A Good Summertime Read

John, NYC ~ July 14, 2010

Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman

TWO CAN ANNE's Reading List

1. Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York William Grimes
2. Thy Boys: Hamilton College Stories J. Arthur Rath
3. The Physiology of New York Boarding Houses Thomas Butler Gunn

What I'm Reading Right Now: A Drinking Life by Pete Hamill

A Drinking Life by Pete Hamill
A memoir about a first-generation Irish Brooklyn-born boy and his relationship with his family, the city of New York, and booze. Vivid and fascinating.

What I'm Reading Right Now: Satan's Circus

Satan's Circus: Murder, Vice, Police Corruption, and New York's Trial of the Century

by Mike Dash.

So far, totally engrossing.

What I want to read next:

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, by Mary Roach.

I've read her other book Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers and it was something everyone should read if they plan on dying or know someone who has died or will die.

My taste in books: macabre.

What I'm Reading Right Now: The Sea Captain's Wife

The Sea Captain's Wife by Martha Hodes is the amazing true story of Eunice Stone Connolly whose nineteenth-century life has been carefully pieced together by the author from Eunice's letters to (and from) her family. Thankfully the majority of this incredible trove of letters has survived, because this book is a true window into the past, and I simply can't put it down.

The Sea Captain's Wife is of particular interest to me because it is a cache of correspondence like this one on which I based my college thesis--a man named Myron Adams, Hamilton College Class of 1863--whom enlisted in the Union army and wrote home twice, sometimes three times a day. by reading these letters I was able to know him and live vicariously through his idealistic early days as an enlisted young man, terrifying times in battle, and the anti-climactic end of his life when, after he was wounded and discharged, Mr. Adams became a Presbyterian minister. Once he was home with his family, however, the letters stopped, the details lost to the ages. Important details of Eunice's life are absent as well. Either because letters were lost or destroyed or simply because when she moved in with her mother for a spell she didn't have to write to her. So there you are, going along, following the ups and downs of her life only to find that big chunks of the puzzle are missing, and your fly-on-the-wall ability suddenly disappears.

Surviving pen-to-paper materials are also the basis of the I show co-produce in New York called Mortified. (shameless plug alert ahead) Created by Dave Nadelberg, Mortified showcases real people who read from their real teen artifacts in front of total strangers. Mortified as a concept is nothing without these vestiges of the past--old letters, journals, poems, notes, diaries, song lyrics, school assignments--the intent being to provide a theatrical experience that is equal parts comedic, cathartic and creepily voyeuristic. What happens when people don't record their angst on paper anymore? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the cellphones, text, e-mail, and weblogs (obviously), but what have we lost in terms of preserving the past without the old-fashioned way of communicating? OMG! WTF! TMTH? Only time will tell.

Anyway, if you're in the New York area, come see me in Mortified on Monday, April 7 at 8 pm. In addition to myself, we've got a bunch of brave souls ready mortify themselves in front of you with their embarrassing stuff. Tickets are available at http://www.comixny.com/. Reservations highly recommended!

And if you're at all interested in American history (and in my opinion if you're not, you should be) get yourself to a library or book store and read The Sea Captain's Wife: A True Story of Love, Race, and War in the Nineteenth Century by Martha Hodes. I'm 30 pages from the end and sad about it.

The Haymarket by John Sloan, 1907

"The Haymarket was among the most notorious underworld establishments of the Gilded Age New York. Located on Sixth Avenue between Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth Streets, the concert hall was described as a 'marketplace for wholesale prostitution.' Originally a playhouse called the Argyle Rooms in the 1870's, the Haymarket was converted into a dance hall in 1878 and remained in business until 1913. Critics remarked that its nighttime facade was as brightly lit as a Broadway theater and reflected 'the licentious life of the avenue.' On and around the dance floor, women smoked, drank, and accosted patrons to 'treat' them. In 1907, the Ashcan school artist John Sloan immortalized the establishement in one of his pantings."

-from an excerpt in A Pickpocket's Tale: the Underworld of Nineteenth-Century New York by Timothy J. Gilfoyle

What I'm Reading Right Now: A Pickpocket's Tale

A Pickpocket's Tale

the

Underworld of Nineteenth-Century New York

by

Timothy J. Gilfoyle

And I got it at my local liberry, y'all. Fo' shizzle. Super easy too--you just go to your library's website, pick out a book you want, and reserve it. If it's out or at another branch, they'll mail you a ticket when the book comes in. Or, you can just use the old fashioned telephone machine and call them up to check.

Anne in '08 ain't buyin' no more books. She will, however, accept them as gifts.

Meet You in Hell

What else am I doing this weekend in between meals of toaster oven pizza crammed into my piehole whilst standing at the kitchen counter? Well, reading this fascinating book, as a matter of fact. Check it.

Meet You in Hell by Les Standiford

What I'm Reading Right Now

1. Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer