man). And speaking of surprise presents that you get in the mail, The Winter Sea was wrapped in a page from a magazine with an image of Prince Charles kissing Princess Diana. Lovely touch. The Winter Sea came recommended on a number of lists. So, thanks  Book Man. You can’t get that kind of awesome in an electronic format.  No sir. Please keep your Kindle over there, mmmkay.

The Book Man also has Bookstore Dogs which makes me want to road trip it to Canadia.

Favorite local, independent bookstore: Valley Booksellers in Stillwater, MN. They have birds, and if you ask nicely they’ll run the train that’s on the ceiling! What’s your favorite indie book shop?

No, I haven’t gotten much reading (or god forbid, writing) done. I know this will pass. I am, after all, Super Mon, a SUPER READER. In the meanwhile,  I’ve begun the process of amassing my book pile next to the bed for when my concentration returns. I’m not even going to bother trying to promise that I’ll be a regular blogger. I mean, I hope I will be, but I wasn’t doing much blogging before The Kid’s epic fall. What are you reading? Anything good? I’ve got these books in the hopper:

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson (Is this a good book? It’s been on a lot of lists last year. I don’t know if it’s my kind of story, but I’m checking it out anyway)

Kitchen Confidential by the indomitable Anthony Bourdain

Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate: A Trip Through Death, Sex, Divorce, and Spiritual Celebrity in Search of the True Dharma by Brad Warner

Buddhism For Dummies by Jonathan Landaw and Stephan Bodian

The Everything Zen Book: Achieve Inner Calm and Peace of Mind Through Meditation, Simple Living, and Harmony – by Jacky Sach and Jessica Faust

and

Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby (which I intended to read last year, but didn’t get to it)

Not helping with need to retreat to under the blanket is an email from my local library saying that I currently have 18 items on the hold shelf, ready to be picked up. Whoo Hoo! It’s like Christmas and my birthday all rolled into one! 18 items at once is a lot, even for me! I LUF The Library! Don’t you?  Some of these items are not for me. Some are for The Kid, or for Wolverine. We use only one card in our library-loving family (usually) because we tend to check out A LOT of items (see above) and having them all in one place, on one list, is easier to keep track of . On the list are things like: The Thing (for Wolverine), Indiana Jones Lego Wii game (for The Kid), and The 39 Steps (for me). Additionally, The Big Ass Book of Home Decor,  an audio book of The Hobbit,  and more.

I am the tracker and keeper of all information that my family needs: appointments, dr. office numbers, lists, calendars, passwords, pins– you name it.  Take for instance, The Kid. He had a library card before we moved. However, he doesn’t have an email, so when his book became overdue, I had no way of knowing (since all information must flow to me through the interwebs). And, The Kid isn’t very likely to remember the due date, or where he put the book he checked out, for that matter.

I think I love the library and the internet so much for the same reason. Excess of information. I tend to be addicted to information overload. Libraries and the internet are perfect for my addiction! And, it’s especially awesome that you can access the library ON THE INTERNET!! Did you know this? Go there right now, with your library card (make sure you pay your fine) and request something. You will receive a happy email that says, “Your hold of Come Let Us Be Merry: Traditional Christmas Songs from Scotland and Ireland is available for pick-up!” And you will go there and get it, and you will be so happy!

Happy November 1! November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. I think it’s a great project for we motivated Hotties! Get out your pens, or dust off your keyboards and sit down and write! EVERY DAY!  Last year, I told myself I would do this this year, and I almost forgot, except I thoughtfully put it on my calendar. Here’s to planning ahead! Woot!

The NaNoWriMo website is SLOW to crawling today to timing out all together, which seems very promising. Maybe there will spring forth a plethora of new novels from this very cool project. Anyway, if any of you hotties have a novel just waiting to come out, you should start writing and we’ll share our stories next month!

Andrea King Collier at She Writes has a list for how she’s getting started.   She starts by telling her agent, and by not telling her family. Both of those things sound nice, but I don’t have an agent, and I already told my family. They seemed OK with it, but it’s only the 1st day, and I haven’t locked myself away to write yet, so we’ll see. Collier is blogging her experience too, so it’s a double whammy of NaBloWriMo and NaNoWriMo together! Which I will do here as well!

I like her idea of using her camera and shooting video as she goes. She discusses it as potentially being a “multimedia failure” but I am all for that idea. She also made a basic plan of how her month of writing would go. I think this is wise. Especially if you’re like me and LOVE the grand ideas, but sometimes end up getting sabotaged by reality.

Here’s my steps to success ( I only have 9–I’m a little odd):

1) Write.

2) Write about something new. Not half-finished and left to rot in my hard drive, but new.

3) Take pictures or shoot video to inspire me.

4) Find a partner real quick to write with. (Any takers?)

5) Block time on my calendar every day for writing.

6) Create a massive soundtrack of all my favorite music to listen to while writing.

7) Share my progress with you. (Yikes! and double yikes!)

ignore, or at least put off, the compulsion to edit.

9) Create a private space to write in.

