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Archive for April, 2010

This Weeks Book Events, SF (week of 4/26)

Apr 26

Posted by The Valet in Uncategorized | No Comments

Ok, so I had a ton of posts ready to go before I left for Colombia. I had thought that I would be coming home this past Thursday, the 22nd. As these things go, I was convinced, it didn’t take a lot of arm twisting, to stay an extra two weeks and jump into Ecuador for a couple of days. I would almost apologize to you, my loyal readers, but I really don’t think I can or should. I mean, i’m unemployed and having an incredible time.

I have though had some issues with staying here longer. Honestly, the biggest draw back is that I will not be able to keep current with my blog. My reading has pretty much been reduced to a few pages a day. For once in the past year or two the one thing I have been able to do without fail has been over shadowed by my desire to be where I am rather than try to escape from my surroundings in a book. This also means that until I return there will most likely not be anymore book reviews. This will be the first time since I started this blog nearly a year ago that I will not post a review and it’s incredibly troubling for me but again, I cannot complain about being in S. America. And, that said, I am quite confident that you will be able to deal with it. I promise as soon as I get back you will have reviews as well as some other forms of entertainment from yours truly.

On another front, I have been taking videos daily of my exploits. Some videos of my surroundings but more in a diary form. Unfortunately internet here is not exactly great so trying to upload these videos has not been very easy. Therefore once I return and have a chance to sit down at the computer for about 2 days solid you should be able to follow my trip from the day I departed until the day I return home.

I´m not exactly going to take time from my adventures to do extensive research on whats happening in the world of literary events that are coming up but I have one gem for you this week.

Monday, April 26th
@ 12pm
- Rebecca Skloot, author, will be at North Gate Hall Library on the UC Berkeley campus discussing her book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Just recently someone had brought this book to my attention and after reading some of the feedback regarding it I´m quite excited to read it. The event, put on by The UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and other University groups, is free and will most likely be very entertaining. The book itself revolves around Ms. Lacks importance to science as her cells have been crucial tools for the development of the polio vaccine, uncovering secrets of diseases, aided in in vitro fertilization as well as many other medicinal research uses. The story goes on to tell the story of the Lacks family and how they have been used and not sufficiently compensated or acknowledged. Ms. Skloot is a established science journalist and has had an established career in the world of writing.

As my interest in journalism as a career has grown over the past year I was greatly looking forward to attending this event but of course, as you now know, I will still be in S. America. I had also imagined this event as being a perfect place to talk to current Berkeley J-School students and possibly faculty and learn more about the program. Alas, It looks as though I will have to wait until I return to attend one of their information sessions.

Alright ladies and gents, hold your horses, I´ll be back soon and you will be inundated by not only book realted information but my S. American travels as well!

This Weeks Book Events, LA (week of 4/26)

Apr 26

Posted by The Valet in Uncategorized | No Comments

Pardon the interruption, S. America calls. I´m confident that you´re capable of finding out whats going on on your own this week. I will be back soon, I promise!!

Stiff by Mary Roach

Apr 22

Posted by The Valet in Non-Fiction | 3 Comments

Stiff by Mary Roach

I was supposed to return to the United States today. I’m not.

Every now and then I get one of those cheesy “out of body” type sensations. At the moment I´m kind of dealing with that sensation. At this exact moment I´m physically on a bart train riding to the airport to begin my Colombian vacation. Mentally and existentially i´m anywhere but. I should be ecstatic, I should be thrilled and I should be full of adrenaline. Instead, I feel like a submarine that has just received a fatal, sinking blow from an enemy torpedo. That pretty much sums up the sensation I´m feeling at the moment.

It´s as though I´m looking down upon my dead and bloated body (I know, awesome image right?) right now. It´s amazing how quickly I’ve gone from feeling so alive to feeling so empty and dead.

I had great expectations that while I would be gone all the pieces of my life that I had been hoping to fall into place would. Instead, only 30 minutes before leaving for the airport, a person who I would say has grown to be one of my closest friends over the last 3 months told me that she really didn´t think it was a good idea that we continue to talk. In a way her reasoning may be right and I can´t or couldn´t argue with her, but it also left me heartbroken. Like I said, not exactly how I imagine feeling on my way to the airport.

It´s never been hard for me to correlate what I´m reading with what´s going on directly around me. Sometimes it´s a stretch (I`ll admit it) but other times it´s just a plain old coincidence. In this instance it´s half stretch, half coincidence. Stiff, you see, is about cadavers or dead bodies for those of you who live on mars.

But in an effort to turn things around (from that bizarre “out of body” sensation) I´ll start telling you how that experience, my travel to Colombia and and Mary Roach´s book are related.

In 1992 in the city of Barranqilla, Colombia a gentleman by the name of Oscar Rafael Hernandez was “bludgeoned” over the head while responding to a request to appear at the Universidad Libre. It’s reported Hernandez woke up in a vat of fermaldyhyde next to a handful of corpses that were to be used for “medicine.” Mr. Hernandez was fortunate, unlike the roughly 13 other people actually murdered at the Universidad, he survived, while those others bodies where used for dissection and who knows what else at the medical facility. At this point I’d really just like to thank Mary Roach for the advice to stay away from Universidad Libre.

This little story comes early in Roach’s book while she explains the art of human dissection for medical practice as well as the history of said dissection. Throughout the means of obtaining corpses for this purpose has always been questionable and Mr. Hernandez’s story just goes to demonstrate that murder for corpses still happens. That said though it shouldn’t really come as much of a surprise that physical dissection is a dying (no pun intended) educational tool.

While here in Colombia I had the opportunity to actually visit a medical school campus at the Universidad de Antiocha in Medellin. While I was not exactly vigilant about my safety I felt pretty secure that no one was going to try and kill me so they could see what was inside me. If they did, they’d probably be in for a shock anyways, I don’t think there’s much there anyhow. The campus itself though was really nice, I can’t say that I’d liked to be cut open there due to the lack of air conditioning and the patient which we say being moved around on gurney’s outside over speed bumps. But for the most part, it was quite impressive. And like I said the fact that there was no one lurking around ready to take my body and sell it helped, just a little.

Now I must take the time to thank Mary for my next vacation location. I think I would like to visit the University of Tennessee and their anthropological research facility. For this is where human decomposition is studied. Just lovely. I think a nice stroll through the forested grove behind the UT Medical Center would be quite romantic on a humid May afternoon, despite the people spread out lying on their backs in the grove. Or maybe a jaunt around the ponds near by would be nice. So long, that is, you don’t mind strolling amongst a bunch of decomposing bodies or jaunts around ponds in which there are bodies submerged for the same purpose, the study of human decomposition. Ah Mary, you’ve enlightened me so.

Unfortunately at this point in my review I must scorn Ms. Roach (after all, so far all i’ve done is trumpet her). I happened to be on an airplane while reading the chapter titles “Beyond the Black Box.” As you may be able to guess this particular chapter deals with planes crashes and how the bodies of the victims may be studied to determine the cause of the crash. As you can imagine it was pretty unsettling reading about that 35k feet in the air. Reading this chapter mid-flight was very much a kin to being the only gringo riding on a 12 hour night bus through Colombia during which the movie Hostel is played, not scary at all, I promise. Luckily in the case of Roach’s book this was a short chapter. And luckily for me on that bus I made it where I was headed in one piece.

At the end of the day I liked Mary’s book. So much so that I let my travel mate David borrow, read and consequently destroy the book (due to back sweat, I’ll tell you the story if you really want to know). After which the book was loaned to Elena a friend we made on our travels. The only thing I will be critical of is the end of the book. I started to get a little bit bored. It’s true, it happened. It almost felt as though Ms. Roach or her publisher needed a little bit more for the book to actually be considered a book and threw in some filler to make up for its length or something else. Honestly, I’m not really sure. Despite that though, everyone who recommended this book to me was right, it was good, good in a “some day I may read that chapter again” kind of way. So, there you have it, if you’re interested in medicine, corpses and a have that little organ donor sticker on your driver’s license, I recommend Stiff.

Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell

Apr 20

Posted by The Valet in Fiction | 1 Comment

Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell

Recently my older brother, Josh, who I’ve written about on more than one occasion in this blog competed in yet another athletic race. This time it was the Oceanside Ironman 70.3, for those you of that don’t know a “70.3″ is exactly half the distance of a full Ironman race (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run). For the third time in 6 months I have been up around or before 4 so that he could compete in one these f’ing crazy races. That point is irrelevant but I just wanted to put it out there so I would come across as a person of good will.

Later that night, after Josh and the rest of us has had taken naps, eaten (everything from ice cream to barley with walnuts) and played with the various puppies occupying the house, my brother, mother, father (sleeping) and I sat in our living room and began to talk. Our discussion eventually turned to another race that was taking place the same day as his 70.3. That race was the Barkley Ultramarathon.

Gary Cantrell, who began, designed and orchestrates the Barkley reminds me, in a way, of Dr. Peter Brown who is the title character in Josh Bazell’s book. Cantrell is seemingly demented, sadistic and yearly invites people to tempt fate in his crazy endurance challenge, Bazell has created, in Brown, that same demented and crazed personality. Before I get any more into it, I want to tell you a bit more about Barkley so that we, as a team, can convince my brother to give it a shot.

The Barkely is one of the most challenging foot races on the planet. But, why? Well, rather than get too far off from actually reviewing Beat the Reaper I’ll point you to this article which was in the Washington Post in 2007. But, because I know so many people won’t click I will tell you that the race has 52,900 feet of climb, since beginning in 1986 only 9 (there was one finisher this year) out of some 700 competitors have finished the race, race cutoff is 60 hours and because there are no spotters on the course racers must locate 9 paperback books along the course (on each of the 5 loops) and remove a page from each book to prove they have ran the circuit. If that little tidbit, along with the article, doesn’t indicate to you how potentially crazy Cantrell is I don’t know what else would. I guess convincing my brother may be a little tough.

Beat this, reap that…

This Weeks Book Events, LA (week of 4/19)

Apr 19

Posted by The Valet in Events | 1 Comment

Ahh, so much going on. For me at least! Living large in Colombia. Sorry for the weak post, but when i get home, whenever that may be you will be so inundated that youll wish youd never wondered where ive been.

Tuesday, April 20th (420 to all those cool kids out there)
@ 7pm
- Katherine Weber, author, will be discussing her book True Confections at Vroman’s. Yeah, really don’t know much about this one but since nothing else this week really caught my eye Weber is the big winner. From what I understand the book is really a sort of affidavit of the wife of a candy heir. I like candy and I like heir’s (to anything) therefore I’m informing you about this event. If you like candy, I think you should go, even though liking candy and liking this book are probably two completely separate things.

This Weeks Book Events, SF (week of 4/19)

Apr 19

Posted by The Valet in Events | No Comments

Come on, give me a break, im on vacation. Dont have much to tell you right now but stayed tuned, once i get back you will wont hear the end of it from me!

Monday, April 19th
@ 8pm
– Anne Lamott, author, will be speaking as part of the City Arts & Lectures series at the Herbst Theater. I reviewed one of Ms. Lamott’s books here in my blog and know that she is pretty much an icon so I thought I would do her the honor of bringing this event to the attention of all of you. While I enjoyed her book Bird by Bird, I did point out in my review that in the here and now, everyone is speaking in robot voices. I just hope she’s received the memo.

Tuesday, April 20th
@ 8pm
- Alice Walker, author, will have a conversation with Michael Krasny in conjunction with City Arts & Lectures at the Herbst theater. I’m not exactly completely familiar with Ms. Alice Walker but I know she is a local and has written some magnificent books such as The Color Purple. Just like Ms. Lamott, hearing Ms. Walker speak I’m pretty sure would be pretty inspirational.

Tuesday, April 20th
@ 7pm
- Daniel Alarcon, author, will be signing and talking about his books Secret Miracle: The Novelist’s Handbook & Lost City Radio will be at Diesel Bookstore in Oakland. Secret Miracle looks as though it could be incredibly promising, especially for the likes of me. It’s basically a book teaching writers how to write, or at least that’s kind of how I’ve perceived it. I think there are a lot big name writers included in the work so check it out. As for his other book, Lost City Radio, it was apparently a huge hit in 07′ and sounds promising as well.

