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Beau and Arrow – Called in Snow

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

In some ways, this precipitation is more a media storm than a snowstorm. Turn on any news channel and you will see many a reporter rolling around in difficult weather somewhere across the nation. “Here I am in Washington, DC, and getting blown awaaaaay.” It’s entertainment personified. Lucky numbers of the day: 12 and 18 (inches of course), and the main characters are Mother Nature, the woman who runs LIRR (whose news conference broke into my daily soap opera) and Sam Champion (the weatherman with the really white teeth). People everywhere are joined together in discussing and enduring the wonderful fiasco of snow (that’s my second blog using the word fiasco, making it quite the “fiascal” week). And like most people, I succumbed to the media storm’s warnings, and called in sick snow, afraid I might be stuck in the city for all eternity.

Anyway, I was thinking snow should provide for a perfect day to get some reading done. But no such luck of course. There is something unique and peculiar about reading in that if the timing is off, or the environment isn’t right, you just can’t seem to do it. While a snow day might seem like the ideal time to cuddle up with a book, reading during the day, no matter what type of day is uncommon. Another thing that seems to be uncommon are any articles on when most people do read (some Google attempts proved futile). But from my own brain here is what I have come up with:

1)      The bathroom – because you can’t do much else

2)      In bed at night – because it’s the best time to be with yourself or, the best time to read and try and get away from yourself

3)      In transit! – hence my soon to occur “Train Adventure”

4)      On vacation – nothing like a good beach book

That’s it! Most other scenarios lead to an ADD disaster, or a magnet-like force to the television remote control (we call it a “clicker” in my house, because apparently, it used to click).

Happy Snow Day (a truly American holiday),

Rachel Benun

P.S. Did I lose you at “daily soap opera”? Guilty…and slightly ashamed, but true nonetheless. Don’t hate the blogger.

Beau and Arrow – Imperfect Peyton

Monday, February 8th, 2010

It is improbable to find the right words to tell an upset fan. As an owner of a Colts #18 jersey, and official member of the Peyton Manning for President facebook group, I’m still going through a post-loss grieving process in the wake of last night’s Super Bowl XLIV fiasco. My love for Peyton was not passed down to me by overexcited parents who drown their children in their team’s colors and statistics, nor did it come about from some type of “winner picker” scenario. I’m not from Indianapolis, I’ve never been to Indianapolis, and except for one family friend, I don’t know of anyone who is a fan of Indianapolis. I am a fan by choice. I was drawn to Peyton’s agility, athleticism and untenable leadership ability. My mind pointed at the television screen and said, “Rachel, this guy is good.” And so my admiration began and grew, for the game, for the guy, and for the team. Fast forward six years and there’s me – downtrodden, inconsolable, and somewhat worried that as the only Colt fan that I know, somehow my reputation is at stake. So to those who wish to taunt me, here is what I have to say: pretty please don’t. Even the greatest player in the history of the sport can make a mistake. I just hope that someday Manning is synonymous with football, much like Jordan is with basketball (I say that from the Giant fan within me). For now, I will raise my white jersey in surrender and whisper to the football gods, “Who dat?”

On another note, over the weekend I had decided to spice up my blog by embarking on what could be called a “train adventure,” because yes, it is required that you actually SPEAK. What I was thinking is I would talk to some strangers about what books they’re reading. This could possibly be fun, might get me in trouble for breaking subway silence, and definitely will be interesting to find out what New York is up to with their lit. As I stood waiting in the freezing cold for a delayed train, who is to walk up the subway steps but my brother Morris, happily surprised to see his little sis. And out the window went my first train adventure. In my post-traumatic psychological state, I thought he asked, “They won?”, when in reality he was saying, “Day one?” referring of course to my newly acquired internship. Clearly, I am feeling a bit insecure. After bugging him for not watching the super bowl (in some religions, this can be considered sinful), we finally got on the train and ended up watching a movie on his iPhone, careful not to laugh too loud so as to excite our fellow passengers.

