Books Wish List

Just throwing it out to the universe--it wouldn't suck if the following books somehow fell into my lap:

If ever a book was written just for me, this is it: Rebel Souls: Walt Whitman and America's First Bohemians, by Justin Martin. Great review, here:

http://artery.wbur.org/2014/09/04/bohemians-justin-martin

STFU & take my money!  Ireland's Pirate Queen: The True Story of Grace

O'Malley, by Anne Chambers.

Yes, please. Rimbaud: A Biography, by Graham Robb.

I adore Phyllis Barber. She's on the faculty at my alma mater, Vermont College of Fine Arts, and I was lucky to spend some time with her in a writing residency in Slovenia back in 2007. She's the only other person I know who's also been to Tibet (I was there in 2010). Anyway, I want to read her latest, To the Mountain: One Mormon Woman's Search for Spirit.  According to her website, this is "the story of the author's twenty-year hiatus from Mormonism and her visits with shamans in Peru and Ecuador; Tibetan Buddhist monks in North India and Tibet; a variety of Baptist congregations in Arkansas, Missouri, Utah, and South Carolina; megachurches; charismatic Christian congregations, travels with godddess worshipers in the Yucatan, and much more. The book's purpose is to demonstrate how we can not only tolerate a variety of ideas in the spiritual realm, but can learn from their wisdom." Right up my alley! You can also watch the official book trailer.

This looks interesting, too: Strange Big Moon: The Japan and India Journals: 1960 - 1964, by Joanne Kyger. According to the Goodreads synopsis: "Hungry to explore Zen and make the discoveries that would shape a lifetime of poetry, Joanne Kyger left for Japan in her twenties and returned four years later ready to carve out a substantial niche in San Francisco's Beat poetry movement. Whether she is studying under Zen teacher Ruth Fuller Sakaki or meeting with the Dalai Lama (who at 27 'lounged on a velvet couch like a gawky adolescent in red robes'), her journals are witty, amusing, and intelligent, in this fascinating look at the art of poetry and portrait of the counterculture abroad." Another, right up my alley.

Finally, a couple of shout-outs to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, by Tom Stoppard, and Grendel, by John Gardner, two books I've been trying to read for years. I'm visiting the Foreign Language Bookstore in Shanghai later this week, so let's hope I can find even ONE of the above. If not, I'll see if I can order them online and have them shipped. Anyway, that's what's on my TBR (to-be-read) List at the moment. Cheers, Lauren

Murakami on a Sunday Afternoon

Quote from Haruki Murakami's magnum opus, 1Q84. I read this mind-blowing work last winter. Murakami's one of my favorite authors, and I was happy to buy an English translation of his latest, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage IN Japan this summer, from a bookstore in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, It was kinda cool to wander around a lot of the neighborhoods and subway stations that appear in his novels, too. Anyway, glad for the Sunday lazing time in order to get caught up on some things, including the blog! 

Split Lip Anthology

Just found out that Split Lip Magazine has put together a print anthology of some favorite poetry and prose from their first five editions. My poem, "The Breakdown Atlas" is in there (very cool--I haven't been in actual print for years, other than my chap). It will be available in select bookstores in Indianapolis, Chicago, L.A., and beyond, and also for sale on Split Lip's website in a couple of weeks, which I'll post then. If you'd like to order a copy now at the temporarily reduced price of $4.00, you can do so here. Below, a shot of the ridiculously cool cover:

Some featured writers: Michael Martone, Alexis Pope, Kristina Marie Darling, and Scott Siders. I urge you to check it out, and maybe purchase a copy. A big thanks to editor J. Scott Bugher for including me!

Shanghai on My Mind

Just back, after a few days in Shanghai, a trip I find myself wanting/needing to make more and more often.  About two hours away from my small city by bus, Shanghai always delights, titillates, and inspires. It's funky, vibrant, and cosmopolitan, with a sordid but fascinating history, and on top of all that, for a megalopolis of 20  million (and counting!), it's surprisingly beautiful.  As with all big cities, everything is available, just about whenever you want it--culturally, gastronomically, historically, etc. I've seen a production of King Lear, gone to jazz clubs, drooled over architecture on the Bund, gotten New York-style pizza, attended the World Expo, ascended soaring skyscrapers, gotten my hair styled in an Italian salon, battled the crowds on the Metro, walked the old Jewish quarter, had Red Velvet cake, seen the collection at the Propaganda Poster Art Centre, marveled at the neon lights of Nanjing Road, and loaded up on books at my favorite stop, the Foreign Language Bookstore, among many, many other things. It's an addictive jolt of energy, and I discover something new and interesting every time. Here are some photos:

