Winkie

The Publishers Weekly review of Winkie puts the author Clifford Chase "in the same league as David Sedaris". Unfortunately, that nice designation could not be farther from the truth. The book is about a teddy bear who finds himself in a cabin in the woods being captured by the FBI and charged with thousands of counts of treason and terrorism. Throughout the beginning of the book, Winkie discusses how he used to be a she when he was owned by the mother of his current owner and the moment he realized he could speak. Confused and bewildered? Yeah, so was I. This book not only wasn't as funny as Sedaris' books, it wasn't funny at all. It was silly and didn't at all live up to the hype of many starred reviews.

The Guy Not Taken

Jennifer Weiner has had much success with her four previous chick lit books, one of which was made into a movie that I liked as much as the book. Of course it didn't hurt that cutie Mark Feuerstein was in it. I have read all of her novels and really enjoyed them. It seems though that her latest book, The Guy Not Taken: Stories, was hastily thrown together to capitalize on her success and get a book out quickly. Many of the stories were previously published in magazines and although they were all good, none of them were as satisfying as her books. Short story collections can be tricky because there is not enough time to develop the characters and it's difficult to make the tales meaningful. It seems that problem is what happened here. After finishing this book, I felt unsatisfied and longed for another of Weiner's novels with their strong, funny female leads and quick, witty pop culture references. Maybe next year.

The Baby Name Wizard

I'll admit right off the bat that I haven't read the book The Baby Name Wizard by Laura Wattenburg, mostly because I have no use for baby names (thank goodness). It's supposed to have history and tons of good information about names. The part of the book that I really want to talk about is the website and the baby name wizard interactive "NameVoyager". The website has a graph that shows the popularity of baby names from the 1880s through 2005. It's very cool and fun to play around with and see the journey your name has taken. When you start typing in a name the graph grows and shows variations of the name as well as the name you typed in. Crazily enough, the book seems to have created an internet monster. There is the website, the book and a baby name wizard blog. Go look up your name and have fun.

101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived

Last week or so there was a lot of blog buzz regarding a new book by Dan Karlan, Adam Lazar and Jeremy Salter called 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived: How Characters of Fiction, Myth, Legends, Television, and Movies Have Shaped Our Society, Changed Our Behavior, and Set the Course of History. I wasn't going to blog about this book until I had actually gotten my hands on it, but then driving home last night I heard that this week on the 105.5 Triple M morning show, the hosts are going to be discussing it and who the authors may have left out. I figured since my readers (thanks friends, family and coworkers - all 5 of you) mostly live in Madison, it might be a good time to discuss this book on my blog so that if you listen to the morning show you'll be well informed (it streams online for those not in Madison).

The website for the book lists the first 50 people on the list and I feel as though they have done a fairly good job. I'm not sure that I agree with Hamlet being in the top 10, but overall, I think that the list looks pretty good. This book is an interesting pop culture idea; we are influenced by characters and I am excited to read the essays that accompany each person on the list. Hopefully I can catch some of the morning shows and see what Madisonians think about the list as well.

Slam Dunks and No Brainers

I saw Leslie Savan on Friday night at Wisconsin Bookfest where she was talking about her latest book, Slam Dunks and No Brainers: Language in Your Life, the Media, Business, Politics and Like, Whatever. She was a very good speaker, she read from her book and explained the definition of "pop language" which is what her book is about. The book gives the central example of convincing the public that there were WMDs in Iraq; Bush's advisor said it would be a "slam dunk" and Bush went for it. Savan discusses the fact that we all use pop language, television shows have even gone so far as to substitute a well chosen phrase for a joke punch line. The book is an interesting look at the catch phrases, references and words that make up much of the way we all speak no matter how old or hip we are. The discussion on Friday night centered around young people despite the fact that the youngest people in the crowd (besides Savan's children) were my friend and I who are in our early twenties and despite the fact that Savan mentioned more than once that we all use pop language. It was still very interesting and people made some good points as to how to avoid using pop language. The book is thought provoking and worth checking out.

Urban Dictionary

These days, it seems like some new slang term pops up every day. That's why it's good that we have the Urban Dictionary. When you're watching television, reading blogs or talking with friends and you're not quite sure what an acronym stands for or something means yet you don't want to look stupid by asking, the urban dictionary has your back.

The only problem with the online dictionary is that anyone can edit it and it's not as well maintained as Wikipedia, so it can get confusing at times. That's where the print version comes in handy. Urban Dictionary: Fularious Street Slang Defined by urbandictionary.com and Aaron Peckham is a compact 300 some page version of the website with over 2,000 terms, including the definition for fularious (combination of either funny or fucking and hilarious). Overall, a handy tool for any lack of urban knowledge.

