Featured Reader: Micaela from Dolce Vita

I couldn't have this 'Featured Reader' segment without including one of my favorite bloggers, Micaela. I think Micaela is one of those bloggers that is just a big, beautiful ray of sunshine in the blogging world. Several moons ago, she had made a post that she was going to be reading a J.D. Salinger novel with another blogger, Jo. I really stuck my nose in on that one, mentioned I loved Salinger, and the three of us banded together to create an online book club. We each asked two or three questions about the book, and then wrote about it on our own sites. My favorite question that we asked for every book was, "What are your favorite quotes from this book?" I always laughed because where I was often picking out the quotes about disparity, heartache, and sadness, Micaela was always picking up the beautiful, heart-wrenching and life-affirming quotes that I had hardly even noticed. That's why I love reading Micaela's blog - she's always able to see the beauty and gold in life. She is the queen of thrifting, and new mama to a beautiful baby girl, Felix. Even though our little book club is on a hiatus (girls, I'm down to read with you again ANY time!), I still enjoy hearing what Micaela has to say about reading and books, and I was so excited to read her answers to my questions.

What are you currently reading? 

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling. I have fallen head over heels for her thanks to The Mindy Project. Her book was the only thing I asked my husband to get me for Christmas. 

Have you always been a reader? What is your earliest reading memory? 

Always. I remember my teacher reading us Green Eggs and Ham in Kindergarten while we ate green eggs.

Which genre of books do you love the best? 

I love Literary Fiction, Memoirs, and occasionally Short Story Collections. 

Where is your favorite reading spot? What about that spot makes it so special? 

My bathtub is my favorite reading spot. After having a baby, there's few places I can "escape" to. When my husband watches Fe, it feels like a special luxury to relax in bubbles with a book (and often a glass of wine). 

What are three of your most favorite books? 

The Time Traveler's Wife, Eat, Pray, Love and Love Story.

You are the new mama to an adorable little girl, Felix. She's only a couple of months old, but have you already started reading to her? 

Yes! When Felix was a newborn I read what I was reading out loud to her (doctors say it's good for the baby to hear your voice). When Felix was only three weeks old, I was reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I remember thinking reading the word "masturbation" out loud to my newborn would probably be frowned upon. 

What is one of your favorite books to read to Felix? 

On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman.

"On the night you were born, the moon smiled with such wonder that the stars peeked in to see you and the night wind whispered, "Life will never be the same."  Because there had never been anyone like you... ever in the world." 

It's such a sweet book and there's even parts for you to interact with your baby. 

Have your reading habits changed since having your daughter? When do you squeeze in your reading time? 

I definitely have less time to read which was a hard adjustment (when I love a book I cannot put it down). The best time I squeeze in my reading is while I'm laying with Felix and she's nursing. To me, it's one of the pluses of breastfeeding :) 

I love seeing your thrifting finds..any favorite book-related thrifts? 

I was so excited when I found these- read alongs on vinyl (books are included and have the best illustrations). 

Valentine's Day is coming up, what book on your "to-read" list would you love to receive from your husband? 

The History of Love. I'm embarrassed to admit I have never read it though I've always wanted to. I can't think of a better occasion than Valentine's to check that off my list. 

Psst... Husband incase you are reading this, Felix says she wants Andy Warhol's Colors. 

Thank you so much for answering my questions, Micaela! Please check out her blog, Dolce Vita.

Marking Your Page.

When I was younger, buying bookmarks used to be one of my favorite things. I'd love going to the bookstore in the mall and looking through the racks of bookmarks. There were the cutesy animal ones that clipped to your page, the sophisticated silver looking ones, bookmarks with long strands of ribbon and beads, scenes from the Harry Potter movies, etc. Picking out a bookmark was a very serious process for me, and since I didn't buy them often, I had to choose just the right one.

Now that I'm older with bills to pay, buying bookmarks is not a luxury I indulge in anymore. Using found objects, or random items has become much more fun to me. For awhile, I used a cute birthday card from my boyfriend in which was a long, sweet letter. I've used movie ticket stubs, receipts from the library, empty gift cards, and now, this risque playing card. I got the card several months ago at a martini bar on the rim of a drink called 'The G-Spot.' When I ordered, the waiter laughed and said, "that's a fun one." When the drink was set down in front of me, I understood why he looked so tickled. Immediately, it made a home in the book I was reading and hasn't left since. It makes me laugh every time I see it, though I have had several embarrassing moments when the card flutters out of my book on a crowded train, lands face up, and someone awkwardly reaches down to hand back the card with the buck naked, and very buff man on it.

What do you use as a bookmark? If it's a found object, what's the story behind it?

Whip Smart

"I wondered whether everyone had such hurts or these wounded were simply drawn to me. I felt privileged to be the keeper of secrets, to be so trusted. But inevitably, I'd feel the burden of too much power; like my future lovers, they needed me more than I did them."

~~

2012 seemed to be the year of sexual exploration. Fifty Shades of Grey was embarrassingly popular, and suddenly everyone was rushing to the nearest adult boutiques to take classes with their partners and girlfriends on bondage tricks, the in's and out's of BDSM, and how to carry out a healthy dom(me)/submissive relationship. Despite the book series topping the charts, and being passed around like the flu, more often than not I see a woman reading Fifty Shades on the bus with the cover of the book pressed into her legs, like she's hiding it. Sex is a non-taboo taboo in our society, and non-vanilla sex is even moreso. People rarely talk shamelessly about their kinks, which is partly why I appreciated Whip Smart, a memoir by Melissa Febos so much.

After moving to New York, Melissa catches wind that one of her neighbors in her new apartment building is a professional dominatrix. Intrigued, she introduces herself. Becoming a domme, a female dominant, is easy, she learns, staying a domme is the hard part. Lured in by the idea of fast money without having to take her clothes off, and unshaken by the stories her neighbor shares with her about all that being a dominatrix entails, she replies to an ad in the Village Voice that leads her to the Dungeon of Mistress X.

In the dungeon, Melissa becomes Justine. Justine evolves from feeling out of place alongside her co-workers, each of them more seasoned than her and sexual enigmas, to being just like one of them. She pays her dues as an apprentice, who sits in on sessions, then moves up to the easy sensual sessions, and eventually learns to love corporal sessions - the most 'violent' of them all. Melissa writes about each of her clients, most of whom she views as pathetic, with incredible detail. She does not spare us from the bodily fluids spilled, or the twisted fantasies of her clients.

Outside of the dungeon, Melissa is uncertain of most things. She is uncertain about how she is pulling the grades that she is in school. She is uncertain of her personal, sexual relationships and how to maintain their normalcy. She is uncertain of her career at the dungeon. She is uncertain of how to keep these two lives she has created separate. She is uncertain of whether or not she wants to kick her hard drug habit, fueled even further by the wads of money she is making in the dungeon.

Febos guides us through her four years as a professional dominatrix, both in the dungeon and in private sessions, and her downward spiral into cocaine and heroine abuse in a way that makes you feel like you're right alongside of her. I could practically feel the hot breath and sweat of the clients as she makes their wildest fantasies come true. I cringed as she admitted some of her deepest secrets to those closest to her. It was fascinating to read her reinvent herself, and then slowly work on rebuilding herself outside of the dungeon into a woman she doesn't recognize, but wants to be.

I gave this one five stars on Goodreads. I could not put it down, and admired the bravery with which Febos let us in on the secret world of dungeons and dominatrixes.

Looking For New Books for 2013?

For Christmas, I was gifted with a copy of My Ideal Bookshelf edited by Thessaly La Force with art by Jane Mount. I was drawn to the brightly illustrated cover with spines of books that I could recognize.

