Claire becomes suspicious of Samuel as she learns more about the Carnival.

Hiro plans a rescue mission but has trouble communicating with Ando about it.

Noah ask Matt to help him  take down Samuel.

Peter struggles to accept Nathan’s death.

Stay Tuned for the ALL NEW Jay Leno Show after the show. His fresh new jokes for the New Year and Special Guests too.

Shakira guest stars on “Wizards of Waverly Place” I can’t give away the plot, but I have heard she will magically appeared on the show – just magically appeared. She will sing her latest song “Gypsy” with Selena Gomez and she will move her hips, that’s my exercise, shaking my hips, I am done.

Selena Gomez was impressed “Working with Shakira was an amazing experience,” she says, “it’s very encouraging to see someone with that much success and still be humble and real. I look up to that”.

Catch Shakira on “Wizards on Waverly Place” on January 15, 2009 follow by NEW episodes of “Suite Life on Deck” all NEW!!

Have you ever wonder who does the voice of the Pothole in the GEICO commercial?  It’s not Britney Spears or Miley Cyrus. It’s Dayci Brookshire, 27, whose youthful, enthusiastic tones have landed her a lot of jobs: “I’ve played everything from a 5-year-old boy to the talking pothole to a British character, to whatever,” the native North Carolinian says. Adaptability pays.

I love top ten lists – even if they are biased and flawed. I like the tidiness and simplicity that lists give to my world overflowing with too much information. Even if I don’t agree there is always something new to learn from what other people see as the ‘best’ or ‘worst’ of the year.

The following books aren’t necessarily the best ones of the year – they are simply ten that I read this year and recommend to others who enjoy literary fiction.

Five Books I Re-read this Year

• The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen. If you read this when if first came out, take another look. You’ll discover  nuances you missed the first time around. And if you never read it, please do. It has stood the test of time and outlasted all the hype.

• Emma, by Jane Austen. The six novels Jane Austen wrote during her lifetime are six of my favorite all-time books and I usually re-read one a year. This year it was Emma, which is my favorite of the six. Many people are put off by the costume-drama milieu but it is really a very perceptive tale of family dynamics, feminism, and love.

• The Feast of Love, by Charles Baxter. My all-time favorite book and I re-read it every year. Do yourself a favorite and read it. (And DO NOT watch the movie instead of reading it. You are only hurting yourself.)

• The Loved One, by Evelyn Waugh. I remember reading this during an English class on “Comedy” and laughing until my sourpuss professor told us to look at the subtext of despair under the comedy. He ruined the book then for me so I thought I’d give it another try. And it’s still as funny, and yes, still full of despair. It’s called Black Comedy, professor!

• A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again and The Girl with Curious Hair, by David Foster Wallace. Whenever I need a guaranteed laugh, I re-read DFW’s A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, his hilarious essay about the cruise industry. He writes with such intellect and vividness that you feel his confusion at the entire concept of cruises, as well as his pain at being beaten at chess by a nine-year-old. His suicide in September left his family, the literary world and his millions of fans devastated. When the shock wore off for me, I re-read his story, The Girl with Curious Hair, which had been my first introduction to him. While it didn’t have the same overwhelming impact it had when I read it newly into my writing life a dozen years ago, it still moved me and reminded me what a talent our world had lost.

Five New Books I Read this Year

• The List, by Tara Ison. Only read this if you are NOT in the midst of a romantic breakup (or breakdown). Reading it from the security of a wonderful marriage, I stopped every few chapters thinking, “Thank goodness I’m done with that.” And if I was single, I could imagine myself thinking, “Right. This is why I like being single.” In the book, two lovers decide to do everything they had wanted to do together before they break up for good. Melancholy but ultimately uplifting – a lot like The Feast of Love. A great book by a great writer. (Disclaimer: Tara Ison was a professor of mine during grad school and is one of the coolest writers I know.)

• This is Where I Leave You, by Jonathan Tropper. I wrote about this novel in a post earlier this year. For a good laugh, and maybe a good cry, read this book.

• The Women, by T.C. Boyle. I love me some T.C. Boyle. I’ll read anything he writes – from hits (Drop City) to misses (The Road to Wellville). This year, he gave us The Women, a fictional novel about Frank Lloyd Wright and the many wives/mistresses in his life. I was reminded of the line “talking about love is like dancing about architecture” (from the movie Playing by Heart). While it’s hard to entirely “see” the buildings and houses just from his descriptions of them, Boyle gives insight into an architect as an artist, not engineer, and for me that was fascinating.

• How I Became a Famous Novelist, by Steve Healy, and A Fraction of the Whole, by Steve Toltz. I wrote about both of these novels earlier as well. Check out my posts on Novelist and Fraction and put them on your list for 2010.

Looking over this list, I have the same regret I do every time I got to the bookstore or library. The lack of female authors. I try very hard to read novels and stories by women but I have a hard time finding works by women that are not 1) mysteries, 2) crime or 3) chick lit.

I just don’t enjoy those genres. I like to read literary fiction. Some of the ones on my list to read in 2010:

• Trouble, by Kate Christensen
• Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks
• The Writing Class, by Jincy Willet (she wrote Jenny & the Jaws of Life)
• Veronica, by Mary Gatskill

If you have others to recommend, let me know!

Sociologist and social welfare scholar Yeheskel Hasenfeld has recently published a new edition of his seminal volume, Human Services as Complex Organizations. This comprehensive and state-of-the-art collection on human service organizations weaves the latest theoretical and empirical studies in macro theory with contemporary examples from hospitals, schools, social service organizations, mental health centers, and public welfare agencies. Blending theory with application, this outstanding anthology highlights the moral choices and accomplishments made by human service organizations. University of Michigan Professor Emerius Mayer Zald writes, “Hasenfeld has done it again. An excellent collection of essays on many of the most important trends and issues involving human service organizations.” The volume features essays from urbanorgs.org members Celeste Watkins-Hayes, Evelyn Brodkin, Stephen R. Smith, Jodi Sandfort and many others.

During these long winter evenings, there’s nothing better than curling up with a great book. Not sure what to read? Consult Off the Shelf, a collection of book recommendations by our Adult Selection Specialist, Sarah Redman. You can also subscribe to the Off the Shelf e-mail newsletter to receive reviews in your inbox. Check out the latest Off the Shelf review below.

Water, Stone, Heart by Will North

A love story from the male perspective

North offers a love story from the male perspective with the same light but deeply romantic touch readers found so captivating in The Bridges of Madison County and Nicholas Sparks’ The Notebook.
Although he teaches architectural theory at a Philadelphia university, Andrew Stratton has never actually built a structure. Divorce from his caustic wife leaves him feeling unmoored and he enrolls in a course on building stone walls in Cornwall, England. The colorful, strongly-connected community he finds there includes American expatriate and artist Nicola Rhys-Jones. Her history makes her equally wary of a relationship, but Nicola and Andrew cannot deny their strong attraction. Equal parts love story and tribute to the beautiful countryside of Cornwall, this is an intelligent, sensitive novel about second chances.

Check this item out in our catalog.

Adam Lambert performed this morning on The View today, this time his performance was good. Nothing inappropriate. ABC thought ‘The View’ was taking a risk to let Adam Lambert performed just because his sexuality – he’s gay. Who wants to be reminded of what he did – no one. Do they remember? Clay Aiken, he was gay too and he performed too. He did not grab – you know what, but now he’s married and has a family.

Adam knew it was wrong to perform on the AMA, but he did it for a shock value, but he learned from his mistake and he would not do it again on Network TV.

So, please GMA on ABC, just let him performed and let him promote his album. He’s a great performer.

Tiger woods. One crash after thanksgiving and a bunch of worms came out – make that a bunch of women came out from his car, I expect to see clowns to come out, but women – that’s my dream car.

Do you know what is the difference between a golf ball and a Cadillac Escalade? Tiger can drive the golf ball 400 yards!

The Tiger Woods alleged “Mistress Count” is up to ten. Eight more and he’ll be playing 18 holes. And, he would have a hole in one!!

What’s the difference between Tigers drive & an amateurs?–  300yds to the trees, 100 yds to the water and no lift & drop from the rough…..

Tiger Woods has decided not to attend next week’s Chevron World Challenge. He’d like to go, but his wife still has his nine iron.

You are a celebrity. People will photograph you always. What book do you flash?

Taylor Swift and Michael Jackson were big winners on the America Music Awards on Sunday, November 22, 2009. Since Taylor Swift wasn’t in the states but in London and she stayed up to accept her awards up to 4am in London. Luckily Kayne West wasn’t there at London to interrupt her speech! She was either finishing up her concert or getting ready to sleep. She won 5 five including, Best Artist,  Best Country Female Artist, Favorite Female Pop/Rock, Favorite Female Adult Contemporary, Favorite Female Country Album (Fearless), and  My Favorite Female Friend-that-I-want-next-door-to-me. In which that would never happened to me.