Wednesday, April 21st
@730pm
- Yann Martel, author, will be talking about his book The Life of Pi at The Sundance Kabuki Theater as put on by the Booksmith. I haven’t read The Life of Pi but from what I understand I should read it. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who hasn’t liked it and I’d also have to guess that you have probably already the book so for me to try and tell you anything about seems pretty ridiculous right about now.

Thursday, April 22nd
@ ~10am
- Yours truly returns from his glorious vacation in Colombia, that is if I haven’t been taken captive or decided to stay and live out the rest of my life surrounded by beautiful women on the beaches there.

Thursday, April 22nd
@ 730pm
- RuPaul, Drag Queen & author, will be at Books, Inc. in the Castro (shouldn’t really be a surprise) doing her thing. The new book is titled Workin’ It. Either you’re into it Come onor your not. I’m going to leave it at that.

Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

Apr 15

Posted by The Valet in Fiction | 2 Comments

Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

Thoroughly entertaining, that’s how I’d describe this book. What’s not to be enjoyed about a fictional book that incorporates one of America’s greatest presidents and… vampires. I know what you’re thinking, “haven’t you berated the cliche of using vampires in some of your recent reviews?” Well, yes, I have. But this one stands out.

It’s been awhile since I’ve thought about Abraham Lincoln. It’s not as though his is a name that comes up in daily conversations or thoughts. I’m not saying that he shouldn’t, but seriously, when was the last time you thought about him? (If you’re a fourth grader learning presidents your excluded from answering this question.) I have to tell you though that having him brought back to me as a vampire hunting bad ass is pretty awesome.

Ironically enough just as I was finishing this book I found this video (and no, this video has nothing to do with this book, the “trailer” at the bottom of this post however does):

But back to the review.

Unfortunately I really don’t know enough about Lincoln to determine whether or not most of the un-vampire related stuff was accurate. If it is, there’s quite a bit to be learned about Lincoln and his family from this book, but given the idea behind the novel it’s hard not to approach it without some level of skepticism.

Today really is Abe’s bday…

Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon

Apr 13

Posted by The Valet in Fiction | 1 Comment

Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon

Who am I? The proverbial question. The question that everyone (or at least I) ask myself quite often and really don’t have an answer to. Haha, fooled you, thought I was going to get all deep on you in this review didn’t ya? Well, I could cause it’d be quite easy to, but I’m tired of doing that. I feel like I’ve steered away from my original type of reviews (I feel like I’ve said that a lot recently). Luckily for me though, I watched an episode of the often disturbing, typically disgusting, expectantly controversial and downright humorous animated tv show South Park last night and received some inspiration.

In the episode I watched, titled “The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs,” the boys (Kyle, Stan, Cartman and Kenny) are told to read Catcher in the Rye for their class. When they learn about the controversy the book sparked, the boys, in their excitement, read the book in a single sitting. When they discover that the book offered no risque details or offensive material, they are flabbergasted and upset. In their angst, the boys decide to write the most horrid and controversial book ever, which they title “The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs.”

At the end of the episode, after much absurdity, the boys need to console their friend Butters for whom they bestowed credit upon for writing their book (i’d explain why he needs consoling but I don’t think it’s necessary). At which point Kyle tells him “We’ve all learned that people look for meaning in books and sometimes even if it isn’t even there they’ll try and invent their own meaning.” Whereby Stan continues and says “yeah, dude, that’s why we all need to avoid books and stick to television.”

Turn the damn tv off…

This Weeks Book Events, SF (week of 4/12)

Apr 12

Posted by The Valet in Events | No Comments

Please dont fault me or think my grammar is bad (computers in Colombia are weird) but im not going to give you much this week. can you blame me? Id rather be on the beach relaxing than providing you with some nonesense to introduce you to the week. Ill try and provide you with more next week. Adios!

Oh, and id be a liar if I told you ive been doing a lot of reading. its been a case of over stimulation. Nothing wrong with that though. At least most people are genuinely interested when I tell them about the blog. If theyre not, oh well, at least ive made some new friends.

