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Baby Party - 2004-08-27 15:12:59
That Campanero chicken reminds me of Clucky from the old SNL commercial parody for a chain called Cluckin' Chicken: http://www.streetcarmike.com/cluckinchicken.html
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Paula - 2004-08-27 15:28:36
There's music on the site, too, BP, were you able to hear it?
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Baby Party - 2004-08-27 15:54:49
No, I have sound card issues at work, too boring to go into. I'll listen when I get home.
Here are my autobiography/memoir recommendations:
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek,
An American Childhood, and
Teaching a Stone to Talk
all three by Annie Dillard
and more or less in that order
The orton Diaries (playwright Joe Orton)
hilarious, raunchy, and fascinating, even if you've never read or don't like his plays
Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi
He was a chemist, and describes his experience in the precise, elegant language of a scientist. The horror of the Holocaust requires no elaboration or adornment, so reading this is like looking through a clear window directly into Auschwitz. The follow-up, the Reawakening, about his long walk home from the camp to Italy, is very good too, and strangely uplifting.
Lucky by Alice Sebold
Drinking a Love Story by Caroline Knapp
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Baby Party - 2004-08-27 15:55:44
There are some line breaks missing from the above post, see me if you need clarification.
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Paula - 2004-08-27 15:59:45
Thanks, BP. I've read all of Annie Dillard, but the others sound great, too.
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Sharps - 2004-08-27 16:01:03
I read Drinking: A Love Story. It's quite good - she died not too long ago. She was young, in her 40s I think, a real shame.
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Baby Party - 2004-08-27 16:10:41
Yes, I read somewhere recently that she died. It really shocked me. Do you know how she died, Sharps? Also, Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy, about her experience living with extreme facial disfigurement, is good. I met her briefly in 1982 - she went to Sarah Lawrence, and I was visting my best friend, who also went there. She committed suicide a year or two ago, and her friend Ann Patchett wrote a memoir of their friendship that I've been wanting to read. It was excerpted somewhere (New Yorker?) and what I read was very touching.
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Baby Party - 2004-08-27 16:11:18
I meant that Lucy Grealy committed suicide, not my friend.
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Paula - 2004-08-27 16:15:53
I also read _Autobio of a Face_, and during the period that I was reading it I saw LG on a dark Soho street, and we were the only ones on it, it was chilling. I felt sad when I heard she died, and look forward to reading Ann Patchett's book. Thanks again for a good tip.
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Editrix - 2004-08-27 16:25:02
Re. Caroline Knapp: She died of lung cancer. I've heard good things from people I trust about her books, but having read too many of her cutesy-poo columns in the Phoenix, it's hard to make myself actually pick one up.
Re. Augusten Burroughs: did you see this, Paula? I just finished Running with Scissors myself, and I'm really happy that he has two more books on the horizon.
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Paula - 2004-08-27 16:29:35
Editrixie: thanks for interview link--it's not surprising that AB is a great interview subject.
I read Carolyn Knapp's terrific book about her beloved dog, and thought she did a great job summing up how it is to love a mutt.
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Baby Party - 2004-08-27 16:31:44
Editrix, I'm not familiar with her other work. Drinking: A Love Story is the antithesis of cutesy-poo. It's stark, matter-of-fact, visceral. She must have had a dark side or somethin'. So have no fear. It's poo-free!
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Tom Ronca - 2004-08-27 20:32:31
I think I'll have to pick up something by this Augusten Burroughs -- I'm assuming he's not related to W.S., but maybe somebody can tell me different. Paula, I'm thinking you must have read something by Bill Bryson; if not, "A Walk in the Woods" is a good place to start, especially if you've ever had a hankering to walk the Appalachian Trail. It may convince you to do so, or it may convince you to never step foot in a forest again. Hard to say, really.
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Anne - 2004-09-03 15:34:39
Paula and any other New Yawkers, I just saw that Augusten Burroughs will be reading from his new work at the Union Square B&N on Oct 6 at 7pm.
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Paula - 2004-09-03 17:31:25
Hey Anne:
I'm def. going to that, as is, I believe, Miss Rebecca.
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