Janet Jackson did a medley of hits and her current song, which was a show topper. I was dancing and eating at the same time. I was choking on a meatball. But I am okay.

What was lady Ga-Ga  wearing tonight, she looked like part alien playing a piano while it was on fire, luckily her hair wasn’t on fire. If it was, she will be Lady Ga-Fire!! Funny?

What was Adam Lambert was singing? I was stunned. Shock. And awe! He delivered. But, his stage performance was totally inappropriate. It’s a family show. I had to cover my daughter’s eyes for that performance. And my daughter cover my eyes too. He sang For Your Entertainment.  He entertained. Whoa.

Notable performances were Jennifer Lopez in her return. Jay-z was on stage, and of course the Black Eyed Peas (with Fergie) were there to celebrate.

My Favorite presenters were Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Kristen Bell, and Donny Osmond – remember to vote for him DWTS on Monday night. And others too, they were great. How can I be a presenter?

Anyway here are the winners!!

2009 AMA Winners

Best Artist — Taylor Swift

Best Country Male Artist — Keith Urban

Favorite Male Pop/Rock — Michael Jackson

Favorite Pop/Rock Album — Michael Jackson (Number Ones)

T-Mobile Breakthrough Artist — Gloriana

Favorite Soul/R&B — Michael Jackson

Favorite Pop/Rock Band — Black Eyed Peas

Best Country Female Artist — Taylor Swift

Favorite Female Pop/Rock — Taylor Swift

Favorite Female Adult Contemporary — Taylor Swift

Favorite Female Country Album — Taylor Swift (Fearless)

Favorite Female Sou/R&B — Beyonce

Favorite Hip-Hop Artist — Jay-Z

Favorite Hip-Hop Album — Jay-Z

Favorite Country Band — Rascal Flatts

Favorite Soul/R&B Group — Black Eyed Peas

Last week I got to talk writing with a dozen smart medical students, all with writerly inclinations. I’m a believer that writers learn best from what they read, so I’d asked the students to look at two short narratives, “The Unknown Assailant” by Frank Huyler*, and “Sudden Death,” by Emily Transue**, both of which describe the inner life of young physicians.

Huyler, an emergency physician, grapples with the discovery that he’s taking care of an accused murderer. Among the students there was much appreciation for Huyler’s storytelling skill — spare sentences and images, effective use of minor characters — and though he never overtly tells you what he feels, you’re sure of it by the end.

Transue’s story, about an elderly man who codes and dies unexpectedly, explores the moment a physician comes to understand she can’t always exert perfect control over a patient’s outcome, that people may still die regardless of how well she does her job. In contrast to Huyler, she tells you exactly what she’s feeling. And the writing is just as effective because it’s so clean, unaffected and honest — she doesn’t try to sound like a writer.

For those who write medical narrative, there’s lots to learn from these two very fine stories.

*from The Blood of Strangers, Holt, 2000.
**from On Call, St Martin’s Press, 2004.

As the year’s end approaches, it’s time for the “best of” mania. Part cultural gatekeeping, part marketing ploy, the “Top X” list is an established tradition–as is taking offense at the lists’ sins of commission or omission. Our case in point is this year’s Publisher’s Weekly top ten, a list which includes not one work by a woman (although it does include books about women. Cold comfort, indeed!). To be fair, the sub-lists (best fiction, best poetry) do include works by women authors.

Here’s a case where English professors step back from the fray, rub their hands together with glee, and revel to see people talk so passionately about books, no matter what side of the debate they take. Online ‘zine salon.com has an overview of what the internet is saying about PW, which you can find here. Discuss amongst yourself. Oh, and happy reading–there are some great things on these lists!

File this one under “I’ve-got-to-get-this-book.” Academic odd couple Greil Marcus (a cultural critic known for his groundbreaking work on the intellectual antecedents of rock music) and Werner Sollors (erudite, German-born race theorist) have joined forces to bring out a “new” look at the great moments and monuments of U.S. culture. A New Literary History of America promises to offer a fresh take on the significant events in our literary past, writ large, and to unseat the stodgy, establishment approach to some of our “great works,” ranging from Gatsby to Emily Dickinson’s poetry, Jackson Pollock, and hip hop.

It’s an ambitious undertaking of nearly 1100 pages, broken down into some 200+ essays, so I expect it to be somewhat uneven in approach and idiosyncratic in its historical coverage. Still, the project of re-imagining our shared past from some new vantage points–and especially the prospect of Ishmael Reed taking on the vexed racial politics of Twain’s Huck Finn is enough to get me to add this to my bookshelf.