Speaking of the iPhone, you might be interested to know that my family and I have deemed the iPad temporarily irrelevant. As someone with far too many family members completely obsessed with all things technology, this is more important than one might think. I come from the breed of those who stand on mile-long lines to get their hands on the first-ever iPhone. Okay, we made someone else do it, but it is of the same principle. Anyway, it seems that because we embarked on the iPhone pre-problem fixes, the Benuns have decided to lay off the iPad for a little while. As for me, I’m waiting for the iPhone, Blackberry and digital camera to smash into one awesome mega-device. In the meantime, the iPad is hoping to revolutionize the publishing industry (that’s us), making textbooks and (oh no!) paper books, a thing of the past. Goodbye sweet Kindle, hello Steve Jobs. Seeing as how the man has the Midas touch, I have no doubt the device will make a nice impact on the book business. We shall see soon enough!

Until next time,

Rachel Benun

P.S. The other intern’s name is Calvin Manning. Hmm…

Beau and Arrow – the new intern’s new blog

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

Dearest Fans,

Welcome to my very first blog, very first internship, and very first exploration into whatever the heck is on my mind.

I have chosen “Beau and Arrow” as the official name for my blog because, well, it sounds cute and slightly creative (hence, the soon-to-be-gained BFA in Creative Writing).

Now seems like a good time to tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Rachel Benun and I am winding down to my very last semester at Brooklyn College :-(The sad face is the result of my undying love for my hometown college, where I have spent the last four years learning about the world and wondering why I am not on the admissions payroll.

So here I am at my first (amazing) internship, basically throwing myself into the publishing world and hoping someone, somewhere, something will catch me. Hope it’s you.

-Rachel

Janet Alling

Forty-six years ago, after graduating from Yale University Art School in 1964 (MFA), Janet Alling had a revelation that she would devote her career to expressing aesthetic statements through flowers. Her mission was to redefine flower painting as an important subject matter essential in the history of painting and in contemporary art.

Painting first in watercolors and then in oils, her main interest was the process of painting from direct observation of plants in natural light.  The constant changing of passing daylight on leaves as they moved towards it fascinated and challenged her. She wanted to capture the strength of these living forms – the muscularity of stems and the shapes and patterns of leaves as she sought to portray the essence of each flower, leaf, and tree.

The results are not conventional, but come from much perceiving and thinking.  Alling’s paintings are a development and progression of formal visual ideas, color exploration, light, composition, scale, and the phenomena of the natural world.

Using close observation and magnified forms, she worked on a large-scale. Her first one-woman show at 55 Mercer in 1972 was enthusiastically reviewed by Peter Schjeldahl, in the Sunday New York Times, Roberta Smith in Art News, and others who identified Alling as a painter to watch among the generation of realist painters working in large scale perception of reality: Alex Katz, Philip Pearlstein and Jane Freilicher.

Flora

From Our Beau House To Yours – Thunder Dance in 4.0 Russia

Monday, December 14th, 2009

What is the meaning of translation? When you see worldwide thrillers spreading their gory fonts and blazed, burnt (and shiny!) hardcovers all over bookstore tables, elbowing out even Irving novels (!), with always, for some unknown reason, “Available in over 50 Languages!” What does this all mean?

Translation to Derrida meant, well, noone really knows. But it certainly can’t get closer to a literary text’s meaning, we can perhaps safely say it increases the always-already distance to a text from meaning. But today, translation is an afterthought, but an important one. It’s not like people buy Thunder Dance in 4.0 Russia in French and English to compare meanings. It’s purely a marketing ploy, a status symbol of book money, a feat in a “dying” industry (Also, I’d probably buy Thunder Dance in 4.0 Russia but I also made up that title). So, would Derrida be horrified at what translation now means? Are texts further and further away from their meaning?

Are we, everytime we walk into another (metaphorical interrogation) room in another novel that is international-thriller-banking-conspiracy-post-soviet-spy-esque, not to mention (walking into another raw food sushi restaurant room) chic-lit-fashion-smashion-20/30-something-dating-dirge, walking further away from our meaning? Or am I just being an unfounded elitist. Safe to say, I was never cool enough in middle school when everyone else was reading Gossip Girl.

