wOct 16, 2008


Wisconsin Book Festival Action

Blume is the author of lots of books for young adults, teens, and some scandalous "older teen" and adult books, such as Freckle Juice, Superfudge, Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret, and Forever.
Anyway, I got a book signed for my sister, and one for me. I can never think of what to say when I meet a favorite author (like when I met Neil Gaiman and Chuck Palahniuk...OMG!). But when she asked who the other book was for, I babbled, "My sister! She's fifteen years older than me, but she loved your books, and then I read them, and I loved them, too!" Annnd, that's all I had.

I didn't end up going to her lecture tonight because I had to get up an hour early this morning, I was really hungry, and there have apparently been 3 muggings and/or sexual assaults in my neighborhood in the last four days, so I'm all about being inside before dark. I always carry pepper spray, but I'm considering always carrying my umbrella. It comes up to my hit, and I'm fairly certain that it would serve as a decent weapon, should I need to fend someone off.


Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood I loved The Blind Assassin ... is this one good, too?!

Head Games by Craig McDonald This book was published by Bleak House! I interned there last summer, and I edited this book. In fact, I corrected a lot of the Spanish! I already had an advance copy, but now it's cool to look at the final product. In addition to being gleeful because I watched the book get made, it was far and away my favorite book from Bleak House. I highly recommend it!

Man Made Language by Dale Spender
"...[I]t is through the patriarchal language that much of women's continued subordination is structured. ... This exciting feminist study of language, its rules and uses, was first published in 1980, has reprinted many times, and is now as fresh, as relevant, and as liberating as it has ever been."

What Does a Woman Want? Reading and Sexual Difference by Shoshana Felman
"...Felman explores these questions through close readings of autobiographical texts by Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir, and Adrienne Rich which attempt to redefine women as the subject of their own desire. She also examines texts by Sigmund Freud and Honore de Balzac which dramatize, each in its own way, a male encounter with femininity as difference - a male experience of femininity as precisely the emergence of the unexpected, baffling, and not always conscious question: 'What does a woman want?'"

The Female Body: Figures, Styles, Speculations by Laurence Goldstein (editor)
Reflections of "anthropologists, historians, literary scholars, psychologists, philosophers, sociologists, and art historians, as well as poets, artists, and fiction writers."

Westering Women and the Frontier Experience 1800-1915 by Sandra L. Myers
"In this book frontier women gain a voice they never had. Professor Myres uses extensive new material by and about women - letters, journals, and reminiscences from over 400 collections - to study the impact of the frontier on women's lives and the role of women in the West. She offers a major reinterpretation of the experience of pioneer women, including that of Indian, Mexican, French, black, and Anglo-American women. Her account re-creates in detail the frontier experience of all these women, beginning with their physical and intellectual responses to the trek West, and concluding with their struggle for political suffrage and economic opportunity."

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scribbled mystickeeper at 8:23 AM
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wOct 11, 2007


WBF: Library Sale

This year, I'm actually going to keep up with blogging about the Wisconsin Book Festival! Last year, I never did blog about Lois Lowry, Neil Gaiman, or the cool ghost hunting talk I went to. :( Sadness. So, I'll start by posting a list of books I got (for $2 each!!) at the Friends of the Library Sale:

The Beautiful and Damned - F. Scott Fitzgerald (gorgeous paperback!)
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Night Watch - Terry Pratchett (I've never read any Pratchett. I figure I should, at some point.
Middlemarch - George Eliot The copy is pretty ugly, but it actually matches my copy of Mill on the Floss, so whatever.
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
The Onion Presents: Our Dumb Century, 100 Years of Headlines
The Onion, Ad Nauseam, Volume 13
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days, Volume 5 (!!! It's really rare to find manga at these sales!)

Sweeeet! I think this was one of the best hauls I've had at the Library Sale so far (I've been going every semester!). It's probably because I got there about 20 minutes after the sale started (and then missed the first couple minutes of my following lecture). You can pay $5 to get in Wednesday night, but usually only dealers looking for rare books do that.

As an added bonus, the person checking me out freaked out about my wonderful taste in books, and I further impressed her by pulling out my own pink Hello Kitty bookbag to carry them in. LOL, I love this campus.

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scribbled mystickeeper at 6:53 PM
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wOct 10, 2007


Because checking the Wisconsin Book Festival Schedule comes before homework

I felt sulky all day today. It's finally gotten cold outside, and tomorrow I'm going to make Chad help me remove the air conditioner from my window. Because while it's not on right now, it's basically like having a window wide open, in terms of it being cold, and the amount of noise from outside. In fact, passing cars/buses are so loud that I have to turn the fan so I can sleep, and thus get very cold. I'm already wearing a hat and gloves, so......I guess I'll be burying myself alive tonight.

