Chicago: customers are advised to allow extra travel time

are they siamese twins? I hope so.

Is she the one with the large photos of herself on the back of her books?

I am sort of interested in reading The Time Traveler's Wife, which Kr just finished, although Kr said that the constant Chicago references were sort of annoying (like she couldn't say "He walked down the street" without specifying "He walked down Damen Avenue"). But the premise sounds vaguely Eternal Sunshine-y.

the constant Chicago references were sort of annoying

aren't they always? Man, that bugs me about this city. No celebrity can ever set foot in the city without the city laying some kind of spurious claim to him or her. It's infuriating.

I started this the other day after giving up on Naipaul. It's pretty good so far:

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the book I'm reading was on The Daily Show last night, which charmed me. I've boght books because I saw it on TDS before, but I've never beaten it.

No celebrity can ever set foot in the city without the city laying some kind of spurious claim to him or her.

Wait, I don't understand this complaint.

I liked TTW, in spite of myself (I was expecting chick lit + sci-fi lite, which it kind of is, but pretty good).

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I LOVED the Time Traveler's Wife. loved it.

I was kinda meh on My Sister's Keeper. I think I was far more distant with the characters & less emotionally entangled than the author was hoping for so I think I was a "bad reader" of that book, if that makes sense. It's been a long time since I read it though. I found the major dilemma compelling though.

I'm still delighted by Chicago references in movies.

Kopi cafe is specifically mentioned in the TTW.

Well, you don't need to tell people that Common and Kanye are from Chicago anymore. But it seems like if there's the slightest chance that someone doesn't know that the person being referred to once lived in Chicago, or was born in Kenosha, or wtf ever, then unsing the adjective "Chicagoan" before that person's name is mandatory. Even and almost especially if the connection to Chicago is totally irrelevant.

I didn't mind the references, I guess. I liked knowing what they meant in a real way vs. a book mentioning, for example, streets in Boston. I have no real context for Boston.

I really wish I could read at my desk. That would be great.

The guys on Sound Opinions do this a lot. They'll be talking about some band from New York, but they can't NOT mention that the triangle player grew up in Chicago.

Kr likened the issue in TTW to when authors go over the top in giving a lengthy physical description of the characters, what they're wearing, etc. -- it's just sort of distracting to the narrative.

Although, I am kinda into this reading the bible thing & I would attract the wrong kind of attention for reading that at my desk. On the other hand, I would probably bring the Kingsolver book & actually finish it.

i know what you mean, john. if i'm reading a thorough description of a character's outfit or hairstyle I immediately think, "this is so Sweet Valley Twins/High.

what i remember about the description of jessica & elizabeth that was ALWAYS mentioned in EVERY book is that they were a "perfect size 6" and their eyes were blue like the ocean.

...because in a never-ending series, since their pictures were always on the cover I might have mistakenly thought that elizabeth puffed up to a perfect size 8 her senior year or something.

Which Kingsolver book, Kels?? I missed that conversation.

The cover of the last book was them lying on a bean bag chair with their guts hanging out of their cute little tops, surrounded in ding dong wrappers.

The title is "Too Good To Be Chewed"

(xposts) Kenan, I would wager that people do that everywhere in the U.S., except maybe for New York and Los Angeles. And even in New York, I bet it's talked about on the neighborhood level.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Laurel. I started it, couldn't stop talking about how wonderful it is, and then I put it down. WTF?
Reading that book made me rush out to find the freshest asparagus & fall in love with asparagus in a way I had never ever before.

Jessica loved the color purple. Elizabeth was the smart one.

I LOVED Time Traveler's Wife.

right! purple!

Elizabeth also loved horses.

I do not feel like working today!

Oh cool, Kels, I think my mom got that on tape! I will convert Momma to a Kingsolver fan if it's the last thing I do... I really really love BK's Small Wonders too, if you haven't read it yet -- it's a book of short essays that completely undo me no matter how many times I re-read them.

I honestly haven't read all that many of her books. In 2002 I read the Bean Trees & Pigs (I forget the name) & was so thirsty for her at that time. I will totally read Small Wonders (eventually, if I'm being honest!).

Oh, I saw Animal, Vegetable, Miracle in a bookstore recently and was intrigued, esp. as it seems to tie into other stuff I've been reading about the politics of food lately (Michael Pollan, etc.).

I have 4 of her books on my shelf to read. John, you can borrow one if you want (or whoever).

It's totally tied into that. I started Pollan's book but now it's sitting on my nightstand b/c Kingsolver is so much more up my alley.

I guess I didn't realize until recently that Kingsolver was so well-respected. I remember girls reading The Poisonwood Bible in college and me assuming it was chick-lit.

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RESPEK!

It's sort of New Age Post-Feminist Lit, only of course what was sort of weird and marginal and "New Age" in 1996 is now considered sensible use of resources and "voting with your capitalist dollars" and "having a social conscience". So basically Kingsolver wins.

I read The Poisonwood Bible a long time ago, it was good.

That is my contribution to this discussion.

Er not post-feminist, 3rd wave.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like maybe Kingsolver is like Joyce Carol Oates in that she sort of straddles the line between literary and popular/mainstream writing? Like Oates gets mad props for her short stories or big ambitious experiments like Blonde but then churns stuff out like We Were the Mulvaneys for the Oprah crowd.

NB: I have never actually read Oates, either.

Jordan can our band be called "Joyce Carol Oates" yes/no?

I dunno, I never read any JCO. I think if BK gets lauded by the Oprah crowd it would be incidental to her goals of putting out responsible stuff that she feels genuinely moved to write...? I have pretty high respect for her priorities/sensibilities/writership/you know.

I think JCO just writes a shitton b/c she is compelled.

perhaps "shitton" is actually two words.

maybe even hypenated!

Define "responsible stuff" -- that notion sort of makes me cringe.

Before reading BK, I thought of her as an author heavily influenced by the southwest and now I think of her as someone who is just heavily influenced by the land/earth.

cast-iron metric fuck-ton