Opening the book is just as magical as looking at the cover. Essays were collected from dozens of notable people: authors, chefs, artists, designers, scholars, musicians, etc. Each of them were asked to compile their Ideal Bookshelf. The diversity of professions in the essays makes for a slew of different genres and types of books. The first essay by Hugh Acheson of Top Chef fame is about his love for cooking, and the books that fueled his passion for southern cuisine, and his craft in general, while writer Francine Prose only chose novels and story collections by Anton Chekhov because, "Reading Chekhov shares a quality with looking at certain kinds of great art: both activities feel like a religious experience." 

Each person had their different reasons for choosing the books that they did. Many authors chose books by authors who they idolized and wish their work could be like. Chefs typically chose books that were in their childhood homes and used by their mothers, or books that examine food in a way they agree with. Artists and designers shared their favorite references books or artist biographies. And sometimes, books were simply chosen because they came to them at a pivotal moment in their lives. There are so many other different types of books and their reasons for being there and it was a fun examination into each professions inspirations and desires.

Each 'Ideal Bookshelf' is painted vividly, only showing the spine to show a part of books that are very often seen, but not often appreciated and enjoyed.

One of the fascinating parts of this book was how different each shelf was based simply on appearances. Quite a few people shared the same love of books. Lolita by Nabokov and Nine Stories by Salinger were on several shelves. Many people loved Chekhov, and Carver, and The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis, but every shelf was arranged very differently. Actor James Franco is notorious for being all over the place: one second he's an actor, the next a director, the next a writer, the next an artist, the next a student napping in the lecture hall, so his shelf is very unorganized with just piles of books thrown haphazardly together. Photographer Alec Soth's shelf was very straight, uniform, with thinner and colorful books.

Something that I really wish was in this book were longer essays. As we all know from my featured reader section, I'm a pretty nosy person when it comes to books and why people like them, and I would've loved to know more about why each person chose each book that they did - especially books that I know and love. Many of the people picked out one or two books to touch upon, and the rest was about their craft. Still interesting to read, but I just would've liked the focus more on the books.

There are over 75 enlightening essays by the folks I already mentioned, as well as Patti Smith, David Sedaris, Roseanne Cash, Miranda July, Judd Apatow, etc. It is definitely worth keeping on your shelf as a reference of books to read. There are hundreds of amazing books in here, and my 'to-read' list grew exponentially. Of course.

What would be on your ideal bookshelf? I still can't figure mine out!

My Favorite Books of 2012

**Also not pictured (I was too lazy to add them when I finished reading them after I made the collages):

-Cancer Ward by Aleksander Solzhenitsyn

-Was She Pretty? by Leanne Shapton

-My Ideal Bookshelf edited by Thessaly La Force

When I first starting compiling all of these images of the covers of the books I read, I could hardly believe I read this many books this year. That's fifty-two in a year! One book per week, just about. I had made an overly ambitious goal to read 100 books, but life gets in the way, and so does the simple pleasure of reading a book slowly to take it in :) But fifty-two isn't bad, and here they all are, the good, the bad, and the slightly inappropriate.

Of all of these books, I was somehow able to pick out my Top 5 Favorite Books Read This Year. In no particular order:

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. This book moved me in so many ways. It was an assigned book for a YA class I took this past semester and it took me two weeks to read because I forced myself to slow down and enjoy every page. Told from the point of view of Death, it is the story of a small town in Nazi, Germany. Leisel Meminger has been sent to live with Hans Hubermann, a painter by trade and an accordionist by night, and Rosa Hubermann, an uptight woman who does the laundry for the wealthy. Leisel struggles to fit in with her new family and the neighborhood kids, all while trying to dodge kisses from Rudy Steiner. Her situation clenches even further when Hans agrees to hide a young Jewish boxer in the basement, and she falls in love with reading - a difficult love to have when money doesn't allow her to buy books... Death tells us her story in a way you wouldn't expect Death to - with compassion and sorrow. I could talk about this book for years. I saw the play adaptation at the Steppenwolf, and was lucky enough to meet Markus at a Q&A about the book in October and have him sign my copy. I even got it for my mother for Christmas. 