Tuesday, April 13 & Thursday, April 15th
@ 7pm & 7pm
- Daniel Alarcon, author, will be signing and talking about his books The Secret Miracle: The Novelist’s Handbook & Lost City Radio at City Lights Bookstore (on Tuesday) and Book Passage, Corte Madera (on Thursday). Secret Miracle looks as though it could be incredibly promising, especially for the likes of me. It’s basically a book teaching writers how to write, or at least that’s kind of how I’ve perceived it. I think there are a lot big name writers included in the work so check it out. As for his other book, Lost City Radio, it was apparently a huge hit in 07′ and sounds promising as well.

Wednesday, April 14th & Friday, April 16th
@ 7pm & 730pm
- Christopher Moore, author, will be at Book Passage in Corte Madera (on Wednesday) and at Kepler’s (on Friday) talking about his latest funny book, Bite Me!. To date I have reviewed two of Mr. Moore’s books Lamb and Bloodsucking Fiends and enjoyed both but definitely prefer Lamb. This latest book is actually connected to or is in the same series as Bloodsucking and because of that I cannot be so sure I’ll read it. That’s not to say that it won’t be ridiculously funny, but I’m entitled to my opinion right? Honestly, I almost want to call these books “Lady-Books” but I don’t know if I can.

Thursday, April 15th
@ TBA
- Amy Stewart, author, will be talking about her book Wicked Plants: A Book of Botanical Atrocities at The Bone Room in Berkeley. In case you’re wondering what this book is all about, and because I’m feeling a bit lazy here’s a sneak peek.

Saturday, April 17th
@ 1145am
- Maggie Foard & Gordon Edgar, cheese connoisseurs and authors, will be at Book Passage in San Francisco presenting their books, Goat Cheese & Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge in what Book Passage is calling the Goat Cheese Festival. I’ve written about Mr. Edgar quite a few times in my events section to date so if you’re interested in learning more just search for him on the blog and you’ll find what your looking for.

Sunday, April 18th
@ 1pm
- Ron Arons, author, will be discussing his book The Jews of Sing Sing at the Oakland Family History Center. I think this event may very well be the big winner of the week. You may not be aware but back in the day there were Jewish Gangsters. I like to consider myself one sometimes but I’m not nearly as badass as these guys were. This is a book that chronicles the gangster Jews and otherwise criminal Jews that spent time in Sing Sing prison. I guess there have been a few of us over the years. Anyways, it sounds really interesting and I think hearing Mr. Arons speak about it would be pretty fun.

This Weeks Book Events, LA (week of 4/12)

Apr 12

Posted by The Valet in Events | No Comments

Please dont fault me or think my grammar is bad (computers in Colombia are weird) but im not going to give you much this week. can you blame me? Id rather be on the beach relaxing than providing you with some nonesense to introduce you to the week. Ill try and provide you with more next week. Adios!

Oh, and by the way, Colombia is absolutely amazing. The people are genuine, the scenery is rediculous, the thinga which are illegal are still illegal, the women are gorgeous and lve met some amazing people.

Tuesday, April 13th
@ TBA
- Steven Hager, “writer, journalist, filmmaker, and counterculture and cannabis activist” (per wikipedia) will be at Cal State University Northridge talking to all those impressionable minds about his latest work The Octopus Conspiracy: And Other Vignettes of the Counterculture-From Hippies to High Times to Hip-Hop & Beyond . . .. Ah yes, we have here the simple problem of “title of book does more than it needs to and simply has done my work for itself.” Therefore I don’t feel the need to elaborate. Except I will say I’m not quite sure what an Octopus has to do with this book at all. I suppose that’s one reason I should consider picking it up now isn’t it.

Sunday, April 18th
@ 2pm
- Katie Arnoldi, author, will be signing copies of her book The Wentworths at the Brentwood Library. The first reason I chose to mention this signing is the cover of the book, it struck me and I like it. The second reason I chose to mention this signing is because the book is about a wealthy Southern California family that is pretty messed up due to their wealth and power. Gee, kind of sounds like it could be about all too many of the kids that I went to highschool with, I wonder if Arnoldi based her book on any of my friends. Each character has their own issues and with their powers combined… they form not Captain Planet, but Captain Pain in the Ass Rich Family!
Oh

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