Secret Society Girl

While looking over my list of books I've read, I came across the novel Secret Society Girl: an Ivy League Novel by Diana Peterfreund. This book was pretty fluffy, but overall a fun quick read for a weekend. Amy Haskell, the main character, is a student at a fictitious Ivy League university called Eli when she gets "tapped" to be in the school's oldest and most prestigious secret society. This event marks the first year that women have ever been admitted to Rose and Grave so naturally controversy, mystery and of course romance ensue. More books will follow in what is to be a Secret Society Girl series and they'll be worth checking out.

Water For Elephants

I just finished the wonderfully written novel, Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen. This book tells the story of Jacob Jankowski, a Cornell vet student, who after the death of his parents finds himself lost in the world and jumps a train. This train turns out to belong to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth which Jacob manages to join as the country rolls through the Great Depression. The novel is written as two stories; the 23 year old Jankowski experiencing the circus and the 90 year old Jankowski remembering it. I loved this book and Gruen really did her research to make the circus real and the characters believably wicked. Overall, it's a great story.

The Revolution Will Be Accessorized

According to their website, BlackBook magazine "stands out from the crowd by amplifying the most daring and inventive impulses in pop culture, and exploring the space where the underground meets the mainstream." Launched a decade ago in New York City, and still primarily serving that market, the magazine has just released a book of short stories that have appeared in their issues.

At first when I started reading The Revolution Will Be Accessorized: BlackBook Presents Dispatches from the New Counterculture edited by Aaron Hicklin, I was not pleased. Maybe it's just because I'm a hick Wisconsinite who knows nothing about culture, but I don't think so. The first short story was pretentious and assumed that the whole of the cool kids live in New York City or Los Angeles. I kept reading and enjoyed some of the stories and features where two authors or artists interview each other. The submissions by Augusten Burroughs, Chuck Palahniuk and Ryan Boudinot were the best in the book and I must admit that I skimmed through some of the other stories where the writers or artists were telling themselves how great they were or talking down to me. The problem with books like this is that they take themselves way too seriously while trying to be cool and cutting edge. The ultimate pretentious moment occurs during the interview with Douglas Coupland and Naomi Klein when they start the article by insulting BlackBook magazine itself. Coupland says, "It's so over the top that I don't think you can say it's like Elle or Vogue." Klein counters, "I bought the 'Protest Issue'...I was so repulsed I almost bailed from this discussion."

Maybe if you had, I would have liked the book better.

Plan B

Jonathan Tropper's first novel, Plan B, is the story of a group of college friends reunited in a set of crazy circumstances. After a reunion in New York where Plan A goes awry, they decide to stage Plan B: an intervention for actor Jack's cocaine addiction. The group kidnaps Jack and takes him to the cabin of his best friend Alison, who has always wished their relationship could be more than platonic. During this time, the friends; Jack, Alison, the novelist narrator Ben who has just separated from his wife, free spirit Lindsay who happens to be Ben's ex-girlfriend, and insecure surgeon Chuck find themselves in a huge media frenzy. After the local police department figures out what is going on, the national media are not far behind. In addition to dealing with the feds, the friends find themselves backtracking to past romantic relationships and friendships. This book reminds me of a well-written movie that should have a soundtrack filled with cutting edge music and overall, I really enjoyed it.

The Amazing Mackerel Pudding Plan

Author Wendy McClure found some Weight Watchers recipe cards from 1974 while cleaning out her parents basement a few years ago. The result is the hilariously disgusting book The Amazing Mackerel Pudding Plan: Classic Diet Recipe Cards From the 1970s. I had no idea this existed until this weekend when friends I was visiting mentioned it to me, and thank goodness. Some of the recipe cards can be found online here and that preview promises that the book is going to be great. McClure adds funny commentary to the creepy photo recipes of a myriad of jellied meats and fish with no nutritional information whatsoever. McClure even set up a flickr group of the recipes being made. With recipes for fish being described as "fluffy", you know that things are bad.

Stuff on My Cat

Sometimes the Internet is a wonderful invention that makes our lives better, however; sometimes that's not the case. The "stuff on my cat" website is one of those things that we would never have without the Internet (like this) because it's too ridiculous to exist anywhere else. With the extremely catchy tag line of "stuff + cats = awesome", the website was started by a student who posted pictures of his cat with stuff on it and attracted submissions from other cat lovers. Unfortunately, for cats and humans alike, the madness has also spurned a book. Stuff on My Cat: The Book by Mario Garza is just like the website, it features pictures of cats from hundreds of readers with everything from whipped cream and cherries to wigs to tools on them. It also features an introduction describing the philosophy of stuff on my cat (whatever the hell that may be). I pretty much think this is a silly idea and don't really find it funny, but others do, so if you're a fan of the website, you probably want to check out the book when it is released in December.