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From Our Beau House To Yours – Book Philanthropy

Friday, October 30th, 2009

While reading Edgar Allan Poe, rather defensively, as I came home to Brooklyn last night on the L train, a young man (ok, let’s say a hipster with an MA in English Lit) asked politely what I was reading. I was faced with a predicament. Do I ignore this (despite what must have been a hipster parody Halloween costume rehearsal) presentable young fellow who was clearly not a subway lunatic, law and order psychopath, or seller of illegal drugs? My non-New York roots said clearly, well that’s just rude. So I answered, rather defensively, Poe. He then said a pretty decent question in my book (yay “book” pun):

“Do you like poetry?”

Me: “Never heard of the stuff (read: lie).”

“What enchanting lies! Here’s a book of poems, take it, it’s good.”

Me: “Um…”

He got off at the next stop while I profusely claimed I couldn’t accept this gift. Now, while my crazy radar went off like crazy, as it does in NY, I thought: well now that’s pretty cool, man. It was an Italian translation of Umberto Saba, and is still in my totebag. In the future I think I’ll be more prone to impulsive fits of literary kindness in the big city. Turn to your neighbor, put on your best smile, a philanthropic book exchange in a looming misanthropic winter!

-Nikki-Lee

From Our Beau House To Yours – Literary Costumes

Monday, October 5th, 2009

As schedules become more hectic with the speeding year, it’s easy to forget about one of the best celebrations of the year, that is Halloween. As a firm believer in the make-your-own-costume Halloween ethic, and given the current economic crisis, I hope many New Yorkers steer clear of overpriced costume stores or websites.

Common Store Bought Costume Examples. And yes, everyone can tell you bought it online:

1. Slutty Devil/Angel/Vampire/Werewolf/Meercat/Whatever

2. Slutty Tinkerbell

3. Slutty Hermione Granger

Now, it may just be me, but the standard let’s pick a universal theme and sluttify it doesn’t strike me as that hard to come up with. But bridging into childhood fairytales seems a little off-kilter. Slutty Hermione Granger? Who came up with that? Why don’t they just say outright: Warning – this is a 13 year old favorite literary character aimed at pre-adolescent teens. Just saying it’s a little weird. What about that actress who plays Hermione Granger? On October 31 there’s going to be 20-somethings all over the world dressed like her, but looking like a prostitute. Just a little irresponsible.

To fight the masses here are some AWESOME do-it-yourself-literary costume ideas:

1. James Joyce: don some spectacles, a mustache and a constant supply of Guinness.

2. (for couples) Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes: Red lipstick, 50s garb, and a convincing look of manic depression in your eye.

3. Hunter S. Thompson: this one particularly helps if you look like Johnny Depp, but unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt, short shorts, glasses, cigarette and cigarette holder, medicinal marijuana if you have a prescription.

4. David Foster Wallace. Um, too soon? Ok too soon.

And you get the idea: they’re fun, convincing, and you don’t have to worry about pedophilia or going to your cute friend’s Halloween party dressed as a hot dog. Or just the mustard.

-Nikki-Lee

Dr. Susan Biali Haas, M.D.

Susan Biali Haas, MD, is a medical doctor and executive coach, internationally recognized for her expertise in mental health, stress management, burnout prevention, and resilience. She has provided education on these topics to a wide range of organizations including the United States Navy, Google, McKinsey & Company, Deloitte, The Coca-Cola Company and MIT. Her popular Psychology Today blog has over 10 million views, and her opinions have been featured in media such as Today, Today With Hoda and Jenna, BBC World Service Radio, Forbes, Oprah.com, and others.

Live a Life You Love

The Resilient Life

From Our Beau House To Yours – What I Talk About When I Talk About Brooklyn

Monday, September 28th, 2009

Feeling rather pale and sickly lately, perhaps due to the rain and long hours of reading (but also doing the bar rounds at Lorimer and other Brooklyn drinking favourites that have lost my interest), I’ve rethought the notion of the writer/intellectual lifestyle. A number of examples come to mind, we’re not the Beats anymore – we’re not cool enough to jump on a freight car to ‘Frisco (unless your Jerimee’s friend Juan) with the breezy northern California sun on our faces. We’re not war heroes like Orwell or Hemingway; Spain and Italy don’t need our immediate help. No one can really afford an F.Scott Fitzgerald romp on the French Riviera, what do we have? Proust’s beloved Parisian apartment and Kafka’s middle class recluse?

