2010 Jambalaya Winners

The most interesting books I read for the first time in 2010 (in order of reading) (and always subject to change):


I Am Not Sidney Poitier -- Percival Everett

The Spare Room -- Helen Gardner

The Spellmans Strike Again -- Lisa Lutz

Summertime -- J.M. Coetzee

The Way We Live Now -- Anthony Trollope

The Age of Wonder -- Richard Holmes

A Visit From the Goon Squad -- Jennifer Egan

When Will There Be Good News? -- Kate Atkinson

How to Live: or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer -- Sarah Bakewell

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao -- Junot Diaz



Honorable Mention

The Innocence of Father Brown -- G.K. Chesterton

The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them -- Elif Batuman

Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It -- Geoff Dyer

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet -- David Mitchell

After Claude -- Iris Owens

The Gentlemen's Hour -- Don Winslow

2010 Reading List

in reverse order of reading:

The Gentlemen's Hour -- Don Winslow


The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao -- Junot Diaz

After Claude -- Iris Owens

Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter -- Antonia Fraser

Indian Country Noir -- Sarah Cortez (ed.) & Liz Martinez (ed.)

The Big Boom -- Dominic Stansberry

Hint Fiction -- Robert Swartwood (ed.)

Old Men in Love: John Tunnock's Posthumous Papers -- Alasdair Gray

How to Live: or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer -- Sarah Bakewell

Gravity's Rainbow -- Thomas Pynchon

The Blue Hammer -- Ross MacDonald

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet -- David Mitchell

Djibouti -- Elmore Leonard

Gulliver's Travels -- Jonathan Swift

When Will There Be Good News? -- Kate Atkinson

The Finkler Question -- Howard Jacobson

My Driver -- Maggie Gee

Packing For Mars -- Mary Roach

Baked -- Mark Haskell Smith

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World -- Jack Weatherford

A Visit From the Goon Squad -- Jennifer Egan

Halls of Fame: Essays -- John D'Agata

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest -- Steig Larsson

Skylark -- Dezso Kosztolanyi

Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It -- Geoff Dyer

All That Follows -- Jim Crace

The Girl Who Played With Fire -- Stieg Larsson

The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them -- Elif Batuman

Joey's Case -- K.C. Constantine

The Age of Wonder -- Richard Holmes

How To Sell -- Clancy Martin

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes -- Arthur Conan Doyle

The Executor -- Jesse Kellerman

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo -- Stieg Larsson

The Way We Live Now -- Anthony Trollope

Summertime -- J.M. Coetzee

Reporting At Wit's End -- St. Clair McKelway

The Ask -- Sam Lipsyte

The Spellmans Strike Again -- Lisa Lutz

Life Itself -- Elaine Dundy

The Chalk Circle Man -- Fred Vargas

The Southpaw -- Mark Harris

Dark Star Safari -- Paul Theroux

The Spare Room -- Helen Gardner

The Water's Edge -- Karin Fossum

The Innocence of Father Brown -- G.K. Chesterton

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes -- Arthur Conan Doyle

Risk -- Colin Harrison

The Hot Rock -- Donald E. Westlake

I Am Not Sidney Poitier -- Percival Everett

The Ticking Is The Bomb -- Nick Flynn

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary -- M.R. James

Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' -- David Bianculli

The Three of Us: A Family Story -- Julia Blackburn

The Original of Laura -- Vladimir Nabokov

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much -- Allison Hoover Bartlett


The Gentlemen's Hour -- Don Winslow


The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao -- Junot Diaz

After Claude -- Iris Owens

Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter -- Antonia Fraser

Indian Country Noir -- Sarah Cortez (ed.) & Liz Martinez (ed.)

The Big Boom -- Dominic Stansberry

Hint Fiction -- Robert Swartwood (ed.)

Old Men in Love: John Tunnock's Posthumous Papers -- Alasdair Gray

How to Live: or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer -- Sarah Bakewell

Gravity's Rainbow -- Thomas Pynchon

The Blue Hammer -- Ross MacDonald

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet -- David Mitchell

Djibouti -- Elmore Leonard

Gulliver's Travels -- Jonathan Swift

When Will There Be Good News? -- Kate Atkinson

The Finkler Question -- Howard Jacobson

My Driver -- Maggie Gee

Packing For Mars -- Mary Roach

Baked -- Mark Haskell Smith

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World -- Jack Weatherford

A Visit From the Goon Squad -- Jennifer Egan

Halls of Fame: Essays -- John D'Agata

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest -- Steig Larsson

Skylark -- Dezso Kosztolanyi

Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It -- Geoff Dyer

All That Follows -- Jim Crace

The Girl Who Played With Fire -- Stieg Larsson

The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them -- Elif Batuman

Joey's Case -- K.C. Constantine

The Age of Wonder -- Richard Holmes

How To Sell -- Clancy Martin

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes -- Arthur Conan Doyle

The Executor -- Jesse Kellerman

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo -- Stieg Larsson

The Way We Live Now -- Anthony Trollope

Summertime -- J.M. Coetzee

Reporting At Wit's End -- St. Clair McKelway

The Ask -- Sam Lipsyte

The Spellmans Strike Again -- Lisa Lutz

Life Itself -- Elaine Dundy

The Chalk Circle Man -- Fred Vargas

The Southpaw -- Mark Harris

Dark Star Safari -- Paul Theroux

The Spare Room -- Helen Gardner

The Water's Edge -- Karin Fossum

The Innocence of Father Brown -- G.K. Chesterton

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes -- Arthur Conan Doyle

Risk -- Colin Harrison

The Hot Rock -- Donald E. Westlake

I Am Not Sidney Poitier -- Percival Everett

The Ticking Is The Bomb -- Nick Flynn

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary -- M.R. James

Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' -- David Bianculli

The Three of Us: A Family Story -- Julia Blackburn

The Original of Laura -- Vladimir Nabokov

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much -- Allison Hoover Bartlett

Four people in their twenties headed up the steps to the gym:

Woman #1: Well? Women's socks -- would they fit you?

Man #1: I don't know, but they're awesome.

"Your room is paid up until the twenty-second of September. . . Is everything satisfactory?"

"It depends," I said haughtily, "on what you're satisfying."

Iris Owens

Inspired Insult

"If looks could kill," I told him in between chews, "you'd soon find out that yours couldn't."

-- "After Claude" by Iris Owens

Law and Superheroes

http://lawandthemultiverse.com/

Questions we have all asked, answered.

Badly Drawn Boy at the Troubadour

Badly Drawn Boy had a difficult last show of the tour at the Troubadour in LA on Thursday Dec. 16.  He was extremely unhappy about the sound.   He was extremely unhappy when voices from the crowd offered encouragement telling him it sounded good from the audience.  ("Yeah but I'm up here.") He was unhappy when audience members strated heckling him about his behavior.  ("Fuck you" "Stupid LA twats" "Cunts").  When an audience member said it was ok that it was late. ( "You are talking nonsense".)


"At least I'm being honest. You could at least applaud me for that."

"It's like being in a roomful of fucking lions or something.
No one should have to go through what I'm going through up here."

"Nobody cares as much as me about this."

"Just don't react to anything I say up here."

http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2010/12/badly_drawn_boy_at_the_troubad.php


It was a marvelous Ricky Gervais / Russell Brand performance.   (And he made it through to the end, and was convincingly contrite about it all.)

Corrections of the Year, etc.

http://www.regrettheerror.com/2010/12/08/crunks-2010-the-year-in-media-errors-and-corrections/

A sample, perhaps familiar:

"This blog post originally stated that one in three black men who have sex with me is HIV positive. In fact, the statistic applies to black men who have sex with men."