The annual Wisconsin Book Festival is here! I'm so excited to go to Memorial Library's Friends of the Libraries book sale tomorrow. Paperbacks for $1! I always find cool stuff there. Too bad they don't open until 10:30 tomorrow morning, and I have class from 9:55 until 3:45. Maybe I could skip some of my first lecture....bwahaha!

OH MY GOD! I had skimmed over the Wisconsin Book Festival schedule a couple of weeks ago, not looking closely, and was sad that nobody cool was coming (last year, I saw Lois Lowry, Neil Gaiman, Peter Straub, and a local professor who wrote a book about ghost hunting!).

LITTLE DID I KNOW. That Patricia MacLachlan is coming! As in, the author of the Newberry-Award winning book, Sarah, Plain and Tall. I remember loving this book as a child, and rereading it many times. MacLachlan is speaking at Memorial Union Theater tomorrow night, from 7:30-9:00pm. I will go to this over watching The Office! If anyone wants to come, give me a call, comment, or email me!

The author of the American Girls' Addy books is going to speak on Sunday afternoon, although the location is not on campus, and sounds kind of far away.

It might be fun to go see Congressman Dave Obey on Sunday, too.

People should let me know if they're interested in joining me for any of these events!

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scribbled mystickeeper at 9:25 PM
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wOct 18, 2006


Ghost Hunting

I'm really kind of tired right now, and don't feel like writing about things that I want to write about, such as the Lois Lowry lecture (Yes, I took notes) and how I'm apathetic about things I should care about, but still excited about the "smaller things," like that I'm cooking dinner with Antoine tomorrow night, and that Steph is coming over to assess my Halloween costume situation and watch The Office.

But I thought I could at least post and let anyone who might like to know that I'm going to the Ghost Hunting lecture thing on Saturday morning, as part of the Wisconsin Book Festival. I feel kind of obligated to, considering the story I started last November, and will hopefully soon return to. There's a lot of it that sucks and that I would like to tear apart, but however horrible it may be, it was still nice to have something like that to turn to every day. Anyway, here's a description. This is at 11:00 am on Saturday, at the Wisconsin Historical Museum on Capitol Square (which means I can hit the Farmer's Market beforehand!). Like the other events, let me know if you want to come with me! Kristen, Carolyn, and I had a good time seeing Lois Lowry.
At the turn of the 20th century, when religion was besieged by the theory of evolution and a new scientific outlook, a group of reknowned intellectuals was pursuing the paranormal in an attempt to bridge the gap between faith and science. Foremost in the Society for Psychical Research in America was philosopher and psychologist William James, who risked his reputation in this unorthodox pursuit. Blum unearths the history of the group's research, their passionate friendships and debates, as well as their private doubts about the meaning of their work, producing a first-rate slice of cultural history.

Current Music: Final Fantasy Tactics loading music....video games are what zoning-out moods are for.

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scribbled mystickeeper at 11:29 PM
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wOct 17, 2006


I'm wearing 2 pairs of pajama pants. It is effective against the coldness.

It's raining right now. This is unfortunate because despite owning two umbrellas, I don't know where either of them are.

There's a nice article in The New York Times about how parents are spending more time with their children, despite the obvious upswing of women in the workforce.

I'm not feeling stressed out about my American Lit exam at all, which I guess is good. I was kind of surprised when sitting in the classroom before my Discussion section for this class today. A lot of my classmates were telling each other that they were very much regretting not having done any of the readings for the class yet, or not attending lecture. When I overhear things like this, it tends to upset me a lot because I never miss class, and I always do all of the readings (sometimes I get behind, but it always gets done) and I know that there are people who do jack-squat who get better grades than me. And no, it isn't fair. But in this case, in this class, I didn't get angry. Because when the TA handed out a helpful sheet telling us what he's looking for from us on the exam, it looked really easy to me - far easier than my Shakespeare exam. A lot of my classmates were upset about it and kept asking antagonistic questions, but I was pretty happy with the news. Maybe, for once, my hard work will pay off. We'll see. I'm still going to finish rereading the rest of my notes tonight anyway, and also rereading all of the passages that were mentioned in lecture. Otherwise, I'll just do my best to not worry about it.

