Top Ten Bookish People You Want To Meet

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for the top ten bookish people you want to meet (Authors, Bloggers, etc.). There’s the normal list that’s a mile long of deceased authors I would love to meet, but I’m going to skip those this time and only limit myself to living bookish people. 

1) My fellow co-moderators at The Classics Club. There are so many book bloggers I would love to meet in person, but it would be so great to sit down in person with Allie, Sarah, Jillian, Adam and Heather. We are constantly chatting behind the scenes to keep things running smoothly on the blog, but we’ve never met in person.

2) Nancy Pearl – I would love to discuss books with this author of Book Lust.

3) Ira Glass – I think he would be fascinating!

4) Amy Sherman-Palladino – The creator of Gilmore Girls is an avid reader and her taste in books is impeccable. I want to pick her brain!

5) Stephen Moffat – He writes both Doctor Who and the BBC’s Sherlock. You just know he would be so cool to talk to!

6) Marjane Satrapi – The author of the Persepolis graphic novels has led an incredible life and she seems to have a sharp sense of humor. I’d love to talk to her!

7) Steve Martin – Actor, author, musician, he is an absolute Renaissance man. Oh yeah, he’s also hilarious.

8) Neil Gaiman – From his books to his love of Doctor Who, Gaiman is awesome. His blog also makes it clear that he would be so much fun to hang out with.

9) J.K. Rowling – No explanation needed.

10) Markus Zusak – I just want to meet him. I want to meet the man behind The Book Thief.
 
**I’ve been lucky enough to meet quite a few of my favorite authors (Jhumpa Lahiri, Margaret Atwood, David Sedaris, Lois Lowry, John Green and Nicole Krauss) in the past couple years, otherwise they would have made the list too!
 
Images from here, here, here and here.

The Loved One and Chicken with Plums

We've all read books by authors we love and been disappointed. I happened to read two back-to-back. 

The Loved One
by Evelyn Waugh
★★☆

Dennis Barlow is a poet by night and works at a pet cemetery by day. The British man lives in L.A. and falls in love with Aimee, a woman who does the make-up at a local mortuary. She seems smitten with her co-worker at the funeral home, Mr. Joyboy.

This satire never quite gets off the ground. The characters are sketches of people who never have any depth. It combines comedy and tragedy, but manages to do so in a way that’s neither funny nor touching.

It was a big disappointment to read something so stale from the man who wrote Brideshead Revisited. I know it’s one of his lesser known novels and next time I’ll try one of his more popular ones like Scoop or Decline and Fall.

BOTTOM LINE: A swing and a miss from a great author. We all have our bad days and I’ll chalk this up as one of his.

Chicken with Plums
by Marjane Satrapi
★★☆

Nasser Ali Khan, was a famous Iranian tar player. When his favorite tar is destroyed he looses his focus and reason for living. Despite having a wife and children, he decides he wants to die.

The graphic novel delves into Khan’s past; his first love, his relationship with his mother and his introduction to tar music. These elements are interesting, but Khan himself is so hopeless that it’s hard to find a reason to root for him.

Khan is the author’s great uncle, so I understand why she wrote the book, but it’s definitely not her best. She is an incredibly talented artist and story teller, but the book fell flat for me. There was no emotion and Khan  comes across as incredibly selfish.

I still loved the artwork and it was a quick read, but it was disappointing in comparison with the author’s other work.

BOTTOM LINE: Skip it and go read Persepolis.

Persepolis: Part 1 and 2

Persepolis 1: The Story of a Childhood
by Marjane Satrapi
★★★★☆

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return
by Marjane Satrapi
★★★★

This graphic novel has been on my TBR list for far too long. I finally had a chance to read it and I was not disappointed. The first book covers the author’s childhood in war-torn Iran, while the second deals with her teenage and adult years.

It’s disturbing, but incredibly important, to be reminded of the freedoms we take for granted. Perhaps the scariest part of the book is realizing that they had those freedoms and they were revoked. I can’t fathom someone telling me I had to wear a veil all of a sudden when I’ve spent my life without one.

Everything from rock n’ roll posters to Michael Jackson CDs became illegal. The most controversial item of all was the any thinking that contradicted the regime’s belief system.

Satrapi’s spunk and defiance make her an irresistible child. We see the oppression creep into her life and understand it better than she can at first. Her wonderful parents teach her to stand up for her beliefs and she is surrounded by strong family members who do just that.


**Spoilers of the first book, but not the second**

At the end of the first book, Satrapi is sent to live in Austria without her parents. Thus begins her assimilation to western culture. When she eventually returns to Iran, this creates a dichotomy in her personality. She never felt truly at home in Austria, but when she’s back in Iran, she realizes she doesn’t quite belong there either.

The second book loses a bit of the magic of the first, just as growing up in the real world always does. Instead of an innocent child’s view of a violence and oppression, we have a young woman trying to figure out who she is all while being influenced by both western and eastern cultures. It’s more a coming of age tale than the first book.

“When we're afraid, we lose all sense of analysis and reflection. Our fear paralyzes us.”