Mel Brooks on Leslie Nielsen

I liked him very much. He was lovely, and he'd do anything, and he was funny, and he was just great, and you'd never take him for a Canadian.

2000 Year Old Jokes

Carl Reiner: Of all your girlfriends, who was your favorite?
Mel Brooks: Shirley.
Reiner: And what was so special about Shirley?
Brooks: Her friend Lila.

I was not alarmed. There were only four and I always feel safe with women. Men sometimes punch each other for no good reason but petty theft is my worst experience of women.

   from "Old Men in Love"

Several minutes passed before I saw she has finally moved out, helped by a systematic partner or partners who own or have hired a van. . . . I wandered from room to room in a kind of daze, wondering what to tell the police. My fondness for young things could lead to difficulties if Niki is under the age of consent. What is the age of consent? (Memo: find out.)

 from "Old Men in Love"

Pynchon being Pynchonesque

Favorite fake law firm name:

Salitieri, Poore, Nash, De Brutus, and Short

GR p. 591

Surprise party

Recipe for successful surprise party:  invite only people that the guest of honor does not know.  

Jokes

1.     Movie Review

Man #1:   I'm here to recommend to you the movie "127 Hours."

Me:  Oh, I hear James Franco is totally disarming in that.



2.    Fish and Chips

Man originally from Chester, England: 

I will say that last year I went back to Chester and was very disturbing to see that my favorite chip shop, which had been there for years and years, was gone.

Man #1: 

And you are telling us this because . . .?

Me:

You don't understand.  He went back to his old hometown, and his old neighborhood.  And on the block where he used to go, to his favorite chip shop, where he used to eat and hang out, looking forward to it, he discovered the chips were off the old block.

from Gravity's Rainbow

Rain drips, soaking into the floor, and Slothrup perceives that he is losing his mind. If there is something comforting -- religious, if you want -- about paranoia, there is still also anti-paranoia, where nothing is connected to anything, a condition not many if us can bear for long. Well right now Slothrup feels himself sliding onto the anti-paranoia part of his cycle, feels the whole city around him going back roofless, vulnerable, uncentered as he is, and only pasteboard images now of the Listening Enemy left between him and the wet sky.

Overheard Behind a Lawyer's Door

"We don't write checks!  We get checks."

Bringing People Together Through Violence Against Others

I need you to beat someone up for me.

from Gravity's Rainbow

Nice sentence:
Trudi, the blonde, and Magda, the sultry Bavarian, have spent the day looting a stash of Wagnerian opera costumes.

Why She's So Good at Her Job of Recommending What Books to Make Movies Of

Patrons at the bar:

A.   She does coverage of manuscripts.

B.    Is she a literary person?

A.    I wouldn't say she is a literary person. I'd say I have more of a literary background than she does. admiringly:  But she reads much faster than I do. 

A.    It's exactly like forcing yourself to go to the gym, getting yourself to read.
I can read scripts, but not a book. She can do it.

The Bar Where The Bartenders Have Problems

Bartender reading e-mail:

"You keep saying how much your life sucks. How do you think that makes me feel as the man in your life?"

Later, not reading:

I'm a such a perfectionist and, it's so, stupid!

Later:

It's bad, his business is doing so well he makes so much more money than
me.

Self Portrait

Overheard at a museum shop

Young girl looking at doll: Who is this Mommy?

Mother: She's an artist.

Girl: Why is her face like that?

Mother: That's what her face looks like.

Girl: That's a BAD face.

Roger Angell sighting

On Tim Lincecum.

Wait for that mound-eating stride of his: he’s a January commuter arching over six feet of slush. No, no—look at the tilt, the twist and torque, the flying arms, the balance lost and regained, the skinny bod, the high-school hair: he’s an X Games skateboarder headed for the Olympics. Nobody has ever pitched like this before.

