PopBetty

A Love Letter to Pop Culture

Gift Guide for 13-Year-Old Brothers Who Won’t Read

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To my mother’s disappointment, my little brother doesn’t like to read. Or rather, he likes to read, but he’d prefer to do almost anything else: play video games, watch television, “hang out,” eat, sleep, etc. So what’s he getting for Christmas?

Books, of course*:

Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow

Spies Revealed

Spies Revealed, by Clive Gifford

Vintage Choose Your Own Adventure Books

Choose Your Own Adventure series: I chose Through the Black Hole #97 & The Deadly Shadow #46. They’ve got updated versions in stores, but the classic ones have better illustrations & writing.

Books by John Bellairs

John Bellairs novels: Again, I bought these used. Newer versions lack the Edward Gorey illustrations (check out the full gallery).

Read ’em or weep, little bro.

Other books he’ll get eventually: The Lightning Thief, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, & The Graveyard Book. We’ve also had success with the Demonata & Cirque Du Freak series, plus S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders.

*and a few video games

Living Books

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Bookslive2

Animal Index Cards by Hiroshi Sasagawa. Not yet available in the U.S., but Japanese residents can buy them here. First seen at lost.net.au/vic.

I remember reading a chapter of Urusei Yatsura (scan below the fold) where literary creatures burst out of books and flood a library. These two products, both by Japanese designers & featured on countless blogs, give the same sense of text transformed into flesh.

Also, since there’s no telling when or if the index cards will be available stateside, you can make your own. Use this stencil necklace tutorial as a starting point.

Bookslive

The Story Behind the Bookmark, by Yuko Tokuda & Yumiko Komiya, $16.00 each at Greener Grass Design. First seen at PingMag.

[Read more…]

Reading List: 12/07/07

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Reading List

Some recent reads. All the title links take you to excerpts or detailed reviews, so be sure to click through:

  • The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry: A foodie Eat, Pray, Love, written by a journalist turned Cordon Bleu student. I loved the recipes, cooking advice, and classroom anecdotes (the school sounds terrifying), but could’ve done without the romantic stuff.
  • Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster: A must-read for consumers, this book details how luxury businesses emphasize marketing over product quality to maximize profits. Dana Thomas also throws in juicy anecdotes about people like Miuccia Prada and Bernard Arnault.
  • Freaks and Geeks: We’ve only seen the first six twelve episodes, but wow. Absolutely brilliant, painful, funny, and true.
  • Misquoting Jesus: Solidly written, occasionally dense book on the way early scribes changed the Bible. I gave this to Mom for her birthday, so haven’t read it through (she did, though, and loved it). Sample bit: John 8:3-11 (“Let the one who is without sin among you cast the first stone”) was not in the original gospel.
  • The Bugle: Funny Guardian podcast featuring John Oliver (The Daily Show) and Andy Zaltzman.
  • Mario Unclogged: Short videos of Mario Batali talking about things like restaurant playlists, how to sauce pasta, and his tiff with Marco Pierre White.

Chicken With Plums

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Chicken With Plums

Chicken with Plums, by Marjani SatrapiBooksellers at my store can check out hardcover books for two weeks for free. Recently, I picked up Summer At Tiffany (a pleasant if feather-light memoir about working at Tiffany’s in 1945) and Chicken With Plums, Marjane Satrapi’s newest book. Plums is about Satrapi’s great-uncle Nasser Ali Khan and the eight days before his death; chicken with plums was the dying man’s favorite meal. Despite the rushed ending, I loved it.

In honor of the book, I made some Chicken with Prunes (above), recipe courtesy the Perfect Pantry. Tweaks: I used chicken breasts with a touch more oil instead of chicken legs, and cooked it in enameled cast iron pot, not a tagine. The end result was tasty, although I’m interested in trying other variations–in the book, the recipe called for tomatoes and turmeric, and I’ve seen a few that call for garlic and leeks. Suggestions welcome!

Reading List: 11/08/07

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Reading List

One of the joys and pitfalls of working at a bookstore is the proximity of tempting books and films. Four recent finds:

  • Fashion Babylon, by Imogene Edwards-Jones: An “up the skirts” view of the fashion industry, it seems like every fashion blogger has read this. Dishy, fun, and shocking in a totally unsurprising way.
  • The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick: An innovative and well-done mix of illustrations and text, focusing on film pioneer Georges Méliès (remember the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Tonight, Tonight” video? It was based on Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon). I like how the book’s construction evokes intertitles.
  • The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov: Just started this, so not much to say other than the first fifty pages are brilliant.
  • The Beauty Academy of Kabul: A solid documentary about an American beauty school in Afghanistan (now defunct). Watching the interaction between the Afghani students and the American teachers is fascinating, occasionally cringe-inducing, and for me (the daughter of a Salvadoran) somewhat familiar. See a short documentary here about the film.