From Our Beau House To Yours – N+1 Teaches You How To Be A Contemporary Intellectual

Friday, December 11th, 2009

On Tuesday I dragged a friend to see, and I use that verb intentionally as it was, indeed, a spectacle: “Evangelism and the Contemporary Intellectual” sponsored by n + 1, the coolest “literary” and “social criticism” magazine in town. Well I’m here to tell you they’re not cool; in fact, they’re not even hot anymore (multiple editors balding, hello 35 you’re-too-old-to-live-in-Brooklyn, Harvard hasn’t found a cure for baldness and self-importance yet).

The panel consisted of several “Evangelists,” none however who fit what you would think an American Evangelist is (b/c we’re talking about intellectuals in New York, right?), also all were no longer “believers:” Malcom Gladwell, A CANADIAN, James Wood, an ENGLISH MAN, and some 20-something grad student at Columbia from New Jersey who has written for a few magazines but was mostly there for gender balance, and to complain about how Jewish she looked. So if you thought it was actually about Evangelists, think again, but n + 1 will still throw the name in there to draw controversy and culturally specific media attention.

The Tischman auditorium was stuffy, and the writers mostly talked about their biographies,  which was the only thing they could do as the topic made no sense. James Wood, however, was funny, thoughtful, smart as hell (Evangelist pun!), and as a result I have a crush on him even though he’s bald and born way before I was. In short, they should rename the Panel “N + 1 Teaches You How To Be A Contemporary Intellectual.” These are the steps we came up with during the discussion, or reflective moments of self-proclaimed intellectuals/narcissists (self-proclaimed Russian if you’re Keith Gessen, wow that was harsh):

1. Be on your way to Europe if you’re a delivering an introduction to a panel discussion.

2. Think and talk about when you “came-of-age.”

3. Use the word “vulgar” and “pugnacious” a lot.

4. When someone says “crisis of narrative.” Follow with quiet laughter, knowingly.

5. When asking a question say: “I can still remember reading it in the first n+1,” which was 3 years ago?

Overall, in the words of a New York bard: “n+1 to me means never having finished your PHD, wait, never having finished your master’s.” Amen.

-Nikki-Lee

From Our Beau House To Yours – Auster, My Auster

Monday, December 7th, 2009

Paul Auster’s new novel Invisible just came out last month, the NY times reviewed it, to say it was favorable is an understatement, I quote: “It has the illusion of effortlessness that comes only with fierce discipline. As often happens when you are in the hands of a master, you read the next sentence almost before you are finished with the previous one…” Which sounds a little trite if you ask me, if we’re in the hands of a master, try reviewing like one,  Clancy Martin (I’m such a hater).

But Auster really is a New York master. Publishing consistently, more philosophically intellectual, nay intellectually metaphysical, than most contemporary popular novelists, he’s a rare bird that bridges the gap between the popular and intellectual. And homeboy makes money doing it (I checked his sales). And by “popular” I mean Dan Brown and by “intellectual” I don’t mean Benjamin Kunkel (don’t know who he is? Neither does anyone else who doesn’t live in Williamsburg or Greenpoint). Auster also does all of this in New York, with books very specific to New York, but his novels daily fly past the golden borders of Manhattan and Selected Parts of Brooklyn (he’s an international bestseller). For a city that is more and more criticized for its closed-off (or cut-off) literati, that’s nothing to sniff at. And still, no matter how far Auster travels (I was given the New York Trilogy by a flamboyant Irishman who worked at Shakespeare & Co in Paris, yes, that Shakespeare & Co) his books are always, even, singularly, more, transcendent, cool, eyelid-opening and better here. Why?

He used to be a fighter pilot. He’s bffls with Mark Rudman. He asks us to look at our mind’s eye differently, he still asks us to look differently.

-Nikki-Lee

From Our Beau House To Yours – Keepin’ You Cool in the Hot Weather

Friday, December 4th, 2009

You’re thinking, that doesn’t make much sense. I know.

But here are  some more Events for yo’ weekend, remember: gotta spend the money before it goes to rent.

1. Gotham Girls Roller Derby. At CANAL ROOM/ Sun, Dec. 6: 7-1 pm. 285 W Broadway/ Girls, roller skates, DJ, beer, ironic senses of humor, and if you ever get in a fight these are the girls you want on your side. Get your wheels on! $10 RSVP (www.grdtix.com).

2. “Impulse.” At NYCAMS/ Fri, Dec. 4: 6-8 pm. 44 W 28th. 7th Flr/ Student show and I’m showing my solidarity. If you have money, go and patron people who deserve it. Patron of the Future Arts.

3. Panache Holiday Party. At GlASSLANDS/ Sat, Dec. 5: 8 pm. S 1st and Kent, DirtyBurg/ $5 but you get to listen to Stalkers, the Beets, War Party, others. And you know what? I like The Beet’s humor, and their music, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.

4. Evangelism and the Contemporary Intellectual. At NEW SCHOOL TISHMAN AUDITORIUM/ Tues, Dec. 8: 8 pm. 66 W 12th st/ OK so it’s hosted by n+1, which I will someday expound upon. For now let’s just say: you used to be cool. Go check it out while  seriously questioning the geniuses who think they can title a panel  with the words “contemporary intellectual” without sounding like Brooklyn males, early 30s, who a. didn’t finish their master’s b) finished their master’s and then never went on to do anything else in academia. Then thought: let’s start a “literary” magazine! Good job boys!

-Nikki-Lee

From Our Beau House To Yours – 5 Things To Do To Make You Cooler in 5 Days part 3

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Thanksgiving was awesome: turkey, tofurkey, and silly dancing to Frankie Valla. Yes! Now it’s time to get your cool on again. I’m here to help you get back into the swing of things.

1. Ron Padgett & Katha Pollitt: Poems & Pints. At FRAUNCES TAVERN/ Tues, Dec. 1: 6:30 pm. 54 Pearl St at Broad. Don’t know who the girl is but Ron Padgett is what they’re slowly starting to teach high schoolers as the “New York School” of poets in the 60s. Read that as The Beats, New York style, a bit later, and instead of Allen Ginsburg we’ve got John Ashbery and he’s still around! Poetry in a bar, good marketing.

2. Andrey Vrady: Reconquista. At SPUTNIK/ Thurs, Dec. 3: 6-8 pm. 547 W 27th St, Chelsea/ Photo exhibit at the best named gallery ever. Vrady is an “artist, graphic designer, musician, and director.” He’s like a recession special! All-in-0ne. Wonder if that makes his photos sell at a discount…

3. Plant Body, Animal Body. At CAVIN-MORRIS/ Thurs, Dec. 3: 6-8 pm. 210 11th Ave, Chelsea/ Interspecies references, if you’re interested in: “anthropomorhpism, shape shifting, and metaphysical insinuation. Follow with a list of hyphenated, international selling names to give the show street cred: Gregory Van Maanen, Ignacio Carles-Tolras, Lubos Plny, Mort Golub, Christina Sefolosha (they’re just parodying my joke by now right?), Hyungsub Shin and I could go on but I’ll stop here. If anyone ever uses the phrase “metaphysical insinuation” in my presence I will send you to the School for Wayward Pretentious 20-(30+ if you’re a guy) Somethings. That’s in Williamsburg.

4. Patrick Brennan: Fazes. At DAILY OPERATION/ Sat, Dec. 5: 6 -9 pm. 103 Reade St., No 2, Tribeca/ Abstract painting with lots of hints. Look for: crosses, moons, skulls and probably Hamlet, Ethan Hawke rendition. Or just a pop art print of Ethan Hawke’s face that they’ll sell at Urban Outfitters and call it “abstract painting.” That was harsh. The artist is probably good I’m just hating on what passes for “abstract painting” these days. Glad we got that one out in the open, before the opening.