Here’s a review essay from the LA Times, and here’s the Harvard UP link, which includes a full table of contents.

Have your review on my desk by the end of next week.

Are Chicago’s South Siders more agreeable than their North Side neighbors?  In which neighborhoods are Chicagoans most open to new experiences?  University of Toronto’s Kevin Stolarick has taken personality data from a study of more than 2,500 Chicagoans who took  “The Big Five Personality Test” and mapped the data onto Chicago neighborhoods.  The data reveal strong patterns across neighborhoods.  For example, people who see themselves as extroverted appear to cluster on the South Side; those with higher neurotic scores, on the far North Side.  Stolarick works in Richard Florida’s Martin Prosperity Institute, which has seen controversy in recent months.  See articles Chicago Tribune and Chicago Redeye.

Megan Fox Modeling for Underwear. My question is this. Does she wear underwear? I can’t tell. Can you?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Who wears these costumes? The best time to wear this is AFTER DARK,  like  real DARK. If people have the money and want to get it, go ahead.  I would not wear them. What happens if someone takes a picture of you and posted over the internet, that would  be embarrassing.  It will cost you a job.  Just wear a mask of a giraffe.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Sorry I have written or post anything on my blog lately, been busy. Anyway, here’s what people are talking about.

Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift during her accepted speech on the VMA awards. Not a good sign for Kanye and his career maybe over, but if he had interrupted Moammar Gadhafi, on Wednesday of last week his career would be gotten off to a great start.

Funny?

On the heels of reading Denis Johnson’s new novel, I read “How I Became a Famous Novelist” by Steve Hely.

I’d read a review of it on NY Times and looked it up at my library. I was #14 on the waiting list. Doesn’t meant the book is good, just that it’s popular. Which is exactly what the book is about.

Before I got a chance to crack it open, my husband, who is also a writer, started reading it. I couldn’t pry it out of his hands, nor could I go anywhere in the house without hearing his laughter. He was so enthralled, he finished it in two days and finally I could have it.

Without spoiling the plot,the book is about a couch-potato kind of guy who decides to write a popular novel that will get him money and girls and out of having to actually work. So he examines the best seller list and figures out the elements of a popular novel (versus a literary novel), such as the word “club” in the title, and your main character taking a road trip. He puts them all together and writes a book.

The book was hilarious. Hely is a former comedy writer so he knows what he is doing. Each laugh, however, was followed by a groan, as what he writes about is uncomfortably true. That popular sells (look at Da Vinci Code) even if it’s horribly written. And only a few authors of ‘literary’ fiction can hope to earn money from their writing (Alice Munro comes to mind).

I admit I read the Da Vinci Code from cover to cover in one sitting (about 2 hours). It was a page turner, half because he made you turn the page to find out what was next, and half to see for myself how truly poor the writing was. But that begs the question, one of which Hely raises in his book.

Does the reading public (mostly Americans) actually think this is good writing? Do they care? Or are they reading it just because everyone else is? Is it popular because it’s easy to read – like TV delivered on paper? Does the majority of people want to read three word sentences and three sentence paragraphs rather than having to strain to read multi-syllable words and long paragraphs?

I feel disheartened thinking about this because while I know I have an audience out there, I know it’s not sizable. I probably won’t ever be on the best seller list. But then I remember that isn’t my goal. My goal, unlike the main character of Hely’s book, is to write. Publishing, and heaven forbid making money, would just be gravy.

Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Long ago, I was at a writers’ meet-up during NaNoWriMo where I met an older woman of the Probing Question Asking sort. She wanted to know what everyone was writing, and if each story had “a sense of longing” to it. To her, a story that instilled a deep sense of longing in the reader was a GOOD story. Her earnestness in this opinion made me uncomfortable, and I squirmed as I answered her questions about my post-apocalyptic vampire story with killer pagan nuns. Stories that hollow us out and make us hungry, I thought, are not the only stories worth reading…

And here I find a story that would completely satisfy PQA lady. It hollowed me out. It made me sad for the characters. It filled me with a deep sense of longing that they would prevail in their quest. It had as much or more sex than most books I read (and I read Jacqueline Carey!) but none of it felt prurient. Little of it was hot. It just filled me with a desire for the connection that these characters were reaching for, as well.

I’ll try this author again, though first I might do a little time with escapist fiction, until I need to be hollowed out again.

View all my reviews >>

Reading Stephen King’s book on writing (not an autobiography he insists). Pretty entertaining. Had no idea he has such a foul mouth.

