quote of the day/something to think about

"She stopped believing in God: with the immensity of human suffering before her, she felt quite sure that Providence did not exist." Simone de Beauvoir, When Things of the Spirit Come First

typewriter poetry

Just found this poet via tumblr. I don't think I've liked new poetry this much in so long. Tyler Knott Gregson.

cover art

While compiling my New Year's reading list, I came across these beautifully designed book covers. Interestingly enough, the covers are embossed prints of original embroidered covers stitched by Canadian artist (now based out of Brooklyn, New York) Jillian Tamaki as a commission from the publishing house Penguin. Each one is an incredible work of art, and I hope to own one of the books soon. Purchase them from Amazon.

She is also married to Sam Weber, who I posted about a few weeks ago. Quite a talented couple.

Will you stay with me?

From American poet Jill Bialosky comes the eclectic collection Intruder. Opening with the hauntingly melancholic Demon Lover, the following poems weave odd tales of startling beauty and supreme reality. Drawing from obvious life experience, the collection is an easy one with which to connect, a feat many authors have difficulty. To drink in more of Bialosky's way with words, pick up The Life Room, an intense telling of the inner workings of an every day woman.

25 years later

Bret Easton Ellis' 2010 release Imperial Bedrooms, inspired by Elvis Costello and the Attractions' album Imperial Bedroom, catches up with the characters of 1985's Less Than Zero. The novel opens with Clay recounting the last 25 years: he and Blair have broken up, he is now a big time screenwriter, and life's disappoints have continued to follow him. Far more grim than it's prequel, Bedrooms sheds bright light on the dirty backdoor deals Clay makes in order to ease his sexual frustrations and avoid any difficulties he comes up against. Bedrooms lacks the adolescent innocence and likability Less Than Zero possessed, drawing some of the bloody violence seen in American Psycho. However there is a plus: Ellis cleverly conveys his negative thoughts on the 1987 movie version of Less Than Zero, using the characters commentary after viewing it. Though I'm glad to have read Bedrooms, and have a deep admiration for Ellis' style, I would not necessarily recommend it. Three stars.

Disappear Here

In 1985, California-born writer Bret Easton Ellis debuted with Less Than Zero, a satirical drama (titled after Elvis Costello's song of the same name) that follows Clay, a wealthy college student who has returned home to L.A. for Christmas vacation. With a drunk mother, separated parents, bratty sisters, a failing relationship, sexually promiscuous acts, heavy drug usage and MTV, Clay's life is a rollercoaster of problems and disappointments. Throughout the novel, he finds himself in many negative situations and consistently distances himself from his friends. After he and his friends find a dead body, and he later witnesses the gang rape of a twelve year old girl, Clay packs up and leaves L.A., his on-off girlfriend Blair and his heroin-addicted/prostitute friend Julian.

Two years later, the book was made a movie, which in my opinion is painfully overwrought and does not do the novel justice.

say hello to my little friend

From critically acclaimed author, James Frey, comes My Friend Leonard, a quasi-sequel to his first autobiographical fic A Million Little Pieces. Emotionally stunning, the novel picks up right after James is released from jail and is headed to see his girlfriend, Lilly, a recovering drug addict he met in rehab. When he arrives, she is dead, hanged by a rope in her shower at the halfway house she is staying. From there, you follow James as he deals with the grief of losing Lilly and the happiness he finds when he reconnects with Leonard, his "adoptive" father he befriended at the rehabilitation facility. If you have read Pieces, then you know Leonard's fate, but don't let that deter you from reading Leonard in its entirety. It will make you laugh and most certainly make you cry, but true to Frey's style, it will also make you think.

Euphoric Words

1.

My hour of you, my cursive thoughts, a pulpit beating under these ribs.

2.

Dear Time, you swallowed us whole, swallowed us lovely, sharp as bones

I am still here, supple and driftwood, you lovely, you loved me

3.

All these scentless descents.

I shake my glass, shake again, melted suffixes tinkling

Why is pain so much better than nothing?

4.

Sure you are witty, but are you any less romantic?

I remember that day: it was cold and the coffee was tepid.

5.

My thoughts of you fully indexed, ready to step into.

