Recently in Books Category

Scenes from my work days (and lazy days) in this early summer twilight...

Errant clouds often give way to Oscar Peterson sounds while golden sunsets pair nicely with balcony rosé and the latest issue of Lula. It's easy to write sweet nothings and/or impassioned scribblings in a faded Shakespeare notebook with a pencil that smells of 1960s Beverly Hills pink. And though I can't seem to shake the afternoon coffee, it's no bother when cooled by a side of green apples slathered in whipped peanut butter from Canada. Summer reading? The Paris Review with a dash of mini Tolstoy.

If I had to choose one store in which to blow a ton of money I don't have, I would--without hesitation--throw it all away at LN-CC, aka Late Night Chameleon Cafe. Pretty much ground zero for the heppest of hep-cats in East London (and many a celebrity who book private appointments), LN-CC is a Kubrick-esque concept store, web shop, library, basement club, music hub, and mini style museum. I'm going to go ahead and declare it the coolest store in the world right now, because you know what? IT IS.

Launched in September 2010, LN-CC is the brainchild of seasoned buyers John Skelton and Dan Mitchell (formerly of Harrods and Oki-Ni). Boasting innovative and hard to find labels like Damir Doma, P.A.M, Saskia Diez, Folk, Tze Goh, and footwear brands like Silent and Yuketen, LN-CC takes their retail concept further by stocking art books, zines, and music. They also host DJ nights and art openings such as this month's Richie Culver exhibit and have recently introduced a sort of "thank you to our International customers" contest that will give away a free trip to London plus a £15,000 shopping spree at the store.

A place for inspiration as much as retail-ization, the LN-CC store itself is a dramatically minimal wonder. From a caged hallway tunnel to a series of individual rooms linked via untreated wood, soft lit concrete, and gravel pathways, it's a lifestyle store unlike any other. Here's a peek inside...

The Earth Room

The Light Room

The Library

The Warmth Room

Items from my wish list...

Looking forward to the next issue of Zoetrope: All-Story guest designed by Beck.

Tonight I will be spending the night--the entire night--with 499 people at the New York Public Library as part of a game called Find the Future, a game we have no idea how to play. All we know is that tomorrow morning, at 6 a.m., we will emerge all bleary-eyed and triumphant onto the Fifth Avenue sidewalk brandishing new titles: Published Authors. What we write tonight, together, will be a book about our future. We think. We have no clue! What we do know is that we'll be writing something unprecedented and monumental. And what we complete will be published by the NYPL to be kept in its archives forever.

Needless to say, I'm still freaking out about getting to be a part of this. To enter, you had to write an essay discussing how you want to make history and change the world by finishing the statement: "By the year 2021, I will become the first person to..." I wrote about wanting to tell the story of my immigrant history spanning three cultures, two continents, and one woman. I want to tell this story through writing, film, and performance. I want to tell it with the curiosity of youth and the mark of age. I want to encourage other women to look way back into their pasts and find the ghosts with something to say, the women whose voices were silenced or never deemed worthy enough to be heard.

I hope I can start this process tonight tucked into a cozy corner or splayed out on that glorious marble three floors above 42nd and 5th. I hope I can leave something there that those who come after me can read 100 years from now. My family is the reason I do this, and I thank them for not only encouraging me to take part in this game but for sparking my interest in where I come from in the first place.

Starting Saturday, everyone will be able to take part in the Find the Future game online. You can also help the NYPL celebrate their centennial by checking out a new exhibit featuring pieces from their vast collection such as a John Keats letter to Fanny Brawne, journals from Jack Kerouac and Virginia Woolf, a copy of the Declaration of Independence written in Thomas Jefferson's hand, and Charles Dickens's letter opener featuring his pet cat Bob's taxidermied paw as a handle. Here are a few photos I took yesterday during one of their free, daily tours.

The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle, a repository for the study of English Romanticism.

Charles Dickens's letter opener with cat paw handle.

A hidden reading room, one I plan on haunting tonight.

The journal and personal belongings of Jack Kerouac.

A doll's casket.

The entrance to the New York Public Library.

