Fishing for jobs

Fischlipps just left familiar waters because she feels like there must be bigger, more satisfying fish to cook. Anyone out there have a line on one? No, I don't think it's possible to earn a living doling out bad puns like the one above...at least not for long!

What I'm looking for is something that will utilize my writing and editing skills and/or my ability to build and maintain strong relationships, both personal and professional (because I don't think that the two can be separate, if one's an honest type).

I love working in the non-profit sector, and have experience as a Major Gift Officer. What I would like best would be to work with either an animal or an environmental cause.

Any ideas?? Thank you!

On why people like their jobs...

I was driving home from the Arboretum with Savannah when I saw a woman hailing a cab. She was smiling and waving, and it occurred to me that so few of us have the chance to have people do that to us as we approach our work! Sure, the hours can be awful, the pay's not so good and you get the occasional grouch, but most of your riders are going to be truly grateful that you stopped for them. See? There's a good side to almost anything. Why do you like your job?

Been a long time...

Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time, as the song goes! What's interesting to you, though, aren't the whys and wherefors of that time, but what I was--or wasn't--reading throughout.

I'm one of those people who reads before hitting the hay. I can go to sleep without those few, precious paragraphs (yes, that's often all I have the energy for...but it sure does make a good book last!), but I don't like to. Suddenly though, I found myself unable to read at all. I was so distracted by all the emotion I was dealing with, that I couldn't deal with anyone else's issues: their love, hate, joy or fears. I was overflowing with my own. But I missed my bedtime habit...ok, I was missing a few bedtime habits, but reading was the only one over which I had any control!

Finally I found an author whose writing didn't agitate me in any way, but with his outrageous humor and spot-on ability to sum up a emotionally stoked situation with the turn of one, pithy phrase: Carl Hiaasen. Thank you, Carl!!!

Hiaasen writes the richest and most disrespectful satire I've ever read. His dialogue is at the same time, lean and overblown. His stories are subtle environmental lessons and robust romps through the swamps and swimming pools of southern Florida, and are chock full of characters who range from the most mundane to the creepily eccentric. Weaving that combo together could be dangerous, but this guy does it so flawlessly that it might take your breath away.

No matter whether you're in the midst of the biggest, most wracking emotional upheaval of your life, or are just looking for a little (literary) fun before you hit the sack, anything by this smart, funny, marvelous author will fill the bill. Just be sure you're willing to become addicted.

Great News out of Newtonville...

Tim Huggins, owner of Newtonville Books, should give lessons on how to run a successful, indie bookstore. This is from his newsletter, telling about his newest venture:
"At the store, something very exciting started happening last month. In
cooperation with the Boston Globe and iTunes, Newtonville Books is now
part of the new Great Writers podcast series on Boston.com. Each week, the
Globe is digitally recording an event from the Books & Brews series and
posting it in the Podcasts section of Boston.com (look for the link in the
upper-right-hand corner of the Boston.com home page). You can even
subscribe to the series and have it delivered to your computer or iPod
every week automatically through iTunes. So far, events available for
digital listening include Rachel Sherman and Ben Fountain, Nell
Freudenberger, and Katherine Weber. New events are posted every Friday,
and past events are available at the Books page on Boston.com at
http://www.boston.com/ae/books. Go hear what you've been missing and make
plans to hear it live when you can."

Of course, it's always more fun if you can hear a reading done live, and maybe join the author for a beer afterwards. Tim's Books & Brews series is the answer.
~Fischlipps

National Book Awards Nominees

Have you read these? Me, neither. Looks like we've got a new list!
~Fischlipps

What I think is wrong...

...with many of the excellent younger writers these days is echoed by Luke O'Neil in this book review for The Weekly Dig.

There's no denying that these kids are learning to write beautifully in their grad programs at Iowa Writer's Workshop or, more locally, Emerson College. Problem is, they have nothing to say. Put it as prettily as you will, but when there's no experience to write about, it's all kind of vapid, in the end.

And no, it's not just "chick lit" that falls victim. McSweeney's, is a great idea, and stuffed to bursting with smart contributors, but after about 10 minutes, it's just too precious and self-congratulatory. I get to wondering what these writers could come up with if they really tried to do something original and thoughtful, rather than cleverly mimicking more seasoned authors.

