jane magazine

jane magazine. good stuff. well written articles, good layouts, interesting fashion shoots, not your usual fluff magazine. i normally read lucky and in style. i like vogue but it's a bit too serious for me. as is vanity fair. allure and elle are okay but i'll only get one if i like the cover. jane however, good stuff. esp the new section they have at back "back stories". they're little op-ed pieces. this month they have one of a woman who's boif convinces her to go to therapy to help her get over him going to a bachelor party in vegas (i identify wit her fears), an asian girl too 'lazy' to tape up her eyelids and get surgery, a couple that has sex in front of others for money, a home birthing article, and a thoughtful piece on the "commercialization of cattiness" (all those 'bitch' tee-shirts: the 'i slept wit your boyfriend' variety.) for the back stories alone, worth every penny of the cheapo $1.99 it cost.

esquire presents...

recently got esquire presents what it feels like... which was pretty good but surprisingly a bit of a disappointment as well. you see, i'd never actually seen the book before i bought it. i just found out about it from somewhere online and thought it looked really cool. and then i bought it on ebay. anyway, the content of the book was pretty good. some good topics. wat it feels like to be in a tornado, be a mob hitman, be in an orgy, go thru an exorcism, have a sever stutter, change from a male to a female (and vice versa), get shot in the head, give birth, be an albino... but the actual accounts were pretty bad. there's not a lot of actual description. the whole basis of the book is that they tell you wat it feels like so you don't have to go thru the same experience. but even after reading it you don't feel like you've lived thru any of it! well, the walking on the moon one was pretty good. and so wat the giving birth one. and starving... anyway. some are good, some are bad. but some are appallingly bad. each one is very short anyway. maybe only 200 words, if even that. and even then they don't always get right to the point. at any rate. it was a pretty interesting read, if not particularly good. i say... read it, but don't buy it.

bryson

so i've read bill bryson's the lost continent as well as his in a sunburned country (both travel writings). sunburned, i must say, was a million times better than lost continent. i actually read sunburned first and really liked it. loved it actually. so i was really interested in reading his other books. but this book was a bit of a disapointment. i think lost continent was one of his first works so he wasn't very good with the actual travel bits, like the introductions of states, bits of trivia, information about places visited. he did a much better job with sunburned. you actually learn a lot from this book. it will in no way replace an actual travel guide but it does provide lots of silly and rather useless statistical information. lost continent actually gets better with this info stuff as you read along. however in other aspects it doesn't get better. in sunburned it's obvious that he loves australia and is really happy to be visiting. he has nice things to say about everyone and everything. he doesn't bs tho. if he doesn't find it charming he says so. but in lost continent he's just an ass. oh sure we kno that he left america at basically the first chance he got so of course we're not expecting him to be in love the states or anything. but he's so mean! he's highly critcal and talks shit about nearly everything! he doesn't, by far, seem like the type of person i'd want to travel with. in this book anyway. sunburned country is really good. they say a walk in the woods is also really good but i'm a bit put off from lost country. really, that's how bad it is. or mabye it's just that my expectations were so raised from sunburned. in any case. i didn't enjoy it nearly as much as i had hoped i would.

handmaid's tale

the is one of my favorite books, the other being 'of human bondage'. while there are many reasons to like this book i suppose i love it especially because of the language. i am especially drawn to quiet contemplative and somber tones. which is why in general i like south asian lit. it is a projection of an outer peace but you kno the river runs deeper than it appears. i think to many who read, they don't fully appreciate the technicalities of language. shorter words and sentences drive you forward. long windy sentences slow you down. certain sounds can do the same. so when a character is angry the sentences themselves should reflect that. harsh consonants, lack of adverbs and adjectives, shorter more abrupt sentences. subtle alliteration smooths out sentences and the calms the reader. good writing is more than just randomly chosen words strung together to form a story. good writing requires a lot of thought. getting the words right. the sentences. the structure. each word has its own taste. even articles. good writing blends these tastes together to form something new. each flavor subtly distinct but also blurring into the next. writing is an art. it appeals to more than just the eyes. some people have the ability to actually see music. colors usually (this was in newsweek a while ago). but really. any good art should appeal to more than just one sense. writing, in it's most obvious way appeals to sight. when read aloud, to sound. but to the conscientious reader it's both. always. and sometimes even more.

sand and fog

finished andre dubus III's house of sand and fog tonight and oh my god was that good. seriously... the ending. wow. really really wow. and did you kno it was a movie? yeah i didn't see it but not i want to jennifer connelly is a great actress and i seem to recall that ben kingsly is as well. anyway, the book is basically about a house and wat it means to certain people and just how far they are willing to go to keep it. but it's also about how far one goes for love and for the ones they love. and the motivations behind that love and all the actions thereafter. the book really makes you wonder if you've ever wanted something that much, or loved someone that much. you really sympathize wit each character and even though it's so fully realistic you still want a happy ending somehow. where everything turns out right and well. for the plot alone i highly recommend this book. the language however is equally beautiful. dubus really captures each character's being. you're never confused when the narrative perspective is switched. each transition is so seamless and he so perfectly captures the emotion of the characters that you immediately follow and kno where you are, and who you are. this book is excellent.

february 2006

bill bryson - the lost continent
andre dubus III - house of sand and fog
margaret atwood - the handmaid's tale
melissa bank - the girls' guide to hunting and fishing
esquire presents: what it feels like...
charlotte bronte - villette

another one?!

it's true! i have yet another site! but don't worry this one is more for reference than anything. it will list the books i've read (completed, not started) for the month. every month. until i get tired up upkeeping yet another site. i might do reviews as well? we'll see how much time and energy i feel like putting into this thing. :)