The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore

I figure finishing a 576 page book in two weeks is reason enough to write a blog post (for me). This book was hilarious, though provoking, disturbing, heartbreaking, and really really good. It is the story of a chimp named Bruno (narrated by Bruno himself) who goes from zoo life to scientific research, to living like a human, being on the run, and finally ending up in jail. Don't worry, I didn't ruin anything for you. Early on in the book he brings up the fact that he is in jail, and you spent the next 500+ pages trying to figure out exactly what happened to put him there. It's quite a ride. And quite promising for being the author's fist novel.

So there you go. Read it, but only if you're going to take my warnings seriously. You'll need a thick skin and a strong stomach to get through certain parts. But I found it to be worthwhile.

books

My goodreads newsletter hit it out of the park yet again. I mean, they didn't have to try very hard. They just recommended a bunch of books by authors I have read previously. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am. Here's three new books out this month that I might be willing to put down my knitting to read. 

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides. The man is an amazing writer, and he has a knack for character development that makes you care about every single character in a story regardless of how many characters there are. They are real and honest and believable. I'm excited to see his modern take on the classic love story. 

 The Damned by Chuck Palahniuk. I find it mildly amusing that they are still advertising "Author of Fight Club" on all of his books regardless of how many successful books he has published. They may as well put a picture of Brad Pitt on the cover. But oh well. Also, truth be told, I haven't read a Palahniuk book in YEARS because I kind of got tired of the hype and also there were a couple of books that didn't quite do it for me. But this one sounds interesting. Here's to hoping.

And a new coffee table book for good measure.Artfully styled photos of pets' chew toys along with a collection of short stories about the same. I find it hysterical that someone came up with this idea, and I really need this in my life.

Thanks, goodreads!

Space Oddity

I've been working on another post for a couple of days but it's missing one key piece, so you'll just have to wait. But in the meantime, since I realized I haven't been very active on here recently (sorry!) here's something pretty cool.

David Bowie's Space Oddity as children's picture book. (Really cook 1960s style illustration picture book)

Check it out here. Stumbled upon here.

Also, in an effort to make this blog better, I'm going to finally treat this the way a real blog should be treated. I'm going to plan posts, make lists of ideas for future posts, DIY projects (I already have one up my sleeve that I need to finish up!), and the like. I hope it's the kick I need to get this thing moving again. 

Also, I don't know if you've been paying attention but there was a mechanism to comment on my blog with facebook for a couple of days. It really wasn't what I wanted for several different reasons so I removed it. It has nothing to do with the comments that were left there, and I encourage you to comment through the blog comment system. And before you say it's too difficult to log in... you don't have to! Just type in your name, or comment anonymously if that's what you'd like. This is a public forum, a conversation, and it needs your participation to make it better. I appreciate you, my readers, and will continue to search for better ways to bring my blog to you and to bring you into my blog. ;)

Just please don't leave blog comments on my facebook wall. Whew.

thxthxthx

Dear Licked Fingertip from thxthxthx on Vimeo.

 

Dear Leah, 

Thanks for being a good reminder to appreciate the little things, even things that would seem on the surface to be not so great. It always makes me smile.

All the best,

Melissa

To Read

Kind of excited to read Bossypants, the new memoir from Tina Fey. I love Tina Fey. I love memoirs. What could go wrong? (I'll tell you what could go wrong, it could be a little something like Gene Wilder's memoir. The man may well be a genius but I was disappointed to learn that he can't write to save his life.) And it's called Bossypants! Need I say more?

it's better than a brown paper bag

If you read any craft or design blogs at all, chances are you have already seen these embroidered book covers for Penguin Classics by Jillian Tamaki.

Jillian Tamaki

For a split second I thought oh my goodness if those are really embroidered book covers I must go out and buy them immediately, but luckily for my wallet that is not really the case. They were indeed hand embroidered but merely copied (which seems obvious when you think about it for more than a split second) for mass production.

Those are great and all, but what gets me going even more than that:

Chez Beeper Bebe

For serious. Everyone always says you can't judge a book by its cover but I disagree entirely, and I have been known to go through a lot to get just the cover I want (like my copy of The Bell Jar printed in 1978). One thing I hate more than anything is books that have been made into movies which then feature the pictures from the movie on the book cover. Silly. Annoying. No good. I think I have one or two of those. But those lovely vintage Penguin classics up there? If you know where to find them I would be perfectly happy to receive them at a book themed bridal shower or a rainy Tuesday afternoon. I'm just sayin...

talking about books again! hope you don't mind!

I just spent at least an hour and a half moving books around my bookcase, contemplating organization/aesthetics. It's a work in progress, but I must say I've enjoyed going through them to see what we have. Our duplicates are amusing (Catcher in the Rye, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime), but what's even better are our collections which are made more complete by being combined. We each owned several Chuck Palahniuk books, and together we have 9 (not quite the full library I believe) and only one duplicate (Survivor, his best one IMO). Serendipitous.

Here's what I've got going on so far: Crafting books (knitting, papercraft, a couple of years worth of ReadyMade mags) along with home decor. We transition, via Amy Sedaris, into comedy which mainly consists of Marx brothers books. Memoir and Nonfiction. Classics and other Novels. Fantasy/Horror (Anne Rice, Stephen King, Chuck Palahniuk). Girl books, Kids books, Reference books (some textbooks I saved from college including art history, fashion, and writing, graphic design and computer related things). And records. Until the day (which I hope is not too far off) when we get a record player and a cute little stand which can hold records, here they are on the bookcase.

You see that light? That is the magic and majesty of a well stocked and well organized bookcase. Or just the sunset. It makes the living room glow this time of day like nobody's business.