~Fischlipps

LitPac Reminder...

Do NOT miss the grand finale of the Litpac Boston Progressive Reading series on October 7. The evening will include readings by Sue Miller, Charlie Pierce, as well as a performance by singer/songwriter Merrie Amsterberg and a scene selection from Elizabeth Searle's "Tonya & Nancy: The Opera." Save by buying in advance:
http://www.thedise.tickets.musictoday.com/ParadiseLounge/calendar.aspx.

Coming up at Brookline Booksmith:
Wednesday October 11 6PM Coolidge Corner Theatre tickets $2
ANDY SUMMERS - One Train Later
Andy Summers was once a member of rock groups like The Animals and The Soft Machine. And while rock archivists tend to get off on such minutiae, the rest of the world knows him as the former guitarist of The Police. Selling 75 million records worldwide and nailing down five Grammys, they were known for their punk spirit and reggae inflected pop/rock hits. One Train Later is the famous guitar slinger’s rise-to-fame memoir, where the only thing to be expected, and happily we might add, are the infamous sex and drugs anecdotes.

Thursday October 12 7PM
JON KATZ - A Good Dog
“Owning and loving a dog is a very individual experience,” writes Jon Katz of his beloved border collie soulmate, Orson. A beautifully written requiem delivered in the only way the author of A Dog Year and The Dogs of Bedlam Farm could, A Good Dog is the moving tale of a relationship between a man and his remarkable companion.

Tuesday October 17 6PM Coolidge Corner Theatre SOLD OUT
ANNIE LEIBOVITZ - A Photographer's Life: 1990-2005
She has immortalized John wrapped around Yoko like a wilted weed and framed Demi as proud emblem for golden motherhood. She’s probably seen more celebrities naked and vulnerable than a gym class full of dirty-minded teens could ever imagine. She creates icons before lunchtime. She is Annie Leibovitz, the most well known living portrait photographer in the world. And she's stopping by the Coolidge to share with us the second installment chronicling her artistic life’s achievements.
TICKETS FOR THIS EVENT ARE SOLD OUT, BUT AS USUAL WE WILL HAVE A STANDBY LINE THE NIGHT OF THE EVENT, AND THE IN-STORE SIGNING AT 7PM IS OPEN TO EVERYONE.

I just finished a Lisa Carey fest and am sated and exhausted. Her writing is so emotionally effusive! If you've never read her, you might get the impression from that last statement that her style is flowery or over-written, but quite to the contrary, it's spare and brilliantly evocative.

Every Visible Thing is her latest novel, and I read that first. Those of who who live in and around Boston will get the added pleasure of familiarity with the settings of the book. Those who don't, will get a glimpse into some of the places you might not see as a tourist. But most everyone who reads it will probably be able to recall the difficulty of growing up. We throw around the term "dysfunctional family" so often, but really, whose family isn't warped in its own way? Dysfunction seems to be the way we function, don't you think? Lisa's examination of family dynamics in the setting of her book, can be translated to so many other situations that it can't help but make you think a bit about how you're handling your own life.

Next, I read the haunting, upsetting and beautiful Love in the Asylum. I'm not sure if I'm a cynical optimist, or a romantic cynic, but in either case, this tale of how we handle mental deviation from the norm--not well. not well at all--is as thought-provoking as it is horrifying. I loved this book, ached for its characters and am still kind of lost in a reverie about how we as a society interpret sanity. It freaks me out a little. How 'bout you?

More soon, but first you should have a look at a couple of good book sites: librarything.com and http://bookslut.com. Get busy!

~Fischlipps

Damn...

...it's been a long time. And if I ever knew how to do this, I've surely forgotten by now. But let's give it a whirl.

It's Banned Books Week ! Do your bit to read everything you can, while you still can, and be glad you're in a state--Commonwealth, in this case--that lets you do that!

Events:

And to round out this week's news, we'd like to note that this Saturday and Sunday, September 30 and October 1, is JP Open Studios Weekend, and Brookline Booksmith's very own Paul Theriault - esteemed bookseller, sculptor, and friend to mankind - will have work on display at the JP Art Market at 36 South Street in JP.

Also at the Booksmith:
Wednesday September 27 7PM
JOHN HODGMAN - The Areas of My Expertise
Here is why John Hodgman rules. He is a corresponding “expert” on the Daily Show. He has been a regular contributor to Mcsweeney’s, the Believer, the Paris Review, and This American Life. He is also the author of an absurd almanac, The Areas of My Expertise - a book destined to never leave your bookcase or your bathroom. An amalgamation of charts, graphs, newspaper columns and long-winded tales of misinformation, Hodgman spins a yarn right around our necks and chokes us up with laughter. Stop by just to see if your name pops up on his infamous “700 Different Names For Hobos” list.

I think John also grew up around here.

A social comment before I go to work:
Call it naivete, but I was sickened to hear a piece on NPR this morning about a Russian soldier who was beaten/hazed so badly that he lost his legs and privates (no, that's not a military term in this case) to gangrene. What the hell could possibly compel someone to do that to another human being?!?!?!?!!?!??

~Fischlipps

In The Country of the Young and In the country of the dumb

I just finished reading Lisa Carey's In the Country of the Young. It's a book I've had sitting on a shelf for years. That's the curse of those of us who love books...we never have enough time to read them all! Anyway, it's a really gorgeous story about the dead...both the really dead, and the living dead. You could call it a fairytale, or you could call it a parable, but in either case, it shows us how our ghosts (or the skeletons in your closet, if you will)--if we listen to them--can teach us about life.

Oisin (Oh-sheen) is alive, but just barely. He's closed himself off from most of life, both the joys and the sorrows, because of a series of tragic events in his younger years. In truth, he's always been much better at communicating with ghosts than with the living...

"Last week, on the night of the full moon equinox, Oisin had left his front door open until morning. He has done this every November for almost thirty years, but it's been ages since he truly expected anything to come of it. Now the light in a house that should be dark pulls him toward his door with a combination of thrill and panic. He swings it open, propping it with a tree-trunk stool from the porch. Please please please, he repeats in his mind, and he hopes this begging will serve as an invitation.

"He knows wht happened to his tobacco. Something has entered his hermitage, something he has anticiapted for more than half of his life. Something that most people--if they believed in such things at all--would not welcome with an open door."

And that's how the "visitation" began. That's how Oisin was able to look at his life up until then, and finally move on. It's a brilliant metaphor for self-examination. But the tale isn't just one about the dreariness of figuring out one's life. It's a celebration of everything that we cherish: childhood, love, lust, wisdom.

I spent the last pages of the book in tears, so I need to reread it. I was so carried away by the emotions of the characters, and by my own emotions, that it was more like reading with half my brain and all of my heart. It's not so often that a book enables a personal epiphany. In my superstitious Irish mind, I think that maybe I was supposed to read this lovely piece when I did, six years after it was first published. Maybe my own ghosts weren't ready to come to me until now. Who knows?

Lisa will be reading from her new novel, Every Visible Thing, at Brookline Booksmith on August 31st. Go see her!

Note: The book I read was an uncorrected proof, and before any of you English majors start bellyaching about a light in a house being able to be thrilled or panicky, just keep the uncorrected part in mind.

As for the country of the dumb, I just came across these two tidbits in The Week. First, in a section entitled "Only in America," there was this:
"A camper is suing the U.S. government because he fell off a cliff while looking for somewhere to pee during the night. Jerry Mersereau, 23, was camping Mount Hood National Forest when misadventure struck. 'While finding a place to relieve himself,' his lawsuit says, 'plaintiff walked off the unguarded and unprotected creek, falling approximately 20 to 30 feet to the creek bed below.' Mersereau says the government should have known that campers might wander off the cliff, and is demanding compensation for his 'mental anguish.'"

That piece sits right beside another interesting tidbit in a section called "Good Week For..."
"...the future of the human race, after scientists at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics announced the invention of the first pill to combat stupidity. The drug has been shown to improve the attentiveness and short-term memory of fruit flies and mice."

Too little, too late for Jerry Mersereau, hm?

~Fischlipps