2. The Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann. People might be rolling out of this one. It's considered a guilty pleasure among many, and no, it is not up there in the ranks as a Great American Classic. BUT, Susann was so brilliant at creating memorable characters. I read it months ago, and Neely O'Hara still gets under my skin, I want to reach out and save the beautiful model Jennifer North, and the failure that was Anne Welles and Lyon Burke's relationship still makes my heart sad. Reading about the rise and fall of these three women in the valley of the 'dolls' kept me hooked on every page and I ate. it. up. Lately I've been half-joking that my next tattoo on my book-related-half-sleeve in progress will be a broken heart that says 'Lyon' in it. Since he really did crush me. I got this book for my sister for Christmas so she would understand my wounded heart.

3. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. Damn, I loved this book. Olympia is living in an apartment building just a floor away from her unknowing daughter, Miranda. Her daughter is about to fix one of her cosmetic flaws with a plastic surgery, and Olympia wants to save her. Thinking about her daughter's bodily quirk leads her to writer her own family history so her daughter can see where she comes from - a family of circus freaks. Olympia was created by her parents through much drug use and experimentation while she was in the womb, and so were her brothers and sisters. There are her prodigal piano playing twin sisters, and her brother, Arturo, also known as Aqua Boy, whose fame rises to a level high enough to gain cult status. Olympia is the least freaky of them all, yet freaky enough to stand out in society. Dunn did a great job at combining the present-day story with Olympia and Miranda, and the tragic back story of her circus freak family. 

4. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. I've mentioned before how much this book got to me. Hazel is a 16 year old thyroid-cancer patient who meets Augustus at a cancer patient support group that she was forced to go to. Both are drawn together through disease, but bond over their love of books - particularly Hazel's favorite, An Imperial Affliction by Peter Van Houten. The ending haunts both Hazel and Augustus since it ends in mid-sentence, and they make it their goal to meet Van Houten and get the answer of what happens before it's too late for both of them. It was interesting to see John Green write in a female's point of view, and it was believable and heartbreaking (in a good way.) 

5. Party Monster by James St. James. Here's where everyone stops trusting this blog. This one was chosen simply because it was entertaining. I saw the movie with Macaulay Caulkin and Seth Green years ago, and the book was FINALLY available in the library so I snatched it up. James St. James was one of the founding fathers of the Club Kid scene in the early 90's in New York City. He was also in a love-hate relationship with his sometimes-best friend, the leader of it all Michael Alig. It was a time of an insane amount of drugs, partying, costumes, and escapism that ended with a murder. James St. James keeps nothing secret, admitting openly to his drug use, the incredibly young party-goers, and all of his knowledge of the murder. St. James tells the story very much in the present. It doesn't read as a reflection, and the storytelling and descriptions are vivid and keeps you gasping with disbelief. I recommend watching the movie, the documentary also titled Party Monster, and YouTubing 'Club Kids on Phil Donahue.' 

These books weren't chosen because they've won tons of awards (though some of them have), or because they are America's favorites. I chose them because they entertained me and they're the kinds of books I would recommend to my friends. Each have beautiful and memorable characters, great storytelling, and a way of keeping the reader hooked - which I think is pretty important. 

Happy New Year, readers! Thank you to everyone who has followed and read my blog so far. I've made a couple of resolutions to dedicate more time to reading and keeping up with this website and I'm excited to see what the future holds.

What were the favorite books you've read this year? Also, if you have any questions or comments about the books I've pictured above, feel free to comment! I'd love to discuss them, as they were each good (sometimes not so good) in their own way!

Was She Pretty?