Please help support the NYPL and all local libraries!

Found this at the Strand.

Photographs by Hamish Robertson

My new favorite store reminds me of both home in the desert southwest and what my dream bungalow would look like in Silverlake.

Love, Adorned: 269 Elizabeth Street between Prince & Houston; loveadorned.com

"I mean I can't be the saint people dream of now. People want a street angel. They want a saint but with a cowboy mouth."

The story of "Slim and Cavale"--or the birth of Sam Shepard and Patti Smith's play Cowboy Mouth--is yet another reason to read Smith's astonishing memoir, Just Kids.

Everyone's puttin' in their two pesos on what their favorite _______s were in 2010. I've resisted because I'm not big on lists, but I've since caved. This was an interesting year in movies--or better yet, a polarizing year. There have been strong love-it/hate-it reactions to most of the films released during the holiday season (hi, Black Swan, True Grit, and Somewhere) and not too many standouts from the summer blockbuster extravaganza. I've had many a holiday party conversation about what cinema meant in 2010, and I found that few films actually touched people emotionally this year. The conversations often gravitated towards the subject of television instead, specifically long-form series' like Mad Men, Breaking Bad (my fave), and the now defunct The Wire, which has become a sensation in its DVD/download afterlife. Basically, TV shows that feel like a novel and movie combined are where it's at.

I have faith in the film industry, though. I'm hoping there's a zeitgeist around the corner. How long has it been since we've had a film movement? The internet puts opportunity in the hands of anyone who's audacious and hungry enough to seek an audience. Maybe this means the best is yet to come (or has yet to be discovered). We're living in a newer, faster, digital age, but I believe what we all continually crave is a really good story. Great stories never get old and stand alone regardless of whatever medium in which they're told.

Thus, here's a brief list of what touched (or tickled) me this year across the story spectrum. These are picture shows that appeared on film, on TV, on canvas, or on paper...

I'm obsessed with the new Svpply website. Not only does it help you locate cool and interesting products from around the globe, it allows you to create and share your ultimate wish list. Just in time for the holiday season!

Artist Maria Forde was hungry for life advice, so she turned to a group of people rife with years of wisdom: the residents of her grandmother's retirement home. Compiled within the pages of a zine entitled Longview and also as the gallery show, "Life Portraits," Forde's whimsically detailed drawings and accompanying words and stories bring the midwest residents of the Longview retirement community to life reminding us about what's important (or not important) in our time here on Earth. For just $6, couldn't you use a bit of wisdom?

(Note: Maria also created the Marlon Brando comic book from my New York Art Book Fair post below. All of her work is FANTASTIC. Take a look here.)

Queens was overtaken by zine hungry zombies this weekend as Printed Matter's annual New York Art Book Fair descended upon MOMA's PS1 in Long Island City. Hordes of messy coiffed, brogue-wearing, bespectacled book lovers came from as far away as New Zealand, Japan, and the esoteric shores of Essex, UK, to both shop and sell vast selections of art, zine, graphic, and comic tomes from established and emerging creators the world over.

One of my favorite sellers was San Francisco's Needles & Pens, which introduced me to this fun Marlon Brando comic:

In between dodging a symphony of (intended?) B.O. and a never ending barrage of tote bags, I wrote a haiku about the experience.

Ripe amber sweat lodge!
Neon poncho wonderland!
Hipster jungle gym.

Here is but a smidgen of what caught my wandering eye...

An oversized Bradbury that, sadly, wasn't for sale.

These are made of paper.

Pez! Coal!

I want every single one of Olympia Le Tan's book clutches.

Pigtails!

Everybody's favorite, the ghost of Switzerland's Nieves Books.

Mr. Ghost says, "READ MORE BOOKS!"

Just in time for the end of fashion week and right when I finished reading The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, Marc Jacobs opened his latest namesake boutique, Bookmarc, featuring--you guessed it!--books, and lots of 'em. The petite corner shop replaces the former Biography Bookshop (newly relocated and renamed) and features a well-edited selection of art tomes and colorful paperbacks in addition to Marc's signature assortment of motley accessories (think journals, pencils, and cute book bags), which are specifically designed for and sold exclusively at the store. Also worth noting: Bookmarc carries Olympia Le-Tan's fantastically clever, hand-made and embroidered book clutches. I've got my eye on Mr. Dracula below...

"I wrote stories from the time I was a little girl, but I didn't want to be a writer. I wanted to be an actress. I didn't realize then that it's the same impulse. It's make-believe. It's performance. The only difference being that a writer can do it all alone. I was struck a few years ago when a friend of ours--an actress--was having dinner here with us and a couple of other writers. It suddenly occurred to me that she was the only person in the room who couldn't plan what she was going to do. She had to wait for someone to ask her, which is a strange way to live."

I will be back shortly with photographic memories of Paris and Tokyo (how I miss thee both). For now, take your own trip to Paris this summer with Lucy Knisley's delightful graphic novel French Milk:

I'm not a massive sugar hound. If I had a choice between sweet and savory, the salty and crunchy would win every time. I can dig some dark chocolate and hang out with a lemon meringue pie now and then, but sugar's not my thing. "I'll take the cheese course," she says all European-like after her meal.

It took one trip to BabyCakes NYC--the delightful bakery owned by the lovely, talented, and always stylish Erin McKenna--to slay my sweet snobbery for good (and it had nothing to do with sugar). Erin's cupcakes, cookies, frosting shots, gingerbread, brownies, blueberry crumb cake (my faves), and ridiculously addictive Cinnamon Toasties are made without refined sugar, eggs, or dairy. We're talking all-natural, organic, and--dare I say it with the blood of 1,000 cows coursing through my Texas-bred veins--VEGAN. The sweets at BabyCakes NYC are so magically delicious that you find yourself exclaiming, "Nuh-uh-no-way!" when you find out they're actually good for you.

I have to pace myself when it comes to how often I rush to the Lower East Side for a Red Velvet fix. I wish I could go every day. I need to go every day. The BabyCakes Banana Chocolate Chip Loaf wants to live in my fridge permanently. Luckily, for all of us, Erin has decided to share her secrets with the new BabyCakes Cookbook, hittin' a bookshelf near you on May 5th. Chock-full of recipes for most of the items that have made her bakery famous, you can now bring BabyCakes into your home whenever you want. Find out what makes regulars like Mary-Louise Parker, Natalie Portman, Pamela Anderson, and Zooey Deschanel "fan club" members for life. Learn how to make Jason Schwartzman's favorite Triple-Chocolate Fat Pants Cake. It's all in there, and it's all good.

Plus, how can you resist this BabyCakes Cookbook video? Sweet Sensational!

BabyCakes, the Book of Recipes: It's Here (Almost)! from BabyCakes NYC on Vimeo.

Seriously, y'all, you need this cookbook.

An expanded edition of Jane Austen's literary masterpiece Pride and Prejudice, only with the walking dead and a whole lot of British brain eating? Elizabeth Bennet as a Buffy-esque zombie slayer? NINJAS?!

OMG, I can't wait to read this.

My partner in crime, "Mr. H", just returned from a wild adventure in the trenches of glittery Hollywood. Lucky for me, he brought gifts back with him. Here are some new additions to our cabinet of curiosities courtesy of the always awesome LA stores, Time Travel Mart, Family and Ooga Booga.

A vintage book:

Mono Kultur magazine featuring Miranda July:

Back of Mono Kultur:

A book Jen recommended:

Here and There magazine:

Cosmic Wonder Free Press:

And some vinyl for the ol' collection:

Ah, The Sads. So fantastic!

This album from The Sads is designed by Mike Mills:

I plan to sit cross-legged on the floor to feed my brain and ears with these West Coast delights. Mr. H may have gone on an intergalactic flashbulb ride with James Bond and Princess Leia's mom, but I'm gonna come out of the sticks with new tunes to hum and new quotes to strum.

"Glad you're back. Next time, I'm a comin'."

Check out my recent interview with the lovely Philomena Keet, author of the Tokyo Look Book (awesome book, BUY IT) up on BizBash.

T minus 5 days until Trip Tokyo 2007!!!!