Your state in a book

Business Insider has a map of the "most famous" book represented by each of the 50 states. Let me judge them by where I've lived:

• Wisconsin: LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE. I was raised on these books and they are perennial classics, so this is fine by me. (But I've never been to Pepin, WI near where the Ingallses lived. Road trip?)
• Rhode Island: Jodi Picoult's MY SISTER'S KEEPER. Wait, it really takes place there? Interesting.
• Massachusetts: WALDEN, although I think one of Cotton Mather's diaries would be more accurate if my sources inside the state are any indicator. 
• Illinois: THE JUNGLE. Seems unfair. 
• New York: THE GREAT GATSBY. Okay, it's almost 90 years old, but we will take it. 
• Pennsylvania: THE LOVELY BONES. Not a flattering look. 

Scanning the list, I think the person who compiled it has a really mordant sense of humor. You'd have to, to list fun travel reads like THE SHINING, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN and CARRIE among your titles. Seriously, who wants to visit the grave at the end of CARRIE? Nobody. But Kansas is happy, while Ohio is confused.

Franzenfest T-3: A Bevy of Links

I know, you're tired of this already. Don't worry, it will be over soon.

• First, Amazon accidentally leaked the entire digital version of FREEDOM to some lucky readers on Thursday. And none of you notified me?! You're all furloughed. (New York Post)

• In an interview with the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Franzen slagged TIME Magazine, right-wing political movements and, bizarrely, his own significant other. Ah, he never did learn! Pretty sure that "Santa Cruz girl" will be making him sleep on the couch. (SCS via the New York Observer)

• Santa Cruz, by the way, is the first stop on Franzen's extensive book tour, including two stops in his hometown of St. Louis, three in New York and the National Book Festival in D.C.

• As mentioned earlier in the week, Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner are continuing to criticize the Times for its literary bias with regard to Mr. Franzen. (The Times has now printed not one but two raves for FREEDOM ahead of publication.) I think that's how @emperorfranzen got started -- because both are avid Twitter users and Weiner started using the delectable term franzenfreude to refer to the hype machine we are busy feeding. (Guilty, so guilty.) I like that they are somewhat shifting the burden off Franzen himself for benefiting from what they perceive as a bias... and I don't think they're entirely wrong. (The Huffington Post)

• It's hilarious that Newsweek titled its story about J-Franz and the baggage his name brings up post-Oprah "The Man We Knew Too Much." Spencer Pratt should call his agent.

• Given what we now know per the TIME article about how Franzen writes -- taking extreme precautions to eliminate himself from distractions like the Internet -- he would be a great candidate for a celebrity endorsement of the Internet-blocking software also called Freedom. (I downloaded it but haven't used it because my current Secret Writing Trick is working fine. Mustn't break stride.)

• Finally: "The title could mollify some rightwing freakazoids who might think their Muslim president is spending his holiday reading a treatise on their favourite, if never fully defined, subject of Freedom. True, Franzen may have intended the title ironically, but as Bruce Springsteen, singer of Born in the USA (which, hilariously, was being blasted out during the non-mosque protests over the weekend in NY) could tell him, sometimes some fans don't quite understand the concept." The always perceptive Hadley Freeman on the President and his vacation reading. (Guardian.co.uk)
  

Bad reputations

I'm collecting links like a postmodern Collyer brother, so here are some quick hits:

• To the surprise of no one, Facebook isn't that thrilled about the new movie based on Ben Mezrich's book. (New York Times)
• In other adaptation news, "The Switch," the romantic comedy based on the Rick Moody Jeffrey Eugenides (see comments) story "The Baster," is tracking dismally and will probably finish 7th this weekend, behind a "Twilight" parody, "Eat Pray Love" and "Piranha 3-D." [Unrelated: I've been spelling 'piranha' wrong all this time?!] Jason Bateman, fire your agent. (Deadline.com)
• Jodi Picoult should not be startin' somethin' with the aforementioned Times about their rave review of FREEDOM. For one, her reviews in the Times have been complimentary enough; for another, Jennifer Weiner did this routine 6 weeks ago (and not wrongly) abotu Gary Shteyngart. Summer's for reruns? (NY Mag via DRA)
• Anyway, all the cool kids are already over FREEDOM and looking forward to Tom McCarthy's next book C, out Sept. 7. Here he is on technology, Futurism and James Joyce. (The Guardian)
• Where did "Chicago" come from? Bookslut-in-Chief Jessa Crispin investigates in the review of a new book called THE GIRLS OF MURDER CITY about the Second City in the 1930s. (The Smart Set)
• Finally, I walked by a bar on Friday whose awning read "The Tavern O. Henry Made Famous." Is it ever okay to grant a bar the endorsement of someone who eventually died of cirrhosis? Unfortunately, the claim that O. Henry wrote "The Gift of the Magi" in a bar booth in Gramercy Park is dubious and likely unprovable; on the other hand, there was a "Seinfeld" episode shot there. (Petestavern.com; Iamnotastalker.com)

Dear People Who Signed Off On This Movie Poster For The Forthcoming Adaptation Of Jodi Picoult's "My Sister's Keeper"

What in the blue hell is this? Did any of you READ this book? Because, if so, you know that this poster is a chocolate-covered lie with warm deception sauce and two scoops of preposterous.

I have no particular love for Jodi Picoult's book and think any movie which dares to promote itself "from the director of 'The Notebook'" deserves to lay on the 4 for $20 table at Blockbuster forever(1), but this is a travesty. For those who don't know, this book is about a girl trying to medically emancipate herself from her parents because they conceived her as a genetic match and donor for her older sister, and now Sis needs a kidney. (Or, by the transitive property, NEVER LET ME GO minus PREP.) In other words, this movie is not at all like THE NOTEBOOK. Nor does it take place in a hazy garden sprinkled with motes of light, but I can see how you would make that mistake!

I haven't seen "My Sister's Keeper" because it doesn't come out until June 26, so I can't properly determine that it will suck. And it does have Alec Baldwin in it -- I believe he plays the kindly bubble man who gives Cancer Kid in the corner her first wand. I have seen "The Notebook,"(2) which suffers from a lot of things including the absence of Alec Baldwin, but I would put it in the genre of romantic drama.(3) This is more like a family drama, and anyone who sees the poster and goes in expecting a string of tender moments will probably want their $16.50 (4) back.

What this poster says to me is: "Medically emancipating yourself can be fun! And your mommy will totally understand. And somewhere in the distance, your sister will blow bubbles preciously, as if to emphasize the fragility of life. Hers, in this case. but never mind that!"

If I didn't already have several reasons to not see this movie, I've sure got one now. Shame on you, New Line Cinemas and Curmudgeon Films (ooh, but good call on the name there).

Poster source: filmofilia.com. It's not their fault.

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1. On the other hand, judging by Nick Cassavetes' resume, there's not a lot to talk about. "John Q," "Alpha Dog," a Marisa Tomei-Gena Rowlands buddy movie? From the director who is also some dude in "Face/Off"? I would have gone with "From the best-selling novel by Jodi Picoult."
2. Look, my Spanish host mom foisted a pirated copy on me when I was too sick to say no. Do I get any respect back for watching it dubbed in Spanish? No?
3. I hate "The Notebook," but less for what it was (cringe-inducing script, decent acting by leads with good chemistry) and more for what it represents: It is but one course in the unending dinner of movies I, as a lady of a certain quadrant, am supposed to love and instead can't stand. I have even been accused of not being a romantic because I didn't love "The Notebook," but I would argue it isn't even that romantic of a movie, and I could give you ten better without blinking. I am hardly alone in this belief! And this footnote has clearly wandered off another blog, perhaps Tiger Beatdown.
4. Had an Old Moment this weekend at the movies when the machine spat out this price for "Up" in 3-D. It was the glasses. And the fact that we went to the Empire in Times Square, but the glasses played a part. Pixar, do you know how hard it is to cry with two sets of glasses on? Do you??