Finger man. I heard about you. Are you the finger man? I’m the finger man too.

You lucky Houstonites, you. Head to the George R. Brown Convention Center today to be part of the second day of, drum roll please, the Edward James Olmos Houston Latino Book and Family Festival.

Who knew the teacher from "Stand and Deliver" wrote a book? Or that Houston isn't even his only book festival? Well done, sir.

Via: Gwen's Petty, Judgmental, Evil Thoughts. Image: filmreference.com

Don't have plans tonight?

I'll be at this New School reading -- at $10, it's cheaper than a movie and similarly chock full of stars! Hope to see you there, I'll be the one who looks like... me.

New biography alert!

In an interview with Zulkey.com, historian Stacy Cordery, author of a biography of Alice Roosevelt Longworth, reveals her next subject (book due in 2012) will be Girl Scouting founder Juliette Gordon Low. This is awesome. As a GSUSA Lifetime Member* I can't wait to learn more about Low, warts and all. From the little I know of her she had a very interesting life. If I could preorder this book now, I would.**

So whose biography would you really like to see (or read, if there's a full-length one out there)?

*this level of membership really exists
**but I wouldn't know where to send it to, because who knows where I'll live or what I'll be up to in four years. How can people already be speculating about the 2012 election? For me, that might as well be science fiction.

A postcard from Nikita?

Got a funny piece of mail today. It appeared to be a postcard from New York but when I flipped it over, it was dated... September 17, 1959? An excerpt:

When I arrived in New York City today, there was a riot of angry protestors against me -- a most unpleasant greeting! In Russia, this sort of disrespect to a guest would never be allowed -- nyet! I'll bet Nixon has a hand in it.

Turns out it was a promo for Public Affairs' next-summer release K BLOWS TOP, about Nikita Khrushchev's trip to the U.S. I'm guessing I got this because I reviewed a book about Nixon earlier this year, but my interest is definitely piqued. Postcards are so rare these days.

(While writing this post, I had Jens Lekman's "A Postcard To Nina" stuck in my head -- a song that's practically a short story of its own. Listen with static image here.)

"I hate to sound ponderous, but I have a certain moral obligation."

Today's my book club day, and thus I give thanks that my experience so far has been nothing like those described in "Fought Over Any Good Books Lately?" Of course, the squabbles described in the New York Times article seem to be more about personality instead of the actual contents of the books. Before I joined my club there was some kind of epic throwdown about THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH, but it mostly seemed to be the members who got discouraged by the book and never finished demanding an explanation from the ones who finished the book (and were telling them it gets better).

I think buried in there somewhere is a salient point, though, about how sometimes it's harder to hold book clubs together where the people in them are leading vastly different lives. (This isn't the only reason "The Jane Austen Book Club" is a movie of lies, but it's a start!) I'd like to think we all get along because we are respectful of each other and able to listen, but we have the advantage of being at the same stage in our lives.

Of course, now I have said all this I will probably get thrown out of book club for violating the first (and second?) rules of book club.

Thanks to Elizabeth for sending this to me on Monday.

Talk of the Town Tuesday: Announcing the next show...

On next week's "Talk of the Town," Parker and I will cater to all your holiday gifting needs and I'll offer some suggestions for what books you should be putting under the tree this year. Because this hamster really has been very good.

Got a particular suggestion for a book we should all be giving this year? Send it to me (lnvsml AT gmaildotcom) and maybe you'll hear it when you tune in December 17. If I use it either here or on the blog, I will give you full credit for the great idea.

Photo: pyza*

"Revolutionary Road": The hype train stops here

Not sure where this Jay557 is getting all these scenes from the forthcoming Sam Mendes adaptation of "Revolutionary Road," but (no surprise) they are making me even more excited to catch this movie when it comes out Dec. 26.

This is my favorite clip of the most recent ones: Frank and April, the dissatisfied suburban couple, decide to let their neighbors and best friends in on their plan to change their lives, a change that really moves the plot forward.

Screenings are already taking place in Manhattan; maybe my invite from Paramount and Dreamworks got lost in the mail. Thanks to Superfast Reader for pointing these out.

Earlier cars on the hype train: Official "Revolutionary Road" trailer, and my review of the Richard Yates novel that started it all.

I believe this falls under the classification of, "white whine"

Number of books waiting for me at the library yesterday, according to NYPL's online reservation system LEO: 6.
Number of books waiting for me at the library, according to the library worker on duty: 0, because they're "not shelved yet" and I should "just come back Monday." Oh wait, except Monday, I have to work, unlike Saturday when I do not. Argh!

If you don't know what a white whine is, this should set you straight.

The BooksAsGifts campaign

What, their ease of packaging didn't convince you to buy books for your loved ones this Christmas? Maybe this video will help:



I am not affiliated with these fine people, but this will not be the last post I write about giving books this year. Hint, hint.