Roger Angell cite:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2010/10/lincecum.html

note to self

unpublished dream quarter remembered

Nice scene from show biz

 Bob Newhart backstage in Vegas, psyching self up and finding bearings, by listening to a different Richard Pryor bit each time

before going on stage.

Found Poem Overheard

"Wine, bread, butter and cheese. Wine, bread, butter and cheese. Wine, bread, butter and cheese and sex."

"Just because this plan is never going to work is no reason to be negative."

from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The lyrics dour, the music energetic

. . . his real home, the one he never named anymore, was the dark and sooty chamber in his heart that contained his sister and brother and, because it was an accomodating kind of space, the entire filthy history of the industrial revolution. It was amazing how much dark matter you could crush inside the black hole of the heart."

from "When Will There Be Good News?" by Kate Atkinson

Celebrity Sighting

Overheard at a restaurant in Hollywood:

Man #1:   That's Steve Earle!

Man #2:  I don't know. I don't think so.

Man #1:  Oh, no, that totally is.  That's absolutely Steve Earle.

Self

"Your self is not about you"


Lewis Hyde, commenting on the lesson of Bob Dylan's statement that listening obsessively to Woody Guthrie records when a teenager made him feel like himself for the first time (or words to that effect).

Sept 1 -- Eros and Dust, uncertain and afraid

http://blog.loa.org/2010/09/w-h-auden-j-liebling-september-1.html

http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15545

The anniversary & the unceasing low dishonest decade.

Heartwarming Tale

Bob and Ray reunite a brother and sister after 66 or 70 years:

https://www.box.net/shared/8vgpopd2og

The World Gives You Lemonade . . . .

Frank Kermode R.I.P.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/18/sir-frank-kermode-obituary

On reading Updike's "Couples"

Updike is vaunted as a realist par excellence, a careful chronicler of our suburban mores, but what I found in these pages seemed pretty fantastical to me. Certainly it bore no resemblance to the suburbia I knew. His characters talked about Bertrand Russell, bristled at undercooked lamb, and screwed each other senseless at every possible interval. It called my own world into question.

Dan Piepenbring, at The Paris Review website:  http://blog.theparisreview.org/2010/08/10/couples/

"I'll fix your head" -- Gene Tierney

"I suggest you use an ax" -- Dana Andrews

in "Where The Sidewalks Ends"

Customer Service

Exchange at the concession stand:


Customer: And two Cokes.

Worker: You want a Pepsi?

Customer: Yes.

Worker: Sorry, we don't sell Pepsi, only Coke.

Dream about a bee

In my bedroom with the door slightly ajar, was disconcerted when Kristen Wiig of Saturday Night Live fame was walking back and forth by the bedroom door, and then walked in, as I had no clothes on. 

[It surprises me to learn that Kristen Wiig is apparently a woman of my dreams, as previously I had thought her primary distinction that she was perhaps the only person you could taunt by saying "Two i's; two i's."]

She climbed on top of naked me, and we started a passionate openmouthed kiss.  Then I heard a faint buzzing, and I realized that a bee was flying around in our open mouths.  She realized it too, shortly thereafter, and we stopped kissing and let the bee fly out.   Without saying anything to each other we both seemed to realize that was the end of anything sexual between us.  I apologized for the state of the apartment and started picking up clothes.  She was impressed, though, by my ability to toss clothes in the hamper without missing.

Job

NEWS FLASH: Help Wanted

Part-time Salesperson, 20-25 hours per week

Rachelle is going to grad school! So we are looking for additional part-time sales help, seeking someone with a rough (or better) knowledge of mysteries, eager to learn more and to share that enthusiasm with customers, and a flexible, can-do attitude. Ideally, your hours would be 9:30am - 2:00 pm Monday through Thursday. We offer a unique opportunity to meet authors, and to be surrounded by books and people who love books, in a vibrant section of Westwood Village. Please contact Bobby McCue or Linda Brown at orders@mystery-bookstore.com.
See More

Overheard

"There was a woman at Western Mutual that Tony thought was hot. With reason. She was Venezuelan."