Foreign Language Bookstore, 390 Fuzhou Road

Tasty treats from Awfully Chocolate, 174 South Xiangyang Road

The Bund at night, from the Pearl TV Tower

I realize I sound like a rube here, but I AM a small town girl, and my first visit to Shanghai was nothing short of an epiphany.  I will always remember that first taxi ride, from the airport in Pudong, over to the Yu Yuan district, with the towering skyscrapers stretching out as far as the eye could see. That the city was home to over 20 million people seemed unfathomable to me.  The fact that humans built this, that the world could be so big, was a defining moment.  In fact, check out this stunningly cool time-lapse video of Shanghai, from Lost Pensivos Films, to get a sense of what I'm talking about:

Another thing that captures my imagination is the city's history, especially the years between 1842-1949. I'm currently reading Stella Dong's Shanghai: The Rise and Fall of a Decadent City, which presents all of the lurid details of the city's initial rise and it's early claim to fame as the "Whore of Asia". 

I can't put the book down, and it's given me loads of new insight and facts to ponder as I walk the streets of Shanghai, whether through the former French Concession, along the banks of the Huangpu River, or into the old "opium den and brothel district" around Fuzhou Road, and I'd highly recommend this book to anyone thinking of visiting or moving to Shanghai. Here are some more shots:

Amy's Bedroom, sex shop at 160 South Xiangyang Road

Glamour and glitz at the Westgate Mall, 1038 West Nanjing Road

Sunrise over the city

So, that's just a bit about my love affair with this city.  In short, far from being one of those poets and writers who requires peaceful surroundings to work, I find that exploring Shanghai gets my creative juices flowing, and I'm back with a head full of ideas, and can't wait to get back to work on the manuscript.  Also looking forward to the next visit in a couple of weeks!

Robin Stratton: Books

The newest release from author Robin Stratton, In His Genes, is now available and ready to order on amazon.com for $15.00 (plus S & H). It's also available in Kindle and Nook. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I'm a huge fan of another of her works, On Air, which was a National Indie Excellence Book Award finalist, so I'm betting In His Genes is just as wonderful. Robin has been a writing coach in the Boston area for almost 20 years. She is the author of The Revision Process, A Guide for Those Months or Years Between Your First Draft and Your Last, Of Zen and Men, and two poetry chapbooks, Dealing with Men, and Interference from an Unwitting Species. She is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, and she's been published in Word Riot, 63 Channels, Antithesis Common, Poor Richards Almanac, Blink-Ink, Pig in a Poke, Chick Flicks, Up the Staircase, Shoots and Vines, and many other places. She's also the editor-extraordinaire of Big Table Publishing Company and the excellent Boston Literary Magazine (I swear, I don't know how she finds the time for all of this!). Be sure to check out her homepage at http://www.robinstratton.com/, and read a great review of In His Genes in the Denver Examiner, by Zack Kopp, here. I guarantee you'll love her work--don't miss out on this amazing writer!

Fire Diner

New from Magic Trash Press, and available on Amazon.com, is Zack Kopp's awesome collection of poems and shorts, Fire Diner, of which I was honored to pen a blurb for recently, along with Gerald Locklin and Jon Cone.  Fire Diner is "Poetry and brief prose by a young man who eats fire, sets his head on fire and speaks fire. Charles Bukowski crossed with Gregory Corso crossed with Lewis Carroll crossed with Iggy Pop", and it's even more than that, so much more. As I wrote in my blurb, it's "the flashlight work of roving private eye, Zack Kopp, illuminating our modern existence on 'the banks of a giant strange world'.  It is man among the elements, and on the edge of this squawking, discordant, ecologically-catastrophic, numb-suffering, flying metal planet, hungry for nature and love during the pre-apocalypse. Catching the 'eerie screaming cackle' of our consciousness under a dying sun, the static-electric-cold whoosh of planets, cars, televisions, and time, with a foot in the city and a heart in the cornfield, these poems are full of star-fire, organic energy, shadows and light, and the yearning of 'us green-faced fools' in an 'empty hungry lonely night'.  Quite simply, I adore this book, and I know you will too.

You can purchase Fire Diner for $8.00 (plus S&H), at this link:

http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Diner-shorts-Zack-Kopp/dp/0615778224/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1362589269&sr=1-2&keywords=Zack+Kopp

Also available is Kopp's newest novel, Sorehead, of which I haven't had the pleasure of reading yet, but I'm betting it's just as wild and juicy as Fire Diner.