5. PSA Chapbook Fellows. At KATE’S PAPERIE/ Sat, Dec. 5: 4 pm. 8 W 13th St at 5th/ Has Jean Hartig and Idra Novey reading, who are all people I don’t know. But Lytton Smith is also featured and he’s what excites me when I think about slapping someone over the state of young contemporary poetry. This is rarely done, but since he’s a poet in NY, young, talented, (and not bad looking, hello English accent!) buy his book HERE.

-Nikki-Lee

From Our Beau House To Yours – My Date With Robert Pattinson

Friday, November 20th, 2009

Today is the movie premiere of The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

I’d like to focus on the film masterpiece hitting cinemas today, which as you know is based on the books by Stephanie Meyer, aka Mormon extroadinaire (and abstinence advocate).

What you all didn’t know about New Moon, is that I feature in the end scene, and spoiler alert, I’m gonna tell you how it ends. Bella (played by underage Stewart) up until now has been vampire Edward’s human interest (played by Pattinson, 23).

(Now I’ve never read Twilight so the scene came from skills I learnt from that Christian-Jewish improv team I saw last year)

Bella Swan, after getting in a motorcycle accident is taken in for surgery and discovers a brain tumor that has impaired her judgment for the last year and a half. Doctors thankfully save her life and she realizes her she’s pining for a vampire, rebounding with a werewolf (played by Taylor Lautner) and has vampire crazies after her. She goes into life long therapy for her fear of new moons and the dark, and later writes a self-improvement memoir about it (that last part appears in a ‘where are they now?’ subtitles at end of movie). All of this worked out, she says in the end, because it enabled her to go to college like a normal person.

Edward, heartbroken (oh wait, he doesn’t have a heart, he’s a vampire!) moves to New York City to drown his sorrows with his powerful original songs. We meet in Washington Square Park where he stumbles over the NYU literary journal The Plague, and (because he so old) thinks the plague is actually back and in America. My character, Sella Bawn, stops him from having an anxiety attack and we fall instantly in love. We go on a date at a Older-Hipsters-Meet-Kristen-Stewart-Aged-Girls-Dating-Service bar in Williamsburg (that’s in Brooklyn where his loft apartment is), at which time he reveals his terrible secret: he’s not a vampire but actually Robert Pattinson, and isn’t love with me, but in a longtime relationship with former co-star Daniel Radcliffe.

The End.

-Nikki-Lee

From Our Beau House To Yours – 5 Things To Do To Make You Cooler in 5 Days Part 2

Friday, November 13th, 2009

If you don’t make the openings, the shows are there for a month. Yay.

1. The Resident Faction. At CAMEL ART SPACE/ Fri, Nov. 13: 6-9 pm. 722 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn/ Lots of Brooklyn artists, ever noticed that galleries in Brooklyn always have group shows? Too much space (than Manhattan) and too many “artists.” Too mean? Don’t care. Go get your hipster on.

2. Finding Work: Representing Labor in Contemporary Art. At GALLATIN GALLERIES NYU/ Fri, Nov. 13: 6-8 pm. 1 Washington Pl, Village/ Because who doesn’t want more recession themed art at Gallatin (“The school of individualized study”) or (“Where NYU kids go to be different and then complain that they don’t get enough credit [for their difference/uniqueness], while having a thesis photo show featuring their bike friends”)? Let’s have NYU (employee rights violator and the world’s highest tuition) curate a show about the working man, yes please! You should go to articulate this and then ask them to donate money to workers’ rights. Watch NYU security tazer you and throw you out the back door. Free food.

3. DDARK. At HOME SWEET HOME/ Sun. Nov.15: 11:30 – on. 131 Chrystie St, LES/ DJ Kingdom, Hood by Air, and DJ Fatima. I like Home Sweet Home’s chandeliers and mounted animal heads;gallery above, bar below, and I think that’s a pretty honest conceptualization for the New York art scene! Vodka on the house at 11:30 if your feelin’ partial. Also the owner looks like Johnny Depp and that makes you feel young and trendy. Glory Days.