Hindsight

Lonnie Franklin Jr. would share violent fantasies about prostitutes and say they deserved to die, according to neighbors. "I should have made a better choice," says a longtime friend.

http://scpr.org/news/2010/07/15/friends-say-accused-grim-sleeper-dropped-hints


from: http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2010/07/grim_sleeper_suspect_drop.php

Kitties and Mel Gibson

http://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/the-13-worst-mel-gibson-rant-quotes-presented-by/

Not polite or proper

MLB Spelling Challenges (All-Star Fan Fest)

Because It Is Never Too Late To Be Cautious

-- Blomkvist opened her robe and put a hand on her breast, caressing it cautiously.


from The Girl Who Played With Fire

Not Burying the Lede

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2010/06/hey_could_you_get_a_littl.php

So many possible Patsy Cline songs

Persian, Dilorom told me, had only one word for crying, whereas Old Uzbek had one hundred. Old Uzbek had words for wanting to cry and not being able to, for being caused to sob by something, for loudly crying like thunder in the clouds, for crying in gasps, for weeping inwardly or secretly, for crying ceaselessly in a high voice, for crying while uttering the sound hay hay. Old Uzbek had special verbs for being unable to sleep, for speaking while feeding animals, for being a hypocrite, for gazing imploringly into a lover's face, for dispersing a crowd. . . . What did you know about Uzbekistan once you learned that Old Uzbek had a hundred different words for crying? I wasn't sure, but it didn't seem to bide well for my summer vacation.

from "The Possessed" by Elif Batuman.

Baseball recap

Rick Monday reporting on the evening's games (I may have the teams wrong):

"Cleveland was shut out by the Yankees 9-2."

"The As could only muster one run in losing 10-8."

Overheard at College Baseball playoff game

Some guys are discussing the World Cup about to begin in South Africa:

Guy #1:   My ex is in Africa.

Guy #2:   Who's your ex?

Guy #3:    Some white girl.

Overheard in a Secretarial Bay

"You know what, I don't conjugate."

Getting It Right

From The Department of Corrections

In our Saturday post about the California Democratic Party’s ad attacking Meg Whitman but masquerading as an “issues ad,” we described the abrupt ending to our conversation with CDP Chairman John Burton. Through his spokesman, Burton on Monday complained that he had been misquoted. Burton says he didn’t say “Fuck you.” His actual words were, “Go fuck yourself.” Calbuzz regrets the error.



http://www.calbuzz.com/2010/05/7819/

Remington Shadow

Favorite Baseball Story in Awhile

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/05/lastings-milledge-got-deked-by-fireworks.html.php

Can't say I've ever seen this one before. In the fourth inning of last night's Pirates-Cubs game, Lastings Milledge launched a ball towards left field. The fireworks fired! The music played! Lastings began to circle the bases and . . . got tagged out between second and third. Wha?

Seems that the ball merely bounced off the wall. You can watch it here. Obviously whoever is in charge of the music and pyrotechnics jumped the gun a little. After the game Milledge admitted that he was watching the sky and not the umpires' signal, saying "I never thought that it didn't go out because the music was playing and the fireworks."

By Craig Calcaterra

Text message on the phone of the woman in front of me

Thank you for being sweet. I'm glad I don't make your ears itchy.

In the hall

Woman of perhaps thirty, to a man of maybe 60, who she obviously has never met:

Woman: You are really good at that.

Man: Oh, thanks.

Woman: I could hear you through the wall. You sounded just like a cartoon.

Man: I'll take that as a compliment.

Prudential wisdom

-- And if it were true also that she had fought a duel with one husband, that also ought to be a reason why a gentleman should object to become her second husband.

