Monday Tally is a weekly link round-up of some of my favorite posts discovered over the week. If you have suggestions for Monday Tally, please e-mail sophisticated [dot] dorkiness [at] gmail [dot] com. Enjoy!
And the Winner Is…
Last week I asked people to vote for which of the nonfiction National Book Award finalists I should read. The final results were:
Secret Historian by Justin Spring – 10 votes
Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick – 7 votes
Every Man in This Village Is a Liar by Megan K. Stack – 3 votes
Cultures of War by John W. Dower – 1 vote
Just Kids by Patti Smith – 0 votes
The two I was leaning towards were Nothing to Envy and Every Man in This Village Is a Liar because I love narrative nonfiction by journalists, but of course I’m excited about the winner. I reserved it from the library today, and hope I’ll be able to get to it by the end of the year.
Twin Cities Book Festival
This weekend I went to the Twin Cities Book Festival (full recap coming this week, I hope). One of the bloggers I met up with, Sheila at Book Journey, already posted a re-cap of the panel she was on – The Changing World of Publishing – Getting Books to Readers. Check it out!
Ash at English Major’s Junk Food already did her recap of the event, which you should go read until I get my back together. And so did Alea at Pop Culture Junkie… Such good bloggers!
News and Video
The Feminist Texan Reads did a really creative, pictorial review of Visit from the Good Squad by Jennifer Egan that I really think you should check out.
This made me cry at work. This is the most moving It Gets Better video that I have seen so far. You can see more at http://www.youtube.com/user/itgetsbetterproject.
Although you might be tired of these, I’m always drawn to stories about the impact the failing economy is having on kids my age – young, educated, and unemployed. I’m not sure that this one from Good says much that is different, other than again emphasizing how different the world students are graduating into is than the one they were told to expect and how ongoing underemployment and unemployment plays into the shifting idea of what it means to be an adult.
Combining two things I love: good Sesame Street parodies and the Old Spice Guy.
I enjoy watching Glee, and I really enjoy reading things by smart people who write about Glee. That’s why this Time piece by James Poniewozik is recommended – he totally gets why Glee works, and what makes an episode like “Duets” (last week) awesome.
One thing I like about Glee is that it operates on a different level of reality than other network dramas, and different sets of rules (or none at all). I’ve always been OK, with that, just as I can accept that in a musical characters break into song with backup dancers—it’s a heightened, nonliteral representation of that character’s inner reality. Not only does this make the show simply more interesting, at times it allows for effects that straight realism can’t achieve. But the show does need emotional realism, and on that level, “Duets” was, thankfully, in harmony.
About Reading
To Read, Or Not To Read suggests 12 easy tips to help you read more books. I practice a few of these, want to practice a few others, and hadn’t thought of a few of them too – it’s a good list!
Amy (Amy Reads) talks about how she and her sister would read new Harry Potter books at the exact same time – you have to see the picture on this post.
Books for My TBR
Lisa at The Little Reader posted a few journalism books that struck my eye:
- Media Unlimited, Revised Edition: How the Torrent of Images and Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives by Todd Gitlin
- Mediated: How the Media Shapes Our World and the Way We Live in It by Thomas de Zegotita
- What Liberal Media?: The Truth about Bias and the News by Eric Alterman
The Heroine’s Bookshelf because of a fun promotion going on at The Roaring 20s.
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood because I love Margaret Atwood and Trisha (eclectic / eccentric) gave it a good review.
The Odyssey by Homer because Trish (Love, Laughter, and a Touch of Insanity) is doing a November readalong, and Trisha said you should read this book before tackling The Penelopiad.
Heather (Age 30+ … A Lifetime of Books) wrote about her book club’s experiment reading graphic memoirs. The entire list looks awesome:
- American Widow by Alissa Torres
- Maus I, and Maus II by Art Spiegelman
- French Milk by Lucy Knisley
- Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
- We Are On Our Own by Miriam Katin
- The Photographer by Emmanuel Guibert
- American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
- Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
- American Splendor by Harvey Pekar
- Smile by Raina Telgemeier
Comments on this entry are closed.
I know I voted, but I can’t remember which book I voted for. Boy, am I getting old. The Twin Cities Book Festival sounds like so much fun.
Kathy: Ha ha, I forget stuff like that all the time. Too many book titles to keep track of, I think.
A great collection as always. I had some of those books marked down too actually 🙂 And thanks for linking to my post. hehe.
Amy: It was a big week for adding books to my TBR. Luckily, a lot of them were comics, which are easier to find time to read. I loved your Harry Potter post – it reminded me of how much fun my family used to have reading the books together.
