lisaalvarado

From Salon.com:

Unless you’ve been trapped under a very large P.C. for the last year, you’ve likely heard the about Apple’s rumored new tablet device (now being heralded as the “iSlate”). The device is thought to be an 8 (or 10, or 11) inch flat iPod-like gadget that will be a mix between a Mac laptop and a Kindle. Most rumors suggest that it will have a touch interface and video capabilities, and, thanks to today’s Wall Street Journal, it has a likely release date: March. (According to the article, Apple will show it to the public later this month.)

I haven’t been trapped under a P.C. or a rock (or anything else heavy), and I’ve been waiting for this kind of confirmation, from a reputable outlet, about the Apple tablet — iSlate, I guess — for awhile.  (Did you know that Apple bought the domain name iSlate.com back in 2007?) And while I’m hoping they’re aiming high on that price point ($1,000 was mentioned), I admit I’m desirous, indeed. And one of the many reasons is for e-reading. I just can’t make the leap to buy an entire device as an e-reader; even though the Nook is tempting as all get out, it’s not practical for my budget anymore to buy an electronic device that only does one thing. But the “iSlate” would do more, obviously.

And — look, I could talk at some length about what I would use an Apple tablet for — movies, presentations in meetings, travel, e-reading. All valid stuff. But we all know when it comes down to it, it’s mostly going to be SHINY I WANTS IT NOWZZ.

Staying tuned, I guess, until the 26th.

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There is always a stack of books on my nightstand. There’s the “in progress” book right next to me, of course, but I mean the pile of books I’ve got on my “to read” list, next to that. The thing about that stack is that its composition changes — of course, as I read along. But more’s always getting added to the pile, and the order changes on a whim as well. Poor Al Gore has been languishing at the bottom of the stack for a year now, but I took him to work to be my “stuck at lunch alone” book buddy, so maybe he’ll get some intermittent attention that way.

The lineup right now:

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
Chocolat by Joanne Harris
Wife in the North by Judith O’Reilly
Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland
Museum by Danny Danzinger

Some of these are from the museum book club, and of course all of the books on that list will make it to the stack eventually. A few others that caught my eye and may make it there:

City Boy: My Life in New York During the 1960s and ’70s by Edmund White
THE SECOND CITY UNSCRIPTED: Revolution and Revelation at the World-Famous Comedy Theater by Mike Thomas

Lastly, this one isn’t even published yet, but it’s by the fabulous Laura Bennett, Project Runway finalist from season 3.

Didn’t I Feed You Yesterday?: A Mother’s Guide to Sanity in Stilettos by Laura Bennett, available 4/13/2010.

Doesn’t that sound wonderful? And I don’t even have kids.

Anyone else got a book they’re looking forward to?

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I read 37 books in 2009, probably an all-time high, except for maybe back when I was 15 and stuck at home over the summer, bored out of my gourd. I can’t even remember all the books I read back then, but a few years ago, true book-geek that I am, I started keeping lists of everything I read. Everything new — I’m not counting in this list anything I reread. If we were to include those, toss on a few Anne McCaffrey books and Tigana, about 8 times alone.

I was actually a little surprised how many books I read this year. Right off the bat, eleven of them are from Book Club, but while it’s sometimes hard to get each month’s selection finished in time for the meeting, that has more to do with sometimes not enjoying it. In the meantime, it seems like the more I read, the more I wanted to read. And while I didn’t enjoy all of these, each one — maybe especially the ones I disliked — was an experience. Some took forever to finish: I was reading The Hour I First Believed for quite some time, but it was rather long. Others, like the Twilight novels, took about two collective weeks, despite their length.

Favorites? The first book I read, Doreen Orion’s Queen of the Road, still tops the list. I enjoyed every page and didn’t want it to end. I also truly loved The Secret Life of Bees, The Graveyard Book, and Unaccustomed Earth: Stories. Ones I disliked, not counting Twilight (because that wouldn’t be fair; they’d blow everything else out of the water in that category, but I’m still glad I read them, leaving me free to snark): Indignation (I don’t think Philip Roth is my cup of tea) and Take Your Shirt Off and Cry, which was poorly written. Also The Lost Symbol, but I wasn’t expecting much. Looking at it another way, though, the biggest disappointments were Wishful Drinking (I know Carrie Fisher can write better than that) and The Penelopiad (great idea, but lackluster execution).