"The Way We Live Now" -- Trollope

Giving Cover

Awesome site of awesomely bad sci-fi covers. Sci-fi.

http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/

(from Andrew Sullivan)

Late Breaking News From the 2010 Pulitizer Prize jury

Special citation:

Hank Williams for his craftsmanship as a songwriter who expressed universal feelings with poignant simplicity and played a pivotal role in transforming country music into a major musical and cultural force in American life.

Truth in Advertising

A Southern California pastor has been charged with bigamy after one wife learned about his new marriage on the internet. He is the pastor of the Church of the Great I Am in Bellflower, California.

Sage words

Not everything can be about everything -- Gertrude Stein

Selections from "The Southpaw" by Mark Harris

"It will do them much good," said Krazy. "It will buck up their spirits and give them the idea that folks back home are thinking about them. There is nothing like the sight of baseball to make them think they are home."

"I see baseball every day," I said, "And never get the idea I am home."

*

I thought to myself that what was wrong with the club was they was thinking too much.

*

I must say that you have got to admire anybody like Sid that is willing to give up his milk for his religion.

*

I guess all I was saying was they could go their way and I would go mine, and some folks is born to play ball and the rest is born to watch, some folks born to clap and shriek and holler and some folks born to do the doing.

This week's band

The Low Anthem -- e.g., "To Ohio"

Annals of Hollywood crime

Those who play prosecutors must watch how they play.


The alibi: "We just stopped into a friend's house for a drink -- and suddenly we find ourselves in the middle of a rumble."

2010 Tournament of Books

http://www.themorningnews.org/tob/let-the-great-world-spin-v-miles-from-nowhere.php

R.I.P. Sparklehorse

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2010/03/mark-linkous-aka-sparklehorse-takes-own-life.html

Woof

"No! You don't bark in an office!"

-- Woman in the office next to mine, to her two little dogs who have been wandering among my papers and legs much of the day, and right now.

Song of the Day

"No Easy Way Down" -- Dusty Springfield (prompted by Mark Eitzel's live version)

-- and while we are at it, you and I, listen to the rest of the album too (Dusty in Memphis)

Dream

Fitful night, but must have slept, unless this really happened:

Sitting in the stands, some stands, two women maybe 23 years old sit next to me, one of whom is wearing some kind of YALE t-shirt. I comment on it to her: "I don't see that many of those out here, and yet there are a couple of other people in the stands wearing YALE t-shirts."

Then walking around some plaze among tall buildings, I notice more people wearing YALE shirts, and then sitting in different stands, many people with such shirts, some of which seem like a uniform -- either a sporting team or YALE laundry workers.

Suddenly green paint drips on me from the sky, and huge cannon bursts of green paint globules are launched from cannons behind us, to splatter against the tall buildings around us. Now it becomes clear: the Yale graduates are hear to watch the YALE sneak attack on these buildings, hoping to besmirch the honor of Princeton. (Neither institution is anywhere near, nor do the buildings seem to have anything to do with Princeton.)

That's why. Why'd you think?

Lyric of the day:

Oh please don't you rock my boat
'Cause I don't want my boat to be rockin'.

"Satisfy My Soul" -- Bob Marley

Faith and food

"Father . . . what are we to do?" . . .

"Sleep!" cried Father Brown ". . . Do you know what sleep is? Do you know that every man who sleeps believes in God? . . . it is an act of faith and it is a food."

from The Innocence of Father Brown

Overheard near the elevator

"Well, she's not a woman, let's put it that way."

Dream: Malibu Wildlife Search

Walking in sand dunes along the beach near Malibu, California, though out of sight of the water. I reach the top of a small rise. To the east at the bottom of the little hill is a large animal that I decide is a tapir. I become aware that I am looking for one of the largest animals in the world and that it is around here. I am narrating my journey, as if in a nature documentary, though there seems to be no point in doing so: no camera, no recorder, no phone. The "tapir" is not much like a tapir, and there seem to be two of them. It is the size of a hippo, and hippo-like, but where the nose flap is on a tapir, it has a foot long truck like an elephant's.

The tapir are not the large animal I am looking for.

Turning around at the base of the hill, where I have to return, a very large alligator has buried itself into the sand, like it would were the sand water, floating at or just below the surface. The alligator is dangerous.

I am aware that none of these animals are native to Malibu.

The hill seems to get steeper, and I am having a hard time not slipping down the sand towards the alligator. It seems inevitable that I will.

Pick Up Lines At The Gym Of Questionable Utility

1.

Woman exercising. Man standing next to her.

Man: [inaudible]
Woman: What's your name?
Man: [inaudible]
Woman: Rambo?
Man: [inaudible]
Woman: Well, nice to meet you Rambo.


2.

Man and woman enter steam room. Man, very large, very loud voice.

Man: I believed that for 48 years, but it only took 2 hours for me to learn the truth. All that stuff they say about Jesus Christ, it isn't true. But most people don't want to learn the truth. That's okay. Whatever floats your boat. I'm interested in the truth.

Woman: How did you learn the truth?

Man: Oh, lots of scholars who had done studies and stuff. You probably believed in Santa Claus too. I believed in Santa Claus when I was a kid. A large white man with a beard and flying reindeer. You can believe in Jesus Christ too.

Woman gets up to leave.

Man: ?

Woman: Oh, I was in here before, and it is too hot to stay longer. Have a nice day.

Him and George Plimpton

A memoir written with Google Maps (pretty cool):

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=us&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=117518500794242822937.00046c27922ecb66b6fca&ll=40.438586,-76.970215&spn=3.787431,7.064209&z=7

Hazards of the life of international intrigue

from the story "The Beach Murders" by J.G. Ballard:

"The meeting at the nudist colony on the Isle du Levant had not been entirely fortuitous."

Don't know what this is about

http://www.amazon.com/tag/marriage/forum/ref=cm_cd_dp_rft_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1FLZG3A5ENHEC&cdThread=Tx2ASQYOV6N0BVC

Best Sellers

Compliation of best seller lists for the century.

http://booksofthecentury.com/

2009 Jambalaya Award winners (under construction)

The most interesting books I've read for the first time in 2009 (in the order read):


2666 -- Roberto Bolano
Revenge of The Spellmans -- Lisa Lutz
Seasons Of Migration To The North -- Taye Salih
The Journal of Jules Renard -- Jules Renard
The Tremor of Forgery -- Patricia Highsmith
The City and The City -- China Mieville
The Ax -- Donald E. Westlake
Jeff In Venice, Death In Varanasi -- Geoff Dyer
Inherent Vice -- Thomas Pynchon
Right Ho, Jeeves -- P.G. Wodehouse
Housekeeping -- Marilynne Robinson
Disgrace -- J.M. Coetzee
Jane Eyre -- Charlotte Bronte
Await Your Reply -- Dan Chaon
Then We Came To The End -- Joshua Ferris
Stoner -- John Williams



Honorable mention:

The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes -- K.C. Constantine
The Cold Dish -- Craig Johnson
How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read -- Pierre Bayard
Miracles of Life -- J.G. Ballard
Defeat: Napoleon's Russian Campaign -- Phillipe-Paul de Segur
The Dart League King -- Keith Lee Morris
Lush Life -- Richard Price
The Genius -- Jesse Kellerman
New Selected Poems -- Mark Strand
The Act of Love -- Howard Jacobson
Selected Stories -- Robert Walser
The Letters of Samuel Beckett: Vol. 1 1929-40
My Father's Tears -- John Updike
The Old Man And Me -- Elaine Dundy
Erased -- Jim Krusoe
Child 44 -- Tom Rob Smith
The American Painter, Emma Dial -- Samantha Peale
Hard Rain Falling -- Don Carpenter
The Anthologist -- Nicholson Baker
The Pillowman -- Martin McDonagh
Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius -- Ray Monk
The Dawn Patrol -- Don Winslow

2009 Reading

In reverse chronological order:

Stoner -- John Williams
The Monster In A Box -- Ruth Rendell
The Dawn Patrol -- Don Winslow
Then We Came To The End -- Joshua Ferris
Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius -- Ray Monk
Nonsense Novels -- Stephen Leacock
Phoenix Noir -- Patrick Millikin (ed.)
Await Your Reply -- Dan Chaon
And Here's The Kicker: Conversations With 25 Top Humor Writers on Their Craft (Extended Edition) -- Mike Sacks
Jane Eyre -- Charlotte Bronte
The Pillowman -- Martin McDonagh
The Crime Writer -- Gregg Hurwitz
Hard Rain Falling -- Don Carpenter
Sidetracks: Explorations of a Romantic Biographer -- Richard Holmes
The American Painter, Emma Dial -- Samantha Peale
Things The Grandchildren Should Know -- Mark Oliver Everett
The Anthologist -- Nicholson Baker
Disgrace -- J.M. Coetzee
The Art of Harvey Kurtzman -- Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle
Exit Music -- Ian Rankin
The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America -- Steven Johnson
Episodes: My life As I See It -- Blaze Ginsberg
Underground Classics: The transformation of Comics into Comix -- James Danky and Denis Kitchen
The Hook -- Donald E. Westlake
Child 44 -- Tom Rob Smith
Housekeeping -- Marilynne Robinson
As They See 'Em: A Fan's Travels in the Land of Umpires -- Bruce Weber
Equivocation -- Bill Cain
Right Ho, Jeeves -- P.G. Wodehouse
The Brutal Telling -- Louise Penny
Inherent Vice -- Thomas Pynchon
The Ghost Soldiers -- James Tate
Erased -- Jim Krusoe
Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
Jeff In Venice, Death In Varanasi -- Geoff Dyer
The Ax -- Donald E. Westlake
The Old Man And Me -- Elaine Dundy
Her Majesty's Spymaster: Elizabeth I, Sir Francis Walsingham, and the Birth of Modern Espionage -- Stephen Budiansky
My Father's Tears -- John Updike
The City and The City -- China Mieville
My Man Jeeves -- P.G. Wodehouse
Tropic of Cancer -- Henry Miller
The Price of Blood -- Declan Hughes
Dark Places -- Gillian Flynn
The Letters of Samuel Beckett: Vol. 1 1929-40
Selected Stories -- Robert Walser
The Act of Love -- Howard Jacobson
New Selected Poems -- Mark Strand
The Tremor of Forgery -- Patricia Highsmith
Nobody Move -- Denis Johnson
Somebody Owes Me Money -- Donald Westlake
Cat's Cradle -- Kurt Vonnegut
The Journal of Jules Renard -- Jules Renard (ed., tr. Louise Bogan & Elizabeth Roget)
The Genius -- Jesse Kellerman
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher -- Kate Summerscale
Chess Story -- Stefan Zweig
A Likely Story -- Donald Westlake
Lush Life -- Richard Price
Purloining Tiny -- John Franklin Bardin
Seasons Of Migration To The North -- Taye Salih
The Dart League King -- Keith Lee Morris
Defeat: Napoleon's Russian Campaign -- Phillipe-Paul de Segur
Beat The Reaper -- Josh Bazell
Miracles of Life -- J.G. Ballard
The Pilgrim Hawk -- Glenway Wescott
Revenge of The Spellmans -- Lisa Lutz
How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read -- Pierre Bayard
The Yankee Years -- Joe Torre and Tom Verducci
Rock and Roll -- Tom Stoppard
The Silver Swan -- Benjamin Black
The Yellow Admiral -- Patrick O'Brian
The Cold Dish -- Craig Johnson
The Ghost In Love -- Jonathan Carroll
Pinocchio -- Carlo Collodi
2666 -- Roberto Bolano
Jar City -- Arnaldur Indridason
The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes -- K.C. Constantine