Well, at least the book that won has a pretty amazing title, even if it’s not the one that got my vote. I think I might tackle the entire short list if the library is cooperative.
I love your Monday links feature, by the way.
Cass: I’d love to do the entire short list. I think I could at least try all of them before they announce the 2011 short list. And thank you – it’s a fun post to put together every week.
Oh, Kim, I agree – that is the most moving It Gets Better video I’ve seen. Thank you for posting it.
Belle: Almost all of the “It Gets Better” videos make me tear up, but this one actually made me cry. I thought it was a very courageous thing for him to share, in an especially public setting. Regardless of political affiliation, I think it’s safe to say that no one wants teens to be bullied, which is, in large part, what I think this whole campaign is about. I wish I remembered where I got this one from, but I just can’t remember who linked to it first.
I just have to say, I think you got your wording backwards…instead of reading The Odyssey before tackling The Penelopiad, I think perhaps it should be tackling The Odyssey before reading The Penelopiad! 🙂 I’m thinking about joining the readalong with the audio version of The Odyssey, but I kind of hated the book in college. We’ll see!
Erin: Lol, you are totally right. Your version of the sentence makes way more sense! I got my copy of The Odyssey from the library today and boy, is that a giant book. I’ve never read it before, so we’ll see how it goes.
waahhhh, i just cried my face out. that video was excellent. thank you so much for sharing.
and thanks for linking to me.
lisa: I cried with this one too, although like I told Belle, most of the videos for that project make me tear up.
I hope you enjoy The Penelopiad!
Trisha: I’m almost positive that I will. And I am going to read The Odyssey first (good grief!), which I think will make it cooler.
Love that quote about Glee– I’m so looking forward to tomorrow night. Thanks for mentioning my post! Looking forward to yours.
Ash: I love it too. I’m not good at writing intelligently about television, so I love finding examples of people who can. I was bummed about no new episode this week, but the Halloween one looks like it will be pretty awesome.
Wow – I can tell that the new puppy really messed with my time to blog last week. I missed ALL of these posts! I would have voted for the Patti Smith book.
Care: Having a new puppy is a great excuse for not blogging. I hope you and the family are having a ton of fun with her 🙂
I shared a link to the It Gets Better website in my post today. It is so important to feel the support from others!
I will look at more of your links later, but I did take a look at the 12 easy tips to read more books. I always have a book with me — and if I happen to forget, I have some on my iPhone :-).
Valerie: I think the whole It Gets Better project is amazing, for all teens really. Everyone needs to hear that once in awhile, I think. I had a pretty well-adjusted childhood and I know it was something I needed to hear.
I was talking with someone on Twitter about always having a book a few days ago – we were joking that we specifically buy purses big enough to fit books just so we know we can always have one!
I was a little envious of your book fesitval this weekend. We had the Texas Book Festival as well and I have to admit I was pretty disappointed. 🙁 Only upside was getting to meet a handful of bloggers–but even still I can’t believe how few of us there are for such a large state. Or maybe it’s just too far for everyone to drive!
I hope you’ll join the readalong! I’ve also been wanting to read The Penelopiad, so hopefully this will be a nice intro (though is Home really an intro to anything?) 😉
Trish: Bummer, it’s too bad the TX Book festival wasn’t as great as you’d hoped. This one was pretty small, but I was impressed by the panels and discussions.
I just got They Odyssey from the library and am all signed up – what have I gotten myself into!? Hopefully not another Brothers K 🙂
I also loved the Feminist Texican’s pictorial review, and that’s saying something because I, to put it mildly, am not very appreciative of anything besides text.
Jeanne: Lol, you’re never someone that I’d describe as putting things lightly 🙂 But yeah, I thought that review was awesome – even though there weren’t a lot of words I felt like I got a good sense of the book. I’m reading it for my in-real-life book club, and am not even more excited.
Thanks for posting the video of Joel Burns – that was incredibly moving.
Christy: You’re welcome, I’m glad you were impacted by it as much as I was.
I have yet to watch Glee but after our recent lunch conversation and now your post… I think I need to give Glee a try. 🙂
Sheila: I feel like Glee is something you might get a kick out of. The first season is out on DVD – you should rent it or something just to see what you think. It can bes sort of ridiculous, but also really charming.
Ha, I totally do almost all those things about how to read more books. I’m a little ashamed at how few of those I don’t do. :p
Jenny: I do too! Clearly, we’re good and finding time to read, which I think is awesome 🙂