When we look around at who’s deemed creative, the ironic mustaches and pale faces of Brooklyn’s finest. The thrift store magnates, secret Top Shop binges, cafe-with-cool-bookstore-on-Bedford soy milk latte drinking, bleary eyed smokers. It’s actually not aesthetically displeasing, I like that image: think Michael Pitt in The Dreamers, except this is not 1968, or Paris, and  most of your friends are from New Jersey or Pennsylvania. The point is (or really my point got a little lost) it’s unhealthy, man.

Being outshined by my older brother’s interest in extreme sports and his shared love of surfing and healthy eating (inherited from my mother), I had some not-so-feeble attempts of fitness positive thinking that manifested in cross-country running. Of course this faded, like all parent-sponsored high school skills, when I started university. Then I read Haruki Murakami’s What I talk About When I Talk About Running (again, left by my brother visiting from Tokyo last week, who mentioned running the NYC marathon sometime in the future, outshined again!). Murakami talks about how running marathons/triathalons/6 miles a day for the last 25 years helps his writing lifestyle, is essential to his creative process. He’s says (in words I will interpret as relevant to my life) you don’t have to be a pale, thin hipster to be a creative genius, and since he’s most likely a creative genius, I’m going to take his word, quite literally, for it. Everyone hit the streets! Take your vintage Schwinn seriously! Hydrate, protein, positive thinking! This is gonna be productive.

-Nikki-Lee

Bud Bradshaw

William B. Bradshaw, a graduate of both the University of Missouri and Yale Divinity School, earned a PhD from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Bradshaw has served as a minister, a college English instructor, and a college president. The author of Fundraising: the System that Works and Sinister Among Us, Bradshaw resides with his wife, Betty June, in Missouri.

The Big Ten of Grammar: Identifying and Fixing the Ten Most Frequent Grammatical Errors

From Our Beau House To Yours – Hello Cello!

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

In my quest to become a female version of a Renaissance man, I have decided to take up the cello again. Instead of hiring a private teacher through a music school (which is quite expensive in the city), I thought: it’s a recession, there has to be a hungry cello genius somewhere, right? While at the farmer’s market in Union Square the other day, it occurred to me that I should keep this local, home grown. So instead of posting an ad on Craigslist (because I didn’t want to fear for my life). And thinking it was pretty unlikely to stumble upon a homeless cello protegy that looks like Jamie Foxx (movie reference), I decided I’d put up a sign in the NYU music department. This is what I came up with:

Hello Cello!

Need money for yo’ metrocard? Recession proof music?

Student needs advanced level cello teacher, $35 per lesson, please contact: (and I put my email).

My roommate stopped me before I busted out the glitter pens, pointing out that my sign looked like a three year old’s, or rather, that a three year old would probably have drawn a more accurate cello, or a cooler sign in general. I’d be better off buying a book or looking up cello lessons on youtube. I don’t care, this is going to work, when I’m playing Bach cello suites perfectly, late at night, they’ll be sorry.

Tie-ins, Give-aways and TV to Book Oh-My!

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

With the industry debate on the value of e-books, online marketing, free versus paid and the like I thought this would be a great time to rave about an example of how it can all be done well.

One of my prime time, never erase DVR picks of last year (and this) is the ABC show Castle. Crime novelist Richard Castle shadows NYPD Detective Kate Beckett- crime solving, snarky one liners and the requisite sexual tension ensues. Completely enjoyable. In a BRILLIANT move, it was announced that an actual Richard Castle novel would be released this fall from Hyperion (a company not so coincidentally part of the Disney-ABC Television Group).

Not only have the people at ABC and Hyperion taken advantage of an easy tie-in most networks have thus far overlooked or been on the other side of, they have also been doing a fantastic job of marketing the entire collaboration by releasing one chapter a week on the ABC site, and leaving the previous weeks chapters up (to which I want to give a hearty thank you!) I don’t know how many people are visiting the site and reading the excerpts besides myself, some reviewers I found online, and all my friends who watch the show- but I do know that where I don’t usually jump in line to buy a new release hardcover (however modestly priced at $19.95, ahem Dan Brown ahem), I will be swinging by my local indie bookstore of choice to pick this one up. Why? Because it’s good. And there my friends is the key. If you have a bad product, no amount of give away is going to make it good. In giving us all a taste of a Richard Castle mystery, Hyperion has, I guarantee, increased their sales dramatically, which is ultimately the goal.

In this week’s season premier of Castle they included scenes of of the fictional author gearing up to promote his no longer fictional book, due out September 29. I am hoping to see a few Richard Castle book signings (with actor Nathan Fillion of course) in my area soon… can Hyperion and ABC please work on that next?

And as I am plugging a book I sadly did not work on, but appreciate it when others say kind things about my titles:

You can buy Heat Wave by Richard Castle HERE, HERE, HERE, or HERE.

– Erin

Mark Braverman

Mark Braverman is the executive director of the Holy Land Education and Peace building Project, a grassroots organization that promotes interfaith dialogue, peace-building, and conflict resolution in the Middle East. Braverman currently lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his wife, Susan.

Fatal Embrace

From Our Beau House To Yours – Chicken and Steak (Together) Or Not

Monday, September 21st, 2009

Having spent this past summer acquiring news friends with unfamiliar eating habits, and old friends with new found tastes, I thought I’d better brush up on New York diets/ways of life/spiritual eats/yoga etc. Coincidentally there’s a lot of information online and in book stores about this subject.

Whether you’re vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, raw foodist, fruitarian and there’s many others, there’s a lot of disagreement about the definitions of these varying lifestyles. Some of my friends think it’s stupid, others vehemently opposed or vehemently for it. To avoid definitional entanglement I’ll steer clear of the O.E.D but a quick track of common arguments for or against include:

– Good on you man, I respect you’re way of life. Tell me more.

– Yay for vegeterians! Yay for vegans! Yay for environmental responsibility! Let’s save the world!

– That’s cool but not recession proof. I’m too poor and it’s too hard to be a vegetarian et al in the recession.

– I think tofu tastes like flavorless rubber cement.

– I’m mentally eating chicken and steak (together) as we speak  because it makes me feel better having to  listen to you. I’m an American, darn it.

– I think you’re a masochistic narcissist for controling so much of your diet and believing your body to be such an important political message that it controls every facet of your life.

Whichever way you’re inclined (and none of these views necessarily represent my own), chances are you better be buying organic free range eggs or suffer the guilt on your conscience. If you go on a “raw food cleanse for 5 days” tread carefully at die-hard raw food restaurants (death by orange pulp suffocation while noone is looking, if you know what I mean).

-Nikki-Lee

From Our Beau House To Yours – Etiquette for Name Tags

Friday, September 18th, 2009

As I sat on the subway today trying to figure out the Ken Ken puzzle (“The puzzle that makes you smarter!”) on the back of A.M. New York, I worried about a discussion I had with some friends about elevator etiquette. This discussion the previous night turned into a heated debate, one friend insisting on how long you hold the doors open, another on how many floors is socially acceptable to use the elevator and so on. An environmental argument was eventually added. Somebody finally suggested to look it up, a suggestion I scoffed at (like when someone google maps on their iphone after I give them the correct directions from my non-html brain). To my great chagrin there actually are etiquette ebooks on elevators (and I didn’t just write that for the alliteration).

In fact, there are etiquette books and online material on everything. A few subjects include: etiquette for men, women, girls, boys, Christian wives, golf, dogs, cats, bikers, graduation speeches, wedding cancellations, Serbians, name tags, “etiquette for emails in 2009,” outlaws and so on. I was seized with a sudden fear that my etiquette was grossly misinformed. I’m 20 years old and my etiquette is simultaneously naive and outdated!

-Nikki-Lee

From Our Beau House To Yours – Shakespeare

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

Tonight I’m off to see Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Iago in Othello. The circumstances? A friend gave me a ticket last minute. This coincides with the Shakespeare course I’m currently taking, and of course, in the past 2 weeks I’ve become completely, utterly, bodily, irreconcilably obsessed with the great bard. This isn’t too uncommon for me to become obsessed with a writer, I only wish everyone felt this way about reading. When I read Virginia Woolf seriously for the first time 3 summers ago, I read every book she wrote, including her unabridged journals. I rented every film version of Mrs. Dalloway, and saw a version of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in a high school theater. Twice. It’s not just literary characters either. When I was writing the next Great Research Paper on John Adams last fall I started to think like John Adams. All of sudden his problems became my problems, his interests my interests. I spend 48 consecutive hours watching the HBO series once I discovered it existed.

What kind of effect is Shakespeare having on my life? Apart from uttering the odd “my mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun” on the subway, or when I’m brushing my teeth a burst of Hamlet just happens to scare my roommate, or our cat Francois suddenly looks at me with disdain when I’m calling to him in iambic pentameter. And just when there was a collective lamenting throughout the city that “Shakespeare in the Park” finished with the summer (and also the just as good “Shakespeare in the Municipal Parking Lot” with the slogan “the Bard Doesn’t Need a Park.”) Never fear, I hope everyone braves monetary and geographic boundaries to see Seymour Hoffman in Othello and also Jude Law’s Hamlet, 2 wonderful productions to remind us that Shakespeare still reigns as our eternal poet.

-Nikki-Lee

A Questionable Life

Hard-charging Philadelphia banker Jack Oliver has always made tough choices and sacrifices to achieve success, but when his mid-sized banking group is bought out by a mega-chain, Jack finds himself knocked from the top rung to the bottom of the ladder. When the stress of the merger lands him in the hospital, he realizes that his wife and kids hate him and his mistress is only interested in the number of zeros in his paycheck. When Jack is approached by Benny, the old-fashioned president of a small Virginia bank, he doubts he could ever work for such a small-town guy after his cut-throat career. Left without the success he once craved and the family he undervalued, Jack may discover how to reclaim what he had taken for granted and lead a new kind of ‘questionable life.’

About: Luke Lively

Hardcover: $24.95 (ISBN: 9780825305214)

E-book: $4.99 (ISBN: 9780825305238)

Fiction

432 pages

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From Our Beau House To Yours – An Ancient Secret About Dan Brown

Monday, September 14th, 2009

Tomorrow a lot of people will be reading the new Dan Brown novel, but I will be reading the infinitely more suspenseful Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. And since everyone (I’m not going to specify who falls into this category) will be blogging/reviewing/emailing/conspiring about the new Dan Brown novel, I have a few words for my symbologist-historian-romantic-world-do-gooder-extraordinaire: Goethe.

While this may sound elitist, that is a common misconception — Goethe is for everyone, a hero for everyone who transcends genre. A hero who braves history, critical theory (a.k.a a special kind of symbology), the great mysteries, evil villains, evil Roman Catholic Church (Goethe was a Protestant), and yes, the secret affairs of the heart. Goethe himself (unlike Dan Brown) travels to far and distant European centers to brave the great mysteries of the world and discover the (surprisingly) always-surprising power of love. He even came up with the concept “World Literature.” And unlike Dan Brown, Goethe doesn’t write with so many italicized words and sentences that even serious characters sound like Miley Cyrus.

So think twice before running off to pick up your pre-ordered Lost Symbol at Barnes and Noble, because (and I’m going to let you in on this ancient secret) Goethe would beat Dan Brown’s sensationalized, made-for-movies, MTV video, literary posing in a duel any day. And while this may seem harsh, since Dan Brown is a millionaire, the only sympathy I have is for Tom Hanks’s forehead.

-Nikki-Lee

From Our Beau House To Yours – Fox is Watching Out for Your Kid’s Mind

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

As many of us returned to school last week, we now find ourselves lining up at the university bookstore buying books that we’ll read for four months and 1. turn the book into a Kwanzaa/Christmas/Hanukkah gift in December 2. keep around to make you look smarter 3. change your life and be kept in the back pocket of your corduroys.

If you were like me and spent Labor day weekend with your very-conservative-older-distant relatives, you may have watched Fox news a lot, and Fox has a few important warnings about university textbooks. The top back-to-school story was the radically democratic indoctrination in most, if not all, college textbooks. Unfortunately as a (18-25 voter) student you cannot do anything about the textbook but you can petition to get the professor fired, or bring the book’s liberal brainwashing content to the attention of the dean of studies–or my personal favorite–ask your campus religious authority for advice and suggestions on reading alternatives.

Politics aside, what’s worse? The right to publish without censorship, or the right for everyone to get an “unbiased,” fair education (if you can pay for college that is). Fox believes that if anyone can spot bias when they see it Fox can, and that these textbooks are bad for America.

The solution though not apparent at first, is obvious: they should just make me editor of all college textbooks.

-Nikki-Lee

I Shall Live

Orenstein’s searing account of his experience as a young man in Germany, Russia, and ultimately, in a concentration camp, has been called, “[a]n adventure…almost novelesque in the extraordinary succession of miracles which enable the young man to remain among the living so as to eventually tell his story forty years later with Voltaire-esque ferocity and often sheer and invigorating joy.”–Claude Lanzmann

Orenstein’s ingenuity and indefatigable vitality in the face of the horrors of the Holocaust enabled him to save himself and his family from execution by playing a role in the greatest trick ever pulled on the Nazis. Orenstein and his brothers were part of a fake Commando formed by German SS officers who wanted to avoid fighting at the Russian front. The new edition of I Shall Live contains new evidence about this false Commando-letters signed to and from Himmler himself.

About: Henry Orenstein

Paperback: $15.95 (ISBN: 9780825305979)

History/ Autobiography

336 pages

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