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24
It’s, Like, a Heatwave
2011 at 10am Posted by Rebecca Schinsky
Okay, so I’m bastardizing the phrasing a bit, but at this point, the only way to cope with this motherf#@king heatwave is to embrace it. So I give you Martha & the Vandellas. And if you’re on Spotify, here’s a playlist I created of songs to help you think yourself cold—all suggestions welcome!
Summer Reading: What Is It Good For?
2011 at 5am Posted by Rebecca Schinsky
Summer reading can mean hours spent slaving over a dead-white-guy classic while your friends are out having fun. It can mean taking a break from your usual fare to indulge in beachside brain candy. Or it can mean the opposite—embracing the rare extra hour of daylight or week of vacation to dig into a big book you’ve been saving. Whether the words “summer reading” conjure up pain or pleasure, everyone has an opinion. And Team Bookrageous is no different!
In our latest episode, Jenn and I chat with Kevin Smokler (sitting in for Josh, who was out with scheduling difficulties) about all things summer reading, from classroom to poolside. And we have thoughts! And rants! And many, many ideas about how summer reading could me made exponentially more awesome.
Enjoy, subscribe, and let us know what you’d like to hear in future episodes. (Show notes below the embedded player.)
Books for Your Beach Bag: Writers on Writing
2011 at 5am Posted by Rebecca Schinsky
Like that? It’s a bumper sticker!
Few things make me happier than discovering an unintended theme in my reading, particularly because the longer I blog, the worse I become at intentionally grouping my reading material. These are my latest favorites in the “books about books and writing” category.
Don’t Quit Your Day Job: Acclaimed Authors and the Day Jobs They Quit edited by Sonny Brewer
Ever wonder what your favorite writers did before they became writers? In Don’t Quit Your Day Job, Sonny Brewer presents an anthology in which well-known (mostly southern) writers discuss their pre-writing jobs and how those jobs influenced their work. Here is Pat Conroy describing a summer spent working for a Catholic social justice organization. Here is Joshilyn Jackson revealing in hilarious detail the fictional boyfriend who made her mindnumbing office gig slightly more bearable. Here is Tom Franklin (whose Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter was a 2010 Book Lady favorite) reflecting on being a thirty-two-year-old pizza delivery guy…with a twenty-one-year-old manager. And here is John Grisham relating the transition from lawyer (which, come on, it’s not like he was down a mine) to blockbusting bestseller.
The pieces in Don’t Quit Your Day Job are part motivational (these people get paid to do what they love and you can too!), part memoir, and all worthwhile. I enjoyed dipping into this collection for palate cleansers to break up the heavier books I was reading at the time, but one could just as easily plow straight through. It’s always fun to get a glimpse of the people behind the books we love, and Don’t Quit Your Day Job is no exception. Read more