Sina Queyras

"Euphoria"

Best of the Best

"that was just a dream, good morning:
regurgitate the stars and the soot"
- Ana Bozicevic
A Kind of Headless Guilt Emerges

"He fell in love like a woman
in the folded arms
of a drying sweater"
- Mary Ruefle
Matthew Brady Arranging the Bodies

"I
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness"
- Allen Ginsberg
Howl

"The salt sparkles like an arctic church.
I have to blink against it all."
- Kiki Petrosino
Mustang Bagel

"A tin flask empties
itself from asking, the shadow's last chance
now wasted in some chandelier's dim lust."
- Greg Sellers
Shy Boy

Nate the Great

With a fine arts background and a PhD in Creative Writing and British Romanticism, New York-native Nate Pritts writes spunky, endearingly awkward and highly addictive prose. Though his past poetry collections Sensational Spectacular (2007) and Honorary Astronaut (2008) are outstanding, it is one of his more recent compilation of works The Wonderfull Yeare: a shepherd's calendar that has me hooked. A truly arresting selection from The Wonderfull Yeare "& then afterward" encompasses passion, youthful romance and a sort of vibrance that demands attention. There are obvious romantic elements, but Pritts weaves them into his work, and avoids the painfully cliche. Keep him on your literary radar.

For more from Pritts and his collection of writers, check out his literary journal H_NGM_N. Not only are the included poetry, prose, etc. wonderful, the fun, creative covers are just another draw.

Issue #10 is available now.

It's broken beyond repair

This past week, I fell in love with James Frey's

A Million Little Pieces. Despite some untruths of the work, I found Frey's telling of his stint in a rehabilitation facility beautifully disturbing. Though not a book for the faint of heart, you won't be able to keep from becoming emotionally attached to James and the cast of misfits he calls friends.

Have you ever been in love?

This week, I reread Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things, and rather than select just this one work from his extensive library, I chose to feature him and all he has written and recorded.

BOOKS

A Walking Tour of the Shambles (with Gene Wolfe)
The Absolute Death

Adventures in the Dream Trade

All New Stories (with All Sarantonio)

American Gods

Anansi Boys

Angels & Visitations

Coraline

Day of the Dead

Don't Panic

Fragile Things

Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett)

Interworld (with Michael Reaves)

M is for Magic
MirrorMask (with Dave McKean)

Neverwhere

Now We Are Sick (with Stephen Jones)

Odd and the Frost Giants

Smoke & Mirrors

Stardust

The Absolute Death

The Alchemy of MirrorMask

The Dangerous Alphabet

The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish

The Graveyard Book

The Sandman Book of Dreams

Wolves in the Walls

COMICS

1602

Black Orchid

Books of Magic (with Dave McKean)

Creatures of the Night

Death: The High Cost of Living

Death: The Time of Your Life

Harlequin Valentine

Midnight Days

Mr. Punch: The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy

Murder Mysteries

Sandman: The Dream Hunter

Signal to Noise

Stardust

The Absolute Sandman, Vol. 1-4

The Last Temptation

The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Noctures

The Sandman Vol. 2: The Doll's House

The Sandman Vol. 3: Dream Country

The Sandman Vol. 4: Season of Mists

The Sandman Vol. 5: A Game of You

The Sandman Vol. 6: Fables & Reflections

The Sandman Vol. 7: Brief Lives

The Sandman Vol. 8: The Worlds' End

The Sandman Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones

The Sandman Vol. 10: The Wake

The Sandman: Endless Nights

Violent Cases

AUDIO

A Study in Emerald

American Gods

Anansi Boys

Coraline

Fragile Things

Good Omens

InterWorld

M is for Magic

MirrorMask

Neverwhere

Odd and the Frost Giants

Speaking in Tongues

Stardust

Telling Tales

The Graveyard Books

Two Plays for Voice: Snow Glass Apples & Murder

Warning: Contains Language

Wolves in the Walls

Come, my love, we have oceans to sail

New York poet, writer, rapper and actor Saul Williams knows. He knows how to capture the flutter of a heartbeat, the anger in a fist and the beauty in a blink. He knows pain, heartache and laughter. He knows how to weave simple words into music.

This summer, I read two of his poetry collections, S/HE and , said the Shotgun to the Head. Both seemed to catch emotions as if they were butterflies, lacing them into the inked words as they float across the pages and then suddenly swarm.

"I have seen the truth

many times

but for the first time

she saw me"

from S/HE

"intelligence is intuitive

you needn't learn to love

unless you've been taught

to fear and hate"

from , said the Shotgun to the Head

As Gregor Samsa awoke from unsettling dreams one morning...

"Let me go to Gregor, he's my unfortunate son! Can't you understand that I must go to him?"

Both slightly unnerving and oddly appealing, Franz Kafka's Die Verwandlung (The Metamorphosis) made top list this week. After sitting down and skimming the first page, I found myself engrossed and quickly read through the novella's 47 pages. I must warn readers that the story is not a happy one, no matter how you spin it, but entirely worth your time.

Must Read of the Week

I am a pathological book-lover. My bedroom is a library that just happens to have a bed in it. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Read the book that won my heart this week: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (Jonathan Safran Foer)