The Midnight Book Club
I hit rock bottom one night in the summer and watched…. The most scripted piece of crap, Make Me A Supermodel…
So I woke up today to determine not to come home tonight and watch it again! I need some good suggestions of great books current/recent… start up a bit of a book club for the show, nothing too strenuous, just listeners can suggest reads they love and recommend maybe perhaps even write a one line review we can post on our webpage so that like minded folks can share book suggestions…
Thanks very much to Anne Brodie who sent in this nifty little link www.whatshouldireadnext.com. All you do is have to type in the last book you read and up pops a list of whole new titles based on your last read that you might enjoy! Brilliant, thanks Anne.
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Week February 2nd
Sunday Business Post journalist Nadine O'Regan suggested Sex, Drugs and Chocolate by Paul Martin this week. Here is what she has to say about it
"It's a brilliantly researched book about the science of pleasure.
Martin writes about everything from Pope Pius V's attitude to chocolate (he thought this strange new substance from Mexico might be dangerous) to the sex lives of dolphins -- and the result is a bizarre, absorbing read."
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Week January 26th
This week Nadine O'Regan brought a fresh look at an absolute classic Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Never a truer heroine a girl needed and soon to be made into a film starring Ellen "Juno" Page. But first go back and read the romantic story about a plain governess who falls in love with her master who has a wife in the attic!
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Week January 19th
Sunday Business Post journalist Nadine O'Regan got us started this year with a suggestion that has been turned into a film. Her advice is read it before you see it and maybe hide the cover if you are reading it in public.
This week its "He's Just Not That Into You".
It’s a classic single-woman scenario: you really like this guy, but he’s giving mixed messages. You make excuses, decide he’s confused, afraid of commitment. Behrendt, a former executive story editor for Sex and the City—and a formerly single (now happily married) guy who knows all the excuses—provides a simple answer: he’s just not that into you. Stop kidding yourself, let go and look for someone else who will be. After all, as Behrendt sensibly puts it, "if a (sane) guy really likes you, there ain’t nothing that’s going to get in his way." If you’re not convinced yet, by all means read this smart, funny and surprisingly upbeat little book, full of q’s and a’s covering every excuse woman has ever made to avoid admitting to herself that a man just wasn’t that smitten with her.
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According Nylon Magazine some of our favorite books to take to the airport are...
Presents are fun, midnight movies are great, and leftovers are practically heaven. But before you can get to those blissful holiday traditions, you'll have to endure some travel.
iPhones and DVDs have made in-flight TV more possible, but there's only so many times you can watch Sex and the City before you're like, "enough."
We've included some of our favorite pass-the-time books below. They're light enough to carry on a plane (unlike the hefty Twilight saga), and engrossing enough to distract you from turbulence, coach class cramming, and the dubious pudding you'll get from dessert.
Valley of the Dolls, by Jacqueline Susann
It's not easy being beautiful, especially if you're working in Mad Men era show business. Follow proper Anne, impetuous Neely, and sex bomb Jennifer as they pill-pop their way to their wildest dreams... or maybe not.
Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris
We've said it before and we'll say it again: this is the real vampire saga you should sink your teeth into (sorry). Narrated by the telepathic Sookie Stackhouse, this book is funny when it should be gross and just as good as True Blood, the HBO series based on it.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson
Would you rather watch LA Confidential than Clueless? Then cuddle up to the sharpest, shadiest murder mystery you could ever imagine. A Hitchcock knack for suspense and a modern sensibility for characters make this a current classic.
Downtown Owl, by Chuck Klosterman
Did you spend the first seventeen years of your life bored out of your mind? Chuck Klosterman knows how you feel. The noted essay writer sets his debut novel in Middle-of-Nowhere territory, with rock-obsessed teens and the comic but true understanding that there's no place like home to make you crazy.
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Twilight is a young adult vampire romance novel written by author Stephenie Meyer a Mormon who describs herself as an average housewife. The 4 book series is a massive success world wide, leading to comparisons between Meyer and JK Rowling. It was originally published in hardcover in 2005 introducing the main characters seventeen-year-old Isabella "Bella" Swan who moves from Arizona to Forks Washington to live with her father. Bella finds her life in danger when she falls in love with a ..... you guessed it vampire named Edward Cullen. But don't worry the Cullen vampire family are vegetarian vampires.... The Film is out in Ireland on December 19th but read the book first!
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This week Sunday Business Post journalist Nadine O'Regan is looking at Jack Kerouac's On the Road which is 50 years old this year.
On The Road, the most famous of Jack Kerouac's works, is not only the soul of the Beat movement and literature, but one of the most important novels of the century. Like nearly all of Kerouac's writing, On The Road is thinly fictionalized autobiography, filled with a cast made of Kerouac's real life friends, lovers, and fellow travellers.
Narrated by Sal Paradise, one of Kerouac's alter-egos, On the Road is a cross-country bohemian odyssey that not only influenced writing in the years since its 1957 publication but penetrated into the deepest levels of American thought and culture.
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Previous books...
This week November 10th resident bookworm (in a good way) Nadine O'Regan from the Sunday Business Post recommended...
One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell
Sex in the City goes middle-aged, mordant and slapstick in Bushnell's chronicle of writers, actors and Wall Street whizzes clashing at One Fifth Avenue, a Greenwich Village art deco jewel crammed with regal rich, tarty upstarts and misguided lovers. When a Queen of Society dies, a vicious scramble for her penthouse apartment ensues, and it's attorney Annalisa and her hedge-funder husband, Paul Rice, who land the palatial pad, roiling the building's rivalries.