The full list (I’ve linked to where I’ve already posted a review; others will be reviewed in early 2010):

Queen of the Road: The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of Its Own – Doreen Orion (review)
Indignation – Philip Roth (review)
The Tales of Beedle the Bard – J.K. Rowling
The Penelopiad – Margaret Atwood (review)
Then We Came to the End – Joshua Ferris (review)
The Sonnets – Warwick Collins
The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman (review)
Remember Me? – Sophie Kinsella
Serenity Vol. 1: Those Left Behind – Joss Whedon
Serenity Vol. 2: Better Days – Joss Whedon
The World Without Us – Alan Weisman (review)
The Cellist of Sarajevo – Steven Galloway (review)
Apples and Oranges – Marie Brenner (review)
A Walk in the Woods – Bill Bryson (review)
Take Your Shirt Off and Cry – Nancy Balbirer
The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd (review)
Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro (review)
Twilight – Stephanie Meyer
New Moon – Stephanie Meyer
Eclipse – Stephanie Meyer
Breaking Dawn – Stephanie Meyer
Unaccustomed Earth – Jhumpa Lahiri (review)
The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
I Was Told There’d Be Cake – Sloane Crosley
Walking Across Egypt – Clyde Edgerton
Wishful Drinking – Carrie Fisher
The Hour I First Believed – Wally Lamb
The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – Jane Austen and Seth Grahame Smith
The Lost Symbol – Dan Brown
Dedication – Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
The Audacity to Win – David Plouffe
Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
The Audacity of Hope – Barack Obama
Imperial Woman – Pearl S. Buck
Holidays on Ice – David Sedaris (review)
The Truth About Santa – Gregory Mone

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One of my favorite Friends episodes is the one where Joey and Rachel read each other’s favorite book, The Shining and Little Women, respectively. When Joey completely ruins the end of The Shining for Rachel, she does the same to him. “Beth dies.” (She takes it back when Joey gets upset. And I apologize if I’ve just inadvertantly ruined it for someone, but really, the book’s 140 years old. I think we’re out of spoiler range.)

I love Little Women. I love the book, love the movies. I love Marmee and Laurie and all the girls, even Amy, who can be a bit of a pain in the butt. I love it more than the sequels, though Little Men isn’t bad, I admit I thought Jo’s Boys was just downright boring. The story may be a little simple in parts, but I’ve probably read it a dozen or so times and it never fails to be enjoyable. And maybe part of that, especially when I was younger, was that it was a true story. There really was a Jo, and she’s written this book! A real Beth (sniff) and a real Laurie! Like with the Little House books, there’s something about knowing those characters you love really existed. It’s like finding out that Narnia is someplace you can actually go, a little.

That’s why I haven’t been super-interested in finding out the truth behind the fiction. I read an article, somewhere or other, about the relationship between Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter Rose, how much Rose might have had to do with the writing of the books and how much commercial viability might have had to do with it. I stopped reading the article half-way through. I don’t want anything to tarnish my image of Laura and Manly and Rose, who in my mind never got much older than four or five. Likewise, I’d read a bit about the differences between Louisa May Alcott’s life and Jo March’s. I knew not only “Beth” but “Amy” died young, in real life, though Alcott does not describe this second sister’s death in her books; instead, Amy becomes a remote figure in the story. I know that Alcott, unlike Jo, never married, but that Freidrich Bhaer may have been modeled after Ralph Waldo Emerson; she was his children’s governess. And I also know that Mr. March, Jo’s much-beloved, almost saintly father, may not have been quite so saintly after all… and that’s where my tolerance for finding out the real story ended.

That’s why, much as I admire the topic, I probably won’t be reading or watching Harriet Reisen’s Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind ‘Little Women, airing tonight on PBS. From NPR:

Let’s get one thing straight about Louisa May Alcott: “She’s not the little woman you thought she was, and her life was no children’s book,” says Alcott scholar Harriet Reisen.

For many readers, Alcott is synonymous with her most famous character, Jo March, the spirited sister in Alcott’s classic Little Women. The beloved writer’s real life is the subject of Reisen’s film, Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind ‘Little Women’ — based on her book by the same name. The film premieres Monday night on PBS’ American Masters.

It’s probably going to be fascinating. I’m being a big ninny, I admit it. But… is it so awful that I’d rather pretend that Jo and her sisters were just as they were written? I’d rather go on thinking that, I guess, than hearing the truth, no matter how interesting.

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Review of: Holidays on Ice: Stories
by David Sedaris
Little, Brown and Company (2008), Hardcover, 176 pages

If you’re my age or anywhere near it, you’re pretty much genetically disposed to have an abiding fondness for David Sedaris. He’s sarcastic, funny, satirical and a little outrageous, but in a very low-key way. Strangely enough, every now and then he’s a little too outrageous for me; a few of the short essays found in this holiday collection were a little over the top for my taste, particularly “Seasons Greetings to Our Friends and Family!”, for example. That’s the thing about Sedaris. You’re reading along, smirking, and then sometimes he pushes it just over the edge and you’re left feeling mildly uncomfortable with your earlier snark. On the other hand, “The SantaLand Diaries” is perfection in every line, even with its edginess and all the snark you would have to imagine a grown man working as an Elf in Macy’s would have to have.

The Christmas holiday is just past us, but it’s still great to hear Sedaris read his own work. NPR posted a link to their 1992 broadcast of the author reading from “The SantaLand Diaries” here.

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