Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon....
Since I am living in NYC I thought I should do some of the more high brow stuff from time to time. Well, last night I thought I would expand my horizons and become more cultured with the more sophisticated things in life. So I went to my very first book reading. It was at a little bar in the LES in the basement. It was part of the Cupcake Series of Book Readings. It was mostly a platform for women authors to get more recognition.
There were two authors there, Joanne Jacobson - who was sharing a few excerpts from her latest book - Hunger Artist. Her memoir evokes the unraveling of one Jewish family's hopes of starting fresh on post-World War II suburban ground. Her essays have appeared in such publications as The New England Review, The Nation, BOMB, The Massachusetts Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, American Literary Review, and The Iowa Review. She teaches American literature, American studies, and creative writing at Yeshiva University. She was okay and kinda lost my interest a few times by just being to descriptive and long-winded in her writing style.
Next up was Monique Truong. She coedited the anthology Watermark: Vietnamese American Poetry and Prose. Her first novel, The Book of Salt, a national bestseller, has been awarded the 2003 Bard Fiction Prize, the Stonewall Book Award-Barbara Gittings Literature Award, and the Young Lions Fiction Award, among other honors. Granting Truong an Award of Excellence, the Vietnamese American Studies Center at San Francisco State University called her "a pioneer in the field, as an academic, an advocate, and an artist." She was supposed to originally share excerpts from her latest book – The Book of Salt, but she instead treated the audience to the first chapter of a work in progress. And I do have to admit, I really enjoyed her story and her writing style. It was very humorous and yet engaging and captive at the same time. At times I could feel myself being in the main character’s shoes during her reading.
I was so impressed that I had to get her latest novel being sold at the reading – The Book of Salt. A few people asked her to sign her book and so I decided that I too must get my book signed by her. As I was standing in line, I began to peruse the back cover and notice the name of the main character in the book. It gave me a good little chuckle(you will just have to read a little more to see why I chuckled). Then when it got to my turn she asked me whom she should make it out to, I said – “Just make it out to the same name as the lead character in the book”. She then too gave out a little chuckle and we chatted for a little bit and off to home I went last night.
Tonight, it is my turn to cook so I will be grilling my all ready prepped famous burgers made with fresh ground beef, minced - onions, green peppers, and garlic. Also added were a few dashes on this and a little bit of that, but most importantly a whole heap of a lotta love. That is just me I suppose...Also got some frozen seasoned fries and onion rings. I plan to go home early today to also prepare some sautéed onions to go with the burgers. And as a side dish, I am planning to grill some eggplants, Holland yellow peppers, red peppers – drizzled in olive oil with a little salt and pepper, then I will bath them in a balsamic wine vinegarette. Hmmm. Hmmm. – doesn’t make your mouth water all up…I hope you enjoy your dinner, I know I will mine. And oh by the way - can you pass the Grey Poupon? Bon Appetite.
There were two authors there, Joanne Jacobson - who was sharing a few excerpts from her latest book - Hunger Artist. Her memoir evokes the unraveling of one Jewish family's hopes of starting fresh on post-World War II suburban ground. Her essays have appeared in such publications as The New England Review, The Nation, BOMB, The Massachusetts Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, American Literary Review, and The Iowa Review. She teaches American literature, American studies, and creative writing at Yeshiva University. She was okay and kinda lost my interest a few times by just being to descriptive and long-winded in her writing style.
Next up was Monique Truong. She coedited the anthology Watermark: Vietnamese American Poetry and Prose. Her first novel, The Book of Salt, a national bestseller, has been awarded the 2003 Bard Fiction Prize, the Stonewall Book Award-Barbara Gittings Literature Award, and the Young Lions Fiction Award, among other honors. Granting Truong an Award of Excellence, the Vietnamese American Studies Center at San Francisco State University called her "a pioneer in the field, as an academic, an advocate, and an artist." She was supposed to originally share excerpts from her latest book – The Book of Salt, but she instead treated the audience to the first chapter of a work in progress. And I do have to admit, I really enjoyed her story and her writing style. It was very humorous and yet engaging and captive at the same time. At times I could feel myself being in the main character’s shoes during her reading.
I was so impressed that I had to get her latest novel being sold at the reading – The Book of Salt. A few people asked her to sign her book and so I decided that I too must get my book signed by her. As I was standing in line, I began to peruse the back cover and notice the name of the main character in the book. It gave me a good little chuckle(you will just have to read a little more to see why I chuckled). Then when it got to my turn she asked me whom she should make it out to, I said – “Just make it out to the same name as the lead character in the book”. She then too gave out a little chuckle and we chatted for a little bit and off to home I went last night.
Tonight, it is my turn to cook so I will be grilling my all ready prepped famous burgers made with fresh ground beef, minced - onions, green peppers, and garlic. Also added were a few dashes on this and a little bit of that, but most importantly a whole heap of a lotta love. That is just me I suppose...Also got some frozen seasoned fries and onion rings. I plan to go home early today to also prepare some sautéed onions to go with the burgers. And as a side dish, I am planning to grill some eggplants, Holland yellow peppers, red peppers – drizzled in olive oil with a little salt and pepper, then I will bath them in a balsamic wine vinegarette. Hmmm. Hmmm. – doesn’t make your mouth water all up…I hope you enjoy your dinner, I know I will mine. And oh by the way - can you pass the Grey Poupon? Bon Appetite.
posted by Bob at 1:08 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home