"The truth is that there is a great outer life that you and I have never touched--a life in which telegrams and anger count. Personal relations, that we think supreme, are not supreme there. There love means marriage settlements, death, death duties. So far I'm clear. But here my difficulty. This outer life, though obviously horrid, often seems the real one--there's grit in it. It does breed character."
--Margaret, E.M. Forster's Howards End

Because books are so easy to wrap

Catching up with my holiday-induced blog backlog, I was glad to be pointed toward this New York round-up of indie bookstores. One of the places in my neighborhood even made the cut!

Here's my editorializing on their picks: I have been to McNally Jackson many times without buying anything, because when I'm early to meet up with people in SoHo I like to linger there. (Maybe pet the Orla Kiely blank books while I'm at it.) It has one of the neatest floors I have ever seen in a bookstore -- a place for everything and everything in its place. Housing Works is more comfortable and less ruthlessly organized, which can be a comfort to people like me who seem to be constantly drawing on themselves in ink by accident.

I had no idea St. Mark's was open until midnight; now I definitely have to go, along with Freebird Books which I've never even heard of before. Hey, I may not live in Brooklyn but I'm happy to shop there.

Notable omissions: Cat lovers will want to consult the resident feline at Shakespeare & Co. in Greenwich Village; the Strand, of course, is unmissable (and I've already done some holiday shopping there -- they deliver!).

Thanks to Smell of wine and cheap perfume for linking to this.

Unbookening X

2 books gotten on Bookmooch
6 books checked out of the library
9 books received for review
Bought 3 books
Received 3 books from my mom.
= 23 books in.

19 books given away on BookMooch (!!)
4 books returned to the library
Gave 6 books away
Left 3 books in transit
= 32 books out.

-9! You have no idea how excited that makes me, long after everyone else has ceased to care about my unpromising project. My last negative month was Month 7; before that, the best I did was zero.

This month I would like to shed 10 books, which in theory shouldn't be that hard... until you get to Christmas and lovely amazing people give you books. (Yes, I asked for a few.) So I should focus on shedding as many as I can before then -- all my library books will probably go back, for instance.

Books Read in November 2008
156. Laura Claridge, EMILY POST
157. Jeff Miller (ed.), THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS WRONG
158. Malcolm Gladwell, OUTLIERS
159. Lionel Shriver, THE POST-BIRTHDAY WORLD
160. Robert Lanham, FOOD COURT DRUIDS...
161. Cormac McCarthy, THE ROAD
162. Anna Godbersen, RUMORS
163. Danny Wallace, YES MAN [Please ignore that this review somehow got shelved in fiction, I am writing the angry e-mail for you.]
164. Shauna Reid, THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF DIETGIRL
165. Pardis Mahdavi, PASSIONATE UPRISINGS
166. Joseph Conrad, THE SECRET AGENT
167. Paula Fox, DESPERATE CHARACTERS
168. Tatiana Boncompagni, GILDING LILY
169. Heather King, REDEEMED
170. Eugenie Olson, LOVE IN THE TIME OF TAFFETA
171. Jeanette Winterson, WRITTEN ON THE BODY
172. William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, AND THE HIPPOS WERE BOILED IN THEIR TANKS
173. Barack Obama, THE AUDACITY OF HOPE
174. John Fante, ASK THE DUST
175. Niall Ferguson, THE ASCENT OF MONEY

See an un-italicized book up there you'd like to hear about? Let me know.

A lost chapter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

The sixth Golden Ticket winner, Miranda Piker, as the new second gunman? Merriam-Webster offers this definition of the word "piker": "one who does things in a small way." But I much prefer Urban Dictionary's "when someone fails to meet the expectations," because what fails more than a kid who actually wants to go to school?

Seriously, if you like Roald Dahl, read Jennet Conant's book THE IRREGULARS about Dahl in Washington D.C. during World War II schmoozing with diplomats. It's a really neat untold history that, so far as I have seen, is not getting much attention in year-end wrap-ups, but is much cheerier than the new Bob Woodward or THIS REPUBLIC OF SUFFERING.

What's your favorite Roald Dahl book? Much as I love CHARLIE... I have to go with MATILDA.

Hat tip: Fabulously Broke in the City, a personal finance blog.

Bully for Aaron Ross Powell

He published the first draft of his zombie novel for the Kindle in August and has been selling about a copy a day since then.

If I had one, I would definitely be buying this. (Guest review, Jess?)

California, here we come again

Number of books read between Nov. 22 and 30 (trips I and II): 6.

Books read on airplanes: 4.

Books read while sitting on a balcony overlooking the ocean and listening to a bagpiper play: 1. Leave your hate mail in the comments!

Number of bookstores visited: 2; Compass Books in San Francisco Airport and [warning! site plays music automatically!] Moon News Bookstore in Half Moon Bay, CA.

Books purchased on the trip: 1, at Compass Books.

Books given on the trip: 1, being FACTORY GIRLS which my mom just read and said was one of the best books she'd read in years.

Books given away: 1, my copy of THE AUDACITY OF HOPE to my sister.

Books left in transit on purpose: 2.

Library books waiting for me on hold at my local branch: 4.
Unpacked bags sitting on my floor: 2. (I'm not jet lagged in the classic sense, just need to make up for last night's packing-palooza.)