It's available for $10.00 (plus S&H), at this link:
http://www.amazon.com/Sorehead-Zack-Kopp/dp/061577752X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1362348606&sr=1-1&keywords=Zack+Kopp

Kopp, as his bio notes, is "founding editor of a webzine called Doggerel (formerly MightyMercury) specializing in short fiction, verse, art, photography and commentary from the anti-famous (from V. Vale to Rennie Sparks to Paul Krassner to Jenny Abel and others). Kopp has been a creative artist of one kind or another from ever since.  His vision is a vital blend of social and political themes with raw, wild soul from the bottom of the can.  He received an MFA in Writing (fiction) from Vermont College of Fine Arts in January of 2008, that magic year."  I say, do yourself a favor, and order one or both of these books--I guarantee you'll become the latest in a long line of Zack Kopp fans.

The Especial Visit

Wanted to share this link to author Idiong Divine's new book, The Especial Visit, of which I wrote the foreword to recently.  Idiong, a Nigerian poet and writer, offers up his latest delicious treat, a collection of children's stories/fairytales, which take place in his homeland, to Amazon.com readers.  Whimsically illustrated by his brother, Imeh Friday Idiong, the traditional folkloric stories will delight readers of all ages.  Believe me, these stories are as divine as only Idiong Divine can be!  You can order it for $5.89 (plus S&H) at this link:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Especial-Visit-Idiong-Divine/dp/1481951963#reader_1481951963

Also, check out his Amazon.com author page, and a list of his other books, here:

http://www.amazon.com/Idiong-Divine/e/B009W2NCHK

Secret Life of Books

What DO those books in your local bookstore get up to during the dark of night?  Check out this cool animated short.

Thank You, John Waters

A Part of Me is Dying

Link below to "25 Depressing Portraits of Closed Bookstores" on BuzzFeed.  Each photograph is like a knife through my heart.  Feeling a little desperate about the situation at this point...I mean, what's next?  Close all the art galleries and museums so we can only view art on the internet?  Well, here's to all the indie bookstores hanging in there~I hope they make it.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/portraits-of-closed-bookstores

Coolest Bookstores and Libraries

Check out this link below to the coolest bookstores around the world.  I'm salivating, here.  One thing that really sucks about living in a small Chinese city is the lack of access to English language bookstores.  There's a big bookstore in town, with a small English-language section, but selection is extremely limited.  And yeah, I can order some books online, and if I'm lucky, actually receive them in the mail (not always the case!), but I miss spending an afternoon browsing among the stacks.  Nothing beats the feel of an actual book in the hands, I say, and I'll remain a purist until the day I die (no Kindles here!).  Anyway, follow the link to see these amazing bookstores~my favorite, Paris' Shakespeare & Company, is in here:

Coolest Bookstores:  http://travel.spotcoolstuff.com/shopping/worlds-best-bookstores

Shakespeare & Company, Paris, France

And while we're at it, here are two more links to the Most Amazing Libraries in the World, Parts 1 and 2.  The only one featured here that I've ever been in was at Trinity College in Dublin, where I saw the Book of Kells.  I'd love to visit these others, though:

Most Amazing Libraries in the World, Part 1:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/22/the-most-amazing-librarie_n_432126.html?slidenumber=IvNql0eBitk%3D&slideshow

Most Amazing Libraries in the World, Part 2:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/22/the-most-amazing-librarie_n_469484.html?slidenumber=GZvrQ1MHPCs%3D&slideshow

I guess I should've been a librarian or bookshop clerk.  In the meantime, I'll just keep dreaming of the day I get to walk into one of these gorgeous places, and lose myself, and all sense of time, among the storied stacks.

On Air

Amazon link below for the book On Air, by my friend and publisher, Robin Stratton, recently released by Blue Mustang Press.  A truly great read!  I highly recommend Stratton's modern tale of Boston radio DJ, Eric Storm, his complicated relationship with his mother, and his late "coming of age", all set against the tragic events of 9/11. Both funny and touching, the flow of writing here is smooth and natural, the characters highly developed, and the theme complex yet fully realized. Stratton is a master storyteller, with the fine writing skills to back it up, and this is a book that will leave you thinking about its characters long after you've put it down. Pick up a copy—you won't be disappointed!

http://www.amazon.com/Air-Robin-Stratton/dp/1935199110/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313294692&sr=1-1

Another Chapbook Update

Just a quick update on The Breakdown Atlas & other poems:  the books are done!  And according to the editor, they're "gorgeous".  I won't be able to actually see them until I reach the U.S., but they will ship to my destination address soon.   There will also be a press release, and links to the publisher's website in order to make a purchase.  Then, I'll just need to figure out how to get them up on amazon.com, and it's all (hopefully) gravy from there on.  Very cool~can't wait to get my hot little hands on them!