I always hate when it'd midnight the night before an exam because I don't know if it would be better to stay up and finish studying now, or go to sleep and wake up and do it in the morning. :/ But I'm pretty tired. So I think I'm going to opt for the morning.

The best part about exams is definitely deciding everything you're going to do once they're over with. I haven't pored over every part of the schedule for the Wisconsin Book Festival yet, but there are a few events I definitely would like to go, and I was wondering if any of you Madison friends would like to join me. Let me know if you do, and I can figure out when to meet you (I'll probably go early to the lecture-type things, especially Gaiman's and Lowry's, to get good seats). According to the website, all of the events are free.

1) The Friends of the UW-Madison Libraries Book Sale. I go to this every semester. You can go on Wednesday for the preview sale if you pay $5, and then Thursday-Saturday, there is no admission fee. Also Thursday-Friday, I think the book prices are usually $1 for paperbacks and $2 for hardcovers. It really is an excellent deal. On Saturday, you only pay $2 per bag (you should bring your own bag).
I'd like to go Thursday afternoon, as soon as I'm done with American Lit at 2:15. The class is in Humanities, so I would get to Memorial Library (where the book sale is) within a few minutes. Even if you can't come with me, I highly recommend going to this book sale. They have a pretty big variety of books on just about every subject, and you really can't beat the prices!

2) I'd like to see Lois Lowry speak at Memorial Union Theater on Wednesday, the 18th, from 7:30 to 8:30 pm.
Lois Lowry is among the most critically acclaimed authors of books for children and teenagers. She has twice won the Newbery Award, for her novels Number the Stars and The Giver. Her most recent book is Gossamer (2006). She will deliver the ninth annual Charlotte Zolotow Lecture, sponsored by the Cooperative Children's Book Center of the School of Education at the UW-Madison.

The annual Zolotow Lecture, which brings a distinguished author of books for children and young adults to Madison each fall, is sponsored by the CCBC to honor UW alumna Charlotte Zolotow's distinguished career as a children's book editor and author. Intended for adults interested in children's literature.

3) I'd like to see the panel at the Orphem Theater consisting of Neil Gaiman, Peter Straub, and Gary K. Wolfe. This will be Sunday, the 22nd, at 4:00 pm.
Panelists will discuss their work in the broader context of genre writing. They will examine the current state of horror and fantasy writing, the "New Fabulists" movement, and why Wisconsin has inspired such notable horror--both real and fiction. A moderated discussion with questions from the audience will follow short introductions. Presented by the Center for the Humanities at UW-Madison.

4) This one just sounds fun: Books on the Runway: a Fashion Show of Wearable Books for the Mind and Body. Friday, 4:30-5:30 pm, Memorial Union Theater
This runway show of original, handmade books, gives a whole new meaning to body language. The artist designers will show off their hippest, new fashion books: from a wig to a wedding dress. Members will read from their bold, new looks that speak profoundly, in jest, in introspection, in heartfelt opinion. You may wonder who wears this stuff, but you'll be awed to see that a book can be wearable. Following the show, the audience will have the opportunity to view the books up close and talk to the artists. Don't miss this haute couture presentation and reading.

So, those are the things that I definitely would like to go to, but I might be willing to go to other things with people if they want to go.

Current Music: Honey and Clover OST

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scribbled mystickeeper at 12:12 AM
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wOct 13, 2006


SQUEE!

Today was a good day! I like my friends! I like Antoine! I like....life.

OMG I need to go to bed because I'm waking up at 5:45 am to go to Mitsuwa (I can study in the car, right?!).

BUT, I am SO EXCITED for the Wisconsin Book Festival next week. Why? BECAUSE NEIL GAIMAN WILL BE THERE. OMG. Can I get my copies of "Smoke and Mirrors" and "The Sandman: The Dream Hunters" signed by him? Because how cool would that be?!

Peter Straub is also going to be at the same panel as Neil Gaiman, and I'm pretty sure he's the guy who co-wrote The Talisman with Stephen King.

Also, on Wednesday, Lois Lowry (The Giver, Number the Stars, etc.) will be at the Memorial Union on Wednesday. I NEED TO CALL CHAD AND TELL HIM TO BRING MY COPIES BACK SO I CAN GET THEM SIGNED, OMG. OMG.

Look at these events. LOOK AT THEM. A panel on ghost hunting? YES.

Luckily, all of this starts on Wednesday, the day after my midterm that's next week. So, all I have to do is survive it, and then enjoy all of the awesome that will follow.

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scribbled mystickeeper at 11:39 PM
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