4. German Tagle: New Empire. At ELGA WIMMER/ Thurs, Nov. 19: 5-7 pm. 526 W. 26th St, 3rd Flr, Chelsea/ Who doesn’t like Germans, mixed media, questions about culture? And let’s face it Berlin is cooler than New York nowadays, sorry.

5. Angela Strassheim, Evidence. At MARVELLI GALLERY/ Thurs, Nov. 19: 6-8 pm. 526 W. 26th St, 2nd Flr, Chelsea/ Who doesn’t like CSI? Learn how to not get caught…while making art at “Evidence” which uses forenzic techniques at original crime scenes to make money and profit art out of it. While you’re there make sure you ask a particularly pretentious-looking attendee how much the art goes for! Then ask if Strassheim donates it to crimebusters. Free champagne, wine etc and same place as above (b/c we know how your mind works).

Keep posted for some reviews/impressions/expressions of a few listed events next week.

-Nikki-Lee

From Our Beau House to Yours – 5 Things to Do To Make You Cooler in 5 Days Part 1

Friday, November 6th, 2009

So if you don’t always take advantage of all the superduper cool things in “culture capital” NYC, I’m here to help you out. The following is a list of 5 cool things to do in NYC in 5 days. Before you know it; yes, your newly cool self will be making the rounds in Chelsea and getting invited to cool art parties in Dumbo (that’s in Brooklyn).

1. Tony Feher: Blossom. At D’AMELIO TERRAS/ Sat, Nov. 7: 6 – 8 pm. 525 W. 22nd St, Chelsea/ Sculpture show, lots of pink, talk about seasons since “blossom” is the title, no snickering at overboard minimalism. While you’re there check Yoshihiro Suda in the Front Room of the gallery.

2. TL Solien: To The West. At LUISE ROSS GALLERY/  Sat, Nov. 7: 3-6 pm. 511 W. 25th St, Chelsea/ Because who doesn’t like the American West interpreted in weird colors by a guy named TL? Make sure to look down upon the underage SVA students trying to pregame their Saturday night.

3. Josephine Halvorson: Clockwise From Window. At MONYA ROWE GALLERY/ Sat, Nov. 7: 6 – 8 pm. 504 W. 22nd St, Chelsea/ Windows are the new doors man, get in on the latest “hip fad.” Free wine and PBR usually, make sure you wear skinnny jeans.

4. Tomaz Salamun, perhaps Slovenia’s finest living poet today, reads at the Lillian Vernon Creative Writer’s House/ Mon, Nov. 9: 1 -2:30 pm.  58 W.10th St btw 5th and 6th Ave. Go for a little lunchtime poetics, prove your hardcore, make fun of the severely self-important NYU creative writing program (which sponsors the event because they probably have too much money).

5. “Projection Reading Series” with Jennifer Knox, Tao Lin and others. Curated by Zachary Pace. At CENTER FOR PERFORMANCE RESEARCH/ Wed, Nov. 11: 8 pm. 361 Manhattan Ave, Unit 1, Brooklyn (Graham Ave, L train).  “Text projected beside…a unique sonic and visual experience of the literary arts.” Apparently, you won’t lost the “kinetic energy” audiences usually lose in a normal poetry reading experience. Whatever that means, go, wear neon, have fun.

-Nikki-Lee

From Our Beau House To Yours-Halloween H20

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

As Halloween is over I thought I’d catalogue a few impressions from the wonderful night of mischief, vampires, and literary encounters with the ghosts of writers past. If you didn’t spend All Hallow’s Eve at a monster ball in Brooklyn and ended up in a loft party with sparklers, demanding fake passwords from strangers, you may have been in Manhattan, and well, I can’t help you out there, it’s the worst place to spend All Saints’ day.

Back to the Better Borough (yes, said that for the alliteration since this is a publishing house) Repulsed, enthralled, impressed, enlightened, and “Woah, my eyes hurt from all that stardust, Ziggy!” Here are the top 3 costumes I witnessed from my Zombie-Ben-Franklin-Your-Mom persona that evening. Before this list, a quick message on America’s numero uno founding father. First, it’s entirely relevant to this blog: he started as a printer and publisher, dirt poor (like me!) and changed the course of history, while also founding the first Philadelphia public library (not like me!). Back to the list:
1. Some cute little 13 18 year old hipsters (and it is affirmative they were not grad students with IKEA apartments with a creepy obsession with Liz Lemon) dressed as the entire cast of “30 Rock.” So either a) my friends aren’t that cool. b) I don’t have 9 friends.

2. Cast of “Freaks and Geeks.” Now I know you’re not cool enough to think of that, neither was I.

3. Kissing Booth. Genius.

So there you have it, the last ever post on Hallo – remember to hydrate next time kids! -ween.

-Nikki-Lee

Best Books of 2009 or My Holiday Shopping List

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Yesterday afternoon my copy of Publisher’s Weekly arrived and highlighted on the cover: their annual 100 Best Books of the Year. As a well read member of the book community I always look forward to this issue and inevitably feel bad after reading it-this year was no different. There has been a lot of discussion about the sheer number of books being published today, and I will site that as my excuse, because once again I have read less than 10% of the Best of list.

My PW break down: Of the 100 listed, I have read three children’s books-  gifts for my godson, one graphic novel- picked up at BEA because I felt I should be better educated about the genre,  and three YA novels- I am finding some of my favorite new reads have ended up in YA , that is a grand total of seven titles. I think I should be able to go with eight for my final count as one of the fiction titles listed is sitting on my bookshelf unread, but I digress.

Last year was not much better, and I have to wonder- why is that? With a variety of titles vying for my attention (in addition to those I am looking at in-house) am I picking poorly? (NO! I love the books I’ve read this year). In hope of finding some vindication I turned to the Amazon Top 100, kindly cited for me on PW.com.

My Amazon break down: Two of the three YA novels also listed in PW, six fiction listings now listed in PW, two of which I would not have put on a top 100 list, for a grand total of eight titles. Boo.

What the ‘Best of” craze breaks down to for me every year is, I am sure, its intended goal: a pre holiday shopping list. Amazon brilliantly links their list to BUY NOW buttons title by title. So for my contribution to this end of the year push, included below are the combined titles from both PW and Amazon’s Best of 2009 that I have read and agree should have made the cut. Happy shopping readers. Thanks to PW and Amazon for the frustration and motivation to pick up a few new titles, I hope my sort list may inspire some of you to do the same.

Catching Fire
Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press)

The Curious Garden
Peter Brown (Little, Brown)

Duck! Rabbit!
Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illus. by Tom Lichtenheld (Chronicle)

Fire
Kristin Cashore (Dial)

The Girl Who Played with Fire
Stieg Larsson (Knopf)

The Help
Kathryn Stockett (Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam)

The Lion & the Mouse
Jerry Pinkney (Little, Brown)

Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou with art by Alecos Papdatos and Annie Di Donna (Bloomsbury)

This Is Where I Leave You
Jonathan Tropper (Dutton Adult)

The Unit
Ninni Holmqvist (Other Press)

Debra Beck

For 15 years, Debra Beck has been a devoted mentor for teenage girls. She’s done workshops with Girl Power, a program that is devoted to helping “encourage and motivate 11 to 16 year-old girls to make the most of their lives.” She has also created and facilitated her own workshops and girls’ groups through Spirited Youth, an organization she founded to help girls in a positive and supportive way.

Debra has drawn on her own experience and the experiences of the young women she has helped to make My Feet Aren’t Ugly resonate with readers. She currently resides in Arizona. Follow her at MyFeetArentUgly.com.

My Feet Aren’t Ugly

My Feet Aren’t Ugly (Third Edition)