There's Billy Litchfield, an art dealer who slobbers over the wealthy; strivers Mindy and James Gooch, and their tech-savvy 13-year-old Sam, the most hilariously bitter (and strangely successful) family in the building; gossip columnist Enid Merle and her screenwriter nephew, Philip Oakland, who struggle to uphold traditions and their souls; actress Schiffer Diamond, who lands a hit TV series, and her old love; and Lola Fabrikant, a cunning Atlanta gold digger whose greatest ambition is to become Carrie Bradshaw.
Here are bloggers and bullies, misfits and misanthropes, dear hearts and black-hearts, dogfights and catty squalls spun into a darkly humorous chick-lit saga.
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November 3rd
BOOK CLUB: LOST IN THE SUPERMARKET
Indie rockers – they’re just like us!
Sure, they can shred the guitar and tour the world, but they also know how to cook a mean meal.
In Lost in the Supermarket, a self-proclaimed indie rock cookbook, bands like Black Dice, Japanther, Animal Collective, and Sonic Youth share their favorite recipes. There’s a mix of meat, vegetarian, and vegan options, along with the occasional commentary (think back stories and on-the-road tales).
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While you wait for your copy of the cookbook to ship, try out Belle and Sebastian’s “Thai Sweet Potato Soup.” It’s sweet but tart, just like the band’s music.
REBECCA WILLA DAVIS
Ingredients:
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2-inch chunk of fresh ginger or galangal, peeled and chopped finely
1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste
1 stalk lemongrass, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed or finely chopped
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
3-1/2 cups good vegetable stock (such as Swiss Bouillon)
1-3/4 cups coconut milk
Juice of half a lime
* 4 or 5 dried Kaffir lime leaves [optional]
Preparation:
1. Start by frying the onion with ginger, curry paste, and lemongrass. Fry until soft.
2. Add the garlic and fry for a further minute.
3. Add the sweet potatoes and the stock.
4. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the sweet potato is soft.
5. Add the lime juice, lime leaves (if using), and the coconut milk, and liquidize.
6. If you like it hotter, add a red chili (seeded and chopped) at the start (along with the onion).
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This week Nadine O’Regan of the Sunday Business Post recommended for a good read...
Open Handed by Chris Binchy
The place is Dublin. The time is the present. Five characters – two Irish, three from eastern Europe, all seeking success from wildly different starting points – become entangled with one another in a web of politics, property, sex and violence. Chris Binchy’s breakthrough novel is a beautifully observed portrait of a time and place, and a thrillingly paced story of characters brought together by circumstance, ambition and need.
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How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
By Toby Young
Abacus
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is the story of how Toby Young, a bright British journalist, lands a job at the Holy Grail of journalism, Vanity Fair. Young expects that he will be able to impress Vanity Fair's editor Graydon Carter, but his half-witted schemes have exactly the opposite effect.
He is astonished when he discovers that Vanity Fair isn't half as glamorous as he'd thought. People there are more like accountants, he thinks, than crazy, impressive journalists. Unfortunately, Young wants to be a crazy, impressive journalist, so he pulls all manner of gags on his colleagues that he thinks are hysterical and everyone else thinks are appalling.
Just read it!
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Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him...
It's a book about the New York art scene called Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him. Told from the viewpoint of Mia McMurray, a gallery assistant in Soho, the story starts when a new artist gets run over by a car, sparking a bidding frenzy over his first collection of pictures. The story unfolds through invitations - to gallery openings, to artist dinners, to bed with hot but unsuitable boys - and eventually to the scandal and disdain of the art scene. It's a fun look inside a world you probably don't want to join, and even though moments get pretty chick-lit at times, it's still a fast read that doesn't make you feel stupid, empty, or fat. Mercifully, the book also does not have a pink cover, so you can read it at your private pool, or on a public beach, without risking your rep.
Get it on Amazon.com
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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Read it in its novel incarnation, and not as a Christmas flick starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, and also baby Shiloh in her first on-screen role. The book (which is very short) is by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and follows young Benjamin from his birth - as an old man - to his death - as a baby. If the reverse-aging thing reminds you a lot of Merlin's plight in the Arthur tales, that's because it's basically ripped from the stories, though Fitzgerald uses the aging-backward device to explore big themes like love and war and, of course, vintage evening gowns. You can the book on line but for a true feeling of time travel and nostalgia, you might want to grab it from the library instead.
Mail suggestions to alison@todayfm.com
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Lessons of a Lipstick Queen, Finding and Developing the Great Idea that Can Change Your Life by Poppy King
The best DIY book you will ever read - makeup and money tips included.
Such was the case with Lessons of a Lipstick Queen, a DIY book from Poppy King on how to start your own business. The book was everywhere, and with good reason it explores how to hang on to your creativity and still make a ton of money.
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Jenny and the Jaws of Life by Jincy Willet
If you got a case of the giggles at your grandfather’s funeral but didn’t even crack a smile when you saw Step Brothers, you’ll appreciate Jenny and the Jaws of Life by Jincy Willett. Although it was first published in 1987, this collection of short stories is getting a second chance thanks to a glowing endorsement by David Sedaris.
The book is dark, to say the least; death, murder, and latent frustration are the driving themes of the collection. But each short story is also overflowing with dry humor, so the content will seem unduly bleak only if you really, truly believe in unicorns. Among its stand outs are “Best of Betty”, a series of imagined letters from a mid-breakdown advice columnist, and “Mr. Lazenbee”, about a young girl who can’t help but laugh at the worst times. Which, in a nutshell, is what this entire book is about. Prepare to laugh, and then feel bad about it.