After spending a whole month dedicated to the mammoth-sized Cancer Ward, I wanted to read something very easy and simple. Something that didn't take up a lot of brain power. I can't even bring myself to blog about it yet. I had seen Was She Pretty? on some Goodreads list on one of my late night binges, and on several blogs. The title is pretty universal. Leanne Shapton wrote and illustrated the book after finding herself incredibly curious about the exes of her lovers. This sparked a series of interviews with friends, friends of friends, and family about their exes and the exes of their exes. The result of this was often one-lined series of stories and line drawings about ex-lovers.

One of my favorites:

I think it's somewhere we've all been - driven insane with curiosity about the men and women that came before us. This book was insightful, thoughtful, and also thought-provoking and surprisingly with minimal hostility. 

Was She Pretty? by Leanne Shapton was the perfect book to move onto after Cancer Ward and I devoured it in just one evening before flipping back through it to my favorite passages and handing it off to my roommate. 

Have any of your exes had interesting quirks? What about your exes exes?

Featured Reader: Joanna Goddard

When I was first dreaming up this blog, one of my main goals was to bring readers together. I am always incredibly curious about what people are reading, where they read, and how they read. I'm that weirdo on the train craning my neck to catch a glimpse of the cover someone is reading across from me. It's my way to break the ice with strangers. I wanted to use this blog partially as a fun place to share the reading habits of others, since I am sure there are people out there just as curious as I am.

I am so excited about my first Featured Reader, Joanna Goddard from A Cup of Jo. I have been a reader of her fantastic lifestyle blog for quite some time now, and I thoroughly enjoy her style and design tips, recipe sharing, love of New York City, gift guides around the holidays, and her advice and insight on raising her adorable toddler, Toby. Joanna also has a great taste in books - particularly cookbooks and memoirs, which made me certain she would be a great start to the Featured Reader segment of The Lit Girl. Joanna was kind enough to answer some of my questions, so here we go!

What are you currently reading?
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, which is a beautiful and funny book about writing. After I had a baby, I read her hilarious, real and heartwarming book Operating Instructions about her first year with her newborn son, and I've since been a devoted fan of hers.

Have you always been a reader? If so, what is your earliest reading memory? If not, what turned you into a believer?
My parents read to us a TON when we were little, and when I was in elementary school I would lie behind our living room sofa (between the wall and the sofa!) and read books. It felt like a secret hiding spot. Although once I left a glass of apple juice there, and my mom got me in trouble when she found it, all moldy and gross.

What genre of books tend to be your favorite?

I love literary fiction, memoirs and graphic novels. 

Where do you do most of your reading? What about that place makes it best for reading books?
One of my favorite things in the world is reading books in bed. It's so cozy, and my husband sometimes will finish reading the last few paragraphs of a chapter out loud if I get too sleepy to keep my eyes open. (He's a keeper:)

Has having your (totally adorable) son, Toby, affected your reading habits? How have you adjusted reading time as a mom?

I read a little less now because I spent so much time playing with him. But I still sneak in reading time at night. His 7:30pm bedtime is key!

Do you read to Toby? Does he love story time?
Toby is forever asking me if we can sit on the pillows and read "a bunch a books." We love reading together, and favorites include Along a Long Road, Knuffle Bunny Free and Dragons Love Tacos. He also loves all books about cars and trucks, naturally.

What are three of your most favorite books?
The History of Love, Epilogue and Peter Pan are at the tippy top of the list. The Glass Castle was also great. And anything by Roald Dahl.

Lastly, the holidays are coming up, and I think you're pretty much a pro on gift guides :) What is one of your favorite books to gift?
Cookbooks are always a huge hit. My friend Jenny Rosenstrach wrote the book Dinner: A Love Story, which is part cookbook, part memoir. She actually has a little diary, where she's written down every single dinner she's had since 1998! So she knows her stuff and is full of funny stories.

Joanna also shared this gorgeous picture of her book shelf. Don't you love how all of the books are color coordinated, and the great little figures that adorn each shelf?

Thank you so much for sharing, Joanna!