Day 1: The Beginning

I sent out an email asking peeps if they want to resume book club and received THUNDEROUS replies of “Yes!” and “WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?!” And, “I can’t meet then, but I can then.” So, without further adieu: we’re resuming. But, with some differences!

It is my vision to make B4Hs more visual and crafty. What does this mean exactly? Well, we can read literature, sure, but wouldn’t it be awesome to get in touch with our arty sides and read books that are visual or about making art? And, then get inspired and make stuff like a visual journal? So, we shall go on photo shoots,  visit  museums, lectures, plays, places that are interesting, or new. We will learn about other artists, and make stuff.

WHAT? you say? Not me! I don’t draw and paint! Psshaw, I say to that. The blank page or canvas can be intimidating, for sure, and that’s where the books we’ll pick come in to gently guide us away from the savage beast of the inner critic. Also, you don’t really need to draw and paint, you can write and doodle, take pictures, sew, whatever you get inspired to do. The point is to do it, and to support each other, and create and strengthen the community of super hotties that you are!

Book 4 Hotties 2010-11 will being with reading

An Illustrated Life by Danny Gregory

An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration from the Private Sketchbooks of Artists, Illustrators and Designers by Danny Gregory

Our first assignment is to begin reading this book, and to start a visual journal and bring it along to our meeting which will be the weekend of November 19. If you feel at a loss about what kind of things to create, or not sure what to do, just bring your blank book and some pens or paint and see what happens!

This topic came up today and when Wolverine pitched a title to me (Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman series, which is totally on my list, btw). I agreed that I really want to read them.Some day.  But, I also posited that maybe I haven’t been as hot to jump more graphic novels because the majority of them still fall into the category of  sometimes-mostly-kind-of-seemingly-looks-like-they’re-prone-towards being a male-centric (both author and subject) superhero saturated/oriented genre. Whew. (that was fun).

Wolverine suggested that this wasn’t true anymore and that I just may be assuming this genre is still overly male-dominated, when, in fact, it might be reaching toward, or already at, an equal number subjects and authors that go beyond Batman saving and reviving Gotham, yet again.

My assumptions may be based in the 50s and 60s. Not 2010. That’s a real problem: 1) I wasn’t even alive in the 50s or 60s so what am I talking about? and 2) I’ve been close-minded. Ouch. Well, I’m not above admitting he’s right, and he is.  All those testosterone-filled male-oriented superhero comics and graphic novels still exist, no doubt.

But, graphic novels as a genre/medium have really exploded into encompassing all literary avenues. It only took one Google search to confirm that there are plenty of graphic novels that go beyond the superhero trope.  Graphic novels are a great medium to critically look at race, class, gender, and other social issues. One thing writing on a book blog and belonging to a book club should do is expand your mind and your taste in what you read. I agree with Wolverine that this is an underrated genre and that there is a plethora of diverse options to be had. I like superheroes as much as the next reader but I definitely can’t limit myself to them. Wolverine challenged me to read a book HE picks and he will do the same. We’ll see how it goes. He and I don’t have the same taste in literature AT ALL.

Check out some cool titles after the jump! I added most of these to my list to read today, and some I’ve read and recommend like Persopolis (which is an awesome movie too) and Fun-Home Tragicomic, everything by Julie Doucet, and of course Maus I and II by Pulitzer Prize winner Art Spiegelman.

Young Adult:

Boys Over Flowers by Hani Yori Dango

Absolute Boyfriend by Yuu Watase

DramaCon by Sveltlana Chmakova

Girl Stories by Lauren Weinstein

Blankets by Craig Thompson

Ghost World by Daniel Clowes

Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, and Nate Hale (no relation)

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Avalon High by Meg Cabot

Plain Janes and  Janes in Love by Cecil Castellucci

Adult:

I Love Led Zeppelin and Lust: Kinky Online Personal Ads by Ellen Forney

Fun Home Tragi-Comic by Allison Bechdel

The Complete Persepolis by Majane Satrapi

The Ten Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How it Changed America by David Haju

The Sandman Series by Neil Gaiman

Charles Darwin on The Origin of the Species by Michael Keller

Maus I and II by Art Spiegelman

Three Days in Europe by Antony Johnston

Slow News Day and Dumped by Andi Watson

Blue Pills: A Positive Love Story by Frederick Peeters

Shortcomings and Summer Blonde by Adrian Tomine

French Milk by Lucy Knisley

For more recommendations for teens, adults, and children, go here.

Please join me in the challenge, or start your own. Please write about it.  I owe you tons of 2-second reviews. I won’t let you down!

Here’s my list, sans reviews.

1. The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

2. A Happy Marriage: A Novel by Rafael Yglesias

3. Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderland by Michael Chabon

4. La’s Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith

5. The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

6. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson.

7. The Girl Who Played With Fire by Steig Larsson

8. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest by Steig Larsson

9. City of Thieves by David Benioff

10. The Sweetness at the Bottom of The Pie by Alan Bradley

11. The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley

12: The Annotated Brother’s Grimm, Maria Tartar Ed

13: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

14. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

15. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris