• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

What are you currently reading? “He’s just not that into you: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys” by Greg Behrendt (Yes, I’m married but I got this book from a thrift store, it’s a short read AND who as a woman, understands guys? I think it will be fun to read and see if I agree or not!)

What did you recently finish reading?  “My mother she killed me, My father he ate me: Forty new fairy tales” by Kate Bernheimer-I enjoyed this book very much, some stories weren’t that great for me while others were amazing!

“All my friends are dead” by Avery Monsen- My blogger friend Dayle had mentioned this book before so I just HAD to read it. It’s very short, like kid book length, so it literally took me a few minutes to read but it was hilarious! Even though death is a morbid topic, this really took morbidity and found humor in it. I will definitely reread this over and over!

“Character Matters: Nine Essential Traits You need to Succeed” by Mark Rutland – This was a Christian book my Dad got and thought I might like to read cause he had heard it was a good book but hadn’t read it yet…..it wasn’t normally a book I would have bothered to read but it wasn’t too long so I went ahead and read it. I think it had some really good points and I agree with the traits mentioned….I didn’t necessarily agree with everything in the book but I think it was a good read.

“Bella Notte” (Bella Vampires, #1) by Jesse Kimmel-Freeman- Good Young Adult Book…you can find my review on Goodreads and Amazon if you’re interested in knowing more!

What do you think you’ll read next? I have a few I want to read next….”Forever Home” by Kimberly Kinrade(a short story she wrote for her sister’s 15th birthday about a girl and her dog), “Seduced by Power”(3rd in the Seduced Trilogy) also by Kimberly Kinrade when it’s released next week AND “Bella Vita”(Bella Vampires, #2) by Jesse Kimmel-Freeman as soon as I can to read and review! I’m sure I will be reading other books too somewhere in there.

Avery Monsen ’02

Avery Monsen is a writer, illustrator, and actor who lives in New York. He is the co-author and illustrator of several books, All My Friends Are Dead (a national bestseller), I Feel Relatively Neutral About New York, and K is For Knifeball. His writing and illustrations have been featured newspapers all over the country. Avery has acted on 30 Rock, Nick Jr., and in several national commercials. He performs sketch comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York. We are thrilled to welcome Avery back to campus this week for LitFest. He will present a workshop called “Make Something Now” during on Friday, February 15.

1. You describe your books as “children’s books for adults.” How did you decide on that genre?

Avery Monsen and Jory John in a photo from the East Bay Express (http://bit.ly/WZkqHi)

When I wrote All My Friends Are Dead with my buddy Jory, I don’t think we were aiming for a specific genre. We just wrote what we thought was funny. We tried to make each other laugh. Only afterwards, when our editors asked us to write a product description and back cover copy, did we stop and think how on earth the book would be classified. Calling it a “children’s book for adults” seemed like the easiest way to make sure parents didn’t buy it for their 5-year-olds and scar them for life. We didn’t want that on our consciences.

2. You recently published K is For Knifeball, an alphabet of terrible advice. How was the process different, now that your earlier books are national bestsellers?

Honestly, I try not to think about sales stuff too much. It freaks me out. Obviously, there’s pressure to make each book better and funnier and more popular than the last, but you also just have to keep writing. You can’t be too precious about your work. That’s the tricky thing that nobody tells you about being a creative-type-person: you just have to keep on making stuff! For the rest of your life! You can’t ever stop hustling! So I just stay busy and have fun and keep making things that I’m proud of. Hopefully, people connect with them and maybe there will be another bestseller someday. Either way, I’m having fun.

Avery’s sketch comedy team, Beige, at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York

3. So you are a writer, illustrator, actor, sketch comedy team member, recorder player (the instrument), and, according to Twitter, my future friend. Which role is your favorite?

Your friend. Next question.

4. How did your experiences at Marin Academy influence your path as a writer, artist, and person?

MA was the best! Aside from the obvious (great teachers, beautiful campus), MA really fostered individuality. In my case, that meant it fostered weirdness and hooliganism. I’ll give you an example: I was a Spirit Captain (is that still a thing?). [Travs: Yes!] In one of our assemblies, we made two people from each grade stand in buckets of ice water for as long as they could. After about ten minutes, they all started shivering and crying and then a bunch of teachers rushed the stage and pulled them out of the buckets. It was total mayhem. (Now that I’ve typed this story, it seems like an example of terrible decision-making more than fun, kooky individualism. Oh well!)

5.  What advice would you give to a high school student interested in writing, illustration, acting, or all of the above?

Have fun! Stay busy! Don’t do it for the money, because the money’s not that good. If you have any questions about anything—career stuff, creative challenges, relationship advice, urgent medical questions—come ask me on February 15th, E Block. I don’t totally know what I’m going to talk about and it may be a total disaster, but it will definitely be interesting. Be there!

All My Friends are still Dead, is a 108 page book, with 1 liner’s and pictures. It’s funny and a page turner. Definitely recommend it. It’s quick and easy and will hopefully make you laugh.

It would probably make a nice little gift for a friend or a great addition to your bookshelf.

Anyway, I guess this is book # 6 then!

This is the follow up to All My Friends Are Dead. You can click through some pics here.

Adding Avery Monsen and Jory John to my radar for new books!

In this book there is a lottery ticket whose only friends are losers. So many of us have those couple of friends who really have no goals or aspirations in life and who tend to bring us down. It’s hard to cut friends loose, but eventually one must analyze who is a good person to have in your life and who isn’t.

The caterpillar in this book struggles with the fact that all of it’s friends have changed. (so witty!) Something that I know i can personally relate to. As people get older they change, and if you don’t change in the same direction as your friends, you will no longer be friends. That’s just life. For instance, people who go to college tend to be friends with other people who attended college. Low life’s are friends with low life’s. Etc. I remember after I went to college – during my first year one of my best friends and I had a huge fall out with each other. She was still in her senior year of high school and I was a freshman at OU. She wrote me a letter telling me how much I have changed in a negative way and how she didn’t even know who I was anymore. I responded with, “I haven’t changed since going to college, I’ve only found myself. I know what I value now, I know what I believe in now, and I know more now than ever, who I want to be.” She just didn’t understand because she had yet to experience college.

I think my favorite character in this book is the robot who doesn’t understand the concept of friendship. I’ve realized as i’ve gotten older that most people truly don’t understand what it means to be a good, true and real friend. One thing I can say about most of my friends is that they are the most unbelievably unsupportive friends ever. And it really breaks my heart how I can be friends with people who don’t support me in everything that I do. You don’t have to agree with me, or like what I do, but you do have to support me. An example is when I turned vegetarian. Majority of my friends were like, “wow that is so stupid!” “just eat meat already.” “you won’t last very long.” But I have proved them all wrong, because I am STILL a vegetarian and right now, more than ever, I believe vegetarianism is such an amazing and good lifestyle. People don’t understand the meaning of friendship. People don’t know how to be empathetic, understanding, forgiving, selfless and supportive… but these are all qualities that good friendships must possess.

This book kind of brings to light the question of, “are we really all alone in this world?” No matter how many friends or people we have surrounding us, if they aren’t truly the definition of a friend – then we are still isolated and alone. I think this is something that I was very naive about during my high school years and it was only after I went to college that I realized how awful some of the people I call friends actually are. People wonder why I spend so much time at home now when I used to always be out partying. People wonder why I am always with my dogs or at Barnes and Nobles or immersed in a book. Well, it’s simple. I’d rather be alone than be with fake people who aren’t there for me and don’t really care about my well being.

Some people just aren’t meant to be in your life. It is very important to realize this sooner rather than later, because the people you surround yourself with, ultimately shape you in good ways or bad.

Xo.

Taylor Jordan

This is horrible, but I mean that in the best way possible! The book above All My Friends Are Still Dead is a sequel to Avery Monsen and Jory John’s best selling book for anyone, but children – All My Friends Are Dead.

It’s kind of like Go the F*uck to Bed, yeah?

[Source]

TODAY: June 10, 2011 (Bill Simmons’s, a.k.a. The SportsGuy, new website, Grantland goes live)

It’s always exciting when a someone whose work you’ve been following for years begins a new project, especially when that new project includes new talents that speak to your interests! Such is the case with the new site Grantland. Bill Simmons (columnist for ESPN, New York Times No. 1 bestselling author, and podcaster-extrodinar) has just launched his new site this week, dedicated to the same unique blend of sports and pop culture that Simmons has been excelling at for years! With a rotation that includes authors like Chuck Klosterman and Malcom Gladwell, columnists like Dan Fierman (GQ) and Chris Jones (Esquire), and some interestingly “fresh” voices, this site may prove to be a must-follow/must-read!

June 3, 2011 (The New York Public Library’s new App, Biblion)

The New York Public Library has gone the extra mile with their new app (to be an ongoing series) released on Tuesday, May 31. The first “issue” of their iPad app, NYPL Biblion, focuses on the 1939-40 World’s Fair; the fair held right before and during the start of WWII in Queens. The material they’ve resurrected from their stacks includes images, articles, audio files, and just an astounding wealth of information. For New York history buffs, its a treasure trove; for world and war history fans, its an entirely new perspective; and for anyone else, its a fascinating experience that really showcases the benefits of the iPad. Oh yeah, it’s also free!

May 27, 2011 (On the amazingly funny book, All My Friends are Dead)

It’s always an exciting moment to stumble across a book that makes you cry, makes you think, or makes you fall over with laughter. I lucked out this week and found a humor book that made me do all three! All My Friends Are Dead promotes itself as “both the saddest funny book and the funniest sad book you’ll ever read,” and I’m inclined to believe it! If you didn’t pick it up last summer, be sure to check out a couple pages from authors Jory John and Avery Monsen here.

May 20, 2011 (…I didn’t like anything this week…)

May 13, 2011 (obviously I’m as bad at posting at work as I am here)

May 6, 2011 (MLB’s new app, MLB at Bat. It’s like crack for baseball fans)

A new addition to an already awesome development this spring: the improved experience on the MLB network’s Gameday. While the revamped site is great and the MLB.tv option is amazing for any truly crazed baseball fan, I’ll focus on the app that goes along with the new feature, MLB At Bat. Some of the awesome features include live clips of games; radio coverage from both teams (a major plus for a Red Sox fan living in NYC); the Gameday feature found on the MLB site (improved considerably); and the scoreboard, which is often overlooked, but done so cleanly in this app. Overall, it’s a fantastic experience and I’m thoroughly impressed with the developers. I wouldn’t mind seeing this done for a few of my other interests: football, Iron Chef, the Quidditch World Cup . . .

April 29, 2011 (Hey, this is a non-judging blog…well, not really)

April 22, 2011 (This is actually my co-worker’s link, but it’s too cool NOT to share)

Today Shelf Awareness shared an incredible, hand-lettered map of literary America (below) made byThe Literary Gift Company. I can’t stop admiring it and looking for my favorite writers. (I want to buy it and hang it next to Little Miss Muffet and her friends.)—Laura

April 8, 2011 (My first contribution!!! And yes, its on the Guitar Hero exhibit at the Met

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Guitar Heroes: Legendary Craftsmen from Italy to New York” exhibit? There’s an app for that! Easy to upload and full of cool extras to check out after you leave the museum, it includes audio descriptions from the exhibition curator, Jayson Kerr Dobney; video and song clips of instruments on display being played; and interviews with musicians. And unlike the normal “one-room video” layout, where visitors crowd around a tiny screen, or sit awkwardly on wooden benches watching the same loop of film, this structure allows for a more interactive and personal experience. Honestly, if they keep making easy-to-follow apps like this, I’ll be visiting a few more museums this year.

And just because I think Google is Amazing this week:enjoy.

I ran across this strange little book in the Comedy aisle at Barnes and Noble. This isn’t an aisle that I peruse frequently, but I was with my husband and wandering the store, and the cover caught my eye. We proceeded to stand in the aisle and flip through the entire book, reading the whole thing. Not that this was much of a feat—most pages only had five or six words on them to begin with.

This is a funny book. Funny, sad, poignant, true. It conveys a lot of honesty and as the back of the book puts it, “existential crisis” of a lot of things, and of course by things, it reflects people. I really enjoyed this little book, even in its sadness and harsh realities about some things (like a guy sitting in front of a computer, saying that he has 3,284 friends, but never met any of them face to face). It made me laugh out loud, even while it mock-horrified me.

Somebody made a graphic showing examples of some of the pages in the book, and I thought I’d share that with you:

See? A little sad, a little harsh. A lot funny. Probably keep this away from tender-hearted kids who might think it’s a fun cartoon story, but I’d definitely picking it up and giving it a read, maybe using it as a conversation piece. It’s worth the read.

In other news, my keyboard doesn’t like the letter “J” all of a sudden. I have to hit the button in just the right spot for the letter to appear. It’s a hassle, let me tell you.

All of this dinosaur’s friends are dead.  All of the zombie’s friends are undead.  All the mix tape’s friends are obsolete.  All of the pirate’s friends have scurvy.  Everyone is just having a terrible time – and you can laugh at their expense!

This book is so hilariously macabre… it was definitely worth the 6 week ILL wait for it (although you can buy it online for $10).  I would definitely not put this in the hands of a child because of its utter hopelessness, but I would give it to almost all of my teen and adult friends.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com

“If you’re a dinosaur, all of your friends are dead. If you’re a pirate, all of your friends have scurvy. If you’re a tree, all of your friends are end tables. Each page of this laugh-out-loud illustrated humor book showcases the downside of being everything from a clown to a cassette tape to a zombie. Cute and dark all at once, this hilarious children’s book for adults teaches valuable lessons about life while exploring each cartoon character’s unique grievance and wide-eyed predicament. From the sock whose only friends have gone missing to the houseplant whose friends are being slowly killed by irresponsible plant owners (like you), All My Friends Are Dead presents a delightful primer for laughing at the inevitable.”

Check out some of the pictures from the book below and, if you feel like buying this book for yourself (or for me!!) then you can find out where to do so right here.  I know that the subject matter is a little sad, but the illustrations and dark humor just call to me.  What do you think of it?

Animated GIF of the Day: The first 10 pages of Avery Monsen and Jory John’s marvelously morbid book, All My Friends Are Dead.

(DailyWhat)