I couldn't figure out how to fit in some of the coffee table books, so they ended up stacked on top.

Oh yeah, and every bookcase needs some kind of collection, doesn't it? Our cameras.

Moby-Duck

I don't find time for reading nearly as much as I would like to, but I got an email from Goodreads (which I have not updated in at least a year) that made me want to. Moby-Duck for example starts with the story of 28,800 bath toys being lost at sea, and explores the world of shipping conglomerates, oceanographers, Arctic researchers, sailors, beachgoers, and everything in between to find out what happened to them. It sounds like so much fun!

Runner-up goes to Moonwalking with Einstein.

the bookcase

I saw this posted on What Katie Ate today and it just happened to be perfect timing. We finally unpacked the boxes of books yesterday (I know, we moved in at the beginning of January, bla bla now you know why I haven't been posting more pictures) and I've been thinking about how I want to organize the shelves. Previously they were sorted by color, but I think I actually want to organize by subject this time. Crazy, I know. But I'll tell you something, this room feels a whole lot more like home now that there's books in it.

Now on my book shelf: Amy Sedaris

I already own her first book, I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence which is a whole bunch of brilliance so as soon as I heard that she had a new book coming out I pre-ordered it. And it came in yesterday! As Sherry A. McMillan, a reviewer on amazon.com, points out "there are no creative ideas for a serious crafter", and perhaps a sham to be among serious craft publications, but it is Amy Sedaris, and it is hilarious through and through. If you have ever wanted bottle cap castanets, fake candles made of either drum sticks or various fruit, or just wondered what to do with all of those seashells and coconuts you have laying around, then you might just get some great ideas here. Otherwise, just have a nice laugh and marvel at the perfect styling and character of the entire book. She has even been on the Martha Stewart show (more than once), and been compared to her interestingly enough, so she's alright as far as I'm concerned.

On my book shelf

This should really become a regular feature if I can stick to it. The mister and I have a respectable collection of books, and while it may be a curse when moving time comes it's quite a blessing for the remainder of our lives. I love books. I love reading them and I love having them. Sometimes I like to scan through the shelves and just remind myself what's there. Some of them take me back to a different place and time (a book of Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales still smells the same as I remember when I was a kid, and there's just some sense of comfort in that fact.) and many others remind me that I haven't even read them yet! 

In any case, the mister gave me some great new books for my birthday and it made me excited to share. 

I had seen this book before (it was sold at Urban Outfitters, after all), and heard lovely things of the blog, but I somehow never picked it up and looked at it. I'm not really sure why. But when it found its way into my hands last night and I started flipping through its pages I found myself enamored. It all started with Karl Lagerfeld's studio.

I don't know why, but I especially love it when people make the decision to stack books flat instead of just lining them up on the shelves.

You couldn't pick a better book for me. I love cupcakes. I love Martha (I wrote a 20 page paper about Martha Stewart in college). If I didn't already have a delicious birthday cake sitting in the kitchen I would be baking a batch of snickerdoodle cupcakes right now.

And a new knitting book. I should really knit more. It doesn't really save you any money knitting your own sweaters (in case you were wondering) but it is kind of fun seeing the baffled expression on people's faces when you tell them you made it.

want

That is all.

So... have I mentioned I love baked goods?

 

If you're like me you've been waiting patiently for months for this book to come out (no? What, you have something against cake? It happens to be fabulous in all its different forms), and last week it finally did! I haven't bought it yet, but I'm kind of dying to get my hands on it pretty soon. I mean just look at these things, how cute are they?!

All photos courtesy of Bakerella, the genius (and I mean genius!) behind the cake pop.

Oh and by the way, she's doing a book tour at Williams Sonoma's across the country, but sadly nowhere near me. But if you're in the area (hint, SLC is on the list) it might be great fun!

Cover me

I'll admit that I haven't actually read through the tutorial, much less used it, but it spoke to me quite loudly and I just had to share. First of all the mention of Beverly Cleary makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and second of all I have a deep fondness for hard cover books. And anyway how adorable are their book cover designs? 

Turn old paperbacks into custom hardbacks with this tutorial from ohdeedoh, which I discovered via Poppytalk.

It makes me want to scour yard sales for 80s classics and create my own little collection. And that also reminds me of one time in high school I was over at a friends house and discovered that his little sister had quite the Babysitter's Club collection. It was one of my favorites when I was younger so of course I couldn't resist browsing through, and I was shocked to find my own name written on the inside of the front cover of a few of the books! It was sold at a family yard sale, of course, and they lived just a few blocks away so it's not unreasonable that they would have ended up there. But it was quite unexpected but rather satisfying to see that my precious books had found a good home. (These days I wouldn't even consider getting rid of a book I have enjoyed, and I'm not sure if I would consider giving away my children's books either, but some might consider me a hoarder so we'll see.)

I feel like I'm babbling on tonight. I'm tired. I apologize. Hope you had a great weekend!

The Year of Magical Thinking

I had heard about this book for years. From the Nonfiction classes I took at VCU to numerous "Must Read" lists, I had heard about this book. I just finished reading it. Like 2 minutes ago. And I get why people can't stop talking about it. A haunting account of love and loss, of putting the pieces together and eventually moving on, it is one that I would recommend to just about anyone. Read it for yourself and see.

Yes, please

This is perfection. If I had to live in a one bedroom apartment for the rest of my life and this was it, I think I would be ok.
Spotted at Polka Dot Robot

(By the way I have been thinking about adding a blog roll here, and I know some of you have expressed interest in such a thing. It seems quite a task to go through all of my RSS subscriptions and decide what is blog roll worthy, and so for the time being you will just have to satisfy yourself with these occasional links. That is all for now.)