I read most of his stories and books as a young adult – the oil spill one and the doctor on the island haunt me still – but stopped halfway through “It” and never picked up another one.

His book “On Writing” is interesting – reading him recount the path (so far as he knows) that led him to being a writer. What strikes me the most so far was in one of the prologues. He compares his writing with Amy Tan’s (a friend of his). They both write “popular” fiction and thus no one asks them about their use of language.

Two things stand out to me about this. First that I think of Amy Tan’s work as literary and of course the language is paramount to that. King’s work is all about plot and thus I’ve never considered him as a crafter of language.

The other, how I’ve always thought of it, is that Tan’s work is literary and just happens to have become popular. King’s work is popular and thus can’t possibly be literary.

Both of these views are of course my own bias and I know many other writers who feel the same way. If it’s popular with the masses (aka Danielle Steel and Dan Brown) it can’t possibly be good, or ‘real’ writing. And if it’s good, literary fiction, it can’t possibly be popular because the masses don’t have such good taste.  Jonathan Franzen’s “The Corrections” and Oprah is a classic example of this thinking.

Is this a way to console ourselves if our work isn’t embraced by an agent, or editor, or readers? My writing is too good to be understood by the masses. I could churn out a novel like Dan Brown in an instant if I wanted to but I want to make art!

But isn’t this just like my mother and others saying to me, Oh I could write a novel if I just had the time.

Obviously it took craft and persistence and not a little talent for King to write and publish 30 best sellers. And while “The Da Vinci Code” might be a literary joke, I couldn’t put it down.

So I’m trying to be less of a snob and focus on the work. Like the teachers said in school, Ddon’t worry about what everyone else is doing, keep your eyes on your own paper.”

There are few books, or movies, or conversations, that I like to repeat. But there are a handful of books that I read at least once a year.

• “The Feast of Love,” by Charles Baxter. This is my favorite book of all time. If you haven’t read this book, you should.

• “A Confederacy of Dunces,” by John Kennedy Toole. Fall-down hilarious and memorable. The story behind the novel is tragic but I am thankful for his mother’s perseverance to bring this treasure to light.

• “Emma,” by Jane Austen. I re-read most of her novels, but this is by far my favorite.

• “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,” by David Foster Wallace. This essay is funny, poignant, insightful, and endearing. Wallace pours himself into all his writing and this is one of the most accessible and entertaining of them all.

Books I have re-read at least once over the years:

• “Royal Beatings,” a short story by Alice Munro. I love all her stories, especially this one in the collection “The Beggar Maid.” She was and continues to be one of the biggest influences on my writing. This was the first story of hers that I read and it remains one of the best.

• “The Corrections,” by Jonathan Franzen, to see if I was as impressed the second time. I was.

• Various stories by George Saunders, whenever I want a great laugh.

• “Catcher in the Rye,” and “To Kill a Mockingbird.”  They had such an impression on me  in high school that I’ve returned to them every few years since.

In keeping with the last post, is there a book you were made to read for a grade in school that ended up becoming one of your favorites?

For high school, I would say it’s To Kill A Mockingbird. For college, probably my introduction to any novel by Edith Wharton, who I only knew from The Age of Innocence movie made in the 1990s. Talk about a movie not really living up to the source material…

Your turn.

The New York Times recently did an article about a new movement in English classes to allow students to pick their own reading material for class. It caught my eye because it centered in on one of my very favorite books, To Kill a Mockingbird, which I read for 9th Grade English back in the day. It was required reading, and I loved it from the very first chapter.

Would I have read it in 9th Grade, if it had not been required? I’m not sure, though I think my odds are pretty good. My mother was an English teacher, and we had no shortage of books around the house. My mother often took me with her to the high school during the summer, and I read many of the required books for high school curriculum in Kansas long before I ever set foot in that high school as a student. I have gone through phases of my life…say, age four to five minutes ago…when I read compulsively. I would read the back of the toilet cleaner, if I didn’t have a novel in the bathroom.

I’m so torn about this solution to reading apathy. Some kids are going to pick challenging books, like I read Les Miserables at 15, over Christmas Break. I’ve seen too many kids, friends of mine, give up reading because it was presented to them as a chore. Required of them by parents. Is a bookshelf filled only with James Patterson better than no bookshelf at all? Is a love of reading inherently worth fostering, if V.C. Andrews is the only material read? Don’t get me wrong. I read Flowers in the Attic, and younger than I should have.

But I don’t know that I should have gotten a grade in English class for doing so.